Salmon Days

[benbiggles]

Saturday was a strange day, went for a 30 minute run at E pace (7:30/mile), well slightly faster than e pace. Felt fine. Got home and within 30 minutes my left eye felt as if I had something in it. Anyway this continued to get worse to the extent that I could not keep my eye open without excruciating pain so, I did the right thing and closed it :) . I thought to myself if it is no better in the morning I will not run.

Sunday dawned and my eye felt better (think I had a sty or something) which was great as I really wanted to run. Cindy did her best to get out of running and then opting for the 5km, I soon quelled those urges ;)

I just had a banana, coffee and water for breakfast. I would ususally eat more for a multi sport race or something of longer duration but did not want to risk any stomach problems so deliberately ate light. Got to the race venue and hung out with everyone for a while which is always fun. Went for a warm up with CIndy, did not run as long as I would have liked but felt sufficiently warmed up once we did a few strides and pick ups.

Got to the start and tried to find Mike P and Damon (both of whom I knew would run sub 40) as I thought they might make good company for a while but then it dawned on me I wanted to rehearse my 'mental' skills and try and stay focused for the full duration of the race so I did my own thing (but kept them within sight ;) ).

The race started and I ran a conservative but fast first mile (Garmin 6:02) with a very steady average HR of 164 (my lowest for the race). I felt great at this speed and settled in knowing my HR would 'catch up' to my running speed, it did. The 2nd and 3rd mles were run at 6:07 and 6:12 with avg HR's of 172 and 172, I felt strong and knew the pace was sustainable and with the net back half of this run being downhill (just) it made for a nice negative split 10km. Last 3 miles were 5:59, 5:51, 5:55 avg HR 171, 171, 171. All the way through the race I could see Mike P just in front although could not seem to bridge the gap. I accelerated for the last .2 miles and hit my peak HR for the run in this last section of 175bpm and top speed of 13.4 mph.

Garmin time 37:26, distance 6.24 miles. I am pleased with this run, I paced it very evenly and did not commit the cardinal sin of going out to hard and progressively fading through each mile.

Congratualtions to all team members, it was a great turnout and great set of results for everyone. Breakfast was awesome, thanks Heidi for sorting it out and well done on your PR.

[Heidi]

Nice job Ben! I wish I could pace like that. It was nice hanging out with everyone before the race and breakfast was a lot of fun. The social aspect of this team makes the pain tolerable!

This was my first 10K road race (only other 10K was Bridle Trails last summer). I was pretty nervous before the race, because I just didn't know if I could run hard for the full distance. My goal was 48:00, which would be about 7:45 min/mile.

The main plan was to not go out too hard, maybe around 8:00 for the first mile, then pick up 10-12 seconds on the 2nd mile and turn it on with around 2 miles to go. Well, the first mile was 7:24, so I blew that pretty bad. Now, I was worried because how long could I keep that up? Not long it turns out. Mile 2 was 7:47 and mile 3 was 7:52. I was not feeling too great and had to play a lot of mental games to not shut it down completely. I went through 3 miles in 23:04, which made me think maybe things weren't too bad. I'm almost half way, I can run 3 more! I actually started feeling better (I did warm up before hand, but maybe now I was really warmed up?). Mile 4 had a little downhill in it and was my fastest at 7:23, so now I'm through 4 miles in 30:27. It gave me a real mental boost because I had never run that fast that far before except on the treadmill, which is kind of cheating.

Between miles 2 and 3 I got passed by this woman who really didn't look like a runner (not that I do, but don't you hate that?) and I was a bit discouraged, even though I really was intent on not racing anyone and just doing my best for this race. Anyway, I caught her back and ran with her a bit and then left her behind somewhere between 4 and 5. That was nice. Mile 5 was 7:41. I forgot to hit split at mile 6, so the last 1.2 was 9:10, which is an average of about 7:37, but think I probably picked it up for the last .2. I was pretty spent. My finish time was 47:20, for a 7:37 min/mile avg. (or 7:38 if you round up, which I'm not). I was very happy to go under 48:00. Of course all I could think of was, "if I ran more and did some speed work I could've easily gone under 47!"

[HansLund]

Definately super nice day, great team, good food and a PR for the 10K :)

After being sore most of this week from that darn trail run on Sunday, I did 2 miles Friday evening as 1 mile WU, then a flat mile at an effort I felt I could keep for at least close to a 10K race. That mile was 6:20 pace.

Today splits were 6:20, 6:31, 6:32, 6:11, 6:21 and 6:17, for a total time of 39:34 or 6:22 pace. Mile 2 and 3 were slightly uphill and my HR was dead solid on 154 for the entire race (except the first 3 minutes and the last 2 minute push where I hit 156).

Really happy with my PR time, except interval pace is now 6:02 and that seems a stretch to say the least :eek:

Thanks again to the team for a nice day and to Heidi for organizing breakfast.

Cheers, Hans

[Cindybigglestone]

we hear results are up! But can't find them. Can someone post them?

Getting ready for take off!

Cheers

[Heidi]

Here's a link:
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=3080

For some reason Max, Deb and Giovanni's results weren't listed, although I think Max was a bandit :).



NAME AGE OV DIV SEX PL TIME PACE
Mike Pritchard 43 22 3/53 20/294 36:54:00 5:57
Ben Bigglestone 99 25 1/6 23/294 37:24:00 6:02
Hans Lund 42 44 8/53 38/294 39:34:00 6:23
Cindy Bigglestone 34 66 5/50 14/317 41:47:00 6:45
Heidi Lind 40 173 4/54 43/317 47:20:00 7:39
Lee Ann Kinkade-Herman 38 278 13/64 93/317 51:56:00 8:23
Mary Frasier 49 298 13/38 104/317 52:31:00 8:29

Bryan Urakawa 37 28 1/29 26/353 19:51 6:25

[MikePritch]

i'm not looking forward to aging up to that tough 95-99 AG. winning time 37:24.

Heidi, thanks for coordinating with the restaurant.

[max]

Me a bandit? I think I ran so fast through the finishing mat that it didn't pick up my time. All I know is that it was marginally faster than Cindy :D Actually I timed myself from mat to mat and I had 41:12 as my finishing time although I may tell Ben something slower to keep my training easier!

Thanks for organizing the brunch Heidi - it made the whole morning an enjoyable team experience!

[BryanU]

I'm pretty sure the times are gun-time - from the time the gun went off to the time you cross the mat - so they're a little slower in the results than actual, if you didn't start up front.

This has been a year of firsts for me and, unbelievably, I won my age group in the 5k!:D

:D