Today I ran my 11th marathon distance race and my 5th so far this year. It was a good day! Having learned a valuable lesson in the Dublin half I decided to have a strict plan and to stick to it adherently.
The plan
Run very conservatively, bearing in mind I had the Dublin marathon 2 weeks later. Finish strong, this is something I'd never done before in a marathon. And run a negative split, which means run the second half faster than the first half.
How did it go?
Very well, I managed to achieve all three aspects of the plan!
How did I do it?
I set my Garmin to only display pace per kilometre. The race was a four lap route and I had ran the same course 5 months earlier. I knew I could run a very comfortable sub 3:30 marathon so I set to posting slightly below 5mins per kilometre as a ran.
I ran a very steady first 3 laps and really felt good beginning the fourth and final lap. I had identified areas where I could inject a little bit of extra pace and began posting quicker and quicker kilometres as the race grew longer.
The last 5 kilometres were the fastest consecutive 5k I ran in the race and as I finished I knew I had ran sub 3:30. I sat and drank some water before checking my official time. I had ran 3hrs23mins without entering into the red zone or feeling any real pain. I was more than surprised with the result and was happy that, I had finally ran a full marathon without walking one single step, I had finished strong and I had ran a negative split.
Now I need to rest and get ready to do it all again in 2 weeks on the streets of Dublin!
Run far, run fast but most of all RunSensible!
Neil
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