Yesterday was my first day off running after the 126km in the previous 7 days, a record for me. Today, the schedule called for 16km in total including six 1km repeats at 5km race pace. This is where the challenge of training comes in, it's not that hard to run a big week, or two, or five. The challenge is maintaining the volume and the quality when you feel, or think you feel, tired.
After considering swapping a few sessions around, so I could do just an easy one of as little as 8km (Friday's session), I finally decided to head out this afternoon with the plan to just do the session as planned, and run my 1km repeats by effort, rather than getting hung up about the 3:50 pace I needed to hit for each one. Race pace for a 5km is a pretty fast effort but it is not as hard as aiming to run, say, 1km all out.
I find that for some of the more challenging sessions it is all about getting started and cutting yourself some slack. Don't allow yourself to bludge, Australian for taking it easy, but accept that when you're tired you may just not hit the same numbers as when you are fresh.
As long as it feels like the effort you're supposed to put in, you'll get the benefit that the session is supposed to give you. Warming up with a relaxed 6km around Valleycliffe, Mr Garmin told me that, as usual, once I start running I feel a lot better than I often expect to.
I did all six 1km repeats, most of them at an effort I'd be very happy to put in at a 5km race, and ended up running 17km, according to Mr Garmin. For each 1km I stayed well below 4:00/km, and I am very pleased with that.
Now I am getting ready for dinner, and am enjoying a Sleeman Cream Ale, or two. Dinner consists of rice with chickpeas, a bunch of veggies, in a lovely curry. That should fuel me well for tomorrow's 24km.
1 comment:
Strewth, with your schedule you can't be accussed of bludging. In Aussie lingo you could say that you have been running around like a blue-arsed fly. Don't get too knackered and start running like a drongo ;-)
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