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Turning a mule into a race horse.
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As above - did it go well or badly. Hard to call !
Basically I went out today to do a small tempo run. Plan was a 1 mile warmup -then 2 miles at tempo pace (3 if I felt good which I hoped I would) and then a cool down mile or so to finish.
What is my true tempo pace though ? Don't know to be honest.
Plugging my current official PBs into the online calculators gives me a tempo pace of circa 9:15 min miles. That said my official PBs I believe are a little soft now as progress has been made since they were posted.
Anyway off I went - had a half mile walk then a 1 mile run @ 10:30 to warm up. Then I let loose - way too loose
ran too fast and the last quarter mile of the two at tempo was tough. There was no way I was going to be doing a third. 1.75 mile cool down followed.
Paces:
10:30
8:13
8:31
10:50
10:12
Unoffical PBs there for 1 mile and 2 mile distance.
On one hand I am delighted to see that. On the other hand little pissed off with myself for yet again failing to control the pace properly.
If I want to hit a sub 4 marathon (that would be my current aim high goal which I am nowhere near at this point!) I would ultimately be looking at approx 8:45 tempo pace so this was a crazy pace to run at. Next time out I will pay a little more attention to the watch / current pace and try and reign it back a bit.0 -
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Pacing Mule wrote: »As above - did it go well or badly. Hard to call !
Basically I went out today to do a small tempo run. Plan was a 1 mile warmup -then 2 miles at tempo pace (3 if I felt good which I hoped I would) and then a cool down mile or so to finish.
What is my true tempo pace though ? Don't know to be honest. Plugging my current official PBs into the online calculators gives me a tempo pace of circa 9:15 min miles. That said my official PBs I believe are a little soft now as progress has been made since they were posted.
Anyway off I went - had a half mile walk then a 1 mile run @ 10:30 to warm up. Then I let loose - way too loose ran too fast and the last quarter mile of the two at tempo was tough. There was no way I was going to be doing a third. 1.75 mile cool down followed.
Paces:
10:30
8:13
8:31
10:50
10:12
Unoffical PBs there for 1 mile and 2 mile distance.
On one hand I am delighted to see that. On the other hand little pissed off with myself for yet again failing to control the pace properly.
If I want to hit a sub 4 marathon (that would be my current aim high goal which I am nowhere near at this point!) I would ultimately be looking at approx 8:45 tempo pace so this was a crazy pace to run at. Next time out I will pay a little more attention to the watch / current pace and try and reign it back a bit.
Great stuff to hit PBs PM and you are progressing for sure- but be careful with the recovery as that wasn't really a tempo but more a race type effort! Remember tempos are ideally the pace you could hold in a race of around an hour... Still great stuff just be careful!0 -
Took a rest day yesterday. Done nothing at all.
I was a little bit naughty tonight. Didn't exactly stick to the planned 5 mile easy.
Set out for 5 miles along a local loop I run regularly. Immediately it was into a strong breeze which made it a little difficult. That's when the first niggle came into my mind. There is a section of this loop that I would get to on the way back that would have the breeze at my back. This section has a strava segment attached to it and although I have ran it regularly I have done so mid easy run on most occasions. Haven't ran it at pace for a while and today would be a great opportunity to give it some welly. I knew I had blown up a bit on the last 2 mile blow out and was wondering how I would do with just 0.8 mile of a stretch. Banished thoughts of it as this was an easy run. They came back.
I decided I would wait until just before and see if I felt strong / no effects from the last run and decide then. 2.5 miles in the segment was upon me and I felt good and strong.
Off I went. Didn't run flat out either but a glance at watch showed I was going faster than Wednesday. Got to the end of the 0.8 miles and slowed back down to easy pace. Had been tempted to finish it off for a fast time for 1 mile but this time the sensible part of me won. Finished the last 1.7 miles at easy pace. I was still very fresh and could have done it again. Turns out that the little blow out was a bit of a record breaker.
Fastest KM - 4:42
Fastest Mile - 8:06 (that was without trying as one fifth of it was at easy pace)
Strava Segment Time - 5:16 (previous best was 6:23 which is the most startling evidence of personal improvement)
So what am I left with ? Even the PB's above are soft as they have been done whilst not racing. I'm capable of running a km and mile a lot faster than that. My current official PBs are also ready to be significantly improved upon. I'm thinking about giving the Terenure 5 mile a lash but may need some advice on target times. 45 min definitely doable (what I consider a soft 10k PB was at 9:12 pace) 40 min might be a bit too much of a stretch ??0 -
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AuldManKing wrote: »With that advice RR, you could get dragged into the mentored novice forum for DCM !
I think you are fishing for a job
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AuldManKing wrote: »With that advice RR, you could get dragged into the mentored novice forum for DCM !
Don't do it. Will bite you in the ass 0 -
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Pacing Mule wrote: »4 miles @ 10:30 avg pace.
Nothing remarkable about it.
Isn't that the way? I suppose one of the challenges of being the kind of runner who goes out more than twice a week is that sometimes it gets a bit mundane. I find I sometimes have to remind myself how great it is to be out in the world, moving through it in the way I choose. Many people don't have, or choose not to have, that luxury. Good luck to them, but good luck to us also.
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Nice going, how did the 7.50 mile feel to you?
