Magic Mile and a PR!

Week 8 of marathon training = complete. (As a reminder, I started in on Galloway's program at Week 5, so even though I'm on Week 8, I've only been training for a total of 4 weeks now.) This week was where Galloway introduces the Magic Mile concept. You can read all the details on his website, but the basic concept is that you run one mile as fast as you can, and then use that time to predict your times on longer races. For example, if you multiply that number by 1.2 to estimate your pace for a half-marathon, or multiply the time by 1.3 to give you an idea of what to expect for a full marathon. He recommends doing the magic mile drill about once every 2 weeks, because obviously the time will change over the course of the program. He builds them into the long weekend runs so it doesn't take extra time out of your week. He suggests starting with a slow 1 mile run, then the fast one as hard as you can without puking, walking for 5 minutes to recover, then slowly finishing the rest of the mileage needed for that day.

I was really curious as to what my 1-mile time would be. The last time I distinctly remember trying for just one fast mile was in college on a treadmill, and the time, if I remember correctly, was somewhere between 9-10 minutes. Obviously a lot of factors are different now-- I'm in better shape in general, I weigh less, I've done quite a bit of running in the past few years, and it was outside this time--so I was definitely expecting a PR (personal record for those of you who aren't down with the running lingo). But when I saw 7:35 on my Garmin at the 1-mile marker, I was a little blown away! The fastest mile time I've ever had (at least on record) was during the Ft. Ben Harrison half-marathon at an 8:39, and I just thought that was a freak day.

So next, I plugged 7:35 into Galloway's hand-dandy pace calculator. It automatically displays your predicted paces and finish times for a 5K, 10K, half-marathon training, half-marathon race day, marathon training, and marathon race day. It predicted my half-marathon pace at 9:06, or a finish time of 1:59 which is dead on--my last two half-marathons were 1:57 and 1:58. My predicted marathon stats showed a pace of 9:52, or a finish time of 4:18--funny because when the registration form asked for my predicted finish time I took a total stab in the dark and said 4:20. BUT--the predicted training pace for a marathon showed up as 11:52. My runs lately have been paced between 8:45 and 9:30, depending on the length of the run. So now I'm wondering if I'm running too fast for training. With every run, I've been listening to my body enough to know when to slow down, and when to kick it up a notch to finish strong. I don't shoot for any kind of pace, and in fact, make a point not to look at it too often...I glance at the Garmin more so just to know the mileage here and there. I'm sure when I start getting past 13 miles in training, my pace will probably slow down, because that is uncharted territory for me. It seems odd to me, though, that the training pace would be 2 whole minutes slower than the race pace. It could be Galloway's way of preventing injuries or burnout during the course of training. Or maybe he factors in that much of a speed increase just due to adrenaline?!?

I think I'll just keep running like I have been--making sure I'm moving at the pace I'm capable of, but still enjoying it and not feeling on the verge of death when I finish. Except for those magic miles. Man, those will be brutal! The way I was huffing and puffing today during that one mile run, any passerby might have been gearing up to do CPR!