Here’s how Greenwood went down.
We all toed the line under wet grey skies. The temperature was just under 10, but there was little wind, so conditions were pretty good. When the gun went off, a bunch of guys surged forward, but I kept myself in check, trying to establish the pace with my first few strides. Normally I go out too fast and don’t realize it until a kilometre or more in – and by then it’s too late – I lose it all and more in the last couple of ks. But this time, I kept things comfortable. I fell in with Nick and Terry and counted the guys in front – 5.
The first k clicked by in 3:32. Perfect – exactly the range I was looking for (anything between 3:30 and 3:35). Much of the first k was uphill, but it felt easy, which restored my confidence after a week of bad workouts. The pace felt good. All I had to do was keep it.
We passed the guy reading out the mile splits in just under 5:40. Perfect. I chatted a bit with Nick as we were moving along. We took stock of the leaders. There were three guys out in front, but after their first mile (a too-fast 5:10), one of them fell back a bit. Between those three and our little group, there were two guys running together. Nick knew one of them from his Dal days, and he said I should think about reeling those guys in over the last 5 miles. He told me to have patience – he figured they would come back if I stuck to my race plan.
After the second k (3:34), I started to pull away a bit from Nick and Terry and occupied the lonely space between our group and the next two runners. Nick told me later that there was a guy who tried to go with me, but he fell back quickly, realizing it wasn’t there. I was still being cautious, but when the third k was a bit slow at 3:39, I injected some life back into the pace and picked it up on the fourth to 3:33. All the while, I was inching closer to the 4th and 5th guys. One and two were gone, and three looked pretty far, but I was reeling 4 and 5 in, which gave me something to focus on.
The fifth k is the hardest on the course: there’s a bit of a monster hill. But it was on this hill where I finally caught up to the 4th and 5th guys. Even so, my pace slackened because I was scared of red lining up the hill and flooding my system with lactic acid. I kept the effort the same, but could feel myself slowing – as a result, the 5th k was my slowest at 3:48. What was worse – my 5k time (according to my Garmin) was 18:07 – off pace for my goal of sub 36.
Normally that would have thrown me completely. I would have gotten frustrated and my mentals would have gone to hell. From there, I would have tensed up and run poorly. But it didn’t happen. I shrugged it off and kept wheeling. In fact, down the other side of the hill, I decided to up the ante and see if the other two would come with me. During a 3:31 6th k, I could hear their footsteps get quieter and quieter behind me. I was pleased.
At this point, I noticed that the 3rd guy was starting to come back to me. That first mile was eating away at his legs, and he had nobody near him to give him a push. Incredibly, I was still feeling good and kept an even pace over the rolling terrain with a 3:35 7th k. However, as I was gaining on the 3rd guy, I heard footsteps approaching from behind. One of the two guys had made a break and caught me up. Those damn teenagers – all legs and lungs. But the presence of this guy pushed me to a 3:31 8th k.
We ran together for awhile, but as we started in on the penultimate k, I remembered to relax – and found that I still had gas in the tank. I picked it up slightly and the guy faded again. Now I was going for the 3rd guy and could feel him coming back. My second last k was my fastest so far – 3:30.
With a k to go on a long flat stretch, I let loose, doing all I could to eat up the distance between me and the 3rd guy. But as I was giving it, I heard those damn footsteps from behind again. The kid had saved a bunch for the end – he had more than I did, and with 200m or so to go, he went by me, hungry for the 3rd guy. Turns out, though, that the 3rd guy had lots left and kept both of us off.
Coming down the last 50m or so, I finally saw the clock – and saw that I was going to go under 36. It was awesome. I cruised over that last k in 3:24 and crossed the line in 35:42, with a huge stupid grin on my face. Julie-Ann rushed over knowing exactly how happy I’d be. It was a great feeling. I congratulated the 4th guy on a great race. He ate me up at the end – probably had more in the tank than he thought. But I came away feeling that I also had more in the tank and that this wasn’t the limit of my 10k potential. Problem is there’s only one more 10k on the Timex schedule this year, so I’ve got to make it count in July!
In the end, I was 5th overall and 2nd in my age category (20-39), which netted me a silver medal – woo hoo. Three of the guys I lost to were 19 year-olds – but they don’t really count – a 34 year-old dude should lose to whippersnappers like that! What I was most happy about was that I ran a pretty big negative split, covering the second 5k in just under 17:40. Last year, that would have been a great 5k race time for me – this year, it’s the second half of my 10k!
Now it’s back to the training. There are no more Timex races until June, when there’s three – so the next month will be all about working on 5k and 5mile speed. I’ll be looking for that elusive sub-17 for 5 and maybe even a sub-28 for 5 miles. We’ll see.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Boston and Greenwood
Nova Scotia had a huge day on Marathon Monday. Huge. Actually, to be more specific, Cliff’s training group (tentatively called Cliff’s Antiques) had a huge day at Boston. How’s this for huge:
Denise Robson (2:43:16) – 1st Masters (40+) woman, which carries a purse of $10,000; 24th woman overall; first Canadian woman; 8th Canadian overall.
