Today was a fitness test to get an idea of where I am with my training, so I can hopefully make a better decision for what pace to go out at for the Royal Parks Half next month. Given my recent training I knew a PB was probably on, perhaps 44:00 or 43:30 on a good day.
Conditions were perfect – about 15º and totally still. Not having a specific goal in mind I set out aiming to run purely on effort level. After fast start, aided by a downhill start straight I settled in to slightly sub-4:20/km pace, and felt very comfortable. The kilometres ticked away and felt good, and I picked up the pace a bit in the last kilometre to pick off a few guys I was with in the last lap or two.
Very pleased with 42:54, didn’t expect to take over two minutes off my PB! It now raises the prospect of a big HM PB – race calculators predict a 1:35 HM based on my 10K time. We shall see…
| KM | Time | Pace | HR | Elev |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4:10 | 6:42 min/mi | 181 | -15 ft |
| 2 | 4:22 | 7:01 min/mi | 191 | 29 ft |
| 3 | 4:19 | 6:56 min/mi | 190 | -2 ft |
| 4 | 4:11 | 6:43 min/mi | 189 | -25 ft |
| 5 | 4:26 | 7:07 min/mi | 189 | 25 ft |
| 6 | 4:22 | 7:02 min/mi | 188 | -4 ft |
| 7 | 4:07 | 6:36 min/mi | 188 | -15 ft |
| 8 | 4:24 | 7:05 min/mi | 190 | 11 ft |
| 9 | 4:28 | 7:11 min/mi | 189 | 20 ft |
| 10 | 4:02 | 6:30 min/mi | 190 | -21 ft |
| 11 | :04 | 5:15 min/mi | 198 | -1 ft |