Pace 7:11/km
What a great running day!! :) :) Today I ran my first 10K run of the year and it was my fastest 10K training run to-date (I'm excluding my last two 10K races from 2010 which were slightly faster). I did not expect this at all, and to say that I am thrilled is putting it mildly. :) :) :)
Funny, too, because it didn't start out feeling like it was going to be a good run ... Kim and Wallace ran with me and both needed to stop at separate times within the first 2K for a doggie poo time (my warm-up walk of 10 minutes usually takes care of this, but they clearly needed to get moving in order to get "things" moving today ... :) - funny fellows!). I don't like start/stopping like this, especially when I am feeling slow and sluggish during the first 2K, which I usually do except in a race situation. It made me start thinking that maybe I didn't have it in me to run the full 10K ... my thoughts actually started focusing on what kind of walk/run method I might need to employ in case I couldn't run the whole 10K ... and I rarely think like that! However, I had the treadmill stop me at 8K last week, which resulted in missing my intended 10K, so in my heart-of-hearts, I really really wanted to run a 10K today regardless of sluggishness! I wanted to get it done and over with. So I thought I would just run slower :) ... and the following splits reflect this:
1K - 7:31/km
2K - 7:26/km
3K - 7:31/km
There isn't much to say about the run itself because it was unremarkable. I ran all the way to the stone mill/south corner of Storybook Gardens, my regular 10K route turning point, and started heading toward Greenway Park. I wasn't paying any attention to my pace ... instead, I was listening to Adele's new "21" album that I downloaded last week. Great, great album, but not exactly upbeat running music! :) But apparently, this is when my pace picked up:
4K - 7:01/km
5K - 7:06/km
6K - 7:08/km
7K - 7:05/km
I never zoned out, as in losing myself in my thoughts and forgetting about my run. I wasn't feeling strong so I was concentrating on landmarks as markers - run to the bench, run to the very large tree on the left, run to the curve in the path ahead .... it was only then, when I was checking my mileage, that I started noticing how my pace was consistently under 7:00/km. And this is when I started to think, am I running this 10K at my race pace from last year?!?!?! I really started focusing on my run at this point and then started feeling excited and a little more motivated to run a little faster!
8K - 6:54/km
9K - 7:01/km
10K - 7:10/km
I did not know what I had run until I arrived home and downloaded my Garmin. Shamefully, my first reaction when I saw my time was, "Darn! I didn't beat 1:09!", but after showering and sitting down at my desk with my post-run protein shake, I analyzed my results and my running record. I realized how great this run really was! :) :) And I am jazzed!!
And I am no longer caring about that 6.5K missed training run earlier this week!
Mileage for the week: 32.6K - 4.5K more than last week
A great way to end Week#3 of Road Work. :) :)
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