The first run of my training plan was a lactate threshold run. I woke up before my 4:30 alarm went and got up to have a cup of coffee and a banana. I laced up the shoes and walked out to the start point and began the run right about 5AM.
I warmed up for 2 miles and felt pretty fresh. It was still dark, so I needed the light on my GPS watch to check my pace, making sure I didn't warm up too fast. I wanted to make the first miles slower than 10 minute miles. I was right at the mark with 19:57 for the first two.
The next 4 miles were to be done at around half-marathon pace. I gave myself a buffer with a range of 8:20-8:40 pace. I always break up distances into shorter segments on my watch so I can more closely monitor the average pace...so I broke up the 4 miles into two 2-mile segments. I finished each leg on the slower end of the range with paces of 8:35 and 8:39 respectively. I struggled to keep the second in the range, and actually fell out of the range toward the end as I was going up a slight incline. I managed to push through the end and snuck the leg into the range.
The 4 miles ended up right at the base of a steep hill that slowed my pace to a relative crawl for the start of my cool-down 2 miles. I glanced at my watch as I was at the top of the hill and saw a 12-something pace. I was pretty spent! I managed to recover from that to finish the cool-down feeling a bit stronger than I did while going up the hill.
Overall, I feel OK about the first training run, but there is a lot of work to do if I am going to come close to sniffing 4 hours.
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