Friday, November 28, 2008

DHP Thanksgiving Day 5k

Today’s race was run to mark the end of my six weeks of speedwork. Of the six weeks I missed two sessions and gaffed up one with Garmin malfunction. Each week comprised a tempo run and Intervals. The question was going to be had it worked? My legs were a little sore still from last weekend and I wondered how much that would affect the outcome.

I arrived with my wife who was running the 10k and parked the car, we wandered over to the start line, we already had our numbers and so I took the time to have solid warm up. I gently ran the first half a mile of the course and turned around, on the way back I did some butt kicks and high knees and opened up my pace and when I got back to the Start/Finish I stretched out everything. We were called together and given the usual brief, the 5k was an out and back and the 10k would be a repeat of that. The RD made a point of asking people to line up according to how they were going to race; fast 5k, fast 10k so one and to my surprise there was some shuffling about, I kissed my wife and wished her good luck and made my way to the front.

The idea really was to really race this as hard as I could and with a ready, set, go we were off! Two runners shot off and I followed they soon opened a lead and another runner was pacing off me and then overtook me I glanced down at my Garmin and saw that I was running at a 5:40 pace, well that’s not going to last I thought and eased back, I was overtaken by several more runners and I settled into my pace and thought about my cadence and keeping it high. I was about 8th or 9th place at this point. I reached the turnaround skipped past the water stand and set off on the return.

The route was on a footpath along the side of a creek and while mostly flat there were a couple of “rolls” and one section that dropped us under a road and of course this had an up the other side, more interestingly were the run off culverts that were a V shape and about four feet wide you had to judge your footing as you approached them so as to mot reduce your speed too much most of them I managed one or two I didn’t and end up juddering through. Another two runners overtook me in the last mile and I drafted them but they pulled away with half a mile to go. With the last 400 yard left I noticed that people using the 10k lane and turning round to go back out on their second lap, first one then two and then another two I sprinted through the finish and hit stop on my Garmin. I was detagged and made my way through the chute I looked at my 305 and saw; 19:43:74. Woot! A 1:04 improvement on my PR from last year, I am awaiting the official times etc but I think I came fifth overall and have to be in the top 3 for my age; this I am guessing from looking at the others who finished ahead of me.

A quick shout to the sponsors; DHP, it was a welcoming and well run race. DHP (Diaz Human Performance) provides specialized training for runners and triathletes, they are also a major Polar dealer in the area hence the free shoe bag in the photo. I have no financial interest but I did use them last year for my V02 max and RMR tests, you can read about that here.

Well the proof of the pudding is in the eating; well running - if you want to race fast train fast. I had the pudding later in the day! I am on my bike today and have my last long, well medium run; 15 miles on Sunday and then that’s it full taper mode for two weeks. The hay, as they say, is in the barn!

Quick edit: Now the results have posted I did come 5th overall and was first in my age group with a 19:42!

21 comments:

  1. WOW! You are smokin' fast! That speedwork definitely paid off! Congrats on a great race!!!

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  2. hiii! congratulations on the PR!

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  3. S-m-m-m-m-okin' Stuart - wow! Given the paces you've been running in your training though, I guess I'm not exactly surprised.

    Great job on the sub-20!

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  4. Congratulations on the 5K, and getting a leg up on your 2009 goals. I'm curious, do you always do speedwork in 6 week cycles? Was this cycle times to coincide with your taper?

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  5. Great job on the improved PR! And congrats on the AG placement!

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  6. You are a speedy speedster!

    Glad you had an awesome race!

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  7. Nice t-shirt design, I like it!

    And very nice pace, congrats!

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  8. Well done! The speedwork obviously paid off!

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  9. You cut 1:04 off your PR. That is so awesome! That's it I'm starting speedwork this week.

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  10. Wow that is awesome! It's so nice to see results like that from dedicated speedwork. Tomorrow I am going to go over my Garmin stats from this past training cycle and the one previous (Maui). I slacked on the Maui speedwork, and need to get motivation that I can definitely BQ in vegas. I was good on speedwork this time around--maybe I can be as lucky as you!

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  11. Whoot! Whoot! Look at you all speedy! VERY NICE job Mr Q!

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  12. Awesome! Congratulations for a super 5K!

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  13. 5th overall! Awesome! You are fast!

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  14. WOW awesome job and CONGRATS!!!

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  15. Congratulations on a terrific race! That is a super time.

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  16. Nice PR! Congratulations. You did know that turkey 5k's are supposed to be your worst though right? Great job.

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  17. CONGRATULATIONS! I can't even imagine a sub-20 5K... that's incredible!

    Was this part of the Shave Your 5K challenge?

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  18. Man, that's fast! I need to run something like that, just to see how SLOW I am:)

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  19. Awesome! All that speed work paid off.
    A new name for you: "Speedy Gone Quadarathon"


    (Sorry this is posted so late)

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