The bad weather in Indiana has prevented most serious speed workouts with tracks covered in snow and roads icy or snow covered so there's lots of work to do. There are 8 weeks until the race to build up speed and the strength to sustain it over the race distance.
This week the weather was just about kind enough and the Quaff ON! team were able to meet up for "Track Tuesday" which has only happened on two other occasions in 2014. On Satruday, after two easy days and a rest day, the Crossroads of Indiana Race Series Pink Power 5k race started at 9am. I planned to use this race as part of a workout which I had dreamed up - in the cold wintry parking lot outside Hamilton Ice Center it was not feeling like such a good idea.... I planned to run the course 3 times at my target half marathon race pace, twice before the race, with a 4 minute recovery and then run the race after a 5-6 minute break. It's easy to back out of hard sessions like this, particularly when it's something you're doing on your own, so I posted a message to my team mates on Friday evening with my plans by way of making the commitment & knowing they'd be chasing me up to see how I got on - that's enough peer pressure to make me follow-through!
I started my repeats at 8:15 and ran 18:22 for the first time over the race course which is twisty and if anything slightly long. After a 4 minute recovery, I ran the second repeat in 18:46 - this was by far the hardest psychologically. Finally, I lined up for the race with nearly 300 other people. Team mates, Joe Bell and Sara Martin were there as well and I knew that with the other people around me in the race, the third repeat would be easier than the second. Joe set a fast pace at the start opening a small gap by the mile mark, we were together with the rest of the field about 10 secs back. In the middle of the race, Joe moved ahead as I was feeling the effects of the previous efforts however, my pace was still good as far as my training target. Towards the end of the race, it felt like I as starting to close down the gap but Joe won easily about 9 secs ahead of me, my time being 18:13. It was great to see Sara come home 3rd overall out kicking her rival for the women's victory, Melissa Truex, over the final tenth of a mile. So the Quaff ON! team took 1, 2, 3 and 1st in the women's race - a great result on the day. We were all surprised because in previous years, this event has drawn a fast field and our times would barely have been top 10 results in last years race (see below), but you've got to show up to end up in the results and a "W" is a "W" no matter what!
Here's a link to the race section on Strava
My 3 efforts today on the course:
The average pace over the 3 x 5k course distance is 5:54 / mile - exactly my target!
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| Joe Bell |
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| Tim Proctor |
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| Sara Martin |
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