Race jamming

About a year ago, this kid posted on the american Coolrunning site (coolrunning.com) advising that the best way to race is to 'jam it'. This apparently involves going out with the leaders in full knowledge that there's no chance in hell that you'll ever be able to keep up with them for the full distance. He copped a lot of flack - particularly from me - getting told that the only thing that would achieve would be shocking times and a lot of pain.

Well, I must be a hypocrite, because I decided this week to follow that strategy in today's time trial:P I figured at worst the leader would do 8km in 28:00, so 3:30 pace. While I definitely couldn't last the full distance at that speed, I was pretty confident that I could stay there for at least 3km. Given that I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to run 8km anyway because of my achilles, and that running faster doesn't really have an effect, this seemed like a good idea:P

I set my alarm for 6:10, so as to give myself enough time to ride there and have a good warmup. But whaddaya know, I kept hitting snooze until 6:30. "It'll be right, it only takes 35 minutes to ride there." Not true! After finally getting my act together, and downing two NoDoze caffeine tablets to get the engine started, I started riding and soon realised that there was no way in hell I was going to get there in 35 minutes. It might've been possible on my new bike, but I wasn't prepared to stand the risk of it getting stolen/damaged while I ran (my Baby!), so I rode hard and slowly on my commuter. Ended up getting to the Tan at 7:35, 5 minutes after the race had started.

All was not lost though, because the start line is opposite the shrine of remembrance, 2km up the track. So I stowed my bike, and started jogging down the track, waiting to run into the lead pack. It took a little longer than I expected, but finally I spotted them: a group of about ten guys, charging heroically through the walkers and joggers, stirring up a great cloud of dust in their wake (ok I made that part up:P). After slotting in, I said "Looks like I missed the start, huh?" to the guy next to me and only received a glare in response:P Guess he was jealous of my fresh legs:P

They were going quite a bit slower than I expected, only 3:44 pace. I was feeling pretty good, and moved up to the front of the pack as we approached Anderson St. I was very surprised when no-one went with me. By the time we got to the top, I'd probably put about 20m on them and was still feeling strong. The little downhill straight afterwards lead to an even greater gap developing, and I started to get a little worried. I'd never led a race before, and hadn't planned on doing so today. They were meant to pull me along, not the other way around! So I deliberately slowed a little and after a while, another guy caught up. We exchanged the lead a bit, going through 2km in dead even 3:42 splits. After 2.5km, the exertion started to make itself felt, and I very obviously went lactic. Another guy (actually the guy I thought would be well in front of the rest, considering he'd run 28:59 in the last time trial I went to and we were only going 29:36 pace) caught up at the 3km mark, and I dropped off the back, my 'jam' broken.

I kept going though, if only because I was a bit disappointed with the 3km time. I wanted to come out of this race with a PB. It didn't matter what distance, I just wanted some sign of improvement.

A fourth runner drew level, and I realised that I had to run a 3:30 5th km if I was to break my PB. I reached into that dark, mysterious place, where a hidden reservoir of energy is sometimes stored and threw a lassoo over the front two runners, who were about 50m in front. Their lead began to shrink, but irritatingly, the guy in fourth went with me. At 4.5km, I didn't have anything left, and just tried to stay in front of him. I managed it, but upon reaching Anderson st, I realised that I wasn't going to be able to go on, and peeled off, turning back the way I'd come. I'm sure if he'd had the breath to allow it, he would've sniffed in derision at my antics:P With 200m to go, my sprint finish was anything but epic, and when I finally reached 5km it was in the rather disappointing time of 18:50, 10 seconds off my PB.

I was initially a little disappointed, because when you convert all my races/time trials for this year, it's actually a step backwards. On contemplation though, I enjoyed the race and the ride before it and my achilles didn't bother me at all, so when I look at it that way, I'm pretty happy with the result. I don't think I've lost fitness either - 18:50 is pretty stellar when you consider that I was feeling like a sack of crap yesterday (more about that later).

After walking for a bit to stretch out my extremely tight hips, I ran another 3km in 12:46, with the first and last kms at around 4:00/k. So with that and the ride home, it was a very good workout. I think I'll try and do something like that every Saturday from now on. It's the kind of thing I've been lacking all year, and I really need to do some fast running before I move onto the next phase of my schedule so that all the intervals don't put too much pressure on my legs.

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The rest of the week was pretty good. I took Monday and Tuesday off (and compensated with the cross trainer of course - wouldn't want to break my 126 day streak:P) and then had a really fantastic run on Wednesday round the ovals at uni.

It didn't start out that well - I'd only done about 10 minutes before I had to stop because my calves were so tight. After walking and stretching for a bit, I started running again, and halfway through the next lap I heard footsteps coming up behind me. I was going 4:30 pace, so I was mighty surprised when this guy wearing tracky pants, a woolen jumper and a really dorky brimmed hat sidles up to me and says "You're running a bit faster than most people usually do round here.". I shot back "you're dressed a bit funny for running this fast":P Turns out he was an ex 30:xx 10k runner:O It was fantastic chatting with him, I didn't notice the time going by and suddenly I'd done 40 minutes! 10 minutes more than I'd planned. 8.76k at 4:37/k would have to be one of the fastest easy runs I've done this year and it felt really easy:)

I left Thursday's run til 11pm that night and felt niggles in my achilles straight away. Lasted about 20 minutes before it got so bad that I had to stop and walk it out. It felt allright after that and I managed another 25 minutes to round out 8.52km at 5:12 pace.

On Friday I woke up feeling absolutely shocking. Just had no energy whatsoever. It was almost certainly a result of the 3hrs of sleep I got on Thursday night (no I wasn't doing anything exciting, just trying to fix up some dodgey programming:|). Anyway, I really struggled through my half an hour, averaging an amazing 6:44/km! I was feeling like I was sickening for something too, so I'm really happy that I was able to run at least a little quicker today.

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Weekly totals: 108.53km/10:56 (Running: 30.53km/2:30 = 4:55/km)

If I manage a decent run tomorrow after my ski, I'll have done my first ever sub 5:00/k week! (Of course, it will also be a verry low volume week, but still!)