Getting up to speed (literally)

I was thinking about my upcoming race on June 7, 8K (5 miles) in New Hyde Park, NY. This will be my longest race to date and it will certainly push me to the limit in terms of effort and conditioning. After dedicated focus on running for the past nine months I have reached the point where I can handle the distance but not necessarily at the pace that I'd like to run. I am satisfied with my performance on the 4 miler and the 5K but while I was consistently running below 9 minutes per mile a month or two ago my speed seems to have regressed to the point that I'm still in the 9:00 to 9:10 range on most of my better runs. It's possible that I'm doing better than I think. Since I changed the battery in my Garmin 50 foot pod its distance accuracy has been questionable. The other variable is my shoes. I switched from My Nike Turbulence 13's to the Brooks GTS 9's after the 5K. The Brooks feel great and my hip and leg problems have gone away for the most part. Could it be that I just don't run as fast in them?

I am excited about the race but I'll admit my anticipation is different now that I know more what to expect for the most part. I'm trying to pick up as many miles earlier in the week and taper near the end of the week possibly running a slightly shorter but faster course next Friday.

Yesterday AG and I did our weekly city run down the bike trails along the West Side Highway. We did this run as an end of the week recreational run rather than a business update. We started close to our building and went west about a mile before heading south along the path to the park behind Stuyvesant High School on Chambers Street. In total we covered close to 5 miles and after we returned to the office we Gmapped the route to calculate our pace. It was hard to determine the true pace because I only timed the longer southern route but it appeared as though we ran around 9:30 or so per mile. I kept the pace relatively slow because I wasn't feeling strong enough to work on speed. At one point she turned around to look at something we had just past and ran backward for short time at the same pace I was running forward! I'll blame some of my slowness on the fact that I just run better in the morning. I'm also not feeling all that great this morning and I'm wondering if I was fighting a slight fever. But it's easy to make excuses.

My plan today is to run about 5 miles and I think I may do that later in the day. I also want to work in some speed drills. I'm sure doing that helped me achieve a decent pace in the 5K. Eight days and counting to the 8K. It's coming fast.