Another Sunday...
...another half marathon.
I wasn't really sure how to approach this one. Brass Monkey was the one I targetted for a new PB (which I duly achieved, and made it sub 1:50 for the first time), this was more a race I did because it was my first half last year, and because it's an excuse to go over and see my grandparents after the race.
All weekend I've been unsure as to how I should use the race. Should I go all out even though I haven't prepared specifically for it? Should I use it as a training run, and add a couple of miles onto it as a warm up, accepting that I'd go slower because of that? Should I just turn up and see what happens?
The third one turned into the plan, so much for stunning race tactics!
There were pacers, but I wasn't convinced I'd use them. There were 8 and 9 minute mile groups, but my last half marathon was at 8:20 pace, and I thought that taking 20 minutes per mile off in 6 weeks would be a little challenging. But I also didn't want to drop back to run with the 9 mile group particularly.
I started out ahead of the 8 mile group, but once they got into their stride after about 2 miles they caught me up and passed me. I tried to keep up for a while, but decided it wasn't worth flogging myself early and then feeling like death on the home straight. They were running faster than 8 minute miles at this point, trying to make up for the slow start, which added to my reluctance to try to keep up with them.
So I just ran my own race, and it was surprisingly straightforward. I didn't feel like the distance was a struggle, and even though my HRM said that my heart rate was 110% of my maximum at one point (eek!), for most of it I felt like I was pushing myself just hard enough to be able to sustain it for the distance, but not too hard that I'd run out of steam too early.
After Brass Monkey I was pretty pleased with my time and felt like it was a PB that it would be challenging to take much time off. It was on a flat course, and I felt fantastic on the day. I might shave a second off here and there, but I didn't expect a huge improvement for a while. This would explain my shock when I came up to the finish and realised I'd managed to knock over 90 seconds off my time.
So I will now sit here happily shining a nice shiny and new PB. I'm now very definitely sub 1:50, having come in at 1:47:47, the only worrying thing is that soon my thoughts might turn to how to get under 1:45...
I wasn't really sure how to approach this one. Brass Monkey was the one I targetted for a new PB (which I duly achieved, and made it sub 1:50 for the first time), this was more a race I did because it was my first half last year, and because it's an excuse to go over and see my grandparents after the race.
All weekend I've been unsure as to how I should use the race. Should I go all out even though I haven't prepared specifically for it? Should I use it as a training run, and add a couple of miles onto it as a warm up, accepting that I'd go slower because of that? Should I just turn up and see what happens?
The third one turned into the plan, so much for stunning race tactics!
There were pacers, but I wasn't convinced I'd use them. There were 8 and 9 minute mile groups, but my last half marathon was at 8:20 pace, and I thought that taking 20 minutes per mile off in 6 weeks would be a little challenging. But I also didn't want to drop back to run with the 9 mile group particularly.
I started out ahead of the 8 mile group, but once they got into their stride after about 2 miles they caught me up and passed me. I tried to keep up for a while, but decided it wasn't worth flogging myself early and then feeling like death on the home straight. They were running faster than 8 minute miles at this point, trying to make up for the slow start, which added to my reluctance to try to keep up with them.
So I just ran my own race, and it was surprisingly straightforward. I didn't feel like the distance was a struggle, and even though my HRM said that my heart rate was 110% of my maximum at one point (eek!), for most of it I felt like I was pushing myself just hard enough to be able to sustain it for the distance, but not too hard that I'd run out of steam too early.
After Brass Monkey I was pretty pleased with my time and felt like it was a PB that it would be challenging to take much time off. It was on a flat course, and I felt fantastic on the day. I might shave a second off here and there, but I didn't expect a huge improvement for a while. This would explain my shock when I came up to the finish and realised I'd managed to knock over 90 seconds off my time.
So I will now sit here happily shining a nice shiny and new PB. I'm now very definitely sub 1:50, having come in at 1:47:47, the only worrying thing is that soon my thoughts might turn to how to get under 1:45...
posted by YP at 8:48 PM
1 Comments:
a new PB! welllllll done :)
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