Saturday, February 27, 2010

Conoco Phillips Rodeo Run – 33:44 – Crash and Burn Baby – 9 Miles Total

2 Mile Warm Up

Mile 1 4:57
Mile 2 5:14
Mile 3 5:38
Mile 4 5:44
Mile 5 5:33
Mile 6 5:30
Last .21 5:14
Totals 33:44 (5:26 Pace)

1 Mile Cool Down

Let me start out by saying that this is not the prescribed way to run a 10k. Before the race, I knew I had no shot at winning. After all, I had missed a week of training the week before, had been doing only 6 miles a day since, and had done no workouts. I had no idea what my fitness was. So I decided to just have fun and blast out the first mile and then see how long I could hang on. That should give me an idea right? I told Sean my idea and he poo pooed all over my idea and told me I would have some 5:40’s in there if I did that. I laughed. Sure enough if you look above you can see a 5:38 and a 5:44. I thought for sure I would have a shot at beating my 10k PR. If I would have gone out a lot more conservative and ran the race correctly I think I could have run about a minute faster (I had absolutely no desire to do this, done it a million times before). So I will just file this race away as experimental and take a mulligan on this effort.

All that being said and with all of the wrong things I did, I now know more than ever that I’m just not a long distance guy. Sean convinced me to not run the marathon next year since I am still feeling it’s effects. Tempos and slow twitching it for 6 miles just isn’t my thing. I mean I could work really hard at it and become somewhat competent at it but I’ll never just crush guys like Sean at it. That’s their bread and butter. With me, the longer the race, the more likely something is going to go wrong. I also find myself somewhat jogging 5ks and never even coming close to utilizing my speed until maybe the last .1. And that just kind of seems somewhat unsatisfying at times. Oh yeah I like to win and such, but I also like to feel like I’m racing up to my abilities as well. I find in races like 10k and up and 5k less so, the things I do well just don’t matter as much. I’ll go back to the drawing board, work myself into shape again, but this time I’m going to focus on 5k and lower. This summer, expect me to be doing some 400, 800, 1500, mile races on the track.

7 comments:

geoff said...

I saw the results and was worried you were injured when I saw your "slow" time. Any time you are slower than my 10k PR, I know you're having a bad race.

With the Olympic trials in Houston in 2 yrs, maybe you should reconsider your strategy, have Sean train you full time for the marathon and try to qualify for the Olympic trials.

Anonymous said...

Lets not throw in the towel just yet! The fact is that for every second that you improve it will take TWICE as much work to get it than it did before. (this is even truer on the track!) Good things take time, great things take more time. The sistene chapel took 10 years to build, and the roof was the last not the first to be finished. Stick to the foudation and the rest will take care of itself! Luis Lydiard

Also you are disallowed from wearing the negative split t-shirt until you make amends for Saturdays tactics.

June said...

ha ha ha at anonymous! banned from the shirt!

yeah and dont throw in the towel!! you are WAY too awesome for that!

and still...you looked GREAT on tv for the short time they showed the start of the race!

Pony and Petey said...

I'm excited to see what you can do at your "best distance" races. A really neat opportunity to do really REALLY well...way cool beans!!

I've never figured out what my best distance is...except for the distance I most enjoy running. But I'm not speedy so who cares! hahahahahaha

We sure are proud of you = ))

Sam said...

I'll be looking forward to running on the track with you. Not sure about that 400m, but I'll definitely get out there with ya for the 800 and the mile. Maybe even a 3k if they do one.

Let's get together and do some "sprint" workouts...400s, 600s, 800s, 1200s. Stuff like that.

Anonymous said...

You guys are full of sh_t. Bill what you did is actually good training on Saturday. How many people would take off a week and only run easy for a week and bust a 33:40. Not many. It shows your natural talent. It's a different kind of training to go out fast and keep pushing yourself. It makes you strong. I think you will do good in the mile and interested to see what you will do in 2 mile. You definitely are a fast twitch muscle runner. good luck in the summer.

Bill Blancett said...

Guys,

Thanks for all of the inspirational comments. Especially the on from Luis Lydiard? Did Arthur Lydiard have a brother or son we didn't know about? :-)

Bill