Adarq.org

15-05-26

Run -- 5.7k, 36:23

Notes

Avg HR 119, properly just shuffling about just to have got some movement in. Much the same tomorrow. Legs aren't feeling great but I never get any pop in a taper, I just feel weird until I'm actually racing. Probably a sign I'm not doing something right 'for me', but will leave figuring that out for another day. Can tell the taper (+ getting a bit more sleep) is having some effect as RHR is like 10 lower than it's been, haha.

Have cut fibre out out diet from now until race and hitting up the carbs. Probably overkill for a half but it's fun so may as well.

looking like ~11C & <10% chance of rain. fingers crossed that holds up since that's pretty ideal!

Quote from: Joe on May 13, 2026, 03:55:46 pm

logistics for sunday are stressing me out, the race guide is super unhelpful so it's like pretty unclear how getting in/out of the race works...like it's a place i run by regularly but they've made it so confusing 

just get there earlier than you think you need to. it can't possibly be so confusing that it takes an hour to figure out. and make sure to find the bathroom with more than enough time before the start!

hah yeah, that's pretty much my plan, esp since i'm unlikely to sleep well the night of anyway! move in the right direction and follow the big crowd. means i'll be mixing and downing my bicarb en-route, lmao.

my conclusion is that the race guide and associated site were very much llm rather than human driven this year -- quite a few indications of this. fkn depressing.

17-05-26

Hackney Half - 1:26:46 

Notes

Pretty even pacing. 4:08 through 5k, 4:07 to 10k, 4:08 to 15k, 4:07 to the end. Had hoped to pick it up a bit more in the back half since I was feeling decent, but just couldn't manage it. Ks 18/19 were my two slowest (and lowest HR, excl first few Ks, only times I dipped below 170 for a km) but I rallied to manage 3:59 avg for the remaining 1.1k. I was running properly ragged though, form barely holding together esp in last 500m, don't think I could have managed to close any faster.

More hills than I'm used to. Should include some now and then to get used to it a bit more. Have seen some interesting stuff on doing repeated downhills as a good durability stimulus. No particularly good hills near me, but there's a big bridge through a park that's pretty long and steep, so could do the occasional sesh back and forth on that.

A month ago I said 'for the half, <1:30 is the 'i didn't waste my time' target, 1:28 the 'fairly happy with progress' target, and 1:25:xx the 'hell yeah' target". So yeah very happy!

ETA: according to watch, I managed a 40:10 10k and 19:58 5k during this. That's pretty cool. Had kind of hoped to have a sub 40 10k segment in the middle of this. Fwiw watch had it as 21.4, which makes splits hard (the ones I gave above, 4:07 etc, are from the official chips, so I trust those!). Not saying course is wrong, obvs watch imprecision + not running optimal route is the explanation.

eta2: learnings/observations
1 - more liquid calories during carb load. i did drink a fair bit of orange juice, but even though my solid carbs were easy to digest (white rice, pasta, low-fibre sliced white bread), my stomach still felt heavy. and i've been stuck in the bathroom feeling awful since i got home, haha, thankfully a non issue during the race, but stomach did feel heavy and i skipped my last planned gel because of this.
2 - got to work out what to do with taper! i never get the 'i jsut feel super fresh' feeling, i just kind of feel weird and out of form. also lower legs, PTT type thing, felt terrible last 10 days on both sides.. might be worth getting a session to chat with a coach/someone who knows stuff about this to get some insights on tapering 'phenotypes' as it were
3 - got my first black toenail! toes just don't get on with either the  Adidas evo sl or the adios pro 4,  which is sad since i really like running in both of those shoes. think it's especially if there's a downhill, maybe? don't think sizing up will help, since the next size up will just be too big overall
4 - walked about an hour to the venue and then about a 90 min walk after. wish the journey to the venue were a little shorter. no chance to really warm up too since we had to be in the pen like 30-40 mins before the start...maybe that would have helped with the crappy leg feeling. the starting 3k were mostly uphill so deliberately took those ks a bit slower, which maybe helped with warming into the race.
5 - half is a fun distance! next half is just over 5 months away. time to 'modifed NSM' my way to another PB there. would be sick to average <4:00/k for that, which is basically <1:24. Seems doable!
6 - been saying this for a while, but maybe time to finally commit to a little cut. am averaging 73-74kg and probably ~15% bodyfat. Not super lean. If I keep carbs up high around my runs, which is pretty easy to do, I should be able to drop a few kg before it's time to 'peak' for the next half without much fuss.