A new 10K PB (Unofficial) but feeling class.

Tuesday 17th December 2013

Running (6.2 Miles / 00:47:36 /00:07:40 per mile / HRZ 3)
Tempo Run

I didn’t expect that at all.

My plan for today was to increase the length of my lunchtime tempo run from around 30 minutes to about 45 minutes.

These runs have been going really well for me at lunchtime and I give some of the credit for this to my regular ‘Tempo Buddy’ Brendan for pushing me on.

Today however, he abandoned me in favour of the meat-feast lunch at Bubbacue in Belfast, so I was on my own today.

I was a bit anxious about the run as I hoped to hold an average pace of 8 min/mile across a 10k route and although I know that is OK for the 4.3 mile runs I’d been doing, this extra two miles was a bit more of a challenge.

Anyway as it panned out, the first mile was tough enough but paced out pretty well.  As the run went on I started to feel a bit more comfortable and actually started to increase the pace slightly.

With 4.2 miles gone I actually started to realise that a PB could be on the cards here for 10K.

I knuckled down and focussed on fast turnover of the feet and keeping as relaxed as possible even though the temptation was to just work hard and forget about good form.

The last mile actually felt Ok and was my fastest of the run – probably spurred on by the overwhelming desire just to finish.  When the 6.2 mile mark ticked over I had beaten my previous time by 10 seconds.  Not much time but it meant a lot to me.

I know that this doesn’t count as a proper PB as it wasn’t in a race, however I am delighted and it’s just another indication that my running is getting both stronger and faster. 

Cycling (16.60 Miles / 00:53:00 / cadence 85)
Turbo Sufferfest Wretched

A good turbo session but my legs were paying the price for my run earlier. I found it hard to hit the high cadence.
Still, nice to get another tough set in.