Monday 24 December 2012

Monday 17 December 2012

Young girl beats old man

stats of the week: run 29km, gym 3hrs

The 3rd race in 3 weeks - that's the first excuse for not having run 10K sub 45 mins what was my declared target. Also conditions were not really perfect - heavy rain and strong winds on a cold Friday evening. But the main reason was that I started too fast!

Shortly after setting off I noticed a trio of club runners who paced a little girl looking very young. Later I learnt she is already 13. I got so excited looking at her easy and perfect running style that I followed the temptation to keep their pace and the first 2km were great fun.

Soon I had to admit that she was too fast for me and after 3km I lost the group. After 5km I was so exhausted that I could hardly imagine to finish this race. On the second half I was overtaken by at least 20 runners. All hope was gone and my only thought was to reach the finish line.

The little girl finished 3 mins ahead of me, my time was 45:49, still not too bad as the average of 4:35 min/K is just the same as two weeks before. Alas - there is little hope now that I'll be able to run the New Year's Eve race of 15K in a 4:30 pace.

Monday 10 December 2012

Old runner - old rule

stats of the week: run 40km, gym 4hrs
stats of the week before: run 34km, gym 4hrs


 
Two very different personal race experiences on two consecutive weekends.
First a flat 9.6k lap with perfect conditions where I struggled from start to finish and averaged a 4:35min/K pace by outmost effort.
 
This was followed by 9.1K race on a very cold and wet day on streets and pavements covered by snow slush. Once again an old rule proved to be true: Performance is best when you don't expect yourself to deliver a good result. Without pushing too much I was able to run a 4:26min/k pace.