The Post I Want to Write

[drl212]

I had a marvelous 10K run this week. It was an evening run for me after what seemed to be another difficult day at work.

Of late, I’ve been struggling with pace on my 5K runs. With new shoes, more attention to form and breathing, I’ve hit some PB’s in recent races. I’ve been exploring what starting pace I can use and maintain throughout a 5K. I wasn’t having much luck landing on a pace. One race was extremely warm; the other a bit less so.

So my goal was to run a slow and controlled, steady-pace 10K in preparation for Vitality 10000 coming up in a few weeks. I’d run 10K twice before and have been mixing in 6, 7, 8, and 9K long runs with shorter runs and intervals as part of the NRC training.

The temperature was very cool and wonderful. I decided to run in the opposite direction on the canal just to mix it up and to explore.

I did some stretching and then a very slow warm up and settled quickly into a slow pace that I thought I could maintain.

This part of the canal was much more urban than my usual woodlands direction which travels through some national parkland. Not much to look at. The path was paved in some areas, nicely packed in others, and a bit rough in others. I did bump my foot into a stone sticking up in one of the rough parts. It caused a little stumble but no falls.

I was reminded of how much I love a slow run where the body and breathing are working together, and you feel you can go on forever. I’d lost that in the pace exploration runs of past weeks.

It was exactly the pace that I wanted, and I felt sure that if I tended my pace, I’d be absolutely fine in my first 10K. Very slow, of course, but just fine.

[Jools2020 Graduate10]

it sounds like a perfect 10K. Building up gradually at a comfortable pace gives you the building blocks to increase pace later. While I was recovering fitness earlier this year I was running to heart rate and building up time on my feet gradually. My first 10k in a couple of years was really slow. I think I was on a 90 minute planned low HR run and ended up close to 10K so couldn’t resist running on until I got there. My next 10K was faster and I’ve now done a fair few more.

Well done for this one 👏👏👏

[drl212 Graduate10 in reply to Jools2020]

Thanks!!

It really was a great run and I was on that same 90-minute plan for this run. Look forward to getting back out there...