Tempo run

Route: Furzton Lake circuit
Distance: 8 miles
Terrain: path
Ascent: 0' - 215' (the lowest and largest estimate of ascent using different GPS software)
Total time: 01:00:53
Splits: 8:48 (warm-up), 7:02, 7:05, 7:05, 7:05, 7:08, 6:51, 9:45 (cool-down)

The fog was heavy as I drew into the car park at Furzton Lake in MK for my first go at a tempo run using the Garmin to measure distance (mile splits) and pace. I have a goal for 2008 to get sub 1:30 in a half marathon, my existing best time being 1:31:42. To do this I'll have to run consistently 6:52 or faster a mile - a fairly tough call.


http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1242

I ran for a mile to warm up at an easy pace round the Lake, which must be about 1.3 miles around the edge then started to up the pace. I could hold 6:52 for some of the time but tended to slip back to just over 7 mins per mile so I've got some work to do to reach my goal. My last tempo lap was run at 6:51 which was good but keeping this pace for 13.1 miles will be a challenge. My first half of the year is the MK half at the beginning of March so I'll have a crack then.

Still having some difficulty getting a decent ascent measure from my Garmin 205. Marco (fellow blogger - thanks for the tip) suggested using SportTracks software (http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/) with a NASA map plug-in to correct elevation measurements rather than the Garmin software provided with the 205.

It does seem to give a much better estimate of ascent for most routes e.g. a route I guesstimated to be 750' was measured by Garmin software as 1945' and by SportTracks as 719'. However for this route it estimated an ascent of 0', which is just not right. Garmin estimate 215' which might be a little on the high side but is definitely more accurate than 0.