A rest day on Thursday, with work Xmas dinner on Thursday night I decided to run in on Friday morning (knowing I'd drink a little at dinner). Friday was quite warm and I was a little hungover so a great way to sweat it off. Even cruising I posted my fastest time for the run to work!
Had another party on Saturday night where I behaved myself drinking wise but probably not ideal food consumption so I topped up when I got home.
Up nice an early to get up the The Entrance to register and get ready for the race. Saw and caught up with a few people beforehand and then we were off to the start line. I had decided I was going to aim for 4:10 splits which would give me around 88 minutes given the stated nature of the course being "flat".
Went out just a little too hot, missed the first km marker and so at 2km I posted 7:53. Eased up a little with a couple of 4:05's and then got into a good groove. Hit the 10km mark at 41:05 and 11km at 45:17 so was on target if I could hold it coming home. Hauled in a few more runners in front as we headed back and 15km was 1:02:28 so all I needed to do was maintain 4:15 pace and 88 was in the bag! However I was starting to fade and my splits started blowing out. It felt like I was running in treacle all of a sudden but the wierd thing is that only 1-2 runners went past me the rest of the race, seems everyone was slowing... A real grind to get to the line as I pushed hard into what seemed to be a head wind, never mind the humidity!
Finally hit the line with a time of 90:28 so for the last 6.1km my time was 28 minutes, enough said... Post race discussions saw everyone commenting on the struggle to get home so while disappointing I suppose thats life!
Rested on Monday, but did do my Pilates class and this morning headed out in wet, muggy conditions for a crack at my 10km tempo course, 2 laps of East Killara, since I had not done this for some time and was keen to review it as a benchmark. Despite it bucketing down in the last few km, I posted 44:06, just under a 2 minute improvement from my previous best back in September, not bad just 2 days after the smashing I gave the legs at the Half!
Thus ends November, December is going to be a pretty heavy month as I work on a solid base for Six Foot. Last year in December I only ran 123km, this year I am aiming for close to 3 times that amount.
2 comments:
Spotted your results on Sunday - I was pleased with that time for you - nice and quick - a few minutes either way not that much of and issue.
That's not too bad Dave, considering the ugly last 6k. If you run one during the 6' prep you'll be well under the PB.
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