The final summer racing events are here. The last Westerly fun run on Wednesday, and Schonning 5K on Friday pretty much seal the deal and are the last time I feel like I'm still in summer running mode and not XC mode. Seeing as it's my last summer race, I'm going all-out at Schonning. I originally pondered going just for the win and running somewhat easy, but seeing as my current best 5K is a 16:12, I'm going for a second sub-16 attempt. Going into this race, I have two major goals: Sub-16 (B Goal of PR) and Win (which shouldn't be too difficult, and would give me my first back-to-back win ever). It'll be a big race for me. I know I'm capable of the PR, and I'm pretty if I give it my all, I can dip under 16 minutes.
Monday: 6 Miles.
There were many people there on the first day, but most were girls and the two gender's practices are merged this year, just like track. I was ready for nearly everything today- I could do a hard workout, a normal distance run, a mix of the two. The only thing I was praying we would not run is a timed all-out effort longer than 400 meters. Unfortunately, we were running three miles all-out on the track. It felt unbelievable going on the warm-up. I was so nervous. I've never more than eight laps on a track, I wasn't prepared to give an all-out effort today, and we never do timed distances over a mile, especially not on the first day. It was really hard for me to accept the fact that we were running 12 laps hard. I was really just hoping this was just some kind of joke. It wasn't.
I finally prepared myself to do this, but even then I didn't feel ready. I decided I wanted to make this as comfortable as possible and going out hard would not help me achieve me that. Figuring my best 5K pace is 5:13, I aimed to go out in 5:20 for a while and if I felt pretty comfortable hammer it at the end. We eventually started what looked to be an awful sufferfest. I also realized, as the entire group was starting together, I would have to lap people frequently. To make matters worse, the soccer people were also doing some kind of workout, and even though they were in lane 2, they still got in the way.
I ran out super easy, but certainly not jogging or anything like that. It's nice that with all the fast track races and workouts I've done, 5:20 pace feels pretty easy. For about 50 meters, people were right behind, at 150m they weren't too far behind, but after 300 I was running solo. My first lap was an 81. I ran it very comfortably and conservatively, but I picked it up a little bit since I usually slow down after the first lap (which is usually fast). The next lap was nice, but by lap three I was already lapping people. It was all fine at the time- crossed the mile (1600) in 5:18, which was excellent. Still feeling pretty great. The second mile was a little harder. At this point, I was regularly lapping people, which had become quite annoying. For some, it was not the first time I had lapped them, and I even lapped the second place runner. Occasionally, I would have to go all the way out into lane three because of the soccer players, and then swerve back into one. After about 6 laps, I was getting pretty tired. I knew I could run a few more laps at this pace no problem, but wasn't sure about 6 of them. 2 Miles (3200) in 10:40 (5:22 second mile). Right on 5:20 pace, but pretty tired at this point and starting to wish it would end. At this point, lapping people was awful and I nearly hit some of them because I was unwilling to go even farther out of the way to give extra room. Many of them actually gave me support, but I was far too tired to say anything back. Eventually, the end neared, when I was extremely tired. I picked it up a little at the end, but was once again way too weak to actually have a decent kick. Finished in 16:00 (5:20 final mile). Immediately got water and went looking for shade. I didn't GPS it (not sure if I should've- I would've liked to see the real distance, but didn't want/need to be looking at my watch), but I'm guessing it'd actually be closer to 5K (and that's what Aaron got on his GPS). As a 16:00 three-mile, this was not impressive nor should be an all-out effort for me, but as a 5K, that's something I'd be really happy with. Disappointing and uplifting at the same time.
Tuesday: 8 Miles.
Unable to make practice, so I did the workout on roads. Originally planned an easy eight through Weekapaug, but now had to sacrifice that plan as one of my coaches wanted me to run mile repeats (what they were doing at practice). With the repeats at yesterday's pace (5:20) and only 400m recovery, this seemed hard. I wanted to circle back on a loop, but not have to do many loops, so I planned on using the surftown Weekapaug loop as my course to run hard on. Seeing as I had a big 5K on Friday, I decided it'd be smarter to try and run target 5K pace (5:10). I felt fine on the warm-up, but the first mile was brutal, lung-busting, and seemed too drag on. And it felt like I was sprinting the whole time. I took an extra moment on recovery for water before continuing, but was both dreading the upcoming repeats and wasn't even sure if I'd be able to make those. Whatever the case, I was at least doing one more. I finished out that loop and started another. The second one was equally brutal. I was thinking about doing 2x1000 or 2x800 or 1x1200 instead of continuing this brutal workout. I decided with the 1200. I pulled to the side to catch my breath and took a little extra recovery (600m) before I decided to continue on. I changed the route slightly and ran out and back on noyes neck. Before I got to the end, I decided to push all the way through to the mile. I was slightly off, but at least I finished it. Jog back to water fountain, run back. Splits were: 5:13, 5:16, 5:21. I don't that doesn't represent how my race will go, but doesn't give any confidence either. Difficulty: 5/5.
