I rarely (if ever) think deeply about a training run the next day. However, for some reason I could not get the 800/600/400 pick up’s out of my head today. I didn’t track the intervals, but when I saw the average pace for the 4th mile was 7:05 I admit that I was slightly disheartened. Why? That’s when I ran the intervals and believed I stopped and started my watch according to when I actually ran. A 7:05 likely meant that I probably ran most of the intervals at 6:55 or so because I was not sprinting. Why this matters? Only because I thought I ran faster than the results indicated. To put it more specifically, I felt like I worked harder than the results indicated. Do you ever feel like that? I do quite often, therefore, that is why I tried to bury the thought for most of the day.
Tonight I was messing around with Garmin Connect and took a closer look at last night’s run. That little device is a blessing and a curse for someone as obsessive as I can be. Like I said last night, when I looked down at the watch I saw 6:55 at one point, but then remembered that GPS is not instantaneous and there was likely a lag in the actual pace. More specifically, it tracks “average” pace. Well, tonight I looked more closely at the intervals and my body was correct. I did in fact work harder than the results on the watch indicated at the time. I have not figured out how to integrate Garmin Connect output into this blog yet, but below are the results:
| Interval | Avg. Pace |
| 800 | 6:07 |
| 600 | 6:00 |
| 400 | 6:03 |
Those numbers are more consistent with the effort expended. Also, those results are also reasonably consistent with my track workouts. Now, let me be clear, I have no expectation nor am under any illusion that I can possibly maintain anything close to that pace for 3.1 miles. This exercise was me scratching a mental itch. My goal remains a 21:41 (6:59 pace). Anything better is great … and if for some freakish reason if I come close to Ian’s challenge of sub-20, I may retire from running entirely.
So, what is the lesson from last night? Pay no attention to the Garmin while racing. It’s great for mileage, GPS, directional pace and after the fact data analysis, but the pacing is not to be relied upon to assess “in the battle” results.