10K TODAY!!

So I mostly wrote this up on Friday afternoon, but I'm scheduling it to post during my 10K race today as a way to remind myself HOW to race this race. (And here's my race course preview if you missed it earlier this week.)

In past years at "important" races, I've told myself to go out hard and try to "hold on."

I'm NOT planning on doing that today.

In the past (for example), I've said things like this - this appeared in my 2011 Oakdale Duathlon race report: "Race plan for tomorrow's duathlon relay: Go TOO HARD in the 1st run (really), and hold on for as much speed as possible in the 2nd." Granted, that's a 2-part duathlon run, but the idea held true to other races as well: I would try to go out hard and then maintain the pace in order to post the best possible time.

But lately, my training has been different. I'm more "endurance based" now, and not as "speed based" as I was in years past. I'm doing more long runs now (with my son), so when I run even a BIT faster, it REALLY hurts. I have to walk that "about to die" line very carefully right now.

Speed vs Endurance PROOF:

In April of 2011, I ran a total of 60 miles, and I had long runs of 6.5 miles.

This April (2012), I've ran a total of 97 miles, and I've had 3 long runs of 13+ miles. And I'll probably still log another 10-16 miles this month for possibly my highest-mileage month ever!

SO MY POINT IS THIS: If I go out too hard, I haven't done the speed-work to survive. But if I start "strong" (not TOO strong), I can build on that with my endurance training and still have a solid race. I think. I don't know that I'll negative split the race because I'll actually have a hard time slowing myself down TOO much at the start, but I MIGHT be able to more EVENLY split the race.

Just for 1 last example, we can look at the Securian Run Half Marathon vs the Human Race 8K. At the half marathon, I started easy-ish, and then built to a major negative split (44:31 / 40:51). I felt decent at the finish and happy with my time. At the 8K, I went out hard running 5:44 and 5:46 for the first 2 miles, and then I died in the next 2 miles with a 6:05 and 6:02. (Granted, that was a warm day, and I think that had something to do with it too.) Regardless, I'll stick to the "start off easy-ish" plan for this race, and then see what I can do!

And I HAVE to remember to not give in until the finish line! Remember this photo of me coming to the finish from my Human Race 8K report?

I didn't know this at the time, but that man's name is Scott, and he's doing the MDRA Grand Prix series too! So because I couldn't quite catch him, he earned an extra 13 points in the series!

Oh, and final thing.... I'll be breaking in the new "Pinky and the Brain" shorts today....

... so check back tomorrow for maybe a quick photo, and stop back Monday for the full race report!

Happy weekend!