Like the majority of runners, I began life as a sprinter and always believed that long distance was for those without any real pace. A couple of years and a complete Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction later, I discover my natural speed starting to dwindle and having to opt for endurance; a hard lesson for anyone to learn however an avenue which everybody should venture down at some stage in their life.
It stands to factor that you do not need to possess as much speed to maintain a sub 6 minute mile over a cross country as it does to finish one 4 minute mile. It is this theory which I am trying to lean on as I try and turn my efforts to a somewhat longer running event. The race I am now beginning to concentrate on is over the course of 10Km and is an outstanding compromise between speed and endurance.
The perfect 10Km race is all centred on consistency. If you wish to run the entire race in 42 minutes the best method is to run 10 concurrent kilometres in 4.2 minutes. Everyone is various but from my experience, having a brief dip in speed early on in the race due to the fact that you are counting on a fast finish never appears to go to strategy.
As an intermediate runner, I have constantly been one for striking turning points. I have run the 100m in less than 12 seconds and got very near striking the 4 minute mile (a couple of seconds out) so naturally wanted to attain a 10km time which was widely considered as reputable.
Not wishing to bite off more than I might chew and remembering that I had gone through significant surgery on my knee, I chose to go for 40 minutes. Now considering that the very best way to run the race is to balance out a specific split time and stick to it, I was going to need to maintain a speed of 6 minutes 26 seconds per mile or a minimum of have a method to discover if I was ahead or behind my target.
The route I decided to go down was to acquire a GPS enjoy so that I could track my existing rate and structure my training sessions accordingly. Because using a GPS see, I have actually had the ability to decrease my 10Km time to sub 38 minutes and reignite my passion for racing.
When I was 21 however that is not about to happen anytime quickly, the truth of the matter is that I would still like to have the pace I did. Changing my priorities and realigning my objectives has allowed me to continue to complete at an intermediate level and make sure that my competitive nature is properly sustained.
If you wish to begin taking running a bit more seriously then I securely think the first step is to set out some possible targets. Doing so will permit you to structure your efforts track your progress as you undoubtedly improve gradually.
