Saturday, March 16, 2013

St. Patty's day 10k RR

Hey all,

I haven't run a race in awhile, much less written a RR.  But I figured I better do this right away, or it wouldn't get done at all.  So here goes, hopefully I get through it.  Sometimes for me the RR can be tougher than the race itself!

The morning started off pretty good.  We went to bed early and I slept amazingly well!  I'm always nervous for races even 10ks, but today I felt really good getting up, despite the weather.  Weather network showed something like -19 with windchill I think and some flakes coming down.  Anyways I got up and ate a small breakfast(oatmeal), drank some coffee and got my running clothes on.  We were almost out of coffee but I managed to make some really weak coffee and get it down before I had to go.

Pretty quick drive except that as I passed McDonalds I got a craving for more coffee and the drive through was empty so I got another small coffee with a shot of expresso, high octane yah!!  I only ended up drinking half of it.  I parked underground at Oclaire market, this is by far the nicest thing about this race on a cold day.  You don't have to go outside till it's time to run, and on a cold day like today it rocks.  So I got there a bit early and I sat around, went to the bathroom, and sat some more.

About 20 min till race time and I went outside for a short warmup.  2km should be good and I was going to do some pickups after, but with the snow/slick conditions I only did one.  My start would be slower today as I did not want to injure myself so after my warmup and a 1x pickup I went indoors for a quick warmup before the race start.

At the start we had to wait a bit, I got cold but not too too bad.  It was snowing more now so the section on concrete/brick was really slipperly.  So much for a good time, but my main goal for this is just a really solid effort.  I never understand why some people put themselves right in the front when they are slower, so when the gun went off I nearly tripped on someone as I had to pass them 10ft into the race.  They were going significantly slower.  Anyways 2 guys bolted ahead, I quickly knew they were going to be too fast for me.  I headed up the chase group behind.  With one guy between so I think I was 4th starting out?  My assessment, the two up ahead would remain there, unless they really blow up.  The one in the middle just ahead didn't look like much of a runner so I thought he would fade and I'd catch him at some point.  Runners behind me, well I obviously didn't look so no chance to assess.  For now I led a pack, but slowly pulled ahead, or at least I thought I was pulling away.

I glanced down at my pace ever so often and for now it averaged around 3:50 which I was satisfied with, thought maybe I went out a touch too hard?  But I had to keep in contact with the guy just ahead.  At about 1.5 km someone bolted ahead past me and really started making ground on 3rd, so that put me in 5th I think.  He passed the 3rd place guy around 3km and I was only about 10 - 20 ft behind him, and still gaining.  By about 4km I could still see the two in the lead and one of them looked to be fading really badly, looked like he went out wayyy too hard.  Ahhh the scent of blood,  so as soon as I was past the 4th place guy it was time to focus on the fader.  I caught him just after the turn around, it was a out an back(they had changed the course).  Here's where I started hurting bad and slowed a touch.  I kinda used that opportunity to draft behind the 3rd place guy.  I have plenty of time to pass and the 2nd place guy was too far ahead to catch, so I wanted to make sure I didn't blowup.  We were also going into the wind now so I ran behind him, but soon started feeling guilty as I was clearly using him to energize myself before the pass.  So I passed him and tried picking it up, but I didn't speed up much, still suffering.  He must have been suffering too though as I noticed him drift back.  So with 3km left I was stuck in 3rd, too far back to catch 2nd but I thought my spot was safe too.  So I just tried to maintain the pace and keep an eye on the guy ahead.  At times I thought I was gaining, but then I'd weaken and loose ground again.  My slowest kms were def. 6-8, maybe 9 I haven't looked at strava yet.

For the last km I managed to pick it up a bit as I had dropped down to 4:10ish pace for 6-8 so managed to run around 4min for the last km, to finish it up with a time of 39:18.  I had hoped to run under 38, but with the slick snow for about 4-5km of it I'm happy.  It was a good hard effort and I went as hard as I could so there's not much I can do about the conditions.  I'm happy it's done, now on to the police half in April.  Cheers,

DP

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Down to the wood!

Hey,

If you're in Calgary you know what's happening outside.  If you're near by I'm sure it's blizzarding there too!  Boy am I ever relieved that I got the long run done yesterday.  Still feeling a bit disappointed I couldn't go skiing with my buddy Cam.  We were to do the Moraine lake trail today, but I bailed.  My car tires are not safe to run on the highway in a snow storm.

Yesterday's long run went well.  My legs weren't quite recovered from the last hard run on thursday, but still not too too bad.  Lately I've been doing a few runs with a couple new friends, Chris, Jared.  They run suuuuuuuuuuuuper early, yesterday we started at 6:30 am!!  This week Melissa(a girl I coach) joined us for part of it as she runs the same pace as we do.  Strava has this challenge to do a 20 miler in the first two weeks of March.  Chris and I had both signed up for it and since our long run was going to be 25-30km anyways we decided to add a couple km to finish the challenge.  It went pretty much as planned, we kept the pace down.  Chris made sure and wasn't afraid to let us know when the pace crept up.  He was still feeling a bit beat up after running the frozen ass 50km two weeks ago.

So today my legs are a bit sore and I'm really happy the running is done for the most part this weekend.  I'll probably do a short one a little later.  Maybe even outside in the blizzard?  Or I'll go to the gym, I haven't decided yet. 

Oh as you can see from the picture I got a haircut!!  I know if you're reading you're probably wondering what the heck I was thinking shaving it that close.  Well it's kind of a funny story.  I usually get it buzzed close just not that close!  I use the first attachment so it goes quite short, it was high time for a buzz again yesterday.  I buzz most of it, then lisa comes and gives it the finishing touches.  So I had finished most of it and needed lisa's help.  The hair seemed more staticy and it was really annoying me more than usual.  So I took off the attachment to clean it with the little brush.  Anyways lisa was there so I bent down over the sink to have her do the touchup.  The razor felt a lil solid and I kinda peeked up.  lol I said something like "ummm Lisa look at the razor, anything missing??"  So anyways she hadn't noticed since there isn't that much difference betwen the first attachment and nothing so she'd already finished going over part of my head.  Sooo she had to do the rest.  It was funny, she felt really bad, but honestly it hardly bothered me.  So I'm bald, feel free to laugh at me.  :P 

Marathon training overall is going well, I'm starting to get faster again!  My mileage is up, sitting at about 80 - 85 km per week for maybe 6 weeks now and it's slowwwly creeping up from there.  I'm aiming at the calgary marathon for now, Iron legs 50m in Aug.  And also a couple halfs, maybe a 10k?  Running is going well, I'm training smart staying clear of injuries!  Hope everyone else's training is going well.  Cheers,

DP