Chock Full of Weaksauce - Audi Best Buddies Challenge 10k Race Report

Let's keep this short and sweet: some days you just don't have it, and you suck. That was my day.

Yesterday, I felt great. I knocked out a ridiculously easy 10k averaging 4:35/km, 15-20 seconds faster than normal at the given intensity. I was so ready for this morning. We got to the race site about an hour before the start, with me doing the 10k run, and my wife pushing the stroller for a 5k walk. The weather was less than pleasant, a cool morning with a light rain. I avoided starting my warm-up until the last minute, which may have been a bad idea, although I felt fine on the line. Who knew?

The gun went off and right away the fast guys set off at a quick clip. I tried to restrain myself, knowing the course was tough. After a kilometre on the flat, it runs downhill for 2k, dropping 80m. After 2k on the trails and over some tough little bridges, it turns around and comes back the same way. If you don't save gas for the second half, you'll be suffering. I kept a nice pace for the first part, and got some speed on the downhill, but once in the valley, my battery was on 'low'. I just couldn't get the bounce I had the day before, and worse, I couldn't push myself to get it back. So, pretty much, I quit. This is second time in 4 races I've done this. I kept a solid, but not 'race', effort, moved up a few spots on people who blew themselves up, and made a token kick in the last kilometre for the line. I just snuck under the 41-minute barrier, about two minutes off what I would have expected.

Official results:
10: 40:59 clock, 40:58 chip, 22/484 overall, 7/45 AG

The only benefit to today was the celebrities handing out the race medals: Olympic medallists Alex Bilodeau, Joannie Rochette, and Tessa Virtue. Turns out, Olympians are short. I'd be amazed if any of them were much taller than my shoulder, and I'm not that tall.

Looks like it's back to the trials of miles. Without any real peaking, I know that race results can be up and down. It's disappointing that this is a "down", but it happens. I'm not about to switch things up just yet. There's a long way to go before my next 'A' race.

Bucket List

A list of events/accomplishments in the running/triathlon/endurance vein I'd like to check off before I'm "checked off":
1. Boston
2. Western States 100
3. Qualify for 70.3 Worlds again, preferably not a rolldown
4. Endurrun
5. Sub-3
6. Sub-2:50
7. Sub-2:45 (see a theme?)
8. AG podium at WDW Marathon
9. AG win in a major race (2000+ finishers)
10. Ultraman, either Hawaii or Canada
11. Run the IMH course, as either Kona marathon or IMH
12. Run a marathon in each Canadian province/territory
13. ... in one year
14. OSS AG championship
15. Race my kid(s) and have it be competitive
16. Do some sort of OW swim race, like Round the Sound

Those are what come to mind at present. I will add to the list if I have any other ideas. Anything obvious that I missed?

The next year or so

I like to run. I like to read. I like to read about running. (I probably read more "sports" books than is wise, but I try to balance it out. That's why I'm muddling my way through Ulysses now.) And I just finished reading Healthy Intelligent Training, by Keith Livingstone. Keith is a coach, who as a runner was coached by Barry Magee, who as a runner was coached by Arthur Lydiard. (See where this is going?) From my experience, this is the best summation of the Lydiard principles I've read. Everything is explained in more thorough detail than the presentation summaries that are collected around the internet.

The focus seems to be on middle-distance runners, 800/1500m, which is where Lydiard had his greatest success, but these same athletes went on to have success at the longer distances as well (5000+ m). So, the principles hold for everyone, especially through the base and hill stages. It's when we get to conditioning/sharpening that things are different, and these differences are cleared up in the text. Although it's to be applied for all levels of running, the examples are definitely skewed to the elite. As an example, the section of Daniels' VDOT chart that is excerpted starts at VDOT 60. Those are some fast folks.

All in all, a good read, and it will serve as the blueprint for my next big block of training. Here's the plan: from October '10 to May '11, there will be a ton of base, with a couple of hill blocks. I still plan on racing once a month at a variety of distances, just to blow out the legs and see if things are moving along. I will then add a brief conditioning/sharpening phase into July, to get ready my A-ish race of the summer, the Acura Ten-Miler. Then more base until October. (I may add a really short sharpening here for a 10k in October, as the local scene wraps up with Zoo Run or Best Buddies.)

At that point, I hope to have had a year of uninterrupted quality running, and confidence that I can handle the training for a fast marathon. Finances allowing, I'm targeting the Surf City marathon as my return to the distance. Disney is still the big goal, my Olympics as it were, but even the elites have to run a qualifier to get to the Games. I'll be following a plan from Pete Pfitzinger, who is another Lydiard disciple, and it seems that everyone posting on the Runner's World forum sub-3 threads is following one of these plans. Right now, I hope to be able to handle the 18 week/55 to 70 mile plan. That should get me about where I want to be.

I have no idea now what kind of time I'll be targeting at Surf City. I know in the last month by easy pace has dropped by roughly 2s/km. If that keeps up for the next year, my easy pace will be faster than my present projected marathon pace, and it's easy to assume that the marathon pace would have bettered by a similar degree. My calendar may seem kind of boring with simply miles everyday and no workouts that take three lines to explain, but I'm excited for what will eventually come out of it.

Random Thoughts and Musings

Some big news recently in the triathlon world. First, WTC has announced a foray into the (former) Olympic distance with the introduction of the 5150 series of races. Just as 70.3 is the total distance covered in miles, 5150 is the total distance in decameters(?). I think it's great that there is now a series culminating at national and world championships for age-group athletes at this distance. It will be interesting to see how they control fields, as these are supposed to be non-drafting. If they have fields over 1000-2000 as they do for IM and 70.3 races, and can sometimes barely control drafting over 56/112 miles, how will they fair over 40km?

(Best comment I've seen on the news: "5150? I hate Sammy Hagar. It's not Van Halen without DLR.")

It needs to be noted on the 5150 schedule that the championship is now in Clearwater, FL, in November. Of course, this is where the 70.3 Worlds have been, sometimes referred to as Draftwater. And that leads to the latest set of rumours: that the 70.3 Champs have moved, perhaps to Las Vegas. Now, this is big. The first effect this will have is that the course will presumably get a lot more difficult. To the minds of many, this will be a "fairer" race, and worthy of being a world championship. So then the second effect is that getting a qualifying spot in the next couple of years will get a lot harder. I don't think nearly as many people will be turning down slots to avoid Clearwater. The level of racing is going to go up if you want to make it to the big show.

A possible side effect of both of these announcements will be the effect on local racing scenes. Silverman is an up and coming full and half IM distance race in Las Vegas, and it seems to be somewhat targeted by this anouncement. A number of race directors around the continent are left wondering is WTC is going to horn in on their sprint/Olympic races, or if they'll potentially be bought out. Hopefully we won't see a monopoly in races, and most of the best local races will be able to continue undisturbed. Maybe they'll even be able to grow with the influx of new racers looking at the 5150 distance.

This weekend is Hawaii Ironman, so good luck to everyone who is competing. Good luck especially to my lanemate Paul White, and coach Tereza Macel. Let's see some podiums this year.

I want a Timex Global Trainer, so I'm linking to DC Rainmaker's blog for an extra entry. You should enter too, and read the blog regularly to keep up with sports technology. Most of it over my head, but worth a read.