Right on target

Had a very interesting run today. I'm trying my best to stick to the 5/10/5 plan for weekdays that sees me running 5 miles one day, a medium-long run of 10 miles mid-week followed by another five on Thursday or Friday. This gives me 20 miles for the weekdays and sets me up for a recovery run and a long run to give me 35ish miles a week.

So I set out to do my 10 miles in the dark. It was a relatively warm -1C tonight and I enjoyed the run very much. The night city skyline from 5 miles away is breathtaking. I wish I had a camera with me.

Now, the interesting part. I ran the first bit at a steady and very comfortable pace, not really caring about time or pace. Within 4 miles, I felt so good that I cranked it up. I passed some runners and I sped up again, and it felt good. So by the time I hit the 10K mark, I saw I was on pace for a 1:22ish 10 miler. So I decided to slowly up the pace for the last four miles to see if I can average it down to a 1:20 run or 5 minute Ks/8 minute miles.

So with every kilometre split, I could see myself shaving off time. So I sped up the next portions closer to marathon pace. By the 2K to go mark, I saw myself needing to speed it up big time to aim for 1:20. By the 15K mark, with 1.1K to go, I knew that I needed a fast finish to make it under the target, or a 4-minute 1K followed by a fast 100 metres.

Now that's a lot of math to do while running, but that's what goes through my silly little mind when I'm racing the clock. The result was very - well - dead on. 10 miles (9.99 in SportTracks and 10 in Garmin's Training Center) in 1:20:01 for an average pace of 8 minute miles. See the progression/negative splits below. Man, I've never hit my exact planned time ever. Uncanny