Adarq.org

Loyola Chi is in the Final 4..

insane!@_$(!@()

https://www.serpentine.org.uk/rdb/showrace.php?race=12531

Official time is 19:16, but I'm personally going with my watch's 19:13, because I stopped it only after I had to stand still in the final corral. After stopping I still had to wait for a few people in front of me to get checked off before they got to me. Annoying system!!! Didn't affect me last time since I wasn't finishing with anyone else, but when it's all clogged up like the finish today it messes with things a bit. Anyway, still a sick PR!

19:13 it is.

won't last too long tho, 18:XX coming soon .. after that half!!!!

ya i've had some weird finishes too, especially when it's a dual race (5k/10k) or they do the kids mile before the 5k finishes etc .. running around kids and stuff.

Crushed it today .. long story short:

Was in a 3 person pack (top3) for nearly 10 miles before I couldn't hang anymore. Nearly hit 10 miles in 1 hour, which is close to sub6 pace for 10 miles!! Fell off after an hour as expected, just don't have the fitness for 13.1 hard.

Was on 1:18:XX half marathon pace up until 10 mi .. then faded and entered safe mode, ended up getting 1:21:40 official (1:21:24 watch).

**3rd overall** !!!!!!

1st finished with 1:18:48, 2nd with 1:19:28.

It was a real race. The 1st place guy (someone i've trained with a few times recently), said we pushed him hard. I was expecting him to slow up at some point, but he just kept his foot on the gas and got it done. This was the 2nd place guy's first half marathon, so he had no idea what to do either. He's a former D1 collegiate runner (5k specialist). So the 1st place guy literally lead for the entire race. Props to him, that's a serious performance.

Oh also, I ran without looking at my watch until I faded (around mile 10) ... that's pretty awesome. I just said, no reason to look and even know how fast i'm running, just stick to them like glue and that's all you worry about.

The lead cyclist took this photo (with a potato-cam) at mile 8 with the caption: "Mile 8 from the lead and the front 3 racers are battling it out!!"



I'm third from the left.

Then he replied with: "I was driving the lead out car and thoroughly enjoyed watching your race! The race radios were buzzing about the pace being kept by you guys!! Congrats!"

haha!!! sick!!


edit: I made a decisive move about 0.5 mi in that probably changed this race a bit.. We had been a 5 person pack for about 0.4 mi, then the guy who won 1st just surged out (probably got to like 20 ft ahead), and no one followed. I stayed, 2nd place guy stayed, 4th/5th place guys stayed. I eventually ditched the idea of sticking with the 2nd pack, and went around them and surged up to hang with #1. Then 2nd/4th tagged along. 4th eventually dropped off fairly early. Then it was just us (1,2,3) for the rest of the way. That first mile was way too fast. So it makes sense that they would refuse to go with him. But I just didn't want to get dropped by #1 so early so, I said F that and caught up & stuck to him. That move probably changed the race considerably. Had I not done that, might have been a slower battle for #2/#3 via #2/#3/#4. Interesting how that stuff works. I guess I had some inside info tho, knowing who that guy was, I knew he wasn't going to hold that initial pace for the whole way. I mean I wasn't looking at my watch but you could just feel it was a major pace shift into something "too fast".



Also, a little running battlescar from clipping myself with my sharp af tread shoes:

?taken-by=andrewdarqui

^^ Strongman style!! lol.

Oh, and my previous half marathon PR was 1:27:11 .. So, 1:27:11 - 1:21:40 = nasty PR. lmao.

When you really care about a competition though, you can dig deeper. That was this race for me. You can't do it all the time, it's too draining. But for those competitions that are most important, hitting an entirely new level is possible. I entered that next level and tried to stay there. I mean, my 10k PR from 2 weeks ago was 37:13 official (37:04 watch), and today I hit 37:21 official (10k split) and kept going. It was absolutely brutal but I just kept thinking about what I was running for (my mom who passed from cancer last year, and this was a women's cancer support race, which I told her I wanted to win for her when she was still alive & enjoying my race results).




2 days rest works great for me before big races!



