Not Faster. Just smarter.

5:30am this morning and 5°C outside I went out for a supposed recovery run. It started out at a reasonable pace to try and warm up, especially the fingers and once I was warm I made the conscious decision to slow down, well my brain did anyway, my legs interpreted this as - Go Faster. They were still in top gear from Sunday and changing down to the recovery gear was proving elusive. My pace had dropped down to 6min/k and with a few downhill sections the 7k recovery run ended with 42 mins on the clock (probably a route PB - haven’t checked yet), so much for the recovery run.

Now to yesterdays thoughts, I have compared my three 10k races and come to the conclusion that I have not got faster, just got smarter!
OK the first 10k, my first real race, the Carisbrooke Classic, I took off and went out way too hard especially in the second kilometre then crashed in the middle part holding on for a time of 1hr 2mins.
The second 10k and my second race I again went out even harder (got sucked in by the crowd and my overconfidence) started crashing but put in one last effort in the 9th kilometre to ensure breaking the hour, and coasted home as I was stuffed.
Now for Sunday, obviously with another 4 races under my belt I new how I should go, I went out easy gradually increasing my pace until a last flourish over the last 2km (instead of the first 2). Therefore I conclude my argument that I have not got Faster or Fitter, just Smarter with more experience to draw on.