In an effort to gauge my current level of fitness, and to be honest partly out of morbid curiosity, I ran a 10 K "race" yesterday. The results were pretty ugly all things considered, but pretty much along the lines of what I expected. I did the loop of lakes Banook and Mic Mac, cutting through Shubie Park and along the trail and boardwalk - a semi-regular part of my long runs. Unfortunately it's quite a hilly run and in spots was quite slippery, and so not an entirely accurate gauge, but I shall rerun it again every few months and see where my times go.
For the record, the 10K portion of the run was completed in 52:34 and my average heart rate was an astounding 174 bpm.
I'm still assessing whether or not to run the full marathon at the Bluenose in May. This little test it part of the assessment.
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5 comments:
Kevin, you have a blog! I'll be following along.
Quick note- It's really tough to simulate true race conditions when you're not in a race-- some people would say that's more like your 15K race pace. Food for thought.
Hey Jenn, thanks for peeking in, your advice is always welcome. Since you mentioned it, I did find it hard to keep myself motivated through the run, to keep the pace up and even. You might be right about the pace, though I'd like to find something I can run periodically to test my fitness. Maybe a 5 K? In the FIRST book, they reccommend doing 2 X 1600 and then adding something like 15 sec/mile to get a reasonable estimate of a 5 km pace, which can then be used to set and adjust training paces. Does that sound sensible?
Don't be too hard on yourself! You just started again and the footing was horrible. Like Jennifer said it is hard to race by yourself.
5K are harder than 10K to give your all out... you should be wanting to puke at the end LOL
I have no clue about the 2 x 1600m +15s as representative of a 5K time. I guess there are no Resolution runs down in Halifax RR?
For periodic tests, you could do about a 3K time trial. That should be close to what you could do for a true 5K race. The 2 x 1600 m could be ok, but I've never done that one.
I didn't realize you were following FIRST.
When I plug in my 5K pace (23:50) to the FIRST program, I get paces that are too fast for what I can do in training without quickly burning out. 24 minutes is closer. I wouldn't use a Resolution Run as a test, because it's not even a certified distance.
Kev-
After seeing your easy-run-on-rough-roads pace today, I can assure you that your fitness is not represented by that 5:15/km 10K pace.
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