Argh, pacing
Sep. 28th, 2014 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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c25kI'm still running pretty regularly, just have been forgetting to update here. Which is silly, cos the community's in a lovely active phase lately and I'd like to join in with that.
I'm really struggling at the moment with starting out too fast, and getting tired, not so much that I can't go on at all, but enough that I'm getting slower and slower over the run and ending up with a slower average time than I know I'm capable of.
Last Sunday I did 5k along the river from our place in Cambridge. Total time was 41'20'' but basically I was doing 8½' /km or a bit over pretty much the whole way, apart from the first km which I ran in under 7½ minutes. Thursday I ran on the hilly route near campus. A friend called me just as I was setting out to warm up, so I ended up walking along chatting to her, and starting the run about half way along my normal route. So I ran downhill along the railway, and I did the first 20 minutes at a pretty sensible pace, well under 8½ ' /km. Only I just lost it over the last km and nearly ground to a halt, ending with only 3.5 km in 30 minutes.
And today, back in Cambridge, I literally just got slower and slower and slower over the course of the run. First 2km in under 15 minutes (!), next 2 km in 17 minutes and that was a struggle, and the last km, when I normally speed up cos I know the end is in sight, took more than 9 minutes, so 42 minutes overall. I honestly didn't think I was going that fast at the start, I was surprised when Runkeeper gave me the times. And I just found the whole thing really hard, not physically, but psychologically, I was constantly fighting the impulse to just give up and walk, even though my lungs and my legs were basically fine. Even when I only had three minutes to go, I was stuck in a slough of "don't wanna!
I'm thinking I might turn on Runkeeper settings to give me a bit more feedback, maybe more frequent time-checks or perhaps setting a goal pace. My main aim at the moment is to improve my fitness, only secondarily to improve my running technique, so it doesn't matter too much if I rely on the gadget to help me with pacing.
And as of today I have been running regularly every week for 2 years, so that's something to be proud of.
I'm really struggling at the moment with starting out too fast, and getting tired, not so much that I can't go on at all, but enough that I'm getting slower and slower over the run and ending up with a slower average time than I know I'm capable of.
Last Sunday I did 5k along the river from our place in Cambridge. Total time was 41'20'' but basically I was doing 8½' /km or a bit over pretty much the whole way, apart from the first km which I ran in under 7½ minutes. Thursday I ran on the hilly route near campus. A friend called me just as I was setting out to warm up, so I ended up walking along chatting to her, and starting the run about half way along my normal route. So I ran downhill along the railway, and I did the first 20 minutes at a pretty sensible pace, well under 8½ ' /km. Only I just lost it over the last km and nearly ground to a halt, ending with only 3.5 km in 30 minutes.
And today, back in Cambridge, I literally just got slower and slower and slower over the course of the run. First 2km in under 15 minutes (!), next 2 km in 17 minutes and that was a struggle, and the last km, when I normally speed up cos I know the end is in sight, took more than 9 minutes, so 42 minutes overall. I honestly didn't think I was going that fast at the start, I was surprised when Runkeeper gave me the times. And I just found the whole thing really hard, not physically, but psychologically, I was constantly fighting the impulse to just give up and walk, even though my lungs and my legs were basically fine. Even when I only had three minutes to go, I was stuck in a slough of "don't wanna!
I'm thinking I might turn on Runkeeper settings to give me a bit more feedback, maybe more frequent time-checks or perhaps setting a goal pace. My main aim at the moment is to improve my fitness, only secondarily to improve my running technique, so it doesn't matter too much if I rely on the gadget to help me with pacing.
And as of today I have been running regularly every week for 2 years, so that's something to be proud of.
