The Art of Running Slow

I might be a bit playfully self-conscious about my running speeds, but that's only because of all of you gifted assholes out there whose blogs I follow who can throw down ridiculously fast run splits... even if some of them do result in sharting.

I'm working on getting my weekly running mileage back up to a semi-respectable figure (15 miles/week), as per what is recommended I am comfortable with before beginning the official training program. This also has me running only 3 times a week. Given that I did a 4 and 5 miler earlier in the week, this means I had a 6-miler on the calendar for Friday. Knowing that my next benchmark is a 10k in just under 3 weeks, I went ahead and just made my training run a 10k as well. According to the wizardry behind my soon-to-be program and a number of different calculations that are involved, I should try to run the 10k training run at a pace of around 8:21 min/mile, or in 51:50.

Post-run - DRENCHED from the relentless rain.

As it turns out, I ended up running the 10k training run in 50:51, equivalent to an 8:12 min/mile average. The first 5k was done in a reserved 26:07 (8:18 min/mile, 160 bpm) whereas the latter 5k was THROWN DOWN in a ball-busting 24:44 (8:07 min/mile, 173 bpm). I'm a sucker for a negative split when it comes to continuous distance, paced runs. In fact, I know the way my mind works so well that I purposely choose out-and-back routes just for the mental edge of knowing that each step I take is closer to an actual finish line. It worked out rather nicely in this case, don't you think? Granted, the HR on the latter half was definitely higher than it should be, but we're working on that.

In a previous email to a friend on the eve of my 5k, I threw out some goals for the following morning's race, as well as this up-coming 10k. The projected goals for the 10k were as follows:

          (A) Goal - 52:43 (8:30 min/mile pace)
          (B) Goal - 51:11 (8:15 min/mile pace)
          (C) Goal - 49:36 (8:00 min/mile pace)

Remarkably, with my last 10k training run done in 50:51, I surpassed my (A) AND (B) goals! Thankfully though, I didn't eclipse my (C) goal just yet. This tells me two things: ONE, that my training is progressing well and that I'm on target to hit my projected goals, and TWO, that perhaps my goals are a tad bit conservative and I could afford to adjust them should my training continue to progress at the rate it has thus far. Overall, this is great news!