My wife and I ran the Jan. Frozen Foote yesterday. It was the perfect day for running. I convinced a friend to watch our kids for 2 hours so that I could run sans stroller. It's interesting, because there are so many different twists to this post, different tangents that I could follow... I'll try to break them up by topic:
Race Conditions: I've already mentioned that conditions were perfect. It was low 40's and no precipitation. Slightly overcast, but not ominously so... I've since heard that we broke records for warm temps yesterday. For those of you not familiar with the North Country (the True Upstate NY), this weather is ridiculously warm. The past two weeks (prior to this race), I've mostly been running in single digit weather. In fact, one of my recent runs started at -10 degress and ended at -12.
The Stroller Effect: I've often wondered how much running with a stroller really affects pace. I've found that there is a huge difference in opinions, and more specifically in regards to how much affect it has on pace. There is quite a bit more that I'll eventually get around to writing about as it pertains to stroller running, but for now I would just like to say that I think that this event was particularly useful in helping to answer this question for me. The reason is that I ran this same race (it's a series of 4) last month with the two kids in the stroller, and gave (what I felt) was an all out effort. The result was 30:52.
Race Goals: This race is billed as a 4 mile event, but it's slightly shorter than that. My Garmin picked up 3.88 last month and 3.9 this month. The race organizers claim that it's 3.87. Regardless, because this race is close enough to a 5k, I thought that my 5k pace was good to use to generate a goal for this event. I have been making significant improvement in recent 5k races, so I thought it would be realistic to shave a couple of seconds per mile off of my most recent 5k time and use that as a goal. I went into this race with two goals. My "A" goal was to go sub-28. My "B" goal was to go sub-29. Either of these would be PRs for me in this event (I ran 3 in the series last winter).
Race Recap: I warmed up for this race. I had really been pysching myself up to run well in this event, so one of the things that I convinced myself to do was a 10 minute easy jog, finishing with one stride of approx 80 yards. I don't normally warm up, I just usually go. If you want to, you are permitted to go out before the race, and (on the honors system), write your time in. My wife decided to do this (first time), and I ran out with her for 5 minutes and then back. Kudos to her for accomplishing her one and only goal. I'd love to print it here, but it's not my place to do so.
Instead of lining up in the back (like I usually do with the stroller). I chose the front of the 2nd pack. No one really seemed to want to get on the line, so there were about 10-15 people right on the line, a significant gap, and then a second group - that's were I was.
In the first quarter mile of the race, I felt great (then again I always do). I glanced at the garmin and saw a 6:30 something pace. I thought I was starting too fast, but ultimately decided to just run by feel, and because I felt so calm and relaxed, I just went with it. I also knew that sometimes the Garmin could report paces vastly different within a few seconds of one another, so I took the quick reading of pace with a grain of salt. It didn't matter much anyway, because when I hit the first hill, I didn't feel so great and relaxed anymore. I glanced at the garmin again and saw a pace time that looked North of 7:40 - go figure...
I decided then, that I would just continue to run as hard as I thought that I could without dropping. By the close of the 1st mile, I was already breathing a 2-2 rate, which typically doesn't hit me until after the 2nd mile of a 5k, so I knew that I was at least pushing harder than I normally do. I saw my wife just after Mile 1. I told her that she had "just about a mile to go; keep it up." I'm not sure if that helped or hurted, but it's what I thought was encouragement at the time.
The turnaround point always gets me on this run. I'm not a big fan of out and back races to begin with, but for whatever reason, this one bothers me more than others. It's at the bottom of a slight hill, so that you're rocking the downhill, have to make this turn (which totally messes up your rhythm and cadence), and then you have to go slightly uphill. I employed a tactic that I read in Runner's World (I think offered by Ryan Hall), shorten your stride and take several quick choppy steps immediately following the turn. I don't know if it works or not, but I got passed by a few people immediately following the turn - so I'm thinking that it didn't work so well. I did find out afterwards, however, that someone that runs very similar times to me said that he was right behind me at the turn around, but then I pulled away - so go figure? I rarely look at my watch at the halfway points - so nothing to offer you there...
The leg home was tougher. I found myself fighting the urge to let off the pace a little. I kept saying things to myself like "Do you really need to back off a little, or could you actually push a little harder?" Everytime I thought I wanted to back off, I used this to pick up the pace. I got passed by more people than I'm used to (which bothers me), but I also attribute this to the fact that I usually start in the back. I also noticed that I lose ground on everyone (that I can see) on the uphills, but that I gain ground on everyone on the downhills.
The last quarter mile, I came to the realization that I was racing this race to my full potential. I was going to finish knowing that I could not have run it any faster. I realized this as I pushed up the last two hills and forced myself to run them harder than the previous hills - even though I wasn't moving much faster than before.
Race Results: 28:31. I have to admit, I was immediately disappointed to see that I had not hit my "A" goal. After a few hours, I felt better about my effort. I should be happy, considering that my best time from last year in this series was 32:57, and that I ran it in 30:52 last month (albeit with the stroller).
Long Term Plan: I've been re-evaluating my long term goals since this run. I guess that I was delusionally thinking that my rate of progress would continue at the same rate that I was on in the fall (I know that it's not realistic, but I was hoping...) Now that I'm showing signs of diminshing returns, I am wondering what might be realistic for 2013. Prior to this run, I was hoping to be sub 21 mins for the 5k by the fall of 2013. Now I'm wondering if sub 22 would be a better goal. My current 5k PR is just over 23 - run this past fall (I'll have to look it up to give you a specific time). So I'm not sure yet. I'll have to get back to you on all of my goals...
No comments:
Post a Comment