Recovery Run Done Right?

The challenge for me, it would seem, is in keeping my runs within the prescribed pace ranges. I already failed on the very first run of this training cycle and ran too fast. As a result I am paying a bit for my mistake with more soreness than I'd really like given that I'm only JUST starting the 18 weeks of training.

Anyway, today was a good little test of my ability to go at the right rate of speed. The plan called for a six kilometre recovery run and that meant I had to stay between 5:27/km and 5:46/km. Well, here's how I did:

1. 6:06 (nice and slow to start, patting self on the back)
2. 5:46 (alright!)
3. 5:38 (keep on truckin')
4. 5:13 (oh oh)
5. 5:20 (a bit better, but still too fast)
6. 5:21 (slow the hell down already!)

My average pace for the 6km run ended up being 5:34/km, so that was good. But I don't know if I can call this a successful recovery run given that the last half was quite a bit faster than it should have been. What's the standard for deciding whether a recovery run was "done right"?

I guess I'm happy with the fact that the average pace was in the desired range, but a bit disappointed in going too fast on the back end despite my efforts to slow down.

Tomorrow brings the first Medium Long run and I'll be, once again, trying to succeed both on distance and pace. Stay tuned...