The Running Geek

Race This Sunday

Just got back from my final run, a 30 min Fartlek, before my 10K race on Sunday morning.

I’m trying hard not to over think this. My goal is to run sub 40 Min, I don’t actually know if I’m in shape to do it right now. I’ve been continually battling shin splints and a bit of achilles pain and am not 100% sure how hard I should try and run it.

The previous two 10K race I’ve run this year I did without any sort of tracking/GPS device so I had no idea what my pace was or how far I had gone and how much of the race was left. An advantage I will have with this race is I now have my Garmin Forerunner 305 so I can keep track of my pace as well as distance ran and distance remaining.

Race Plan

I’m not going to structure for an over optimistic finishing time so I’m going to take it sensible.

1st & 2nd KM – 4:05 – 4:10 or so
3rd & 4th KM – 4:00-4:05
5th & 6th KM – 4:00 or a bit under (This will give me a 20:30 5K Split)
7th & 8th KM – 3:55
9th KM – 3:50 – 3:55
10th KM -sub 3:50 (Will give me a 19:20-19:30 2nd 5K split)

Now this plan will bring me in around 39:50-40:00 minutes…

I could of course be talking out of my butt since I haven’t ran a 2K this fast yet what so ever.

I’m piecing this plan together because I want to have some structure to my race plan so I’m thinking about how quickly I am running and making logical decisions about speeding up a different points in the race.

I’m only new to this concept of a “negative split” but I think it’s my best bet to break 40 Min for the 10K right now. The previous races I ran I had quite a bit left in the tank at the end, but I was always a little scared to release it too soon and then burn out before the race finished.

While my Garmin isn’t 100% accurate, it will give me accurate distance and pace settings +/- a few seconds.

One way or the other I feel confident I will run a PB for the 10K this weekend, the question remains will I be reach my goal in this race of sub 40 Minutes.