William Craig 15K and soft PR's

The long and short of it is the weather was perfect (clear and 40F), and the execution of Coach Kristen's game plan was pretty good... the end result, even tho it was a B-race, was a 1:11:10, taking a good 2 minutes out of my soft former PR at this distance.

My old "official" PR was 1:13:44 at the same race (different course) two years ago... and unofficially, I've got several splits around 1:13-flat in halfathons and the last time I did Broad Street. I knew this one was more than ripe for the picking, and probably didn't have to "race" for it.

Kristen wanted me to start off at 8:15 pace the first couple of miles, then build to 7:45s in the middle of the race, and push 7:30s in the last couple miles. I knew if I followed her plan, I would PR (yes it's THAT soft!). Chip timing was a good thing today, as I was off to the side and had just re-tied my shoes when the race started, and that meant a couple extra seconds getting my gloves back on. The first quarter, maybe half mile was all about finding a pace to settle into. I might have used a little bit much as I hit the quarter in about 1:51. By a half mile, I was settled in a lot better then I hit the 1-mile mark in 8:00. Maybe I can pull off the
progression, only a bit faster than prescribed.

So I tried to hit 8-flat again for the second mile. Finally I had broken enough of a sweat that my HR monitor picked up properly, and I had enough feedback to know I was in the low end of Z3. It came up in 7:48, but where's the first water station? It would be at about 2.6, and now that I didn't quite trust things I decided that was the time to take my GU. Trust me, cold GU that you decide to use seconds before you hit the aid station is not the fastest fueling proposition. And it showed... the 3rd mile was 8:14.

Now this would be the telling part of my race... can I get what Kristen wanted? I tried to settle in at that 7:45ish pace for a bit. Mile 4 and 5 came up in 7:42 and 7:46, with my HR dancing on the edge of Z4, but I felt good and I was passing people. The 6th mile was 7:36, how well could I take this down?

In the 7th mile I caught my South African running buddy Charles. For almost 5 years now, he's been kicking my butt on the hills on Tuesday nights, but my race day ritual is that I catch him, pass him, and pull away. I slowly closed in, and as I passed him I said "you knew that was coming." A few seconds later, he tells me "you knew this was coming" and surges past me. I just kept my effort steady, but that led to a couple more leapfrog exchanges... I knew he would pay for those surges. Mile 7 was 7:29, and now I was solidly in Z4 but still below threshold.

At this point, I knew Kristen wanted me to push... "not hammer, just think strong." I tried to stay on the threshold through the 8th mile, and did a pretty good job at 7:22 and I started to pull well away from Charles, right on schedule. The last bit was a battle of how deep I should dig, and I went ahead and let myself go into the red here. My 9th mile was 7:12, and I knew a third of a mile was a long way to kick. So the last bit turned into more of a build, but I did eventually max out... 1:58 for the last 0.32mi, and a 1:11:10 total time.

Sooooo this begs the question going into my A-minus race at Gasparilla in a few weeks... how much more do I start to use, and how soon? I'm guessing I could start out quicker, but I don't know that I would be able to build to the same late-race paces as today. I want to go sub-70, and I'm pretty sure I can... Coach Kristen thinks I can do 68. Of course, Florida weather could throw any of that out the window. :/