Happy new year!

I just finished a 6.038km running that lasted about 0hh:33mm:28ss !

Starting the year with a run with intent. This turned out to be a fantastic run.

I was gonna go for a long slow run similar to the 10k route I ran last week. However time time was against me due to sleeping in. In the end I decided to go for a shorter run but at a notably quicker pace.

The weather was absolutely freezing yesterday, with ice and frost everywhere. Fortunately by lunchtime today the temperature had warmed up just enough defrost the ice, so it was no longer treacherous conditions. There was a hint of rain around, but nothing that would affect the run.

When I use the strava app to track/record my run, it stays in my pocket throughout the training session. It displays my pace (ie 5:45 per km) in real time, but as it stays in my pocket I don't have any idea on how fast I am actually going. I do wear a sports watch on my wrist so I can keep track of time but that is the only feedback I have while actually running. I have to wait until I finish to get the full results...

Even with just a watch, I noticed I had set off quicker than I had been in previous runs. As this was going to be a shorter run then I had originally planned, I elected to keep pushing harder than usual. The route was the usual 'out and back' route and at the halfway stage of 3km I estimated I was at least a minute faster than the last time I ran it. As I turned around and started heading for home I realised immediately the reason why: the direction of the wind. The first half I had a nice tail wind which evidently helped me go faster, and the headwind for the second half was noticeable.

At this point I had already committed to pushing hard, so I made a concerted effort to maintain the good pace I had shown on the first half.

I have already mentioned that I have no way of telling what my pace actually is, but it felt to me that I was working hard enough to match my speed on the first half. I eventually reached my front door and stopped with a time of 33 minutes, which I thought was at least 3 minutes faster than the last attempt. It was only when I uploaded the run to strava that I realised just how much faster I had been.

Note: for most of December I had an average pace of approximately 6:00 per km

I was definitely pushing hard, and on the last two km I was working faster than 'conversation pace'. This refers to being able to maintain a conversation while running, for example on the long slow runs, or on easy recovery runs. Not only was I working hard but I was also steadily increasing my pace. Every single km was quicker than the previous and I even managed to make a final dash for home. This was also good to see as it shows that after maintaining a good pace I was still able to finish strongly.

And as befits one of my fastest sessions recorded in the last 2 years, I promptly broke many of my own personal distance records in the process

In short this was a damn good run, and a fantastic way to get this New Year underway!

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