At last ... some sun!

The sun has got his hat on
Hip-hip-hip-hooray!
The sun has got his hat on,
He's coming out today.

... but I was at work all day so I couldn't play!

I had a busier than usual day at work today as we held a parents open afternoon and the children made sandwiches and biscuits to feed to them!  It was very successful but very hot having 30 children plus approximately 40 adults in the classroom!

My marathon training plan stated for today a "3 mile run @ 9 minute mile pace" plus warm up and cool down time. Since I wanted to still go to my usual Pilates class at 6pm I decided to go for my run as soon as I got home from work at 4pm.

It has been a really nice sunny day all day and I was looking forward to running in less clothes!  I donned my vest top (first time this year!) but didn't quite have the nerve to venture as far as shorts!  I was worried the world would be blinded by my milk bottle white legs so kept to my cropped running tights!  

I did a 10 minute slow run as my warm up, before running for 3 miles trying to maintain a 9 minute miles pace.  I was chuffed to see my splits were 8:37, 8:55, 9:00. I finished off with just a 3 minute slow run as a cool down. You can view my run here. Even with my warm up and cool down factored in I still managed a 9:10 minute miles average pace.  

It was a very warm run (16C according to my Garmin) and I didn't take a drink with me so I was gasping when I got home.  I jumped in the shower to cool down, had a bottle of water and an apple before heading off out again for Pilates.

Tomorrow's run will be interesting as its 4 miles maintaining the 9 minute mile pace.  As you can see from today's splits I was getting slower so will I be able to maintain the pace for an extra mile tomorrow?


I am currently looking for an i-phone app that allows me to set a run according to my plan specifications for example with "10 minute warm up" , "3 miles at 9 m/m pace" then "10 minute cool down", so the warm up doesn't drag the average pace down for the rest of the run.  Today with Runkeeper the little man in my ear continuously told me I was behind target but this was only because of the warm up bringing the average pace down! Consequently I wasn't sure until I got home whether I had hit the correct pace or not.  My Garmin only shows an average pace too so this is no help!

Anyone know of an app that will allow me to set runs like this?