So I’ve been following my scheduled plan from runcoach since my last race in July. Three sessions a week, and apart from swapping some days around I’ve done all the mileage allocated and followed the pacing. Well, when I say followed the pacing, I’ve either run at allocated pace or faster, but where runs were tempo/pace/intervally then I’ve made sure to incorporate that in as well. The great thing about runcoach is that as my pace has naturally got faster they have adjusted my allocated pace on the schedule so it’s kept me focused and made me feel like I am getting somewhere.
My next race is the Women’s Running 10k on Saturday (feel free to sponsor me, even £1 will make a difference) and so today I’ve been pondering what pace I should run at and what time I should have in mind to finish in. I’d been planning on just trying to find the mid-ground between going all out from the start and just making sure I kept above my training pace as my legs got tired, or start slower and then try and pick up the pace in the second half of the race. Then I remembered the handy pace chart on runcoach, a quick look at that has given me a pace/finish time to aim for but it also shows my 5km race pace as well. This means I can set my Garmin pacer to the 10km pace but keep in mind a faster rate if I want to try and step it up a bit more. This is my first race where I am actually thinking about my run, the pace and actually planning it out. My first one was all about getting round and not worrying about taking walk breaks as I needed to. It will be interesting to see if it all comes together and what my new PB will be (I will be very disappointed if there is no PB! – it will mean something has gone epically wrong )
Today’s training session went really well, I managed a steady pace and defeated the 29 degree heat and mugginess with a good test of my long sleeved Skins top. These really are amazing, not only do they help reduce body jiggle, but they wick amazingly well. Seriously, the sweat moves through the fabric almost before you realise it’s there and rather than acting as a heat seal like you would expect with the long sleeves the wickability kept me really cool. Who’d have thought that wearing long sleeves in mega heat would be preferable to running in a vest?
So no matter what the weather throws at me on Saturday I think that I’m prepared, fingers crossed for a good race in comfortable conditions.
Zombies, Run! S2:M5 #basel #maintenance
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