My training had been building to this weekend since
March. Three days, three cities, three
races. Sounds impressive but in reality
it was a glorified fitness test.
Race One in Port Stanley, Ontario was my fourth Reach theBeach 5K. I love this event, the course
and my history of overcoming injury and accomplishment.
This time around my plan was to run disciplined, not bolt
out at the start and die climbing he hill.
I knew that my training methodology wasn’t conducive to a lightning fast
race; however I was going to using the time to baseline my fitness and
determine my pacing goals for the rest of the weekend.
Finding a location on the starting line that would minimize
trampling 8 year olds and 2.5km walkers eventually put me in the finishing
chute with half a dozen other “adults”
It also provided great inside line once we got to green light to run. Through the first kilometer I kept telling
myself to dial it back a bit. Heading to
the “hill” I had a brief chat with the running coach from Runner’s Choice. He’s been nailing some great runs this year
and it was a pleasure to see him slowly peel away healthy and happy.
The only thing I felt I struggled with this year was running
the downhill. I couldn’t find my stride
and felt like I was braking down the entire hill. Looking at my splits from 2010 (no watch in
2011) I was quicker through the middle of the course and slower at the start
and finish. The finish I
understand. If there is no one behind
me, I tend to coast in to the finish and not push the pace. I‘ll take
the 22:18 with the 22nd overall and 4th in the 50-59 age
group. (although after factoring out the Masters runners I was awarded 2nd)
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| Run For Your Life'rs |
Up next on Saturday was a Catholic-Hindu wedding followed by
a bus trip with Chris and Julianne and the gang from Run For Your Life in St
Thomas to A Mid Summer Night's Run in Toronto to run the 15K.
Going in to this event I had no clue what to expect from
myself. All my training had been by
heart rate and not pacing so I was a bit lost for a race plan. All I could envision was use my 5K time from
the night before and plug it in to the Jack Daniels spreadsheet. The magic numbers were a 4:46min/km pace and
a goal finishing time of 1:11:31.
Interesting numbers, my fastest distance time was the 2011 Good Life Half Marathon and my overall pace was 4:50-ish.
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| Chris and Julianne |
Regardless of all the numbers stuff, this was a fun event
with a great routing through Tommy Thompson Park. You wouldn’t know you were running in Metropolitan
Toronto until you see the skyline at sunset.
Other than the skirt compliments of Terri, this was a really
quick training run. Evenly paced, by 5km
segments, slowly increasing in the last 5km, I checked my pace on every
kilometer split, pleasantly surprised how closely I was holding my goal pace,
occasionally slowing by a few seconds, occasionally speeding up by a few. All-in-all this distance was right in my
comfort zone and I nailed my goal, finishing in 1:10:32 with a 4:43min/km pace. Needless to say, I’m quite happy this result.
The final event of the weekend on Sunday morning was the
Rock the Road 10K. I blistered the
course last year. This year I hoped just
to survive with magic numbers considerably slower than my PB. I was looking at a 46:30 finish and
4:39min/km pacing. I settled on using
4:40 as my pace.
The first 5K were close to plan with the me remembering to
hold back a bit on the downhill start. Heading
in to the second half my legs started to get heavy. While there wasn’t a
stampede past me along Adelaide Street, I knew I wasn’t holding my pace. At the 7km mark my average pace was right on
the 4:40 mark but I was running at 4:50.
I had no oomph for the last two kilometers although I was still managing
to pass people.
My finish time was 47:07 for 9th overall in my
age group and 62nd finisher.
Not quite what I was expecting, in my head I was closer to my goal time. Bottom line, I really wasn’t spending too
much time looking at my watch I was probably thinking about the beer waiting
for me at the finish line.
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