Race Preview

I usually don’t spend too much time thinking about my non-marathon races. They are never the focus of my attention, and just there to ultimately support the marathon training. However, with the 10k in August cancelled, this will be my first race in 6 weeks, and the first race of more than 5k in over four months. That’s a long time without a proper race (both 5ks were more fun runs than races; neither had numbers for a start), and I’m itching to get out and feel the pain in my legs. I know I’ll feel differently at mile 10, when I’ll be desperate to stop, and if I’m not then I’m having a bad race. I do expect a PR (I’ll panic over my marathon if I don’t get one), and I have a certain time in mind that I’d really like to hit, but I won’t announce it in advance, so there won't be a need to wipe egg off my face afterwards. I have no real idea how fast I can run 13 miles. I have done very little running at sub-7 pace, but that’s a standard feature of my training. A week before the Bantry half-marathon I was wondering how I could possible run 6:50 pace for 90 minutes when I couldn’t keep that pace for half the distance in training, but race-day adrenaline is powerful stuff indeed and I’m banking on more of the same on Sunday.

There was still a strenuous workout to be done on Wednesday, the second part of my double header. The first part of which had gone well on Tuesday, but Wednesday was a much tougher proposition. The plan was 3 slow miles to warm up, 10 steady miles @ 8:00 pace and 7 @ 7:15. I have done almost all of the previous runs on a flat road, but yesterday I got more ambitions and ran around the lake; climbs, wildlife and all. I ran it clockwise because that way the worst of the hills would be behind me come mile 13 when the MP portion started. I promptly took a wrong turn at the start, realised my mistake 10 seconds later, swore loudly at myself and turned around. I guess it’s been a while since I ran that route, and at 5:20 am the brain wasn’t entirely conscious yet. The first 13 miles were unremarkable and I felt good; maybe a bit too good because I started to accelerate after 10 miles or so, which I shouldn’t have. When the fast segment started I soon came to the realisation that running MP over an undulating terrain is more difficult than doing so on the flat, and the fact that I had well over 1000 feet of elevation change in my legs from the first part of the run didn’t help either. I think I managed to stay on pace for the first half of that segment, but started to fall behind afterwards. When I reached our driveway after 17 miles I still had a 3 miles out-and-back segment to do, and with each step the legs grew ever more weary. The HR wasn’t particularly high, in the low 150s, if I remember correctly, but I didn’t have it in me to push any harder. I felt like I was running on muscle fibers that had never been used before, and that’s probably pretty close to the truth. It’s also the whole point of that workout. When I reached the turnaround point I could at least flick that little Devil off my shoulder that had been urging me to turn around prematurely for the last 10 minutes, but any hopes that the last mile would feel easier remained unfulfilled. I was completely knackered afterwards.

That leaves three more days until race day, and of course they will be easy days. Today was a much-needed recovery run, and I cut off one mile at the end, both in order to save the legs a little bit and to get a few minutes more sleep. The HR keeps going down and down on these runs; I've come to regard my recovery-run HR as the primary indicator of my fitness, and the signs have been improving steadily all summer.

Strictly speaking, my legs probably won’t have recovered entirely from Wednesday’s workout come Sunday. That’s the price I have to pay, but with three easy days until then I’m quietly confident I can run a good race.

5 Sep

20 miles, 2:37:59, 7:53 pace, HR 147
last 7 in 51:47 (7:23 pace)

6 Sep

9 miles, 1:16:13, 8:28 pace, HR 131