Denouement

Everything with a grain of salt:  The top 24 women in the Berlin Marathon ran their first 10k faster than my race today :/  I am monitoring since Chi Ngan Chow (chinese name for Alison) is running it.

Warmed up 4.63, part with Alexis, as lass from Connecticut/NYC.  She is an attorney turned attorney recruiter.  Very nice lass (I call her a lass because she's not a girl and calling her a woman means she might be older than me, but she's a few years younger).  I have been feeling off all week, somewhat throaty, weak in the stomach, but felt fine this morning.  Nervous for what the race will bring.  This is the downside of racing only once a month--each race becomes a bit more important.  What is great about only occasional racing is that you don't have a race disrupting your training (afraid to train to hard, etc).  

This race is rolly.  The weather was pretty good, prob 79-81ish, abt 70% humidity (too humid).  I thought I might wear my singlet but after warming up and getting it all sweaty I changed to my sports bra.  Plan for the race was to go out 3:45 pace/k then try to push faster on the way back.  Rolly both ways, but more uphill out and more downhill back.  I would say the first 5k is about 15-20 seconds slower than the second half.  I just averaged the first 21 racers (I was number 21) and the average negative split was 13 seconds, so the difference likely is 20-25 (most run second half slower than first half, even among the faster runners?).  Lets see if I beat that (I don't know yet, this is so exciting!).  Play by play. 1k - 3:41.71 (flat, on bricklike cobblestones), 2k 3:43.79 (first half flat, second half uphill), 3k - 3:43.89 (flatish?), 4k - 3:53.76 (net uphill), 5k - 3:45.76 (first half downhill, then second half uphill, not liking the uphill, feel myself slip a bit mentally here.  On one stretch I told myself, I will care next kilometer--a bad attitude, I know).  180 turnaround! 6k 3:46.63 (first half downhill, second downhill, inverse of the 5k, abt same pace as the 5k), 7k - 3:34.11 (inverse of 4k, abt 10 sec faster), 8k - 3:43.14 (abt the same as 3k), 9k - 3:35.8 (first half downhill, second flat, abt 8 sec faster), 10k 3:30.68 (abt 11 sec faster, I thought I had 500m left at 1k left, so I sped up, then realized I had about 700m to go, so pushed with not much left in the tank, probably an ok way to finish a race anyway, pretend there's 500m left when there's 1000m left).  I also had 3 more seconds tacked on the end.  Measured 10.06 total.  So splits add up to 18:48.91 for first half, 18:10.36 for the second half (add the 3 seconds where you will).  So that is 38 seconds difference.  

 So I think all my progression runs and progressive intervals are paying off!  Finally a 10k where I did not die at the end, instead negative splitted.  So I beat my first HK 10k by 2 minutes.  Comparing the two races, today was cooler, but probably the same humidity, and today's was hillier.  I am happy with my race, though I would have liked 36:59 a tad better.  Given how I have felt this week, I am really happy with the race.  I figure the weather was worth 1 min and the hills were worth 30 seconds, so I feel like this was the best road race 10k have done.  Legs felt really good, even in the cool down and now hours later.  Next couple of weeks I'll be going back to higher mileage.  Wish me luck.  I could use a bit more fitness, but the most critical thing is to not get injured.

I am grateful that moving to HK has not derailed my running, for God's gift of this time in my life to run competitively. 

Feel tired from yesterday, but thankfully not really sore.  Just a bit of soreness around left knee, which has been bugging me off and on.  I have been doing exercises and stretching to strengthen the muscles around the knee to help ward off anything serious.  7:30 ave pace.  Weights and core.  Met Italia Running Club at the HKAAA meeting in the evening--got dolled up since we are applying for official club status, and everyone else was coming from work so didn't want to be the only frumpy in yoga pants.  Wore make up for the first time in two months.  Will pay for this on Tuesday. . .

AM: Big track workout on stale legs and hot humid conditions.  Yeah my favorite!  5k warm up, including stretching.  Then 3x (1600, 1000, 800, 400, 200) with 200m jogging rest between each interval and set.  So this is a 9 mile workout, 7.5 miles of hard stuff.  1600 is 10k, and I gradually work down to mile pace.  I was really concerned about the workout given not being recovered from the race, but there's only one way to find out if you can do a workout and that's to do it.  

First set: 5:51, 3:34, 2:49, 80, 37, nothing brilliant but acceptable.  Feeling like negative splitting wasn't in the cards given how I felt, and it was heating up.  Second set:  5:49, 3:35, 2:49, 79, 38, Third set (can I make it through the third set, feeling trashed, just decide to take it one at a time): 5:48 (ok), 3:39 (I obviously dog this one a bit, this is still 10k pace, struggling), get water in the next rest so that rest was about 40 seconds longer than the normal rest (1:20-1:30) at 2:08, tell myself I can fake an 800, 2:46, 79, 36.  

During the workout was irritated by sweat in my eyes.  During cool down my eyes hurt!  Bad, especially when blinking or if I try to close them.  I realized either I still had some make up on my face from the night before, or there was left over stridex on my face from the night before, coming down in sweat into my eyes.  My vision was impaired and my eyes were bloodshot for about 4 hours after my workout, then they cleared up.  I paid a price for my make up.  See this is exhibit B for why women shouldn't wear make up.  Exhibit A is all the pock faced, red faced, ugly, aging or indifferent male faces that surround us.  If rugged is sexy in a man, then my pinkish, wrinkly, imperfect face is good enough for me. Thank you very much.  5kish cool down brought the workout to 24.86k's.

