I did a lot of long, slow distance for three months, finally getting up to 100km a week. In mid March I dialed it down a bit, and did some tempo runs - 6-10k moderately hard.
My hamstring has been slightly sore, meaning I can feel something, but it doesn't prevent me from running. It's that annoying feeling like, if I try to run fast, this will really start to hurt.
Anyway, I decided I should give it a test, so entered a 20K on April 8th - yesterday. I planned to run it at a comfortable pace, and pick up the last 5k if I felt all right. Which is what happened - that is, the hamstring passed the test. It was a bit sore, but didn’t get worse. I was hoping to run about 4:40/km, and ran 4:44, for a 1:34:33. I ran about 24:00/5k for 15k, then 22:17 for the last 5k, so that was good.
I even passed an old rival (been racing him for 30+ years) with 2k to go, a nice way to end the race.
The race was Yokohama Road Race, not in the city of Yokohama, but a ways out in the suburbs. The
flat course was along an asphalt path next to a river. It was a
small, friendly race, 105 people in the 20K and 202 people in the 12K (men and
women). I was 24th out of the 105, and there were a few 60s age groupers ahead of me, in fact, a 63-year-old ran 1:23:55.
It was warm when the sun was out, a bit cool when it wasn’t,
and even cooler when you were running into the wind, which was moderately
strong all day long.
I'll rest for 3 or 4 days, then start up again with light jogging. My next race, which is the one I'm really pointing to, is a half marathon on May 20th. Hope to run faster at that one.
