2009 IBM Uptown Classic 10k Race Report
This year was not quite what I had envisioned my triathlon season would be like. I figured I'd be out last year, being pregnant and then a new mom, and then I'd be right back in this year. Ha ha ha. The realities of being a mom... Not only is my training time much much more limited, races are a lot more difficult logistically and my body just isn't the same as it was before.
Two years ago I raced the IBM Uptown Classic 10k. It was a few weeks after Longhorn Half Ironman and I thought it would be a good race to get me back into the swing of things after some time off after my big race. Also, I figured it would be easy. We were trying to get pregnant, but it was early on and I thought we had missed our window of opportunity (about a week after Longhorn).
So I ran the race. I never wrote up a race report because I had such a bad race. I felt crappy, never found my stride, felt a lot of nausea and just really didn't feel like myself. About halfway through I realized it wasn't going well and ran it in nice and easy. My time? I looked it up today. It was 1:03:43. Seriously? That's what I thought was bad?
Well, it turns out, of course, that I was pregnant. Yay! Very newly pregnant, but still, I was already feeling the nausea that would plague my entire pregnancy and the fatigue I would feel during the first trimester. And, let's be honest, I was still recovering from Longhorn. That was a hard race with a long hard training road before it.
But at the time 1:03:43 was 5 minutes slower than my 10k PR, so it really did feel like a bad race to me. 5 minutes is a lot of time for a 10k. My 10k PR had only been set about a month earlier at the Austin Triathlon. And that was AFTER I had already swam 1500 meters and rode my bike for 24 miles. I went out there on a muggy humid day and ran a 10k in 58:06. And before that, my PR for a 10k was 58:44 in April. Certainly from April to October, with all that training and a crazy fast 10k during an Olympic distance triathlon, certainly I could run at least a 58 minute if not faster 10k, right? So that's why I was so bummed.
To be back there again.... My speed is coming back so slowly, and part of me wonders if I'll ever get it back again at all. Oh, I should probably mention my time today. It was 1:06:47. Yup, 8 minutes slower than my PR and 3 minutes slower than my "bad" race two years ago.
But even though I've now spent 5 paragraphs bitching that I'm not the runner I was 2 years ago before I had a baby, I will say that I did have a good race today. I felt good, especially when I hit my stride around mile 3 and I did come in somewhat close to my goal. I really wanted to be under 1:06 and I nearly made it. I was a little warm at times (should have worn short sleeves) and the couple of small hills that were on the course (it's mostly flat) nearly killed me. I really need to do some hill workouts again.
So I'm going to really try to focus on my running this fall and try to head for some hills pushing that silly stroller. Hopefully come next year, I'll be back to where I used to be.
Two years ago I raced the IBM Uptown Classic 10k. It was a few weeks after Longhorn Half Ironman and I thought it would be a good race to get me back into the swing of things after some time off after my big race. Also, I figured it would be easy. We were trying to get pregnant, but it was early on and I thought we had missed our window of opportunity (about a week after Longhorn).
So I ran the race. I never wrote up a race report because I had such a bad race. I felt crappy, never found my stride, felt a lot of nausea and just really didn't feel like myself. About halfway through I realized it wasn't going well and ran it in nice and easy. My time? I looked it up today. It was 1:03:43. Seriously? That's what I thought was bad?
Well, it turns out, of course, that I was pregnant. Yay! Very newly pregnant, but still, I was already feeling the nausea that would plague my entire pregnancy and the fatigue I would feel during the first trimester. And, let's be honest, I was still recovering from Longhorn. That was a hard race with a long hard training road before it.
But at the time 1:03:43 was 5 minutes slower than my 10k PR, so it really did feel like a bad race to me. 5 minutes is a lot of time for a 10k. My 10k PR had only been set about a month earlier at the Austin Triathlon. And that was AFTER I had already swam 1500 meters and rode my bike for 24 miles. I went out there on a muggy humid day and ran a 10k in 58:06. And before that, my PR for a 10k was 58:44 in April. Certainly from April to October, with all that training and a crazy fast 10k during an Olympic distance triathlon, certainly I could run at least a 58 minute if not faster 10k, right? So that's why I was so bummed.
To be back there again.... My speed is coming back so slowly, and part of me wonders if I'll ever get it back again at all. Oh, I should probably mention my time today. It was 1:06:47. Yup, 8 minutes slower than my PR and 3 minutes slower than my "bad" race two years ago.
But even though I've now spent 5 paragraphs bitching that I'm not the runner I was 2 years ago before I had a baby, I will say that I did have a good race today. I felt good, especially when I hit my stride around mile 3 and I did come in somewhat close to my goal. I really wanted to be under 1:06 and I nearly made it. I was a little warm at times (should have worn short sleeves) and the couple of small hills that were on the course (it's mostly flat) nearly killed me. I really need to do some hill workouts again.
So I'm going to really try to focus on my running this fall and try to head for some hills pushing that silly stroller. Hopefully come next year, I'll be back to where I used to be.
Comments
Post a Comment