Monday, April 28, 2008

Waterloo Half Marathon





I entered Waterloo Half Marathon race - 13 km of route in scenic rural setting through Mennonite country with Scottish Pipers throughout the course.




It was advertised as flat and downhill for the first 6 km - then a rolling, scenic, country-side run for 13km. I started slightly faster for the first 6 km trying to bank extra time on the flat part expecting to slow down on hills. Hills weren't that difficult - I didn't slow down on those either.





It was my final test in a race settings before Mississauga Marathon. I am not very happy with my pacing I would prefer 4:57-4:58 min/km. My strategy for Mississauga will be similar I will go faster on the first downhill part and I will try not to lose to much in last 10K of gently rolling hills. I was running those hills last year in my 10K race there and I was surprised - from the elevation profile, which I have checked before the race it seemed as downhill path, but those hills were demanding, at least for the fast pace of 10K race.



Results

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Sunday, April 06, 2008

Around the Bay - 30K race

passing

This was another training run for my Marathon race in Mississauga.
I wasn't sure how I will run this race. I wanted to run relatively slow first half and accelerate in second half. All of my pre-race scenarios had first half (15 km) in 1:20:00 to 1:22:30 (at slow long run pace 5:20 to 5:30 min/km) and second half in 1:15:00 to 1:18:00 (most at marathon pace 4:59 min/km). Last minute pre-race talk with Andy, friend from runningmania.com who is also preparing for marathon in May, made me think that maybe I should run everything faster. I felt very strong at the beginning of the race so I run first half in 1:16:50 at 5:07 min/km. I run second half in 1:16:42 at 5:03 min/km; very uneven pace ( first 5 km: 4:51, 4:53, 4:56, 4:55,4:56).
I wasn't initially happy about this result, but after short reflection I don't think that this result indicates any problems in my training for marathon. I haven't done any special taper for this race ( I have skipped two cycling sessions, but done more swimming) and although I run the first half much faster, my second half wasn't that far from my plans considering that it was done on rolling hills.


Results


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