To race is but a dream...

[shadydaz]

Was a small tempo last night, so will be 30, 40 ,40 minute all easy next few days, as much recovery as possible.

Its just not there to run as fast as i wanted which is frustrating. I will genuinely have to play it by feel on the day once i get started, of course it will be conservative to start with looking to run the negative splits as usual.

[shadydaz]

03/03/20
Resting HR 44
10.70km
54:04
5:03/km
Ave HR 143
Max HR 169

Some tempo efforts @circa 4:30 pace included

04/03/20
Resting HR 45
6.18km
32:56
5:20/km
Ave HR 137
Max HR 156

05/03/20
Resting HR 41
8.09km
42:31
5:15/km
Ave HR 141
Max HR 173

last gentle 40ish minutes tonight. feeling a lot better about things including Sunday's pace etc. legs are feeling good and getting twitchy now which is a good sign.

For anyone who is interested, its the Cambrdge Half Marathon through Cambridgehalfmarathon.com website race number 13774 i think there is live tracking. Wave 2, 09:10am UK time start.

[TheEd]

Nice to hear Daz .. may it be a great weekend

enjoy

TheEd

[MarkCo]

Good luck Daz! Look forward to hearing how it went.

cheers

[shadydaz]

06/03/20
Resting HR 41
8.09km
43:30
5:25/km
Ave HR 133
Max HR 166

07/03/20
Resting HR 35

08/03/20
Resting HR 44
20.91km
93:27
4:28/km
Ave HR 158
Max HR 183

Chip time 93:33

PB!!

5km splits
1. 4:29
2-6 22:45.6
7-11 22:47.4
12-16 22:11
17-21 21:13.5



It was a glorious day, warmer than it has been recently, temp was up into double figures for the first time in recent memory. There was a stiff breeze periodically throughout the morning, enough to remind us that is was still early spring and not in fact a quaint, English summer morning. Race HQ was a hive of activity and inevitably got progressively busier in towards race start. I estimate 14-16k entrants and it got nice and snug pre start! My first time at this event and at any event with these organisers and I must say logistically it was very slick.
I was apprehensive pre-race as had developed an annoying inconvenience in the right side of my groin over the previous couple of days. Enough of an inconvenience to be concerned but not enough to warrant me withdrawing altogether. I was nervous too because of the disruption I have suffered recently with the training and really didn’t know what kind of pace I could manage. I settled to split the race into 3x7km thirds. 1/3 @ 4:40 1/3 @4:30 1/3 @ 4:20 of anything was there to give! It worked out kind of, although the pace was a little quicker than planned, it was comfortable and manageable and I felt I could hold from early on. The groin held up long enough but did stifle any chance of a faster finish as I could not open up the stride at the end so no sprint finish. As you can see from the 5km splits, overall consistent in pace up to 11km after what was a surprising quicker first km than it felt amounts the weight of human traffic. The 7km Thirds split to 32:02, 30:57 and 29:34 ish so pretty much executed the plan but a little quicker? throughout the race I felt comfortable. I took some water at the aid stations and a gel at 11km. the first time ever using a gel, nothing to lose by trying it and it really helped me quicken the pace when it was time to after km 14. Not so many quit demons although the last 4km was very tough and i really had to dig in around the technical turns as pace was slowing and it was not easy to get it back up to target pace after each tight turn through the colleges and town.

Very happy with a marginal Pb by a few seconds, that was most unexpected, I did think it was going to be a possibility from about 16km. I didn’t think it would actually happen. i finished in 1100 place out 11249 finishers so just scraped into top 10%

The groin was shot afterwards and i had to be assited off the finish line and through the enclosure, after a 45 mins rest the 2.5mile walk back the car was excruciatingly painful towards the end. It has settled a through the day and I am doing everything I can to promote recovery.

[shadydaz]

how are my legs even itchy to run this morning??? Wow!!

[MarkCo]

Wow - superb time and splits. Congrats on the PB!!

[shadydaz]

Wow - superb time and splits. Congrats on the PB!!

Thanks Mark.  I don't know how I manage to dig these results out sometimes!!

[TheEd]

Very nice going Daz .. you should aim for sub 90 in the summer if all conditions are right and you get to put some training together without too much disruption

please allow recovery from the 21k in a sensible manner and chat about what you plan to do going forward training wise.. consider some swimming if possible

onwards TheEd
ps.. very nice going

[shadydaz]

sub 90 is the obvious target. I need a few days off as the Groin did not stand up well and needs to repair and recover. I will be hitting the gym for some strength and conditioning in the meantime.

Still considering the MK marathon at start of May but in all likelyhood these big events will all be cancelled. May have to concentrate on smaller, localised events for now that stay under the radar from COVID-19 preventitive measures.

So lets say scratch the marathon for now and next plausible race could potentially be the St Albans 10km on Friday, 04th April. There are a couple of choices to race on the 29th of this month but feel that may be pushing it if the groin needs a week or so.

Plenty of choice over the coming months to put a plan together. lets get recovered and back on feet first.

Darren.