Just 7 miles ...

This morning's training run:


The 7 mile run was supposed to start at 7AM. Due to the Holiday, only about half the Group was there this morning. And, neither of the Group 7 pace leaders showed up. Chris had planned on running with Group 7 this week anyway, and now became the default pace leader.

We had gone about 1 mile when one of the women in the group said, "this pace seems really slow." Then Chris explained that no, the pace was NOT slow. It was the correct LD training pace for Group 7. Peeps were truly amazed. Everyone was saying things like, "Are you sure? We always run faster than this!" Chris then stated that the reason he was running with Group 7 was that he had been hearing over and over that this group was not running at the correct pace. He wanted to put a stop to the racing, and get the group back on track.

When we stopped for a water break, he told everyone to stop their watches. One VERY argumentative woman said, "No. We have to include all our breaks in our total time." Chris told us all that the breaks should NOT be included in the pace in a training run. She argued about it for awhile. She finally ended up saying that she was not going to do it this way. The other way was better and how was she going to get faster if she didn't run faster? He then explained about doing speed-work during the week; NOT during the weekend long runs. He even detailed a really nice speed workout which I will try on Monday. She was still visibly annoyed.

As we ran on, everyone was talking and enjoying the run more than this group ever has. At mile 4.5, I noticed that argumentative woman had disappeared. I told Chris she was missing. No one had seen her leave, and she hadn't said anything to anyone. So Chris told us to keep going at the correct pace, and he ran off to find her. After he left, all of us there were talking about how much better the run felt today. No one was tired at all. No one was pushing. Peeps were really surprised that running could feel this good.

Chris caught back up with us at about mile 5.5. He had not found her. We could only assume that she had taken off to catch up and run with Group 6. Or had just gone home mad. So, we ran on. It was a really really good 7 miles. The whole group really enjoyed it. The pity is that nether pace group leader was there. Also, other than that one woman, none of the really bad pace pushers was there either. So, I do not anticipate that anything in that Group will change. I won't be running with them for the 20 miler. No way.

And, I did ask Chris what he thought about my running the Half marathon on 12/21 and then 23 mile training run on 12/27. He said it should be fine as long as I run the half marathon at my training pace. He told me that I should not, under any circumstances, try to race it. I had a real deja vu moment when he said that. I had just asked Coach Ken the same question the day before, and had received the same answer.

I was hoping for a different one.