Not that long ago I transitioned from doing 5km runs as fast as I can and instead started to focus on longer runs at a sustainable pace because I enjoy it more. It's less taxing on my body, less painful at the time that it is going on, and I actually have time to look around and enjoy the sights instead of just thinking about how much I hate working hard for this sort of thing.
I originally started doing easier and longer runs because a scientific article I read stated that the best way to improve almost all types of running is to follow the rule of 80/20 meaning that 80% of our training should be at a relatively relaxed pace over a longer period of time. I had my doubts, but as they say, the proof is in the pudding and yesterday I decided to go for part of my 20% and aimed for a faster than usual 5k run instead of 10-15k slower and relaxed pace run.
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while it isn't this cold, it is pretty damn cold where I am... I love that scenery though and would love to have a jog there
I set out with the intention of going as fast as I could without stopping and was mostly successful. I wanted to see if my 7 min 30 per km runs that I do for 10-15 km regularly would have any sort of impact on my faster but shorter runs and I think that while the difference is slight, that it is definitely real.
For me and I think almost anyone who regularly runs, going a full minute per kilometer faster is really really tough. It certainly was for me but here's the good thing. It wasn't as tough as it used to be before I started endurance training, and this wasn't just in the way that my body felt, it was in how my heart handled the situation as well.
While I wasn't constantly monitoring my stats in my head I could feel that I was moving much faster and with more aggression than I normally do. My heart rate was a bit higher than on my endurance runs where I average around 150-155, but I was never in the sort of gasping for breath sort of state that I would have been in a few months back where I was VO2 maxing for a lot of the time if I attempted a run of this speed.
I picked it up a lot after the first km because I was disappointed in myself since the point here was to get as close to 6 minutes per km as I could, not to be above 7. So you can see I mostly got faster as I got closer to the end and I wanted to finish strong, which I feel like I did.
This is still not an impressive time for anyone that does any sort of serious running but it still made me feel good about myself because this is a dramatic improvement from a year ago when I first started doing this sort of thing. I know that a lot of you out there are pulling down 6 minute or even 5 minute km's without much issue but this is one of the things I enjoy about running: I am not competing with you, I am competing with my biggest rival - myself and my own laziness.
Just like how I used to write about how losing weight and gaining muscle isn't actually all that difficult like a lot of people think it is, you just need a plan and you have to stick with it. I gathered a plan and I stuck with it.
I will say this though: I don't really enjoy running shorter runs at higher paces. The enjoyment factor gets taken out of all of it. When I do my longer runs at a slower pace I generally feel comfortable when I run whereas with this I kind of felt like I wanted it to be over as soon as possible. Therefore I don't think I am really going to aspire to make my 5km runs faster, I want to be able to stretch my slower jobs to a longer distance. In the end that sort of thing is better for your overall health anyway and I am too old to really be a competitor in any sort of speed anyway.
Regardless though, it was kind of nice to see that I was able to do this without it being too difficult. 2 years ago I never would have thought myself capable of this.