Next Saturday is the 10 miler which has been my goal race since a year ago when I had a performance I was not entirely satisfied with. I think the ten miler will always be my goal race. It was before I even moved here 7 years ago. Anyway, before that happens I want to reflect on the training block from December until now because, regardless of how the race turns out, I'm really happy with the work I've put in. The race will be a reflection of that training but it doesn't define how I feel about what I've done and my fitness. I think I enjoy being competitive with my training more than I enjoy being competitive in races.
Anyway, it was a tough block. The bump in mileage from 10 miles a day to 12 miles a day seems pretty small but I could definitely feel the extra fatigue. There were times when I was not excited about running and struggled to get out the door and do workouts. That said, I'm really proud of how consistently I was able to push through those feelings and tough days and still get in 75 mile weeks. Sometimes life happens and I would be really tired but the more times I forced myself to get out the door, the easier it became to do it again. Will I recreate this block next winter? Absolutely.
The goal was to run a lot of miles and improve my aerobic fitness. I did that. I'm pretty sure I've already made a post that went over a lot of these points so I'll just talk about the race coming up.
My race plan is to stay between 5:32 and 5:36 pace for as long as possible. I'll have to be conservative in the opening miles as they are very hilly but once I'm heading down Alderman towards McCormick I think I'll be able to start rolling. 5:36 pace would put me at 28 minutes for 5 miles and 56 minute pace for the full race. I'm pretty confident that I can break 56 minutes and be somewhere in the 55s depending on how much energy I have for the second half of the race. I like setting 'easy' goals that I'm fairly sure I can beat rather than setting more ambitious goals. I tend to feel better and be able to push myself harder if I know I can reach my goal.
I was also thinking today that since I ran 56:30 a year ago and am fairly sure I can run 55 something this year, it would probably be a good long term goal to aim for a minute of improvement per year.
When I start my spring training back up I'll be thinking about 5:30 pace and accumulating mileage in that range to get ready for 2024.
In conclusion, my big takeaways from this block are that I returned to some high mileage that I hadn't touched in years and felt good (since like 2019?). I'm excited to see what that will lead to in the spring. And, maybe more importantly, I made it work and I didn't give up even when I had doubts and my head wasn't in it. I want to thank my past self for doing that and putting me in the spot I am now.
No comments:
Post a Comment