2009 was the first year where I seriously laid out specific goals as far as running was concerned. The idea was to improve on previous times and also to qualify for Boston. A Boston Qualification is like wanting to climb Everest, simply because it's there!
10 km, personal best was 40:58 - goal: sub :40
21.1 km, personal best was 1:34:06 - goal sub 1:30:00
42.2 km, haven't run a marathon yet!
Well I'm happy to say that goal no 1 was achieved on Sunday at the CoupeDix30 with a time of 39:40. After a bunch of 41:something earlier in the spring, 4 of them actually, I realised that the speed was not the problem, it was the endurance. Typically those races would start out at 3:50/km and end up with a 4:10/km pace! So I stoped visiting the 400m track for a bit and slowly increased the distance at a slower pace. I think that did the trick. Also, it's a win/win situation for me since I need to built endurance for the longer races.
In the "hard vs easy" (speed work vs endurance) balance I do believe I was doing way to much speed work and simply not enough "mileage"! There's a great article in the July/August issue of Running Times on the idea ratio depending on the distance you wish to achieve a "personal best". It's great reading and a real eye opener!
Have fun and great running!
Richard
Nathan Canada Team
Shorter slower lunch run
19 hours ago
