3rd straight year of the Fortitude 10k, I've done this race each year its been held. It's a great event, with a nice course (only 5000 ft elevation), much flatter than BolderBoulder. After last year's 36:18 here, I was hoping to go faster this year with how much mileage I've been logging lately, however, after 5k into this years race, the wheels started coming off, probably a combo of factors - back issues the past week (though they didn't really bother me during the race, I felt not 100% mentally), overtrained in August (230 miles, my biggest August ever, probably a good thing in itself, but I think i ran the majority of these miles too fast and burnt my legs out a bit), lack of consistent tempo training (i've had a good 10k race earlier in August, and a really good 8k treadmill workout, but my repeat workouts have almost all fallen apart and I've not completed them (again, probably too much mileage run too quickly w/o ample slower days), can fix it though, so thats a good thing, splits today according to their timing mats were as follows:
1 - 5:56.5
2- 5:42.0 (11:39)
3- 5:53.2 (17:31.7, was around 18:11 at the 5k
4 - 5:57.5 (23:28)
5- 6:05.5 (really started to not get turn over here, very noticeable lack of ability to keep "bringing it) 29:33, 29:22 for 8k
6- 6:03.7 (35:37)
.21 - 1:16
Final - 36:53.87, 5:56 avg pace (my watch had 6.25 in 36:54, which is 5:54, but I can never super trust it plus 6.25 is about right for this course given the impossibility of hitting its tangents perfectly)
Overall, I'm happy that I stayed under 37. After the wheels fell off, I could have cashed it in (even more than I already did), but I fought, especially the last mile, made a conscious effort to increase my pace. I did 18:11, 18:42 for the 2 halves, last year I was almost exactly even at 18:09, again, just felt it go away at about 6k and just never really found "it" again. It ended up being over 100 degrees today, new sept. record for colorado, but I can't say that was an issue, because I felt okay during the race, and lots of the course was shaded, the warmth was a little noticeable, but I doubt it cost me more than 5 or 10 seconds. If anything, I think my body was just not fully recovered from my higher mileage at the end of August yet, and lack of tempo work, so definitely things to work on for the future. Positive, my back didn't feel too bad, and I definately didn't do any more damage to it! Decided to cool down for 5 miles total, bringing daily mileage to 13.6. Will take tomorrow off out of precaution even though I really want to keep running
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