Striders 10km race - Homebush

A bit of a chilly and rainy morning for Striders, but Andrew and I draged ourselves across to give it a go. A pretty small field for this race, unsurprising seeing as it's a long weekend as well as the first day of school holidays so a lot of people are probably away. On top of which the weather wouldn't have attracted anyone on the fence.

After a good run session on Tuesday I was feeling pretty fired up to try for a time in the 37.xx range, I thought I have the long run stamina in me and my speed has been good so I might just give it a shake. I did flake a bit in my run on Thursday, but then again it was 34 degrees that day. So I decided to just go for it.

I started with a fast first kilometre and saw it was 3.37, so decided to settle in the second to keep my HR down enough so as not to overdo it too early. Then when I saw my time had dropped to 3.49 I picked again for the 3rd kilometre and did a 3.39. The next two kms I struggled to keep my legs moving fast enough and then by the 6th kilometre my breathing started to become laboured, even though my HR wasn't anywhere near too high. Normally I'm over 180bpm when I'm gasping, but I was only about 173.

At this point the guys around me, who I had been keeping around for the whole race, started to ever to so slightly pull away and when I tried to stay with them I just couldn't. They weren't going any faster, my legs just refused to turn over at a fast enough rate to keep up with them and I started slipping back. After a 4.00 7th km, I gamely tried to pick it up in the 8th but only managed to make up a few seconds, then started fading badly in the 9th at 4.03. Doing my level best to sprint finish I managed a 3.47 for he final km, but I couldn't possibly have gone any faster.

Tough race, maybe I went too fast in the first km, or maybe I wasn't recovered from the week. My legs felt fine before the race, although it had been a big week of riding and running. Ah I still felt like it was a very good run and the best time I've done in a year so I was bloody happy to come over the line at 38.22

Then drove straight to the Blue Mountains for brekky with Sal and Tom and the family and supposedly a hike in Leura with Kate and Brett, but the socked-in fog and pouring rain turned that into a cafe lunch and a drive back instead...

Km - Time - Av HG
1 - 3.37 - 137
2 - 3.49 - 165
3 - 3.39 - 169
4 - 3.52 - 171
5 - 3.51 - 173
6 - 3.45 - 172
7 - 4.00 - 175
8 - 3.53 - 174
9 - 4.03 - 175
10 - 3.47 - 177