Weekend Update

Of the sidebar, that is. Yes, lame choice of title for the post. Sorry. Sunday was the Cohasset 10K Road Race. Part of the reason for taking it easy this past week was to have fresh legs in an effort to break 40 minutes. A month ago, having run a 6:18/mile pace in the Brockton 5 miler, I calculated that all I had to do was hold close to this for another 1.2 miles and a sub-40 would be mine. Things did not go quite as planned.

The reduced training load week went OK. My running shoes had accumulated almost 200 miles on them in the past few months, so Friday night I bought a new pair of Saucony Hurricane 7's. They are an upgrade from the Jazz shoes I used to run in. New shoes generally give my old legs new life. Saturday my plan was to do nothing or ride short, because the forecast was for rain all day. Well, it ended up being gorgeous around here in the afternoon, though windy, and so when JG called to go riding, I went. We ended up doing 2.5 hours on the flats, 75% zone 1 and 25% zone 2, not hard, but enough to tire me out, maybe taking some oomph out of my running legs too.

Sunday the race was set for 1 pm. Cohasset is about a 45 minute drive from here. Morning races are easier because you just get up and go. For the afternoon race, of course I was trying to get things done in the morning so as not to waste the day. Around 11, I was getting my bike stuff ready so that I could go for a spin down after the race. A quick check online to see if I could print out a registration ahead of time revealed that registration closed at noon! WTF? The race was on. Flying down there, first trying a shortcut that only got me lost, then running into a detour where the road was closed, I didn't roll into Cohasset Village until 12:15. Luckily, the noon reg closing was just a hoax, probably designed to prevent a last minute crush. It worked, because for such a big race (800+ runners) registration was fast and easy.

Lining up in the second row, just behind all the guys in the GBTC kits and the other serious folks, my new shoes felt good and I was stretched and ready. The weather was quite warm, but in my rush I didn't pack shorts and so I was one of the few in tights. No worries. The race started slightly downhill, then turned onto a flat road toward the ocean. I was unimpeded and went out fast. After a few minutes I checked my HR and it was only 157 so I kept going, even though I was already suffering. We turned left at the harbor and at the first mile marker I saw 5:53. My inexperience in running was about to bite me. By now I was a bit above LT (at least my cycling LT, I am beginning to wonder if my running LT might not be a bit higher). At this point I was with a few other guys who seemed pretty steady. The road was pretty flat, and was protected from the water by houses. Mile two took 6:18. Still faster than my goal pace, and in hindsight probably too fast. In my best runs my splits are always pretty even.

The third and fourth miles were where the problems started. Mile 3 brought a fierce headwind right off the water. Occasionally we would pass a $10 million home with a privacy fence and get a bit of shelter, but for the most part it was a constant gale. The rollers also began here. Running past the marker at 19 minutes flat meant my 3rd split was 6:48, way off pace, and suffering, my HR in the high 160's, 5-9 bpm above LT. I was hurting. Mile 4 was more of the same, although slightly less wind but much, much bigger rollers. We turned up away from the water, now with the wind at our backs, up the biggest hill on the course. Now I felt warm, and almost missed the wind. This was also a road I was unfamiliar with.

Mile marker 4 did not appear for 6 minutes and 58 seconds. I still thought I had a chance to break 40, because I had some time in the bank from the first two miles, and because I was certain we had gained enough elevation that some downhill had to be coming. Instead, I got another lesson. Mile 5 can best be described as a sine wave with an amplitude of 10 meters and a period of 300 meters. These were the kind of rollers you would barely feel on a bike, but for running they totally sucked. The downhills were not long enough for any recovery, but the upsides were hard enough to take the life out of you. Near the end of mile 5 there WAS one big downhill, but it was short and steep. Passing mile 5 at 32:50, I realized I was 1:20 slower than Brockton and a sub-40 was going to take a miracle. Somehow I did manage to revive my pace, and on the flat run in to the finish I kept decent form. Only a few people passed my, which is less than usual. Through the final bend, when the clock came into view it already ready 40:07, and I still had a way to go. Oh well. I crossed in 40:26, which was still a PR by over a minute.

This was not a course for a fast time. Especially not today. My average HR was 166, so hopefully this will help me in long TT's later on this year. Gotta go, out of time.