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| This would make a great tattoo |
Well, I am now in shock. At the 5K pace I'm currently running, the race will have more or less ended six minutes before I finally struggle across the finish line. Last year, the last place runner came in with a time of 32:33. My current best time on the newer, hillier course I've mapped out is 38:42.
So far in the infancy of my running career, I've entered two runs. In both of those I had only two goals--the first one was to simply finish the race and the second one was not to come in last. Right at the moment, I have no real fear of not being able to finish the Uxbridge run. Suddenly, though, I have a very real fear of coming in last!
The only encouraging thing is that the race is still three months away. Before I switched to the hillier course, my times were very gradually lowering. When I switched, naturally, they shot up. Since the switch, though, they're going back down again. Whether or not they go far enough down to keep me out of last place remains to be seen.The decision I'm finding myself needing to make right now is whether or not to accelerate the training. My training (such as it is) involves getting out and running 5K every other day and watching what I eat. Now that the holiday and ball hockey seasons are over and done with I likely will be able to more religiously adhere to that regimen. But I wonder if I should be running more. Or doing other types of training, to complement the running.
Our principal reason for entering the Uxbridge run (Doralyn and our sis-in-law, Sherri, are doing the 5K trail walk) was to have fun. I'm sure it will still be fun regardless of finishing times. Secondarily, though, I'm kind of using the run as a bit of motivation. And what better motivation, all of the sudden, than the fear of coming in last?!So I am open for suggestions for any runners out there who've experienced anything similar to this. My main question, I guess, is what is running too much and what is running too little?
Feel free to sound in!
Use this to find the best training *for you* forget about the other people. If you focus on them and try to run their race then you will likely wind up unsatisfied with the race, you will have no idea of your own fitness and true abilities, and you may wind up injured.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mcmillanrunning.com
Put in your most recent best time for a 5K when you ran on flat surfaces. It will give you a fairly good sense of the training paces to use for your weekly workouts. Do one tempo run a week, one hilly run a week, one flat run a week, and one really slow long run, increasing the distance by a kilometre per week so that you're running longer than 5K, but a much slower (e.g. 8m/km) pace. For the long slow run, aim to run for about an hour at the much slower pace.
Also, you can use the "smart coach' tool on Runnersworld.com:
http://smartcoach.runnersworld.com/smartcoach/
I like structure and methods with proven results, so that's why I am suggesting these two things. Other people may/will have different ideas.
For what it's worth!
Kathryn
Thanks, Kathryn, you're wonderful!
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