Striders 10km series - Homebush

After a week of rain, saturday turned on an absolute belter of a morning for the striders 10ker at Homebush. Homebush is rated as a fast course but not by me! It is probably my least favourite striders course, for no other reason than I think it is tougher than advertised!

Mother got her new mobile phone on thursday which meant that her old one gets passed down the food chain to the next available, ie me. Dont care much for mobiles, however they are useful for situations like today and I decided to run with the phone today.

Despite a significant chunk of people being on the gold coast for the marathon, there was still a very healthy crowd of 200 odd this morning. I was feeling slightly guilty as I drove to Homebush, questioning my priorities, but figured I was only 15 minutes away from Mother if necessary. As I crossed the road from the carpark, I was really glad I decided to come. I am going to miss these saturday mornings for a few months.

I was not feeling particularly confident this morning either. A less than ideal preparation saw not only my kms dry up significantly recently but also my speed training. As a stupid superstition I always like to do 6 1km repeats on the thursday prior to a race and because of the rain and indecision about actually showing up, I did not do them this week.

My plan today was to head out and run at a pace I felt comfortable with and see how I felt once i got going. I ran a 3.50 opening 1km and was feeling very comfortable so decided to see how I would go running a bit quicker. I joined 26 at 1km and asked if he minded me sitting with him for a while. I still had a bit left in the legs and managed to catch Steve H who was just ahead. However I only got about 2 metres behind him before he started churning out hard km after hard km increasing the gap with good solid paced running. I got through 5kms in 18.30 something but was not looking forward to the last lap. My splits seemed to get progressively worse from 6 - 9kms, I was struggling quite a bit. I ran the last 2/3rds of the race with Aim High who helped me hang on when I had a pretty ugly 7 & 8 km.

I dont know why but I always seem to run a solid last km here and today I managed a 3.29, which was pleasing. I always try and visualise a spot where I can start picking it up coming home. If I am feeling good that can be 2kms out. If I am struggling like today it generally is somehere a lot closer to home! I had picked out the 5km marker(which was about 500 metres from the finish) where I was going to start my run home and managed to reel in a few people on the way to the line. Ended up with 37,42 which is 4 seconds outside my pb.

It was a real struggle today but a good hitout. The Wentwoth Common was a bugger to run around and I could not make my mind up to run wide or get onto the gravel. I stayed out wide as a rule, it was just a lot firmer under foot but probably added some metres to the distance. I really hate not taking the shortest route between 2 points but iut was necessary here to maintain momentum.

I was really pleased to manage to hang onto some semblance of the form I have worked hard to reach. But on the flip side I know that I was ideally placed to go a little faster if I was prepared to put in the work. I dont like making excuses, in particular when it probably isnt necessary, however I think I can go faster given the right sort of build up.

I really did switch off after Lane Cove last month as I thought that would be it for a while. However hindsight says if I maintained a solid training base I could have gone faster. However there are so many variables, injury, work etc so who knows? Mother reminds me to count my blessings and I know that if I had said that I would be in this position 6 months ago, I would have said the rose coloured glasses are out of focus!

This is a little petulant I know, but I am not getting any younger and the opportunities will only become more fleeting. I need to channel that desire to improve when I am next afforded an opportunity. Thats exactly why I have set up this blog, I want to be able to revisit days like today to restoke the fire and remind me what I am capable of achieving if I am prepared to work for it.