Notes
So, this was a disappointing race for me. My knee/IT band actually felt fine throughout, which is a positive, but I think the overall injury really took a toll on my fitness (dropped 2 VDOTs with this race - Note: went back and checked, and it was only 1.01 drop in VDOT, but it rounded up). The past little while I didn't think I was that affected, but looking back I was actually injured for 3 months or 1/4 of the year - pretty significant. At first I was pretty angry with the result. But now I am looking back and taking a lot of positives and lessons learned from it. So, here they are in 3 categories:
What Went Wrong:
- Delayed start: The Pioneer Inn Harriers 8k is part of a series that attracts some pretty talented runners. That's why when the start was delayed by 10 minutes due to a record number of race day signups, I found it to be pretty unprofessional. Myself, along with many others, warm up to be ready to go at the designated start time. No, delaying does not give people "10 extra minutes to warmup", it throws people off. Whatever, it probably affected me mentally more than anything.
- Corals: Damn I'm bad at coralling...or everyone else is. There were no official corrals, so I went close to the front, but not too close because I never want to slow people down. Apparently other people don't feel the same way. I always seem to be in a clusterfuck of people who have no right being near the front. My first km is slow, and then I try and make up for it too quickly.
- Not knowing the course. This is on the race organizers. I searched high and low for a course map and found nothing. I like to know when I'll be pushing hard up a hill, and when I'll be able to make strategic comebacks. It's not that hard to do a quick mapmyrun and put it on your website!
- Getting tripped up: In my first km, someone kicked my right leg behind my left leg. I was really close to going down, but luckily I didn't. Still had a bit of a mental affect on me.
What I learned about racing:
- I'm faster than I think in terms of lining up at the start. Too many times I've had my first km ruined because of congestion due to slower runners starting too far forward. Fuck it. I'm going to start further forward from now on.
- Race day nutrition. I can usually eat a small breakfast and then race, due to the early starts. But this was an 11am start, so I don't think I ate enough. I felt like I was running out of energy before I even hit halfway. This needs improving.
- Taper. I didn't taper at all for this. In fact, I was running my easy runs far too fast. For my bigger races I shall improve on this.
- Cut my toenails day or two before a race. They weren't even long, but one of my toes sliced the other. Didn't notice it until I got home and one toe was covered in dry blood.
Moving forward with my training:
- Don't overdo it this week. That's what led to injury in October. Monday-Wednesday will all be super easy. Then I can start working harder again.
- I have a lot of work to do, so I'm glad I under-performed on this race. It'll serve as a wakeup call. Last year I went from 45 min 10k to 40 min 10k between January and April, so I'm going to try for a big drop this year too. Hoping for somewhere in the low-38s by April. I won't know if I can do it if I don't try.
- Weight loss. Time to seriously get back on track with weight loss. I am aiming to drop 10-12lbs by April, which will get me to ~155 (still a little high for peak performance). If the adage about 2 seconds/mile per pound is true, then I can drop 2 minutes in my 10k time just from weight loss (though I won't count on that alone).
- Sober-uary. Christmas and drinking have led me to some weight gain. I'm thinking of going dry for February. The fact that it is the shortest month may help me.
- Join a running club. There's a good one that does speed work every Tuesday that I'm thinking of joining. I think the group will help me push myself a little bit harder.
If I think of more, which I'm sure I will, I will edit this post.