Fastest Treadmill Long Run EVER!

Last week's long run was GREAT.

About a month ago, I did 6.5 harder miles (in the middle of 11.6 miles) that started at 9.1 mph and sped up to 10.4 mph speeding up 0.1 mph every half mile. (That ended up being 6.5 miles in the middle in 40:13, or 6:11/mile pace.)

Two weeks ago, I did the same thing, only I started 0.1 mph faster, and held it throughout: 6.5 harder miles (in the middle of 12 miles) that started at 9.2 mph and sped up to 10.5 mph speeding up 0.1 mph every half mile. (That ended up being 6.5 miles in the middle in 39:47, or 6:07/mile pace.)

I wanted to try something a bit harder last week... maybe start faster without the perfect "descend" every half mile. So I started at what felt like a SUBSTANTIALLY faster pace for my middle harder miles: I started at 9.4 mph thinking I'd bump up the speed a few times, but then hold it for a mile or 2 if I needed to. I had no plan to descend those splits like I did in my previous workouts...

... only I PERFECTLY descended those splits every half mile like I did in those previous workouts!

I did 6 miles harder in the middle (not 6.5 like I did in my previous 2 long runs), but I started at 9.4 mph and finished at 10.6 mph. My splits looked like this:

Half mile: 3:11, 3:08, 3:07, 3:06, 3:02, 3:01, 3:00, 2:58, 2:56, 2:54, 2:53, 2:50

Mile splits: 6:19, 6:13, 6:03, 5:58, 5:50, 5:43

= 36:10 (6:01.67/mile pace)

The first 6 splits were over 3:00, and then the last 5 were sub-3:00 for each half mile! At under 6:02/mile pace overall! I wasn't thinking I could hold on starting at 9.4 mph, but I did!

My "graph" during my cool-down. All those highest graphs are minutes at 10.1 mph or faster!


Speed and HR climbing through those harder miles (with the tiny dips in speed
being when I wipe my face - my arm slows down so it thinks I'm slowing down).