Canada Day blast off

Long time no post but I thought it was about time to come out of the woodwork on a special occasion like Canada Day here in Canada. It was a perfect day for running with bright sunny skies and mild temperatures around 18C/65F . After arriving early in plenty of time to pickup my number, find a washroom and do a quick 1k warmup to stretch the legs I was good to go. I started fairly close to the front so as to not have to trip over people during my planned fast start with my eye on one kid with a big hat who tried to show me up here at the same race last year.

Over the past four weeks my training has been rolling along quite well with total mileage in the range of 35-45 miles per week with a longer run of 12-14 miles, one tempo run each week of 5 to 8k, and one speed workout each week with 800's, 1k or mile repeats. I've taken my paces from McMillans tables based on my most recent 10k of 46:00 back in May. My most recent speed workout of one week ago had 6x1km repeats with 800m recovery in an average time of 4:10/k. Granted you don't get 800m recoveries on race day but this workout did give me confidence that I had 'some' speed endurance at least.

So after a crowded start and some weaving about I was able to settle into a reasonable pace with the 1st km in 4:13. The next km was mostly head down going up the main hill in the course as I tried to hang onto my friend John who is a strong masters runner. He helped carry me along to the next kilometer split in a disappointing 4:36 which was the last time I looked at my watch as the lactic continued to build and my main concentration was simply running as hard as possible without 'blowing up'. It was a little deflating at this point to hear the 'pitter patter' of a runner gaining and passing me as I went sailing down the other side of the hill with my legs going as fast as I could make them go. Granted the runner, Mike Coyne, is a top masters runners with ranking in past years with Running Times but he is 5 years older than me and was running the 10k which started 200m behind us! Still it was a little hard to take.

Mike was almost the only runner to pass me the entire race but nearing the last km, more footsteps. The runner must have noted my panic because 'she' then said "Don't worry I'm only running the 5k!" I almost laughed but was able to gasp out that she was in for some competition. We then proceeded to exchange places a couple of times before she pulled ahead for a few meters as we finally neared the finish. As I said before, I had stopped looking at my watch after the poor 2nd km and was amazed to see the 21:00 just ticking over as we approached the line. Final time of 21:14 which equates to an 18:21 and a 70.7% age group rating which made my day. Results are now online and my Garmin story is here with the gory details.

Trevor was here for the 10k today and seemed to have a good day.
He ran solid even splits in my books as I say him cruise by the 1st time at 25 minutes and then finished in 11th overall (even if he got nipped at the line by a 5 year old doing the 5k! ). Sorry about that Trevor but you left yourself wide open for it.

I'm now keen to tweak my training plan for the rest of the summer and have already begun to look at slightly faster training paces based on today's result. The next planned race is either a 10k or 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks depending on how the long runs are going but there is lots of time to decide before then.

That's it for now. Have a great rest of Happy Canada Day or just a great day wherever you are!