Setting a goal of running 5, 10 or 20km and achieving it, is a bloody good effort, and you should be stoked – but did you take any notice of how long it took?
No matter what your fitness level, your “goal distance” is always going to feel like a huge feat – but don’t use that as an excuse not to push hard.
When setting off on your 10km run, you know it will be testing times. Most people will tend to “conserve energy” by running at a safe pace until they know they are in the clear and only have a couple of Kms left – then they speed up and finish strong. Why not have this attitude and go out hard from the start? If that seems too much, then at least push yourself by going hard in the middle of your run.
A few days ago, Arnie (a teaspoon of honey) and I had 16km to run. As we are currently training for a Marathon, and completed 27km this morning – 16km is more of a “fun run” for us, yes that makes us very weird. Usually, we plod along talking the whole way, but at about 7km in, I felt the need for speed – must of been that brown sugar on my breaky kicking in. Without saying anything to Arnie (as I had the power.. or wearing the Garmin Watch should I say), I decided to up the ante from around 5.40min/km to 5.05min/km. We managed to hold this for a solid 5kms before easing back on the last 4km to take us home (although we still finished stronger than when we started). Total time for 16km was 1hr 25min.
Keeping an eye on your speed is a great way to motivate yourself. My Sister has recently started running, and had set herself a goal to run 5km nonstop. Within 3 weeks she had achieved this, and only a few days later she had knocked 4minutes off her original time. Its one thing to be able to run the distance, but its another to be able to zip through it.
Next time you go out for a run, time yourself and write it down. A few days later, run the same course but go harder, even just for 1km; really exert yourself and get those lungs pumping. You will feel so proud when you compare your times and realize how easy it is to go faster. Don’t get caught up in “conserving energy”, as long you had a good pre run meal, you will have enough substance to carry you through.
Theres nothing like that feeling of being proud of yourself. It doesn’t matter if your 5km is faster or slower than anyone else’s – as long as you are making improvements!!
emvskobe 