Sunday was a sunny and seasonably warm day for January in Virginia. I decided to do an outdoor practice 10K. All I can say is... dang that was hard. I learned a valuable lesson. I need to do more training outdoors. The flat indoor track at the Y is a great way to workout, but it is not representative of the real world outside. The real world has hills and running up even the slightest grade is a totally different experience. My overall time was OK -- it was faster than I ran last year's 10K. But unlike the runs at the Y I was total spent by the end. I had nothing left for a "sprint" to the finish.

Mile 1 pace: 11:21 min/mile
Mile 2 pace: 11:07 min/mile
Mile 3 pace: 11:19 min/mile
Mile 4 pace: 11:13 min/mile
Mile 5 pace: 11:10 min/mile
Mile 6 pace: 11:07 min/mile
.2 mile "sprint" to the finish: 10:43 min/mile
Total time: 69:27
Overall average pace: 11:12

I walked for 1.5 miles to warm up, then jogged the first mile around the flat surface of the school track. I then set out to jog around the school complex which includes an elementary school, middle school, and HS. Most of the 2nd mile was flat or slightly downhill. Up to that point the workout was much the same as my indoor Y workouts. Then I hit the long slow uphill grade. It was notably harder to keep up the pace. The muscles started to burn on mile 3 and that didn't let up until the run was done. After looping the school grounds twice - up and down those hills twice - I returned to the track with a mile to go. On my indoor runs I could find another gear on the last mile -- picking up the pace. But on this outdoor run it was all I could do to maintain the pace I'd been running and even that was tough. When I checked my splits at the end I was amazed at how each and every mile was nearly identical.

Our neighborhood has some good hills. It is now staying light until about 6pm and the days are getting longer everyday. I would be wise to start opting out of going to the gym, instead pounding the pavement in the real world outside my door. The 10K that I will be running in 2 1/2 months is not on an indoor track.