We had our first 8km run just now. The weather was kinder than was with previous runs. The sun had gone down behind the treelines as it was about 1745hrs when we started running. As usual, we gathered at the Officers' Mess which was the starting point. I had set up my Polar RS200 Running Computer so that it would track my running pace. I had decided to track my pace as I had discovered that tracking my heart rate was not really useful because in all my runs so far, my heart rate had exceeded 95% most of the time! I had set the pace to range from 5min 30s/km to 5min 45s/km which would give me between 42mins to 44mins for an 8km run. The route for the first round was the same as the 5km route except that we ran only 1 round around the track instead of 2 rounds. For the second round, we skipped the track altogether and instead of running through the dreaded 'Roller Coaster', we ran up the slope towards the Medical Centre.
I tried starting the run by maintaining my pace in the target zone but realised that I was running too fast. Furthermore, the first 2km consisted of a downhill run from OCS HQ. But at the Roller Coaster, it went down to about 7min/km! But for my second round, my pace hovered more or less around my target range. I half suspected that the run was longer then the stated 8km when it was only 7.5km when I passed Charlie Wing the second time round. I passed the 8km mark just past the Medical Centre. And the final distance according to my watch was 8.7km! And I took 48min 13secs! Which is a good effort as it meant that I had ran faster than my target zone. All it all, it was a tiring but fun run! I did not stop even at the Roller Coaster...Looking forward to more runs!
Duration: 48min 13secs
Distance: 8.73km
Calories: 743kcal
Average speed: 10.9km/h
Maximum speed: 16.3km/h
Average pace: 5min 31sec/km
Maximum pace: 3min 40sec/km