Rami Bardeesy (2:27:22) – 3rd Masters men, which carries a purse of $2,500; 47th overall; 45th male overall; first Canadian overall.
Leah Jabbour (2:59:48) – 76th woman overall; 5th Canadian woman.
Rami and Leah ran PB times, while Denise ran her fastest Boston. It was amazing to witness their journeys all through the winter and spring. I can’t wait to hear all their stories.
But just as Boston ends, another RNS race gears up. This Sunday is the Greenwood 10k, the first Timex series race on the calendar. My own training has kind of stunk over the past few weeks. The long hours of editing, the poor eating, and the lack of full sleeps has taken some of the jump out of my legs. On Saturday, we were doing 5x1mile @ 5:30/mile (3:25/km), and I just couldn’t keep up. By the end of each interval, I was (as they say) “going to face” – you know, when you’re working so hard that your face gets all screwed up – that’s going to face, and it means you’re in trouble.
But I’m not going to worry too much about it. My goal for the race is “simply” to run under 36min, so I “only” need to average 3:35/km (about 5:45/mile). Not too long ago that was a solid 5k race pace for me, so we’ll see if I can actually pull it off. From what I hear, the course only has one real hill, but the conditions will have to be good if I’m going to knock 30s off my PB.
Happy trails – hope to have some stories to share soon that aren’t about me!
Denise Robson (2:43:16) – 1st Masters (40+) woman, which carries a purse of $10,000; 24th woman overall; first Canadian woman; 8th Canadian overall.
Rami Bardeesy (2:27:22) – 3rd Masters men, which carries a purse of $2,500; 47th overall; 45th male overall; first Canadian overall.
Leah Jabbour (2:59:48) – 76th woman overall; 5th Canadian woman.
Rami and Leah ran PB times, while Denise ran her fastest Boston. It was amazing to witness their journeys all through the winter and spring. I can’t wait to hear all their stories.
But just as Boston ends, another RNS race gears up. This Sunday is the Greenwood 10k, the first Timex series race on the calendar. My own training has kind of stunk over the past few weeks. The long hours of editing, the poor eating, and the lack of full sleeps has taken some of the jump out of my legs. On Saturday, we were doing 5x1mile @ 5:30/mile (3:25/km), and I just couldn’t keep up. By the end of each interval, I was (as they say) “going to face” – you know, when you’re working so hard that your face gets all screwed up – that’s going to face, and it means you’re in trouble.
But I’m not going to worry too much about it. My goal for the race is “simply” to run under 36min, so I “only” need to average 3:35/km (about 5:45/mile). Not too long ago that was a solid 5k race pace for me, so we’ll see if I can actually pull it off. From what I hear, the course only has one real hill, but the conditions will have to be good if I’m going to knock 30s off my PB.
Happy trails – hope to have some stories to share soon that aren’t about me!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Lung Run Extravaganza
I finally have a chance to give you guys a race report from the Lung Run. I’ve been editing EMBA Major Research Projects non-stop for about three weeks now, but it looks like I have the night off (fingers crossed) – maybe I’ll even get a full-night’s sleep tonight. Yay!
Okay, so. If you scroll down this blog page a bit and look at the right-hand column, you’ll notice that my PB for the 5k has changed: it’s now 17:09. Ya hoo! Not only that – we raised $310 for the NS Lung Association! Not bad at all. I was actually really moved by how generous people were with donations. When I sent out those emails, I kind of figured they’d be ignored. Not so!
The race was a big success for the NSLA – they had over 500 people show up for the kid’s 1.5k and the general 5k. Those are huge numbers for a local race – it’s really established itself as the premier 5k event in the province. And there were some big guns running. The kid who won is from down the South Shore in Bridgewater, and not only was he a provincial high school champion, but he also represented Canada at the World Junior Cross-Country championships in Poland not too long ago. He won this race in around 15:30 – not bad for a day with 40-50km/h winds in pretty much every direction!
The top female crossed the line in 17:30 – another blistering time, given the conditions. She was ahead of me for the first 800m or so before I pulled ahead. I was thinking that she could tuck in behind me and draft during the first mile, which was straight into the big wind, but she fell off the pace after another half a k.
That first mile was brutal. First of all, I made my usual mistake of lining up behind slower people, which forced me to weave in and out of runners for the first 200m in order to establish my pace. I’m not sure why I do that at bigger races. Part of me thinks that lining up a bit back will prevent me from going out too quickly, but it doesn’t – it just makes me waste energy trying to pick my way through the crowd, and it keeps me from establishing an efficient rhythm right from the start. At the same time, it feels a bit cocky to toe the line with guys I know are going to leave me in the dust, although not everyone who lines up in front stays in front. It’s funny – there’s a strange etiquette in the starting pack, and where you seed yourself communicates exactly how you see your own running. And I don’t want to be that guy who lines up in front but always finishes mid-pack – there’s one guy in particular who always pulls that shit, and everyone knows it but him. Alas.
