Sunday, May 15, 2011

Carytown 10k

This morning was my last real run before IMTX.  The mud crew re-assembled in Cary Court (why the hell didn't Joyless run either of these races?).   Got to see my buddy, Denis, who is now in the 70-74 age group - how the hell did that happen?  He asked what pace I was planning and I let him know it was SLOW and that he'd want no part of it.  Even if I was planning on running this as a race, I'm pretty sure this 70 year old would have kicked my ass, even after 6 months of heavy training.  Oh well, good for him, right?  It was really good to see him though.

My original plan for the race was to run with Bike Coach & The Saint, but their plans changed Sunday when BC recognized that the hip pain she was feeling was being aggravated every time she ran.  So, their run turned into a walk-run.  I'm not sure how it happened, but I lost J9 within 3 seconds of the start.  Never saw her at all.  C-YA.

KG & I ran together and we talked about the pace I needed to run.  Between 11:30s and 12:00s.   Seriously, no faster.  Didn't exactly go as planned.  We ran just under 11's.  Ok, that's pretty close.  At the water stop at mile 2.5, KG needed to walk and slow down and I was feeling good, so we split up.  I am extremely familiar with pushing hard to keep up with someone and then needing to rest.  It's a bad feeling to know your slowing someone down (though it would have been good for me to be slowed today), so I took off down the road.

I picked up the pace for the rest of mile 3 and finished with a 10 minute mile.  Not in the plan.  I really didn't feel like I was pushing the pace at all.  I decided to run whatever felt good.  10 cent head, I know.

I felt really good and really strong, so I pushed it, just a bit.  Heard and saw Joyless in front of her building and she ran in flip flops for a block with me.  Not sure how I feel about her being able to easily keep up in flip flops on a pace where I'm pushing it a bit.  Wait, I know.  Bitch.

Finished with 3 miles under 10s coming in with a strong final kick.  PR'd my 10k time by 6 seconds.

So, lessons learned.  I really do have a 10 cent head.  Most important part of my IM run is the first 1/2:  I need to run slow and easy (OK, nothing easy about an IM run, but slow, for sure).  I've been negative splitting all my runs all year and this needs to be no exception.  That means sandbagging the first 1/2 so I have something left for the 2nd half.  This is also reliant on the FACT that the 10pm cutoff to start the last 8.6 run loop will not be an issue.  If that's an issue, then fuck the negative split for the whole marathon and just try to negative split the 1st & 2nd loop.  AND stay in the moment.  Focus.  Keep the finish line/time in sight at all times.  I'll have a whole lot of help with that - from teammates in the race to my 5 sherpas.

I'm ready.

3 comments:

A. Joy said...

You are SOOO ready! Joyless can't even keep your pace these days on the run. You seemed very chilled and relaxed when I saw you today. See you in Texas!

Joyless

Karen said...

Dear CJ, I was one of your fellow winter Maramarc bicyclists, albeit a non-competitive one...in the back. Anyway, I saw Ed's picture and his TX results, so I saw your picture and your results. Wow. CONGRATULATIONS on completing such a grueling race! I am proud to know you - even if you don't know me! KAR

Ceeej said...

Karen, I think I remember you fine, though you were very quiet back there. I didn't know there was a competition other than with ourselves. Thanks! I truly believe that race is not for everyone and really not healthy for most of us (including me, really). I'm done with that distance, can't wait to play with some short stuff! Hope to see you out there.