The Regents Park 10k, organised by the Mornington Crescent Chasers Running Club, was my first race of the 2013 season. Mornington Crescent Chasers organise both a winter and a summer series of 10ks which are held in Regent's Park and you could tell - it was a very well run event.
As the race was only a C race for me, I didn't taper down at all. Although I actually had an easy week volume wise, it wasn't a planned one! Uni work piled up and there just wasn't enough time in the day to get a normal training week in. I did manage to get a couple of good turbo sessions in, including one the day before the race on Saturday (8 x 3mins.
Alarm goes off. Ignore it. Snooze it. Grumble. Coffee on. Weetabix (x3). Bowl. Milk. Banana. Grumble. Back into bed to drink coffee. Eat breakfast. Out of bed again. Suited and booted, ready to go. Stumble to tube station (more coffee). Sleep. Stumble to Regent's Park. Warm up. Race.
I always like to leave myself some spare time in case of disasters, so usually arrive pretty early to a race. I arrived with nearly 50mins to spare at Camden Town tube station and followed some likely looking fellow racers, clad as they were in lycra and a selection of race-finisher t-shirts. I already had my race number and so had no need to queue to register, I just needed to get changed, fingd a place to stash my kit and turn my Garmin on. Top tip there - wandering around with your hand in the air trying to find satellites 3mins before the gun goes is not a good look for anyone.
I managed a pretty good warmup before having to line up, including a few stretches. On reflection, I positioned myself a little further back than I maybe should have. There were a fair few people who were far too close to the front and there was some congestion to begin with. The gun went and I waited until I'd crossed the timing mats before starting my Garmin. The course is not a fast one, consisting as it does of a triple repeat of a loop made up of a long drag uphill, before a shorter, sharper descent down. My PB was 39:25 and I knew I had it in me to beat that so was targeting sub-39mins, meaning 6:18min/mile. I set off a little quick, as often is the case, but was careful to stay within my limits a little and not go too mad on the first lap. At the end of the first lap I was well ahead of schedule, averaging around 6:08min/mile and knew I needed to peg it back if I wanted to finish strongly. The subsequent two laps were a little slower, not helped by an increasing headwind on the downhill section which was also a blustery crosswind on the uphill section - not a fast day!
I found myself working in a small group, each of us pushing the others on and this definitely helped us all out. I felt strong on the hills but surprisingly struggled a little on the downhills. My left hamstring had been a little tight in the week before after doing a fair amount of turbo work using my TT bike and I wonder if that was impairing my cadence. Other than that, there was a distinct lack of drama in the race for me and I managed to plod round to a new PB of 38:45 (6:15min/mile).
I'm overall quite pleased with my pacing though was a little disappointed to not finish stronger. Some congestion on the final downhill as we caught some of the slower runners who were just finishing their second lap probably didn't help but I could barely muster any sort of sprint finish. It's probably only a reflection of the training I'm doing at the moment. Winter miles are not necessarily quick miles. I've not done any track work since last year, so maybe the finishing sprint will come once I move into the build phase of my training plan and restart track work.
I'm overall quite pleased with my pacing though was a little disappointed to not finish stronger. Some congestion on the final downhill as we caught some of the slower runners who were just finishing their second lap probably didn't help but I could barely muster any sort of sprint finish. It's probably only a reflection of the training I'm doing at the moment. Winter miles are not necessarily quick miles. I've not done any track work since last year, so maybe the finishing sprint will come once I move into the build phase of my training plan and restart track work.
Chip time : 38:45 (PB) 24/547
Lap 1 - 12:46
Lap 2 - 13:05
Lap 3 - 13:01
Quite pleased with a new PB - especially given it was a slower course on a slower day and at this stage of the season. I've got another 10km at Bushy Park in a month which is pan flat. I'm really hoping to improve again on this time but it's going to be difficult to decide what to target. Sub-38min seems a huge improvement, but with another month of training and a much faster course it might just be possible. An alternative target could be 6:10min/mile pace which would give me a 38:14 finish. I may go for sub-38min and see what happens! If it's not looking good, I can always back off and move onto the second goal. This race has also confirmed that I need to do a 5k again so I can update my training paces (I follow the FIRST running program which is all based on your 5k race pace).
Whilst racing, I was mostly singing....
