Well, if I had a decent memory, I should have the lead-in wasn't actually so auspicious before the last blog: my Coatesville Half run was marred by a hamstring issue. And I should have recognised that as a bad omen, or at least an important issue to work on, because just three days after the blog, and eleven days before the race, I set out in the morning on what would be my last real effort run before the event and promptly had an issue. The run had initially felt really good as my body demonstrated that it could handle pace and sustain it. But then just as I was about to take my foot off the gas that feeling in my hamstring returned, a tightening, the feeling of something bunching up, and then pain. It was exactly what had happened last time. So I stopped, stretched, and then as it was a work day tried jogging back the 4km home while not trying to aggravate it further... The whole return journey I was bothered by the fact that this was happening just eleven days before the Waterfront event and I would be losing some of my preparatory running.
Thinking back to the Coatesville hamstring issue, it had got better quite quickly with a post-race massage, a rest of a couple of days and some light running. So I tried repeating this treatment plan this time and while in Ashburton three days after the issue returned, I tried running gently and felt the issue come back on the run, and the sensation linger for a day. I tried some of my own exercises and stretches and on the following Wednesday, one whole week after the recurrence tried running but gave up after just 2km. I "gave in" and went to the physio. It was just four days before the event and I was feeling rather negative about the whole thing.
But the physio was great and she reminded me it was two years since my last visit! There was a good logic in my understanding of the injury (it was aggravated by pace and braking going downhill) and the treatment (strengthening at the lowest point on the hamstring which was not strong enough and improving flexibility). There was a nice new exercise, the neural stretch, that I enjoy doing and I'll probably include it into my strengthening regime. This whole episode made me think that I was very resilient physically last year but had upped my pace pleasingly in the last three months, but that I hadn't really done much to improve my tolerance of these kinds of efforts.
So anyway, Thursday I did the prescribed exercises, Friday again. Saturday morning I went on an 8km fitness test/shake-out run. The tightening was there after two kilometres but I continued to run and found it didn't get any worse. I put three "race pace" 400m sections and it still didn't worsen. On that basis for the first time since the injury, I was positive to run the Waterfront Half, which was actually just this morning.
Having run it before, I knew what to expect pre-race: in a word, pandemonium. They close Tamaki Drive and all the parking along it so when you add the vehicles of the 2500 runners and event staff, it makes for a stressful parking spot hunting expedition. Similar to Coatesville, I was a bit rushed, but fortunately managed to do everything I needed to do, and get into the starting chute through a side-branch.
Ever since my recent fall, the GPS tracking on my watch had become very finicky. On this occasion, when 0700 hours ticked and the race began, my watch was still searching for signal after two fruitless minutes. I sprung my way through the early bunching, although a traffic island almost took me out (it looked like a clearing ahead - just didn't see the reason for it). My pace still looked slow on my watch but I knew from some familiar faces around me that I was going pretty quickly. Slightly worrying at the time was that I could feel tightness almost straight-away but it didn't affect my gait or pace. And in fact, not long after I didn't even think about it at all!
My biggest piece of luck was a running friend, Aaron J, noticing me and ran beside me. He is definitely in a faster class of running, and was unnerved that we were apparently in the same bunch so I asked him what his watch was giving him as a pace, to which he said: 4:04/km. (My watch was still finding its bearings with 4:29!). Now, for reference, 4:16 was my Coatesville pace. 4:10 was my goal pace for this race to get to 1:28, and I was going significantly faster than those times. It felt easy - and despite trying to slow down, the objective timings after the race showed I wasn't decelerating at all. I did 5km in 20:28, a pretty good parkrun time, and ran the second fastest 10km of my life, 41:08, in the first 10km of a 21.1km race... Aaron, though a very fast runner, had not been training much but is the kind of runner who can more or less, roll out of bed and run faster than most. He had humble goals and was happy to run with me while he found what pace worked for him. After about 10km I told him I'd drop back and until about the 14km I found it easy enough to sustain pace (which turned out later to be 4:06/km pace, which would have been a 1:26:30 finish if I had the gas to maintain it!).
But after 14km my pace started to drop, at first without my feeling any difference. My watch started to indicate it and I was a bit worried that I might really start to decelerate. My hamstring was not even perceivable, although another quirky issue (my right hip flexor) did start to have some impact. Fortunately, though about 15-20 seconds per kilometre at times I still managed to recover and push towards the end. I cruised in the finish at 1:28:28, a personal best by 1 minute 30 seconds.
Now, 30 seconds faster would have gotten to my pre-injury goal of sub 1:28, but just getting to the end of the race without issue was the real prize. The PB was the cherry on top. I have confidence that my running has not been derailed and with continued conditioning I can build up another string of training for the Kirikiriroa Marathon in June. But I'll leave prognosticating about how that will go to.... after the event this time.
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