Earlier this week I promised myself a ten kilometer run. Last night I made it. I’ve mentioned my on-form colleague and I was sure I could beat his time of 56:37. My previous best was 1:09:37, so I had a double challenge – beat one hour and beat Adam. Just to be on the safe side I gave myself another challenge – beat Monday’s 5K time. No problem then….

While strategy for a 5K can be quite complex, my research for 10K seemed quite straightforward – if you have a bias towards endurance, go out fast for 5K and hold on for the rest. If, on the other hand, your bias is speed, go easy for the first half then lay on the speed in the last 5K.

I knew I could go the distance and I knew I could manage the speed over 5K so all I’d need to do would be to hold the pace under 6:00 for the second 5K. And that’s just what I did: I ran a faster first 5K than Monday: 26:40 – one second shy of a minute faster! Bouoyed by this I allowed myself an easy 1Km – looking back at the splits I was still under 6:00 for that kilometer – then I threw what I had left into the final 4km getting it down to around 5:38 for a final time of 56:09…almost half a minute faster than Adam.

So not a bad week. In two runs I got three PBs (5K twice & 10K), I beat Adam’s time and I ran 10K in less than an hour, 13 minutes faster than last time. All without jelly babies.

A couple of things to note here. I’ve been running exclusively in barefoot shoes barefoot, i.e. sockless. I’m very comfortable with them and I’m comfortable with the idea of running a half in them. The occasions I’ve tried my ‘normal’ shoes have always resulted in pain. The other thing was that I thought jogger’s nipple was a 1980s fad that had all but vanished. This morning as soon as the shower water hit me I realised that wasn’t the case. I suppose this might be related to the soaking I got in the rain, but in future I’ll be taking precautions. Not sure what yet, but probably the hair shirt approach of elastoplast crosses. Maybe I’ll have to shave my chest. Watch this space….