As part of my 14 mile training day, I decided it would be interesting to do a 10k race, then run the loop again to finish up my miles. It was less fun than you think. (I know it sounds like it would suck, but, as I said, it was worse. Don't do it. Remember me as an example.)
For the race, I clocked a 44:2X (official results still unavailable). I was hoping for better, but got hit by a stitch on the second lap. I'm also not sure how official the distance was, since it was on a dirt road, and the start/finish was the same line. What's the likelihood that a random loop in a provincial park is exactly 5 km? Slim, but we'll take it as close enough.
My time translates to a Daniels VDOT of 46. That's not horrible, but I really need it higher. I've been working hard on base work, and it's obviously paid off (considering that I raced at a speed that I haven't run at since the duathlon), but given my strengths (endurance, not speed), I'm thinking that I should add a few weeks of speedwork to my marathon build-up. Just a five week block, finishing over a month before the race, to season the legs a bit. Not 400s or 800s, probably some 1k to 1 mile efforts, sprinkled into my Tuesday runs. I know my initial plan was LSD FTW, but this overspeed work should add the strength I need to increase the pace of my aerobic efforts. If I were coming from a high-intensity port background, I'd have the speed, and need to increase my endurance. Instead, I have the endurance, I need to add more speed. As they say, raise the left, fill the right. Right now, my right is outpacing the left by too much, so I need to catch it up. If the idea is being able to cruise a 1:45/3:35 weekend, I need to get the speed so that the effort isn't that demanding. Looks like there's more work to do.
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