Bushey Park Time Trial

Right - well this was a bit of a late decision running this - I first started to look at the thread on the RW forums last night, and only made my decision to run it this morning (well - I gave it some thought last night, and set the alarm so that it was possible). Anyway - the day started well, as I weighed in at 94.3kgs. All that training I've done over the last few days finally showed some results! The next target is 93.3kgs, as that will be a stone and a half lost. :o)

Anyway - to today's race. I'd decided to do the splits in kilometres, so I got some more feedback. I set this up last night, and was glad I did, as in the end I was in a bit of a rush. Then I set off on my scooter to Bushey Park. Details of the race website are given here, and here's the course.

I got to the cark park no problem, but struggled a bit to see the registration desk, but once I'd asked someone it was very quick and easy. I met up with a few people from my club and the forum, and before much longer it was time to start. I set off at quite a quick pace, but felt I could get quicker and should have started further forward. The field was small though and soon spread, so it didn't hold me up, and within another thirty seconds my chest was pounding and I was worried I'd gone off too fast!

I slowed a little and settled to a steady pace. I glanced at my HRM and saw that my HR was in the high 150s, so about 75% as calculated by Karvonnen. This did creep up slowly throughout the race, as can be seen in the graph below, but that was okay over a 5k. I'd have to slow down more for a 10k!

I glanced down and realised we were approaching the 1km mark, and my time was around 4:35. This was perhaps a fraction too fast as it was under 7:30, but I thought "let's see what happens". At around this point I got passed by a woman who was running with a King Charles Spaniel on a lead, and although I decided I had to catch them, in the end I never did. Not this time anyway.

The kilometres went by, and I was pleasantly surprised that although I got a dry throat, I could keep up the running speed pretty well, although the pace displayed on my Garmin was dropping gradually from 4:38 through to about 4:45, but not hugely. The course winds a bit around a cricket pitch, but it wasn't long before we hit the home straight, which is about a mile long, and rather tiring as you can see such a long line of runners stretched out in front. I realised half way down here that as long as I did a decent last kilometre, I'd break 24 minutes (my initial target), so was chuffed at that. In the end, I managed a final burst and came in at 23:13. It showed up as slightly short on my Garmin, but there were a lot of trees about so I won't set too much store by that as I know others have found it to be an accurate course.

A quick chat to other people, including Puffing Bertie, Kath (la Presidente), and some Sutton Runners, and then I headed home. I've just realised that although I'd changed the display to show kilometres, I hadn't set the auto-lap feature to do the same, so the figures are for miles, which is irritating! Ah well, the figures are still good, and the pace is pretty constant, even though the HR is going up. I'm managing just over 7:30 miles all the way :o)

Right - well it's two weeks to Elmbridge, and I'm feeling very positiive about breaking 50 minutes if the weather's not too hot. Not that I'd do it, but a repeat of today's time for the first 5k would give me 26:47 to run the second 5k, which is four and a half minutes slower, or nine minute miling! I'm pretty confident if I just knock 20 seconds per mile off my pace that it should be a lot more comfortable and I hope I'll be able to maintain that pace for 10k. I must learn (or re-learn) the kilometre equivalents of eight minute miling, and for seven and a half and seven too! I think the lack of extreme heat today also helped a lot.

Two weeks to go, and I plan to fit in a couple of long runs (say eight miles) and some speed sessions. I noticed after my last blog entry that I'd actually run two days in a row, and could have run yesterday as well quite happily, although I was starting to think about today's run so decided against it. I'm so pleased with how my legs are standing up to it though. Maybe now's the time to invest in another pair of Kayanos - they seem to work! On the other hand though, I do think my gait might be okay (plus I've lost weight) with the 2100s, so I might give them a try on a run at some point too.

Compliments to the organisers of today's run - it's free! Well organised, a lovely atmosphere, and definitely one I'll be doing at least once a month :o)