Rob's Running Blog

10K Regular Run – Windy – 58m 05s

First time I have run 10k since the Great Manchester run last Sunday. Had run 5k in the week, trying for extra pace, and it took it out of me without actually managing to run any faster over 5k than I did over 10k a few days before.

So today went back to my strategy of starting off quite slowly and building up, intended to run 10k but not kill myself. It was sunny but a little chilly and very blustery. Started to feel a little puffy after 2k but settled into a rhythm, and when I checked my time for 5k I had knocked off 2 minutes of my previous split of 29 mins, just over 27 mins, but still another 5k to go! Started to feel a little tired but kept going, although my pace slowed considerably for a few k’s, and I took a bit of a wrong turning on my usual route so ended up covering some more uphill terrain than usual, and had the usual stiles and grass to jump over and wade through, before I got to my flat finishing stretch in the woods, where I pushed hard over the last 2k, and was happy to press the stop button and slow down to a walk as my Garmin ticked over to 10k completed! Felt like I had been in a race all over again, but enjoyed a warm down walk back to my house, despite it being very windy.

Managed to knock 7 seconds off my race time of the week before, and a couple of minutes off my best training time.

Next part of it for me is to now get into that 5k 27 mins pace and maintain it for 10k, so I can break the 55 minutes for the first time (in training at least!). I will run a 5k in a couple of days (am at cricket for 2-3 days so usual routine is trashed) and work on pacing and speed a little more, but keep to my rule of starting off slow – as I find the quicker I start off, the slower my time ends up being!