Post 121 - A slow 10K

This was 10K race week, and I had entered the Titanic 10K in Belfast. It would be a gauge of where my fitness is, and a tough workout. Last season, in March 2015, I ran a 10K in around 33:30 on a hilly course in Aberdeenshire. By May of 2015, I was fairly confident I would have been able to run a 32-minute 10K, but my training plan in 2015 meant that I didn’t enter any more standalone 10Ks that year. I wish now that I had gone and run a 32 when I’d had the form for it. I’ve never ran a “good” 10K, and my PBs for other distances would indicate that my 10K PB should be better than 33:16. When I was 18 or 19, a coach told me I had it in me to run sub-32. That has been something in my head for the past 12 years. However, Ironman training doesn’t really allow for proper 10K training. This frustrates me a bit, that in doing Ironman training I can’t achieve my potential in each individual discipline. Triathletes often say, “Doing triathlon means I am not very good at 3 sports…” Doing Ironman means you don’t need much speed either, just an ability to go and go and go and go at moderate intensity for a long time.

I know that this season I have purposely not trained as intensely up to this point as I have done in previous years. This is in an effort to peak for the Ironman race in July, and not to peak in April, ending up frazzled and overcooked by the summer. The Titanic 10K is a big annual 10K in Northern Ireland, attracting maybe 1500 runners. It’s held in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter where the ill-fated ship was built over a century ago. The race route loops around the same shipyard site and docks where my grandfather (and grandmother’s brother) spent their working lives. aI ran the Titanic 10K in 2013 in 33:40 or so, and so knowing that the course would be a flatter and faster than the Aberdeenshire course last season, I was expecting to run 33-something, and wondering about sub-33. I did feel quite positive after a really good interval session last week where I felt strong and fast.

I tapered off during the week. My return flights cost £32 with Ryanair. Bargain. I caught my flight back to Northern Ireland after work on Thursday. I missed a display of the Northern Lights on Thursday night. Bummer. I went for a short swim on Friday, and a short run on the East Strand at Portrush on Saturday. The last time I ran there was in June 2011, at the Causeway Coast Olympic distance triathlon. The sea temperature was 12 degrees that day and the brass monkeys wouldn’t have fancied it. My wetsuit ripped before the start, I forgot to put my number belt on in the first transition and lost about 3 minutes when the marshals sent me back, and anger took me to the fastest run split and third place overall at the end of the day. I need to figure out why I can’t deliver a good Ironman marathon. I’ve only done two Olympic distance triathlons, but I’ve had the fastest run split at both of them. If my Ironman run was as good, I’d probably be a multiple Kona qualifier…

Stuff seen in Northern Ireland

I headed down to Belfast on the Sunday. It was a bright and breezy day. I did a warm-up jog and some strides. It was far windier than I would have liked. It wasn’t going to be a particularly fast day, as it was just too windy. The course had two out-and-back loops, so the run was going to go as follows: run into the wind for a couple of kilometers, get blown back, then run out along a different road into the wind for a couple of kilometers, then get blown back to the finish. Despite the wind, I still expected to finish in under 34 minutes.

It’s actually quite a historical course. The shipyard at Belfast would have employed half the city from the end of the 19th century to the1970s and 1980s. Most famously, or infamously, the Titanic was built there. Then the shipyard suffered a decline as manufacturing and shipbuilding moved to eastern Europe and Asia. The two big yellow cranes remained though, two landmarks dominating Belfast’s skyline. The area has undergone a bit of a transformation in recent years, with a bit more work at the shipyard and a big regeneration at the docks. The area has been renamed the “Titanic Quarter”. There’s now an exhibition centre dedicated to the Titanic story, there are nice apartments, office blocks, and concert halls. There are tourists. There is the Titanic Quarter 10K. The vibe is good. I’ve heard many stories about the shipyard over the years, but it must have been a hard place to earn a living, and by all accounts, we should be grateful for health and safety in the workplace nowadays.

Designed to look like the bow of the Titanic looming over you

It’s always handy at a race to have someone with you, and the parents had come down to watch. So I was able to warm up in my tracksuit and stay warm, stripping off just minutes before the start and dumping my top and bottoms with mum and dad. I was glad to be able to change into a tracksuit straight after the race too. We lined up and I told myself to run sensibly in the first couple of kilometers, into the wind. I had my Garmin watch and heart rate monitor on so I would hopefully be able to judge the race well. In the first few hundred metres I was running at sub-5 minute mile pace. Way too fast. I backed off, but my first mile was still 5:15, far too fast into such a strong wind. I hit the first turn and on the first run back, with the wind behind, I had settled into the race, but deep down I knew the whole thing was already compromised by over-exuberance in the first mile. Mile 2 was 5:20 but my heart rate was already up at nearly 180.

