Carrera Galapagos Valencia 2020: ¿6.08 kms?

On Sunday  at 09:00 a.m. I raced a 6k something race. Initially, the distance was 6.315m, but apparently ( and I realicedit after I finished) that it was around 6k and 80 meters. In GPS of other people the distance was  6 kms and 70m and 6 kms and 80-90 m on other GPS, in the results they have the distance as 6 kms and 5 meters. I finished in 28:02 and in the results I averaged 4:40 per km, if the distance was 6 kms and 80m I averaged 4:36 per km, so I would say I did 4:36-4:40 per km average, dont know the exact distance and probably GPS Will vary because each person take the tangents different so the distance Will vary. Its a bit frustrating when you dont know the exact distance of a race, and if I would know that if that were a 6k ( without the extra 300m) I probably have gone faster, but anyways, I am really happy with my race, not timewise, but I felt really strong and the execution was very Good, I think I did a negative Split since I passed a lot of people in the second half ( a lot of people passed me too).

My brother and I got there pretty early, it was pretty dark and we had the porta potty for ourself, yes, I had to use the portapoty!. We got there around 7:50 a.m. and the race was at 09:00 .m. but here in Spain arriving 1 hourplus before a race is early.

At 08:15 a.m. I took off my jeans and windbreaker and my warm up started, it was cold, around 6 degrees or so. I told my brother to took 15 mins on his watch, then I started jogging back and forth an after the 10 mins I started to do my 50m or so accelerations, at around race effort. After those 15 mins I felt very warmed up, but then as you have to wait 25 mins or more in the starting waiting for the gun went off, if you dont line up early, you Will go out 1-2 mins after the gun go off, because almsot 6000 people were running this race. I lined up Early, so I was in the 3rd row in the second wavealways start in the second wave because people who start in the first wave have priviledge to start earlier ( times or belong to a club).

Anyway, I think all my warm up went away, because when the gun went off I started running and I was very cold and was huffing and puffing because of the cold, I knew however, that once I warm up again I would feel better, but the first 500-600m felt very unconfortable. I race without a watch so I always race by effort, I went out at a Good pace and at an effort that I thought I could sustain, but because of the cold, that felt unconfortable, within 500m I caught a lady that was right ahead of me with her family ( I think) in the starting line, but She went out like a bat, I caught her in the 500-600m mark, but She was breathing very hard, I touched her in the shoulder and gave it a go hand gesture, then right away, She put me side by side by me, and We ran together for around 700m, but her breathing was fast I knew that She would fade eventually. I was kind of waiting here after the 1k, and that served me to warm up well and then finish harder later. With 1 mile She felt back and I decided to go and start accelerating and after the 2-2.5 kms I could find a confortable rythm for me, then kind of sustained that rythm and I even pushed it in the last 1k. Finished strong and only sprinted in the last 50m or so.

In the end as I said, I felt very strong, much better tan in my recent tempos, but I lacked another gear, I can talk, but I cant move my legs faster. I think that should serve me week for longer races. After I finished I inmediately did around 15 mins easy for my cool down. I guiding myself from the finishing clock for my cool down, ran back and forth until the 15 mins finished. Around 11k total for the day. I felt very strong and the weather only helped once I warmed up, but for fast races (5-6k) that weather is not that favorable. On my next race, that Will be a 15k race, the weather is going to be like that and I think then that weather Will be very useful, since the first kms are for warming up and for longer races cold weather really is favorable since you dont becoe dehydrated. Anyway, I really enjoyed this race, not so happy with the time, but very happy with the way I felt and how strong I finished. The goal for this race was just to race and to get back to the Racing enviroment.

As for my brother, He was only there to watch the race. He is not in shape and did not want to race. Sometimes you have to race back into shape. I think my training is going pretty well, but I am focusing on the longer stuff right now and I hope that pay off in longer races. However, I Will need to keep doing intervals to keep the legs "fast".

I also eat a light breakfast at 6:40 a.m., peanut butter on toast. I just wanted to have some energy, because the day before I ran on an empty stomach and I felt no energy.

Here are some photos before the race, in the warm up:

Shake out run

Today I slept a lot, I went to bed just after mid night and was up at 10 a.m. something ( not continuously, but in total around 10 hours of sleep). I went to run at 11 a.m. or so to the Blasco park and honestly I did not want to run, but I just did not want to run in the evening, since the race is in the morning tomorrow and I want to be well rested.

I took today`s run very easy, just to get the legs flowing. Honestly I did not feel really Good, felt dead. Felt better once I did 4 strides in the last lap. I did 6 laps (5.4k) in 33:34. I think because I was hungry and ran with an empty stomach, but I dont know since I run pretty well fasted. I hope that tomorrow my legs respond and I could muster a Good effort.

