Bare Creek Trail Race 9km......?

After a week of doing very little running due to calf strain, heavy boozing, heavy rain and utter laziness i found myself at the starting line of the Bare Creek Trail 9km race.

I ran the course last week and knew it was going to be hard and today it was! Heavy rain for the last year (seems that way) made the course boggy and fairly treacherous. The start of the race was on a school field and there was a 100m dash for around 100 people to squeeze through a gate. Fortunately I was one of the first through the gate unfortunately that was where my problems began...

After a speedy start I already felt i was in oxygen debt and i seemed to struggle for the rest of the race. I was being overtaken left and right by the whippets but i made a pact with myself to just enjoy it. The first couple of kms are all down hill and this is obvious from my km splits of 3:22 and 3:27. After wading through a huge creek it was then a boggy slog uphill. Again i was overtaken a few times and i felt like an old man. I had no pep in my legs - i was struggling. Next 2 km's were 4:01 and 6:15 as i made my way up the 100m incline. At some point my laces came undone so i wasted a few seconds doing them back up. Good excuse to stop mind you..

The trail flattened out more or less and the next 2 kms were 4:22 and 3:58. Rocky and boggy underfoot i was looking forward to the finish but also beginning to recover. The next 3km saw the route move from bog onto road again. Ah the relief. Short lived as they turned to hills. Never mind, I was now enjoying myself. Obviously took a little while to warm up. 4:12, 4:30, 4:41. After looking at my garmin and thinking there was another km left i was surprised to find myself at the finish line after covering 8.33km. Didnt particularly feel like stopping and by that stage I would have been happy to do another loop or 2. This just reaffirmed im better designed for the longer races than the short stuff.

I came home in 35mins 05 secs or there abouts. No idea of  my position as I didnt stick around to find out. Sure I was top 10 but will edit once the results are out. EDIT: 9th place from 169 people

Overall fairly happy with how i pulled through. I still have no idea how to pace myself and i probably shouldnt have run a 42min 10km the previous day but its all good traininig.

Weekly Summary - 01/11/10 - 07/11/10

Monday (pm) - 10.56km - road - 54min 12sec - run to NRG. Nice and easy
Monday (pm) - 10.83km - road - 54min 17sec - 100m sprints, and 4 x 1.2km sprints. Warm down and run home

Tuesday - Melbourne cup. Rest day. Booze day.

Wednesday (pm) - 11km - road - 55min - Run home. Felt rough!

Thursday - lazy lazy lazy. Set my alarm and didnt get up. Went out for Nepalese in the evening.

Friday - Set my alarm again. Using heavy rain as my excuse to not get out of bed..

Saturday (am) - 10km - road- 42min 19sec - felt good. Shouldnt have gone so fast considering my race the next morning but felt good and couldnt help myself. Sore shins though.

Sunday (am) - 8.33km - trail - 35min 20sec - Hard work. Too short for me to really compete as I dont have the leg  speed. Good fun though

Summary - 50.69km - 4hrs 1min - 5 runs - Really a recovery week. Rain didnt help but im not using that as an excuse. Feel undercooked and im looking forward to a big week in the build up to Glenbrook Trail Marathon in a couple of weeks.

Definitely feeling the benefits of interval training with NRG. Leg speed is increasing and my cruising speed has picked up. Generally feeling good.