Duracell bunny, not

My initial plan for the 10km bridge run* was to run nonstop at 7km/h or faster, so I could complete the distance within the time limit. The time limit is 1 hour and 30 minutes.

* too pai seh to call it marathon

That was the plan so I structured my training around it. First I would build up my endurance at a speed that doesn't kill me, and when I could run nonstop for 1 hour and 15 minutes (or longer) at that speed, I would increase my speed a notch.

1 hour and 15 minutes because I have a stretch goal of running at 8km/h. =) Failing that I will have to rely on my sheer willpower to go 11 minutes more at 7km/h. =P

All was going according to training plan for about two months, I can do 6.3km/h in this fashion now. Still turtle speed I know, but it's at least better than the snail speed I started with. =P

My training plan follows a 0.25km/h increment and usually I managed in a week for each increment.

But I hit a wall at 6.5km/h. For three weeks now I couldn't even get to 1 hour running nonstop at that speed.

Bummer. >_<

I read in a novel (World without End by Ken Follett) that "the fastest way to cover a long distance was to run twenty paces then walk twenty paces". I know 10km is not really a very long distance, given a full marathon is 42km.

But hey, I gotta adapt instead of keep banging my head on the wall.

So instead of my 'Duracell bunny' strategy that goes on and on and on and on... (like a pro) I am switching to the sprint-walk-sprint-walk strategy.

Okay sprint is really exaggerating for my case, I meant run faster than my current turtle speed then brisk walk to recover, then run again, repeat.

I tried that today. Managed 4.49km in 28 minutes, with one brisk walk between two runs. Average speed of 9.6km/h is definitely a lot faster than my turtle speed of 6.3km/h.

Let's see if I can complete 10km in this style. I still have four months.

In this series: |May 2013| |June 2013|