First, I will use it to test my current level of speed and to sharpen my race skills. During the spring I learned that there is little substitute for experience. Basically, you can train and train all you want, but what is really going to help you improve for racing is to do more races. Not only does it help you learn more about tactics, being able to surge ahead of the pack without depleting your energy, perhaps holding on to and run with the lead, but it will also help to find your optimal level of arousal. In other words, learning how to control or act on your emotions. Before any race, whether it is on the track in high school, a half marathon, or a full marathon my heart is pounding out of my chest. And I can admit that during my 2nd and 3rd full marathons (both the Toronto Waterfront) this frenzy-like level of physiological arousal thwarted my chances of accomplishing something great. During both races I started like I was trying to win a 100m dash. Unfortunately, there was 42.095 kilometers to go after that first 100. I remember saying to myself during last year's STWM at around 31k that there was nothing really left in my legs and I just had to hold on and get to the finish before something bad happens. So, basically racing regularly helps you learn how to be calm and cool before the race. But having said that in tomorrow's 10k I'm not going to have to worry too much about started to fast.
Second, I will use the race to break up my training a bit. If you are training for a marathon - and training at a high level (high mileage, two-a-days, lots of speed work, over-mileage long runs), it is important to split your build-up into training blocks also known as periodization. Basically this is organizing your training into macro, meso, and microcycles in order to peak at the right times. The macro cycle last about a year, and is essentially your year at a glance. The meso cycles are the approx. 16 week long cycle that break up the year. These include base building phases, buiding phases, pre-competition phases, tapering and transition phases. Finally, and what is relevant to what I'm talking about, are the micro cycles. These are 1-4 week training blocks where you are going to put a lot of stress on the body and where the subsequent recovery time will allow the body to adapt and be stronger/faster for the next cycle. Leading into this race I have been average around 200 kilometers per week with 3 track workouts a week, and long runs ranging up to 39.5kilometers. This week the 10k race will lower my mileage down to just over 160 kilometers on the week (since there will be no long run) and therefore will allow my body to adapt to the last 3-4 weeks of hard training and get ready for the next cycle -- Next week I have a 41 kilometer long run planned.
Lastly, I am doing this race for fun. I have never ran a 10k road race before and I think it will be a lot of fun to just run as fast as I can without having to stress/worry about going out too fast. Also looking at the competition and last year's winning times I have a solid chance of winning the race. Leading into the next block of training, it would be nice to have a win to boost my confidence and drive to carry me through the long hard training.
Just to end the post my goal for tomorrow is obviously to win, and more importantly to achieve a good time. I am hoping or sub 32:30ish which would per averaging 3:10-3:12 per km. I am also so excited to run in my new adizero hagio's which are by far the fastest shoes I have ever ran in, in my life. Leading into the race I did a 6k tempo run in them in 18:45, so ya I like them quite a bit. I'll review them in the next post.
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