Photo courtesy of PACE Magazine[/caption]Race prep begin the moment I started Thursday's run. I wanted a run that wasn't easy (easy runs before a race have never worked) but wasn't going to leave me too fatigued for the race either so I decided to do three 5 minute intervals at 9:30 pace with 2 minute recovery walk. That's only 15 minutes of moderately hard running plus 17 minutes of easy running/walking for my warm up, recoveries and cool down. It worked perfectly as I was tired afterwards but feeling like I could do more, much more. I then spent a good 30 minutes afterwards, stretching and using the foam roller. Friday, I made a goal to stay clear from all soft drinks, fried foods and junk food and to make sure I drank plenty of water. Pre-race dinner was pizza, yes, pizza. I went to bed at 10 pm, pretty much my regular time and woke up at 6:15 am. Got up and did some light stretching, drank a Boost High Protein and was out the door by 7 am.
I arrived at the race site around 7:30 am which was a good thing because the nearby parking spots were filling up fast! I pretty much sit in my car until 7:50 am just to keep warm. I spent the next 15 minutes doing a short warm up jog and more light stretching as a means to keep my body warm instead of standing around and shivering like everyone else. At 8:10 am, I lined up somewhere in the middle of the pack knowing the fast down hill start would cause many to go out way too fast and there was no point getting caught up in that. At 8:14 am we were off which sort of caught me by surprise since we started a minute early.
And to give you a comparison of how accurately and well executed my race plan went, here it is. I came up with this plan the evening prior and visualized every section.
| SECTION | MY RACE PLAN | WHAT REALLY HAPPENED |
| Downhill Start (0.0 - 0.6) | Everyone is probably going to start out too fast with the down hill start so stick to an 8:30 - 9:00 pace and not any faster! You're legs will thank you by the time you hit the trail. | I stayed relaxed, let my body warm up and resisted the temptation to run faster than an 8:30 pace. |
| Cottonwood Trail (0.6 - 1.4) | I've ran this trail a dozen times so use it to my advantage! Stay under a 10 min pace and don't walk until I reach the water stop. | Once I entered the trail, everyone seemed to slow down to above a 10 min pace so I knew I had to do some passing which isn't easy on a narrow trail but after about 1-2 mins and passing 2-3 runners, I found myself right in my desired 9:30 - 9:55 pace and kept it there. |
| Trail Exit & Water Stop (1.4) | Target time: 13 mins. Get water and walk 60" even if I don't need to. Prepare my mind for the hills. Say positive mantras. | Actual time: 12:57. Right on target! Perfect so far. I actually didn't feel the need to walk but I was like, "stick to the plan, stick to the plan" and forced myself to walk 60" through the water stop. |
| Hills (1.5 - 2.2) | These two hills will be pure torture. If it becomes too much, switch to 45 strides, 30" walking. Target time at the top: 22 minutes. | About 30" into the first hill, it already started to suck so I immediately switched to 45 strides, 30" walking. There was a short downhill between the two hills that I used to recover and make up some time. The second hill was much longer and harder but I stuck to the game plan of 45 strides, 30" walking to get up it. At the top, I checked my watch...23:16. Okay so I'm only 1:16 off but I'm still in this! |
| Downhill (2.2 - 2.6) | Recover for 60" then fly down the hill at whatever pace feels comfortably hard. | Ran down this hill averaging around a 9 min pace which felt pretty darn good knowing the hardest part of the course was over! Passed several runners who were walking after running non-stop up the hill which is always a confident booster that I played it smart. |
| Short up hill (2.6 - 2.8) | It's short and short hills are easy! | Okay, it was far from easy and I went back to using 45 strides, 30" walking where everyone else was walking at this point. Again, passing more runners...awesome! |
| Turn onto Dupree (2.8) | Target time: 30 mins | Actual time: 30:30...wow, did I just make up that much time on that downhill! Feeling great! I can do this, I can and will meet my goal of under 34 mins! |
| Final stretch (2.8 - 3.1) | It's down then up. On the down hill, take it easy, resist the temptation to go faster too early, save that energy for the up hill, you will need it! | Just as predicted. The down hill felt great, I wanted to go faster as another runner got right next to me and we were stride for stride but as we started up the final hill towards the finish, I was glad I held back as I barely had enough to stay under an 11 min pace and had nothing left for a kick at the end. |
| FINISH | Target time: 33:59 or faster! It's only a 'B' race, the goal is not to PR but run a smart race and not my fastest! | Actual time: 33:16. It can't get any more perfect than that! I finished strong and with confident which is exactly what I need going into the next 2 weeks of training and into my 'A' race, the Spinx 5K. |
This may be a bit overkill and probably way too much planning for most but I have to say one thing, it works! Two 'C' races with absolutely no planning and I struggled through each race and ended up with slow and frustrating times and felt like I would never find my speed again. Then I planned out 2 weeks of smart training and this race plan and suddenly end up going from a 36:00 to 33:16 5K in just 2 weeks time. Now you tell me if I'm crazy or if this is overkill?
I just found your website great plan and follow through. At nearly 69 I am struggling with my legs trying to argue me out of runs--will try space run if I canfind a website to register on right n0w struglling with 12;00 min miles know I am doing something wrong!
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