Revelation

Over the past month and a half while tracking my training runs more than I've ever tracked them before, I've started to realize something:

My speed and pace need some work!

Since I'm not a natural runner, my focus has always been to finish the race and never give up! In running my first half marathon, I had serious knee issues and it never crossed my mind that I would be able to run every step of the race. Then, in running my first full marathon, it also never crossed my mind that I would even try to run the entire thing. I honestly don't know how people do it! To this day, the longest I have ever run without resting or walking is 8 miles. For me, that is amazing! I don't know if I could ever run a half marathon without stopping to rest or walk. I don't think that is going to be one of my goals...just yet anyway. But I can work on my speed and pace!

In my mind, a good 5K run for me is at a pace around a 10:30 min/mile. This has been my thinking ever since I started running a few years ago. In my first year running, I didn't have a Garmin and I didn't use any online tracking. In my 2nd year running, I had a Garmin for part of the year, but mainly I used it to track my mileage and time. I didn't really worry about pace or the progress I was making throughout training.

As I have gotten farther into my training the past couple months, I have been looking more at my progress and where I've been over time. I use my Garmin for not only mileage and time, but also pace and split times (still wanting to use it for HR monitoring, but haven't taken that step yet). I started using dailymile which has helped me stay connected to other runners, and it keeps me motivated to see each workout/run that I post. I've also looked back on the past couple years and the races I've participated in. I made a spreadsheet with all those races listed, and will add races as I complete them going forward. I had to search online for most of the race results, and I was amazed at how many of them I was actually able to find! Having this list I am able to see my race stats over time. And let me tell you, those race times weren't impressive by any means! What was impressive is that I ran those races and finished, which to me was a definite accomplishment.

As I've gotten a little higher in my mileage, I have noticed that my pace is getting better without me actively trying. That was shown in my New Year's Day run by going 5.3 miles at what I would have previously considered a good 3 mile pace for me! My revelation is that I need to change my thinking on what a "good pace for me" should be. Since I ran 5.3 miles faster than a "good" 3 mile pace, then what could I actually run 3 miles in? I don't know yet. I do know that one thing I'd like to focus on a little more in 2011 is my speed and pace. I need to do some research on how best to do that, but I'm committed to trying. For me, finishing a race is still the most important thing, it's just not the only thing!