Race Reports

Friday 25th May 2007 LFOTM 5KM Hyde Park

Another race report, sorry its been a few days coming.

It was warm very warm depending on your view point. Supposedly it was 25 degrees. Met up with some RW forumites plus a guy from my club, and we went on a warm up. In hindsight i shouldn’t have done this race because i had a few aches in the ankle area, had a few warning signs i suppose on Tuesday at the track. But we aometimes ignore thesae things, its only a little niggle. But anrway had a good warm up and was very keen to start the race and looking forward to some food afterwards.

My splits were

5:24 way too fast

5:45 paying for the fast start

5:50 still paying

5:52 wanting the race to end

5:34 a little quicker but just couldn’t summon up energy to finish

Finished in 28:33. But later on ankle really throbbing and i’ve paid the price, not run since then though it feels slightly better each day

Then had chicken and rice, i’m not usually a rice eater, as i find its often bland tasting not this rice it was delicious, saffron and lemon i believe. The chicken was Harold, so we were told

Sunday 13th May 2007 Essex PB 5

Bit of delay at the start, not exactly sure what occured there, but anyway we were soon off, remembering “this is just a training run” But what exactly is that in a race situation what does it mean because you hear it all the time i’ve used it others have said it Anyway, off we went down the road up to the roundabout back again past the start head doen the road towards the town centre back again past the start and around the so called picturesque industrial estate, ok i’ve never heard anyone call it picturesque. But i admit this year was the first year i hardly noticed it kept concentrating on the person in front of me but at this stage the person ahead just merely resembled a dot, kept thinking can we catch them yes i had a little company around i was ahead slightly at around 4 miles this man just glided passed us like a gazelle as fresh as a daisy, i’m thinking where did he come from, but someone to chase. I remember from years before that the finish is almost one lap of the athletics track, just beyond the car park. Reached the carpark and here 2 different things someone thought i looked fresh as if i’ve just gone out for a jog, not that i felt it, and the other the finish is at the end of the carpark. So thinking i didn’t have far to run maybe they changed the finish somewhat i made a beeline for the finish, only to find out we did have to do a circuit of the track. I started to feel quite sick (again) and was breathing quite heavily now hoping and praying no-one would overtake me (they didn’t)and what a relief to get round to the finish without decorating the track. Surprised the way i felt my HR only peaked at 91% certainly felt higher. But maybe its because i haven’t done high intensity work yet.Stats and figures mile pace MHR% 9:16 —– 82 9:09 —– 85 9:34 —– 85 9:37 —– 85 9:05 —– 87 Total time 46:44 Starting a new schedule in 3 weeks time going to aim for the Barking Park 5km Bank Holiday Monday

Friday 27th April 2007 LFOTM 5km – Hyde Park

 The venue was Hyde Park the time was 12:30pm a nice day a little blowy on parts and certainly felt the inclines, i haven’t even been running more than 15 mpw, and certainly not more than 4½ miles. In December i ran this race in 27:45 where i started too fast. But having not run at all in the next 3 months i was pretty much starting from scratch again. So i decided to start out and average 5:33 per km the average pace for my December run. But whatever happens today i would set a benchmark for the rest of the year

 I met up with some Runners World forumites they were all very encouraging i should have known i would struggle a bit and yep indeed i did go out too fast

Anyway the plan was average 5:33 kms, which is the average pace for Decembers run. Went through 1st km in 5:27, oh 6 seconds in hand not too bad, but when the 2nd km came in at 5:37 maybe i ran too fast but still 2 seconds ahead of schedule. At the 3rd km i knew i was toast (5:54). This is so hard.
4th km in 5:52.
I spy someone i know in the distance so i try to speed up. and 2 forumites are nearby by give me an encouraging cheer i get closer to her but not close enough 5th km in 5:22 how i don’t know. Felt sick but wasn’t at the end so i think i can say i gave it my all

28:13 almost half a minute down and masses away from pb, but as a friend said its a benchmark with luck i can do a bit in the next 4 weeks

So overall fairly happy with progress plenty of work to do in the next 4 weeks need to increase my runs get my base solid before starting any of the fast stuff, but planning on introducing some strides next week.