Weekly Summary (October 3-9)
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 6 x 1 min hard/1 min easy @ 9.5/7.1 mph [3:57/km / 5:17/km] with 9 min jog @ 7.1 mph [5:17/km] (Workout total: 5.1 km, 26:00, 5:06/km pace)
Wednesday: 7.2 km, 36:21, 5:02/km pace (Atlantic Place to Southside Trail return)
Thursday: 5.25 km, 28:20, 5:23/km pace (Atlantic Place to Signal Hill return)
Friday: Off
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 10.03 km, 43:24, 4:19/km pace (Turkey Tea Race)
Total: 27.6 km
This fall, I have been trying to serve two masters in a way with my training. After the Tely, I usually shift to Cape to Cabot training for the fall season. This year, I also wanted to try my best to peak for the Turkey Tea in hopes of significantly lowering my PB at 10 km. For that reason, this week served sort of like a taper week.
On Tuesday, I did a very brief interval workout on the treadmill, alternating between 1 minute fast and 1 minute jogging. I threw in some jogging at the end just to get a little more distance. This run is a little different than most of my intervals, as I usually take rest periods in between the intervals. I was pleased with this run, as I felt comfortable at the faster pace, and I didn't really struggle too much with the lack of rest.
Wednesday was just a nice, comfortable run. I planned on running 7 km, but my watch seemed to be a little off on the way out, so the total ended up be a little more. I've run 3.5 km out on this trail close to a dozen times this year, and on Wednesday I ended up at least 200 m further up before my watch said I had hit 3.5 km. This is one reason I like running intervals on a treadmill, as there is always some uncertainty in distances when using a GPS watch.
Thursday was a nice quick run up and down Signal Hill. I usually do this one 4 or 5 times throughout the fall as C2C training. When I run this route, I check my time from the bottom of Temperance Street to the corner of the parking lot at the top of the hill. This isn't the full Munn Mile from the C2C, but it's about 1.5 km. This week, I made that climb in 9:48, which is the first time I have ever done it in less than 10 minutes. Hopefully that bodes well for the race next weekend!
With those training runs down, it was time for the Turkey Tea on Sunday morning. Anyone who read my blog on Saturday knows that my primary goal for this race was 45 minutes. Well, I blew that time out of the water, finishing with a gun time of 43:26 and a chip time of 43:24. As I previously mentioned, I tend to have three goals in place when I enter a race, and I try to have the 1st one as a real stretch goal. In fact, this was my 19th race over the last 4 years, and I think this was only the 2nd time I have beaten my primary goal. So, while it may look like I was sandbagging with the prediction, I assure you I was quite surprised to surpass my goal by such a wide margin. The question then becomes, why was I able to do that?
I think there were a number of factors that contributed to it. As I stated above, conditions were great for a fast race. I also got a good 2 km warm-up in with Marc and Todd before the race, and that is something I need to work into my regular pre-race routine; I do usually warm-up, but I tend to go shorter than that when I'm on my own.
Once the race started, I think having a number of PRCers around and in front of me helped keep me on pace and push me. I didn't see Marc for long, as he took off and crushed it with a PB of 41:02. But for the first kilometer or so I was running right with Randy and Todd, and we had Andrew G, Steve, and Keith just ahead of us. We all spread out a little over the next few km, but by the time we hit the 4 km mark, I had Andrew, Steve, Keith, and Randy ahead of me in that order. My race plan was to run the first 2 km under pace and the next 2 (uphill) km over pace, with my total being right on pace at 4 km (goal pace was 4:30/km). When I passed the 4 km mark feeling good and with 21 seconds in the bank from my goal pace, I decided I would push as hard as I could to stay with or catch the guys over the last 6 km. Obviously we were all running our own race, but as someone who has played competitive sports their whole life, I find having someone to chase after makes running a race just that little bit easier!
I'm back there somewhere, with Steve/Keith/Randy pushing me along!
(Photo credit: Biped Sports)
I rolled through the next 2 km at 4:20 and 4:18, so now I had 43 seconds in the bank with 4 km to go. At this point, I re-calibrated my goal and decided 44:00 was achievable. I still hadn't caught anybody, but I was closing in on Randy and Steve a little. The next 2 km came in at 4:13 and 4:22, and I managed to catch up with Randy and Steve, who both ran great races and finished very shortly after me. I now had over a minute in the bank, and I was giving serious consideration to trying to run the last 2 km @ 4:00/km for a 43:00. This was probably a little over amibitious, but I knew that even if I blew up and had to slow down, I still had a big buffer to hit my goal. Thankfully, Andrew was still about 100 m in front of me, so trying to chase him down would give me the extra push I would need to give it a shot.
I cranked out the 9th kilometer at 4:05, and I managed to close the gap between me and Andrew to about 50 meters. Unfortunately, I pushed too hard. With 700 meters to go, I got a stitch. This is the first time this has ever happened to me in a race, and obviously I was disappointed when it happened. Looking back, I'm ok with it though. I have always said that I struggle to push myself hard enough in races. I always feel like I leave something on the table. Well, yesterday was the opposite. I pushed myself a little too hard on that 9th kilometer, and while it may have been smarter and more productive to run a slightly slower pace for the last 2 km, I am satisfied with the fact that I pushed it that hard, and I will take that lesson into future races.
This is what I look like running with a stitch. :)
(Photo credit: Shelley Gosse)
Even with the stitch, I managed to run the last kilometer in 4:19 (plus an additional 6 seconds for the extra .03 according to my watch!). That wasn't enough to catch Andrew, who absolutely killed it yesterday with a PB of 42:55. I have run a great deal with Andrew this year, and I couldn't be happier to see the results he is putting up. This PB yesterday comes just 3 weeks after taking almost a half hour off his marathon PB. I'm also thankful that he was in front of me, because trying to catch him helped push me to my result. I love that part of running. You can be running trying to catch your buddy, a little friendly competition, but at the end of the day not only do you end up pushing each other to be better, but you are just as happy for their success as you are for your own.
So, that was my race. I know I already mentioned that Marc/Andrew/Randy/Steve had great races yesterday, but I want to give a quick shout-out to the other PRCers who ran, although I'll offer apologies in advance if I miss anyone. Congrats to Keith/Todd/Sam/Ron/Amanda/Jennifer/Colleen/ Tina B/Tina S/Darlene/Sara/Cheryl. There were a lot of fantastic times run by the club yesterday, and as always everyone was there supporting each other. And that includes some cheerleaders along the course, including Renee/Shelley/Sharon/Chris/Carol Ann/Gina/Coreen/Lisa and probably others that I missed. One thing that you can always be sure of with PRC is that you will hear a friendly voice more than once as you run your race! :)
Well, that ended up being longer than expected, but I've already warned you all that brevity is not my thing. Best of luck to everyone finishing up there C2C training this week, and I'm planning to have a post mid-week discussing the idea of a running "off-season", and I'm hoping it'll generate some good discussion.
Cheers and Thanks for reading,
Ryan
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