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Now my 10 miler that morning was not pretty my calf hurt the whole time. I never got to the zen state the entire thing was, oh my is this ever going to be over. Since I was having some left calf pain and tightness, Matt did some great soft tissue work on my leg. I did his designed strength session and he bent my ear on fueling, hydrating and resting.
At this point Nate the run coach comes hobbling in like an 80 yo man. Matt asks Nate if he thinks I am over-training! Nate replies that it is cumulative fatigue which is part and parcel of marathon training. But also to use my judgement if it hurts to the point it is affecting my run form/gait then ditch the run and recover the injury. Nate is in full recovery mode and will heal but I bet he won't run for any significant time in new shoes.
So I decide to actively rest my leg for Saturdays race and ditch Thursday 5 miles for a hour session with my nemesis the foam roller and a walk. Friday was a scheduled rest day. Thanks Trena, for letting me bend your ear about my fears of fatigue, failure and going from 20 to 26.2.
Saturday I have 14 long slow miles on schedule but it is a 15K race day. What to do? Do I run at training pace then do 5 more after the race to make 14 or do I run at race pace and trade intensity for volume? Well Hell it is Race Day and Intensity wins! I did slow run the mile to the race and I walked the mile back home after the race to make 11.
I line up way behind the last pace group. A friend ask what's my goal pace? I looked at her blankly and said uh anything under 2. Mainly because I hadn't thought about it since my mind has been focused on all things marathon not these training races.
The gun fires and I keep telling myself start slow and build to the finish. Great concept harder to do especially when the legs feel good.
The splits were as follows:
1 - 11:34 slow down
2 - 11:49 maintain
3 - 10:46 having fun attacking downhills
4 - 10:57 more fun high 5 members of run club
5 - 10:53 picking off people
6 - 11:01 steady
7 - 11:02 steady
8 - 12:03 the sun, hot, feet tired, legs tired
9 - 13:04 the ones I passed are coming back for me
.3 - sprint to finish
Official time was 1:46:40. Was it a PR? Yes. Was an average pace of 11:45 good for me hell yes! Did I finish strong, upright with a smile on? Yes. So why do I feel blah, it was okay, not particularly great about it?
Races involve more than the physical endurance to maintain a run for a long time, they involve more than the aerobic capacity to run fast, they should have a strategy to do your best on that day with those circumstances, and under those conditions. That was my problem. I didn't execute my strategy appropriately. I should have held myself to a slower pace for 2 more miles and then picked up the pace with each mile getting faster than the last. It is more than just wanting negative splits, had I executed better, my overall time would have been better more than likely under 1:45! The people I passed would not have come back to pass me which would have made my overall place better. The last 2 miles would have felt strong and not like I was just hanging on to the finish.
Some of you will say you finished that is good enough. Some will say you placed 2,988 out of 9,000 people overall, what you might have placed 2,985. What is the difference? Some will say 1:44-1:46 it is a minute what's the big deal, you got your medal!
The difference is I know that I could have done better! I could have finished faster! I could have placed higher! I could have passed people to be waiting at the finish line to cheer them on! So I classify this as a successful failure. Meaning that I tried my best physically, but I failed at the mental game but I damn well learned from it!
Live Epic!
Michelle
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