I can’t remember the last time I did a double 5k and 10k on the same day (this may be the first) so I figured it was worthy of a race report for posterity.

5k

I had a picky bar before hand then got in a mile warmup, preceded by band work and followed by drills and strides.  I managed to work my way up to the front of the corral and had a few minutes to spare before the start.

Once we started, it was decently aggressive from the get-go.  I let a lot of folks go ahead as I figured most of them would burn out.  I started to turn up the volume and get to work after the first mile. The second mile had some rollers and my pace dropped a bit – glutes felt like they shut down and quads took over, so my stride length and pace dropped a bit.  Once we hit a downhill and another uphill, the glutes came back to life and the pace returned.  We hit the final downhill but I was running out of steam.  I had paced with another girl and we went back and forth the whole time, but she managed to outkick me the last half mile and I couldn’t get her.  I crossed the finish line and I was pretty toast.

Official Time – 18:39 – 1st in AG, 8th overall

Official finish here

Training Peaks here

Strava here

10K

I had roughly 42 minutes from the end of the 5k until the beginning of the 10k.  I just hydrated and made sure I stayed loose, but spent most of the time talking with friends.  I went with my friend Jim to the corrals and we were a bit back from the front.

When the gun went off, it took a bit to get through the crowds and seed myself in a decent group.  The front started thinning out and I was able to get to work.  I had swapped shoes from my Newton racing flats to the new Altras and my glute activation felt much better here.  I just focused on keeping good form and technique.  Our game plan going in was to rest and relax on the first 3 miles, then start throwing down on the last 3 miles.  I think I executed pretty well here and I felt stronger towards the finish.  My running form felt great and I had a decent kick at the end.

Official Time – 41:52 – 9th in AG, 62nd Overall

Official finish here

Training Peaks here

Strava here

Overall

I’m pleased with my performance – I managed to hit my pacing marks about where I thought they’d be and was able to get in some decent running form when the glutes came alive.  Here are my takeaways:

1. I did a strength session Friday night where I focused on my glutes (one legged squats with TRX, single leg press, one legged hinges, etc).  Yesterday, I did a 90 minute trainer session with some decent intervals and my glutes also got a good workout.  When I got up this morning, my glutes were already sore but I knew this was good, because when my glutes are sore, they are firing the right way.  I felt this on the run, so I need to habituate this feeling to make sure my runs are all this good.
2. My 10K pace is probably comparable to what I can run off the bike in an Olympic distance, so I’m somewhat pleased with this, especially the negative splits.  We’ll see if I can go sub-40 in March at Superseal.