Not too bad. I wasn't all out even though it was a PR for 1 mile. I reckon if I was only going for a 1 mile race I could take a big chunk off that. To be fair it was on a bit of a downhill back towards home. Grade adjusted pace on Strava has it at 8:00 which was around target.
The reason why I am fixated on the 8:00 is that if (and it's a big if) I could hold that for the 5 mile race it would bring me home sub 40 which believe it or not was my very first original target for a 5 miler when I started running / logging here back in 2012. Never got near it first time round. Current PB is 47:10 I know I could go out at 9:00 pace and take home a PB easily enough. Even 8:30 should be doable. But the temptation is there to gamble and try 8:00. It's a flat course with a pacer for 40 min. Even if I blew up for the last 2 miles I would still be in PB territory. I know that wouldn't be smart racing and would be a bit of a nooby thing to do but still .....
So I'm going to spend a bit of time in the next 2 weeks running in and out of 8:00 pace and then decide on the day if I feel good enough to take a reasonable crack at it.0 -
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You're coming along nicely PM but I refer you to my original advice; 8.30 pace for first three and then push on for last two at 8min pace if you have it in the tank. That would give you sub 42 mins. Time enough for sub 40. Do you know the story about Daddy Bull and Baby Bull ??;)
You would be the third person in my life to refer me to that story
I see a pattern developing !0 -
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What race are you targeting and time?
Terenure 5 miler in 2 weeks.
Target time is all a question of young or old bulls or somewhere in between
The bull analogy is a story about two bulls standing on a hill looking down at a herd of cows. Young bull says to old bull - let's run down there and **ck one of those heifers. The old wise bull says no let's walk down their and **ck them all.
Young bull here is me thinking about going off to try hit a time I've maybe a 20% chance of hitting. That being 40 minutes. Reckon I can hang on for at least 3 miles at 8 min pace - blow up if needed and take out 2 slower miles to finish it off. But there is a chance of race day adrenalin, flat course, pacer, support etc to give a boost and take out 5 miles.
Older bull attitude is to leave the 40 min for another day and go out at 8:30 with the aim of pushing on and coming in around 42 / 43. Older bull talks a hell of a lot of sense.
Young bull though thinks that 42/43 is doable even with a blow up at 3 miles in. Granted it would not be a pleasurable race experience but he doesn't really care. And it's an almost guaranteed PB as current one is well soft at 47 min.
Genuinely caught in two minds on it. When I posted earlier I wasn't joking. Spent an hour debating the merits of it today.0 -
Pacing Mule wrote: »Terenure 5 miler in 2 weeks.
Target time is all a question of young or old bulls or somewhere in between
The bull analogy is a story about two bulls standing on a hill looking down at a herd of cows. Young bull says to old bull - let's run down there and **ck one of those heifers. The old wise bull says no let's walk down their and **ck them all.
Young bull here is me thinking about going off to try hit a time I've maybe a 20% chance of hitting. That being 40 minutes. Reckon I can hang on for at least 3 miles at 8 min pace - blow up if needed and take out 2 slower miles to finish it off. But there is a chance of race day adrenalin, flat course, pacer, support etc to give a boost and take out 5 miles.
Older bull attitude is to leave the 40 min for another day and go out at 8:30 with the aim of pushing on and coming in around 42 / 43. Older bull talks a hell of a lot of sense.
Young bull though thinks that 42/43 is doable even with a blow up at 3 miles in. Granted it would not be a pleasurable race experience but he doesn't really care. And it's an almost guaranteed PB as current one is well soft at 47 min.
Genuinely caught in two minds on it. When I posted earlier I wasn't joking. Spent an hour debating the merits of it today.
PM- Don't over think a 5miler. Go out comfortably hard and then hold on until the last mile and then blast it. If you get too worked up about target time you might find you won;t run as well. My advise- ditch the GPS for the race and just go out and race it.0 -
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Same 4 miles tonight. Much different result.
2 things happened here to influence the run. Firstly I set off to do this comfortably hard but without looking at the watch. Wanted to give Quirkys method a go Secondly as I was coming out of my estate a runner passed on the other side of the main road. By the time I got out and across the dual carriageway he was maybe 400m ahead of me. I decided to practice running after a pacemaker too :pac: except I was starting to gain on said pacemaker. About 1 mile into the run I gave it a little extra and started to close him down, passed him and then of course had to keep going because a blow up then would have been embarrassing to say the least. (To be fair he was more than likely on a slow / recovery run and considering he didn't even know we were racing it is indeed the hollowest of victories - but we will take it!)
2.5 or so miles in and I eased back a bit. Quick glance at watch (couldn't resist) showed me at 9min pace. What was great was that this felt like easy pace after the previous 2 miles effort. Took it handy for another half a mile and then started to wind it up a little for the last mile. This was a gradual wind up from 9min pace. About a quarter of a mile left I belted out a bit of a sprint finish and actually hit under 7 min pace along the way. First time ever I suspect.
Strava stats
Splits of 10:08, 8:16, 8:24, 8:11
New unofficial PB for 5k 25:43
New unofficial PB for 400m 1:42
That's enough speed work done now for Sunday week. That was a good confidence booster. A LSR tomorrow or Sunday and a few easy runs during the week should leave me fresh enough to give it a good lash for the 5 miler in Terenure.0
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