Last Sunday I ran the Waitakere Half Marathon. It was the second time I have run this particular event. And I set a personal best over the half marathon distance. This time I clocked 1 hour 47 minutes and 8 seconds, slashing over 7 minutes from my previous best of 1 hour 54 minutes and 52 seconds, which was also run on the very same course (and my very first half marathon time).
I've run a few half marathons in between, but could never beat my 1:54:52 time. The worst time I ever recorded in the half marathon was 2:02:08. But this time, it felt great to set a personal best for that distance and run faster overall.
I guess my personal best could be attributed to a number of things. I have done more running recently, in particular more tempo running at lactate threshold pace. If there is only one workout I can do in training for a running event (5 km, 10 km, half marathon, marathon, ultra marathon), out of all the types of running (VO2 max speed runs, tempo runs, cruise intervals, long slow distance, recovery runs) this would be it. And having run the half marathon course in training many times, I have become so familiar with the course that I know what splits I should be running at different stages of the course. I also took a week off work to do the reconditioning programme, though it's hard to say whether the reconditioning programme had any profound effect on my performance. The acid test that reconditioning was a success will be whether I meet my marathon time goal of 4 hours and under.
Back to the half marathon, I did the first 10 km in 52 minutes, and then did a negative split by running the remaining distance in 55 minutes. Basically, 5 minutes 12 seconds per km for the first 10 km, and approximately 5 minutes per km for the remainder of the run.
Hopefully, this will be a positive indication that I can meet my marathon time goal of 4 hours and under. I set that same goal last year, but failed by running 4:17:04. This time I hope to run 4:00:00 and under!
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