5.4k@33:34.

" Long run" and an easy run

On Thursday I did my 80 mins long run. I wanted to do 90 mins as my long run, but as I am Racing on Sunday, I decided to keep it at 80 mins.

I headed out at 4:20 p.m. to the Turia park, I had to deal with all the traffic which was unconfortable, but once I was in the Turia park, was Good. I wore  my timex and I was running in the Turia from 6:05 and the last km there was 5:58, the majority of kms were in the 6:02-6:04 range, I felt pretty Good and felt easy. My legs are sore from Wednesday`s tempo though. Its funny how running my slowest tempos I got very sore. I have lost fitness without a doubt and to be honest, I dont expect a Good result on Sunday. I hope to at least run sub 4:40 per km. I wont be wearing a watch, so I wont know until the end. However, the workouts that I have done have been my worse workouts in the last 6 months. All in all, I did 82 mins total, I would say I did 13.5k or something like that. No progression  since I wanted to keep it real easy to recover while building endurance at the same time. I have been feeling bad on workouts, but on long runs I am feeling pretty strong so at least something Good.

Today I ran at 5 p.m. or so, and went to the Blasco park without a watch. Did 8 laps pretty easy to loosen up and to keep the recovery going since I am still sore from that garbage tempo on Wednesday. 7.2k total untimed feeling Good after the second half.

Tomorrow Will be a short run and a couple of strides to loosen up.

Tempo run 5k + 2 x 200m

Today I ran at 11 a.m., and it was a Good decisión, because after 2 p.m. the rain started. Today is a public holiday here in Valencia so my brother did not have to work ( I am on vacations), I convinced to run with him. Initially I had planned to run 4 x 1000m or some kind of intervals, but then He told me he was doing a tempo run in the warm up, so I decided to change my workout to my normal 5k tempos and I would add  couple of 200s afterwards for the turnover. Is ok to lose my Interval sesión this week, since Sunday`s race is 6k in length so I Will be running near my 5k race pace, so that would work as my Interval sesión.

I warmed up 15 mins including 5 x 50m strides to loosen, but to be honest I did not feel very rested, it seems that the 60 mins run that I did yesterday evening stressed my body a bit, but its ok to run on tired legs as long as you are well rested for the race.

Anyway, We started the tempo together, but inmediately I took the lead and pretty much ran solo for the whole tempo run. I did almost the time of last week`s but the execition was completely different, last week I did a huge negative Split, but today I ran a positive Split as I am doing lately, I am not having it lately when I go out to run less tan 23:30. Anyway, the effort was there and I almost gave up in the 3k, but stayed tough and grinded until the end. The splits were very even expect the 4th km, on the last one I could "recover" and run sub 24 mins for the 5k. Weather was not that cold, I sweated like a pig and wanted to take off my windbreaker in the warm up. Finished the 5k in 23:54 and the 2 x 200m were in 44 and 44 seconds.

Splits per km were 4:44, 4:46 (9:30), 2:23 (11:53 in the halfway) I was already working in the halfway, 2:22 from 2.5-3k, 14:16 for the 3k or something like that, 4:53 for the 4th km (19:10) and I was working really hard to maintain pace, if I did not hurry up I would run over 24 mins and I did not want that, so I tried to relax and run as fast as posible without giving 100 percent effort, meaning that I should stay under control, in the last 400m I sped up a bit and in the last 100m even more, but without sprinting. I finished huffing and puffing in 23:54, then jogged a bit before starting my 2 x 200m with 200m jog recovery, I did 44 and 44. I felt really Good in these 200s, as opposed as I felt in the actual tempo.

My brother bailed the tempo in the 3rd km, He did 15:46 for 3k and then did 200s repeats until completing the 5k. He is in very bad shape, He lost a lot of fitness in the last 3 months, and have increased his weight a lot, He is training though and I know he Will be back eventually.

Then did 15 mins easy to cool down and completed what I would say was a 10k total day. Tomorrow I want to run 80 mins or so, We Will see, I want to increase my overall volumen and Sunday`s race is not an important race for me, I want to run the 15k race decently and I lost my long run on Sunday, so probably yes, I Will do 80 mins tomorrow easy, no faster kms at maratón effort, since I want to also be recovered for Sunday`s race to at least perform decently( although I am not in the shape that I want given my current workouts).

Have a great Wednesday!

Back to the running at last

Today I finally could get back to my running. As I said in y previous post Sunday and Monday was very dificult to run. The whole day raining and with winds with 50-100 ms per hour, so no point in going out in those conditions. Although, I did not want to lose that 90 mins long run, but what can you do.

