Wednesday, November 30, 2011

2012 Training Day 11: I can do this shit! 10K in 46:08!

Yesterday, I carefully thought through a strategy for attacking the 10K. I reviewed my times in the past two months and decided that doing a 10K in 47:50 would be a great start to say goodbye to the 48:XX that I have received in then last 60 days. I picked an arbitrary but conservative time.
Hmmm....47:50 translates to 2870 seconds which breaks down to 287 seconds per lap or 4 mins 47 seconds.
Hmmmmm.....4 mins 47 seconds. Positive split? negative split? Even pace?
I thought about it and decided I would make it an even pace then increase my pace from the 8th K if I still had energy. So, negative split. Plus, I want to learn to always finish strong.
Cool.
It was raining for most of the day and for a moment, I debated whether to postpone the run to the next day.
But I felt I needed to run. Especially after seeing Asbel Kiprop and company training in the rain. What if I slide in the mud and sustain an injury?
I went anyway. Early enough. I warmed up for 400m then stretched. I was pleased to note that the field, despite the rain, didnt have slippery sections even though it had some muddy areas.
And off I went. When I saw I had cleared the first 400m in 1:32, I started decelerating. And after slowing Down, I cleared the first K in 4:23. 4:23???!!1 Too fast! Must decelerate. And I did and did 2ndK in 4:51. 4:51 is okay, just increase a little. The 3rd K was in 4:45 4thK in 4:40.
I wanted to start upping the pace from 5k. 5th K was 4:43.
No sign of fatigue even though I had no proper lunch. Okay, lets go. 6thK in 4:32. Slow down. 7th K in 4:41. Not bad. 8th K in 4:40 - too fast but not my fault.
Then I started upping it. 8th K in 4:29 and then 9th K in 4:21. Time? 46:08:87!
This is a more than 2 minutes improvement!
I am as happy as hell with this progress. I may just be able to do a 37mins 10K by August!
I can be fast!
I can see my avg heart rate peaked at 182 Bpm. Average pace 4:36 /Km Average Speed 13.5 Km/hr. The second 5K was in 22:43.
Tomorrow I do speed runs.
A

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