Continued with my training this month and just finished a 15k that was a loop course (3 times around a 5k course). I've done this race 3 times and the race course has always been a bit longer than 15k. The first time I ran it, it was 9.72 miles, second time 9.92 miles and then this time was much closer at 9.52 miles. They modified the course this year and it made a big difference. I saw a time improvement of over 6 minutes this time. Overall pace was about 15 seconds per mile faster. My garmin states my pace was 9:08 average. Which is a good sign that my speed training is working. The previous year (which I thought was super fast) I ran a 9:23 average pace. This takes in account the additional distance too.
My plan was to follow the 9:00 pacer but what happened was he was running a lot faster than 9:00 at the beginning which I think threw me off. My first three miles were all under 9 and then the other 6 miles were above 9. My worst mile was 9:25 and the others all between 9:14-9:18. That wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. I had hoped to stay around 9:00 the entire time. This is a learning experience.
Today I noticed I was able to sustain a faster pace and still stay in hr zone 2. There are a few things that could have affected this. One theory is that I am actually training my body to go faster. It also was really nice weather here today at about 45 degrees which is perfect for a run. The last few weeks it has been so cold in the mornings (15-20) that I think I've worked harder to sustain an even pace. But when I researched this, I found a few articles saying that it can affect your performance, but others saying it does...
http://www.runnersworld.com/cold-weather-running/do-cold-temps-slow-you-down
https://runnersconnect.net/running-training-articles/running-in-the-cold/
http://running.competitor.com/2015/01/training/sub-freezing-temperatures-affect-performance_121159
I think for me, it's more about the extra layers of clothes I have to wear which results in not being able to move as quickly. But then that led me to reading this article which claims that as long as it's above -17 degrees F that you could still run in the cold and be ok (if you wore the right clothing) .
http://running.competitor.com/2014/01/training/how-cold-is-too-cold-to-run_93795
Anyway, for whatever reason I see to be getting a little faster. I hope that I will be able to continue to increase speed when my next race comes up. I have a taper before my April races and then if I can't achieve my goal in April, will have to attempt to do so in May or later. I think I'm on track to get there soon. I've been loosely using the Disney Run plans for their half marathons and choosing "time improvement" plan. Most of these max out at 16-17 miles which is longer than the half marathon distance but is designed to help you build endurance. There also is speed work in these training plans which is what I have been using. The only thing I need to work on more is hill training. That's been pretty difficult to get in because I live in a pretty flat area. There are a few parks that have hills that I've been trying to go to at times. This has seemed to help a lot.
