As per last post, I had a last minute race race. A local 5k in Sault Michigan. I may have mentioned eariler that I was coming to the end of my last big training block. My legs were nice and tired but I had enough juice to race. I didn't think a PB necessarily, but I knew I would have a good workout.
The course was more or less flat, though officially "downhill" for the first 1.5 miles, slightly uphill and on dirt road then flat for the last 800 meters. Pretty much one of the faster courses you could expect to find for a 5k road race. Looking around at the field prior I decided I would take it out at about 16:20 pace to potentially get into the lead, then get into a comfortable (as comfortable as a 5k race will allow) pace, then just go for it for the last mile or whatever. I took it out fairly hard as I had hoped, and found I was being chased. There were a good number of bends around this forested, nice neighbourhood course so I tried to lose him around each bend, but every straight stretch I would see him behind me again. It started to feel like that Twilight Zone episode with the hitch-hiker, I would get comfortable and feel like I'm alone and then he would be there. Never the less, I held out to the end, crossed the line in 1st. The best part? PB. 16:16. Splits are as follows.
3:08 - 3:13 - 3:20 - 3:25 - 3:23
I blame the 3rd and 4th km on the dirt road, though I'm not upset. Not upset at all.
ADDITIONALLY:
The race proceeds went to charity! How dare I forget to mention that!
http://www.girlsontherun.org/
Sounds like a good one, I'm happy to have my race fee go towards that.
Also! I won a rock. It's about the size of my fist and has a bit of a gloss to it. They put a sticker on it. I won a rock.
In other news, it's big race week 1! Yahoo! This has been my easiest week since iunno, January, but by no means has it been easy. As anyone can attest to, cutting back... and the way you feel before you really recover... not so great. But I'm finally feeling like I'm getting all rested and recovered. Yesterday I went out for another frigid swim, open water. I managed 10 minutes this time, but exited with hurting hands and feet, and a wicked ear ache. Today I had my last solid race prep workout - 30 minutes riding at goal power (~270W) into 10 minutes of goal race pace running (3:36/km). This was done indoor due to the rain in the Sault. People seem to think that indoor riding is more difficult and I hear things like it takes away around 5% of your power. I don't believe this, it makes no physical sense. I think its all mental (possibly another post), so I just ride the watts I want to ride. It was tough, but it was enough to keep sharp I think. Tomorrow I'm going to do a bit of quality swimming, Saturday I head out to Huntsville with my dad, and Sunday I race! Sweet! I have to admit though, I'm getting nervous. This is my first olympic distance race and second TT-style 40k. I'm feeling very confident with my run, I know I'll do my best in the water... But I'm nervous I'll explode on the bike or something. Anyway, I'll do my best and see what happens!
Adam "A rock!" Fortais
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