2 questions? (Read 776 times)

Okay so a friend of mine is a manager for a larger company and they are a major sponsor of a local half and 10K event. He has invited me to run with him on behalf of his company because no one else in the place besides him in the branch is a runner. The race is Monday. As you can see from my training log I have not been putting the miles in really to say I am really ready. I know I could run the distance but should I run it for time or just use it as a trainning run? The second thing is that I have noticed over the last week or so I have dropped my pace by about 20 seconds a mile. How do I go about keeping the increased speed while still adding miles with out aggravating any already sore knee?

I hope you mean you can handle the 10k, the half will be very tough if not impossible on your mileage. I don't see a big difference in your training times. Somedays you run 5:30's somedays you run 6:00. Somedays are just better than others. Are you running the Oakville half? There are at least 4 other RA'ers running it. MTA http://www.runningahead.com/groups/GTA/

I'd say just run it for your friend and have fun! Be careful

Basically, when you break them all down, there are 4 elements in training for distance running; you go long(er) but slow (your long run); you run fast(er) than necessary for running efficiency (intervals); you run medium duration (not quite the actual race distance) but hard enough (tempo runs); and recovery (jogging/easy days). Each has its purpose. Looking at your training log; you do a 6-mile race at 9:19 pace (4/27), tempo run of 4.9 miles at 9:05 pace (4/20), easy day of 3.5 miles at 9.06 pace (4/15)... At this point, I race at 6:45 pace, long run would be about 18 miles or so at 8:30 pace, tempo run would be 7. My easy days would be anywhere between 9~12 pace. In fact, the pace SHOULD be different from day to day. If you're trying to chase almost the same distance day in and day out at almost the same pace, there's something wrong with it. In regards to running the half marathon (am I too late for this one?), I'd say go for it and just run it with your friend and have fun. You're right; with your recent training, you're probably not in shape to do the half; but what the heck, perhaps it's a good chance to learn to go SLOW. It'll most likely hurt you afterwards; but you would benefit from it. And, with that, you should probably include some long runs of, say, 1:30 in duration but at easier pace--say, 11-minute-mile pace. As with pace, you should also have some fractuation in duration of the day-to-day runs; short easy runs should be about 30 minutes or even 20; long runs should be 1:30 to upward ot 2-hours.