Last week I was feeling fairly dreary about it, i.e. locked in on inconvenient/expensive training run because of dogged desire to complete half-marathon Grand Prix series (one in each of the five boroughs), but as soon as training partner L. suggested meeting for brunch afterwards, I perked up. And I am glad I did it--it was an enjoyable run, and it's quite something starting out like that on the Coney Island boardwalk. Very rattly/clanky boards when everyone's pounding along in an ambulant herd!
It will surprise nobody to hear I did not quite make my run-sedately-and-with-HR-155/56 goal. And I do not have good decoupling-type data, I cannot be bothered to really sort it out! But I didn't do too badly.
I ran pretty much as I intended to for the first nine miles or so, in other words, but while the first nine are flat the last four and a bit are pretty markedly hilly, starting as one runs up into Prospect Park and then round the park loop. Hillier than Central Park--L. says it's about half the distance of the CP loop but with same elevation. So holding the right HR would have meant appreciably slowing down, and between the annoyance of well-meaning passersby urging runners to speed up and finish strong and my fairly heartfelt desire at that point to polish the thing off, I just didn't have the fortitude to hew to HR limits--I didn't run hard, but my effort level went up quite a bit as I endeavored to keep a similar pace.
(I don't feel I pushed my legs too hard, nor my aerobic system, so we will just hope I have not done too much too close to the Florida 70.3 race. I think it should be OK.)
(What it most honestly could be described as is about nine miles at suitable longish run pace, it felt fairly easy although because I had no taper my legs were obviously slightly tired to begin with from yesterday's bike & swim, plus four miles hard tempo pace--not inherently hard/speedy, just hard because of hills.)
I also can now recalibrate the device--it gave me 12.89 miles, avg HR 158, avg pace 9:50. Official time: 13.1 miles, 2:06:09, 9:37 pace.
If it had been as flat all the way as on the opening miles, it would have been easier to meet goals--9:30 pace would have been appropriate, I guess, and 10:00 probably could have been done in low 150s. Reasonable enough--there is no point losing sleep over the fact of non-speediness on the one hand or mild lack of self-control on the other!
Mile splits, with avg. HR:
9:24 (153)
9:35 (156)
9:45 (155)
9:16 (156)
9:18 (156)
9:57 (158--walked through aid station to eat gel)
9:33 (157)
9:40 (159)
9:43 (156)
9:51 (160--first hill just before beginning of mile 9)
10:00 (162)
9:32 (163)
9:18 (167)
Three down, two to go (the remaining ones are Queens and Staten Island). And a very good last long training run for 70.3--I haven't done a lot of long runs in the last few months, so it was nice to get in a serious one! Now I'll sharply cut back on run length for the next couple weeks--shorter efforts with brief high-intensity work will be the most appropriate thing.
4 comments:
Glad to hear you had a good time! I too found the hills REALLY tough. Totally my own fault for not really examining the course beforehand, but I pushed myself in the early part of the race and just had nothing left to give when we headed off that exit and up into the park.
Good!!! I'm so glad you had fun!
Nice job. Sounds like it was fun!
Yes, reasonably fun. Not as fun as a regular training run with conversation, and not as fun as really racing it, but fun enough! (With proviso that though the trees along the parkway in Brooklyn are less scenic than the ones in Riverside Park, they are just as allergy-producing--my left eye was almost stuck closed during the middle six or seven miles. Fortunately I was wearing sunglasses, which gave me the fortitude to leave it alone--experience suggests that rubbing one's finger on a very gummed-up and itchy eye does not really improve the situation!)
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