My approach to summer racing has been a carefree one. I know I am not going to PR in the heat, so I planned on running a lot of shorter races and just trying my best. I ran a two-mile race at the beginning of the month with an official time of 14:07. This was good enough for first place in my graduating class (it was a reunion event) and third overall female.
Last weekend I ran the Lawyers Have Heart 10K, and this weekend I ran the Red Cross "Run For the Red" 10K. I am pleased with my performance and effort levels at each of these races. For the Lawyers Have Heart race, this marked my 6th consecutive year at the event, and my 5-year anniversary of running a 10K. My primary goal was to finally break 50:00. I've broken 50:00 many times at 10Ks, but never in a summer race. If I couldn't do that, then at the very least I wanted to set a course PR, which would require beating the 50:59 I ran in 2007. Surely I am in better shape now! For today's 10K, my goal was to simply try my best. I thought that the course might be more challenging than last week's, so I wasn't setting any time expectations.
Mile | Pace | Avg. HR | Pace | Avg. HR | |
1 | 7:58 | 176 | 7:59 | 172 | |
2 | 7:48 | 183 | 8:00 | 181 | |
3 | 7:54 | 186 | 8:10 | 184 | |
4 | 7:59 | 187 | 8:03 | 187 | |
5 | 8:12 | 187 | 8:05 | 187 | |
6 | 8:15 | 188 | 8:22 | 188 | |
6.2 | ? | 191 | 6:52 | 190 |
Okay, I just spent way too much time trying to format that table perfectly.
I feel like today's course was much more challenging and that I had to push harder. According to my heart rate, that's not exactly true. However, there is much more of a fade in the Lawyers race than there was in today's race. The only reason that the last mile is 8:22 was because about 1/4 of it was uphill. Not what you want to see at the end of the race. That speedy 6:52 was the downhill.
Anyway, the times were 49:50 in Lawyers (goal achieved!) and 50:13 in Run for the Red. I still think that I am more affected by the heat than most runners. I'm pleased with how I stuck it out and pushed hard in these races, and I think it will pay off when the fall comes and I start to care about PRs again.
Congratulations, Elizabeth! How gratifying to make your goals during the summer, especially when you didn't set soft goals!
ReplyDeleteBack to back racing???? Wowzers, you go, girl!
ReplyDeleteGot some time and however many years it takes me LOL, I will get thru this all... I know too much about you now than early on but as I read this I'm just watching your progress because it's beautiful to see the progressions!! As a lady who cannot run well in the heat and breaking 50 minutes in the summer when you never had done so, it was a great accomplishment because even I am slower in the summer than the winter (except right now where I'm wondering when I'll ever feel comfortable running again.)
ReplyDeleteGiven you're not so good in the heat, I was thinking maybe you should run the marathon in Antarctica because given you're so good in the cold I think you maybe can break 3 hours there :).