Sunday: 5km with Magic Mile
This past Thursday I went out again later than planned, but I didn't have the problems I had last Thursday because I didn't rush it. I cut the workout from 7km to 6km, had a shorter warm up and finished taking another big chunk off my 5K PB. I will reach a plateau sooner or later, but at this point as my training progresses it is to be expected that my times get better and better.
As for today's run... it's getting cold! When I went out the temperature was at freezing point, even though it was a beautiful sunny day. I had decided to try the walk breaks strategy also for the Magic Mile, and boy it worked!!! Last time that I did this test (running continuously) I had a quite uneven pace with an obvious tendency to slow down throughout the whole mile. This time I alternated running for about 400m and walking for 20-30 seconds, and it went so much better! I kept a constant pace during the run segments and I got consistently faster from beginning to end, that is I ran the second segment faster than the first, the third faster than the second and the last faster than the third. It really helps to set your mind on a shorter distance, after all it's just 400 meters...
The result was a fat 25 seconds off my last MM, and without that "I'm going to puke" feeling in your stomach that only runners will understand. I don't care much about time, but this result gives me a predicted finish time under the 5 hours, which would make me happy.
As I was jogging to complete the 5km, this red giant greeted me... it was really beautiful against the blue sky. I wish I could bring my camera when I go running!
It's fun to see that you're getting faster and to finish at a faster pace than you started is great, too! Pretty reddish orange leaves!
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