Lake Padden, Take Three

Yesterday's run was again at Lake Padden. No mud! this time since we've been having sunny days. We were a small group this week. Coach Terry was out of town and a few people were having fundraisers so there were just seven of us. I was the lone runner from our group again. But I was definitely not running alone; Bellingham Fit, a different marathon training program, met at Padden too, and there were quite a few of them.

I knew that I would run at least 10.4 miles (four loops around the lake), and thought maybe a bit more depending on how my time was. My third lap was the best, thanks to a couple other runners behind me. I was playing a bit of a game with myself: when I heard a runner behind me, I'd push my pace a little to see how long before the other person would pass me. Some of the male runners are faster and they passed easily, but the two behind me on loop three never did pass (and in fact I gained distance on them on one of the hills at mile 2). Pushing myself a little helped my pace; I finished lap 3 in 23:40.

Overall, I ran 11.5 miles in 110 minutes. My pace has been faster throughout this week, and yesterday I kept under the 10 minute mile throughout the run. At the end I waded into the lake as I did last week. It was super cold, but it really does feel oddly good on the legs. I got a few questioning looks from some nearby anglers and a group of walkers. I few months ago I probably would've thought I was crazy from their point of view, too!

Here's how my lap splits were for yesterdays run:

Lap 1 26:46 26:46 (I walked 4.5 minutes for warm up)
Lap 2 24:00 50:46
Lap 3 23:40 1:14:26
Lap 4 24:43 1:39:09
Lap 5 11:03 1:50:12 (1.1 mile add-on to make 110 minutes)