Long Strides

This morning was the first time I did a "Long Strides" workout. The training plan has short strides at 50m and at "near max speed" while long strides are 150m and "at 5K goal pace".

Actually, many of the runs during the next few weeks are supposed to be run at 5K goal race pace - I have not done much training at a pace that will simulate the race, so this is still very new to me. This weekend's run is a 2 mile time trial at race pace. Next week I have an interval run (2 x 1600m), another long strides workout and another 2 mile time trial - all at race pace. So by race day (two weeks from Saturday) I should be able to feel my race pace pretty well.

The tough thing, though, is being able to judge race pace for the short distance of 150m. Today was a 4 x 150m with 250m recovery. My four 150m splits were 37s, 41s, 40s, 41s - which equates to the following pace/mile: 6:37, 7:20, 7:10 and 7:20. This is too fast for me for 5K race pace...I'm shooting for running the 5K at an 8:00/mile pace, so next week I'll have to slow down during my strides.