Saturday, August 21, 2010

Thoughts on Sunday's Dirty Sock 10K

I just got word this morning that my friend KWL ran his first 10K and broke 9 minutes per mile. Excellent. He's a sub-nine minute runner so I'm not surprised by his achievement but today's 6.2 miles was also a personal distance record. To date, the only race I've run at that distance has been the Dirty Sock Run and I get to do that again tomorrow morning. I didn't run yesterday and I'm not planning to run today. I've learned after running nine races over the last 16 months that proper rest before racing is a key component to the conditioning process. All the same I feel a certain tension today. It's not because I'm racing on Sunday, I'm certain it's because I depend on my daily run to keep me balanced and free of stress.

We were planning a hike to Bear Mountain on Thursday but I wasn't feeling well that day. Instead we plan to revisit Caleb Smith State Park this afternoon for a hike. I had considered an easy two or three mile run today, but I'm thinking a low impact activity like hiking will be be a far better activity. I'll probably finish the day by following the Lolo Jones core exercises that I have found useful for flexibility. After three weeks of running with a focus on performance and a couple of days off from running I'm satisfied that I've properly prepared for tomorrow's event. I'm still thinking about my racing gear, pre-race nutrition, caffeine ingestion, hydration and pace strategy and I'm looking forward to seeing some running friends at the race. I don't know if my training has been good enough to help me beat last year's time tomorrow but I'll find out soon enough.

2 comments:

  1. How exciting! Good for you re: NOT running these last days. You'll be SO psyched to run tomorrow (tho' I know that antsy-ness is tough to take. Every time I've not run for a WHILE and then do, expecting it to be hard, it's actually really easy 'cause I've got all those glycogen stores in my legs WAITING to get out. Helps getting back to running if the 1st is pretty easy. Nice re: sub-9 run. Maybe SOME day, but for now if I run at all, that's good. Best of luck tomorrow!

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  2. We did a hike at a local state park today. That was the extent of my exercise. Perfect and beautiful. I'm hoping that my glycogen stores stick around long enough to last through the race.

    Thanks for the good wishes. I'll run my race and hopefully all the work will pay off. Either way, there aren't too many things as exciting as race day!

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