Corporate Cup: Run 3
Week 3 Corporate Cup was a good one for me! Having raced a 5km on Sunday, and run 20km on Monday, I took Tuesday as a recovery day to give myself a decent chance to improve on my time (I didn't improve in the second run being too fatigued from previous workouts).
| Week | Official Time | Avg Speed (km/h) | Avg Pace (m/km) |
| 1 | 21:09 | 12.67 | 4:42 |
| 2 | 21:24 | 12.62 | 4:45 |
| 3 | 20:19 | 13.30 | 4:31 |
I set my Garmin display to show my avg pace, and wanted to be sitting at or under 4:42min/km to beat my best time. I made a decision not to take too much notice of my pace for the first half of the run (where it's slightly uphill), but really focus on my pace in the second half. This worked well, and when I checked at the halfway point I was averaging 4:31min/km.
I stumbled onto a song on my iPod that seemed to have the exact beat I was running too (The Veronicas - 'Untouched' of all songs) so I played this on repeat as it seemed to be working for me (I don't think I ever want to listen to that song again). I dropped off the beat a couple of times and that was a reminder to pick up the pace.
When I crossed the finish line I had a lot of numbers rattling round in my head, so I saw 20:19 and I thought I had missed my Week 1 time again. It wasn't until I was halfway back to the office that it struck me that that was my new best time, and by a fairly significant amount (50 seconds!).
I feel as though my new speed training is starting to pay off, and I'm only 24 seconds away from my overall Corporate Cup goal (19:55) and with 8 weeks to achieve this.
It has also occurred to me that I have become mentally stronger. When my body is screaming at me during these shorter, high intensity sessions I am now able to rationalise this, knowing that it's all in my head and despite the pain, my body will work through it. Until recently, when I have found myself gasping for breath and my heart rate is skyrocketing, that's normally the time I succumb and slow down for a bit of relief - I guess I never realised what my body was capable of. Now I know I can push through this pain - I'm not going to collapse or explode, that's just what my brain is trying to tell me in order for me to take the easy option out. If I can clear my mind of these thoughts and keep working at this much higher intensity, I can achieve much better results.
