I agreed to do the Ribble Valley 10k relatively last minute with my friend Simon because he promised it was a flatish PB course and that I’d be able to run it at full throttle.
I’d put in a fair few miles from the start of October, through to the White Rose Ultra and then carried on after because I’d set some ambitious targets for 5 and 10km times at the start of the year but in all the plodding miles for ultras I’d not really run flat out other than a few times at Parkrun so wanted to see what where I was speed wise right at the end of my second year as a runner.
The last 10k I’d raced was actually more than a year ago at Barnsley (42:12) and I knew I was significantly faster than that a year on having also just raced the Travellers 6, a hilly 6 miler in Denby Dale in 39:47 so I figured on a flatter course being dragged around by a seriously competitive field at Ribble Valley I might break 39 minutes for 10k and be happy.
The plan
I’ve been trying to race smarter and pace myself better recently and running a more even pace instead of the traditional Parkrun Forrest Gump style mad dash off the start line I’ve been planning the pace I want to run and trying to stick to it even when it feels easy at the start, I know it’s going to get harder towards the end.
With that in mind, I knew I’d run at just over 6:30/mile pace for Travellers 6 on a tough course so figured I could probably do 6:10-6:20/mile on a friendlier course if I didn’t get carried away in the first 2 miles! That would put me in and around 39 minutes.
The race
Ribble Valley 10k is an extremely competitve race. The CR is 29:10 and it was won in 29:12 this year. I find it useful in races where there are a lot of people in front because it pulls me along at a better pace.
In the end, I went at close to 6:00/mile pace and apart from slowing slightly in mile 2 to catch my breath a little I managed to maintain a sub 6:10/mile pace reasonably comfortably through the first 5 miles then hung on for d
Running even splits in the last 3 races has led to big improvements in the overall time for me and while it takes all my wil
Congrats to Simon as well for smashing his PB with a 43:28 as well.
The course was a little undulating but forgiving enough for a PB that’s for sure. The organisation was excellent, and I’m delighted I ran the race I’d planned and knew I had in my legs and it’s given me plenty of food for thought regarding targets for 2014 in 5 and 10k because I know there’s more in the tank if I dedicate some time to specific speed work.
I know for sure I can run a 17:xx 5k if I have a good day. I narrowly missed out on one at Parkrun the following week (18:07) so that’s next followed by Dewsbury 10k in Feb where I’ll be looking to get closer to the 36 minute mark. Fingers crossed.
The Strava report