03/24/2018

bw = 145
bw before bed last night = ?
soreness = none!
aches/injuries = right big toe/PF microscopic barely
cramping = none
morning quad flexibility = loose
morning hamstring flexibility = loose
morning calf flexibility = loose
feel = excellent!
hours sleep: 6.5

wakeup = 04:15 AM

log:
04:30 AM: food: GU with 40mg caffeine, oatmeal + TONS of honey + TONS of pink salt, water
05:35 AM: workout: w/u @ race event for 20 minutes
06:00 AM: race!
race for women's wellness half marathon: 3rd OA!!! 1:21:40 official (1:21:24 watch) ::: ran this for my mom who passed away last year, after a long battle with CLL (leukemia) ❤😍🏃💪
07:30 AM: food: 2 x rxbar, GU, tons of water
10:00 AM: food: rxbar, GU
10:30 AM: March For Our Lives Rally/Protest/March
- some miles: 4
01:30 PM: food: burger fi: fried chicken sandwich, cheeseburger, water
02:00 PM: food: kilwins: double peanutbutter milkshake with whipped cream
05:00 PM: food: black tea
06:00 PM: food: 3 x banana, water
08:00 PM: food: 3 x toasted sourdough rye w/ red pepper hummus, prunes, cashews, water

race:
race for women's wellness half marathon: 3rd OA!!! 1:21:30? ::: ran this for my mom who passed away last year, after a long battle with CLL (leukemia) ❤😍🏃💪
- official results: http://accuchip.racetecresults.com/Results.aspx?CId=16337&RId=211
- https://www.strava.com/activities/1468699610
- previous half marathon PR: 1:27:11 !!!!
- half marathon official: 1:21:40
- half marathon watch: 1:21:24
- 20k effort (1:16:47)
- 10 mile effort (1:00:32) so close to 10!!!!!!!
- 15k effort (56:09)
- official 10k split: 37:23 !! close to my official 37:13 10k haha.
- miles in one hour: 9.92 almost got 10!!!!!!!!
- vo2 max on my watch: 65!!! (+3, from 62)

will write more later.

jeff kahn, a volunteer on a bike, stuck with me when i died at mile 9.5. greatest sports experience of my life. we talked, he gave me support etc. he did this for all of us, but when i got dropped he stuck with me, other volunteers stuck with the top 2. just an incredible experience. also his son is a top triathlete! thanks so much man.



^^ great pacing by the winner hahaha!!




^^^ 4:09 min/mi kick at the end!!

 










Some more photos I posted on IG:

?taken-by=andrewdarqui

?taken-by=andrewdarqui

lol ^^



anyway..  city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a few people i rarely talk to, reaching out to say congrats on my race & express their happy-shock about how I dropped that result.

lots of people I frequently talk to, reaching out to say congrats and let me know this is just the beginning!! hah

but ya interesting stuff, people emailing me, somehow hearing about my result. IMHO, it's a bit watered down given how I finished .. but, just a sign of things to come hopefully .. and I think people see that. kinda cool.

Oh also someone yelled "LETS GO ANDREW!!!!!!!!" at mile 8.. someone I know from IG. First time I ever heard someone yell support for me during a race. That felt awesome!!!!


 

Took a morning "physique shot" (upper like usual).

Holy shit I look ripped af.

The local phenom, US masters woman with NR's/WR's etc.



^^ 49 y/o

https://www.iaaf.org/athletes/united-states/sonja-friend-uhl-174204

http://www.adarq.org/progress-journals-experimental-routines/warpspeed-to-the-new-scenario/msg140174/#msg140174

Serpentine 5k:

unofficial/watch time: 19:13 5k   (last one was 20:40, just under 2 months ago!)
mile: 6:07 
KM: 3:45 
1/2 mile: 2:58 
400m: 1:25 

Decent day out. 400m obviously not an all-time PR, just a Strava one. All this having only run 4 miles <7:00 since the last race. When I have proper 5k focussed sessions it's gonna be sick. Next focus for now is the half marathon, though! Lots of tempos in my future.

 

your 5k will probably still improve with your half marathon training hah.

great stuff!

