County Championships 5k result - Less is more, or is it less?
Yet another County silver medal for me, this time on the track (16:44 for 5k). Sounds better than it is though, and you might be wondering about the cryptic 'less is more' statement. Allow me elaborate...Less runners in the field makes for greater medal chances, but less hope of good times -
There were only 5 people entered in the race, and only 4 of those started! Cornish Bob decided to go down to Brighton, thus he was the absentee. All I can say is, this pretty much shows just how poor Senior Men's T&F has got in this county. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that scores of Berkshire males could have run faster over 5k than me, I'm an extremely average runner. However, so low is the interest in the LD track events at County level, I got silver. Obviously I'm happy for myself, but I'm truly worried about the state of grass-roots athletics in Berkshire & the country overall. Also, the limited field put paid to any ideas of me going near 16:00 minutes, I was totally isolated from lap 4 onwards, 20 seconds adrift from a runner either in front or behind! My time was also negatively affected by...
Less wind & heat creates more chance of good times -
It was way too windy to run an isolated race, and definitely the hottest temperatures I've raced in all season. I felt from the word go that I wasn't on for a good time. In fact, I was more worried about spilling my guts from lap 5 onwards than my pace.
Less caffeine is more, in terms of positive effect -
I though caffiene doping was worth a crack again, especially after the positive
effects at the BUSA's. This time I upped the dose to 200 mg ; Please note, this is still only two thirds of the 'legal dose', under the International Olympic Committee's stipulations! Before you villify me, to put it into context, that's less than equivelent to 2 cups of coffee.
Unfortunately the 50 mg increase caused extreme gastro-intestinal distress.
I felt awful at 'both ends', if you get my meaning. Futher more, I was ill
both on my warmup and just prior to my race. I don't think I'll be using pro-plus
for a while methinks.
Less breakfast is more, in terms of positive effect -
As I had quite a large breakfast at 10:00, part of which was toast with peanut butter, all I could taste all race was peanut butter. Yuck, I think next time I'll have a smaller solid breakfast, much earlier & more liquid nourishment.
For the record, here was my pre-race, race & post-race procedure -
12:40 - 15 minutes of stretching & drills
13:15 - County T&F 5k, 16:44 ( Saucony Fastwitch, maybe should have worn my Nike Mayflys)
Medialis soreness. Will go for another run later.
Total - 6 Miles
The pictures of the event can be found here. Thanks Dad!
Overall I'm quite ambiguous about the day -Yay! I've got more 'metal-ware'... Boo! The time sucked, I went 10 seconds quicker in the first half of the BUSA 10k...I'm not sure if this bock run is indicative of anything, given the poor racing conditions. However, its better to be safe than sorry, so I'm definitely going to concentrate on my training/mileage for the next 4 weeks. I'd rather go into a block of training, which I enjoy anyway, rather than risk 'racing-staleness'. Watch this space for a few weeks of 75 Miles plus...
On a different note, congrats to the winner,'Fly-Guy' of Belgrave (apologies, I don't know your name, I'll update this as soon as I get Athletics Weekly) and Wayne of Newbury A.C. (3rd place). Also, Ian Coxhead of Newbury had a storming run, beating his targert time of 17:30 by some 22 seconds! Well done old bean, couldn't have happened to a nicer chap... Show/Hide this post [+/-]
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