08 June 2008

Gotta try again

A crap week with a crap race.

Was super busy for the whole week as we were preparing to submit a tender by Monday. Was in HK for the weekend and arrived back Sunday midnight. Then travelled to Jakarta for 3 days for work and didn't sleep much. Worked for 15 hours non-stop on both Friday and Saturday and didn't go to the bed until 2am the day of the race. Woke up at 6am and went to the race location. Did 3k warm up. Weather was good for Singapore standard.

My aim was to go through the first 5k in 19:40 in order to have any chance of going under 39:20. After a few ks, the body seemed to be in sleep mode and unwilling to run. Just wasn't feeling it today.

The markers were longer than 1km. When I passed the km 4 marker, my Garmin was already showing 4.4k. Passed the 5k mark according to my Garmin in 19:52 so I was already behind schedule. Then the distance markers get even worse. Passed the km 6 marker, when my Garmin showed km 7. So the course was already off by 1k.

Since the race is definitely longer than 10k and I wasn't really feeling it, I decided to cut my losses after km 7 and jog easily to the finish.

Total distance was 11.5k according to my Garmin. All the runners who used either 405, 305, 205 and Polar reported 11.5k for the route.

Gotta try again…..a 5k in 2 weeks time (hopefully the distance will be accurate)

This week's training:
Mon: 40 mins Fartlek (av pace 4:30 min/km)
Tue: off - travel to Jakarta for work
Wed: 60 mins Easy (av 5:11)
Thu: 33 mins Easy (av 5:08)
Fri: 39 mins Easy (av 4:53)
Sat: off - work all day
Sun: Saucony Passion Run: 3k warm up, 6k in 24mins + 5.5k easy to the finish

Total 50k for the week, 1512k for the year

8 comments:

Epi said...

Tough break Sling, but you'll crack 49 when you're able to have an appropriate leadup week.

Epi said...

make that 39!

Hamburglar said...

I can't believe how bad the course measurements are over there. Must be very frustrating!

Anonymous said...

did i see u win a prize at the lucky draw postrace? sorry if it wasnt u...

Sling Runner said...

Re: course measurement. Yes, it is really frustrating. For example, sometimes they extend the u-turn point (for out & back course) further so they can put a water station. Also, in some races, you have to stop at trafic lights because of no road closure.

Re: lucky draw, it wasn't me. I went back to do more office work !

Clown said...

Sounds like a bit of a disaster re the course management.

All the best with the 5k race coming up, I know a pb is just around the corner

Ewen said...

It's a shame about the long course. Still, I guess it's better than having a short "certified" course such as the one at Sandown this year.

The big working days wouldn't have helped either. Hang in there for the 5k :)

trailblazer777 said...

your work/sleep patterns sound just like mine in the last 2 weeks, only a lot worse!, plus I didnt have to fly anywhere...

Frustrating when the course is wrong...but a 19.52 5k is still good, hopefully the 5k will be a much more positive state of affairs...
Just gotta kep on keeping on, until things go well.