PM: 5.2 miles on the tm at the gym. Natural stride produced 87 one sided strikes a minute. 90 only with concerted effort.  

13.38k at 4:29 ave pace.  Left knee a bit niggly.  My massage therapist is worried about both of my knees.  He said they are wearing out.  He's given me exercises to strengthen things around my knees.  He suggests wearing those bands below the knees, you know the fashionable ones?  JK, they are perhaps an inch thick and you strap it just below the knee.  Anyone have experience wearing these, phasing these in, etc?

Core workout, weights, sports massage, blogging.  It's a wonder I get anything else done.  6 pullups, the sixth still wasn't pretty but counted nonetheless. 

Woke the kids up at 6:15 to get ready for school.  I was going to do my short run at 7:30, after they left, and my tempo intervals in the evening.  Ben is the first to get off to school.  Mickie was next, but came back to the house three minutes later complaining that the guards wouldn't let him out of the complex.  I talk with Mickie and realize there must be a Typhoon Signal.  Turns out Hong Kong gives advance warning of likely signals so probably every mom in hk except for me knew last night that today would be Typhoon signal 8, the level at which they batten down and cancel school.  It's really akin to Hurricane level 1 in US, so not really extreme, but some gusts that can topple trees, fast debris at times.  So Ben was somewhere between here and school, not realizing that school was cancelled.  Poor thing.  He finally got home around 8:45, upset to have gotten up at 6:15 for nothing.  Meanwhile, I sneak out of the complex in my running stuff (claiming I was going to look for Ben) to try to do my short run, but I have to hide behind cement barriers during a couple of gusts, and there is a guard discouraging people from going on the metro, though it is running, so I chicken out.  So I have a big workout today and a short run, and three kids at home, and not sure if I can run at all.  My gym is the University gym so it is shut down along with everything else, so the TM is out.  At around noon, I realize the rain and wind has lightened up, so I decide to go out for my short run, then I decide I better try to do my long run if conditions are decent enough, since they might just worsen.  I tell Ben to not be surprised if I am gone for hours.  

After running a mile, I realize there is quite a bit of wind.  I don't want to tempo into heavy wind, that can be quite demoralizing.  I am supposed to do 4 miles at HM pace, then one mile easy then 2 miles at 10k pace.  I decide to push off this workout and do my long run.  I have no fuel with me, but there are vending machines.  At 5 miles, I hit a vending machine and I don't know exactly what I am buying, and I buy a drink that has no calories and very little salt.  Dang.  I buy a second item.  It still has no calories, but has more salt, so I drink 1/3 of the bottle, and stash the rest in a bush for the way back.  I hit another vending machine at 8.5 miles, and am sorely tempted by the coke, but try to buy aquarius (like gatorade) but it is out, so I buy C+, it's like squirt but has 100% of vit C for the day.  I am wary of the carbonation but need the calories.  Drink half the can then stash it.  Get lost in Tai Po, return to this can at 14 miles, then to the other stashed drink at about 17 miles.  Through the run phased between sprinkle, rain, and clear, heavy head wind, cross wind, tail wind and relative calm.  I was soaking, it was much like St. G 2008 without the adrenaline, downhill, and course aid.  I got attacked by a branch I ran through, it whacked my back calf and bled a bit, but not bad enough to make a scene.  Survived it all ok, ave 7:35 pace.  Knees are a bit niggly.  Need to eat something. 

PM: bought a foldable bike used for Ben so he can support me through long/hard runs. Then we went to the waterfront where I ran for 4.11 at 8:05 pace.  Chaffed from my midday run, so this second run did not help things out on that front.  Still windy but down to Typhoon Signal 3, which I think means: windy but safe. 

Man, slept in, felt great. But felt wasted during my run. Kept around 8:10 for a good portion of it, but could hear someone trying to pass me at about mile 5, so did a 7:25 then a 7:15. Then watch died so I went back to sloggin it in for the last k. Ave pace 7:52 before watch died.

AM: Ran my workout that was supposed to be done Thursday.  Windy and warm morning.  It never really cooled off last night because of cloud cover.  Also rainy during the night so have som nice humidity.  28-29C (abt 82-84F), 75% humidity. Windy.  Not as bad as Thursday, though.  So while not ideal conditions, the call to switch workouts was the right one.  TM still not an option today since the gym is closed for some other bizarro hk holiday.  

Warmed up 30 min.  Feeling better than Friday.  Not tapered good, but not trashed, somewhere in between.  Stretched in the middle of the warm up really well.  Plan was 4 miles at HM pace, one mile easy (but not jogging) then 2 miles at 10k pace.  I tried to make it so I was going into the wind for the first 4 miles, and away from the wind the 10k miles.  Splits were 6:26, 6:29, 6:13 (less wind in this mile), 6:17, rest mile was 7:20 (had bathroom break and accidentally turned off watch for it, got some water), "10k" miles (you'll see why they're in parenthesis) were 5:59 (pathetic, roughly the same mile as the 6:13 mile, somewhat more protected from wind), 5:47.  So this was not a stellar workout, but I tried to stay true to the pace effort, and the effort of this workout is money in the bank.  

I think the miles I have been running are keeping my legs tired.  Cool to hit 100 miles this week (haven't yet, but will with my afternoon run today), though it's only because of my Sunday race miles.  I will take a once in a lifetime 100 mile week and cash it in in eight weeks :D 

PM: stretching session, some exercises, then 5.03 with Ben on his new-used bike, dodging recreational HKers on the bike trail.

100 miles baby!