Less heat more speed

Friday night's run was an 8 mile run consisting of laps of my 1.5 mile course, doing my usual scheme of running at a steady pace and measuring pace and heart rate - a cardiac drift test - although I wasn't so concerned about my ability to run without drift, but more my pace for a given heart rate. This was the first cool evening for months and I was curious to know how my pace had developed during the summer. There was some fatigue still from my high mileage, so maybe there is still room for improvement before the marathon, but in fact I had a slightly easier week having dropped a speed session and taken an extra rest day, so I did feel fairly fresh.

The results were excellent. I recorded my best ever pace vs heart rate. I tried to stick to 8:00/mile. My heart rate never went above 141 or 81% of maximum, which is a few beats lower than my usual marathon pace (I may try to go off a little slower at Cardiff, at about 142bpm, as opposed to the 145bpm at the last 2 Londons). I'm hopeful this is an indication I can get close to 3:30 in the marathon, although clearly it's going to be very tough to keep to that sort of pace for the entire 26.2 miles. What it does tell me though is I'm at least 10 secs/mile faster than when I did London in April. With my anticipated better endurance, from the mileage, this should translate to a significant improvement.

1.5-mile continuous laps. 1 mile warm up/cool down not included

Lap	Lap time	Mins/mile	bpm
1	12:04	8:03	134
2	12:00	8:00	139
3	12:03	8:02	141
4	12:12	8:08	141

The one cloud on the horizon is the reason I had to cut back a little this week. I've had a sore ankle for a fortnight now. I aggravated it at the weekend when I stumbled over a small child who ran out in front of me as I ran along a narrow path. I didn't hit him, but my legs stopped instantly while my torso continued over the top of him, going into an instant touch-the-toes stretch. Not good! My leg felt OK for this timed run yesterday, but I could still feel a slight ache, as I could in the gym today. I'm hoping all will be well for my last 20-miler tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.