5km race at Point Walter

Yesterday I ran the WAMC 5km Point Walter race (see below)

Wednesday - usual recovery run.  Average HR 128.  Sleepwalking these at the moment.

Thursday - did 16.2km out and back to Maylands.  Ran about 10km of this with Clown.  We did our usual meet at Burswood and ran the 8km out to Maylands that we do as our tempo ran but just did it easy.  It was Running Central out there that morning.  I'd already seen Kim on my way down to Burswood and then Clown and I saw both Simon and Sandgroper at different points along the Maylands route.  It was a very humid morning and although I didn't really notice it while we were out running, when I got home, my shirt and shoes were soaked.  My shoes were like I had run through a puddle.

Friday - recovery run.  Average HR 127 - getting lower.

Saturday - skipped the long run in favour of a short run out to the Causeway and back.  I interspersed 5 strides of varying lengths 20-50 seconds each at 5km race pace.  I was glad the race wasn't that morning as I felt strangely flat.

66.6km for the Sunday to Saturday week.  There will be no rest day this coming week though.

Sunday - 5km at Point Walter.  There was a 16km race as well but my thinking is that I am not in shape to do anything I would feel good about and running 16km hard would most likely stuff my training for this week and with the Bridges being a key race for me, I can't afford a bad week 6 weeks out.

Forecast was for a hot day but luckily we started at 7am so it wsn't too bad.  I did an approx 2km warm up with a couple of strides and then a few drills.

Caught up with Clown and Sandgroper at the start.  We were all looking to run a similar time so it made for an interesting race.

A crowded start onto the footpath slowed things down a bit and it was almost 1km before things opened up properly.  I saw Simon just ahead of me (he was running the 16km) and ran alongside him for a bit but then we hit a slight headwind.  Knowing that Simon paces himself fairly well, I tucked in behind him and switched off for a bit.

We hit the 2.5km turnaround which followed a drink station and was then around a cone.  Slowed things down slightly but not drastically.  Sandgroper was probably 20m ahead of me at this point and I had a similar lead over Clown.

I think I may have passed one person in the second half but Sandgroper pulled away from me.  Although I slowed slightly, I'm reasonably pleased with my splits and hit my B goal of sub 18:30 but missed my (what was probably overly ambitious) A goal of sub 18:00.

Splits were 3:37; 3:37; 3:44; 3:43; 3:38 so a reasonably even effort to finish 8th in 18:21.

Sandgroper finished 6th in 17:57 while I just pipped Clown who came 9th in 18:26. The winner did 16:13.

First time I have raced a 5km so I’ll take the PR which also gives me some room to improve although I’m not sure when the next one will be. A good solid run.

Clown, Sandgroper and I then did a warmdown back out on the course and encouraged a few runners as we went along.  Clown and I did 5km, Sangroper turned back a bit earlier.

All up a fun race and a good morning.  Sugar and Kim were the race directors and did a great job.  Epi was helping out doing the timekeeping and they had plenty of other assistance.

Using the McMillan running calculator, I'm still a bit off where I need to be to run a PB at the Bridges but not so far off that it isn't achievable with some sensible, hard training between now and 28 March and then a good run on the day.

Monday - 12.8km bridges loop in 57 minutes.  Felt a bit harder than that pace should have, so I must have had a bit of residual fatigue from the day before.

Hill repeat workout tomorrow morning.  Plan is to run them hard x 10.

Long run this week will actually be next week as it will be on Sunday.  Ben has his scholarship exam on Saturday morning so a long run that day just won't work.  From discussions at Point Walter though, we could have any or all of Sandgroper, Clown, Epi and myself on the run.  We will have to start circulating some route suggestions and start times to see what suits.