Saturday, November 25, 2006

Ohtawara Wrap

Thanks for the well wishes on the last post.

The weather turned out to be very good, if a little cold at about 8 degrees with a light wind. It was touch and go whether to wear a long sleeved shirt but I stuck with a singlet and gloves. That was a good choice because I never wished I was wearing more and never wished I was not wearing the gloves. I wore my footpod but not my heart rate monitor, mainly, in the end, because I just didn't want the constriction on my chest and wanted to be as unencumbered as possible.

Basically, I decided to go out at a pace that would give myself a chance at a good time...around 2:57 pace, which I thought would give a couple of minutes in the bank to allow for any fade. While I thought my pacing was pretty well executed, the first 10 km was probably a little too fast, closer to 2:55 pace, and at the end of the day, I can only conclude that it was a bit over-ambitious given my condition. Nevertheless, I was feeling quite OK at the halfway mark, then had to have a No. 2 toilet break between half and 25k (48 seconds). From 25k to 30k I actually still felt OK, but my legs were starting to fatigue and I was getting ominous twinges in both calves. As that 5k split slipped to 4:15/km I was really not too worried because I didn't think I was tiring so much. Then, during 30-35k, bang, I just watched my pace slide. This section is slightly uphill, then 35-40 is even a little more uphill and it was a real struggle. My legs were heavy and threatening to cramp with every attempt to pick up my leg speed. I felt frustrated and helpless because I didn't feel that bad; my legs simply wouldn't do what I needed them too. I realized that my pace had slipped so far that my buffer was going to get eaten up very quickly. Going through the "5k to go" point I realized I'd have to run almost 4min/km flat to get under 3 hours, and my legs were clearly not up to that. So I knew it was gone and then it was a question of whether to back right off and just shuffle in to try and preserve my legs for a quicker post-race recovery, or whether to do all I could to still give my best time under the conditions. I went more for the latter and just ran it in as best I could without quite killing myself.

In the end, I was quite accepting of the result. I took a little bit of a gamble with the pacing and didn't do too much wrong on that basis. I think if I'd gone out at 4:15 pace neat, the splits would have been more even, but there still would have been some fade and the end time not much different. So ultimately I just wasn't quite in the shape I thought I was...perhaps. It gives me a lot of food for thought about how to prepare now for Tokyo, and then, how to run it.

Race breakdown
Section Distance Split Duration Pace
0-5k 5 0:20:47 0:20:47 0:04:09
5k-10k 5 0:41:28 0:20:41 0:04:08
10k-15k 5 1:02:33 0:21:04 0:04:13
15k-20k 5 1:23:49 0:21:16 0:04:15
20k-21.1k 1.1 1:28:15 0:04:26 0:04:02
21.1k-toilet 2.4 1:38:10 0:09:55 0:04:08
toilet break 0.1 1:38:58 0:00:48 0:08:00
toilet-25k 1.45 1:44:54 0:05:56 0:04:06
25k-30k 5 2:06:08 0:21:14 0:04:15
30k-35k 5 2:28:36 0:22:29 0:04:30
35k-40k 5 2:53:09 0:24:32 0:04:54
40k-42.2k 2.2 3:04:01 0:10:51 0:04:56


6 comments:

Ewen said...

Sorry I missed wishing you well Steve. I thought it was this weekend. Your blog amongst others is not being updated via Bloglines - not sure if it's 'buggered beta' or 'buggered bloglines'!

That's not a bad result under the circumstances (esp the calf cramps). There are some good threads on supplements to avoid this problem on CR - might be worth investigating before Tokyo.

Well done again - enjoy your recovery!

There are now just -2 sleeps until the sleeps until the Ohtawara Marathon!

Tesso said...

Interesting stuff. You had to give it a go.

If its any consolation your splits still look very impressive to me, I'd kill for 5k in sub 21mins, without following it up with another 37.2k !


PS Geez, its not long to go until Tokyo at all!

Robert Song said...

That last 10k in the marathon is when the race 'starts'. Still your fade wasn't too bad especially if it was more uphill. 3:04 is still a great time.

mika t. said...

Otsukare sama! You seemed to have struggled at the last 7k, but at least you didn't abandon the race and made a respectable time. And you know, for Tokyo, you will train on top of the fitness level you have now. Gambaro!

MilesandMiles said...

I think you still did very well considering your many toilet breaks and the fact that it simply wasnt your day. You got have some bad races some days!:) Good luck with planning the appropriate amount of rest and short term training programme to peak in feb.

2P said...

Mate 3.04 is still a brilliant result - probably put you in the top 100 here....

Great work mate - you're a champ!