Eerie Erie 10k

So I'm not exactly back to training, but I have been running somewhat consistantly. Most of my runs now are 30-40 minutes with 8 x 20 second striders thrown in. Generally that feels ok, but I'm still dealing with some calf tightness, and some weird new shin tenderness in my right leg. I have a feeling my legs/ankles are still adapting to the Newton's, so, much like weight training I'm expecting a bit of soreness as previously less used muscles start working. But I also don't want to push anything and get a real injury.

The Eerie Erie 10k was my first race since the Ironman. What with not really training (only doing one easy run an hour long) I didn't know what to expect. I was seriously worried I wouldn't break an hour and that would have bummed me out, even though I know in a couple of months I could be trained at that level again.

Since it's a Halloween race, this year I dressed up. Not only was it fun, but I saved $2. My training group's theme was tutus and tiara's. Tutu's are actually hard to find, but I remembered seeing some at the children's consignment store and managed to get one over my hips.



The first thing I noticed during the race was that my heart rate shot up very quickly. I remember staying in the 160's through 2 miles last year, but this year I was quickly up to 170. I've had the same thing happen in recent training runs, at the same perceived exertion, my heart rate is 5-10 beats higher than before Wisconsin. I felt pretty good through 4 miles, then my coach ran past. I had my music on really loud but we said hi. She was running :45-1:00/mile faster than I was and after sticking with her for a mile, I realized I could hold it to the end. I was so excited to see 53:xx as I ran towards the finishing chute. Me? Run a 54:00 10k? That was my Bolder Boulder goal this year. Hot Damn!

Then I noticed my watch said the course was 6.04 miles, .16 short of a 10k. Well, that's ok, I thought, I still beat last year's time by 3:30. I'm a stud! Then we looked at the official results, labeled, 5.9 mile race. 5.9 miles? That's not a 10k! It took some extra slouthing at home to figure out that this year's race skipped a 3 point turn that according to google maps is about .35 miles extra. So according to my advanced math skills:

1. I would have beaten last year's time by 15-30 seconds.

2. The original course has to be long. My GPS was screwy last year, but I think that it was really 6.3-6.4 miles. So

3. When I did Rudolph's Revenge last December and thought due to my hard training I took 2 minutes off my 10k time, that may not have been the case exactly. It's hard to compare course, but that race was closer to the 6.2 mile mark.

4. My higher heart rate is a sign that I lost some aerobic fitness in the last 7 weeks. Rather than use this race to determine a new lactate threshold level 5-10 beats higher than 3 months ago (and thus shift all my zone up by 10 beats), I need to do more zone 1/2 training runs before charging into speed training.

5. I now have a PR for a 5.9 mile race - 54:09. But with my Garmin at 6.04 miles, it puts me at a 8:57 pace, and that makes me happy.