Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Speed decline, is it nature or nurture?

My story in two axis
Today's run (street): 3.25 miles

Conditions were near perfect when I went out for my morning run. The 7:00 AM sun was low enough to cast great shade along my route and the air felt cool and dry. The neighborhood was quiet, with just a few cars and a couple of walkers. I moved along well and thought about the fact that my running performance has suffered greatly this year.

A few years ago, I would average around 27 minutes for a three mile training run. Over time, my normal training pace has edged up almost a minute per mile. Back in 2010, I went out on every run with a pace goal in mind, and I was racing far more frequently than I have this year. That may explain some of the loss of speed.

I'm not willing to concede any performance drops to age at this point. Although I really want to run for the sake of running, I do find myself thinking about turnover and stride length while on the road. If I look at my pace on the Garmin during a run, I'm often surprised by how much effort it takes to break 9:00 minutes.

Every time I find myself on a run, struggling to stay under 10:00/mile, I vow that I'll go back to doing core exercises and speed work at the track. Somehow I forget that commitment once I get home. I think it's time to get serious about speed. I'm due to run with a friend this week who tends to push me past my comfort zone. Maybe that's exactly what I need right now.

2 comments:

  1. I hear ya. Speed is a big commitment for those of us not gifted naturally.

    By the way, these neat graphics you publish with each of your posts? Are they your own creations? Is this your profession? I'm pushing the invisible LIKE button.

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  2. Thanks for the Like, invisible or not : ) I do create the graphics, mostly to comply with copyright laws! Graphic design is not my profession, although I have some background in design. I like to use graphics and animation to explain complex technologies (to non-technical people) when I'm giving industry presentations.

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