Breakthrough! I just ran 6 kilometers in 35 minutes and 26 seconds. That is an average of 5 minutes and 54 seconds per kilometer. Or an average speed of 10.14 kph. This matches the my speed about 2 years ago. Yahoo!!
Of course, I covered "only" 6 kilometers. But even in previous shorter runs I've had this year (i.e. 5 kilometers) I had to start running at 8.5 kph and just gradually build to 10kph towards the end of my run, ending up with an average speed of about 9 kph. Even in all my long runs recently, I had to start running at 8.5kph.
When I got to the treadmill for this training run and started at that speed, I somehow felt I could actually run a faster. I moved up to 9kph but I felt I could still take it up a notch. So I took a gamble and moved the speed up to 10 kph. I completed my first kilometer in a smidge over 6 minutes and I decided I was feeling strong enough to try and complete my 6k run with an average speed of 6 minutes per kilometer. I slowly increased my speed over the next half hour to 10.5kph. And with 200m left in my run, I still managed to sprint (or well, I ran at 12.5kph).
As I posted the other day, my initial goal was to cover 6k in 39 minutes (I was supposed to do it on Monday, but I had to work and ended up meeting up with my friend David for drinks - I hadn't seem him in years so it was great catching up - so I moved my training run to Tuesday). Needless to say I am really happy that I managed to shave off more than 3 1/2 minutes from my target. This gives me lots of confidence now leading to the marathon.
Next target: 12 kilometers on Thursday in 1 hour 16 minutes.
1 comment:
wow, i admire how faithfully you keep posting new nuggets on your blog. that's something i told myself i would do this year but as new year's resolutions go, was quickly forgotten. hahaha
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