Hannukah Aftermath, I got HUSTLED. (extra long)I picked up Melissa at her house early in the morning. This was her first race. She seemed more ready than me. We went over to the registration, got our chips, our bib. They were giving out free massages. It was the best thing that ever happen to me (before a race). It felt so nice. From now on, I would race for messages, they can keep the medal :D.
The 10 k pack started off at 10 am. Melissa is doing the 5 k and her group went 10 minutes after us.
My plan was to stay aerobic (140-160 HR) for the first half, then burst speed afterwards. Hmm...well it didn't went that way. In fact, in the first few km I was going at 180 HR.
I knew I was going faster than planned. But I also felt I could maintain this pace. From the beginning I ran with an guy in his 60s. He was telling me how he ran the Boston marathon back when he was 19. He ran 20 races this year. Amazing.
By 4 km, I wanted to push harder. I wished him well and off I went.
The route was along a scenic lakeshore trail. A few times I would glance at the lake and enjoyed the view. This race had a turn around point. When I got to 4 km, the first place was already running back. :O [later I found out he was a Kenyan].
I kept moving along. Checking my HR. 180...182...183...185... Check my breathing...in..two steps...out..two steps...in...I slowed down a bit and the lowest was at 179.
Ahead of me was an orange shirt guy (from now I will call him Orange). He was in front of me at the starting line. I told myself that's the guy I want to pass. For majority of the race he was 40-60 feet ahead of me. Despite my HR was shooting through the roof, I made sure my pace was stable and consistent.
Turned around point, 5 km .. 6 km...now here I start making my push.
At this point, he was slowing down. His hands were fidgeting with something. I had no idea what he was doing until I got closer. He was messing with his ipod. I passed him and continued.
Next target, there was a blue shirt guy (Blue) and a grey shirt runner (Grey) further ahead. I pushed my pace towarded Blue and kept with him for about one km. I then decided to push to Grey. Grey was hard to catch.
By 8 km, I could feel the latec acid building up. Yeah, that's my latec threshold. My HR pushed to high 180s. You are almost there...two km...you could do 42 km...two km is easyyy..
Grey was still up ahead. There was a hill before the finish line and I tried to reserve some gas for that.
From here on, everything became a blur. I knew I was pushing quite hard and my stomach was uneasy and felt like puking. I kept moving faster and faster. It felt like I wasn't moving at all. I could see the Finish line and Melissa was calling my name.
We were so close to the finish line when I heard a rusting sound behind me. It was Blue and he ain't going down without a fight. I pushed harder and harder. By the time I got to the Finish Line I slowed down..ARGHH...Blue passed me.
Blue beat me by three seconds. I was exhausted. Good job Blue. Bad job for me. Next time stopped after the Finish Line...
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After Action Report
My time was 50:06. I believed my Chip time was 49:56. Out of 170 runners, I listed 50. My age group I was second place out of six [got my medal :D]. My paced was 5 min/km.
Time wise, I was disappointed. From my triathlon experience, I should be hitting 4:33 min/km with ease. I knew my time was slow when I ran the first two km and checked the time was ten min. I didn't let it bother me through out the race.
I gave about a 8-9 effort in this race. The reality is that I am still a beginner and I have a lot to learn and improve. Now I have a benchmark and a base to compare with my future race and training.
My HR was too high. At least with this race I have a ball park of my Latec Threshold range. I didn't timed myself but I am sure there was no negative split. I pushed too hard in the beginning and pushed not enough in the end. Lesson learnt: Pushed when it needed to push, hold back when it needed to hold back.
For the past few weeks I am on unstructure training. Despite that, I am not relax at all. After this race, I was telling Melissa how relax I felt. Even this weekend, I am way more relax than the month of November. So more running is in order to release stress??? No complain there :)
A personal best (PB)? Yeah I guess u can say that. I know I can run much faster than this. Most important is not the speed but the stamina. Need to work on the base. 10 k is not my race. My race is Ironman.
I am glad Melissa and her friends came out. This was their first race. After I cross the line, I went down the hill and jogged to the finish line with her friends. They all had a great time. Love to see new runners into this sport....I have brought in another soul to running :)
On a side note: I went swimming afterwards and realize the chlorine have eat my swim shorts. The butt area is nice and transparent. And YES, I realize that after I went to the pool. So I was mooning everyone in the pool. Hmm..there were little kids learning to swim as well...
Time to sleep early..thanks for reading...comments and suggestions are freely accepted (as usual)
I am going to spend the winter building my base up. Train slow. Keep that HR down. Base then speed.
15 comments:
Cliff,
That part about the swim suit wearing out, ya that happened to me. I wrote a post about it, "Does that guy have a badger in his crack?". I didn't realize it for a while so I don't know how long I was mooning people.
don't be disappointed about your time. you were sick for what, a week before the race? well, we both know that you can go faster, but hey...this was just a training race, not an important one. many lessons learned, right??
I'm sorry you weren't happy with your time, but sometimes we're on, sometimes we're not. It happens to everyone, even the top athletes.
If you had a good time, it was a good race. Time is just a number.
And yes, I race for massages, too. I never want to hear anyone yelling, "You're almost there!" I want to hear, "Free massages, straight ahead!" :-)
Hey Cliff, 2nd out of your age group is nothing to be sneezed at. Keep up the great attitude!
Good job Cliff, AND good time. A 50 minute 10k is a great time especially for distance athletes who don't train at the LT very often.
Good push at the end.
I find my HR is about 10 beats higher at the same speed during a race due to adrenalin. I otften race in the 160-180's but train in the 128-155 range.
What, no puking? 8-)
by the way, i am glad to hear i am not the only one whose heart rate goes above 180 in a 10k race when i am not even going all out...haha...i thought i was going to have a heart attack. my heart rate is usually up there for most of the race!
You're just a machine, don't beat yourself up! The time wasn't that bad and hey - you placed!
Bummer on the shorts, though (heh, in England that would be a pun ;). Bet you made someone's day though!
Don't sweat the race time, you got out there with friends, there will always be another race, but how often do you get to inspire others to run?
outstanding race report Cliff!
and, an outstanding effort in my humble opinion!!
great race...ease up on yourself. you did great!
Thanks for the comments on my blog. And thanks for the vote of confidence. As far as biking and running are concerned, I'm sure an olympic distance races isn't out of the question. In the past, I was biking 30 miles followed by 7.5 mile runs. It is just the swimming that I have to master. I'll spend the winter hitting the pool trying to build up my time in the water.
And I have to agree with everyone else. Even the most elite runners have off days. I ran the Chicago Marathon with a goal of breaking 4 hours. I spiked a fever of around 102F the night before the race, and my wife questioned if I should even run. Since I was running in honor of a cancer survivor, I beat the fever down with ibuprofen and headed to the race.
Needless to say, I didn't break 4 hours. I didn't break 4 1/2 hours. I didn't even beat my personal best. But I finished, which was the important part.
Unless you run to feed a family, remember that some runs are just for fun. It sounds like you had a good plan, to get ahead of the runner in front of you. And you finished.
Thanks dude..greatly appreciate your support....
I was telling Anners that I am not satisfy with me giving up a step before the finish line. If Blue was in my age group, I would be 3rd place instead of 2nd.
This will be a good painful reminder for me next year when I race again. KEEP MOVING...
this was the most exciting running post i've ever read on your blog! congrats!
Great job, Cliff. Its nice to have a benchmark so you can see how much you've improved in the future.
A good formula to find your Lactate Threshold is this:
Avg HR from a 5k (you could probably use your 10k)/ 1.05 = Lactate threshold
You have an outstanding good and well structured site. I enjoyed browsing through it
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