The last of the 10k test races before the Rotterdam Marathon on April 5th, again in Hakunila, Vantaa, north of Helsinki. The Aktia Cup’s last run of the winter series. The winter series consists of 5 runs starting from November. The conditions were good this time. Some wet and slushy patches at the start and finish but otherwise a dry street and temperatures around zero degrees Celsius. Also the field of participants was of high quality again. The winning time was around 30:20min. For my own part, well a lot of talk about aiming at the 35min mark, to keep the same 5k pace than last time (17:20min) and then be better on the way back. Well, much ado about nothing, or a lot of hot air, as you’d say in German. The end result was with 35:57min rather disappointing.
At this point, however justifications on the why could be helpful. Of course they don’t change the 10k race results, but they contribute to the psychological preparation for the actual race that we’re preparing for, the Rotterdam Marathon. Now it’s time to “get mental”. The physiological training is so far done that there’s not much to be won on that part, it’s the psychology that needs to become the focal point in the last three weeks
Hence, why didn’t we run 35:00min on the 10k race?
- Training was building up quite heavily in the last 10 weeks. This week topped it off at 122km.
- Always this green horn mistake to go into the first km with a 3:16min pace. Already on the third km it felt difficult to keep a 3:30min/km pace.
- Still too little sleep. Raised the average sleeping hours to 6,5 during the week, still not enough.
- With 74-75kg there are still too many kilos to be carried around.
Even no winner’s luck on raffle that was carried out after the race in the Hakunila school building. It wasn’t meant to be me…
race results here
today’s training: long run 33,5km in a 4:31min/km pace - happy to be done with those long ones for the time being, now focusing on speed endurance.
Tags: 10k race
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