Making friends with pace not a pace maker

This week I am looking at pace.  To me one the great mysteries of running.  In the early days I naively thought that all you needed to do was to just go out and run.  To a large extent that is true and always will be. But what I had not counted on was that after a while 'just running' was not going to be satisfying enough for me.  I wanted to get faster and stronger and in paticular faster.

However with much of my running I spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to do but quite often very little time actually putting it into action.  This week however is different.  This week is my week for speed, well pace really.

I have built in two speed sessions , one on Thursday as part of my easy run and then one with the training group on Saturday.  Speed training is all about understanding your pace and understanding how to build up strength to run at your race pace. To do that successfully you must learn how to run for short extended periods at your race pace then dial back and run at a slightly slower pace.

There are two ways to speed train - one is laps on a track at pace race and just under, and the other is hills - running them.

Adding 1-2 speed/hill training sessions to your programme should - the theory says - increase your stamina and build up your speed.  And I have a challenge ahead of me.

When I signed up for the race earlier in the year I was fitter and running regularly.  I subsequently dipped with my training and probably stopped running for around 6 weeks, enough to seriously impact my fitness and in effect make it so I am training from an almost beginners form. As if if that was not annoying enough, in my registration for the race I put a finish time of 2:10 optimistically believing that I could knock 10 minutes off my March finish time.  Now that might have been realistic back in April.  It is now July and I am not sure whether a 9.55min/mi pace is achievable considering my quickest last week was 11.23min/mi

Running sessions

Tuesday's 3 mile easy was a nice run, mid-morning as I am on leave and I decided to run in the park to get some steep hills into it.  October's race is meant to be pretty hilly so I need to begin to get steeper inclines and descents into my weekly runs.  I ran a good time, faster than Saturday's group run. Wednesday's 4 mile long was tougher.  I did it but much slower than my previous runs - which I put it down to Tuesday's 3 miles and then about another 2 1/2 mile walk later that afternoon making me pretty tired the following day.

Thursday's 3 mile in which I incorporated my first speed session was hot, hot, hot.  I decided to try out HIIT - high intensity interval training at the track in the park.  I did two sprints as fast as I could go until I ran out of speed with walks to recover in between.  I repeated this for a total of three rounds of the track.  I averaged a 8.00min/mile with my sprints.  Interestingly everyone else at the track that day was also doing their speed work

I had read about HIIT in Runner's World and thought I would give it a try, to see how fast I could sprint and then how bad my legs felt afterwards.  I think I did OK - particularly as this was done at about 3pm when the sun was out and it was still around 30C.  I will certainly do another HIIT session but probably not until the end of next month - the article I read said you shouldn't do too many of them

Saturday's group run, was the long run with speed intervals factored in.  We ran a 1 1/2 mile to the park and then it was 2x2 mile loops around the lake at a slightly faster than normal pace - I was with the 11 min/mi group.  Saturday's run was really difficult.  I think I was just too tired having overdone it during the week. As Coach Graham said, Saturday is your tough day, it is the one that is going to hurt and should hurt.  With that in mind I think I made good on my difficult Saturday.

That run then closed my week of pace - I am not sure that I have got a proper handle on it yet, but I think I am closer to understanding what my current pace is - the pace that I run comfortably. Now I have to work on running a tad faster than that pace for extended periods to condition myself to become faster. Saturday's type of speed work is now going to be part of my weekly run - probably one of my 3 mile easy runs.  I will do the mile loop in the park following the design of the group run.

Running log to date

DATE	DISTANCE	TIME	PACE/HOUR
Saturday 13 July	4 miles	44:49	11:32
Tuesday 16 July	3 miles	35:21	11:45
Wednesday 17 July	3 miles	35:10	11:33
Saturday 20 July	6.2 miles	1:10:48	11.23
Tuesday 23 July	3 miles	33:11	11:07
Wednesday 24 July	4 miles	47:21	11:46
Thursday 25 July - HIIT	2.3 miles	28:36	12:00
Saturday 27 July – Speed work	6.3 miles	1:12:21	11:19

Overall happy with this week's times - Thursday's HIIT session doesn't count as I walked to recover so these times are not representative. Tuesday's 3 miles is a great improvement at 11:07 and Saturday's speed work in my long run was also a good time.

The week ahead is another 3/4/3 with 7 miles on Saturday.  And along with pace, I am incorporating some hills into my weekdays runs - nothing drastic but looking for routes in the neighbourhood that include them.

To round of a successful week of training is news that I have lost 1 kg (2lbs). I want to loose 5kg by race day.  This will be a balance as I get closer to the date and my miles increase.  I will have to make sure I eat sufficient to keep my energy good and my muscles recovered but not too much to put the weight on.  Not being a seriously long distance runner I have to resist the lie that because I run I can eat what I want - which I can, but it won't help me loose weight if I do.

Lara