The Tely 10 is only 20 days away and I have decided to run the St. John's Mews 8 km (5 mile) road race on July 12 to gain some running experience. The Mews race is referred to as the Tely 10 warm up event since it is a mere 2 weeks before the Tely 10 and only half the distance.
My time to complete the Mews race should give me a sense of what time I can realistically expect to complete the Tely 10 in two weeks later on July 26. I am told to double my Mews race time and add 3 to 4 minutes to get a prediction of my Tely 10 race time. According to this formula, with a goal of under 90 minutes for the Tely 10, I will have to complete the Mews race in less than 43 minutes.
As for progress on my Tely 10 training the last few weeks- my speed training was going well and I was feeling faster and stronger until about 1 week ago when I pulled my calf muscle. No real reason for it other than increasing my distance over a short period of time and not taking the time required to stretch after a run. I am now taking stretching a lot more seriously.
Although disappointed with my partially self-inflicted training setback, I eased back on training last week to give my muscle a rest and a chance to heal. I figure the rest approach was the right decision. Today, I ran 8 miles without discomfort and seem to be on the mend. I am glad I listened to more experienced runners who assured me that “running though it” was not a sensible approach and that my training would not suffer if I took it easy for 1 week.
With less than 3 weeks of training to go, my weekly running distance has now plateaued and will taper off this week. My weekly long runs are getting shorter and shorter and with only 2 more weeks of speed work to go, my training for the big race event is almost complete.
Will keep you posted on my Mews race results and my forecasted time to finish the Tely 10.
Jackie P.
Shorter slower lunch run
19 hours ago
