Fri 19 Jan 07, Vic Milers Wrap Up & an easy run

This morning I picked Clare up from her place and we went to the You Yangs for a run, for me a recovery run and for Clare she is working on her endurance. We parked at the Flinders Peak carpark and ran the Branding Trail. It was very humid this morning for Melbourne, weatherzone said it 22 degrees and 80% humidity. Even for a recovery run I was drenched in sweat, but a relaxing run which allowed me to put a few kms in the legs and then I stretched my calf & achilles for a bit and then back home.

This will be my last weekday run that I can do anytime I feel like, back to work on Monday, so back to early morning runs or lunch time strolls 7 runs in the evening.

Second run for the day, 5:15pm I ran on the local roads and around the Hogan's Rd Reserve for some non road running, sitting on 4:20 pace for the first 20 minutes was quite comfortable and then for the remainder of the run around 4:30-35 pace. With the temp around 27 degrees and there still only being showers in Hoppers and no real rain to talk about the humidity was still high (83%) so to save I was drenched in sweat is an understatement. A nice eleven km run tempo style run.

Thu 18 Jan 07, A relaxing day, hung around my flat, hydrated and ate well in preparation for tonight's 3000m race with the Vic Milers. I took Cam & Luke who were both racing the 3k too, Luke was hoping to run sub 9 for the first time (9:00.3), Cam was hoping to run a SB (just missed it) and I was hoping to run sub 11 for the first time for the season.

I was ready for the race and the weather was ok, warm but no wind. I warmed up well, stretched and laid around relaxing & preparing myself mentally. I was hoping to run sub 11 and as close as possible to my PB of 10:49, so I planned to see how 86-87 laps felt, 7 1/2 laps at 86 would get me 10:45.

I knew I would be at the back of the pack, but I did expect the back 4-5 guys to be closer but they were running a lot faster than their 'old' PBs. So within 20m I was 3rd last and thats the way it stayed until I pulled off the track. The first lap was 1:20, yep too fast, felt felt ok; second lap I knew I needed to slow it down which I did and ran 1:24 and then 1:26. I was drenched in sweat and my breathing was starting to work, but my thoughts became very negative & very quickly, I was 15m off 4th last and way in front of second last, I became bored and couldn't be bothered came into my head so when I hit the 1500m start line (1:03) I pulled off the track. Afterwards I tried to convince myself I was going to slow down and that's why I did it, but after a few hours of wondering why I reckon it was because I was bored and didn't think I could catch anyone or be caught so I just couldn't be bothered with the run, I didn't want to be time trialing! Don't get me wrong I probably would have slowed down and paid for the fast start, but I could have still worked for the sub 11....

It wasn't a club race and it didn't matter whether I finished or not, meaning to any one else, so I didn't.. Pretty shitty really! To be perfectly honest I don't think I will run a VMC 3k race again, the lack of 11 min 3k runners really made it a boring race for me, I much prefer to race at Aberfeldie in a heat of 35 odd people who finish between 10:30 & 11:30. I still think that the VMC events are great, but the 3k race really showed the lack of depth or how slow I am.