Course populaire de Lasalle race report

So, today i had a 5km. and, to tell you the truth, i am "meh" about it... and (not going to lie), i was quite hesitant about writing this post. because i know that in the scheme of things, it is no big deal (like the 1st ever grey hair i found yesterday...). and, because i know that a race is a race. and, i love racing. and, i am grateful for racing. and, so when there is one that doesn't go well... well, you should just move on. but, i also know that people are going to ask/wonder.

so, here we go. hopefully this soothes your curiousities.

besides. it is pretty much the only interesting thing going on in my life right now. except for a few nice dinners on friday (made some chicken/tomato/spianch stuffed portobellos with annie on Friday, and then saturday, went to celebrate Vesna's birthday at a restaurant here in town called Khyber Pass on saturday night)... but, what i eat is not really interesting either.

So, back to the race. I got up early (6am, race was at 8:50, but wayyyy out yonder.) I wanted to get there around 8 to have a good warm up, and pick up my bib. BUT i got on the metro, then as i was exiting the station, through the wrong door, i watched my bus drive away. Next one... 30 mins later, at 8:08am. so, i started walking up and down the stairs in the metro station, to get my HR moving a bit. then, i realized i had to pee, *really* badly. Mary tweeted me, telling me i should pee my pants. (classy, right? i told her only in races over an hour and a half, do i pee my pants). so, i asked her "what part of -15 degrees C doesn't translate into american?" I got to the race at about 8:35. ARGH!

anyway, ran from the bus to the bib pickup as my warm up. PEE (yay! sweet relief!) get my stuff, then check my bag, and out to the start with about 7 mins to go. i do some jump squats, and some movements, and high knees and the such. keep my HR around 120. and, off we go. this was the largest 5km that i have raced in a long time. definitely 100's of people.

Mary uses 5km races to calculate our lactate thresholds. see how hard we can really get going... (Just letting you know why we race 5k's, when we are focusing on doing 5+hour races).

now the theme of the day was COLD. COLD weather. COLD wind. eyes watering. muscles taking a while to get going. but, i felt ok... not great, off the bat, but not bad. i was thinking in my head, 4:25km's pacing, for around 22min time.

so, my KM's went like this.

1) 4:31 (HR 167)... ok. not bad. a little slower than planned, but, i could be happy with this.

2) 4:52 (HR 174)... OH! yipes. but, that km felt harder. damn that frigid wind. not nice to run into

3) 4:27 (HR 176) YES! turned the corner no more wind! it might actually even be pushing me a bit. run fast! keep this pace. oups. that is a bit of a stomach cramp. don't let that lady who is wearing a wierd hat and running with awful technique get too far ahead of you.

4) 5:04 (HR 179). yum yeah. right. this is why i am not a short distance runner. it hurts. you can't slow down and find a pace. and DAMN THAT FRIGID WIND! SOOO HARD TO RUN INTO!

5) 4:40 (HR 182). ok girl. dig in. run with your core, quick feet turnover. pick it up more. there is less than 5 mins remaining (Ugh. i can't.) comon' go for it! GO! ARGH!

sigh. SIIIIGH. not terrible. not great. slower than last year. time to go home. i have a headache.

i get home, and i over analyze. i send Mary a email freaking out about how if in april, i run another 1/2 marathon (4th in a row) at 1:46, that i will be PISSED. and how i think my training zones are off. that there is no way that i can improve when she has me training this slow... surely something must be wrong.

and, she replies...

That's exactly why we do these things. I am going to review the data after my shower, but know this: there is never harm in training "too slow". When I cross check I will also cross check with the Qt2 zones, which believe it or not, are slower.

If that made sense.

No worries sister, we are on the right track. More in a minute!

I know that i need to be patient. but. sometimes that is hard. especially when it feels like you are going backwards, even when you should be going forward. and when you are working HARD to go forward. it is frustrating. and, due to this... i have NOT been able to concentrate on school this afternoon. i've just not been happy... and. ravenous as well. meh.