Okay, so, after the race, I’m treating this week as another training week, although I’m not sure whether or not I’m pushing for a next race.
The workout
An easy post-race run of 12K. Nothing fancy.
A 12K run around the block
Afterwards
My calves and upper legs were a bit stiff, but that’s all. No aches or anything, which is great. I ran on my Altra Torin 4‘s, which wasn’t the best choice, I guess, because of the zero-drop which I always feel in, you guessed it, my calf muscles.
Workout data
Workout data If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
Well, yesterday I ran my fourth tune-up race, which, I had decided, I would treat as the final race if it went well. That way, a bad race could still lead to a good next race. The question then is, of course, how did it go?
At the start (353’s my number)
The race
I ran a 10K race at my own track club Fortuna. The Vulcaan race featured a 5K, 10K and half marathon. Pacing went well and all my km-splits I ran 3:29 with a margin of 3 seconds. I was very pleased with that, not in the last place because running felt hard but good, and I thought I had been wise to let the first to guys go, who went ahead with a pace around 3:22. All good… until I reached the 10K point on my watch, which clocked in at 34:54 (which would be awesome for me), but the race still lasted for 500m. 500 meters, guys! What happened? Finally reaching the finish line, my watch showed 10.52K and 36:39 — which, not coincidentally, was my official time too.
I had seen on forehand that the course, which was uploaded as a GPX file on the race’s site, was 10.2K. That’s too much for a PR too, but okay. Then all my team mates ran between 10.1 and 10.2K. Why did my watch show 10.5K? Some of the guys said they cut some corners, which I didn’t do, but that wouldn’t make up for 300-400 meters, right? What I think the cause of this mess is, is a combination of a course that’s just to long (10.2K) and my watch getting the distance not from GPS, but from the Stryd footpod. I have no way to determine what piece of technology is more accurate, although Stryd is the unofficial number 1 in that area (see this page on Fellrnr), but I feel 10.5K can’t be right.
So, I based my pacing on something — wrong or right — that does not agree with the official course and the GPS course. That sucks in any case. So, did I run a PB? Officially: no. My PB on the 10K was 36:26 and now I finished in 36:39. Unofficially: I think so, but I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure the course was longer than 10K and shorter than 10.5K. If I go with the 10.2K reported by everyone else, my time on ’the real 10K’ would be 35:56, which would be a PB, but still slower than I would have wanted, because I was pacing at 3:30, while actually running around 3:33 on average.
The last corner, where I was already aware of the fact that either my watch or the course (or both) were wrong.
So, the outcome, unfortunately, is that I felt like I ran a good race, and finished third in around 200 runners, but I didn’t feel excited or joyful afterwards because it was and still is unclear what the final verdict should be.
What did go well?
Well, I felt great before and during the race. After the race, too — my calf muscles are a bit tight, but that’s all. Although my cadence was a bit lower than expected (188spm), there was not much vertical movement, and I felt like having a strong posture the whole race. Fast legs, upright body. Having less miles the week prior and doing only some strides the day before the race felt like the right move. Although you can read I’m not really satisfied, I do feel like having ran a good race and having learnt a lot. Now I should learn to just appreciate that…
Oh, and maybe I should just appreciate finishing third.
Third place, winning a 45-minute massage
And now…
As I wrote above, I could treat this as a tune-up race and run another race in two or three weeks. My training plan includes that option, but I’m just not sure what I should do. I don’t want to end up injured because I pushed it too long. Today, I’ll just do a recovery run and think about it. To be continued…
Race data and results
If you want to see the race, check it out on Garmin or on Strava. The official results can be found on Splittime.nl.
This is an old Runner’s World page already (it dates from 2007), but there’s still a lot of good advice by Jack Daniels on it, like balancing easy and hard running (80 and 20 percent of weekly mileage respectively) and how long your long runs should be.
This is the last workout before the race tomorrow, thus a short one.
The workout
5 strides, or, in other terms, 5 times 100m at maximum speed, a good, dynamic warming-up, 2K easy, then the strides with 100m recovery in between, and finally 1K easy to cool off.
Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash
Afterwards
It’s kind of weird to do such a short workout. 4K in total, 18 minutes – but it’s good to get the legs working for a short amount of time. I enjoyed the workout and the strides were nice and fast (for me, that is), pace around 2:50/4:34 per km/m.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
My legs are a lot less tired today. Still, I’m doing only a 12K long run.
The Workout
Today, I’m doing a 12K long run in heart rate zone 2 and I’m finishing with 4 strides to get some feeling of speed in.
Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash
Afterwards
Running felt good. Cadence high (ehm, as was the pace, but nothing crazy), but the run felt natural and smooth, without much effort. Funny how you sometimes do not seem to get into the run, and sometimes it just happens, seemingly without effort.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
Because I have a race on Sunday, and I sometimes feel a strength/core workout for days after, I did the weekly hour of strength training today. Plenty of time to recover. Not much else to say about, apart from the usual: it was hard and fun.
I still feel my legs are tired from the track workout yesterday, so it’s a good thing I’m doing an easy run today.
The Workout
Today I’m doing a 10K easy run in heart rate zone 1/2. Nothing fancy, except maybe for wearing new shoes.
New Hoka’s (Bondi 6)
I bought new shoes for long runs and opted for Hoka Bondi’s, because of the low drop (4mm) and amount of cushioning (insane). I must say that I liked the feeling of the shoes — I was a bit afraid of having that ‘wobbly’ feeling due to the stack height, but the shoes felt very soft yet firm. What I didn’t like, though, was the sizing. I have two other pairs of Hoka’s (Cavu, ATR) and I ordered these shoes in the same size. Turns out they’re much (!) too narrow in front, so a very tight toebox — a problem I have with the other Hoka’s as well — but they also feel just a bit too small. I’m going to try to return them and switch over to either the wide version of the shoe, or a size bigger, or both. Why can’t companies sort out the consistency of their sizing?
Afterwards
Back to the run. I could feel I was tired, but I managed to keep pace, cadence and heart rate constant. I had a long day at work, and sometimes that just gives me a kind of worn-out feeling.
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
I’ve made a new calculator today. You can enter a time and distance, and calculate the average pace. Nothing fancy, bu sometimes it’s handy to do a quick calculation like that.
Let’s say that you ran a 15K race in 1 hour and 15 minutes. What pace have you run at? It turns out that you had an average pace of 5 minutes per kilometer. And what about a 10M in 59 minutes and 58 seconds? Your pace was 3:44.
The Jericho Mile is a tv movie from 1979, in which a man is in Folsom prison — for life. He’s not interested in anything other than running and gets scouted by a running coach. After a tragic situation (no spoiler here!) he tries to qualify for the olympics.
Still from The Jericho Mile, taken from IMDB. Copyright the respective owner.
The movie is some forty years old and it shows, but apart from that, the movie is great. I sometimes feel not all actors are up to speed, and the dialogues sometimes feel a bit forced, but overall, it’s a great watch. The movie did win an Emmy Award, so it’s by no means an obscure, unknown movie. A bit forgotten nowadays, I guess.
Oh, something else — The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil plays at just the right moments in this movie.
Today I’m doing a speed workout, consisting of 5 times 800 meters at 3:20/5:22. Last time I did this workout, I ran to and from the track, which is an additional 8K. That’s too much for today, as the workout itself is tough enough. I cycled a part, so the total running workout was 12K.
Afterwards
The intervals were hard, but running felt good — much better than last time, when I did this workout after a strength workout the same day. I did all intervals in a pace a bit faster than needed, more around 3:10-3:15/5:06-5:14 than 3:20/5:22 (actually, I see now paces were 3:14, 3:14, 3:15, 3:17, and 3:14), but that’s because the pace displayed on my watch seemed lower than what is calculated afterwards. That’s probably because I use Stryd for cadence (200spm today), speed and distance. This works better on the track, because GPS tends to cut corners. Anyway, it felt like a hard, but good workout.
Track in Vlaardingen
Workout data
If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.
