Sunday 23 October 2011

Riddlesdown parkrun seventeen (rdp17)

The morning started off quite cold (I think about 2 or 3 degrees) but in the end it turned into quite a nice autumn day.

I almost missed the start of the parkrun. Why? Surely it must have been traffic or something to do with the baby.. Actually it was neither. I was sitting in the car trying to keep warm and misjudged my timing by a minute or so.

hellooo
I arrived at the start line just in time but had to start right at the back, which I didn't mind because I wasn't going to be racing.

My intended pace was to be around 5 minutes per km. That would bring me home in around 25 minutes, around 5 and a half minutes slower overall than my usual race pace.

I started off slow enough but felt a bit frustrated at that pace so I meandered my way through the field of runners until I found some clear air, my pace was somewhere in the 4:40-per-km region. That was according to the Garmin 405 that I was wearing (in addition to my normal GPS device).

being tracked with two GPS devices (garmin 405 / handy runner android app)
When I reached the sharp corner and incline I slowed and took tiny steps to avoid putting too much pressure on the hamstring. I did the same on lap 2.

On the second lap I was happily running along, I had just passed the three kilometre mark when all of a sudden a wasp managed to trap itself in my hair. I must have looked a tad mental (I apologise if this is a politically incorrect term) as I ran in zig-zags slapping myself on the head. It took a good 10-15 seconds to dislodge it, and it buzzed off into the distance (or another runner's hair).

at the end
I kept a fairly strong pace until the end and finished in 17th position with a time of 21:45. My average pace was 4.21 per km. That works out 'steady-state' pace for me. Looking at my split times it seems that I was getting faster towards the end, my last split was just over 4 minutes, that is almost 5k race pace - definitely not the plan.

The hamstring felt fine all around the flat parts of the course. The only issue was on the sharp incline, where if I had pushed harder would probably have re-injured it. I'll definitely be avoiding hills for a while.

We then went to the good companions pub, where we had coffee, at least I did. The wife brought her own green tea with her because they only have English breakfast tea in the pub. Fellow injured runner, Pete, gave me some good information on hamstring rehabilitation. I'll get stuck into that asap - Thanks.

the ladies
The rest of the day was a mix of sitting in traffic, hanging around a shopping centre listening to awful conversations, and then paying a quick visit to King's college hospital to see my brother. We finally got back home about 12 hours after we had left. Shattered. Luckily I had made some curry on Friday night so we stuck that straight onto the hob to heat up - it always tastes better the day after!

steve.


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