6.2 miles. I’m not exactly sure what makes it my sweet spot but it is. I’ve clocked some decent times relative to my other distances. Speed is relative but for some reason, a 10K doesn’t psych me out nearly as much as a 5K, 13.1, or 26.2. For some reason, I feel most at ease with this particular distance. It’s just long enough where I know I could crawl it if I had to…and it’s short enough that I can go all out without fear of turning into jello at the end.
The 5K is a rude awakening for my body. I don’t even realize what’s going on until it’s over. A 13.1 is a great distance too — I generally finish with a smile on my face. A 26.2 smile? I’m still working on that but I’m hoping RnRAZ will fix that.
In usual fashion, the night before a race I like to go over some of my previous races and runs to get an overall gauge of how well I’ve done and how well I’m capable of doing. It looks like, at one time, I was fairly capable of running a 60-minute 10K. Here were some of my wins from 2011:
My only fair conclusion is that I’m really slacking on my usual short runs if I’m capable of shaving off 2-3 minutes/mile from my pace. It might be time to join the local running meetup group once a week or so to get some speed work in if I don’t have the discipline to do it solo. There’s a 5:30am Monday morning track workout. Can I even get out of bed that early? Will by body even cooperate?
Regardless, I’m prepped and ready to go for tomorrow!
Here’s to a good start (AND my first personalized bib!). I spent the evening watching the women’s Olympic triathlon…the finish was definitely awesome. So tomorrow, when I *think* I’m spent after 5 miles, I’ll just remember this and all of my other 26.2 finishes and remember what that felt like.
Amara in Training 