Diary of a Sub 40 Minute 10K #6

Ordinarily I'd be satisfied with this week, and today's 6km TT (29:48) except one of the Bayswater Bailers, Mike Collings,showed Craig and I his personal best in a training log book. 26:59.

Thanks to that piece of information, Craig had an inspired run this morning (in spite of it being one of the coldest mornings of the year) - running his own personal best 27:40, and biting a 40 second chunk off my PB (28:21).  Seeing Craig running off into the dawn, and cracking a time like that ruined any satisfaction I could have taken out of my extremely modest effort.

This is Craig [left] a few minutes after his run. Take a look at the shoes he wore on the run. What made his run even more special was that for the first 10 minutes Craig was chatting about a movie - remember this was on a 2km+ uphill. Craig also held back a little for his panting partner (me), who was feeling both heavier than usual, and confused that despite the effort it wasn't registering as a higher heart rate.  Finally Craig revved, changed gears and became a spot that disappeared on the horizon.

At the 3km turn Craig was around 30 metres ahead of me, so he probably turned on around 15 minutes, or 15:10 at most. I turned at 15:28.
My goal, which I expressed to Craig before the run, was to run the first 3km in 15:10-15:30 and then to finish in under 30 minutes. 

If Craig's first 3km were fairly sedate, his last 3km sizzled.  He must have done 12:30 back while I (refer to the graphic below) slowed to the slowest pace, ultimately, for the whole run.   I suppose I was concerned that I could aggravate the hamstring injury, but I can't say I felt it at all on this run, not on the uphill or the downhill. 

I reckon I could probably have run the 2.5km - 4km harder; certainly even my heart rate went below 160 during this section.  This was certainly a far less even effort than last week.

At about the 12 minute mark, essentially the top of the uphill it's important to keep up the pace - but if I can project back I think I was still concerned that striding risked bringing on the injury.  I recall taking quick, short steps on the downhills rather than risk injury taking longer steps; this obviously slowed me down and lowered the heart rate.

Now take a look [below] at the dip in heart rate at just over 24 minutes.  At this point, with about 1 kilometre to go, your HR has to be at 160 minimum, and better yet, 165, and from there, build towards 170+.  That's how I ran my 28:21.  In any event, noticing the 'weak' spots, or decreases in effort makes it easier to run more effectively the next time.  This is where a Heart Rate Monitor really comes into its own both as a training and as a racing tool.

For Reference here are the basic stats from my PB about 4 weeks ago.  HR average 161 and Max 172, both substantially higher than today's effort.

One aspect that must be mentioned is although I was determined to do a solid first 3km run, I felt very out of breath.  I'm not quite sure how to explain this.  Firstly I think I was heavier than I was when I did the PB, and I have to admit I haven't been as strict on the low carbo thing this week as I have in the past.  A few slices of bread, the odd chocolate and piece of cake, and almost a sixpack of Windhoek Lights during the course of the week.  So for the coming week I'd like to be a bit stricter in every sense - fewer beers, fewer carbs, smaller meals in general.

The other aspect was that I woke up this morning with sore calves.  So I may have gone into this run a little tired physically.  Didn't sleep particularly well either. Oddly enough, on the run I didn't really feel any leg fatigue, which I definitely did feel during the 6km when I hurt myself.  That run felt like a hard run on tired legs.  Today's run felt hard, but legs weren't as tired as lungs. 
Might add one or two swim workouts this week just to bring on the aerobics a tad.

Overall though, glad I've made progress since the last 6km, which I did in 31:17 - so down about 1:20 on that run.  Running a 10km trail race on Saturday, so will probably push the next 6km in 2 weeks.  I'll be doing that run - the 6km - with all guns blazing, under the expectation that my injury is healed, and can handle a hard downhill sprint taking fairly large strides.  I'll be gunning for a new PB, so a sub 28:20.  Lots of work to do in the meantime.