Diary Of A Road Runner

11k Long Run - Hot and Sunny - 1hr 05m

Having done 10k plenty of times now, I figured it’s time to start building up some distance stamina, so following the 10% rule, decided to do an 11k run today - and slowly build that up, mainly to build strength and stamina for my next 10k race, but also to push a few more personal boundaries and have some variety from working on running races faster (although am sure the distance runs will help with that too).

It was pretty hot and sunny and I had to drag myself out, but felt motivated once I’d done my walking warm up. I decided to set off at the start of the route where I first started running, and felt great as I picked off each spot where, back when I started, I used to stop out of breath and walk - and I picked the lot of them off before extending the run into unknown territory (at least as far as the geography is concerned - although nonetheless known to me from walks I take in the area). It was pretty hot and as usual for me, it took about 2k to settle into a rhythm and for my lungs to stop fighting for air, and I tried to maintain a slightly slower pace but realised I was running at 26min 5k pace, which was a bit too fast at my current stage. In any case, I got to a rather steep hill and carried on running up it, and I was going to carry on the trail, but the trees were thick overhead and I realised my Garmin would not be able to see thru all that foliage so I decided to come down a hill further on. Going up the hill was pretty painful and I felt like I was at the end of a 10k - my lungs were really fighting for air… But I carried on, and did a circuit of the lake, and was feeling pretty knackered by this point - but looking at my Garmin I hadn’t even reached 5k yet! I headed off back towards civilisation, which was slighly uphill, and tried to go slowly to recover a little - I kept cursing my Garmin as I would seem to cover ground, then check it, and it had hardly ticked over any distance at all (this is something psychological perhaps!). Anyway, I ticked off the first 5k in under 27 mins, but had to keep telling myself this run was for distance and speed/time was not so important, as it would be a distaster to me if I didn’t make my distance goal!

By the time I was getting back to near my house, I was starting to struggle and my pace had slowed - it was very hot. I was so tempted to stop at various points, and even considered stopping at 10k - but I tripped over 10k in about 58 mins, and just pushed on a 100 metres at a time until I finally stopped having done the 11k in about 1hr 05 mins, a pace of just under 6 minutes per k (not sure what that is in miles) - I was pleased with this, as previously I had struggled to maintain that kind of pace for 5k, so the training seems to be helping to get me running quicker for longer, which is what is needed - although just running quicker OR longer is enough some days.