It's been a while since I've posted, but I'm still here and training hard.
In fact I've had two great weeks of training and despite not turning in a great race on Sunday, I feel I'm making progress.
I've also been golfing, as spring has finally arrived here in the Great White North....well at least here in Ottawa anyway. So with work and family commitments, it's been difficult to find time to blog. But tonight I finally have a few free minutes to post an update.
As I said, training has been very good the last couple of weeks, I'm even enjoying and making progress with the strength training sessions Ian introduced. So I was feeling very confident and strong going into the 10k race on Sunday, but for some reason I just didn't have "it" that day.
It was a perfect day for running - sunny, about 8C and just a little wind, although it was a head wind for the first part of the race. I felt good and had a great warm-up session. I was confident I could PR and even post a time under 40 minutes.
I started strong and was sticking to my plan to run the first 3 kilometres at a pace between 3:55 and 4:00 minutes per kilometre. Then at about the 4k mark it was as if I hit a wall! My legs felt like lead weights and I was unable to get back to a sub-4 minute pace the remainder of the race.
I couldn't even hold my half marathon pace from January of 4:16 per km. I finished with a time of 42:45, an average pace of 4:17 per km, putting me 22nd overall and 10th in my age group. It was disappointing to miss my goal time by approximately 3 minutes and more than a minute and a half slower than my previous best at the 10k distance.
I can't explain why I sucked so much, but I'm over it now and ready to move on. I guess I have to accept the fact that you can't PR in every race, even if you feel you should.
About Me
- fedrunner
- Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Trying to reach my full potential as a masters runner
Showing posts with label PR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PR. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Monday, December 13, 2010
Why NYC?
I haven't really explained why I'm trying to qualify for the New York City Marathon.
In some ways I'm not really sure why either.
My last marathon was Boston in April. It was an amazing experience - the city, the history of the race, the challenging route and the crowds! However, I arrived in Boston less than 100%. I had injured my left hamstring in the Around the Bay Race (a 30k race in Hamilton, Ontario) just 3 weeks before race-day in Beantown.
Add to that being really sick for a few weeks in December and early January and the result is some very negative impacts to my training schedule.
I had easily qualified for Boston in November at the Road 2 Hope Marathon in Hamilton, besting the required time for my age group by almost 6 minutes, finishing in 3:24:45. I felt strong throughout that race and could have finished closer to 3 hours and 20 minutes, but decided to cruise in the last 7k to avoid any injuries that might prevent finishing.
My goal had been to qualify for Boston. There would be other opportunities to focus on speed and faster finish times.
So given my qualifying result in November, I thought with a good winter of training I'd be able to turn in a good time in Boston. That is until a few months later, back in the same city where I qualified for Boston (how ironic), I hurt my hamstring.
As I mentioned, the overall experience of the Boston Marathon exceeded my expectations, my performance however, did not. I struggled at times during the race, not just the usual stuff one experiences at various points of a marathon, but really struggled to the point I almost packed it in at about the 30k mark.
When I finally crossed the finish line in a very disappointing 3:46:34 I told myself, "never again!"
However, once I had a chance to recover, reflect and get over the disappointment, I realized I couldn't end my marathon career on that note! Then I read Liz Robbins' book "A Race Like No Other" which chronicled the 2007 New York City Marathon. Her descriptions of the crowds, the race route and the runners were truly inspirational.
I knew running NYC was a must. And I wanted to qualify for the race based on time, not through the lottery or running for a charity. However, a 3:10 or faster marathon time, required for qualifying in my age group, was not within immediate reach for me. So I chose another option available - use a half marathon time to qualify. it would require a 1:30 or faster time, something I thought I could accomplish. After all I had run a PR half time of 1:38....shaving 8 minutes off over a 6 month time period would be a breeze!
Yeah right! The best I could do was 1:34. So I decided to hire my friend Ian to coach me. He's a former professional tri-athlete, has run many marathons (including NYC) and has coached tri-athletes and runners for nearly 20 years.
So here I am, training for a half marathon in mid-January and setting my sights on NYC for November 2011.
After that who knows, but I hear they have a some good marathons in Chicago, Berlin and London....like golfers, we runners always come back for more!
In some ways I'm not really sure why either.
My last marathon was Boston in April. It was an amazing experience - the city, the history of the race, the challenging route and the crowds! However, I arrived in Boston less than 100%. I had injured my left hamstring in the Around the Bay Race (a 30k race in Hamilton, Ontario) just 3 weeks before race-day in Beantown.
Add to that being really sick for a few weeks in December and early January and the result is some very negative impacts to my training schedule.
I had easily qualified for Boston in November at the Road 2 Hope Marathon in Hamilton, besting the required time for my age group by almost 6 minutes, finishing in 3:24:45. I felt strong throughout that race and could have finished closer to 3 hours and 20 minutes, but decided to cruise in the last 7k to avoid any injuries that might prevent finishing.
My goal had been to qualify for Boston. There would be other opportunities to focus on speed and faster finish times.
So given my qualifying result in November, I thought with a good winter of training I'd be able to turn in a good time in Boston. That is until a few months later, back in the same city where I qualified for Boston (how ironic), I hurt my hamstring.
As I mentioned, the overall experience of the Boston Marathon exceeded my expectations, my performance however, did not. I struggled at times during the race, not just the usual stuff one experiences at various points of a marathon, but really struggled to the point I almost packed it in at about the 30k mark.
When I finally crossed the finish line in a very disappointing 3:46:34 I told myself, "never again!"
However, once I had a chance to recover, reflect and get over the disappointment, I realized I couldn't end my marathon career on that note! Then I read Liz Robbins' book "A Race Like No Other" which chronicled the 2007 New York City Marathon. Her descriptions of the crowds, the race route and the runners were truly inspirational.
I knew running NYC was a must. And I wanted to qualify for the race based on time, not through the lottery or running for a charity. However, a 3:10 or faster marathon time, required for qualifying in my age group, was not within immediate reach for me. So I chose another option available - use a half marathon time to qualify. it would require a 1:30 or faster time, something I thought I could accomplish. After all I had run a PR half time of 1:38....shaving 8 minutes off over a 6 month time period would be a breeze!
Yeah right! The best I could do was 1:34. So I decided to hire my friend Ian to coach me. He's a former professional tri-athlete, has run many marathons (including NYC) and has coached tri-athletes and runners for nearly 20 years.
So here I am, training for a half marathon in mid-January and setting my sights on NYC for November 2011.
After that who knows, but I hear they have a some good marathons in Chicago, Berlin and London....like golfers, we runners always come back for more!
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