It's been a tough and frustrating road but I am making real progress. I am not fast, I do not think I ever will be fast because I am starting pretty late in my life and previous to about 18 months ago I was almost entirely focused on lifting and bodybuiding and didn't really do any cardio for years.
Now I do almost exclusively cardio and I keep improving bit by bit. These days I am pushing towards having an average pace of less than 7 mins per kilometer on 5k runs or longer.
We are getting really close now and the best part is I don't really feel like I am pushing myself when I do run.
Now when I say that "I am not pushing myself" I don't mean that this is easy to me and it takes no effort. That is not true. It is difficult for me but I often feel as though the real pain for me is psychological. I, and most people, are capable of much more than we actually ever accomplish in terms of cardio is concerned, but we have a tough time with the mental block. This is why on days where I know I am going to run "at least" a 5k, that the last 400 meters or so seem as though they are a half marathon. Having an end-goal and being so close to it is kind of a funny phenomenon. I was exerting no more effort towards the end than I was at the start, but in my mind it is a lot more difficult even though that is not the case at all.
Because it was rather late and I sometimes struggle to see small things in the dark, I wasn't really paying close attention to my heart rate but rather just "feeling it out" as I went along. I was pretty happy to see later, when I was checking out my stats, that I managed to stay out of anaerobic zone 4 more often than I was in it and I likely have taught myself how to auto-adjust when I am working a bit too hard.
The good tunes certainly help as well and I have a pretty good and motivating playlist at the moment.
You can see here that I am getting really close to my goal of less than 7 minutes per kilometer and I actually got faster towards the end. I am not consciously doing this though, and I like that. I am not pushing myself or constantly checking my pace because I don't believe my watch is advanced enough to really know how fast I am moving anyway. This is just something that I think most runners just have to teach themselves to be able to feel. I guess I am getting there.
I think with a bit more of a push I can break that 7 min threshold, but I don't want to be forcing it, I want it to come naturally and not feel as though I am dying in the process.
There was a bit of an issue towards the end of this where a bunch of people were walking on the running track and sometimes I feel like I am going to lose my cool towards these people one day. I'm glad I didn't though, because I would likely regret that attitude later.
The first km doesn't really count either because a fair bit of that was spent waiting for the light to turn green and I probably lost at least 15-20 seconds on that alone.
I think I can beat this before the end of May. I could beat it today but like I said, I don't want to force it, I want it to come naturally.
When you consider that a year or so ago I was in the mid to high 8 minutes per kilometer and not even capable of a 5km uninterrupted, I am happy with this progression.
In the near future though, I am going to have to address my footwear situation, because I can feel a couple of my toes being a bit cramped in the front of my right shoe. I have put over 1000 km on these shoes, so it is time to get new ones anyway.