Racing a 10K This Weekend!
>> Thursday, April 25, 2024
It's "Get in Gear 10K" season! Time for a gut-busting 10K this weekend. Ugh... I really don't like this distance!
I'm obviously coming off a high from my 5 mile PR at the "Spirit of White Bear Lake 5 Miler" three weeks ago, but I'm trying to temper my expectations for this weekend's 10K. It will be different for 3 reasons:
• This 10K is a bigger race. It was great going out in 2nd place and just keeping the leader in my sights at the 5 miler, but this has a much deeper field, and it might be hard to "run my own race" when there will be SO many people in front of me that I'll (subconsciously) want to catch.
• This is NOT a flat race. The 5 mile race was quite flat. This upcoming 10K isn't HILLY, but it has its challenges. Here's last year's Garmin map (race is clockwise from lower left), and I added GREEN for downhill sections and RED for uphill sections:
The short red sections up to the bridges are steep but short, and
the real noticable hill is the UP then DOWN on the hairpin to the east.
SO MY GOALS FOR THIS WEEKEND?................
Like at the 5 miler, there's a CHANCE to PR. So I'm not ruling that out. I feel great just being able to say that as a 43-year-old. (My "honest" PR is from 15 years ago at 36:46, my fastest Get In Gear was 12 years ago in 36:47, and I ran the 2018 Minneapolis Halloween 10K in 36:30 as a course that measured about 6.1 miles [SHOULD have been more like just under 37:00 as my 2nd faster 10K].)
But (and this is a big BBUUUTTTTTTT), can I run 2 perfect races just 3 weeks apart? That doesn't tend to happen for me. Will the weather be as perfect this weekend as it was 3 weeks ago? Doubtful. (This race has a history of being cold and wet.) Can I keep it at the PERFECT pace for the first 1.5 miles to give myself a chance at a good time without risking blowing up? These are the unanswerable questions right now.
I want to find the right (easy-ish) pace to start, work up the hills letting up the effort a LITTLE, and then really suffer on the St. Paul side of the river to see if I can lay down a good negative split and a fast finish! We'll see what the day (and my legs) holds! Stay tuned!!
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Two Hard Workouts: Track Intervals and a Long Trainer Ride
>> Tuesday, April 23, 2024
I finished last week with 2 hard workouts:
First, I hit the track for 4 x (800 meters then 400 meters) with 2:00 rest between everything. I've done this a few times in the past, and here's a post from November comparing 3 of the times I did it last year. I wanted to be fast, but glanced at my Garmin 200 meters into the workout and saw that I was starting pretty slow... I was hoping to see 0:37 or 0:38 (as I run the first half laps a bit faster usually), but instead it was showing 0:41. D'oh. I picked it up for the rest of that interval.
In the end, I ran 800s and 400s that looked like this:
1:21 + 1:18 = 2:39.8
1:14.8
1:18 + 1:16 = 2:34.7
1:14.2
1:17 + 1:16 = 2:34.7
1:12.8
1:18 + 1:15 = 2:33.7
1:13.8
That wasn't too bad. In November, I dropped my 800 times in this workout from 2:41 to 2:36, so this was better as 3 of the 4 were faster than my fastest back then.
Pace and HR you'd expect to see for this workout.
Can you tell my water bottle was placed on the infield? ;)
I hit the trainer not knowing exactly what I was going to do. After a longer warm-up, I thought I MIGHT be able to put up with efforts of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 minute. And I was able to hold on to that! That was a total of 2 hours and 12 minutes in the saddle, which was one of my longest trainer rides ever - I think I've just cracked 2 hours a few times. Here was my heart rate, and you can see I took 50% of my "effort" time as easy spinning after going hard (so 10 minutes hard, 5 mins easy, 9 mins hard, 4.5 mins easy, etc):
10: hard
9: hard
8: standing
7: harder gear every minute
6: alternating minutes of standing and seated
5: hard
4: standing
3: alternating mins of standing and seated
2: hard
1: standing
I did a 40 mile ride when I turned 40 a few years ago, then I did 2 hrs and 13 mins on the trainer turning 41 two years ago just before my birthday, and finally 2 hrs and 16 mins on the trainer turning 42 last year about a week after my birthday. So this ride could be a month late ride for my 43rd birthday - an average of 19.5 mph would get me to 43 miles in 2 hours and 12 mins.
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5K Training for my Boys
>> Monday, April 22, 2024
My boys are gearing up for a 5K shortly! I took them out this weekend for some longer runs.
Charlie REALLY WANTED to run a 5K on the track, so we hit the Macalester track for 12.5 laps. He thought that would be fun. For some reason...
One lap in!
I've never noticed it's such a "wide" track, with the 100 meter mark being still
well on the curve! It can fit a soccer field in the middle and not just a football field.
In a pretty bad place with 2 laps left...
... but then happy to be done after 12.5 laps!
Crashed on the high jump mats.
Then later, I took Henry out. I only snapped one picture of him as I biked with him:
Down along River Road.
Ready for a 5K shortly!!
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