Monthly Archives: July 2008

I decided on a change of pace today and chose to run at the indoor track. I wanted to do just 5 km and see how fast I could do it. The problem is I think I lost count of the laps, I may have done one or two extra ones (unlikely) or one or two fewer ones (likely). The track is 236 meters which is 4.4 laps per km or exactly 22 laps for 5 km. I first walked a couple, then jogged a couple for a warm-up. After I did the same for a cool-down, so my total distance was about 7 km today. So my stopwatch said I did the 5 km in 29:51 but I can’t really take that seriously due to the uncertainty in my lap counting skills. I guess the time trial will have to wait for an outdoor measured one.

You just can’t predict how you will feel and perform before a race or a training run, no matter how much training or experience you have. Of course you can make much better guesses with experience but you never really know how it will go. I would have thought I would not finish my 32 km today, or if I did I would have performed relatively badly because I only got 4 hours sleep last night for various reasons which I won’t get into. I still felt a bit sore from previous training (from both running and karate), and I well remembered my last attempt ended in failure. On the plus side I did have new shoes. Anyway, I was up at 4 AM and drank two cups of strong coffee. I had two slices of toast with almond butter on them plus a power bar product that has 23 … Continue reading →

I was really determined to ease up a bit and not run very fast at all today. So I started out aiming for an 8 minute pace and ended up with a 9:30 pace for the first 3 km, just shuffling along. Of course I ended up speeding up and catching up to my 8 minute pace anyway, just to see if I could do it. I just can’t seem to discipline myself to run at a planned pace. I should have started out at an 8 minute pace instead of a 9:30 pace. At the very least, I should have maintained that 9:30 pace and not run like a maniac at a 6 minute pace just to catch up. I’ll have to do much better than that if I hope to finish my 32 km on Sunday at an 8 minute pace or better. Anyway my final average pace … Continue reading →

I went out on the road today to try out my new pair of Mizuno Waverider 10′s. I ran 11 km at a 6:58 pace (1:16:35 total). The run went well. Friday I need to do another 11 km but I need to run it at an 8 minute pace because that’s how fast (or slow) I want to run the 32 km on Sunday. I found out that the distances I’ve recorded for the Bird Sanctuary route, which I have run multiple loops of countless times was not accurate. It is actually 150 meters longer than I thought. 150 meters is not much unless you are running 3 or 4 or more loops then it becomes significant. So all the distance I’ve recorded for that loop are shorter and the times are slower than I thought. I’ve been running that loop once a week for months now so I … Continue reading →