D-Day - 2 Race Strategy

From the Coach:

From: jill-parker Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 9:48 PM To: Andrew Opala Subject: Re: Rockin and Rollin I'm glad you're feeling better and your spirits are flying high!! That's the confidence I love to see! Do NOT go gun-ho at the start and use up all your glycogen by 3K and have nothing left in the tank. I can't even tell you how many races I've killed, especially 5Ks, because I thought I could maintain an insane pace for 3 miles. So don't repeat my past mistakes! I didn't see a profile map for the course - is it relatively flat? I think a good race strategy is to start out in front - I don't care how many people there are, I don't want you stuck in the back wasting time and energy and adding mileage weaving around people. Start a few rows back and hang out off to the side. Let's aim for 5:53 for the first couple Ks. Don't obsess over the time and your watch; just get your pace where it needs to be and then take a deep breath, relax, and let your legs and lungs go. Think about all the good things in your life: the fresh air filling your lungs; how fortunate you are to be running (when others can't);....anything but how easy or difficult it is. At 3k, ask yourself how you're feeling and if you feel great pick up the pace slightly - repeat strategy for 4k. At 4.5k, you just give the race whatever your legs, lungs and guts have and you race it down to the finish line in a grand sub-30 finish, smiling big and bright! Plase remember to eat well, hydrate a lot! No refined sugar from now til race day, nothing fried and very low fat. Carb up the last couple days. Questions??!??! I know it's inside you buddy, now it's time to shine! -- Jill Certified AFAA Personal Trainer and RRCA Running Coach Check out: http://runwithjill.blogspot.com/

I went on MapMyRun and tried to get an elevation map and it looks relatively flat.  Total variation of 5 meters or about 15 feet.  That could easily be error in the terrain data and it could be flat as a pancake.

D-Day - 5 Inspiration

Today is 50 years since Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, orbited the Earth.

And my first picture from my Astronomy Camera - the half moon as seen on Sunday evening.

The BBC has an interesting article about a sub-2 hour Marathon here.

And some inspiration for me as I train the last week before my Sunday sub-30 min attempt.  Thank you everyone for the inspiration!

Wannabe Week in Review

Sun		rest
Mon	Base	4 miles @ base + 6x30M strides	drills	weights	4.37 miles @ 11:58
Tue	Interval	1 mi wu + 5x800M @ 9:50 – 9:56 with 200M slow recovery between sets + 1 mi cd			Target 9:50 – 9:56 Interval Split Avg Pace Avg HR Max HR 1 2 9:57 140 145 2 4 9:55 145 151 3 6 9:54 146 152 4 8 9:56 146 152 5 10 9:55 147 155 Avg 9:55 145 155
Wed	XT	Elliptical	drills	weights
Thu	Tempo	1.5 mi wu + 4x1k @ 6:00 w/2 min recovery between sets + 1 mi cd			Target 6:00 9:32 Split Time Pace Avg HR Max HR 1 5:57 9:28 146 169 2 5:59 9:30 148 155 3 5:59 9:30 149 155 4 6:02 9:36 149 157 Avg 5:59 9:31 148 169
Fri	Easy	3 mi @ recovery pace	drills
Sat	Long	4 miles @ base + 3 miles @ faster ea. mile			Split Distance Avg Pace Avg HR Max HR 1 4 mi 12:21 135 160 2 1 mi 11:32 132 141 3 1 mi 11:10 134 143 4 1 mi 10:51 130 135

25.1 miles (40.26 kms).

6 days left to my sub 30 mins 5k attempt.  But way too much stress with work, family, running to worry.