Today saw a quick jaunt up the M40 to see if I could put a dent in my 10K PB. But a number of factors conspired against me.
By the 9.30 start, the sun was high in the cloudless sky. By 10.00 I reckon it would have been in the high 20s. PB chances already slipping. Then there was the lack of training: 2 months since the marathon, a 5 training runs completed, a total of 25 miles. Not looking good. And the quality of training over the past 6 months: Id trained for a marathon, not a 10K. These are different animals and need different types of fitness and muscle strength. Still, I gamely hoped that my marathon fitness would put me in with a chance of a PB, and optimistically lined up wearing a 45 min pace band.
I was surprised to find that I completed the first K 20 sec ahead of schedule, but that was the last time I was ahead of the game. By halfway I was a couple of minutes behind schedule, and unlikely to make it up. Around 7K I had to really slow down, the heat was just too much and the lungs couldnt keep up. I pushed on a little at 9K, and was surprised to find quite a lot in the tank for the final 100m sprint. I guess I had recovered a little over the previous couple of K and had a bit of breath to spare. I got a great shout from the family support team, and crossed the line in a rather disappointing chip time of 48:47.
So, not a great result, and frankly not that enjoyable, as I was flogging my guts out for as much of the race as possible. But I guess an uncomfortable race is inevitable if you set your sights too high.
Lessons learned
1. Forget a PB on a hot day. Maybe theres little point trying to race in June / July / August. I did the Wycombe half last July, and had a similarly unpleasant day.
2. Fitness does drop off pretty quickly. And quite possibly it drops off the top end first.
3. If you want to be a good 10K runner, you need to do 10K training.
All pretty obvious, but I tend to learn things the hard way.
Overall though, a good day out a well-organised race for a thousand or so runners, a mostly picturesque and generally flat course, and another notch on the spreadsheet. If only I could guarantee cool weather, Id be back for sure next year. But by then, Luke will be old enough for the fun run, so I might come to support him, and use that as an excuse to jog round
Post-London: the rest of 2009
