10K pace Archives - Run The Long Road Coaching

Said to the tune of “WINNING”.

Winning, Courtney-style (via)

I’ve mentioned numerous times that this training cycle has been tough mentally. I felt like I wasn’t getting faster, wasn’t seeing improvement, blah, blah, blah. Self doubt at its best. Even though I know I don’t generally see improvement until the end of a training cycle, I was still impatient.

I was getting the most frustrated at the track. Track workouts aren’t my favorite to begin with and my times were pretty stagnant and wreaking havoc mentally. So I took a break from the track. We needed some time apart.

For the past 3 weeks, I continued with speed work but instead of repeats I added more hills, tempo, and progression runs. As the wise Meggie said, solid and consistent hard work doesn’t disappear or go to waste. Remember that. Thank you Meggie for that comment. Those words have been in the back of my mind for the past few weeks.

Thursday I returned to the track for 3×1-mile repeats. I already decided I would do them at 10K pace (roughly 7:35-7:40) since I have 20 miles on Saturday. It was dark out and I couldn’t see my Garmin so I went by effort. After the first lap I took a peek at my Garmin was pretty shocked to see 6:40 as my average pace. WHAT?! I knew I had 3 laps to go and would never maintain that pace. I have never run a sub-7:00 minute/mile in my life.

With a half lap to go I peeked again and saw 7:02 average pace. I kicked it up a notch and finished in 6:59!!! Just barely under 7:00 but I’ll take it. The best part? I wasn’t dying. Yes, it was faster than 10K effort but my breathing was more controlled than expected.

My next 2 repeats were closer to 10K pace (7:19 and 7:20), but still faster than I predicted.

I’m definitely peaking as they say. I’m also running on some very tired legs. I hope this all translates into a sub-3:40 at Boston! Speaking of which, today marks the 1-month countdown!

Got a running breakthrough to brag about? It doesn’t have to be a PR…maybe a distance you never though you’d run or a pace you never thought you’d hit.

8/9/11
7 miles speedwork
*1000m, 2000m, 1000m, 1000m – all done at 10K pace (7:30-7:40) with less than 400m rest interval. I loved doing intervals at 10K pace. What a treat compared to 5K pace! My breathing felt smooth and controlled.

When you go out for a run, do you generally keep a respectable distance between you and the runner in front of you? I always do and treat it like I would driving – I don’t generally drive up someone’s ass so why would I run up someone’s ass? I thought this was plain and simple running etiquette but I’m not so sure after this weekend. (Note: I’m not talking races, just training runs).

Situation 1 (Friday’s long run)
I was on my first mile and I could hear feet slapping and breath sounds coming closer. I was expecting the sounds to pass me but they just hung around…for awhile. I immediately start to get annoyed for 2 reasons: (1) if I can hear you breathing, you are way too close and either need to pass me or back off; (2) I start to get a little nervous when it’s a male and I’m running by myself – you should never run that close to a female running alone! I finally decided to slow down and let him pass. Thankfully he diverged onto another part of the trail.

Situation 2 (Sunday’s ugly tempo run)
There was a guy ahead of me for a few miles (I was keeping my distance behind him). He started to slow down and I decided to pass him. As I pass him he speeds up (errrrr!), as I slow down he slows down. I dig deep (remember the run was ugly) and pick up the pace to try to get rid of him. Not surprisingly, he keeps up with me. THEN he tells me that he is not being creepy, it’s just that I’m keeping a good pace for him!! I shoot him a weak smile and try to ignore him. I “paced him” for another mile until he took off in another direction. He was being creepy in my book.

So what gives? Did both these guys break running etiquette? I think so.

Do you keep a respectable distance behind other runners?

Peaking!

Running Etiquette