Monday, 30 September 2013

Eco2Run 10 miler (@ MP)

Sunday, 29th September, 2013 – 21.1km including 10 mile Eco2Run Race (4:28/km)
Parked up in East Point Business Park in plenty of time for our race start and as luck would have it I just managed to catch the start of the 20 mile race which was running 15 mins late. Went for a couple of km warm-up run before confirming that our start time was delayed by about 20 mins also so soaked up the leaders coming through in the 20 mile race. Lead guy passed through in 28mins and was flying! On the second lap though he had to stop for a toilet break and the second place guy passed through into the lead (but he would later regain the lead and win the race!). 

It was then our turn to start. I lined up a couple of rows back and as we got to the first corner I counted that I was in 15th position of about 70-80 runners. Sticking to my MP plan though I had to hold myself back from charging away with the others. This sort of worked in that I held back somewhat but I was a bit faster than MP. Kept pretty much the same effort level on the first outward stretch and a few people passed me along here. There was a breeze against us along here and although it wasn't too strong it was still costing me about 15 secs/km as I found out on my run back to the halfway point. It was only on the way back that I realised how humid and warm it was without the cooling breeze.
I was full sure I had a beaming smile all the way to the finish...obviously not!
Photo: Action Photography
Crossed the start/finish line in 37:05 and things were still going well. The second lap seemed to pass even quicker and by the time I was on the run back I was catching a few people in my own race (There were now 5 mile and 20 mile runners also on the course) and with 3km to go  decided I'd up the effort levels a bit as I was still feeling good. Final 3km were 4:22, 4:15 and 4:10 for the final 750m. Second lap was 37:33 for an overall time of 1:14:39. Not bothered about the time considering I wasn't racing it and it was 16.75km on my Garmin.

Comparison between last week and this week -
Much better numbers this week off an easier effort too!
Very happy with the outcome and when compared to my aborted HM last weekend it's much improved speed for less HR - the way things should be! Proof if ever it was needed (again!) that going off a bit too fast/high effort kills in the longer run.
Now, at last it's Taper Time!
Eco2Run 10 mile - 1:14:39, 16th/70

Week 39 Summary:
RTW: 7 from 7 days
DTW: 90.8 km
DTY: 3,124.6 km
Chicago - 14 days (2 weeks)

3 comments:

  1. So is it 3.15 you are going for in Chicago John? What's your race strategy going to be like?

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  2. My realistic target will be sub-3:20.
    I guess my gold would be sub 3:15, my silver sub 3:20 and my bronze sub 3:26 (new PB).

    At this stage the main thing is to actually claim a PB this year(!) so I don't want to go too aggressive, and with the past few weeks training denting the confidence significantly I think the plan will be to run at 3:20 pace til about 15km. At that stage I'll do a reassessment and see if I can push on a little faster then that might allow me to get to finish in 3:15 if things go extremely well.

    More likely scenario will be to remain at the 3:20 pace as long as I can/til the end. If the wheels start coming off I will try to steer between the ditches for a PB anyways unless it ends up being a total write-off!

    Ultimately though, i will keep a keen eye on HR and try and keep it at or below 152bpm for as long as possible before letting go of the reins towards the last 5-8km. If it's a warm day then I'm goosed though!

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  3. Best of luck with it, I think going by the HR is a solid plan as it obviously takes more of the external variables into account. Would also agree that after Rotterdam etc claiming the PB is important. Looking forward to the report.

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