Today’s 10K was a personal record for me. It was my first 10K race, so, um, no matter what the result, it would have been a PR.

I didn’t have a specific goal for this race. That isn’t really a good idea. I think most coaches will tell you it’s a terrible idea. Why put a race on your calendar if you don’t know why you’re running it? As I mentioned in my last post, doing a 10K two weeks after a half marathon was not a great idea. It isn’t enough time to recover from the HM and start training for the 10K.

I decided I’d just go run. I’d use my HM run:walk ratio – 4:1.5 – and try to pick up the pace in the last part of the race. It worked!

I started off walking for the first two intervals (eleven minutes), then switched to the run:walk. Although the first mile sucked – IT ALWAYS SUCKS – I felt good throughout the race. I felt a bit of a twinge in my knee, which reminded me I haven’t been doing the PT exercises for my IT band. It went away, but the reminder stuck with me. I will do clamshells morning and night every day.

There were three slow runners ahead of me. One had really sloppy form. She looked like the pendulum on a metronome. But the gap between us stayed the same the whole way out to the turn around. It was a reminder that you can’t judge a book by its cover, or a runner by her form. There were two women running together who were between the pendulum and me.

I caught the two women a bit after the turn around; I caught up with the pendulum a short while later. If you look at my cadence, it’s obvious I picked up the pace. That was my plan, whether it involved passing other runners or not. (I was fairly convinced I was going to be the DLF ~ that would have been just fine with me. I don’t run these races to compete with anyone but myself.)

Here are my splits:  Mile 1 – 14:39; Mile 2 – 13:17; Mile 3 – 12:25; Mile 4 – 12:22; Mile 5 – 11:38; Mile 6 – 12:06; up the last hill to the finish line: 10:57/mile.

Yup, I am pretty pleased with that.

I’m still trying to warm up. It was a blustery day, and I neglected to bring my running gloves. It’s certainly not a day either one of us want to work out in the yard. We may go for a walk this afternoon or tomorrow. Bloomsday is 7 weeks away, and The Hubs wants to make sure he’s ready to walk 12km on asphalt. Between now and May 1st, he & I will go for walks to build up to that distance. (I will run Bloomsday, but I start with The Hubs. Nearly 50,000 people do Bloomsday. Unless you’re in the elite groups, you cannot run the first mile or two.)

I’m running a 5K in April. Between now & then, my run workouts will focus on speed, with one long run a week. I plan to run that 5K all-out. I’ve never tried to run a 5K for pure speed. It’ll be interesting to see how fast I can complete the course.

My only triathlon this year is in July, so I don’t really need to focus on triathlon-specific training until after Bloomsday. I’ll keep swimming for fitness – black line fever, back and forth, lap after lap after lap – but I won’t bother with drills and speed work until May.

And that means more time to ride my bike!