We ran back to the start/finish area where a good crowd was gathered, and then turned to head back into the wind for the second “out” part. This was a long, tough drag. My pace dropped to 5:50 per mile. I was struggling. I looked at my heart rate. Over 180. That is really maximal for me, and there was still half the race left to go… Two guys had been sitting in my draft for about a kilometer, and as we caught up on a wheelchair racer who was having a tough time into the strong wind, I went up on the footpath, slowed a bit, and let them come through. I then took my turn to shelter behind them. It was such a tough section. My mile splits for miles 3, 4 and 5 were 5:35, 5:48 and 5:40. Finally we hit the turn and it was a couple of kilometers straight back with the wind behind. I had taken too much out of myself in the first quarter of the race, and didn’t make up any ground on the home stretch. My final mile, with a strong wind behind, was only 5:27. It was a classic case of going 20 seconds slower in the first mile would have saved 40 seconds overall.

In the end, I didn’t even get under 34 minutes. I wasn’t too pleased. Partly it was due to poor race execution and pacing, partly it was due to a slow, tough and windy day, and partly it was due to a lack of fitness. There was strawberry flavour protein milk at the finish line and I gulped down a whole bottle. Then I looked to see that it contained 45g of sugar. Urgh. I went for a cool-down jog around the docks. Then I ate some food, and went home with sore legs. It wasn’t exactly a groundbreaking race for me.

Oh well, I’ll treat it as a stepping stone. A tough workout. I don’t often operate for 30 minutes at 180bpm. I averaged 5:30 per mile and 178bpm for the whole thing. I maxed out at 185bpm. That really was maxing out. My race summary is below:

Mile 1: 5:15, 171bpm – started too fast
Mile 2: 5:20, 178bpm – tried to ease off, heart rate high
Mile 3: 5:35, 181bpm – going to be a long second half of the race
Mile 4: 5:48, 179bpm – into a strong wind, running through treacle
Mile 5: 5:40, 178bpm – out at the far end of the course, surely I can lift it on the home straight
Mile 6: 5:27, 179bpm – not much left in the legs to run a fast final mile
Mile 6.21: 1:14, 182bpm – not my day, finishing in 34 minutes.

We went out for dinner when we got home and I treated myself to a pint of Guinness, a Mexican burger, a pile of chips, and a cheesecake. My legs really were pretty sore and I was tired. Then I sat up and watched the end of the Masters golf tournament with my brother, burping and farting all the while. Put brothers together and some things never change… I didn’t sleep too well. I had sore legs, was really fatigued, dehydrated, bloated and was probably still trying to process the 45g of sugar, Guinness, burger, chips and cheesecake. Burp.

What happens now? I’ll take an easy week to recover and rest and recuperate. And then it will be exactly 3 months until Ironman UK. It’s time to get serious. There will be no more “oh but I don’t need to be super-fit too early in the season” excuses. The season is creeping up on me, and time is moving fast. Ironman is only 3 months away. Not so long ago it was still 7 months away.

So I will force myself to do what I have to do. Fully focused training. More endurance rides. Smarter training this time around. I don’t need to kill myself with fast, intense training. More rides on the road. Better rest and recovery. Better practice with my nutrition and hydration strategy. Better-paced cycling and running. A 50-mile bike time trial event in Essex on 22nd May. A 100-mile bike time trial near Cambridge on 19th June. The Bristol Olympic distance triathlon on 5th June. Regular (or at least semi-regular) osteopathy treatment to loosen my back. And then hopefully arriving, fresh, to a fitness peak in mid-July where I will finally deliver a good Ironman and qualify for Kona…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 4 April: Rest
Tue 5 April: 30 minute turbo (10 x 1 minute hard)
Wed 6 April: 20 minute fartlek run
Thu 7 April: Rest
Fri 8 April: Swim 2.1k
Sat 9 April: 15 minute run
Sun 10 April: 10K run, 34:18

Totals: Swim 2.1km, Bike 12 miles, Run 12 miles.