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Jacksonville, FL, United States
In Life as well as in running the secret is Pace.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Pacing and racing...

Lately I’ve found racing to be almost a chore… I know it’s my hobby.. and what I do for fun but…

It seems like I’ve begun to put unneeded pressure on myself to perform that it causes me to overanalyze things and over plan details… I’m not really a type A personality kind of guy but I find myself leaning that way when it comes to racing… especially lately. Having a string of three races in a row where I have underperformed following 2 huge PR efforts does not help either.

Training on the other hand is still fun… I totally enjoy the challenge of competing with myself and completing (as often as not… failing to complete) what is on my training schedule.

I have 2 races coming up. A 15k this weekend and a 10k next weekend… PRs in each distance are within reach.

I set out on my midweek run with all of this in mind.

So today’s run turned out being a pace test. I decided to run 2 miles @ 15k “race Pace” based on perceived exertion… just to see how close I could come to the 8 minute per mile pace I’d like to be able to do for the 15k on Saturday.

Warm-up mile went fine… nice and easy…

I picked it up at the mile mark and tried to run nice and relaxed for the next 2 miles. I felt nice and relaxed for the first mile but could feel myself pushing the next mile. They ended up being a 7:44 and a 7:36 respectively. The fourth mile I ran a nice easy 8:30 and for the fifth mile I just cooled down with a 10.

So…. What did I learn… nothing really. I guess I’ll just show up Saturday and JFRace… and try not to think so much.

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