Wednesday: 4 Miles
Hill workout, six Narragansett hill repeats. Not bad at all. A little hot and a little heavy on the breathing, but got through them feeling pretty strong. Way off my personal best time on the hills as usual. Difficulty: 3/5. Overall, I would have liked to do a little more mileage for the day, but didn't happen.
Later that evening...I did not run the fun run mile. Picked up my last trophy and signed up for Schonning. It's interesting how these trophies have progressed, and luckily I've been able to collect all six of them.
Thursday: 9 Miles
First distance run of the XC season; I'm probably doing the rest of these solo. Slightly depressing to do similar routes frequently and alone, but not like anyone else can run sub-7 pace for 6-8 miles anyway. 55 minutes to run around Westerly. Got the bathroom break out of the way, and felt better than expected. Went up to the baseball field and back, then tried to run most of the Schonning course to get a feel on what it was like for Friday. I was happy to see both Margin and Clark were both freshly paved- but I couldn't run all the way down Elm because of construction. At that point I had about six miles and was looking for 8, and that's when I stopped feeling good. Running up the hill on granite was tiring and even though my route flattened out after that it was still tough, and I started to feel the heat.
Friday: 6 Miles
Schonning 5K. I was going to do a full write-up, but it just didn't go the way I wanted to at all. I wanted the win and sub-16, and not felt only ready to do so but felt like I had done everything right both race day and race week. I wanted to run about 5:08 pace the whole time, hopefully a little faster mile 3 and try to kick at the end. Mile one was absolutely perfect and while I wasn't feeling great, I felt like I had plenty left. I don't know what happened, but I slowed down quite a bit for the rest of it and ended up with an average pace of 5:14. It was hot and tiring after the turn onto Clark. Super disappointing. They also messed up the turnaround, which everyone ended up completely skipping because of poor course marshals, so it only came out to three miles and I wasn't able to get the course record of 16:21 (I would've been about 16:15). I'll try and put this one behind me and focus on Injury Fund, but what a massive disappointment.
My nine consecutive performances at this race:
Saturday: 6 Miles
Saturday practices are never fun, and if it's a workout they're usually incredibly challenging. In this aspect, this one did not disappoint. I kinda just wanted to sleep in/die after Schonning disappointment, but I was here instead. Even more disappointing was that I found out the team just played games and did light running on Friday. It sounded really fun, of course one of the few practices I missed. I didn't know what we were doing, just that it was hot and we were on the very open track. Then I got it: 1 Mile, 4x400, 1 Mile. Pace was between 3K and 5K, but not a race pace in any distance for me. I was supposed to run the mile in 4:55, the 400s in 71, and the mile again in 4:55. It sounded really tough especially going back up to the mile. I did the mile. I felt like was running hard, but it wasn't too tiring and I got through it fine. I went 73 for 400, 2:26 for 800 and 3:41 for 1200. 4:55 exactly for the final time. I was surprised that just two minutes later, still catching my breath, I was already starting the 400s. I was definitely happy about the shorter distance, but the recovery was only 45s (although he gave me about two minutes between 3 and 4) and I hit 71 for every single one of them. They were quite tiring and I couldn't imagine doing more than 400 meters at that pace. I got a longer recovery (about six minutes) before the final mile. I was very tired at this point and not at all looking forward to it. He gave me an option: hard 800 in 2:12-2:15 or the mile in 4:55. I didn't really want to do a longer distance, but I figured the faster speed would feel worse than the longer distance. I picked the mile and was finally off. Only about 200 meters into it I was counting down the meters and laps and was getting tired. It would be a long and very brutal final three and half laps. The hardest track workouts we do make me more tired than in most races, feel incredibly weak, start to lose feeling in the thighs/legs, form starts to break down, and even start to stumble and stop running straight. It's usually accompanied by a brutal headache immediately after. I had all of these in the final three laps, and it was incredibly tough. I went through in the same splits: 72/2:16/3:41. It was really hard to finish it, but I did. Apparently my final split was 66 and I finished in 4:47, but that doesn't sound right considering how awful I felt at that point. Perhaps I heard wrong and I ran 76 for the final 400, finishing in 4:57. Difficulty: 5/5. Absolute hell, and super hot with very little shade.
Sunday: 0 Miles
I was actually looking forward to this, but my coach told me to take the day off because of Schonning Friday night and a hard workout the morning after. Oh well. I did something hard every single day except Thursday, and that wasn't exactly easy.
Weekly Total: 39 Miles (a big step down, but got in plenty of quality workouts)
YTD Total: 1,499 Miles
This week sounds insane. 5 workouts? Be your own advocate and make sure you keep yourself healthy for the big meets later. I run a lot, and can't fathom doing this many workouts and not breaking down or losing interest. Good luck with your season! Looking forward to your race reports.
ReplyDeleteNeat comparison of the Fun Run trophies and your times over the past six years.
ReplyDelete