Week of Oct. 4 ~ 10
Plan: 12/18/9/9/0/6/10 - 64km
Ran: 14.6/22.2/8/8.7/0/0/10 - 63.5km / 39.5 mi.
10K race started well, ended badly. Details below.
Monday
3:30 - 14.6k. 66:00
5.9 x 2 with x-country varsity boys. Out in 30:09 (25:41 for the first 5k), back in 23:23 (19:27 for the last 5k). Needless to say, a damn good pace coming back. Ran last 3k with 4th and 5th boys, as top 3 pulled away. Jogged extra 2.8k to pick up slow kids.
Weather: 20C/68F, humid.
Weight: 60.8kg
Tuesday
Got a Garmin 405!
11:00 - Weights and core at gym.
3:30 - 22.2k. To school 5.6k and back - 30:48/32:32
2.77k warmup. 600m (exactly!) hill x 6 in 2:40/45/36/33/31/25. Worked hard last 3 with the top girls.
Weather: 24C/75F, very humid.
Weight: 60.6kg
Wednesday
7:30pm - 8k. 43:00. 6 x 1000m.
$:08/03/08/3:55/48/29. Exactly how I wanted to run them - cruising first 3, then picking up the pace.
Weather: 21C/70F
Weight: 60.4kg
Thursday
3:30 - 8.7k. 1.9k warmup in Tama Cemetery and then 800m x 8. (Which Garmin measured from 769 to 794, so that didn't help much. Seems to be 780). 3:20/18/10/26/01/54/48/44. The first 4 I was saving myself for the last 4. Last 3 with Bessie Noll and we were running fairly hard. 2:44 (800) = 3:33/k so a pretty good pace.
Weather: 21C/70F
Weight: 60.3kg
Friday
11:00 - Weights and core at gym.
Rest day
Saturday
Hard rain in the morning and not much time anyway (out all day), so took another rest day.
Sunday
10:00am - 10k race, the Saiko Eco 10k put on by two people in the running club. A small (300 people) 10k that went twice around a lake. Two minor hills (twice) but a mostly flat, pleasant course. Weather was good, about 20-21C, although humid as rain had ended at about 9:00. (By 11:30, it was hot!)
I wanted to run under 39:00, and hoped for 38:00, if I felt good. Last week's 5k time trial was 19:03, so 38:00 was an ambitious goal (although a race is different than a time trial, which is only "practice").
Finally figured out how to customize the Garmin display, so had "Pace" as one display. Ran the first k in 3:36 and realized that was too fast, so eased up. Next two were in 3:51 and 3:52. 3:51 is a 19:15 pace, so I figured that was ok. Next two were exactly the same in 7:43, giving me 19:02 for the first 5k. I then started to pick up the pace. Was moving well and feeling good and caught one guy ahead of me (I was in about 12th) and began catching 5 more, including the top woman. I felt confident of catching them, when at 6.2k...my left calf began to hurt a bit. I slowed a bit, assuming it would go away. It didn't and got slightly worse. I slowed a bit more, now getting somewhat worried. It got worse. I slowed down some more. It got still worse, so now I was reduced to limping along. At this point I realized it was not going to get better and the race was over, so I just jogged (limped) in the last 2+k. Too bad. The top woman ran 38:17 and I definitely would have beaten her. The two guys with her at 6k, who I was catching, ran 37:45, so I like to think I would have been around there.
I guess the cause was dehydration. I had a late dinner the night before, which included some wine and coffee, no water. I still felt full in the morning, so ate nothing for breakfast and only had a cup of milk, a cup of coffee (which I usually do not do, but I wanted to go to the bathroom), and later half a small bottle of sports drink. Obviously not enough liquid in me. The shoes were the new super light racers, but I ran a half marathon in them, so they should not be the problem (I hope!). Maybe too hard a week?...although I did have two days rest. Maybe legs not 100% recovered from the half 14 days ago?
Moral of the story: light dinner before a race, 2 bananas and plenty of sports drink/gel for breakfast, maybe some oatmeal too.
Calf still hurts (11:30 at night) but I will rest tomorrow and hope it will be ok on Tuesday. And there's always another race!
1 day ago
That was going to be your pay off for all your hard training of late Bob.
ReplyDeleteBut even though you had that problem with your calf you can take that race as a sub 38min! well done.
That's a tough one with the calf cramp Bob - you certainly looked to be on for a great time. I doubt if the weeks hard sessions had anything to do with it and am inclined to agree with your diet/hydration hypothesis coupled perhaps with the lightweight racers. Then again i'm no expert. Enjoy the 405.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame Bob. Sub-38 would have been a damn fine 10k. At least you know you're in that sort of shape.
ReplyDeleteYes, maybe too hard a week (the 800s Thursday) and close to the half. Could be dehydration/cramping. Lack of salt? Anyway, hope you're not out for too long.