Goal: 1:28
Finish time: 1:35:52
Summary: I felt "un-recovered" and under-nourished during the race. My goal should have been achievable, at least a sub-1:30 pr, but not this disaster.
What it felt like: It all started so well, for the first mile anyway. I knew very early on that I was working too hard to maintain my goal pace. The first mile at 6:23 felt easy and was talking with some others. The second and third mile I was deliberately slowing down, but to no avail - my HR began drifting up from 145 during the first mile, to 150, then 155 for the next two miles. As we turned onto the rental car lot and onto harbor island my HR had gone up to about 160 and remained there.
As we left Harbor island and headed towards the bridge near Nimitz I knew something was terribly wrong. I felt weak and dizzy leaving the island and began wondering "is it nerves? why am I suddenly feeling something in my stomach?" This was a different feeling than the food poisoning of Boston a year ago. This was a weak/dizzy feeling complicated with my HR at 95% of maximum. That is, un-recovered feeling made me push harder to maintain my goal pace. I was gulping O2 as fast as I could, trying my best to stay just below the feeling of anaerobic, and not looking at all at my watch. Just trying to hold it. I was burning through the limited amount of glycogen I'd stored (I was also running out) and my brain - apparently aware of this - was trying to slow me down by sending my mind signals of high fatigue, which I was trying to ignore.
Finally, I could ignore it no longer and slowed down. This occurred when I had to run up and over the small bridge on Halsey Road (parallel to N. Harbor Drive) in the middle of mile 6. I suppose I knew my race was over at that point. Comparing this to the first 6 miles of CIM, where I averaged 7 min through mile 6 and my HR was never over 150. I came through the first half of CIM in 1:32:27 with an average HR of about 147. Today I came in at 1:35:52 and a HR of 160
Once I slowed down it was over and I knew it and stopped pushing.
I was worried about today for good reason. As I was falling asleep last night I was thinking -"what if I'm not really recovered at all, and this turns out like the Kook10K - or worse? I may end up at 1:35 or something". Well, that's what happened. I both tried to make myself as light as possible - which I did weighing in low at 166, so being way under nutritionally for the race, and, not really recovered from the hard training yet.
Diet last several days:
Saturday -
- Breakfast (8 am) - 2 pieces banana bread with creme cheese, fruit (400 calories)
- Lunch (2 pm) - left over pasta, 2 pieces of french bread with butter (600 cal)
- dinner - nothing (snack on one piece of pita bread with hummus) (100 cal)
- 8 oz of naked juice mango/protein (220 calories)
- total 1200 calories
- Dinner - Pasta and meatballs (large plate)700 cal
- Lunch - 400 calories of rice and chicken slices
- (no breakfast)
