I just finished a 5.62km run that lasted about 0hh:26mm:45ss !
One of my goals for 2019 was to get some of my running speed back. I am not sure I will be able to get back to running personal bests over 5km and 10km races, but I would love to get a little close to some of those speeds. I ran a 19 minute 5km race on my 39th birthday which was just under two years ago, and that would be pretty sweet if I could get back to those speeds again. It's not a complete loss, even though I have had some injury issues, a lot of my slow down is partly due to training for longer races and with PB's in my half marathon, marathon and 50km races, so I am not complaining, I am just cutting my training back a little, so wanting to back to speed development, instead.
Thinking back to where I was with my training a couple of years ago(maybe about 5 years ago) I was training a little differently, and I am trying to replicate this to get my speed back a little. I realized my training was different in the following ways:
- I was not training as much as I do now
- I started my gym sessions with the rowing ergometer
- I was adding strength work to my weekly training
- I was doing hill repeats once a week
- I was doing double run sessions a few times a week
- I was doing a weekly 5km time trial
- I had a different mindset- I Believed I Was Fast!
All of these things came together to give me three things:
- I ran a 17.55 5km
- I ran a 38:40 10km
- I got injured
And pretty badly injured where I was suffering from sciatica for about 4 years afterwards. It's probably why I am a little apprehensive to get back to where I was, but wearily I am, and I am slowly bringing these aspects back into my training. I am not sure if I need to cut back on my bike riding a little though...Will see how it effects me. But I think the main issue I need to get to terms with is my mindset. I think I always believed I was fast but at the moment, I am not so sure and it's clear with my training. I don't push as hard as what I probably should during my runs, and I haven't had the confidence to do a 5km time trail yet. I have been wanting to get to my local Park Run, and instead I have been pretending I slept through my alarm or something like that.
So that's going to change right now. I am no longer defining myself as a slow runner. As a result my run today was a 4km time trial after a 1km warm up. My last kilometer saw me slow down a little but in the past my body did respond to this type of training pretty quickly, so I am optimistic I can get my speed back as long as I can change my mindset.
Check out some detailed info at my EXHAUST page
Join me in testing out EXHAUST!