Tried doing some speed training tonight. After consulting some websites I learned that I should basically try a bunch of 400m sprints. For pacing, I found, I should take my 10k per-kilometre time and subtract 45 to 60 seconds depending on how lucky I felt. So I fed my 5-mile time into
the McMillan Running Calculator, read off my 10k pace, then did a little fiddling with
Map My Run to find some running distances, and then I went out running with no further thoughts.
Stop trying to point out my mistake just yet, I'll get to it.
I ran the first 400m pretty hard, and failed to get the time, mainly because I still hadn't figured out my per-400m time, and also because I was reading off my regular watch - analogue - instead of my stopwatch, which had a misadventure with the washing machine after the recent 5-miler. The second run clocked in at somewhere over a minute and a half, and by this point I was working on mental arithmetic to figure out what my pace should be, and not doing very well. See, not only do I have difficulty reading analogue watches at a glance, I also can't do math in my head particularly easily - I have to think about it rather hard, and lose my place if I don't concentrate. And I'm trying to do this while running, so it's not exactly working. Long story short, when I eventually figured out what times I
should have been running, I'd clocked in a few around 1:15 and finished up with a 1:10, which, multiplying back the other way, made for a pretty hot 1k except I'd never keep that pace up for a full kilometre.
And here is the mistake you were trying to point out to me: the calculator link above, if you enter your time into it (try 32:59 for 5 miles to get my times)
gives you the 400m speed training time. Gah. Well, at least I know I can put in a fast 400m if the situation demands it.