Hideous
I had a great time at the weekend, but the run itself was horrible, horrible, horrible. The weather was far too hot, it was sunny and even just stepping into the sunshine made my arms feel like they were burning up. Ouch!
I took precautions, but part of me thinks this was part of the problem. I drank a lot of water before the race. I didn't want to dehydrate. But I drank too much I think. Usually I run first thing in the morning after a mouthful or two of water. I take some with me, and I'm relatively hydrated because I've been drinking water all evening, but I don't drink gallons before the race.
But with a 10.30 start on a gloriously hot day that's exactly what I did on Sunday. So cue a bloated feeling in my stomach and a desperate need to go to the loo for most of the race. Oops. So, mistake 1. No matter how early I get up in Berlin, or how hot it is, I'm going to limit my water intake according to my thirst not every drop of water I can get my hands on. There will be plenty of water on the course if I need it.
Other than that, we hid in the tent with the "celebs" (well, the Cheeky Girls...) until the warm up, at which point I realised that it was going to be hard. The warm up got me far warmer and more out of breath than normal, and I had to tip some water over my head once it finished. I started revising my goals again.
About 6 weeks ago I ran a 10k in under 48 minutes. I was aiming for between 52 and 55 this time. I was wearing brand new trainers (bad timing I know, but my old ones were causing blisters so I decided to take a chance with the new ones rather than wearing old ones I knew would hurt), I'd run a half marathon the week before, and it was hot. Once I realised how hot I moved that target downwards to an hour.
My race pace was slower than my training pace, and it was horribly hard. It was a bigger field than I've ever run in before and the start wasn't particularly well organised so there were lots of slower runners at the start. I knew I'd need to take a walking break, and my target was to simply make it past half way before doing it. I got to about 4.5k and there was a bit of a hill, I hesitated and then ran up it. I made it to 5k and decided to try for the water station. Then I made it to the water station, tipped half a litre of water over me (I was carrying water I hadn't needed to that point so I thought it would go to better use over my head!) and carried on a bit further. In the end I made it to about 6.5k and walked to just before 7.
I wanted to run from there to the end, and I'd have made it other than turning the corner at 9k to see a pretty straight run to the finish. Uphill with no shade. Ouch. I ran most of it, but walked for 30 seconds or so midway up.
In the end I squeezed under the finish at 59:51, although due to the slow start my chip time was a more creditable 58:09. In that weather I'm not overly disappointed, although I did make a decision to start doing some speedwork sessions in my training again, even though they're not in my schedule!
So, this morning I did just under 6k with 3 800m intervals, and it felt good. The scary thing though is that there are no more races in the diary until Berlin. It's training all the way now, and solid concentration on just one goal.
I took precautions, but part of me thinks this was part of the problem. I drank a lot of water before the race. I didn't want to dehydrate. But I drank too much I think. Usually I run first thing in the morning after a mouthful or two of water. I take some with me, and I'm relatively hydrated because I've been drinking water all evening, but I don't drink gallons before the race.
But with a 10.30 start on a gloriously hot day that's exactly what I did on Sunday. So cue a bloated feeling in my stomach and a desperate need to go to the loo for most of the race. Oops. So, mistake 1. No matter how early I get up in Berlin, or how hot it is, I'm going to limit my water intake according to my thirst not every drop of water I can get my hands on. There will be plenty of water on the course if I need it.
Other than that, we hid in the tent with the "celebs" (well, the Cheeky Girls...) until the warm up, at which point I realised that it was going to be hard. The warm up got me far warmer and more out of breath than normal, and I had to tip some water over my head once it finished. I started revising my goals again.
About 6 weeks ago I ran a 10k in under 48 minutes. I was aiming for between 52 and 55 this time. I was wearing brand new trainers (bad timing I know, but my old ones were causing blisters so I decided to take a chance with the new ones rather than wearing old ones I knew would hurt), I'd run a half marathon the week before, and it was hot. Once I realised how hot I moved that target downwards to an hour.
My race pace was slower than my training pace, and it was horribly hard. It was a bigger field than I've ever run in before and the start wasn't particularly well organised so there were lots of slower runners at the start. I knew I'd need to take a walking break, and my target was to simply make it past half way before doing it. I got to about 4.5k and there was a bit of a hill, I hesitated and then ran up it. I made it to 5k and decided to try for the water station. Then I made it to the water station, tipped half a litre of water over me (I was carrying water I hadn't needed to that point so I thought it would go to better use over my head!) and carried on a bit further. In the end I made it to about 6.5k and walked to just before 7.
I wanted to run from there to the end, and I'd have made it other than turning the corner at 9k to see a pretty straight run to the finish. Uphill with no shade. Ouch. I ran most of it, but walked for 30 seconds or so midway up.
In the end I squeezed under the finish at 59:51, although due to the slow start my chip time was a more creditable 58:09. In that weather I'm not overly disappointed, although I did make a decision to start doing some speedwork sessions in my training again, even though they're not in my schedule!
So, this morning I did just under 6k with 3 800m intervals, and it felt good. The scary thing though is that there are no more races in the diary until Berlin. It's training all the way now, and solid concentration on just one goal.
posted by YP at 8:01 PM
1 Comments:
I think you're smart to be willing to revise your training schedule a bit based on what you learned during this race. Keep us posted!
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