August 29, 2017

2 Race Postscripts; Recovery

Two postscripts to my Beach to Beacon 10K race:
My age graded performance was 86%, which correlates to a 31:13.
I beat Bill Rodgers. Who, admittedly, is not the runner he used to be, but still it sounds good to say, "I beat Bill Rodgers."

On the 11th, 12th and 13th, I ran 40, 60 and 90 minutes.
Rested the 14th, ran 40 mins. on the 15th and on the 16th did a track workout that included 2 1000s in 4:04 and 3:57, so I was fairly well recovered 11 days after the race.

Then the next 5 days did 60, 80, 90, 90 and 90 minutes. Of course, these are all at a comfortable pace.

Rested last Tuesday and Wednesday did 1000 x 4, 800 x 2, 400.
Times were 3:57/56/56/57, 3:09/12 and 88.
This was at 7:30pm and it was 32°C and 62% humidity with not a leaf stirring on the surrounding trees. A hot workout. Happy to keep all 4 1000s under 4:00. Worked pretty hard to do it.

Did 90-minute runs the next 3 days and on Sunday the club had another beach day at Kamakura with about 25 people. We started through the town, stopping at the Great Buddha (huge statue of seated Buddha), from there went up into the hills for about 30 minutes of climbing stairs and hills, then about 15 mins down just to work the quads a bit more. That took an hour, then did another hour (a very hot hour) along the beach road. So that was quite a hard effort.

Had planned a long run for today (Monday) but the legs are sore and tired, so will rest two days and then do the club 5,000m time trial on Wednesday night.





August 11, 2017

Beach to Beacon 10K

I traveled to Portland, Maine and ran the Beach to Beacon 10K on August 5th.
I won my age group (70-74) in 42:36. Would have been 2nd in the 65-69 AG and 7th in the 60-64.
Overall was 511th out of about 6,880.

I thought I would run 42 or 43, but would have liked to go under 42. Well, the time was ok, given that the course had about four hills (not steep, although the last one was the biggest) and it was very humid. The temperature was good at about 20C/72F, but the humidity was in the 90s. I felt ok while running, but was very hot and drenched in sweat when I finished.

Mile splits (no km marks) were 6:30, 59, 47, 57, 51, 7:13 and 78 for the last 320yds (included a hill).
5K splits were 21:12, 21:24. That was good, since the second half was hillier and since last month's 5,000m time trial was 21:02.

I felt good the whole way and ran pretty well, I think.
I still think I can run faster than this, and plan to in the fall.