Since the big success of the Amsterdam half marathon (1:13:45 - 3:30 per km for 21.1km's) I have really worked hard on my speed in the last 2 months culminating with a 5km race. Today's race was a rather frustrating realisation of my lack of speed endurance, as I ran the same time for the race as I did in September. I had been training very hard so as to be capable of running at 16:15 pace which is 3:15 per km. The problem being that I can maintain 3:30 per km quite comfortably over the long distances and in my current shape I can probably get this down to around 3:25 per km but rather foolishly I ran the fist 2km at 3:12 pace and subsequently started to slow over the last few km.
Its not a bad result but it does reinforced the need for good pace judgment in races. In the time frame that I have left before the London Marathon how much will this 5km speed improve? Will I ever be able to break 16:15? Have I reached my VO2 Max or will I beneift from this speed work later on down the line.
Who knows? The good thing is that running in the Marathon, VO2 Max is not the most important factor, endurance is and I seem to have that part under control. I wonder how much difference running in Kenya will make, drop a few pounds, running more distance?
One thing that it does confirm is that its clear that I don’t possess a natural talent for running. Based on my half marathon time I should be able to run around the 16 minute mark. Considering that I am in much better shape now then in October maybe even faster.
I will find out the answer to that on the 10th of February in the half marathon, a better predictor of my potential marathon time.
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So what time did you get then?
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