A New Personal Best!
Coach P's Video Race Recap (Click to Watch)
You can view the file with my GPS data from my race today (see below). What the data doesn’t show is that it was a windy day, but not as windy as expected (steady 8mph vs 18!).
I was a little nervous starting into the weekend, as it’s been a while since I raced an endurance event (I don’t really count the 5ks and 10ks over the winter).
I rode a steady 4 hours on Friday, and although I was tired I still felt good to run. Saturday brought some serious winds, which messed with my head. But by the time we got to the race venue on Sunday I felt ready.
Miles 1-4
After a 20 minute warm up, I worked my way to the front and the gun went off. I settled into a fast first mile 6:06, but felt okay / not hurried. The next 3 miles were just rough as I was clearly still getting loose. Hard to explain, it just felt a bit more like work than I would have liked.
My mom and my little girl, out to cheer!
Miles 5-9
After seeing my fans (picture on the left), I instantly felt better. This section in Hyannisport has the biggest hill of the day, but I literally floated over it and rolled into the next few miles.
I knew the open section by Craigville Beach would be punishing, but I still managed to stay strong with my slowest mile being a 6:14 through here thanks to drafting off a relay runner.
I felt so good I was making plans to pick up the pace at the end!
Miles 10 to Finish
By the time I got here I really had zero interest in going materially faster. I was on course to go sub-1:20 and every time I thought of running faster my body didn’t have any gas in the tank. Thankfully the wind was predominantly a tailwind here and it really helped me out.
I pushed up one of the final hills to gain separation on a small group and then brought it home in a 1:19:22. Given the course was 13.2 on my Garmin, a distance adjusted time at 6:04/mile pace for .1 would be about 30 seconds…so I’ll mentally call it a sub-1:19!
Why To Race Early
I have run this race for several years now and even though it’s a tad long (13.2x miles) it’s still pretty fast. It’s a great early-season benchmark event just see what you can do based on your winter training.
It’s one thing to look at the numbers, another thing to look at some results. This result confirms that I am indeed significantly thinner and lighter than in previous years. The impact of improved body composition on my overall time is evident in how I felt in my race yesterday. Climbing hills–even the small ones–was significantly easier. Virtually felt like I was floating along part of the race.
That’s not necessarily a function of fitness as much as it is recognition of the fact that I have been living with my own personal weight vest for the last few years. Dropping 15lbs from Christmas — down to 180 today! — should open the door for some serious performance gains.
If you’re interested in learning more about how I lost weight and continue to get stronger — please sign up for my weekly newsletter.
In addition to getting regular updates, I’ll also include you on my early release list for my new body composition resource. I don’t do anything halfway, so you know that it will help you to take control of your wellness and improve your race performance this season!
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