Ni!

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Firecracker 10K :: 33:17 - 2nd Place

Tough race. Got out well, but then the heat took a toll. Race time temperature was 77F with a dewpoint of 62F making cooling a problem. Full sun beating down on the asphalt increased the 'baking' sensation. Through the 5k in 16:13, then started to wilt. Offered a couple of decent surges in the second 5k, but the writing was on the wall.

3:06.6(165) | 3:09.6(176) | 3:15.8(177) |
3:21.8(176) | 3:19.9(174) | 3:30.5(176) |
3:21.4(177) | 3:29.8(176) | 3:27.5(175) |
3:15.0(178)

It looks like I relaxed for 8K and 9K when I should have been holding on to Lee and setting up for the kick. Lee, the winner, gapped me for good around this time. I can't say that I felt I could have responded during the race, but the data tells me that I needed to be a bit tougher. If I had some guts, I could have cracked 33 today. Hit a maxHR of 180, which I believe is legit. Between the effort and the heat, I'm pretty sure I got a laboratory-quality test today. Recovery to 120 in 2:25. Nothing to compare it to, but I recorded it anyway. Legs feel very good a few hours later, which lends some validity to my whinging about not running with enough guts late in the race.

While the 5:00 first mile was too fast, I think I needed to do it to get out of this marathon mentality. I still am not racing in the way I think I am capable, although the first 5K today was a step in the right direction. Now if I can maintain that intensity and stretch it out to a full 10K, I'll be on to something.

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

7 comments:

afuntanilla said...

wow. congrats. it sounds like you expected more from yourself, but this mere mortal like myself is in awe.

just curious..what time for a 10k would you be PSYCHED about?

Lawrence said...

Don't be too hard on yourself.... Though your analyzing this one to get more improvement -- that is good. Great race. I'd love to get your 5k split in a 5K race.

Mike said...

Glad you went for it today and sorry you didn't get the win. I don't know if "relaxing" is really the word for a couple of kilometers in the 3:20's with a HR 4 or 5 beats off your max.

This being said, I know a bit about the Tuesday morning quarterbacking that is post-race reflection. If we're ever totally satisfied we're finished. You and those legs still have some old PR's to knock out.

So when is the next one?

Andrew said...

Great job! Sounds like a real try for that top slot.

Thomas said...

Even though you're obviously not entirely satisfied, you had a good race. Congratulations. Don't over-analyse things.

Eric said...

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

My expectations are fairly high right now, so sub-32 is what I'm looking for at some point this summer. I would have been excited about a sub-32:30 on this course, though.

It was good that the mental letdown was so obvious, as it motivates me for the next time. I was pretty excited about the 5k split myself!

Mike, it doesn't sound very relaxing when you put it that way. haha. One thing I noticed that I'm curious about is that I dropped to 3:27-3:30 when I felt I was mentally out of it. Incidentally, this is the faster end of my marathon pace range. This has me wondering if that is a kind of fail-safe mode for my brain. If that's the case, I think some 10K pacework is in order to change that comfort zone.

Andrew and Thomas, thanks for the comments. You're right, it probably wouldn't hurt for me to enjoy myself a bit more! Cheers!

Abadabajev said...

WOW, you got some major speed. 3:12 per k pace is definitely yours if you want it bad enough. As for swallowing bugs, turn a negative into a positive....think meat group.

Very nice 10k run.