Around the Bay Road Race -- 30k

Absolutely ideal weather for racing.

First race in a while that I had to walk for a bit of the run. I went out pretty aggressively. Around 19k I started to fade. The aggressive start contributed to the fading for sure but not fueling and hydrating enough before the start was probably the biggest factor. During the early stages of the race I felt my hydration was not yet sufficient.

Through km 10 I was 20 seconds ahead of pace for 2:10. The next 3 km got faster still, another 20 seconds ahead of pace. To that point I still felt pretty good and kept pressing. I wasn’t watching the watch only checking where I was at every 3k marker.

At the end of 18 I was still pretty much on track. I needed to be at 1:18 and I was at 1:18:30. I took a few extra moments for a gel at km 13. I was quite amazed how many people were running with me in the first part of the race. Very competitive field for sure.

As we worked back into the Burlington side of the course I found my energy levels were waning. I was a bit surprised and disappointed to be feeling like that with 12k to go. It definitely threw me off my game plan. With all the work I’ve been doing I thought I would have been stronger until closer to the end. As a result I don’t think I fought hard enough for the next couple of miles. I’m left wondering if I had pushed through a bit harder here would that have gotten me far enough into the race to stay on or closer to target. Instead I became very introspective for the next couple of miles.

My main goal at this point now became to make sure I had enough fluids and carbs to finish the course. I had one more gel to take which I took going up the long hill around km 22. Prior to this though I was already fatigued enough that I stopped and walked briefly. At this point I figured if I could get the last gel in and enough fluids I would hopefully slowly come back as we got closer to the end of the race. In fact I was starting to feel better in the last 3 – 3 1/2 k after the big hill.

From km 21 to 26 I focused more on finding a steady cadence to get me to the finish. Mentally I would have been quite happy to be finished at that point already.

Pace wise I didn’t push it on the hills through this point. I seemed to be moving along okay just not very fast through this section. The legs were feeling heavier through this point as well not surprisingly but that was a bit more expected.

The last section after the big hill went fairly well. It’s generally downhill to the finish. Most of it was run at a good pace not quite the 2:10 pace but closer to 2:16 to 2:17 pace.

A lot of the race I focused on getting through the specific kilometer. Even when things started to come off the rails a bit I was still trying to just keeping going. Overall I think I started having difficulties too far out to fully consider hanging on to the finish at my target pace. It’s difficult to plan for a race where you’re struggling this far out but I think I’ve learned a lot from the experience.

On a personal note it was really fantastic to have some many running friends with us in Hamilton.

In the end the overall result is still fantastic and I continue to be very happy to be running at this level and to have had the possibility to run as well as I did. Bottom line I’m where I need to be for Boston.

Canada Day 10k

43:04 min
10.06 km
4:17 min/k
7 min/mile
AvgHR 168

Splits:
3:59,4:01,4:09,4:16,4:22
4:29,4:17,4:27,4:24,4:21

HRs:
154,166,169,170,169
170,170,171,171,171

Sportstats results:
Place *** Name *** Bib# *** Time *** Chip *** Pace ***
60 Brian LAWLESS 133 43:05.3 43:04.1 4:19

Category *** Category Place *** Gender Place
Men 40 - 49 12/49 50/203

Notes:
- stitch from 7 k for the rest of the way in partially caused by eating to close to the start time.
- very humid
- never got into a good rhythm around the 4:00 min pace.
- My HR didn't feel high but the legs felt sluggish on the day. No get up and go so to speak.
- faster kms tended to be the ones with the slight rolling hills.
- the pace felt like I could go on for quite a while just not faster on the day asuming the stitch would go away eventually.
- seamed to fall back into my half marathon pace which is becoming more comfortable for me.

Back in the saddle again ...

Missed a few days blogging. Been trying to catch up on rest and have as a result been less on the computer.

Today is my rest day. Tomorrow I have a 65 minute run planned. I think I’ll drive up to the park in the morning again to run up to Pink Lake. I’m looking forward to it as I feel a bit sluggish today. Needed more activity in my day today. Damn that work stuff gets in the way.

I’ll post a separate blog for the results from Wednesday’s race. Never really seemed to get out of my comfort zone. I suggested to Greg that I might add another 10k this month.

Looking forward to the weekend to get some good runs in. I’ll add some bike riding this weekend as I want to get some miles in before going to Lake Placid on the 23rd.

Hot workout at the track

Tonight was another hot one. It was my first night at the track since my marathon. It was nice to be running a somewhat structured run again tonight. The workout was 70 minutes total with 10 x 1 min @ faster than 5k pace and 1 min easy.

The heat was what it was. It made it harder to keep the pace consistent. Overall the intervals turned out to be faster than I needed which was interesting. I needed to run about 3:45 pace. My results showed that I ran between 3:19 and 3:35. There was also a bit of feeling out the pace which accounts for some of the large range. Part of this was also just figuring out if there was a comfortable pace in the heat.

I felt pretty good for about 6 or 7 of the 10. The last 3 were a little tougher. I was glad to only have to do 10 tonight. In the spring I was routinely doing 15 sets of this type of workout.

