Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

Negative Splitting a 10K (Like my Training Runs)

>> Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Saturday I'm signed up to do the first USATF MN circuit race of the year: the Get in Gear 10K. And I think I'll approach the race a bit differently than past races.

You've OFTEN heard me saying that I start off hard in races where I want to do well, and that's mainly because of something I unofficially learned between my first two 10 mile races. My first 10 mile race was 1:02:43 and I noted that I started easy. My second 10 mile race was 1:02:19 (on a slightly easier course) and I went out harder because I wanted to try to be faster. I suffered a LOT more to earn back those 24 seconds, which could have all been based on the easier course. I believed that going out hard was my "PR" mentality when I wanted to race super fast. I've only recently begun to think that going out faster actually HURTS me.

Even look at last year's TC 10 Mile: I went out a BIT hard (still feeling OK about it), but then DIED in the last half. I wonder if I could have been faster overall by easing up in those opening 3 miles.

And all of my long training runs seem to be pointing towards why I like to build into my races. Here are some charts with my last 8 weeks of long runs (before this week's as it was a bit shorter because I'm racing this weekend). They show my faster "at pace" miles in the middle of my run. First, here's my oldest 3 long runs that were all still on the treadmill with perfect descending splits as I speed up by 0.1 mph every 0.5 mile:

Just the treadmill runs: perfect descend! (Easy to do when you can control the speed!)

Last 8 long runs: very tight mile 1 and 2, then getting faster if possible, or just holding on.

Same 8 runs, with first half vs second half.

Lines here showing more clearly the different negative splits. (The dark blue 4/4 run was
my best long run ever, as you see I made up about 30 seconds in the first 3 miles.)

So what does all this tell me about this weekend's 10K? That I'm NOT going to start too hard! I'm going to ease into it a little, but STILL shoot for a fast time. If I can find the right balance of "this still feels a BIT easy" and "I'm not totally bleeding time," then I have a SHOT at a 10K PR. Yes, at 41 years old. The temperature needs to be perfect, it can't be too windy, I can't get caught up in the wrong paced crowd, I have to be feeling snappy, etc, etc... but a PR is not out of the realm of possibilities.

And it's even stranger to be thinking about a possible PR while also thinking about not going out too hard. That's odd for me.

I'm sure NOT in any sort of "PR or bust" mindset - we'll see what happens on Saturday morning, and it COULD be something great if all the stars align...

...and if my new race stradegy isn't a horribly stupid idea.

Nice Big Training Week

>> Monday, April 25, 2022

Here's what last week looked like in my training log:

My runs were nothing special: it was a rough long run (the day after filling up on Easter goodies), and then 2 easy runs. It's just over 23 miles total, which is nice!

My trainer rides were solid! 4 hours and 40 mins of total trainer time is definitely on the high side! (The only 2 times I've been over 4:40 in the last 3 months were last month during my birthday week when I rode my age on my bike and the week of my first fat bike race in early February.) All those trainer rides were also "workouts:" Tuesday had 10x3 min efforts, Thursday had 4x10 min efforts, and Saturday had 5x5 min efforts (which was the easiest day by far).

And even though my wife had the whole week off to be studying for some upcoming pharmacy certification, I still managed to get in a LOT of strength time: 9 hours and 54 mins. That might be my biggest "normal" week, meaning I had a week that was 1 minute longer in Febuary, but that was because the week before that ended with the first fat bike race, so I started the week doing 2 days worth of strength work: my normal Monday leg routine, and catching up on my Sunday core routine that I skipped the day before because of the race. So that previously big week had an hour long workout that technically belonged to the previous week.

Back tomorrow with news of an upcoming race, as well as a DIFFERENT race strategy I might try!!