12 Miles - Fast Finish Long Run

Today I ran 12 miles on a gorgeous day in late September.  Early on, there was a good bit of cloud cover, almost as if it was preparing to rain.  But it turned out to be just morning fog slowly dissipating, and by the end of my run the sun was shining brightly in a deep blue sky, the air cool and dry.  It was good to see Sam before, his broken toe mostly healed, and some other runners I had not run with in some time.

I ran the first 10 miles at my easy long-run pace, about 11-minute miles, and then tried a training workout I have been reading about recently:  running the last two miles at tempo pace (also known as a Fast Finish Long Run).  I have done this as part of some of my earlier marathon training plans; it is based on the theory that it will teach tired legs to still run hard.  But I was younger then and I usually hammered out a single final mile at much faster than tempo pace - as fast as I could, really.  This time I tried to hit that magic 9:30.  I failed miserably on the first mile, and there was no excuse because it was on the part of the loop where there are splits marked on the pavement every 200 meters.  I squinted at my Garmin's small print, lost track of almost every split, and ended up running 9:08, way too fast - impressive, but not my goal.  My second mile came in at 9:35, with no splits marked at all, just me trying to feel that comfortable pace, that overdrive gear that does not strain the engine at all.  The pace that will get me to the finish line if it is a good day.

"Overdrive:  a gear in a motor vehicle (or a runner) providing a gear ratio higher than that of the drive gear or top gear, so that engine speed and fuel consumption are reduced in highway travel."

Exactly what I want to achieve.