Wind

Today was my long run. 12 miles. I was going to try to pace myself but I felt like I was still in that zone of uncertainty on what my actual goal pace ought to be. I usually never time myself on my long runs but my new training plan has paces to run. Today's goal was "half-marathon pace + 30 seconds." Since I am condensing the 18 week program into 11 weeks, this is actually the long run for week 8 instead of 3. I want to run my half at sub-9 minute pace so I thought I might try for a 9:20 pace. That might have been pushing it but I thought I'd give it a go and see what happened.

So this is what happened:

Mile 1: 9:16
Mile 2: 9:14
Mile 3: 9:15

I'm feeling pretty good about myself at this point but then I had to turn around and, that is when it hit me - the WIND! Plus I was running uphill. I felt like I was running at the same level of exertion but just not getting anywhere. Miles 4 and 5 and miles 10 and 11 were pretty brutal.

Mile 4: 10:05
Mile 5: 10:18
Mile 6: 10:13

So at this point, I'm feeling pretty bad about myself and thinking I'm sorely out of shape. I took about 4 oz of Gatorade at the end of mile 6. Then I got to turn around again and the wind disappeared.

Mile 7: 9:12
Mile 8: 9:15
Mile 9: 9:31

So now I'm feeling better about myself again and thinking that the wind is a factor more than me being out of shape. I decided not to worry about my time as much when I turned into the wind again. I think I may have relaxed a bit too much plus the mileage may have caught up with me at this point because my times REALLY slowed.

Mile 10: 10:47
Mile 11: 11:22 !
Mile 12: 10:19

Average pace was 9:54 but, really, I was all over the place!

I checked the temperature before I left. It was 32 degrees. It was sunny. I never considered checking the wind. Turns out, it was blowing 10 mph. It doesn't really feel all that strong when you're standing still but it made a HUGE difference when I tried to run into it.

So is 10 mph really significant? I looked into "wind-aided times " in track and field. Wind is only a factor in track and field for the shorter races that are run in one direction or some field events. Times are considered "wind-aided" if there is a tailwind blowing faster than 2 meters/second. I believe that translates to 4.5 mph (someone check my math and tell me if I'm wrong). Not sure how this is significant to my run today as I was both wind-aided and wind-hampered.

Hope it's not windy on race day!

OK all you runners, do I have a chance of running sub-9 minute pace for a half-marathon on May 4th?