I went for a short run tonight, to clear my head. Partly from the stress of nightmares last night, and partly from the stress of a horrible horrible run yesterday afternoon. My route today was in my neighborhood, 2.5 miles total, and thanks to the wonders of mapping software, I know where each half-mile point is.
My plan was to take it easy every other half-mile, but aim for as close to a 4:00 mark on at least two of the segments. Since it’s an out-and-back route (the middle half-mile is actually a quarter-mile one way, then turn around and come back), each half is a mirror of the other. The first half is almost all downhill and therefore the second half is almost all uphill in equal measure.
During the run, though, I realized that if I throw out the middle leg, I can average the times for the first and last mile and have a pretty good idea what my flat, no-hills time would be for a mile.
And I’m pretty pleased with the result. Here are the individual times:
- 4:24.90
- 4:22.85
- 5:23.94 (I really took it easy)
- 5:04.20 (This is the toughest uphill segment, very steep)
- 4:19.74
So my first mile was 8:47.75, and my last mile was 9:23.94, making my average 9:05.85! If you average over the whole thing (including the half-mile of slow-poke) then my average is still a respectable 9:30.25!
Yay, me!