it seems like a while since i've written a race report. that may be because since the chronic compartment syndrome did a number on my running last summer, i've hardly felt like i raced in any of the races that i participated in over the last year. that didn't stop me from enjoying myself at them, but it was a major bummer watching my times get increasingly slower during the process. but over the last 3 months my weekly running volume (including long runs) has picked up dramatically during my base re-rebuilding phase. and, more importantly, the weekly trips to the track for intervals are finally starting to yield some speed dividends! while there's a still a long way to go before i start running 40-42 minute 10k's again, the trend is decidedly positive!
i knew on saturday, at the westport summer series 4.1 miler that i was getting back some of my long lost speed. for the first time in a while i listened as my internal dialogue said, "you're going too way too fast" when the first mile went by in 6:46 - and i needed to save something for the queens 10k the next morning. so i ran a series of progressively slower miles, 7:14, 7:22, and 7:53 for the last 1.1 miles. the 29:16 finish, a overall 7:08 pace, made me very happy because i knew that i could have run it faster. the only question that lingered for me at that point was did i save anything for the 10k?
in earlier posts i mentioned that i was using 10k's as a rough fitness benchmark while i worked to rebuild my base mileage. in april i was running 48 minutes 10k's and by may, after a month of increasing my mileage (but not yet focusing on speed work) i dropped it down to 47 minutes (47:08, 7:37 pace) at the norwalk mother's day 10k. i haven't run a 10k since. but speed work and plenty of shorter races began in june. at the norwalk 7 miler 2 weeks ago i ran a 53:07, 7:36 (under pretty hot and humid conditions). so i knew a 47 minutes would be a "soft" target for the queens 10k.
but knowing and executing are two very different propositions. luckily, the heat wave (7 straight 90+ degree days) broke saturday night and we'd start the race with "only" 79 degrees and much lower humidity. i didn't seem too worse for the wear from westport 4.1 miler. so all that was left to do was run :D
here are my splits:
7:12
7:10 14:23
7:28 21:52
7:46 29:39
7:20 36:59
7:29 44:29
1:27 45:56
in a bit of good fortune, my official time was 45:54 (2 seconds better than my own watch), a 7:24 pace. my 5k split was 22:41, a 7:18 pace.
overall, except for mile 4, i was happy with those splits. i lost some focus after the 5k split and when i realized how slowly i ran that mile, i pushed the pace and rallied back with a 7:20. interestingly, my 5 mile split of 36:59 was my finish time at the norwalk 5 miler last month. and the strangest thing that happened was just before we got back to the unisphere, my watch band broke! i had to stop and retrieve the watch and band. i was lucky that it wasn't stepped by the runners around me!
as i suspected, 47 minutes was a soft target. but i was especially pleased to go under 46 minutes! even with the handful of seconds i lost retrieving my watch, i don't think i could have done much better under the circumstance. so all in all it was a good race. next stop sub-45 minute 10k's :D
here are my race photos and results.
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