Up and out early this morning for the latest Striders 10km race at Olympic Park.
This is my least favourite of the three courses, and my times have always reflected this - for some reason I always struggle to maintain my concentration on the two laps...still, I thought it would be a good hit out before the SMH Half next weekend.
I got there in plenty of time to register and trot through a very quick warm up.
After last month's effort, I was keen to start closer to the front of the field so that I didn't spend too much time weaving during the first km as the course starts off pretty narrow and so I positioned myself a couple of rows back from the front.
We were soon underway and I settled into what felt like an easy pace for me...even managing to keep the 40 minute pacer in sight for the first few kms...looking at my watch I could see why as my splits were under 4.10's for the first 3km...a good sign I thought.
The track down to the dirt circle came and went and I managed to keep what I thought was a reasonable pace up to the bridge and then back to the start line for lap 2....still feeling fresh and 20.52 for 5km according to the Garmin, although my legs were starting to hurt a little. This continued until the left hand turn before the Olympic Stadium where I started to feel like I was struggling more than I should be - and this continued all the way to the dirt track again, where I was consistently getting passed by other runners, and only managing to pass one female myself...
From this point I could feel my pace was slowing quickly and it was all about holding on as best I could which I managed to do, up onto the bridge and then to the finish - even managing to pass someone who had passed me about 50m from the finish line.
All up, a good start and first 6km but I really died during kms 7, 8 and 9 with my pace blowing out as a consequence. Maybe my legs were still tired after Thursday's long run? Or maybe it was the concentration thing again... Let's hope so anyway...
Given the training I had put in last week, the aim for this week is so back off from Wednesday and taper properly into Sunday - I don't normally taper for half marathons, but I am keen to do a good time next weekend...which will mean getting to the start nice and early too as I hear there are 13,000 registered!
Good to catch up with Mike R afterwards, and to get his thoughts on bikes etc...speaking of which I am heading down to the Shire this arvo to check out a Cervelo P2....fingers crossed it might be the bike for me!
Splits for this morning went:
1: 4.04
2: 4.09
3: 4.06
4: 4.12
5: 4.12
6: 4.08
7: 4.22
8: 4.25
9: 4.27
10: 4.26
Total: 10.16
Ave HR: 165
My Garmin actually measured the course at 10.16...so maybe that's why I was a little slow - I ran 42.45 for 10km according to my watch!
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