Bringing the Pace up a Notch
On this coming Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. I am running a half-marathon in the Buchig, which is one of the five villages that make up the Township of Stutensee (I live in Friedrichstal, another village). I have been training for long distance races for the last several months, so thought I should speed things up a bit during my training run last night.
Normally on Monday nights 5-6 of my running club meet and run together, I accompanied them quite often in the winter months. I decided to run over to the trailhead and see if I could find a couple who wanted to run the 11 km loop at a faster pace.
The weather was cooler (75°F) so a few more people showed up as normal, I believe we were 10 altogether. As we started out one flew out in front at a pace I knew I couldn’t keep up with for long, so I hung with the pack. After the first kilometer two other sped ahead and debated whether to join them. Normally they run right around my 10K race pace, which was a bit too fast for my taste. I hung back again, but after a few minutes I noticed the two in front were running slower than normal so I trotted on ahead of the pack and joined them.
The rest of the pack had been running around a 6:00/km (9:40/mi) pace, the three of us ran a couple kilometers at around 5:30/km (8:51/mi). Around the 5K point one runner turned and took the short trail back to the trailhead, which left Walter and I running on ahead. Walter said he wanted to gradually pick up the pace over the next 5K, so I told him I would try to stay with him as long as I could.
We ended up gradually increasing the pace, around 10-15 seconds per kilometer, running the last one in 4:45/km (7:40/mi). This last one was right around my 10K race pace and basically kicked my butt, but that’s the point, right. We ran the last kilometer back to the trailhead at a relaxed pace where I bid farewell and ran the 5K back to the house. I ended up with a half-marathon for the night, in 1:55:45.
This morning my legs are a bit sore, a sign of a good workout and a reminder that I haven’t done any speed training in the last few months. Tonight I want to do a Crossfit workout, also the first since the winter months – I guess tomorrow my muscles will hate me :-)