Sunday, March 30, 2008

Inside Out Sports 10k race report

Personally I think they should call this the Inside Out Sports 10k from hell, but that's just me ;-). I've run this course as part of the 1/2 marathon so I knew what I was getting myself into and really I did it on purpose to force myself into getting better running hills and thus get stronger. Mission accomplished :-). My 10k pr was in 2004 at the Old Reliable 10k in downtown Raleigh. That course is much flatter/easier than this one so I wasn't expecting to get a pr today. I think when I did that race my time was 55:51 or 8:59 per mile pace. My plan today was to start off around 9:15 pace and see how it goes. This race features many hills and new this year to go with the uphill finish was a nice uphill start. First the numbers...
according to my watch

totals:
Distance 6.27 total time 56:30 Ave pace 9:00 / mi, ave hr 161, max hr 171
If this was really 10k, my pace was 9:05 / mi
I did my splits on the signs on the road so
mile 1 - Distance 1.02 miles, total time 9:20, pace 9:10 / mile, ave hr 157
This was mostly uphill from IO sports to just past CVS, felt good on the hill, tried to keep my speed under control to not burn my legs out too early.
mile 2 - Distance 1.00 miles, total time 9:03, ave hr 153
this was all downhill and felt good, I was still keeping my speed under control and people were passing me, but I didn't mind as I knew what lay ahead...
mile 3 - Distance 1.01 miles, total time 9:11, pace 9:01 / mile, ave hr 160
Now the fun starts, this mile included the first big climb of the race and my first peak at zone 5 at the top of that hill. I passed a whole bunch of people on this one still feeling good. my ave hr was 160 up 7 from the last mile.
mile 4 - Distance 1.01 miles, total time 9:11, pace 9:03, ave hr 164
this mile included two climbs up to Norwell, first on the way out, then after going down the other side, you turn around and get to go back up again, what fun, passed more people, and had some more zone 5 fun
mile 5 - Distance 1.00 miles, total time 8:53, ave hr 161
Yes, the best mile of the day, down hill to evans, then flat for awhile and then only a slight incline towards sheldon. Was pacing off one guy who was very animated and entertaining, so it went by quickly with my ave hr dropping and my speed going up I was feeling good.
mile 6 - Distance 1.01 miles, total time 9:07, pace 9:03, ave hr 169
This was obviously the hardest part of the course with my ave hr way up and two thirds of this mile was in zone 5, but the end was near and I was careful to not push too hard and blow up
final .2 - Distance .22 miles, total time 1:47, pace 8:15, ave hr 170
that was all I had left, legs were now on fire, but with less than a 400 to go I knew I could increase my pace up the last little bit to CVS.

It felt great to finish. I waited a short time to see Marian finish, but that was I could wait for as I started to get real cold, so I did my 1 mile cool down back to my car, changed out of my sweaty shirt, went to starbucks for my triple Mocha and cranked the heater in the car.

Very happy with the results as I felt really strong on the hills and was happy to be once again passing people at the end of the race :-)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Bike Friendly?

I haven't been writing much about my workouts but something happened Sunday during my bike that I felt I should.

Earlier in the week I had riding in self proclaimed bike friendly Cary, NC. I went out Monday before lunch for a 20 mile bike, it usual takes me about 1 hour 8 minutes of total time including stop lights, but this time it took me 1 hour and 17 minutes. I got stuck in two left turn lanes with no cars in the lane to tell the light that it needed to give me a left turn signals. Then I got stuck at a light where I was going straight, and there was a car in the left turn lane, so the light gave the car a left turn signal, but never turned green for straight. This being the third time I got screwed, I was not happy. Fast forward to Sunday, I had a 28 mile ride mapped out, with about 8 traffic lights, compare that to my 20 mile Monday ride with about 20 lights. I rode the first 18 miles before actually getting stopped at a light. It was a left turn light at hwy 50 and hwy 210 in Johnston county. I was in the left turn lane and thought I was going to have to run it, since there were no cars to trigger the light in my lane, but image my surprise when I got a left turn signal. Here I am in Johnston county and they have their sensors setup to know when a bike is waiting. Wake up Wake county, you are supposed to be pushing for less pollution and bike lanes, adjust your lights already. When I went to college in Gainesville, Fl my junior year the changed the lights to be more sensitive for bikers, and here we are 20 years later and we can't do that here? Anyway it was a pleasant surprise and made the cold ride feel much better :-)

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Run for the oaks 5k

Good news and bad news...
I got a new PR! but didn't come close to my goal time...
Old PR was at 2nd empire in 2006 26:06, my time at this race 25:48 so I beat it by 18 seconds. I really wanted to break 25 minutes, but a number of things I have been dealing with the last two weeks are probably to blame...
anyway
prerace, woke up, felt fine, warmed up a little in the shower and stretched out and put some cream on the ankle so it wouldn't be a factor, and it wasn't, ate my normal prerace breakfast of grapenuts and raisins, relaxed a bit and headed out early. Made it to the race site and got a situated before starting the warmup. I started my warmup jog at 8, ran up the start of the race course to Krispy Kream, then turned around and did a job/strides on the way back to get my body ready for the race. I was a little sluggish on the warmup, but everything felt ok.
race start. I started off near the front so I didn't have too many people to get around and was trying to hold back per Coach's advise, got to Krispy Kream, about .5 miles and my watch said I was on 8:10 pace so I was right on, but then the course started downhill and when I got to the 1 mile split I was at 8:04, still feeling good, but not as confident as I should. the first half of mile two was great, downhill, but then we did a turn around and headed back up. Went by the water table and there was no water, they were a little behind in setting the water on the table, I really just wanted to splash one over my head, but none available, so just kept going. Right after the two mile split, which was 16:30 I knew 25 was out of reach and I saw one guy throwing up on the side walk so I backed off just a bit so as not to end up like him. If I wasn't going to make 25, it wasn't worth it. The road back just kept going up hill, mile 3 wasn't as bad as the second half of mile two as we were back to downtown and the roads were more level with some short ups and downs, then when we finally hit mile 3 and the home stretch, it was all downhill and I was able to fly in at 7 min/mile pace, it felt really good, wish there was a little more of that and a little less of that long climb. I think the old course is better since you get more breaks from the climbing, it's not all down, then all up. On the way to the race I told myself I would be happy even if I didn't break 25 as long as I gave it all I had. I don't think I did that, since I backed off at the 2 mile mark, up to that point I was giving it everything and was still at 16:32 so realistically I don't think the 25:30 I could have gotten if I kept up the faster pace would have been worth it for me and I really need to get my body back to feeling like it should so backing off was probably the right decision. It was nice to have some left for the finish and it felt good to run that fast at that time, so I do have some hope to breaking that 25 but it will have to wait :-)