Marathon pacing part 4 - pace test

I ran the promised pace test last night. The plan had been to run 2 more laps, to run a little faster, at a slightly higher heart rate, but I still clearly had the Meon Valley Plod in my legs. I couldn't keep the pace going, so jogged the remainder of the 10 miles after just 4 1.5-mile laps of my test circuit.

The good news is that my pace was good, but unfortunately I didn't get the confirmation that I could keep the pace going without any heart rate drift. My heart rate was constant (after the first lap where I was still warming up), but the drop in pace was an indication that I was struggling. If I'd kept my pace even then the chances are that I would have seen a rise in HR by maybe a beat.

Still, 1bpm is not very much, and shows I was pretty close to my marathon pace. Contrast this to last time and you 'll see that at 15s/mile quicker I was getting quite a rise in heart rate over a much shorter space of time (laps a third of the distance). The last test's 7:07/mile is clearly faster than what I can currently sustain for a marathon, whereas last night's 7:25/mile is quite close to marathon pace.

I'll re-run the test in a few weeks' time when I'll hopefully be a bit fresher and will be able to run further.

This was a good training session though, and certainly not a wasted opportunity: a good marathon-specific session with some worthwhile data as a result - bargain!

6 miles marathon pace 4x1.5 miles continuous:

Lap time	Heart rate	Pace
11:06	134bpm	7:24/mile
11:02	141bpm	7:21/mile
11:07	141bpm	7:24/mile
11:11	141bpm	7:27/mile