Today was a modest but in my view important test of my running progress. Loyal readers will recall how horribly my 5k went last week. Today was the 5th time that I ventured forth to run the Icicle 10 miler here in Wilmington.
This is a pretty tough 10 miler with google telling us that it has 552 feet of climbing during the 10 miles. Frequently it is also cold and windy. I've never posted impressive times here (yes I know that I don't post impressive running times as a rule) but because of my prior history I thought this would be a good indicator race for me. I wanted to see if I was as bad as last weeks 5k seemed to indicate. I'll admit I was pretty nervous the night before--I haven't run longer than a 5k in a race situation since August of 2008 (IM Canada). Frankly, I had a lot of doubts. Judy asked me the night before what my objective was and I said all I wanted to do was just go 1 second faster than I ever have before on this course but that I doubted I'd be able to. I also told her I wasn't going to beat myself up if I didn't get it done today.
Times in this race are relatively slow (January, hilly, bad weather). However, I have the history and can compare to subsequent races to get a sense of where my season is going. Let's review the history:
2003: 79:16 157th overall and 19th in my AG. 2003 was early in my career and I don't have much to report about the rest of that season although I did run a sub 21 5k the following weekend.
2005: 77:08 145th overall and 20th in my AG. I was just coming off of IMFL (11:31) and subsequently ran a 1:38 open half-marathon at Caesar Rodney (which is a tough course) and then ran a 20:33 5k a month latter.
2007: 77:15 141st OA and 18th in my AG. This was my great year as Pete Reid was my coach. In March I did the B&A open half-marathon in 1:38; in April the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in 69 minutes (!); in May I did a 1:38 half in the White Lake half-Ironman; and in September I did a 1:33 at the Philly Half-Ironman. Set my IM PR at IMFL.
2008: 77:16 150th OA and 13th in my AG. I did a 1:40 at the B&A latter that year.
So, given my 2007 times and my similar level of commitment to that year, setting a PR on this course would be a very good sign.
Race morning, I left my hourse and the temp was 14 degrees, wind at 10-13 mph and a wind-chill of 4 degrees. This was the coldest Icicle Run that I have faced. My strategy was to "ease" through the relatively easy first 2 miles and then try to keep my HR under 168 on the very challenging 3-5 mile section. The rollers from 5-7.5 I wanted to recover and then hammer the downhills from 7.5-9.5. Then I wanted to just try to survive the difficult Adams Hill and then try to kick it home in under 77:08. Here's how it went:
Mile 1: 7:04 with a 163 avr HR. Might appear fast but I thought it was a good first mile--very easy being downhill and with the wind.
2: 7:37/14:41 cummulative with 163 HR. Good HR control but I was worried--wanted a sub 7:30
3: 7:56/22:37 @ 165. I was still under control but beginning to worry about my pace.
4: 8:01/30:38 @ 167. Brutal mile. Real slow yet my HR alarm was going a lot. Began to think I wasn't going to get it done.
5: 8:02/38:40 @ 166. Backed-off a bit to make sure I wasn't going into the red. At aid station the water was a frozen slush. At this point I realized that I had done a pretty good job of dressing (not much).
6: 7:44/46:24 @ 166. Decided to go for it over this rolling mile. I knew that I needed decidedly negative splits to reach my objective and thought that it wasn't likely (despite the course profile I'd never negative split this course before). In the latter parts of this mile I began to get my "sea-legs" and began to think that I might be able to give it a go down the stretch.
7: 7:28/53:52 @ 167. Feeling it and going for it. Not an easy mile and yet I posted my second fastest. I became convinced that I had a real shot. I knew that I had to make the next two miles happen to give myself enough cushion on the tough last mile.
8: 7:36/61:28 @ 168. I was pushing it but seemed to have a bad spell. I wanted a sub 7:30 here. Worried now!
9: 7:24/68:52 @ 168. Yes! Knew I had a great chance! Loved feeling the spring and attack of this mile. Committed!
10: 7:52/76:44 @ 170. Brutal hill but I was confident. I sealed the deal and took 24 seconds off of my PR! Finished 97th OA and 5th (!!!!) in my AG (out of 29). 3rd and 4th were in the two spots right in front of me.
Awesome! I'm thrilled.
Must put it perspective of-course. I'm probably not as bad as that guy that stunk up the 5k last week and I'm probably not the guy that's going to set run PRs all year (but hey--you never know!).
For the week I did 22:20 (so a pretty hard week to race off of) with 207 miles on the bike, 35 miles running, and 10.5k on the swim.
Looking ahead I won't race again for 6 weeks. Time to do the home work! On the 21st, Judy, Kara, Anders and I are going to the Sundance Film Festival for 4 days. Over the next 10 days its HARDCORE baby. Close to 30 hours in the week ahead.
I still believe!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment