49 seconds

I have an old Garmin Forerunner 201. It has some neat features, but honestly I rarely use them. I use the time, speed and distance on mine every single time. It's really all I need to while running. I have it set to beep at half mile intervals so I can walk for a minute. That's as spiffy as I get with it.

Then today I decided to try this:

I decided to run with the training assistant. I've never done that before. I've always just gone out and run. So, you set the distance you want, which today was 5 miles then all the rest of the info

 You will notice the above are not my goals. Mine looked like this:

DISTANCE: 5 miles

TIME: 1:05:00

PACE: 13:00

Maybe I should have started off at a shorter distance with the training assistant...I headed out and knew all I needed were 13:00 minute miles. Lately, I've been able to swing a good 12:15-12:30 first mile, then slow up each mile, I was trying to stay consistent. That didn't quite work. I got too caught up in being ahead of pace. I ran my first mile in 11:58. Yea. Not good.

Throughout my run I was anywhere from 300-400 steps ahead of pace until mile 3, then I started to slow up. The number of steps I was ahead slowly diminished until at mile 4, I was behind the pace. :-( I knew it was coming. I knew I couldn't keep up the pace I'd been running. It was only a matter of time.

I had .13 miles to go and I was -:44 seconds behind pace. I was so close to being done that I actually tried running harder that last .13 miles...uphill. I set a new goal, finish under 1:06:00. I figured while I wouldn't finish at 1:05:00, I could still finish within the 1:05:00 minute.

And I did. I finished 49 seconds above goal at 1:05:49. I will say, as much as I was disappointed with that :49 second slack this 5 miles is the fasted I've run 5 miles since the spring. When I've been running lately, I've been allowing myself to just run, irregardless of the pace. With the training assistant it gave me a bit of a push to run faster than I had. I missed my goal for today, but I think if I keep working with the training assistant, I will be able to set new, faster goals....and meet them!

Oh! And today's run allowed me to complete my Get Up and Run December run! Yea!