Sunday was the day for the Equaliser a fairly brutal cross country race from Belrose to St Ives and back. Only thing is the great big valley in between that you need to traverse twice!
Last year we held this in the middle of winter on a wet, cold & windy day. Yesterday was much nicer, a little cooler than this time of year and very occasionaly a slight drizzle of rain. Not sure what the humidity reading was though.
The first km is a slight downhill along a street which then turns into a dirt road which winds amongst the electrical substations. Then it is pretty much down to the bottom of the valley. I went out at 10km pace and then really turned it on going down the descent. Doing so meant I passed a number of people who are normally a bit further up the field than me. Of course all was rectified once we started climbing (my running weakness at the moment) and quite a few people went past as I laboured up the first climb. This included Redback my old sparring partner who looks like he is over his injury problems. As we hit the tarmac for a quick break (about 1km) from the bush I noticed Spud and Mr G were looming from behind as I tried to recover and make up some ground on Redback.
By the time we got to the re-entry into the bush however Redback had maintained his lead and now I had Spud and Mr G on my shoulder. A km or so of fairly level bush track and then another descent back down to the creek. I really opened up here and we went past a number of runners here including Redback on a real fast downhill run. I also dropped of Spud and Mr G to give myself some breathing room on the inevitable climb to the finish.
Did a combination of run/walk on the steeper bits and once again some of the people I passed on the downhill cruised past and I KNEW Mr G was only about 10 secs behind and trying to catch me. Redback, Springer and Spud left me in their wake and just near the top of the climb a couple more runners loomed from behind. However now we were back to somewhat level running and I just tried to press it to the line, even if I did feel like I was jogging on the spot!
Just in the last couple of hundred metres as we returned to the street Rooster went by and I increased my effort (also not daring to look behind to see where Mr G was). Holding but not gaining on Rooster in the last 100m another Strider sprinted past, he must have held back some good reserves!
Over the line in 1:08:52 which was 2 minutes faster than my run last June. Average HR was 174 with a max of 184. For certain it was the legs and not the lungs/heart that limited me today, all the more reason to keep on at those hill intervals.
Splits were
1km 4:01 4:01
2km 3:41 7:42
3km 4:06 11:48
4km 5:11 16:59
5km 5:14 22:13
6km 6:08 28:21
7km 4:14 32:34
8km 4:35 37:09
9km 5:11 42:20
10km 4:53 47:12
11km 4:31 41:44
12km 5:53 57:37
13km 6:43 1:04:21
14km 4:31 1:08:52
Monday - recovery
A late lunch with a few too many red wines ensured no "top up" run on Sunday so headed out this morning for a 10km recovery (and to keep up the distance). Intersted to note the upper quads and adductors were quite tight. (in fact last night I did some icing in that area out of concern that the run might have had on my groin problem). A nice cooler morning for running, I do like this time of year. 11km in 56:20 for an average pace of 5:10
4 comments:
Good run yesterday Dave. A 2 minute improvement on last year shows that your form is heading in the right direction. I'm predicting a big run for you at the Homebush 10km next month. You will give that 40 minutes a real crack.
Nice run yesterday Dave, you were absolutely flying down those hills, very impressive mate, no doubt your rogaining background helping you there. It was good have someone to chase on those final few kms. A great course too.
Think you need to hit the up hills hard mate. As you said seems to be a weakness at the moment. And give Guzzo some navigation lessons will you.
Well done OR !! 2 minutes off this course, a PB on the Lane Cove course last week. Looking very good for Canberra !
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