Pacing

When I was in the 5k and 10k running clinics, most of us didn't really use the website stuff. Apparently they had the training plans so at whatever goal you wanted to run the race at so you can figure out what pace you want to run at. I think it was halfway through the 10k clinic did we realize how to properly use it. Mostly we just ran. As long as you were ok to talk or not kill yourself you were good.

So I was doing my first real tempo run. For my training plan it said I wanted to do around a 6:30 pace so I decided to use an new to me function on my Garmin. So far I'd only used the interval lap thing so I could track each km better. On the page they showed a max pace limit and a minimum pace limit. That should have really been my first clue that I was doing something wrong but I decided that there was no way I'd go much faster then what I was supposed so I didn't put in a max pace. Just the minimum pace of 6:30 so that I at least couldn't go slower than that.

So off I go. My watch beeps and I pick it up somewhat and feel like I'm working but I figure part of it is because I was wearing my cotton yoga pants and just whatever I'm not really sure. Don't figure out that whenever my watch beeped because I was going "slow" I picked up the pace to much and didn't bother looking at my watch to make sure I didn't go to hard. Yeah my supposed to be 6:30 pace run was a 5:30 paced run. I was doing the speed that I'm supposed to do speed work at not tempo!

Lesson of the day - if your watch gives you two options for top speed and slow speed, use both. Don 't assume that you'll have an idea of how to properly pace yourself when you've never done it before.