Morning of the Scarborough 10k

Having woken up at 6:00am, I feel really rather good. My eyes do not burn; my stomach is not set with heavy undigested food. Two (whole) days ago I ran on the tread mill 4 splits of 4 minute 6 mile runs, with one minute recovery. I did this in my thin astroturf boots.

Even yesterday my knees and my ankles ached with a lack of springy energy? Now? I can feel it! I can feel the energy around my legs, and the power seeping into my calves. My lungs have some breath in them, and mind feels undecimated by work.

I intend to aim to run faster than I have ever run before. To do otherwise is, I think, a bit foolish. Also, I am run, for the first time ever, the second 5k of the race faster than the first. Let's see what normally happens:

Blimey. The last 10k - 42:27 - saw me run pretty much the entire 2nd 5k with post 7 minute pace mile (!)I want to run a sub 21:04 5k, though, as that's what I ran slower before. mmm... looking at it all in a bit more detail,though, and I can see that my second 5k was actually faster than my predicted pace for this run - 21:08 for the last 5k! I ran hard and fast for the last mile. My slow miles was for the third mile. mmm...

The 10k race before that, the Yorkshire Coast, saw me consistently running the final 4 miles or so at 7 minute mile pace, getting progressively slower...

My first 5k saw me drop in the last half-mile to almost 7 minute pace (!) But still post a sub 20 time. The harrogate 10k time, while it felt fast, saw me posting post-7 minute mile paces all over the shop (save for a 6 minute mile somewhere in there (!)

I think I need to see what kind of pace I need to run to beat the next...

I need to run 6:48 per mile to post my new target for 42:17. From that, if I run 6:45 per mile I will post sub 42 pace. However, and this is the big if, if I can run the second 5k at 6:25 pace then, and only then, will I be hitting the pace necessary for the sub 40 pace. Can I do it?

Can I run consistently fast at no slower than 6:48 for the first 5k? And no fast than 6:45? And certainly no faster than 6:25(!) :-D

Getting stronger

Well then! Throughout my young life so far I have run until the muscles unknits from around my ankles. Sounds painful? It is painful. Yet recently that has not happened so much. My training, for so many years dictated around non-impact sports, has grown in its intensity.

Today I ran for 70 minutes. Slow it was, at least to start with, it was done. And yesterday? A 20 minute run. These are things that are not normally possible with my body.

And next? And when? I think that even a 5k next weekend along the seafront would be a possibility. Or, at least, the run on Wednesday with Lee and Andy.

A metaphor has been spoken to my students, and it came from the chap in the shoe shop. Only a very small number people are actually running in any race. That is, they are physically running against each other. The rest are running against themselves, their own targets. And even then, those racing are only truly racing if they are racing for a record, for victory is (perhaps) no more than who has turned up on the track that day.

My desires to run faster are tempered by somewhat aspirational, and perhaps ignorant, comparisons of myself to others. Surely improvement from before should be my only task? Surely I should be trying to only run faster than 19:15 for my 5k, and faster than 42:30 for my 10k? A few seconds faster, even. That should be my plan.

Comparison made by myself to others exist in the most transient way.

I am stronger. And my silly running socks help, too.

The next 10k I intend to run is on the weekend I come back from Abu Dubai. It may be ambitious. But, you know what? It will be done! Training after that for a time, I think, including 5ks, and maybe a personal 10k alongside sea-front.

Since then?

I think that the last time I posted was before the summer holidays. Much had happened since then, but such things can be drawn into what I feel now:

A finite sense of urgency. Not that my urgency is finite, although it might be. It is not a morbid sense of life ending soon - rather that life will end in a full and fruitful time, and that the days stretching from this to that call for something.

I ran today 42:27. This is down from the 57 I used to run. And I can run faster.

I don't know who will read this blog. But suffice to say, there is something about my running. And, while I cannot, or do not, articulate it, I intend to run a 5k next week and see where that takes me, and my lazy words.