8 Mile Run Keep Pace Between 8:30 – 7:30 per mile

29. Jun, 2011 0 Comments

Today myasics said I had 5.5 miles to run and that my pace should start at 8:30 and lead up to 7:30 per mile. It was my day off work today so I decided to drive my girlfriend (Kate) to work and then I would run back home. I thought it was around 6 miles to her work place but I forgot to set the car mileage timer and had to just run back home without knowing beforehand.

I started at her workplace and started my Garmin 305 which I absolutely love. (read the Garmin 305 review here) The journey back is mainly 1 long road with a few uphill’s the first being after .8 miles so before I’m properly warmed up I’m hitting the 1st hill. Not to worry though as once I’m up the hill I have a nice downhill to follow.

Below is a screen shot of the hills and also how long over the 8 miles I was running uphill, downhill and flat? It’s really great to see the stats and the program I use is called SportTracks3 which you can download a free trial from Sporttracks.

However I also use Garmin to check the stats as Sporttracks is usually out by a few seconds where as Garmin says what your watch says so I usually use both. I really love the features in Sporttracks as it shows you at a glance how many miles you ran for the month and you can insert your trainers and it will log how many miles you have ran in a particular trainer and you can then see when you may need to replace it.

Chart Rundown

As you can see above the 1st hill were quite steep then a big downhill, and then it lead to a gradual uphill and then downhill. Looking at the chart it doesn’t really show but it was a flat course with 4.54 miles of that flat. 1.74 miles both uphill and downhill I knew there were a few but I’m shocked to see that it was nearly 2 miles going uphill. So seeing these stats like this really helps and I can plan future runs if I need to find hills or flats.

Mile Splits – 8 miles in 59:10 minutes

1. 7:50
2. 7:05
3. 7:33
4. 6:54
5. 6:54
6. 6:50
7. 8.08
8. 7:50

I noticed that miles 4, 5, 6 I was running in the 6:50 range and I felt really relaxed running at this pace, I don’t know if it had anything to do with maybe going downhill a little or the fact I speeded up as I was running alongside cars that were stuck in traffic. But still to keep it up for 3 miles I’m very happy with that pace. I did look down at my Garmin 305 at one point and it said 5:46 per mile.

Running on road vs. Trail

Sunday I ran 8 miles on the trail and finished in 1:03:42 and today I ran 8 miles on road in 59:10. So I saved around 4 minutes or so but running on the road I find that you have to keep stopping for traffic and mini roads and you have to be aware more. This is probably the reason why the time isn’t that much different whereas the trail you can just run and know that you don’t need to stop for anything.