A couple of months ago I discovered that there was a short race, 10km du Stade Toulousain, that was going to take place close to home. I decided to take part in it. Normally I have to travel or wake up early to arrive at the place where a race starts. This time I could stay longer in bed and I would go jogging from home. I could not skip this chance.
However, the date of the race was not the most suitable. It was just a week before Toulouse marathon. On top of it, I had run the 100km de Millau 3 weeks before, and in the following 4 weeks I was trying to train for the marathon and get an idea of how fit I was in order to see at what pace should I run it.
In races of 10km I normally try to run all out to see what is the best time I can achieve. In 2014 I collected some personal bests in the distance and several times under 45′. However, I knew I was slower from mid 2015, as the couple of 10k I run in June and July were in the range of 46 to 48 minutes.
Reading online in some forums I found people both in favor and against running a 10k all out just a week before a marathon. I found also an interesting idea: take it as a series training. The poster suggested to run it alternating 1 mile at marathon pace with 1 mile all out, 3 times. I found this idea interesting and decided to do something like that. I would run the 10k alternating kilometers running at all out and marathon pace (however, the latter ones I ran them faster than my best time in marathon… and faster than the intended pace for Toulouse marathon).
It was a good experience. I thought that it would take me more effort to go each time all out and also to not relax completely but to keep a good pace in between those all out kilometres.
I did the fast kilometres at in between 4’20” and 4’27”. The last half kilometre at below 4′ pace.
I did the slow kilometres at in between 4’50” and 5’00”. The previous to the last half kilometre at 4’33” pace.
[My best time in a 10k was at a pace of 4’24”]
[My best time in a marathon was at a pace of 5’04”]
Splits during the race.
Apart from the running experience, it was strange to overtake and be overtaken by the same runners once and again. I would pass them along the third kilometre, they would overtake me along the fourth, and so on… as the race advanced some of the runners I exchanged positions with during the race were not overtaking me anymore, until the last two kilometre, when I finished at a faster pace than the groups I had been running with.
Finally, we got a nice t-shirt with the logo the rugby club.
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- Departure.
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- At km 9.
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