Another year, another 10K

I ran the Berkeley Half Marathon 10K again today. Approximately two months ago I finally decided to heed my dad's advice and start running longer so that I wouldn't feel physically destroyed after running the 10k, which happened all previous three times I did it. So I upped my normal 4.5K run to 6K and started switching it up with 8K as well. I have mapped a 10K route as well but what with one thing and another I haven't actually run it yet. Also last weekend I was in Montréal and so I basically skipped a week of training, which wasn't ideal. All of which is to say my time was actually slightly slower than the last one, which was depressing because I definitely did better on the downhills and because I skipped getting water at the second water station, which I did the last three times. Yet, I was still slower.

On the other hand, I skipped the water station because I didn't need it, and I did not and do not feel physically destroyed (by which I mean, stiff legs and extremely painful quads the day of and the day or two after), so that's definitely progress. I think it's finally time to embrace doing sprints on some runs. I am ass at sprinting and I've never been very good at varying my pace consciously. (I know, I know. It's a big part of why I'm still mediocre.) But I think if I start doing some runs where I sprint up the hill portions (or "sprint," but the nice thing about running is that at least at the beginning, it really is the thought that counts), and keep varying between 6K, 8K, and 10K for my normal runs, that should hopefully get me into a better place. I would really like to crack 1:05:00 next year. We'll see.