My 44:15 is just under 2 minutes slower than last years 42:33 (PR) and just about 30 seconds slower than 07 at 43:43. My pace was just over 7 on average with the first two miles under 6.
At first my excuse was that I went out too fast, but my times were near as fast this year as they were last year; should have been in range and maybe a bit slower than I thought I was capable of before the race. Maybe I just went out too fast for my current fitness. Strange as I really felt my legs were faster this year with a similar mile load as last year. I guess the biggest difference this year was the training program. I followed something a lot different with no track work and only 2 quality runs a week. The bulk of the hard Tuesday workouts started with 10x60" repeats followed by hill work later in the training; 3 sets of 6x30" up with 2 minutes after each set at just faster than race pace. The weekend "long" runs were always progression runs in 3 sets of 10' early in the program culminating with 3x15' with the last 15 at race pace. I thought this would do the trick, but in the end I kind of feel I needed to add more variety to the program with at least 3-4 track sessions.
This all may be true, but the reality is that I was just not mentally tough today. I probably could have kept my pace and bested 2007 and maybe come closer to last year. The reality is that I wimped out...even walked on Casey Hill! Oh well, just did not have it today.
At any rate, need to get down a few lessons.
- Have more fun, just did not have fun out there today
- Need more track work throughout the training; felt I had the leg speed, just not the horse power to sustain. This may mean much more tempo and LT at longer distances
- Need a better warmup plan; did a few pickups with some jogging and a bit of haphazard stretching here and there
- Need to cut the drinking earlier, had a full bladder through most of the race
- Get rid of the negative mental chatter, somehow thought myself out of this race early on...it should not be comfortable
- Really need to break the run in blocks, and focus on this
- Focus more on form, this would have been a decent distraction
- Get a good song ingrained...nice distraction
Use the Garmin, like the security of knowing my pace. Used my simple Timex today
More to come
