8:45Am start, 75F 80% humidity. I decided to go for a shorter run but to add 4 hill repeats to it. So I did about 0.75 to the beginning of the hill, stopped my watch and did 4 times up and dow that hill sprinting and lifting my knees on the way up and slow jog on the way dow. After doing these 4 hills I contiued my run and completed the other 4 miles.
0:37:47 (without the hills)
I was still thinking about my 5K. I looked at my training program for the PR 5K I did about a year ago. It was a November race and the weather was perfect an this is definately an important factor. So being 20 second slower when it's 75F and 90% humidity rather than 60F and 45% humidity is not bad at all. So first of all I decided to be less hard on myself. But I could not help comparing my training then and now. I noticed several differences:
1. I did about 15-20 miles a week a year ago training 4 days a week and about 35-40 now training 6 days a week.
2. I did a lot of hills back then and no hills this time.
3. I did good tempo runs (tho short: 2-3 miles) and not so good tempo runs this time.
So as a conclusion I decided to care more about quality and less about quantity. Today I did 4.75 again but I added 4 hills. I think this is better than doing a 6.5 miles and no hills. I will do more tempo runs and will use them to learn how to maintain constant speed and good form for a prolonged time and not start too fast right away. I will be a bit less worried about logging a lot of miles (tho I will probably still do over 30 miles per week).
My main goal is a 10K on November 16 but I might add a 5K on the way at the end of October. | 