New Year's Day
Happy New Year Everyone :oD
Anyway - in the tradition (started last year) I decided to do the Serpies NYD 10k in Hyde Park. If nothing else it would mean another eye-damaging t-shirt to train in! Not complaining, I rather like it :o). Anyhow -turns out this year's souvenir was a thermal mug - which could be rather useful, except I never let my tea get cold 'cos I drink it too fast!
Anyway - in the tradition (started last year) I decided to do the Serpies NYD 10k in Hyde Park. If nothing else it would mean another eye-damaging t-shirt to train in! Not complaining, I rather like it :o). Anyhow -turns out this year's souvenir was a thermal mug - which could be rather useful, except I never let my tea get cold 'cos I drink it too fast!
I had been uncertain whether to run, but decided to hobble round after my six miler of last Friday. I wasn't expecting to do a good time, and went up saying "I'll be chuffed if I get under 50", given how dead my leg had gtone before. The main purpose was to meet up with Pink (birthday girl), Aiki, and Cookie, which I duly did! Great to see them again, and sorry I didn't stay for lunch (was sorely tempted but revision was calling and after beer I wouldn't have got any done at all!).
Anyway - by the time I'd downed my coffee in the exhorbitantly priced coffee shop - nearly £4 for a cake - FFS, it was time for a speedy change (stripping off top layers) and dumping the bags at the bandstand. Then off to the start. How far to position myself forward in the heaving throng? I followed Cookie, which was rather daft, as he's a 41 minute 10k runner! Anyway...
The starter horn went, and I set off, and hit gaps as they appeared. Before I knew it I was ahead of Cookie! Something was wrong! Still, I felt good, and in spite of heckling ("How am I supposed to get round this fat git in front of me" - thanks Cookie!), and a subsequent overtaking and vanishing in a cloud of dust, I was happily trotting along. HR was 160, all felt good. First kilometre marker reached in 4:28 (Garmin had it a few seconds later) and feeling good. The next bit has a steady climb, but the pace didn't slacken by much in spite of this, and then a mainly downhill section. There's a steep short climb in the third kilometre, and my HR was up in the mid 170s. I can normally cope with this okay - see the Oxshott report, where the HR was up there from very early on, but this time I couldn't handle it, so although my third kilometre was again under 46 minute pace (for 10k, not the kilometre!), I knew I couldn't keep it going, I have barely traoned the last few weeks. Steady training since Oxshott, even two or three times a week, and things would have been different.
Anyway - by the time I'd downed my coffee in the exhorbitantly priced coffee shop - nearly £4 for a cake - FFS, it was time for a speedy change (stripping off top layers) and dumping the bags at the bandstand. Then off to the start. How far to position myself forward in the heaving throng? I followed Cookie, which was rather daft, as he's a 41 minute 10k runner! Anyway...
The starter horn went, and I set off, and hit gaps as they appeared. Before I knew it I was ahead of Cookie! Something was wrong! Still, I felt good, and in spite of heckling ("How am I supposed to get round this fat git in front of me" - thanks Cookie!), and a subsequent overtaking and vanishing in a cloud of dust, I was happily trotting along. HR was 160, all felt good. First kilometre marker reached in 4:28 (Garmin had it a few seconds later) and feeling good. The next bit has a steady climb, but the pace didn't slacken by much in spite of this, and then a mainly downhill section. There's a steep short climb in the third kilometre, and my HR was up in the mid 170s. I can normally cope with this okay - see the Oxshott report, where the HR was up there from very early on, but this time I couldn't handle it, so although my third kilometre was again under 46 minute pace (for 10k, not the kilometre!), I knew I couldn't keep it going, I have barely traoned the last few weeks. Steady training since Oxshott, even two or three times a week, and things would have been different.
Anyway, I walked through the drinks station at the end of the first lap, which gave my HR time to go down, and headed into the second lap. My pace still wasn't at all bad, and I did even briefly entertain the idea of getting under the 46:46 I did at Oxshott, but the wind across the open section of the park really kicked in and my pace slackened. Still not at all bad, but it would be tough. How much was I going to pay for my fast start? I resolved to get under 50 no matter what!
The second lap trundled by, and with the downhill I decided to push to see if I could give myself a chance of sub 47. In the end this didn't do me any favours, and the HR went up and I decided to walk the drinks station again. I could probably have kept going, but decided not to bust a gut as a PB for the year (well - since the restart of PBs in 2006) was highly unlikely. I just didn't feel I had the fitness. The left leg was starting to deaden a bit by now as well, so I had a fairly relaxed last lap - which in the end wasn't that much slower by the time the sprint finish had been built in. I'd decided part way round to get under 48, as all was going wll, but just lost enough on the short sharp hill to make that unlikely, and in spite of a burst down the long home straight, I wasn't that near. I wanted to beat my Elmbridge time of 48:22, but in the end tied it exactly!
Anyway - mixed feelings, chuffed to bits to do so well given the problems I've had, but then knowing I could have gone a fair chunk quicker with the extra bit of speed endurance I would probably have had given solid training. Still - a good way to start the new year :oD
The second lap trundled by, and with the downhill I decided to push to see if I could give myself a chance of sub 47. In the end this didn't do me any favours, and the HR went up and I decided to walk the drinks station again. I could probably have kept going, but decided not to bust a gut as a PB for the year (well - since the restart of PBs in 2006) was highly unlikely. I just didn't feel I had the fitness. The left leg was starting to deaden a bit by now as well, so I had a fairly relaxed last lap - which in the end wasn't that much slower by the time the sprint finish had been built in. I'd decided part way round to get under 48, as all was going wll, but just lost enough on the short sharp hill to make that unlikely, and in spite of a burst down the long home straight, I wasn't that near. I wanted to beat my Elmbridge time of 48:22, but in the end tied it exactly!
Anyway - mixed feelings, chuffed to bits to do so well given the problems I've had, but then knowing I could have gone a fair chunk quicker with the extra bit of speed endurance I would probably have had given solid training. Still - a good way to start the new year :oD
posted by XFR Bear @ 7:14 pm
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