Still no breakthrough

I ran a pretty good clip Saturday evening. Got out of the flat, went down Bayshore, through the underpass and onto the ECP in the direction of Changi. I wanted to go slow-ish; that’s the endurance building pace until April when the Orange Run comes along.

Somewhere 2k into the run, I saw this chap with water-bottles strapped onto the belt. These are the tri-athlon type so no messing around with this chappie. Form was good, pace was quick-ish and I decided to shadow him as a pacer. Nothing untoward or competitive, I’m just running slightly behind him to keep up. He must have seen my shadow because he picked up speed slight and when I drew even, we started chatting a little. Seems he was doing a 15k and I was silently surprised at the pace. We’re going at a pretty good clip for a 10k and I doubt I could maintain that for a 15k. In fact, I don’t even think I’ve gone 15k ever!

Anyway, after 2 sentences, I thought he looked familiar. Bloody Andy O, the investment banker actually recognised me from the moment I pulled alongside but he did not say thing, leaving me to wonder. Anyway, Andy was doing 15k and we ran together (I did 10k). Seems Andy’s pretty serious about his running. We chatted about gear, HRM, pace, races and everything else that came to mind all through the run and as a result, I did not feel the distance. At the end, I peeled off back home to the flat whilst he carried on the last remaining 5k. A shade under 60min for 10k and I felt pretty good, on a training run.

This last run really got me thinking as I was travelling in this morning. God-willing, 10k runs now seem manageable but I can’t seem to go any further. I’ve done a 12k but I’m really in danger of not making the half if I somehow am unable to make a breakthrough. I’ll be trying a 14k this evening, assuming housing chores will allow, and I do not feel too guilty leaving Nisa to go running. And more non-running stuff later because family–wise, it was a very very nice weekend.