Pace yourself

The Olympics have started, the opening ceremony was fantastic, I have had a drink (2 glasses of Proseco on Friday night and 2 G&T's at a party last night) and this morning I ran 10k.

The original plan was for me to do a 10k race today but the nearest event was in Wigan so Flino kindly offered to 'pace' me. Whilst I was eating my porridge this morning there was some discussion around the speed I should aim for...

Rob's suggested precision pace was 9.08 per mile. I decided that I'd do a mile warm up very slow jog down to the flat river path and then start the 10k. Flino offered to set the pace and run a little in front of me. All I had to do was to keep up.

We set off on the warm up, stopping just before a mile to do some dynamic stretches. Then it was on to the river path and the 10k began. The first 3 miles were ok, it was hot in the sun but I felt comfortable. The national BMX championships were on at Alvaston Park and there were people, bikes and dogs milling about all over the path which meant dodging, stopping and starting to make sure I didn't trip over.

When we turned around at 3 miles I began to have a mental battle with myself. I started to worry about running back past the BMX track, my shoulders tightened up and instantly my breathing become laboured. I was doubting myself.

We negotiated the park and I relaxed a little. I started reeling off names in my head of people I want to prove something to by doing this run (a tip I've stolen from Arya in Game of Thrones!) and it actually helped! My breathing slowed down and I focused on putting one foot in front of the other.

The last mile was hard, I wanted to stop but Flino kept pushing me, telling me we were nearly finished. I gritted my teeth and sprinted the last 200 meters. I'd ran 10k in 58.08. These were my splits:

9.21
9.24
9.27
9.32
9.37
9.19

In the general scheme of things I know this isn't fast, but compared to last weeks 6 mile run, I was averaging 40 seconds per mile faster. This is the pace I need to run the half marathon if I want to finish in under 2 hours.

I've done 4 weeks of training now, I've ran 17 miles this week and 60 miles in the past month!

I weighed myself yesterday. 4 weeks of training, 60 miles and no alcohol. Hadn't lost a bloody pound. Oh well, on to month 2 of the plan....