Anyway... like I was saying... that first mile was brutal – after getting out of the crowd and making the first big turn from south to north after about 200m, we hit a monstrous head wind along Terminal Road. Man, it sucked. But I just locked in my effort level and focussed on cycling my hips (like Cliff always says, although nobody’s really sure what the hell he’s on about). There was a clock at the one-mile mark, and I could see as I was approaching it that I was way off pace. Usually I’m too fast over the first mile, but this time I was too slow. I was looking for a 5:20 or better, but I crossed at 5:30. From that moment on, I knew I had to adjust my expectations.
I’d hoped turning back south after mile one would mean an awesome tail wind – but this is Halifax, and this is the North Atlantic – there’s no such thing as a tail wind: there are only heavy head winds and lighter head winds. So I sucked it up, stayed focused on what I had to do to stay strong and just gutted the last two miles. There was only one hill of any note, which makes this the flattest and fastest race on the RNS calendar. The lack of hills made it easier to maintain the effort – but down the stretch, I could see the clock ticking away, and although I gave it everything over those last 200m, I couldn’t dip under 17. Alas.
But it was a fun race, and it was still a big PB. At first, I was pretty disappointed at missing the sub-17, but I got over it fairly quickly, especially as I saw the folks from the Learn-to Run group cross the line. They were awesome – and later they gave both Nick and me thank you cards with generous gifts tucked inside. I may not have finished top 3 to win shoes (actually, I was well back in 13th), but I got a gift certificate that will take me much of the way to a new pair. Those guys were great.
Anyway – the Lung Run made me super optimistic for the upcoming season. Next stop is the Greenwood 10k in just over a week. I’m looking to dip under 36 minutes in that one. But first, I need to get at least a couple of full sleeps!
Okay, so. If you scroll down this blog page a bit and look at the right-hand column, you’ll notice that my PB for the 5k has changed: it’s now 17:09. Ya hoo! Not only that – we raised $310 for the NS Lung Association! Not bad at all. I was actually really moved by how generous people were with donations. When I sent out those emails, I kind of figured they’d be ignored. Not so!
The race was a big success for the NSLA – they had over 500 people show up for the kid’s 1.5k and the general 5k. Those are huge numbers for a local race – it’s really established itself as the premier 5k event in the province. And there were some big guns running. The kid who won is from down the South Shore in Bridgewater, and not only was he a provincial high school champion, but he also represented Canada at the World Junior Cross-Country championships in Poland not too long ago. He won this race in around 15:30 – not bad for a day with 40-50km/h winds in pretty much every direction!
The top female crossed the line in 17:30 – another blistering time, given the conditions. She was ahead of me for the first 800m or so before I pulled ahead. I was thinking that she could tuck in behind me and draft during the first mile, which was straight into the big wind, but she fell off the pace after another half a k.
That first mile was brutal. First of all, I made my usual mistake of lining up behind slower people, which forced me to weave in and out of runners for the first 200m in order to establish my pace. I’m not sure why I do that at bigger races. Part of me thinks that lining up a bit back will prevent me from going out too quickly, but it doesn’t – it just makes me waste energy trying to pick my way through the crowd, and it keeps me from establishing an efficient rhythm right from the start. At the same time, it feels a bit cocky to toe the line with guys I know are going to leave me in the dust, although not everyone who lines up in front stays in front. It’s funny – there’s a strange etiquette in the starting pack, and where you seed yourself communicates exactly how you see your own running. And I don’t want to be that guy who lines up in front but always finishes mid-pack – there’s one guy in particular who always pulls that shit, and everyone knows it but him. Alas.
Anyway... like I was saying... that first mile was brutal – after getting out of the crowd and making the first big turn from south to north after about 200m, we hit a monstrous head wind along Terminal Road. Man, it sucked. But I just locked in my effort level and focussed on cycling my hips (like Cliff always says, although nobody’s really sure what the hell he’s on about). There was a clock at the one-mile mark, and I could see as I was approaching it that I was way off pace. Usually I’m too fast over the first mile, but this time I was too slow. I was looking for a 5:20 or better, but I crossed at 5:30. From that moment on, I knew I had to adjust my expectations.
I’d hoped turning back south after mile one would mean an awesome tail wind – but this is Halifax, and this is the North Atlantic – there’s no such thing as a tail wind: there are only heavy head winds and lighter head winds. So I sucked it up, stayed focused on what I had to do to stay strong and just gutted the last two miles. There was only one hill of any note, which makes this the flattest and fastest race on the RNS calendar. The lack of hills made it easier to maintain the effort – but down the stretch, I could see the clock ticking away, and although I gave it everything over those last 200m, I couldn’t dip under 17. Alas.
But it was a fun race, and it was still a big PB. At first, I was pretty disappointed at missing the sub-17, but I got over it fairly quickly, especially as I saw the folks from the Learn-to Run group cross the line. They were awesome – and later they gave both Nick and me thank you cards with generous gifts tucked inside. I may not have finished top 3 to win shoes (actually, I was well back in 13th), but I got a gift certificate that will take me much of the way to a new pair. Those guys were great.
Anyway – the Lung Run made me super optimistic for the upcoming season. Next stop is the Greenwood 10k in just over a week. I’m looking to dip under 36 minutes in that one. But first, I need to get at least a couple of full sleeps!
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