Another 10K Down

I originally planned to do an 8K run today, but as the 10K run went well yesterday and the weather was quite good I figured that I'd do another 10K today. As with yesterday, my target was a 4:45 pace, but this time I made sure to memorize waypoints at every kilometer. I intended to focus more on correct pacing this time around, hopefully exerting a little more control.

As such, I headed out at 4:00pm and did what I could to moderate my pace as best as I could. I ended up hitting the 1K mark at 4:52, however I had to slow down a bit at one point to safely cross a street so my cruising speed was likely about right. The second kilometer was a little fast (4:35/K), hitting it at 9:27 so I pulled back a little, hitting 3K at 14:15 (a 4:48/K pace). At this point, the errors pretty much canceled themselves out so my overall pace was right on the mark.

I managed to pull off the fourth and fifth kilometers exactly on pace despite the fact that they were on downhill (4K) and uphill (5K) grades. As with yesterday, however, the uphill grade on the fifth kilometer threw me off again and I hit the 6K mark at 28:00 - about 30 seconds ahead of schedule (a 4:15 pace). Despite trying to pull back, I maintained the same average pace in the seventh kilometer hitting the mark at 32:15.

After two fast kilometers, I redoubled my efforts to control my pace and managed to get back on track for the eighth and ninth kilometers (hitting them at 37:00 and 41:45 respectively). As usual, however, my enthusiasm got the best of me in the final kilometer and I hit the 10K mark at 46:07 (4:22/K).

Overall, the average pace for the run was 4:36 which was about the same as yesterday's run. With that said, a larger percentage of the run was done at the correct pace so things are getting a bit better. The main thing that I definitely need to focus on is controlling my pace after ascending uphill grades. I tend to get used to the increased effort during the climb, which throws off my feeling for pace once I crest the hill. Either way, I just have to focus a little more at that point and hopefully I'll be able to get that facet of pacing under control this Saturday.