First off -- a huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me for the CUA Lung Run. I've never run for charity before, but I really like the idea of running for a cause. Running is so darn self-focused, so it's nice when community stuff can wiggle its way in there -- even in small ways.
So here’s my scoop (didn't I say it is self-focused?). My first race of the 2010 season goes on the 10th. It’s the Lung Run down at Pier 21 – a flat 5k. I’m looking for a big PB. After a hard winter of training under Cliff’s watchful eye, I see no reason not to go out hard, looking for a sub-17 minute finish.
Ambitious for the first race? Yup. But why the heck not?
To run under 17:00, I’ll need to average better than 3:24/km. That’s pretty daunting for me – it’s more than 5 seconds per kilometre faster than my current PB pace. That may not sound like much, but it’s plenty. The faster you get, the more work it takes to cut seconds per kilometre.
But I’m trying to be confident. I’ve done some pretty fast stuff (relatively speaking, of course) on the track over the past few weeks. I’ve even done 8 x 1km @ 3:20/km and 6 x 1.2km @ 3:20/km. But even though the volume of those two workouts was over 5km, there were rests between the intervals – not long rests, but rests nonetheless. How will my body react to a sustained effort at that pace?
Last Saturday’s workout at Point Pleasant shook my confidence a bit. Cliff wanted me to pick up the pace slightly to 3:17 or 3:18, doing 4x4:00 and 1x5:00 – but I couldn’t do it. In fact, I couldn’t even hit 3:20 pace. I felt sluggish and fatigued and just couldn’t keep up with the other guys. Granted, it was freezing cold, there were tons of off-leash dogs getting in the way, and there were inclines, but there was no good reason why I shouldn’t have been able to hit 3:20 pace. It sucked.
I did 20k easy on Sunday, but I still felt tired. On Monday, I was exhausted and frustrated – so I dumped my run. But you know what – I think dumping runs when I feel beat is the right strategy for me. Today, I ran an easy 10k and ran 4:20s very comfortably. I felt like I had some pep back. So now I’m wondering if my body reacts best to extremes – hard work then full rest. Tomorrow’s hard workout will be a good test – we’ll see if I can handle whatever Cliff throws at me.
