10k reduced to a 5k

Feeling really good after completing a 15k long run on Sunday, with a total week’s mileage of 47k, I decided that I would try hard to put in some decent mileage this week as well.

The plan to go to the gym last evening was discarded after some last minute work cropped up at the office, causing me to stay back much later than anticipated.

In my ‘running planner’ I had scheduled to do a 10k on Deepavali morning and decided to stick to the plan. Set my alarm for 6.20am, but as fatigue took over the will to wake up, I turned off the alarm somewhere in the wee hours of the morning.

I finally did wake up at 7am, forced myself out of bed and into my running gear. The weather was really cool, as it had rained quite heavily during the night.

This morning I was running the normal loop around my housing area. With each loop being 1.13k, I would need to run 9 loops to complete a 10k. In view of the upcoming KRI 10k run that I am taking part in, the plan was to practice some race strategy and suitable pacing.

I’m currently reading a book called “The Competitive Runner’s Handbook” by Bob Glover. In the chapter that covers ‘Race Strategy’ he discusses the importance of pacing and finding the most suitable pacing option for oneself. Of course he stresses that this would change, depending on the racing distance as well as the difficulty of the racecourse.

Being new to the sport, and having run three 10k races in September, all with timings between 61 to 63min, my ultimate goal at KRI would be to run a sub 60min 10k. With this in mind, I decided to try the strategy of “strong start and then even pacing”.

I started the run well and completed the first loop in 6m30s, which translates to a 5m45s pace. What I should have done was to stick to that pace and try to maintain it until the last couple of loops before increasing it slightly. However feeling strong and comfortable, I pushed myself a little too fast and found that my next two loops were run with a 5m20s pace.

This depleted my energy quickly and I was already breathing very heavily by then. I tried slowing down the pace quite bit in an attempt to regain proper breathing form. However by the end of the 5th loop (5.6k) my breathing was still heavier than normal and I was tiring. I decided to call it a day and review my strategy for my next practice run. The final timing for 5.6k was 31m30s.

The plan for the rest of the week is to put in two 10k runs, one gym workout and a 15k long run on Sunday. Perhaps some speedwork on the treadmill might help? I shall have to see how the body feels tomorrow then.