Today this morning at 9:00 am, my brother and I raced the race called " II carrera Marta Fernandez de Castro ", which was 5.2k distance. I did not have a clear time goal for this one, since I started the hard workouts 3 weeks ago and the first couple of weeks the workouts did not go as well, I was unsure about how fast I could run, but after this week`s intervals my optimism grew up and I thought that I could run around 4:25 per km pace or faster, or flirting with 22:00 in the 5k, but I did not pay attention to goal time to be honest, I just wanted to race. I was looking to race with my brother, He is in great shape and in some tempos He have beaten, I have to note that He was a 19 mins 5k runners some years ago, so He was much faster than me, but He was much leaner then, I told him that if He want to run those times again, He have to drop the weight off.
Anyway, I warmed up from my home to the race, met my brother when I had 1k, since his house was on my way to the race, so I warmed up more than him and cooled down more than him. When We were arriving to the race I threw in some striders at race pace/effort. Pretty much at the same effort I wanted to go out. Those striders were around 50m or less in length, just to loosen up the legs. My brother did the same. Then We lined up early in the starting line, We are in the second starting gun, We are not enough faster so that they can give us bibs for corral a,b,c,d that start in the first gun. I did some high knees drills in place to loosen up a bit and We were ready to go. I did not know the course before, but I was surprised to see some hills there, given that there were some bridges there. Anyway, the gun went off and my brother was ahead for the first 50m, then I passed him and started doing my own race, I dont wear a watch in races, so I was running purely by effort, I went out harder than normal, but felt fine so went with it, I tried to control my self in the first hill of the first bridge, within 200m of starting the race, then when it was time to downhill, I just let myself go and passed a lot of people there, people were controlled in the downhill, I dont know why since it was not a marathon and the fast downhill running for such a short race wont kill you. I am feeling confortable at that point and tried to maintain a good turnover, I cant see the 1k mark, but by then my brother caught me and put next to me, I moved a bit to the right, kind of what Dessi Linden did in the Boston marathon to regroup herself, but my brother would follow me everywhere I go, then I pull ahead and ran ahead for a bit, then it was time to go uphill again for another bridge, when We were at the top of the bridge He passed me and pulled ahead and kept the lead for around 400-500m, so by the 2.5k He was ahead, after that I was feeling " confortable", and passed him and starting increasing my effort and turnover, 2k left and this time I made a decisive move and never looked back, passed a lot of people in the second half of the race, a lot of people that went out in the first gun, a guy passed me, but He was struggling, then I passed him back and gave words of encouragement, yeah I could talk normally, I was feeling confortable, but I could not go anyfaster, in a 5k you are supposed to huff and puff for the whole race, this was not the case for me today, my breathing was very controlled, but my turnover was its maximum, kept passing a lot of people, but woman with lot of tatoos that had passed me earlier was in sight and I wanted to catch her, I finally do so in the final 800m of the race, I passed a lot of people in the last km, that 0.2k after 5k made a difference, since when I saw the 4k mark, I said 1.2k left which I found it long, if the race would have been 5k, I would have said 1k to go and mentally would have been easier to push that final km. I finished very strong and sprinted as soon as I saw the finish line clock. When I crossed the line it read 27:00 something, We started out 4 mins after the first gun and the finish line clock read the first gun starting. I calculated around 23:05, so crossed the 5k around 22:10, right where I wanted to be, but I really want to break that barried of 22 mins. Anyway, 5.2k and 5k is not the same. Given where I am in my training cycle, I think that I raced pretty good, and I will keep improving, basically have not lost any fitness since my last race of last training cycle, eventhough I took a break from workouts of 3 weeks and felt like crap in the first 2 interval workouts that I did. I am satisfied with this race, I kept the virtually the same pace as the 5.075m race that I ran 2 months ago, this time could keep the pace for 5.2k, with hills and hotter. I could have run faster, as I type this I feel pretty good and on the cool down I felt very good, I have to learn to get in the pain cave and I will do much better. Weather was hot since I was sweating a lot after the race, but its not a heat that will screw your goal times. My official time was 23:07, 4:26 per km, crossed the 5k around 22:14. I am looking forward to that sub 22 mins, but that has to be in an oficial 5k race, not a meter more, nor a meter less. On the other hand, my brother bonked and ran 23:55, so in the second half of the race, I built a gap of 48 seconds which is a lot, He ran around 23:00 for the 5k and He ran a 5k tempo run last week in 23:19, where He defeated me. I told him that He had to slow down a bit his tempos. Anyway, I think that We are training well and eventually He will have a breakthrough. I enjoyed this race and the bridges that We had to climb, its nice to have streets of Valencia to yourself!
Cooled down around 2.8k very easy to home feeling pretty good and strong!
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario