Difference between 10K and HM training?

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J2R Mar 2018 12:08pm, 7 Mar 2018 1,032 posts	0 J2R NN, I think I was pretty well in 1:19 form and was aiming for it at the start, but my legs felt dead (and I also had a suppressed migraine) so I was unable to sustain quite the required pace. As ever, when I get that close, I've kicked myself since with 'what-ifs'. At mile 11, I could feel it slipping away from me as my pace dropped slowly, and a bridge at mile 12 or so kind of finished me off. Had I known I was going to be as close as I was, though, I would easily have been able to make up the handful of seconds. I think the lesson I'm taking away from this is never to actually give up unless I know I'm a LONG way off the target (like a minute or more).
SPR Mar 2018 12:23pm, 7 Mar 2018 25,624 posts	0 SPR Good work J2R, congrats on the PB. Understand using the watch as a control early on but I think last 2-3 miles, you're better off mentally focusing on racing as fast as you can rather than looking at watch.
J2R Mar 2018 12:36pm, 7 Mar 2018 1,033 posts	0 J2R You're right, SPR, but it's also sometimes the case that when you're tired, you think you're running faster because you've upped your effort level, when in fact you've slowed down. Keeping an eye on average pace helps avoid that. What confounded me here, in fact, was that the course actually measured shorter than I expected it to, so I didn't need to run 6:04 pace, 6:06 would have been fine.
J2R Mar 2018 12:38pm, 7 Mar 2018 1,034 posts	0 J2R The good news was that I was clearly fit enough to run sub-80, had I tapered better. The bad news is that I've not got any fast, flat HMs lined up in the near future, to take advantage of this. I'm doing one next month but I reckon it's maybe 45-60s slower than Cambridge.
DocMoye Mar 2018 3:48pm, 7 Mar 2018 20,988 posts	0 DocMoye That’s great time J2R. It was great racing conditions. I’ve not got enough speed work in during the last few weeks so my time was ok but if I’m honest I’d like to shave a couple of minutes off it. I’ve three weeks between the Cambridge and Liverpool half’s So this week and next I’m trying to get some speed sessions in with recovery the following week in the run up to liverpool.
stuart little Mar 2018 5:51pm, 7 Mar 2018 1,469 posts	0 stuart little Good work J2R. You never know on rolling courses though - get the effort right, ignore the watch as see what comes
Ninky Nonk Mar 2018 6:08pm, 7 Mar 2018 2,708 posts	0 Ninky Nonk Anything you would change in hindsight with your training j2r?
J2R Mar 2018 6:50pm, 7 Mar 2018 1,037 posts	0 J2R @stuart, thanks. Yes, maybe - I'll certainly give it a go. @NN, not sure really. It's probably the first time I've ever felt properly prepared for a half marathon, two weeks out. It's what I did in the last two weeks which messed things up, unfortunately. Firstly, a week of hard skiing didn't really give my legs a chance to recover. And then last week we had a whole load of snow, which is a rare and delightful thing, and I did a fair bit of cross-country skiing and walking and running in the snow, wearing those crampon-style grips, and this took it out of my already ravaged legs. Not great for the HM - but I wasn't prepared to forgo the XC skiing, which I so rarely get a chance to do. It's just a shame the timing wasn't better. I have had the suspicion in the last couple of years that downhill skiing brings me benefits in terms of leg strength, but only after a week or two's recovery. So I'll be interested to see how I do in a 10K in 10 days time. So I probably wouldn't change anything much in hindsight with my training, but just do a little more of the same. Just don't screw up the taper :).