Race Report - Confederation Park 8k

I just ran what I believe to be the best race since I started running.I think this is the beginning of the payoff for my new training methods, quite frankly. If it isn't, there's certainly no harm believing it is, anyway.

This was an 8k in warm, but pleasant enough weather (12C with a 20km/h breeze from the side, mostly). My warmup consisted of 2km at a very slow jog rate, then about 800m at 5k RP, maybe a little faster. I think this helped take my usual 'too fast of a start' away. I was actually a little tired when the race began, kinda like the way you feel during the walk/jog part of reps.

I wanted to run a sub 30:00 race. I thought it was aggressive, as my PR at this distance was 30:29.

That particular PR was done in training, actually. It followed a disappointing 31:20 at an 8k race in January. I had trained for a sub 31:00 at the time, and achieving it a week or so after the race, in training, was a triumph as well as a defeat, in a way. Why didn't I do it in the race?? Oh well. That was January.

I have improved since then, and like I stated, I wanted to run a sub-30:00. Taking a 30 secong chunk off a 8k PR is a big event, and I knew it would be hard.

I took off a few seconds fast, but very close to goal pace. I fell into goal pace soon after, and decided I felt strong at the 6km marker. That was new. I have NEVER felt strong at the end of a race before. Never. I still tried to keep my head and slowly sped up, feeling better as I went, because I knew I was on pace for a heck of a run. I think the key is that all the AT running I've been doing has made me feel much more at ease when at AT pace of faster. Also, the AT running has given me a much more acute sense of where the line into anaerobic territory begins, and to get as close to it as possible without touching it.

Anyway, here's the splits (goal pace was 3:42/km):

km# time:

1 3:37 2 3:43 3 3:41 4 3:43 5 3:42 *new5k PR (old one was 18:32, now 18:27!) 6 3:41 7 3:37 8 3:33 // TOTAL: 29:18!! 17/170 overall

Here's me *just* as I am slowing to a walk, one second after finishing (the photo's a little dark, too lazy to fix it

Yeah and yahoo for you

Congrats David - I see you've updated your website with the new PR already charlie

Cool, great performance!

Well done David. Now you've peaked my interest in your new form of training even more. That's amazing that you could feel great after running a new PR 5km distance! Is that your first race since you began the AT training?

Sean Chester Vancouver Island, Canada

hahahaa!!

Thanks, Sean. It is the 2nd race - the first was the 5k in which my shoelace came untied. I had been flirting with this training plan prior to the Around The Bay 30k, but not as formally.

Now that I have digested the race a bit more, I think the training we are speaking of taught me proper pacing more than anything - meaning I have learned where that crossover line (AT) is and what happens when you cross it. Conversely, I am learning what happens when you stay within arm's reach of it for extended periods of time in training. You get comfortable with being uncomfortable, so in a race it doesn't seems so bad.

Golly! Excellent David, keep up the hard work. I smell a BQ.

Congradulations.

Bernard

Great job man. Like you say, you've got to train hard to run fast. Keep it up.

-jeff

Congrats on the two new PRs! I agree with you on the AT runs. I haven't raced since I introduced them each week (on Fri on top of Tue intervals), but after 6 weeks I've been able to see differences in other workouts too (intervals and long runs). My times have gone down without added effort or same time with less effort or more reps. But perhaps the most important gain, as you point out, is that I can find that zone beyond which I shouln't go. I'm quite impatient to race to see how that feels now that I do AT runs. My sense is that they're making a big difference. We shall see...

Cheers,

How far have you been running on these runs?

Sean Chester Vancouver Island, Canada