It was just one of those days that you hope to forget. I'm not sure what to make of it actually. Pacing plans turned to survival plans after 16 km's and I was completely smashed at the finish. Luckily T was there to hold the 80 minute pace, but even he finished 20 seconds off pace. As for me, I managed to run my slowest 1/2 in 4 years. The time was a very disappointing 81:29, over 6 mins slower than GC just 2.5 months back.
Rather than focusing on the negatives, I'll focus on the positives:
- 33.5 km's total running;
- I hung in there in conditions that were tough and most of the field ran significantly slower than expected. It was hot, windy, very dry and the course whilst not extremely hilly, does undulate. It's not really a course for rythym running, especially with the wind around. As I noted last night, these conditions don't suit me at all, but it is good to have a practice hitout just in case Chicago dishes up the same;
- I had a similar race 2 years ago, before setting a marathon PB 4 weeks later;
I didn't get much sleep last night, less than a couple of hours and I'm sure this contributed. I was out the door at 4:45 am for the drive into the city. I parked a little over 3 km's from the race start, so I could get a warm-up jog in. As soon as I got into the jog, I knew it was going to be a tough day. 20 degrees at around 5:30 am and windy. My average heart rate was at 129 for the warm-up despite jogging at a pedestrian 5:35 pace. Usually it would be around 110-115.
During the run, my average H/R was 163 and peaked at 170. This is far higher than I would've liked or expected. Last Sunday I ran 32 km's in 2:07 (averaging low 3:50's for the last hour) and my average H/R then was only 142 (peaking at 156) so I'm not about to slit my throat.
I followed the run with a slow 9 odd km's to get the mileage up a bit.
Today I have caught up on some much needed sleep. I slept in the car on the way home for 45 mins and another 4 hours when I got home.
Usually from here I would start a 3 week taper, but given that I only managed 103.5 km's (7:55 hours)
this week, I will go with the 2 week taper. Had I not raced I planned to do nearer to 130 km's, but I allowed a km of low mileage of easy days leading into the race. Plan for this upcoming week is:
Mon - 1 hour
Tues - 6 km Fartlek (700 hard /300 float)
Wed - 1 hour 45 mins
Thu - 10 x 100 strides
Fri - 30 mins
Sat - 6 km tempo
Sun - 2 hours 30 mins
If I can find the time, I'll add a couple of doubles in there and also update the Blog.
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