HMSA 25K 2010 Race report !
Many thanks to Lisa Foronda for picking my bib and sprinkling good luck on it :)
I wanted to break 1:46 in 25K as mentioned in my previous blog post. I had a good week leading to the race except a few glitches. I usually like to do one quality workout in the week leading to the race. On Tuesday evening I wanted to do a hard 6-7 mile tempo run at 6:35-6:40 pace. But it got so dark and there were so many water puddles around Rice that I opted to do a long Marathon pace run (10 miles at 7:10) rather than a tempo run. I ran easy rest of the week (Wed/Thursday). I took Friday off because I wanted to join ASHA folks for an easy run on Saturday morning.
Now, running with BCRR has taught me to be very prompt for runs. I showed up exactly at 6:40 for 6:45 am run and had to wait till 7:25 to start the run because no one showed up in time. Bummer !!! However, there was a silver lining. I met Sachin who is a relatively new runner and very enthusiastic about running. I ran 6 easy miles with him at about 10 min/mile pace. I advised him to be patient with running and that it will surprise you in due time.
For Sunday's race my concern was that I spend too much time on my feet on Saturday even though I only ran 6 easy miles. But the weather seemed beautiful and I decided to go with my goal. I did a 1.2 mile warmup with some Tornados friends and legs felt all right (No strides in warmup).
Loop 1:
Mile 1: 6:55 (Went out easy)
Mile 2: 6:58 (I don't like it at all, I am feeling some tightness in my leg and wonder if I should stop and lossen shoelaces a bit)
Mile 3: 6:54 (I decided not to stop but keep running and hope in few miles tightness will be gone)
Mile 4: 6:52 (So, I have not gone out too fast. First part done, now what's next)
Mile 5: 7:01
I tried to run tangents during the race. Mark Conran is running with me. I have dropped Scott, David, Simon and Heidi. I didn't see either of them during turn around so they must be just behind me.
Loop 2:
Mile 6: 6:42 (Nice downhill stretch)
Mile 7: 6:48 (Feeling good, bump into Jody and Nicole, Mark Conran decided to join another faster pack)
Mile 8: 6:47 (Mark Conran is speeding up and has opened a gap on me, Mark has about 15-18 seconds on me)
Mile 9: 6:51 (I am trying to close the gap)
Mile 10: 6:51 (Mark is still ahead)
Jody and Nicole were playing mindgames on me. They tried to shake me off by speeding up few times :) Jody later told me that my shoe slapping irritated her. I need to use this weapon on other racers in subsequent races.
Loop 3:
Mile 11: 6:26 (I decide to put the hammer down on downhill and pass Mark Conran)
Mile 12: 6:36 (I don't know how far Mark is but I wanna open a gap so he doesn't come close)
Mile 13: 6:48 (I believe I have shaken him off my back, don't wanna turn around and look)
Mile 14: 6:47 (In order to beat 1:46, I can't afford to slow down)
Mile 15: 6:50 (That last hill was hard to climb)
Last 0.63: 6:15 pace (I decided to push 0.2 remaining in the race. I passed two guys easily. The third one is still ahead and decided to drop another gear when crowd cheered on. Poor guy looks behind and for me that's a sign of weakness :) I passed him just before finish)
Total time: 1:45:58.2. I didn't believe it because I thought I had more cushin than 2 seconds. I am glad that I pushed in last 0.2 miles.
Corrected Total time: 1:45:50.4. Now, I can live with this. This seems reasonable :)
I will give this race an "A" effort. I went in with a plan and it worked. I have become a even bigger fan of negative splits :)
Next race is gonna be Turkey Trot 10 K. I am not sure if I can come close to 40 minutes because I have not been doing short race specific speed work. I definitely want to get under 41 minutes. We will see.
For 30K race in sugarland if the weather is nice. I would like to run 2:08:xx. That would be 6:55 pace. Although, I would be happy with any sub 7 pace :)
Finally some pictures :)
(Charging downhill)
(That's a good running form)
(Should we have some fun in our cooldown?)
(Not enough? Okay, one more time)
(After the race with my friends Alonso and Brenda)
(Happy BCRR campers. Simon, Heidi, David, Neeraj, Brenda and Molly)
I wanted to break 1:46 in 25K as mentioned in my previous blog post. I had a good week leading to the race except a few glitches. I usually like to do one quality workout in the week leading to the race. On Tuesday evening I wanted to do a hard 6-7 mile tempo run at 6:35-6:40 pace. But it got so dark and there were so many water puddles around Rice that I opted to do a long Marathon pace run (10 miles at 7:10) rather than a tempo run. I ran easy rest of the week (Wed/Thursday). I took Friday off because I wanted to join ASHA folks for an easy run on Saturday morning.
Now, running with BCRR has taught me to be very prompt for runs. I showed up exactly at 6:40 for 6:45 am run and had to wait till 7:25 to start the run because no one showed up in time. Bummer !!! However, there was a silver lining. I met Sachin who is a relatively new runner and very enthusiastic about running. I ran 6 easy miles with him at about 10 min/mile pace. I advised him to be patient with running and that it will surprise you in due time.
For Sunday's race my concern was that I spend too much time on my feet on Saturday even though I only ran 6 easy miles. But the weather seemed beautiful and I decided to go with my goal. I did a 1.2 mile warmup with some Tornados friends and legs felt all right (No strides in warmup).
Loop 1:
Mile 1: 6:55 (Went out easy)
Mile 2: 6:58 (I don't like it at all, I am feeling some tightness in my leg and wonder if I should stop and lossen shoelaces a bit)
Mile 3: 6:54 (I decided not to stop but keep running and hope in few miles tightness will be gone)
Mile 4: 6:52 (So, I have not gone out too fast. First part done, now what's next)
Mile 5: 7:01
I tried to run tangents during the race. Mark Conran is running with me. I have dropped Scott, David, Simon and Heidi. I didn't see either of them during turn around so they must be just behind me.
Loop 2:
Mile 6: 6:42 (Nice downhill stretch)
Mile 7: 6:48 (Feeling good, bump into Jody and Nicole, Mark Conran decided to join another faster pack)
Mile 8: 6:47 (Mark Conran is speeding up and has opened a gap on me, Mark has about 15-18 seconds on me)
Mile 9: 6:51 (I am trying to close the gap)
Mile 10: 6:51 (Mark is still ahead)
Jody and Nicole were playing mindgames on me. They tried to shake me off by speeding up few times :) Jody later told me that my shoe slapping irritated her. I need to use this weapon on other racers in subsequent races.
Loop 3:
Mile 11: 6:26 (I decide to put the hammer down on downhill and pass Mark Conran)
Mile 12: 6:36 (I don't know how far Mark is but I wanna open a gap so he doesn't come close)
Mile 13: 6:48 (I believe I have shaken him off my back, don't wanna turn around and look)
Mile 14: 6:47 (In order to beat 1:46, I can't afford to slow down)
Mile 15: 6:50 (That last hill was hard to climb)
Last 0.63: 6:15 pace (I decided to push 0.2 remaining in the race. I passed two guys easily. The third one is still ahead and decided to drop another gear when crowd cheered on. Poor guy looks behind and for me that's a sign of weakness :) I passed him just before finish)
Total time: 1:45:58.2. I didn't believe it because I thought I had more cushin than 2 seconds. I am glad that I pushed in last 0.2 miles.
Corrected Total time: 1:45:50.4. Now, I can live with this. This seems reasonable :)
I will give this race an "A" effort. I went in with a plan and it worked. I have become a even bigger fan of negative splits :)
Next race is gonna be Turkey Trot 10 K. I am not sure if I can come close to 40 minutes because I have not been doing short race specific speed work. I definitely want to get under 41 minutes. We will see.
For 30K race in sugarland if the weather is nice. I would like to run 2:08:xx. That would be 6:55 pace. Although, I would be happy with any sub 7 pace :)
Finally some pictures :)
(Charging downhill)
(That's a good running form)
(Should we have some fun in our cooldown?)
(Not enough? Okay, one more time)
(After the race with my friends Alonso and Brenda)
(Happy BCRR campers. Simon, Heidi, David, Neeraj, Brenda and Molly)
neeraj!
ReplyDeletei finally found my way over to your blog! i guess i didnt really realize you wrote! lol!
great job!!