Pacing Problems!

Good afternoon!

I hope I find you well and running happy!  This week I want to touch base on pacing, and in my case pacing problems and frustrations....

Rob knows his paces so well and when he runs his splits are practically perfect, he can go out knowing he wants to do a certain mile/minute and can just run it... GRRRR However as he tells me often, it has taken him years of running to get there and therefore I shouldn't beat myself up.

But I do, only because I want to be training to the best of my ability, and not knowing what my pace should be, I may not be running as hard as I should be or even worse harder than I should, either way it will harm my training.

So I discussed this with my coach Richard, I told him that I was worried and am considering using the Heart Rate methods to help.  He thinks that it would be a great idea to get a rough base and explained to me the benefits of Heart Rate training.

Many runners will chase the pace, and what you should remember is that every run is different, you may be fresh, tired, full, hungry, hydrated, dehydrated, there are also factors of training that impact, time of day, diet, work, play, flat, hills, trail, path, the list goes on...  If you are chasing the pace, you may be under or over working, where as if you train to your heart rate, this will (within reason) amend to these factors.  Let me use an example to explain what I mean... (This is all hypothetical)

I go out early on a Monday morning having had really good sleep, my recent diet has been healthy, and I have been drinking plenty of water every day, I run for 30 minutes, along a flat, straight tarmac path, with perfect splits of 7 minutes per km.  A few weeks later I go out on a Saturday afternoon, I had been out on the Friday evening for many beers and a curry and wasn't in bed much before 3am, I am running for 20 minutes on trail with some hills, my watch is showing me 7.55 per km, and I am feeling sick but angry at myself for going so slow.

Lets face it, I am less likely to be able to go out and run well on this second occasion, but had I have been wearing a heart rate monitor, the heart rate most likely would have been roughly the same or working harder on the second instance... This is an extreme example, and not an example of diet/running I would want to be doing but think you get my point!

So there it is, I am going to purchase a HRM strap that will sync with my watch and give it a go.  I will keep you informed as soon as I get one (will have to be at the end of the month as I am not made of money!)

So back to the real world and this week...

Monday - Rest Day (used to love these, but now I find them enemies as I cant eat as much whilst I am trying to lose weight!)

Tuesday - Intervals, was up by 5.30am and started with my core warm up exercises and then 10 minutes warm up, 5 x 4 minutes work 1 minute recovery, 10 minutes cool down.  They went much better this week, I managed to run all of them, and there wasn't a huge difference between the splits - 6:58, 6:31, 6:28, 6:43, 6:33.

Wednesday - Cross Training, I went to the gym and did 5 minutes rowing machine, on level 5 (have no idea what that means) apparently I rowed 928 meters (That was enough, hurts my legs) and 30 minutes on the bike also at level 5 and rode 6.6 miles.

Thursday - Was meant to be 10 minutes warm up 20 minutes easy effort run and 10 minutes cool down... only I got my fastest ever mile, so I definitely wasn't running easy effort!  My splits were 6:51, 6:51, 6:39 (2.96km) my fastest mile was 10:51.

Friday - Rest Day

So now we are on today, which should have been a cross training day but I did a good 90 minutes of hard house work instead, scrubbing cupboards, hoovering and mopping through out etc.

My eating hasn't been too bad this week, except Thursday (England Game) I had a bottle of wine, tub of pringles some toffees, gooey chocolate cookies and then had a sugar rush during the early hours!  Wasn't good and served me right!

I had lost another couple of pounds this week (Tuesday Weigh Day) 14:11.

Tomorrow I am running The City Of London Mile... Rob entered me and put me in the wave for 10 - 10:30 so I am going to have to push hard!!  I am looking forward to it but actually nervous,  I must just remember it is only about 10 minutes and t hen there is a beer at the end!

I will stop in tomorrow evening to let you know how it went.

Much Love
FBB xx