Tigy’s Blog

Race 4 of the Run Auckland series was on Sunday way out in Milford. I didn’t think I’d be able able to make it to this one, but after the boys weekend got canceled I thought I’d give it a crack.

I’m glad I did.  Was carrying a bit of an injury with sore calves from last weeks race, and had only managed a couple of runs during the week, but still managed a personal best time on what was a pretty tough course.

The ‘official’ distance of the run was 10km but I measured it more like 9.4km, which is actually quite a difference.  I think there may have been some last minute change to the course as we took a nice scenic detour at the turn around point.

I started the run a bit faster than normal, my plan was to get near to the front and try to stay with some of the better runners.  I ended up in a bit of a competition with a small group.  A couple of girls who would pull away on me on the hills but I would catch on the down side, and a couple of guys who stuck pretty close to me (or vice versa),  I think we kept pushing each other on.

I’d been reading a bit about the Lydiard method, keeping my effort level steady, not burning out on the hills, keeping my cardio under control and letting my muscles stay relaxed and do the work they’ve trained for.  Anyways what really blew me away was how by just sticking to the plan I was able to chase down all the guys who pulled away from me.  I just kept on “plodding” along and with about 200m to go I saw the last one of the guys I ran with at the start, a final push and I managed to pass he just before the line.

This was the first time I really applied any strategy to my running and to have it pay off was great.  I finished a shade under 43 minutes, which worked out to be about 4:30/km, which is about 0:20 faster than my best training runs.  Doesn’t sound like much, but I know how hard I worked to get from 5:20/km down to 5:00/km.  Still a long way off what the pro’s do, but a great achievement for little old me.

I think I’ll need a couple of days to recover, calves are telling me to rest.  Just 3 more weeks until the next big race though so can’t rest too long.

Had Race 2 of the Run Auckland series in the weekend. My god it was cold!

The course was mainly on walking tracks which was great as I was feeling a bit sore in the legs and my new shoes hadn’t arrived yet (any day now!!). Took on the course a bit more aggressively this time and really wanted to break the 50:00 barrier, was pretty much on track I think but lost heart at the 7.5km mark when I thought I had gone a touch too slow, tried to push hard for the finish but ran out of steam.

The lesson here is trust your training, keep steady and don’t give up! Turns out I was on track, with a couple of hundred meters to go I realised I could get there under the magic 50 minute mark and sprinted in for the finish. My stop watch measured the time as 49:59 but the official time was 50:31, probably due to the squeeze at the start line. Anyway it was still a 4:58/km pace which is easily my best.

I’m convinced if I’d just stuck at my pace rather than trying to push hard at the 7.5k mark I would have been able to cruise in under 50min. Basically my mistake was I pushed hard too early, ran out of puff and tired sooner than I needed to. A slightly slower but steadier pace would have been better. Never mind, lesson learned and we’ll see how I go next time!

Well I thought it was about time I got a bit more serious if I’m going to hit my goal of completing a marathon in the next 5 years, so I’ve entered a series of road races around Auckland - The Run Auckland Series.

It’s a series of 6 races of either 5 or 10km. I’ve entered in all the 10km circuits and the weekend was the first race. Having never raced quite this far before, in fact I haven’t raced since I was a kid, I was a touch nervous. But it went pretty well in the end.

The course was in Remuera, around the Waiatarua reserve. They claimed it was undulating, which I now know to mean hilly! I wanted to finish in under 55 minutes and managed 53:52, so can’t complain. Looking forward to the next one now!