23-03-18

Workout/Race

Warmup -- run ~2mi in ~19 mins

Race -- 5k in 19:13 [watch timed] 

Cooldown -- ~4.5mi in ~45 mins

Notes

Warmup and pre-race felt terrible just like last time, just like last time. I get so nervous, haha, but everyone does. Just gotta remember that's normal and channel is, as I eventually did.

Was in the A race this time rather than the B race, so everyone was going for <22:00. It's also the last running of this race prior to the London marathon, so there were a lot of fast folk using it as their tune-up.

After the warmup run my watch was being a little funky, I don't really remember how, so with like 3 mins until the race was due to begin I turned it off, since restarting it often helps it settle down. It wouldn't turn back on, though, so I was like "fuuuuck I'm gonna be racing without a watch! How do I do that? That's way too old school for me, fuck fuck fuck." But eventually it turned on, with like 15 seconds to spare before the race started. Not ideal, panicking a bit like that at the start!

Anyway, the race began and I was in with a big group of people, lots went off way faster -- I'm quite excited to see the results, quite a lot of people <18:00 at this I think. Took a while to settle into pace, aiming to settle at ~3:55 for the first two km. I knew that the 3rd km had a decent bit of uphill, and that I'd need, then, most of the 4th km to resettle after that, so I wanted some cushion. Km 1&2 were 3:48 and 3:50 according to my watch, so that was good. Watch also said ~.97km at the official km markers, though (as with last time), but the course is officially certified and as LBSS is so adamant about telling us, garmin's can be fucky. Anyway, the official times for km 1&2 would be a bit faster.

Km 3 was the uphill one and I hit that at 3:59. I was hurting pretty badly already after like 1.5km, to be honest, so I was getting worried. However, I told myself that a well paced 5k basically is meant to hurt the whole time and that I went out a bit slow in my last one, so there was nothing to be worried about, this was correct. Km 4 the suck was really setting in, but I held it for another 3:59 split.

Don't really remember much about the last 5km, to be honest, just kept repeating to myself "you can suffer anything for 4 minutes, come on" which helped, though I didn't manage quite the same surge as I did last time. Probably mostly because I had less energy left in me, both physically and mentally. I went out a lot harder, so legs had less left in them, and I had struggled a lot more mentally since I suffered a lot harder, so my head had less drive for that finish. The latter is something to work on, I think! More hard intervals will let me train that "drive while suffering" part of my brain more.

I basically didn't really "race" this as such, just used it as a time trial to hit a big ol' PR. There were quite a few people running similar paces and we jostled and ran along each other the whole way, but there wasn't that much movement. Like three or four people came out of nowhere after the 3.5km mark, but they must have been negative splitting hard, like I did in my first race. They came from nowhere, like I had not seen them when looking behind, but then they just surged ahead. Good hustle from them, I guess.

Super duper happy with the time. Peeved that my watch said 3.07mi again, same as last time, so perhaps the route is a little short? 100m is quite a long way to be short, though, and it is officially certified ("certificate of course accuracy 14/320" and these people seem legit: http://aukcm.org.uk/) but I guess they could set up the finish line a little wrong on the day, who knows.

A little disappointed in my lack of mental drive for a really strong kick. Despite that the pace for the last 5km was slightly faster than the first km, according to my watch (6:07mi vs 6:06mi) so that's decent.

Anyway, official results out later. Time to get serious for half training. Jack Daniels' calculator says I could be good for sub 1:30, eep.

damn @ recap!

watch not getting signal is a nightmare, happened to me at the tropical 5k in January. becomes so stressful. I think i'd be fine running without it, but you just get angry/pissed beforehand, like fu*king work already, do your job. lol. That's one of the initial reasons you see me stuff everything into one activity, started doing that at races. Because i'd worry about my watch not getting signal fast enough.. LMAO. Now my current watch gets signal FAST.

From your Strava data, kick looked good? seemed to get into low 5's IIRC.

Also ya, it's a wreck when you hit that point where you can't even kick hard the last 10s etc..

Anyway, seems basically perfectly executed. Glad you went out a little faster! Also, it's a good learning experience to feel like such crap before the race, and still run great.