In the end, I’m glad I ran in the heat. I felt happy to be finished but not absolutely trashed. Interesting that I felt better tonight than last night’s group run. I think it’s easier when you’re in control of what you’re doing. Last night was a bit more about what the group wanted to run.

Tomorrow is a day off. I’ll want to stay active but I want to ensure that a) I get enough sleep and b) I get the recovery I need going into the weekend.

One last comment. The location of Immaculta High School track is pretty good. It has easy access to the Canal for warm-up and cool-down. The track itself is in okay shape; not perfect but okay. And its reasonably close to home.

The heat wave continues ...

I have to say I’m feeling like burnt toast tonight. Ran at the RR tonight as per plan. John and I worked the last half of our run fairly hard. Given that the temperature was around 30 and humid and sunny, the result was predictable. As crazy as it sounds we could have pushed harder but backed it off a little bit in places to keep it manageable.

It’s always a toss up as to whether or not to deviate from the plan and run a little harder on a planned Easy Run day. Certainly for the first ½ I was okay. The fun was really in the second half which is mostly uphill. The pace in pure terms probably didn’t dip below 4:20 at the most but it just felt really hard to push anywhere near that pace.

In the end I think this run was more about mentally pushing myself when I’m not in control of the pace. There was no way that I was letting John go in the last section. This probably was the real benefit of tonight’s run.

Going forward I’ll need to be cautious about doing these faster runs. It’s good race prep at the moment for my Canada Day 10k but in the long run it will affect my planned hard workouts ever Thursday night.

Tomorrow night it’s back to the track for 10x 1 min on / 1 min recovery at just slightly faster than 5k pace. It’ll be hot tomorrow so it should be interesting again.

Hot weather is finally here :)

Summer was rung in with a sweltering 30 degrees c today. Warm enough that I ran without my shirt on for the first time this year. I know, I know, how many people did I scare. That aside it was the right thing to do as it was the most comfortable way to run.

I also decided that I didn’t want to run with the water belt. To make up for the lack of fluids I planted a bottle around the 1/2 way mark on Corkstown Road. This was a really good idea. First of all the belt would have just added to the heat and forced me to wear a shirt to avoid chaffing. The placement worked well as I went by the bottle twice; once on the way west on Corkstown and on the way back on the path where it comes very close to Corkstown again. It was much nicer to run without that belt.

Tonight was a 70 minute run with 30 minutes at my Steady State (SS) pace (4:14 – 4:21 min/km) in the middle. I felt it more with the heat tonight but my pace and HR were actually very good. I think you feel more in part as the burns more to breathe harder in this hot weather. I averaged for 4:15 for the SS section tonight.

Where I did see the heat have an effect was during the last cool down section. My HR in particular was higher than past weeks and in general I just felt it more.

Overall, I have to say that running in this heat was okay. It’s a lot better than January in my book.

Tomorrow night its back to the RR for an easy 10ish k with the guys. I also start doing a few strides from this point on after my Wednesday and Saturday runs. After this week I’ll also start adding morning recovery runs. During the spring build up they were particularly helpful after the tougher workouts.

It's Hot out there baby!

Hot weather is finally here. This week looks like it will be very hot all week. At least hot for us. Today was in around 27-28 c (low 80s) and humid. The humidity is the part that gets us here in Ottawa.

Today was an Easy Pace run day. Ran for an hour from Westboro (home) to Dow’s Lake to the Bank Street Bridge and back. Afterwards I walked down to my Monday night yoga class. The walk did me good.

This week’s yoga was a lot easier than last weeks. Perhaps almost too easy in parts. I missed the flow that we had in last week’s class. Lots of breaks today. It was probably good however considering the heat.

Yesterday I completely forgot too blog. The day I guess kinda of gotta away from me. I’m not too worried about that.

I think that my fluid intact was good today. I don’t always carry water for an hour run but today I took a bottle of electrolyte solution and had another bottle at my yoga class. Even then I bet that I could have taken more. Right now I don’t feel too bad.

Tomorrow is another Steady State run along the river and the bike trail between Carling and Moodie. I’ll need to watch fluid intake before, during and after as they’re calling for another day in the 80s.

Gatineau Park Run #1 for the weekend

Just finished a nice run in the park. Starting from Gamelin I ran up to Pink Link and back. Kept the pace easy but the hills are still the hills.

Right now I’m sitting @ Les Saisons Café having a piece of Coffee Cake and a Cappuccino. Weather is perfect and not too hot.

It’s amazing how much more enjoyable the run is when you keep the pace reasonable. This certainly was one my nicer runs in a while. Lots of people in the park including some families. Most folks are on their bike of course given the hills but I did pass a few runners. At least I’m not the only crazy person up here today!

Bought a copy of Run Fat Boy Run to watch tonight. Should be fun. Jo-Anne’s away so I’m on my own hence I get to pick the movie.

Greg sent me a slightly revised schedule for the next few weeks to get a bit more faster running in before the Canada Day 10k. More of a focus on going faster with good leg turn over. I think it should help. After this run I’ll probably do the Glen Tay 14.7k race in August in Perth.