Hmph

before

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

-George Santayana

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

-Albert Einstein

Well, here's the good news. It wasn't as cold today as predicted, and although the wind did threaten once or twice it really wasn't as big as deal as it could have been. As for the rest of the day, let's get the facts out of the way early.

1:30:14 (chip time) - one minute slower than last year, and it was an ugly minute too. Look 1:30 is not a bad time - it probably stung as much to get passed in the finish chute by one of my Sunday morning running duo dudes, who had cleverly camouflaged himself in a different coat - I didn't realize he had gone by until I heard the announcer call his name. So, not a really, really bad time. Just not what I had hoped for. I'm going to guess that going out too hard probably cost me 1.5 - 2 minutes down the backstretch, where I was trying to hold it all together.

What happened? Easy to diagnose, in retrospect. Pacing, pacing, pacing and training training training. Number 1: pacing is killer and if you go out too hard it will be killer. After saying at the start the last thing we wanted to do was to go out on an 18 minute 5K start and torch out early where were we (the "we" being myself and Darren)? 3:46, 3:59, 3:54, 4:03 and 4:01 for a sub-20 minute first 5K.

Lesson #1: you must train at race pace, at least some of the time. Or, put another way, you can't race at a faster-than-training pace and expect to hold it over a long distance. You'd think I would have gotten this message before. Oh well, better to get it out of the way early in the season.

Lesson #2 is related to lesson #1 and it is this. Long runs do not make you faster. I had put in some good quality miles on the long runs on the weekends, but had been a little hit-and-miss getting in the speed sessions and tempo sessions. This burned me today.

after

This is the after picture. The more astute among you will have noticed that there were not 21 matches in the matchbook.

Live and learn. I'm hoping this lesson sinks in this time.

Peace.