Katy 10 - Texas 10 Series

Love, love, loved this race!  If my schedule allowed and I had gotten in on the lower pricing for the Conroe and College Station races, I would so be doing those.  Next year I can plan accordingly.

 

First off I love the 10 mile distance. Love.  And this race had about 750 for the 10 mile distance...not sure on the 5 mile distance.  I do know that based on the email we got for reasons behind the delay in results, apparently a lot of people changed their mind mid-race and finished 5 instead of 10, and to complicate it even more, ran to the 5 mile split timing mat and THEN decided to run to the finish.  You should have just run to the finish you dorks.  Now you ran 5 miles plus, and you got a wonky race time.  Oy.

 

Anyway, I loved it.  Will DEFINITELY do this series from this point forward.

 

1:53:03

11:18 pace

goal was 1:56

11:36 pace

390 out of 750

16 out of 30 age

Warm, muggy, drizzling rain.  Windy from the north; not too much of a factor on this 2 loop course

 

Given how warm it was, I was quite pleased with this outcome.  Generally I would have probably caved but I felt ready to push it and not give in to my thought demons. 

 

I also thought I was going to hate the 2 loops thing, but surprisingly enough when I started that 2nd loop I was thankful for having done it once already and I knew where my water was, where the turns were and when there was a weird run one way for like 100m and then do a hairpin turn and go back to the original course (guess they had to get the 5 miles somehow!)

I am not able to get a screenshot from my GarminConnect account, but here are the general stats I look at; or rather STARTING to look at again...to once again move myself forward after losing a lot of fitness for various reasons.

 

Avg HR 162

Max 178

For reference, I try and train in the low to upper 150's

Avg Run Cadence: 164

Max Run Cadence: 186

Stride Length .87   This lengthens as I go faster for example, in the final stretch it was .90 but in some of my slower miles, it was low .80s

 

I am also slowly starting to eliminate the walk 1 min of my 4/1's.  I slow down during the walk interval, but not walking.

 

On this date, the last half of the race I all but eliminated the walk breaks.  There were a couple, but on the first half, I kept them intact.

 

My running pace averages between 9 and 10:20, with my fastest on this date to be 8:38.  What I need to do is slow down the running pace of those 4 min stretches, eliminate the walk break and I think my mile splits would be around 10:30 if I can just get the sweet spot.

 

I will be trying to do that at the upcoming Thanksgiving Day 10K.

 

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As mentioned I am working my way back to my best running self.  I don't know what that looks like yet, but I know I lost it and even in the first 6-8 months of being back in Texas I couldn't seem to find it.  Failed attempts at new running group(s) etc..and I just lost mojo.  With all my new technology though and a like-minded competitive spirit partner/animal, I have found zest again in running.  The data crunching has made a return and its awesome.  My spirit partner/animal is helping me with that as well.