Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Sun Run: Fitter, Stronger, Faster

Spot the undone shoelace - bad words were said...
The first weekend in February is becoming a bit of a tradition in the irongirl household.  It's a double-header of events with the Sun Run on Saturday followed up by the Cole Classic on Sunday.  Both held in the northern beaches, the Sun Run is a 6.5km "fun" run from Dee Why to Manly while the Cole Classic provides 1km and 2km ocean swim options at Manly.

St Pete and I enjoy doing the run together - it might be short but it's a good bit of speed work in the final month before ironman and then St Pete gets to put up with my mental doubts in the lead up to the following day's swim - sigh...

So, the run.  As with my Cole Classic entry, here is my report to Coach Dave, where I get all analytical - yes, this tortoise is getting fitter, stronger and (surprise, surprise), faster!

"Good day out this morning with the Sun Run and some really interesting stats...

Weather conditions were shocking - raining and pretty cold as well.  More like winter than summer.  As such I wasn't expecting a stellar performance but still planned on a solidly paced effort.  The course was also apparently longer than last year - the finish line was moved further down the road and we were told it would be 7km rather than last year's 6.45km.

Anyway, official finish time was 40mins dead, for a distance measured by the Garmin of 6.8km.  Average pace 5:52 min/km.

Last year's average pace was 5.59 min/km, so happy with that improvement, especially as I did pull it back slightly going downhill as conditions were potentially slippery in the rain.

Comparing the kilometre splits from last year, I started out slower this time around with the first two kms paced at 6:20 and 5:44 (vs 6:03 and 5:39).  After that, though, all my splits were faster this year and I managed a negative split.  Here they are:

2013:  6:20 / 5:44 / 5:53 / 6:06 / 5:58 / 5:33 / 5:29
2012:  6:03 / 5:39 / 5:54 / 6:34 / 6:18 / 5:37 / 5:38

So, I think I got the pacing sorted out better this time and it felt like a stronger effort throughout.

But wait, there's more!

Even more striking is the heart rate data...

Last year's average heart rate was 163 bpm (88% of max) with a max of 180 (97% of max).
This year my average heart rate was 83 bpm (45% of max) with a max of 148 (80% of max).

So what does that tell you about my level of fitness compared to last year?!"





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