October symbolizes the end of racing season for most Canadians. With the wind and cooler temps, it might be a little chilly for swimming and other summer fun activities, but its fantastic weather for running. As such, most runners take advantage of this month for their end of season fitness goals.
Last year, my end of season fitness goal was the Waterfront marathon, but this year things were a little different for me. I had finally completed my first full Ironman in August (which included a full marathon as part of the triathlon) so I wasn’t sure I wanted to do another 42.2km run so soon. Instead I decided to change my pace completely and race the 5K event.
Over the last eighteen months, I had been so committed to training for endurance events that I felt I overlooked my speed work for endurance running. While I love endurance running, sometimes I miss just running fast. So this fall seemed like a great time to spend a little more training time on speed work to compliment my running repertoire. After all, I want to be a complete runner, both fast and enduring.
Along with three of my clients, I signed up for the Waterfront 5K race on Sunday, October 22. I focussed on running 200m pick-up drills on the track, threshold road running, core strength drills and explosive strength training in the weight room. I gave myself one month to train, as I was still in recovery from Ironman Mont Tremblant for late August into mid-September.
After a month of high knees and breathless running drills, race morning dawned clear and bright, a cool temperature of 13C, perfect for running. I lined up in the red corral and reminded myself this was only going to take 22minutes, a far cry from my last event that took me over thirteen hours! It all passed in such a blur to be honest. Running with the sole purpose of being fast and saving nothing for the rest of the day was very different strategically for me, but also fun - it was running with reckless abandon, I only had to last 5k (that’s 3.1 miles instead of 140.6 miles).
I was hoping to break 22min, but I ended up running just 3 seconds over that. However, it was fast enough to earn me the silver medal in my age category. Which I’m super happy with considering I only committed 5 weeks to this event.
Race Results:
Time - 22:02.5
Pace - 4:24/km
Gender place: 23/4416
Age category: 2/488
Canada Running Series:
It feels good to know I still have some speed in the tank. And I’ll be reminding myself of this as my winter marathon training starts again in January. Not to mention my ultimate frisbee games that draw heavy upon my sprinting skills.
However, this day was not just about myself. I would be fail to amiss if I did not recognize the hard work three of my exceptional clients put in towards this race day as well.
Alice - who followed much the same training plan as myself in the final month, and landed the bronze medal in her age group - running a 5K PB of 29:48, finally breaking that 30min 5K barrier.
Jane - she took this day, and this finishers medal, to symbolize her triumphant return to running after overcoming a knee injury that her doctor told her would end her running career.
Lynn - a true warrior who faces a new challenge every autumn and pushes past her comfort zone to achieve new heights, distances and paces. I’m proud of you all!
