Planned run 120 minutes (15km race instead)

Date: 31 May 2009
Time: 70 minutes 47 seconds
Distance: 15km
Approx Speed: 12.71 kmh
Average Heart Rate: 160
Google Ped: Runaway Bay Sports Centre Event route

I surprised myself today with the time I achieved in the race. I actually managed to achieve two additional personal bests times as well:

8km 36 min 30 sec average speed 13.15km/h
10km 46 min 30 sec average speed 12.90km/h

The last 5km I slowed a lot:
5km 24 min 17 sec average speed 12.35km/h

This is quite pleasing as I don't really expect to make so much progress so quickly. I look forward to running an 8 and a 10km race again to see what I can really do in those distances now.

My preparation was really good for the race, I had two short distance speed runs and one 1hr run in the lead up week, with two rest days right before the race. I had no injury problems at all and my muscles were pain free and fresh. The only problem was that I had several days with an annoying stomach pain and feeling slightly ill/headache. I woke this morning feeling quite bad, and it effected my performance. I think I could have gone faster.

I ran the first 10km quite well, but slowed badly in the last 5. It is clear now that I have the speed I need, and that I have to improve strength and endurance to maintain that speed for longer. I also need to learn to pace myself better, for example, drop the initial pace a little. The GC Half Marathon will have designated pace runners for people to use as a guide so that may help me. I did run quite hard and the heart rate of 160bps is significantly elevated compared to my training runs.

I blogged about my training pace so far previously and also worked out the pace I needed to be able to run the Half Marathon in 100 minutes. I worked out the average speed had to be 12.65km/h over the 21 or so kms. I managed to do slightly better than that over 15km. I had even set a goal for this 15km race of 71 min 5 sec. I then revised that goal and set 74 minutes 30 seconds as a target because I thought it was too ambitious. I ended up achieving my initial slightly ambitious goal :)

So, back to the training and building the endurance I need. Yet again I ran much faster in the race than I tend to in training. Whether this is due to inaccuracies in the measured distance or not, I don't know. I know that 100 minutes for the half marathon is doable, so I have to push hard in my longer runs now to make sure I get there..