Thursday, April 12, 2007

Firebirds Mile

Who is racing this tonight? I plan to show up around 7pm and run around the fields, track and cheer on Christiam, Joe (?) and Matias (?).

Anyone else?

MORE INFO - http://mcrrc.org/races/FirebirdsMile/

3 comments:

Matias said...

I'm reneging... no mile for me

Joe Wiggy said...

I'll be there... Klim, depending on how late this thing goes off, i am planning on doing a 3 mile tempo afterwards... if you or anyone else is interested...

christiam said...

Executive summary: windy conditions, slow start, missed goal time (4:40 or better) by 17 secs :(

Report and post-mortem:
First of all, thanks to Jake and Joe for the support and encouragement. Unfortunately I didn't run that well tonight, based on some workouts I've done recently I thought I could beat my PR (4:44 from last summer). To my fortune, Joe kindly offered to pace me to achieve my goal time (thanks again Joe!). We went through the first 209m in a slow 45 seconds and I was boxed in, but was able to get out of it easily and Joe and I (realizing we were behind pace) ran away from the field. I think from that point on to the 809m mark I ran my fastest lap and a half (right behind Joe), after which I thought I could just concentrate in keeping a steady pace, yet relaxed so that I could kick with 250-300m to go. However, during the 3rd lap I felt my calves tightening up a bit and my form started deteriorating (and Joe started pulling away). With 400m to go I *think* I was at 3:36-37 and didn't have much of a kick left in me to bring it home fast enough :(

Now a question to all: I wonder if the surge I did in the middle of the race did more harm than good, in that my legs got full of lactic acid, effectively making it harder for me to accelerate or even maintain pace later on in the race? I certainly know that I run better times if I run steady and kick at the end of the race. On the other hand, a slow or crowded start is bound to happen during a race, so is it reasonable to incorporate these surges in training as well to get the body used to this? I.e.: If I'm planning on doing 6x800m in 2:24 each, run the 3rd or 4th 800m significantly faster than 2:24 and for the others try to hit that time?
Any thoughts on this?