This is what it looked like at the track last night when I finished my speedwork. The only light was from the windows of the high school. And it was only 7:00! After the time change this weekend, it’s just going to get worse! I may call the high school today and ask if they ever plan to turn on the lights. I don’t mind running in the dark much, especially on the track where there were other people there too — but the sign at the gate says the track is open until 9:00, and the lights are there…so I don’t know why they can’t turn them on.
Speedwork was great. The schedule called for 5 x 1200 repeats at 10K pace, or ~7:05, with half the time recovery. My splits ended up as 6:53, 6:49, 6:49, 6:45, 6:45. So yeah, that’s pretty significantly faster than the prescribed 7:05. This continues a recent pattern in my speedwork. The first week I did 1000 repeats and hit the time dead on, and felt I couldn’t have really gone any faster without losing steam in the final repeat. But then I did 7 x 800 in ~4:30 each, instead of the prescribed 4:45. Then I did a week of speedwork based on time when the track was otherwise occupied, but was covering more than the necessary 1000 in each 6:00 repeat. And then last night.
So, questions arise:
Should I adjust my 10K pace? I’m using 9:28/mile as 10K pace, which equates to the 10:00/mile “stretch goal” I have for the half marathon.
Should I change my recoveries? I walk the recovery, so last night, for instance, I was walking for 3:30 between each repeat. Walking for that long lets my heart rate drop quite a bit. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, and I wonder if I should slowly jog my recoveries instead of walking.
Or, should I just continue as I have been, and if my repeats come in a little faster, so be it? I’m thinking this is probably fine. After all, adjusting the 10K pace that I use to calculate my target time for repeats is really just a number — I haven’t run any 10Ks in a while, so I don’t know whether I could actually run a full 10K at that pace or not. It’s just the pace I’m using because it’s what I WANT to be able to do, not because I’ve actually done it.
The other thing? I ran those splits last night at a “comfortably hard” pace. I was working hard, but wasn’t dying by the end of each 1200 or anything. This makes me feel like a new 5K PR is definitely possible for me in the near future, perhaps even right now. The Reindeer Run 5K that I do every year is coming up the first weekend of December, but I kind of want to find something even sooner…
slow jog the recovery.
Start jogging your recovery, but super-slow. Like, 12+ minutes/mile slow. If you want to ease into it, then start walking the first half and jogging the second half. I like to be about 95% recovered between intervals, personally.
Also, a 10:00/mile half marathon pace based on a 9:30/mile 10K pace is a VERY aggressive half-marathon. If you’re still coming in way under your goal times even with doing a recovery jog, then take that 10K pace down to 9:00/mile and see what that does. That may be more in line with where you are now and will get you in a really good spot for your goal pace for the race.
Lastly: you should DEFINITELY go run a 5K so you can smoke it. I’m running one next weekend for this exact same reason, despite the fact that it’s an hour away. It’ll be fun, it’ll be fast, and the drive is just a minor detail.