Weekly Sweats: Another Virtual 10k and Another PR

This weeks adventures: 20.5 miles of running, I got all of my weight workouts in, and NBD but I got myself a sweet little PR.

I'm linking up with the Weekly Run Down, please head over to Kim and Deborah to check it out.

Monday: weights and then an easy 4.25 miles. 

Tuesday: mile repeat day!  1.25 miles warmup, then 2 x 1 mile & 400 recover, 1.25 miles cooldown for a total of 5 miles.  The miles ended up being fast, my goal is 10:30 and I hit 10:20 & 10:06 but hey it happens.  Based on this and my 10k results this weekend, I am definitely going to increase the distance to 1.25 miles next week rather than try to add another rep.

Wednesday: a long overdue rest day.  I skipped my usual rest day on Sunday last week and while running 6 days in a row didn't kill me, I was most definitely feeling it.

Thursday: more speed.  1.5 miles warmup, 4 x 400 & 400 recover, 1.5 miles cooldown for a total of 5 miles.

Friday: weights and no running to rest up for race day.

Saturday: race day!  By my count it's my 9th 10k.  Let's take a detour and review my history with this distance:

May 2012: my first 10k was my first race.  At the time 6 miles was a very comfortable distance, so much so that all of my runs were 6 miles long.  I was excited to see what this racing thing was all about, I'd heard that once you got on a race course that adrenaline would take over so I was expecting to be magically crazy fast.  Uh not so much, I ran at exactly the same pace as my everyday running and my finish time of 75 minutes and change put me at 2nd to last.  Overall I felt that the whole experience was a colossal waste of $40. In hindsight it was a very difficult course but still....

June 2017: 10k #2.  By the time I got to the start line, I'd had several good 5ks and many other distances in the 4-6.5 mile range.  The race wasn't bad, it was just that my finish time was 75 minutes and change netted me a 3rd to last place finish...I mean after five years ya kinda expect a better result.  Or at least a different one.

June 2018: the same race one year later...finish time 68 minutes and change!  A solid middle of the pack result.  Ok, the 10k might just be my race after all, and I knew that it was totally reasonable to expect a 7 minute time improvement with each subsequent race.

October 2018: 10k #4, finish time 68 minutes and change.

April 2019: 10k #5, finish time 68 minutes and change...seems like there's a pattern here.

June 2019:  3rd time running the same race...finish time 74 minutes.  Whoa, this was not the direction the story was supposed to go.  2019 was all about learning that bad races happen and this was one of many lessons.

December 2019: Recovering my race equilibrium with a finish of 70 minutes and change.

April 2020: first virtual 10k. My goal was a 10:30 pace which I was on track for the first half and not so much for the 2nd half.  I mean, racing isn't supposed to be comfortable, and the 2nd half of this race definitely wasn't;-)  I never said what my time was for this race because I named the race and wasn't sure how public the results would be, but it was a PR.  Not a huge PR but a PR none the less.

Ok, whew, that gets us caught up to present day.  As far as I'm concerned, the only requirement for a virtual race is to say that it's a virtual race, but there was a "real" race behind the effort and there will be a real race t-shirt when packets get mailed out.  My company sponsors a 5k/10k every year in June and the race went virtual this year.  It's my 4th time running, the entry is free thanks to my company's sponsorship but I also donate to the cause.

Specific goals for this race:

• Do not die in 2nd half of race like last time
• But yes, push it and see how close I can get to 10:30 pace
• Also, be OK with it if it isn't a PR.  I really haven't done any race specific training in the two months since my last 10k.

Race conditions: a park with a flat walking trail and yes I cherry picked a day with good weather.  I used the same workout to pace myself as the previous race.  I set my distance at 6.25 since race courses are often a bit long and as a safeguard because sometimes the various running apps that I use drop off the last few data points.  I moseyed on up to my Official Virtual Race Starting Line, which is a park bench, and pressed the start button on my Garmin.

Once the race kicked off, my mantra for the first three miles was "don't go fast...don't go fast" AND it worked.  I didn't die after 3 miles like I did in the previous race...I died at 5.7 miles in;-)  I kept the gas on through the end of mile 6 and after that I was done and just put one foot in front of the other.  In a real race there is a finish line and in a virtual race there is that sweet beep-beep from the Garmin to tell you that the race is done.

Takeways
I am as pleased a punch with this race.  I felt totally in control from the start to 5.7 miles, which is a long time to feel in control for an amateur runner.  After so long of being stagnant in the 10k, it's very gratifying to have scored two PR's this year.  Just...everything is good, you know?  For the next race my goal will be to work on getting more of a negative split and a faster finish but really there is nothing that I would have done differently this time.

What's Next
Business as usual, and I'm keeping an eye out for another good weather day to get a virtual 5k in for June.