Sunday 16 January 2011

Four things and pace concerns

The Dewsbury 10k is a flat, early February race where the course profile and typical temperatures lend themselves to many a PB.

On Thursday I saw that it wasn't full and began to toy with the idea of entering. After the training of the last 3 months and the 3k pace intervals I've been doing I reasoned that I might be in pretty good shape for a PB myself.

As for the marathon, 10k is a distance where I feel I have a jump in PB 'in me'. My official best was 45:03 on a hilly course last September but I can't help but feel I could go under 43 minutes on a flat course. Logic is that another member of the running club was 37s slower than me when I ran the 45:03 and had said she just couldn't close the gap, but 5 weeks later ran 43:03 on a flat course.

However, my confidence took a knock with Friday's recovery week intervals this week.

The plan called for a very slow 1.5 miles warm up; 3 x 1m @ 7:08 pace and another very slow 1.5m cool down.

No problem, right?

Wrong.

The plodding warm up duly completed I did the first interval. After 0.1m I glanced at the Garmin which told me average pace was 7:03 which felt about right, but when I'd completed the mile the average pace had dropped to 7:31 i.e. 10 mile pace.

I must have inadvertently slowed up I reasoned, even though the pace felt pretty consistent and reasonably brisk. Time to redouble the effort.

About 0.2m into interval 2 and I was averaging 7:09 pace, perfect, but by the end I'd dropped to 7:21 average. Interval 3 (admittedly up a slight but steady hill) was worse still at 7:48 - slower than half marathon pace. Yet my heart, lungs and legs all told me it felt like 5k pace even my big toes were blistered from hitting the ground much harder than normal.

Looking at the Garmin maps of the route I can't see any sign of it losing signal but it could be Garmin related I suppose. If it was over measuring by 8-10% that would be about right. If it wasn't the Garmin then I must have really lost speed - despite the interval training - and despite the training programme suggesting I do a 5k race today.

I don't know. I'll just have to keep my eye on it in the next couple of weeks but I wont shoe horn in the 10k race if there's no value to it.

Jess has kindly nominated me for a survey based on 'four things':

Four TV programmes I watch

  • Doctor Who
  • Peep show
  • QI
  • Buzzcocks

Aside from the odd documentary I don't think I watch any others and have just stripped the TV subscription down to freeview level.

Four things I'm passionate about

This is a tricky one. I'm sure it would have been easy 5 years ago but post 40 inertia now comes into play and I'm not sure I'm truly passionate about anything now other than my family. So that's one.

Running is the only obvious one but beyond that there are only things I might grumble about (the current government, racists, dumbing down of TV and language etc) or enjoy doing (reading, blogging, cooking, walking, Leeds Utd) but none of these are subjects that I do enough of/about to justify the tag 'passionate'.

Four words/phrases I use too much

  • Potentially
  • Conceivably
  • Fuck/fucking/fuckers
  • Twat

(I had to get Sue to help me with this one as I don't know I'm doing it).

Four things I have learned from the past

'Learned' is a bit final and I'm not sure I feel confident enough to be that final but thing's I'm definitely learning:

  • Feeling fit feels great.
  • It doesn't matter what other people think (particularly in the context of what you wear/do).
  • I'm not good with money.
  • Alcohol and I are not great companions.

Four things I'm looking forward to

  • Going to Paris in April - a holiday, a marathon, a break from work.
  • Having my tea at Aagrah tonight, as Bethan's birthday treat (12 tomorrow)
  • The spring.
  • Being more able to go walking in the Dales with the family (links to spring)

Four things I love about winter

  • The look of heavy snow (assuming I don't have to drive anywhere)
  • Christmas
  • Running in snow - proper hardcore
  • Without winter there could be no spring - means to an end

4 comments:

Maria said...

I love peep show too! So funny.
With the pacing, it could have just been one of those days where it all feels harder? The thing with the race is that if you do it and get a great time then it will be a real confidence boost, but if you do it and don't break your time then will it affect you in a negative way?

Jessica said...

Everyone is allowed an off-day in terms of pacing. My run this morning, for want of a better word, sucked. My pace was terrible. Don't let this demoralize you or put too much pressure on yourself with the race. I'd go for the race regardless because I love the atmosphere and social side too, and even if it doesn't go well then you have something to build on for future races that WILL.

I don't think I've ever regretted a race, even the ones where my times have been sub-snail pace.

Thanks for sharing your four things - I used to love QI, then Uni fried my brain and I couldn't take anything remotely academic or fact-related in that wasn't to do with pre-1700 literature ;)

BabyWilt said...

Never heard of Peep Show, seems I'm missing out mmmmmmmm

Alison said...

So funny that you had to ask Sue!

There could be any number of reasons why your pace was off -- don't let one run dictate your overall mood. Just be aware of the potential concerns for next time.