darko- 3:55 is hammering. it sounds to me like you are already in 3:50 shape with the right race, conditions, competition and a full taper. i am a fan of that 16/12/8/4 workout. but i'm always too lazy and destroyed afterwards to do any 200s!
smoove- training looks solid- glad you are bouncing back well from the marathon. those runners are lucky to have you as a coach and i'm sure will do great in their respective otq goals.
"training".. was really just tapering hard this week
m- 6
t- 6
w- 5
th- 4
f- 3
s- brooklyn half- 1:12:53
su- 8
47 miles for the week
race recap...
my goal was sub 1:13, which only seemed possible if everything came together really well. i knew i had to keep the average under 5:34 pace. the temperature dropped about 30 degress F in the 12 hours before the race and was about 60 degrees at the start with decent cloud cover. the race is point to point with the last 5 or 6 miles heading due south on ocean parkway. in the days before the race it looked like there might be a tailwind for that portion (like what we had at the nyc half in march), but it ended up as more of a variable crosswind... more from the east than the north.
the logistics for this race are rough. you are supposed to arrive at 5:40 am even if you're not checking a bag (5:10 am if checking a bag!). the bathrooms are inside the corrals and once i used the facilities they wouldn't let me exit the corral area to do any kind of warmup. not that it would have helped because you really have to be in the corral at least 30 minutes before the start anyway. i lined up for the bathrooms again 40 minutes before the race just as an insurance policy and didn't even get to the front of the line in that time.
i was able to get a decent starting position so i didn't have to dodge anyone. my legs were a little tight from not warming up, but aerobically i was feeling dangerously good. i was trying to hold back and especially not use too much energy on the climbs.
came through the first 5k in 17:04, which was a little brisk. but there was more downhill than uphill and i was trying to at least stay within 10-15 seconds of this huge pack that was working together. it felt really easy so far.
a little after 5k you enter prospect park. i haven't run there in a long time, but the hills are rough. it was a long steady climb for awhile and my fifth mile was slow (5:50) because i didn't want to kill myself on the hills. sixth mile also slow. came through 10k in 34:42, so a 17:38 5k split. this was fine... i figured as long as i was a bit under 35 minutes i could still end up 1:12 high
7th mile downhill- 5:22. i'm passing some people but that pack is now way out of reach (they ended up like 1:11-mid). prospect park also took some out of me and i had a randomly had a slow 9th mile in 5:41 even though it was flat. so i'm wondering if i'm in trouble at this point. was hoping for some tailwind on ocean parkway, but it was just swirling all over. definitely was not a headwind though.
15k split is 51:55, (17:13 5k)... at this point i'm a few seconds behind where i need to be. that 5k should have been faster because of the downhill 7th mile and flat/slight downhill in 8th and 9th mile.also at this point a few runners are passing me (this is basically par for the course at nyc half and brooklyn where guys will sandbag the first 10k in like 35:30 and then hammer like a 33 minutes for the next 10k). they are running like 5:20 pace, so it's a little depressing.
aerobically i was feeling sort of ok but my legs are trashed. fortunately it is completely flat and no turns. so i'm just trying to grind and keep my garmin locked in around 5;30 pace. 10th mile- 5:29, 11th mile- 5:30, 12- 5:35 came through 20k in 1:09:04 (17:09 5k split). so i'm now a few seconds ahead of 1:12:59 pace. in the last 1.1 there was a little overpass and then a small climb up onto the boardwalk that felt terrible but averaged 5:33 pace and barely held it together.
i think my legs were mostly trashed because i dropped a lot of the long runs and tempos to train for the 5k last month (between february 11 and april 18, i only had one run over 13 miles... between february 25 & april 18, 0!). i definitely did some cramming for this race in the last month, but theoretically i probably "should" be in better 10k shape than half shape right now.
this race (barely!) meets the sub elite qualifying times for the Houston Half, so i am planning to run there in January and try to drop into the 1:11's.
if i recover well and if the weather looks good, there is a 10k that i really like on memorial day. if i feel that i have a shot at 32:5x, i will do the race. there are not a lot of 10k courses that i like around here that also have good weather.