Milton Keynes Half
As my legs were feeling really drained the first week after the marathon I decided in the end to do nothing this week - yep zip. As a result I've let go a bit and have been eating just about everything that's bad for me, and been drinking a fair bit too. Although I wont have lost much fitness I've no doubt put on a couple of pounds this week that will need burning off when I start re-training properly.
As you can probably tell I really wasn't bothered about the Milton Keynes Half and right up to the middle of Saturday I was thinking about not bothering to turn up. Normally when I feel like this it means I end up running really badly as the motivation just isn't there.
On the day I went down with a friend from work who is using the event as part of his training for a marathon at the end of April. As I was warming up my bad knee jarred slightly and felt quite sore which was a bad omen. I lined up at the start and tried to stretch it a bit and a few minutes later we were off.
Basically I set off way way too quickly and did the first mile in 5.30 and the next mile in 5.45. As a result I could feel my legs not feeling all that great quite early on. However I managed to tag onto with a group of 5 or so runners and stayed with them to about 5-6 miles when they gradually went ahead, or more accurately I started to slow down. In retrospect I shouldn't have tagged with them as it was too quick for me and although I could keep with them for a few miles they were too fast.
I went through the 10km barrier in 36.00 dead, which underlined how fast I went off at the start as it was only 6 seconds slower than my pb!! Bit by bit I was slowing down after this point and I didn't overtake anyone after 4 miles but managed to lose loads of places which is never a great feeling. Between 8-9 miles it was very windy and I had a really bad mile. It also blew any remaining energy out of my legs.
Although I'm painting a really bad picture I was still way ahead of my half pb at this stage and was probably on for about 1.18.30 (probably 1.17 after 10km). That said, I was slowing down considerably so knew I was realistically not going to run less than 1.20
I went through 10 miles in 59.53 so in fact I actually beat one of my targets to run 10 miles in less than 60 minutes! Not much else to report other than I was just getting slower and slower, although about 600 metres before the finish I could hear the first lady just behind me and about to overtake. I used this as a spur to put in a bit of a kick and managed to leave her behind up to the finish. In the end I ran 1.20.30 which is a new pb by 2.07 minutes. My average pace was 6.09 min miles.
I'm not particularly impressed with the way I ran even though it resulted in a pb, in fact I'd say it was fairly diabolical. Just went off too quickly plain and simple. In fact the last 6 miles of my half marathon were probably no quicker than my last 6 miles of my marathon at Draycote. It was never a particularly important race for me so I'm not massively bothered, although just disappointed I wasn't more tactically astute. One positive though was that if I ran the first 10km only just a few seconds behind my pb for that distance, then it looks reasonably certain that I'd have a good chance of running quicker. Its slightly surprising as I thought my 10km pb would be difficult to beat as I've focused away from speed for endurance.
There were a few cameras around the course so if there are any photos I will post them as of when I find them. The course also used chip timing with 5km split times so will add them tomorrow evening.
As you can probably tell I really wasn't bothered about the Milton Keynes Half and right up to the middle of Saturday I was thinking about not bothering to turn up. Normally when I feel like this it means I end up running really badly as the motivation just isn't there.
On the day I went down with a friend from work who is using the event as part of his training for a marathon at the end of April. As I was warming up my bad knee jarred slightly and felt quite sore which was a bad omen. I lined up at the start and tried to stretch it a bit and a few minutes later we were off.
Basically I set off way way too quickly and did the first mile in 5.30 and the next mile in 5.45. As a result I could feel my legs not feeling all that great quite early on. However I managed to tag onto with a group of 5 or so runners and stayed with them to about 5-6 miles when they gradually went ahead, or more accurately I started to slow down. In retrospect I shouldn't have tagged with them as it was too quick for me and although I could keep with them for a few miles they were too fast.
I went through the 10km barrier in 36.00 dead, which underlined how fast I went off at the start as it was only 6 seconds slower than my pb!! Bit by bit I was slowing down after this point and I didn't overtake anyone after 4 miles but managed to lose loads of places which is never a great feeling. Between 8-9 miles it was very windy and I had a really bad mile. It also blew any remaining energy out of my legs.
Although I'm painting a really bad picture I was still way ahead of my half pb at this stage and was probably on for about 1.18.30 (probably 1.17 after 10km). That said, I was slowing down considerably so knew I was realistically not going to run less than 1.20
I went through 10 miles in 59.53 so in fact I actually beat one of my targets to run 10 miles in less than 60 minutes! Not much else to report other than I was just getting slower and slower, although about 600 metres before the finish I could hear the first lady just behind me and about to overtake. I used this as a spur to put in a bit of a kick and managed to leave her behind up to the finish. In the end I ran 1.20.30 which is a new pb by 2.07 minutes. My average pace was 6.09 min miles.
I'm not particularly impressed with the way I ran even though it resulted in a pb, in fact I'd say it was fairly diabolical. Just went off too quickly plain and simple. In fact the last 6 miles of my half marathon were probably no quicker than my last 6 miles of my marathon at Draycote. It was never a particularly important race for me so I'm not massively bothered, although just disappointed I wasn't more tactically astute. One positive though was that if I ran the first 10km only just a few seconds behind my pb for that distance, then it looks reasonably certain that I'd have a good chance of running quicker. Its slightly surprising as I thought my 10km pb would be difficult to beat as I've focused away from speed for endurance.
There were a few cameras around the course so if there are any photos I will post them as of when I find them. The course also used chip timing with 5km split times so will add them tomorrow evening.
Good one Lloyd, it's all miles on the feet too. I find that going off too fast is a problem too, and running with absolutely no energy in the legs isn't a good feeling, but the fact you had a PB is very impressive and shows how much your fitness has come on.
ReplyDeleteI did the 'Norton 9' today, 9 miles of quite a hilly course. Beat last year's time (not that impressive though...) but the weather was much better today. Have a good week!
It's funny isnt it how we get disappointed with things like this. I've just done a new record high number of miles for me this last week (57, and yet I'm not happy at all with the way I've run. I was meant to do a 20 miler on Saturday, but bombed at 18. I since discovered a leak in my camelbac, which meant thta I probably only had just over a litre of water in 18 miles, and I wondered why it appeared to go so quickly! And generally I've felt pretty sluggish all week, whereas I know that I shouldnt be too hard on myself as it;s the first week back from ilness. Yet despite all this and doing 57 miles, I'm not happy, and you're not happy for doing a pb in the half marathon. I guess we're both a little too competitive sometimes, and we are our own worst enemies!
ReplyDeleteCheers for the comments also on the marathon. At the moment I'm a little deflated after Saturday's run. I did 18 in around 2hr 35mins, which is still 3hr 45min pace, but am annoyed that a.) my camelbac leaked and b.) I wasn't really properly hydrated enough to start with. It was a very weird sensation. I never hit the wall physically in that my legs were fine, but because I was dehyrated, I felt so sick and my body internally was packing up. So little disappointed, but I feel good about the fact that my legs were still good.
To be honest, the rest has probably done you some good mate, I'll be honest and say that I'm whacked, but I also think that has something to do with my nutrition too. I'm not eating enough I think, and I'm losing weight big time (probably around 6-8kgs in the last 2 months). Anyway's all good learning I guess. Keep it going mate... keep the miles ticking over, and then Sept/Oct, we can ramp up to ultra territory! Wicked can't wait for that one :)