What better way to spend a day off from work than to get up earlier than normal and run a race? Well, for July 4th, I decided to run the Scripps Ranch Old Pros 10K. Actually Debbie and I both decided to do it, but she backed out at the last minute when she realized how early we had to get up on a holiday.
I got to the race and quickly found Pat, Jess, and Jason Eng. We warmed up and stretched together, then got into place. At the start, I didn't really feel like I was into the race. I still wanted to beat my PR that I set at March Madness and I figured that wouldn't be a problem since this is a much less hilly course, but I didn't really feel like pushing it. I got March Madness, I got 55 minutes, so I wanted to go big and get under 50 minutes for this race, but decided I'd be happy with anything under 55. Jess said she was shooting for 50 - 55, so I thought I'd try to stay with her.
At San Diego International, I held back until the last mile and then started to push it. I had no problem holding a higher speed for that last mile and ended up disappointed that I didn't pick up the pace sooner. Based on that experience, my plan for this race was to keep my heartrate around 85% until the last two miles and then drop the hammer. The group start and trying to keep up with Jess did get the best of me though. As always, it was difficult to hold back with so many people passing me at first, so I did the first mile in 7:49, which at the time I thought was way faster than I needed to make 50 minutes. When I saw that, I decided to back off and let more people pass me. Most of the time I looked at my monitor, my heartrate was at 87% (though my online report shows that my average HR didn't hit 87 until mile 4). But, I kept running and held pretty constant.
Finally I hit mile 4 and got scared. I felt like it was too early to kick it up, but then I realized that it was just my fear of total failure talking. Remembering Marty's blog from the Rock & Roll marathon, I had a talk with my body and made it do what I wanted. My goal there for this mile to pass people one at a time. I managed to do that and it felt great to finally stop letting everyone pass me. It really helped me to have these small achievable goals of just passing the person in front of me rather than worrying about trying to push to some unknown limit. As I crossed the mile 5 sign, I realized I still felt pretty good and would be able to finish strong. Unfortunately about 250 meters later, my legs started to hurt and I thought I couldn't keep pushing so hard. I don't know if it was psychological or if I really had pushed past my limits, but the rest of the race was definitely a struggle. BUT--I didn't give up. I kept pushing the whole time and somehow I managed to do that last mile faster than my previous 3. Then in the last .2 miles, there's a nice long downhill and I passed quite a few people here doing thanks to coach's lessons on running downhill. I even managed to get my heartrate up to 92% during the downhill portion of the run!
I crossed the finish line at an official time of 51:36 feeling like I really had pushed it. Overall I was happy with my performace and happy that I set a new PR. Mostly I was happy just that I had forced myself to get up early and do the race so I had a benchmark to compare against next year. :)
After the race, I talked to Jason (who finished in 46:54!). He said he was holding his heartrate at 96% and that his max is set to 202 (2 bps higher than mine!). So maybe a lot of my problems are about fear and I just need to push harder next time and not be worried about the mental limits of how low I think I need to keep my heartrate. Maybe I should have stuck with Jess (who finished in 48:59!) I'd like to do some more 10K's to find out, but I think I'm done with that until after El Tour de Tucson. Fortunately there are some good local races around Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I'll be able to get some more in this year and see how I do. I just hope I remember the lessons I've learned from my previous races. :)
I got to the race and quickly found Pat, Jess, and Jason Eng. We warmed up and stretched together, then got into place. At the start, I didn't really feel like I was into the race. I still wanted to beat my PR that I set at March Madness and I figured that wouldn't be a problem since this is a much less hilly course, but I didn't really feel like pushing it. I got March Madness, I got 55 minutes, so I wanted to go big and get under 50 minutes for this race, but decided I'd be happy with anything under 55. Jess said she was shooting for 50 - 55, so I thought I'd try to stay with her.
At San Diego International, I held back until the last mile and then started to push it. I had no problem holding a higher speed for that last mile and ended up disappointed that I didn't pick up the pace sooner. Based on that experience, my plan for this race was to keep my heartrate around 85% until the last two miles and then drop the hammer. The group start and trying to keep up with Jess did get the best of me though. As always, it was difficult to hold back with so many people passing me at first, so I did the first mile in 7:49, which at the time I thought was way faster than I needed to make 50 minutes. When I saw that, I decided to back off and let more people pass me. Most of the time I looked at my monitor, my heartrate was at 87% (though my online report shows that my average HR didn't hit 87 until mile 4). But, I kept running and held pretty constant.
Finally I hit mile 4 and got scared. I felt like it was too early to kick it up, but then I realized that it was just my fear of total failure talking. Remembering Marty's blog from the Rock & Roll marathon, I had a talk with my body and made it do what I wanted. My goal there for this mile to pass people one at a time. I managed to do that and it felt great to finally stop letting everyone pass me. It really helped me to have these small achievable goals of just passing the person in front of me rather than worrying about trying to push to some unknown limit. As I crossed the mile 5 sign, I realized I still felt pretty good and would be able to finish strong. Unfortunately about 250 meters later, my legs started to hurt and I thought I couldn't keep pushing so hard. I don't know if it was psychological or if I really had pushed past my limits, but the rest of the race was definitely a struggle. BUT--I didn't give up. I kept pushing the whole time and somehow I managed to do that last mile faster than my previous 3. Then in the last .2 miles, there's a nice long downhill and I passed quite a few people here doing thanks to coach's lessons on running downhill. I even managed to get my heartrate up to 92% during the downhill portion of the run!
I crossed the finish line at an official time of 51:36 feeling like I really had pushed it. Overall I was happy with my performace and happy that I set a new PR. Mostly I was happy just that I had forced myself to get up early and do the race so I had a benchmark to compare against next year. :)
After the race, I talked to Jason (who finished in 46:54!). He said he was holding his heartrate at 96% and that his max is set to 202 (2 bps higher than mine!). So maybe a lot of my problems are about fear and I just need to push harder next time and not be worried about the mental limits of how low I think I need to keep my heartrate. Maybe I should have stuck with Jess (who finished in 48:59!) I'd like to do some more 10K's to find out, but I think I'm done with that until after El Tour de Tucson. Fortunately there are some good local races around Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I'll be able to get some more in this year and see how I do. I just hope I remember the lessons I've learned from my previous races. :)
1 Comments
great blog entry my friend