I thought that today I would lose my day of running as well, because the whole day has been pouring light rain and very cloudy, but at 5:30 p.m. it was not raining, so I took advantage of that. I knew that the Blasco park would be very wet, so it would be very difficult to run there, so I opted for the alternative route that I did last year when it was raining hard. My Universidad de Valencia route, I do have a lap of 7:xx mins and I did that several times today.

The weather was very cool and I have lost 2 days of training so my plan today was to run 60 mins, no point in running my normal 7.2k, I was running longer laps so it would not be so boring to run laps.  I started running from home and headed directly to the Universidad de Valencia to do the planned laps. I had 6:21 when I got there and then did laps and took the splits ( I wore my timex), laps were 7:28,7:20,7:16,7:12,7:12,7:12,7:06,6:44, had 56:40 when I finished the laps then headed home until completing the hour. Once I had 60 mins stopped and went to my home walking. In the last lap I incorporated 5 strides, dont know the exact distance, but it was to loosen up my legs, also did drills sometimes, my legs were very stiff and tight, not even the strides and drills could do anything about it. Cardiovasculary felt really Good and the effort was pretty easy. Very happy to have run today, I was driving myself crazy. I hope that tomorrow the weather also cooperates.

Now, I registered for a race on Sunday, its the first race of the circuit races of Valencia. I raced some of them last year (4 of them I think). This year I want to run the same races and see how I do. I have never run the race that I Will run on Sunday. Its 6315m race, that Will give me an idea of what shape I am in, since right I dont know what shape I am in. I Will do my best though and I am happy to get back to the Racing scene.

Hope you had a great start to the week!

Rain, Rain, wind, wind

I missed my long run yesterday and I would make it up today, which is my rest day, but today I wont run either. The weather is pretty crappy. Raining and a very strong wind (Some trees have fallen down). I was going to head out anyway, but when I saw that some big trees have fallen down, I just decided to skip the run in those conditions. I feel very angry right now, but its better to be Smart about it and lose a day or two than to be exposed to a big injury. It seems that I Will skip that long run and tomorrow if weather permits I ll start a normal week of training, but since I am off from work this week, Will try to do 10k instead of my normal 7.2k.

5 runs for the week, which is not bad, but if I would have known I would have run 90 mins on Saturday instead of 60 mins.

I have not gone out off home for the past two days and its frutrating, I just hate rainy days. Oh well, life happens! At least I dont have to walk to home under those conditions.

Have a great start to the week!

Progressive tempo run and easy runs

Thursday -  I ran with my brother after 4 months or so without running with him (just before my half maratón in October). I told him that I would help him with his tempo run. He wanted to run 25:15 for 5k and I would do that with him and on Saturday I would run my normal tempo run. We warmed up 16 mins including 5 strides, the weather was around 10 Celsius, but I wore short sleeves, because I was not very cold. In the end I ran 24:10 for 5k, running a huge negative Split. My brother did 25:44 with a huge negative Split as well. We ran together for the first 2k or so, but I was always ahead of him and he was falling off pace, so after the 2k, I decided to pick it up a bit since I was feeling pretty Good and we were on pace to run over 26 mins for the 5k, definitely not the plan. After the 2k , that 500m Split till the half way was at my normal tempo pace and it felt like the pace that I was running before. After the halfway in 12:47, I picked up with the hope of running sub 25 mins, but in the end I accelerated a lot and finished in 24:10, was surprised by that. I wore my timex and the splits were 5:14,5:09 (10:24), 12:47(2:23) in the halfway, 500m in 2:23 again to cross the 3k in 15:10, 4:38 (19:49) and the last km in 4:21 to finish in 24:10. I almost run sub 24 mins feeling very strong. I think the weather helped a lot and I felt Good. I cooled down for another 16 mins to home to finish up a 10k or so day. I felt pretty Good in today`s progressive tempo run.

After that I still contemplated with the idea of running my normal tempo on Saturday morning, but then thought better and I realized that what I did on Thursday was a Good workout and I had done my Interval work on Tuesday, so I think that would have been too much, i could handle it, but I dont want to risk any injury right now. instead decided to add some maratón effort kms to my 90 mins long run and I would be Good to go.

Friday - I did 6 laps in the Blasco park without a watch, just kept the effort easy. Felt Good at the end.

Saturday -  At 11 p.m. I headed out to the Turia park and just did 60 mins easy, tracked 4 kms there to see at what pace I was running, but without altering my effort. It was 6:10,6:10,6:04,6:00. Felt really Good and the cold really makes you feel that you did not run at all. I did around 9.7-9.8k maybe for that hour. Felt really Good.

Today I have planned a long run with 7k at maratón effort, but since early is raining and I want to run in the evening, but I dont know to go raining in the afternoon, or to run tomorrow which is my rest day. However, the rain Will continue until Wednesday, so maybe I Will run today anyway. We Will see.