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| The Garmin doesn't lie |
With the Dirty Sock trail race happening on Sunday, I had one more run to go before I finished my taper. Yesterday's run was disappointing and Tuesday's was similarly mediocre. I've recently committed to pushing harder on training runs and that paid off last week with a few decent runs. When I say decent, I mean closer to last year's average pace. Certainly not as fast as the paces I used to hit while training for a race.
The Dirty Sock is a tough course. The terrain isn't especially bad for trails, but the steamy weather conditions and muddy paths make the last miles difficult. My time expectation for this race is about 59 minutes, which is five minutes slower than my 10K PR. I'm usually happy to run it in under an hour. Actually, the way I've been running, I'm concerned about breaking 62 minutes.
Hope came this morning with a run that redeemed my spirit. The difference today was that I kept a steady focus on speed. It wasn't an impressive pace for many readers of this blog, but it was almost a minute per mile faster than what I "achieved" yesterday. I'm not going into Sunday's race with a string of fast runs under my belt, but at least I ended training on a good note.
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It's an impressive pace for this reader. But I'm working on it. :)
ReplyDeletePace is a funny thing, what some runners call "easy", I call aspirational. I've discovered that just keeping a focus of speed throughout the run yields some great results. Good luck with your training.
DeleteOne minute faster is 'booyah' speed! And we always go faster during the actual race! I think you'll suprise yourself..
ReplyDeleteI love your gazelle and his gear! :)
Thanks TPP. It's true about race inspired speed and I'm hoping I'll be able to leverage that. I'll channel my inner gazelle! I'm glad you liked my picture. I was afraid the watch would be too small to notice :)
DeleteYou're going to do great. It's not supposed to be too hot. The fact that the training run went so well is a good indicator of your performance on Sunday. TPP is right, race day pace is always faster. Run like the wind or at least like a hungry lion is after you...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the vote of confidence, but it may take a lion to get me to run fast enough to meet my target! Last time I ran Dirty Sock was in 2011. Throughout that race I thought, "All it takes is all you got." Bad grammar, but a good mantra.
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