an observation

As I have read quite a few blogs in my short time as an aspiring runner I've come to a conclusion.
1. My first half marathon was trained for quite poorly. That doesn't mean I didn't train hard or anything. It means that I was out of shape, but could have been in better shape by race day. I didn't prepare well enough. I should have been putting in longer runs. Of course the excuse here is that I was definitely out of shape and the second would be that I had little knowledge of proper training to begin with. Those things considered I did all that I could, but looking back could have done better. Here is the objective evidence.

Most people list their PR's. This is perfectly fine and I think it really says something about the persons condition. Most people that have similar PR's to mine (my current ones that is) have much better half marathon times. an example or three:

mile: 5:35
10k: 43:40
1/2 marathon: 1:35:44
marathon: 3:26:32

Cal. Int. Marathon 3:36
Half Marathon 1:40
10K 44:37
5K 22:00

5K - 21:50
1/2 marathon 1:39
marathon 3:36:40

and my own is currently 1:50:53, 43:50, 20:47. My half was the first race back, so it shows lack of training, whereas the 10k is just as fast as others posting 10-12 minute faster half marathons. That disturbs me. I know I have some footspeed left over from high school and that could account for the difference. My biggest ray of hope is the first example with the 10k that is almost exactly what mine was before the summer put up a 1:35 half. I think I should be able to do that as I feel much better than I did before the summer, and have been training smarter and more consistently than then as well. The only bad thing is effort. Maybe these people had a bad day, maybe they took it easy. It is hard to compare race effort from a time, but that is why I got 3 examples instead of one. There are also the factors of the course itself, as well as conditions. But normally a PR will happen during moderate conditions as there is never really a perfect race.

My 10k is coming up real soon. I am looking forward to it because it will gauge how good my base is. I dare not say speed as that is something that won't come till just after, so it will be interesting how FAST i can go from SLOW running.