Better 10K or 1/2M? (Read 1006 times)

Okay so taking your advice I head out tonight for a nice easy 4. Think to myself the entire time "just go easy, just go easy" my new mantra. So I finish the run feeling oh so much better and a little less winded than normal and look at my watch. 8:57 miles! Much faster than the race. I'm confused? I've re checked the distance and I don't cheat on the time because that would only be cheating myself. I will keep trying to slow down and add miles but I just feel comfortable at this pace and not like I'm really pushing hard.

I ran my first 1/2 marathon in the fall 2006 on a very flat course in 2:10:30 (9:58 per mile) I ran a 15k that same fall in 1:18:25 (8:25 per mile) (had really good traing for it). I ran the winter and into the spring,.. through summer averaging 20-30 miles per week... with a few weeks peaking into the mid 30's as I approached my next 1/2 8/18/2007 Run Parkersburg 1/2 marathon Race 13.1 Mi 1:57:10 8:57 Then I decided to run with a friend in another 1/2 and she decided the day of the race she didn't want to be paced and she rather have me run my own race so I did... 9/7/2007 Run Buckeye Half Marathon Race 13.1 Mi 1:50:09 8:25 I then after a week of rest... I started doing weekly track workouts (800's,400's,200's)... once a week... trying to increase my speed for a 15k. still running my normal runs at 10:00 - 10:30 pace.... 10/27/2007 Run Highland Health Run Race 15 km 1:10:00 7:31 This year I ran a really really hilly 1/2 in 3/2/2008 Run Youngstown Distance Classic Race 13.1 Mi 1:48:28 8:17 I am pretty sure I could do 1:40x on the course I did my first 1/2 on... and I almost all my gains have come from just running more... and what has let me run more is running slower... that being said I went out tonight and ran too fast and will probably have to cut my miles short tomorrow... ;-) --- try this... if you can't sing a song while runnig slow down.... when you can sing comfortably and run that is on the slow end of easy.... when you can only sing phrases you are approaching not easy... at that point talking will still be easy... to carry on a conversation... IMHO--

Take your recovery days easy. I see your average race pace for your 10k was 9:19. Good. That's really good. but your "recovery" pace was 9:30 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is not recovery at all. That is almost like doing another race only 2 days after your official one! It doesn't matter that you ran the first part of the 10k at an 8-some-odd-minute-mile. What matters is your overall pace. If you are losing that much time in your 10k, your endurance needs a lot of work. So.....................SLOW DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!, put in some long slow miles and cut back on the speed work for the next few months and focus just on building up your aerobic base. I saw at least one week where you only ran two times a week and both of those times you listed as tempo runs. That is a recipie for disaster, ie injury and burnout. Take it easy. Running takes time and is a pracitce of patience.