One Blogging entry for 2 runs, is that allowed? Am I breaking my blogging contract?
Well, my first run on the "Tour du Pays de Vaud" a 9.1 km stretch through ST Prex came up with a 48min47sec time. In the complex world of physical performance one days proud accomplishement of my personal best is the next days dissappointement for not matching what I know I am capable of. And so I went into this race convinced that I could keep to a 5min pace, even going so far as to telling Stephan that "once we hit the 6km mark, Im going to give it all I got" well, it turns out that once I hit the 6km mark I had already given it all I had and just crossing the finish line became my new revised declaration to . . . wait for me Stephan, well he was long gone, and I was left to swallow the dust from the runners passing me. I have notice a strange phenomenon everytime I go to an "official" race. The anticipation grips me and the adrenalin kicks in, all my circuits go bizerk and nothing is anymore how Im used to it from training. So inspite of telling myself not to go too fast to start I went too fast.
Yesterday I decided to verify if my "start slow, end fast" theory really holds up. because the St Prex race confirmed "start fast, end slow" but for the morale its the difference between banging my head against a brick wall, and freefalling through duck feather duvets. Lo and behold, when I start at a 5:15 to 5:30 pace for the first 3 clicks, the next 6 are sub 5 to 4:40! for a 9km total of 45min 53 sec.
I think when I push my body straight away to zone 4/5 its chemistry consumption switches gear, and then even when I slow down, the heart insists on staying in zone 4/5. But when I give myself a proper 2 km slow warmup, and progressively speed up, then my body doesn't realize what Im doing and I can sneekily go faster before it inquisitively requests " hey! what gives?!" and starts compensating my heartbeat ever so slowly, but by then I have already run another click in under 5 and it again ponders upping the heart to compensate. It's a poor fellow under these circumstances, but I try not to deceive myself too often...I think. Ofcoarse if you've watched the film "Inception" perhaps the whole notion of what is real may be a bit grey. What a mental mind boggler for this blogger!
Anyways this Wednesdays Genolier goal is to warm up for 15 minutes and then kick in the afterburner, for a 44:xx run. Stay tuned for Thursday's ramblings about why it wasn't so!
Thanks for the nice pre-race photo Niall, where I still look like a champion ;o)
It took me a long time to convince myself that a slow warm up at the beginning of a run (race) will not tire my body prematurely and will not detract from my performance. I used to hit the treadmill cold, going full speed, hoping to get in a couple of clicks while my HR was still low and before the body even realizes what’s happening. I would always finish flat out pooped, ready to drop.
RépondreSupprimerIt was only this year during long runs, paying no attention to my speed, when I realized that my pace would increase automatically after the first five minutes.
My conclusion from this is that for long runs I should take it easy for the first few clicks, let the body adjust to the new reality and make these first minutes part of the warm up.
For short speed runs I need to do at least a 1k at training pace just to warm up before going full speed.
Basically JP should follow the lead of KJP who takes at least 5 minutes of warm up before the run up.
About blogging contracts.
RépondreSupprimerWe'll accept your single entry for two runs this time, however, as an upcoming literary protegé, we had expected the ink to flow into lake Geneva by now.