It's Monday morning, and I am happy to be sitting on the couch! I got me some sore legs today, as I just put in a tough weekend of training and racing! Here's the play by play re-cap of how it all went down:
Friday:
Didn't get my speed workout (running) in until evening. It was a busy day, packing the family for our trip to Belleville/Picton. I headed to the indoor track with my parents, as they use it to get their walks done (and its not often you get to workout with your own parents.. cool!). However, I wasn't long into my workout, when I realized this track was too small for fast running! The corners were pretty tight, and it wasn't long until my inside leg was feeling very strained in the calf from making the turns. Regardless, I finished the 55 minute workout which consisted of 5x3 minute hard efforts, with 6 minutes easy jogging in between. (And mom and dad knocked off their hour walks easy peasy ;-)
Saturday:
Up and at 'em to meet a local riding buddy for a hilly 93km (aprox.), bike ride. The tempo wasn't too crazy but the climbing was plenty (I think he said we did over 1000m of climbing), and some of the hills were nasty steep - You know the kind that put you in your easiest gear, and make you wish you had more as you grind up the hill pulling hard on you handle bars, barely turning over the cranks!? Fun times for sure, and a solid 3:15 ride. I followed this up with a short transition run of 10 minutes, because that's the beauty of triathlon - running on tired legs! :-)
Sunday (race day!):
Woke up early and had my usual breakfast smoothie, with all kinds of fruit and some spinach thrown in. Also had a small bowl of oats with some blueberries and maple syrup, and I was good to go. I got all prepped, and rode my bike to the race site (Belleville to Trenton), which was about a 28-30 minute ride on a beautiful sunny morning! (I guess my coach and I wanted to be sure there was some fatigue in my legs before the race - mission accomplished! ;-)
Mom and dad were able to come to the race (which is always great!). I had them bring my bag with running gear, made a quick change of clothing, put all my bike gear in his truck, visited with a few friends and before you know it, I was lining up at the start line waiting for the gun to go off!
The weather was absolutely perfect. The sun was shining, and the temps were very comfortable. The course lay out was also pretty fun. To start, athletes did a 1 km loop, that took us right back past the start finish area (kind of fun for spectators), and then the remainder of the course was a 10km loop (5 out and 5 back), that was a mix of trail and road, done twice. This made for a great spectating course, and my parents took advantage of it! I lost track of how many times they spotted me :-)
The race itself went pretty well. Going into it, I had a tough time gauging expectations, as the last time I did a half marathon was Oct 2010, (about 5 weeks before Ironman Florida) and I have not done one with this much other training in the days leading up to a race! My PR (personal record), for a half is 1:24:34 (at that last one), but I did not expect to be breaking that. I'd hoped that I could break 1:30, but even then, I wasn't sure and my sore calf from the Friday track session didn't boost my confidence!
There were 77 runners doing the race (and a couple hundred more doing the 10km and 5km races that would start later on). At the sound of the gun, we took off, and about 6-8 guys shot off in front of me. I did my best to let them go, as I did not want to make the mistake of going out to hard and be gasping for air 1-2kms into the race! I went through the first km in 3:58 minutes, feeling pretty good and in control. I knew this pace would break my PR, but I was doubtful my legs would want to maintain it and wasn't going to force the issue.
The next 5 km's were mostly on trail. It was a mix of packed dirt, grass, and then some semi-crushed gravel later on. These surfaces gave pretty solid footing, but there were a few random steps of lost traction or brief imbalance that cause you to loose fluidity (speed), albeit momentarily. At about the 2.5 km mark two guys go past me. A younger guy in a yellow shirt, and a older guy in an orange shirt. It's still early on, so I just keep focused on settling into a sustainable effort. In no time, I re-pass the guy in the orange shirt, but the yellow shirt guy stays in front of me by about 10 feet. As we get onto the gravel section of the course, it twists and bends through a marsh area, that has a lake on one side and tall brush on the other. I notice he is running the corners wide, and I remember to run the tangents (finding the straightest line on the course, without cutting it of course). By doing so, we come out of the gravel section and on to the road side by side as I've closed the gap. I say something like "good running"and he replies with similar thoughts. We make the turnaround and then run shoulder to shoulder back to the start/finish area for loop 1. (this was pretty cool, as usually you don't stay next to someone for long in a race, as either you or they have a faster pace).
I've been watching my kilometer splits as I'm racing and know by this stage, that I am not on PR pace, but have managed to put myself on target to go under 1:30 bench mark that I was hoping for. As we head out on to the trail section for the second time, I am just focused on staying strong and not loosing concentration. Me and my shadow (AKA - yellow shirt guy!), have stayed side by side throughout the second loop. As we come out of the turnaround and head for the last 5km stretch, he say's "well, this is like deja-vu eh!?" I say, "no kidding", and we carry on, side by side, because its time to work now. I was hoping to lift the pace around the 19km mark and cause some separation between the two of us. There was a slight incline on the road, and I thought this would be a good spot to attack. Unfortunately, he had similar ideas, and at the 18km mark, he lifted his pace a bit. I briefly tried to counter, but at this stage my legs were feeling the work load from the weekend and I couldn't go faster and hold it, this far out from the finish. Soon his margin was 10 feet, and then 20. The move was made, and I knew I wasn't getting him today.
There was another fellow though, in a blue shirt that had been in front of us both the whole race. In the early stages he probably had a 500 meter lead on us, but we had been closing on him slowly, but steadily for most of the race. I watched as my yellow shirted friend soon went by him, and that gave me hope, that I too would do the same. Around the 19km mark I made the pass and hoped it was enough to get a gap, and avoid a nasty sprint in the closing kilometer! The other runner tried to stay on my shoulder, but thankfully my effort was enough, and I was able to just steadily push through to the finish line. I crossed the line in 1:28:23, 8th place overall and under my 1:30 mark that I'd hoped for!
Overall, I'm very pleased with race, especially in the context of the whole weekend. Training is really paying off, and to run within 4 minutes of my PR with tired legs and no taper is a good boost going into this race season. I'm looking forward to some easy efforts in training this week to get recovered, and then I'm anxious to keep pressing forward and finding some more speed, as race season continues to unfold. I really can't wait for the triathlon season to get rolling... it just isn't the same doing races without a swim and bike first! ;-)
Strive On!
Jon
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