Class 17 (no 18)

You've come a long way this term. Your distance has doubled, without a corresponding slowdown in pace or increase in effort. This tells me how much fitter you are now than when we first met.

Happy and safe Thanksgiving. Tuesday you'll meet in front of the Rec Center for your 5K or 10K test. Today I emailed the class quiz, to complete by the final day of class.

TODAY'S 4 MILES

(with per-mile pace and comparison to term's first long run; target was to approach or better that pace for twice the distance)

Erica -- 32:39 (8:10 pace, -50 sec. per mile) term's 3rd most improved

Teja -- 26:26 (6:36s, -48 sec.)

Juan -- 38:07 (9:32s, -1:02) term's 2nd most improved

TODAY'S 8 MILES

(same info as above)

Sara -- 1:15:30 (9:26s, +36 sec.)

Joe -- 1:06:18 (8:17s, -3 sec.)

Anna -- 59:00 (7:22s, -12 sec.)

Owen -- 57:21 (7:10s, -1:40) term's most improved

LESSON 17: EQUAL TIMES

You can predict fairly accurately what you’ll run for a certain distance without having run it recently. You can base the prediction on races at different distances. Pace obviously slows as racing distance grows, and speeds up as it shrinks. But how much of a slowdown or speedup is normal? A good rule of thumb is a five-percent slowdown as the distance doubles, or that much faster pace as the distance drops by half. Multiply or divide by 2.1 to predict your time for double or half the distance. For instance, a 22:00 5K equates to about 46:00 for 10K.

LESSON 18: RACE PACE

Even if you’ve done everything right in training, you can cancel all that good with as little as one wrong move on raceday. The first and worst bad move is leaving the starting line too quickly. Crowd hysteria and your own raging nervous system conspire to send you into the race as if fired from a cannon. Try to work against the forces of the crowd and your natural desires. Keep your head while runners around you are losing theirs. Pull back the mental reins at a time when the voices inside are shouting, “Faster!” Be cautious in your early pacing, erring on the side of too-slow rather than too-fast. Hold something in reserve for the late kilometers. This is where you reward yourself for your early caution, by passing instead of being passed.