Spordijutud – Lehekülg 417 – Nourish, Train & Flourish

The night before the race my sleep quality was terrible: I woke up a lot, saw weird dreams and didn’t feel well rested in the morning at all. Was it the heat or nerves (that didn’t bother me the night before at all, I was calm), I don’t know. Most likely it was the heat because my dorm room is like a sauna when the weather warms up (but especially in the mornings because of the sun).

Anyway, my morning started around 7.30. I measured my heart rate, sitting down and doing nothing. 80. 80!!! This was so not good. Usually it’s around 50–60. This was not a good sign at all. Well, what can you do. I just started to get ready and made breakfast: oatmeal porridge (no oat bran!) with banana and 2 small slices of rye bread with a little cheese. Nothing that has too much fat or fiber to stay clear of any stomach issues during the race (or that’s what I thought…). I also created a new playlist with even more motivating music. The original goal was to get a time under 55 minutes but considering the heatwave we had, that goal was unreal.

Around 10.45 AM I left the house and was at TYSK by 11. I got my starting number (58) from the first box there and felt a little VIP. 😀 Then I immediately met some training friends and soon we started to warm up indoors. We ran for 10 minutes and then did some stretches and sprints. I was already sweaty. A quick visit to the toilet, last sips of water and we were ready to get to our elite starting corridor (to feel VIP again). There were literally 1300 people behind us as we started. No getting pass anyone, just start and run. Nice!

Or was it? Starting in elite totally made me go with the flow and that was the worst decision. The first kilometre pace was 4:46 min per km. I HAVE NEVER RUN THAT FAST. Let alone in seriously hot weather (around 30 degrees Celsius and sunny). And not in a 3K race but while racing 10K. Starting too fast had its revenge on me. Keep reading.

First km was a mistake. I walked for a lot during km-s 4-7. When Kaisa joined me, my speed went up again. — First km was a mistake. I walked for a lot during km-s 4-7. When Kaisa joined me from the 8th km, my speed went up again.

From the 2nd kilometre I started to feel side ache in my the left side of my lower belly. What the…? I had a normal race day breakfast and had 4 hours to digest it. The side ache didn’t go away the whole race. Instead, the other side started to hurt as well. For some time I just ran holding both sides of my stomach. It helped a little but I was still in pain.

And it was HOT. I was waiting for the drinking point all the time. The first one was on 3,5K. Drank water and sports drink, poured some water on me. Kept going.

But my heart rate was through the roof! I felt like I was going to collapse. So instead of pushing forward, I started to… WALK. I have never (!) walked during a race ever. Well, there’s a first time for everything. I walked for some time and then a stranger greeted me with a pat on the shoulder and a smile. If you were a blog reader, thank you! You helped me. 🙂 I started to run slowly again.

I met around 20+ friends on the track. Most of them passed me but that’s OK. I was still encouraged and motivated from seeing them. Liis, Elari, Marin, my running group friends… How come a large proportion of my friends are runners? 😉

Came the second drinking point on 5,5K. Drank even more water and sports drink and poured water on the back and front of my shirt. I was so overheated. And since my heart rate was really high (unfortunately I don’t have a heart rate monitor watch…), I couldn’t drink right away, I needed to wait some time before I could swallow anything.

I had the toughest time from 5,5–7K. I walked a lot and felt very disappointed and sad. I was already picturing myself at the finish line, with a miserable time and bad mood.

7K was the last drinking point. Drink. Then pour at least 5 glasses of water all over myself: I was literally dripping all over. Start running again. My stomach still hurt on both sides. 😦

… and then an angel was sent on my way! 🙂

Kaisa caught me. She must have seen how miserable I was and suggested we finish that race together. No matter with what time, slow or fast but we will do it together. I took off my headphones and held my phone in my hand. Not perfect but water made my phone holding thingy come loose. Anyway, I was so happy that someone was there with me, inspiring, motivating and keeping me going. I can’t really remember too much what we talked about 😀 but it was mostly her trying to keep me running.

And it worked! I didn’t walk a step during the last 3K.

We saw people in the ambulance cars. That was scary. Luckily for me Kaisa is also a med student, so I was pretty safe there. 😀

Kaisa kept telling me that we can do it under 1:05. And we did! She motivated me to the last meter. When I crossed the finish line, my name was announced out loud through the microphone. That made me so happy, a VIP moment yet again. 😀 I high-fived Kaisa. We did it!

My time was 1:03:32. The bad mood and sadness I had thought about before was nowhere to be found. I was actually really really happy. It didn’t matter that I had lost to my personal best by roughly 5 minutes. It didn’t matter. When walking around in the finish area, I realised how many amazing people I have in my life. That was a win in itself! 🙂

Now enjoy the photos after finish:

With Kaisa - my angel :) — With Kaisa – my angel 🙂

My with Kertu and my unbelievably amazing coach Maris :) — Me with Kertu and my unbelievably amazing coach Maris 🙂

Results:

map — According to RunKeeper, the race was longer than 10K 😀

pace and climb — From the pace graph you can see where I walked with the higher “peaks”.

Official time: 1:03:32

Average pace: 6:21 min per km

My position: 788 (out of 1316)

In my age-group: 19 (out of 34)

Among women: 243 (out of 679)

This race was a great experience. Extreme conditions, wrong decisions to learn from and so many amazing people. Maybe it’s even good that I have done a crazy run like that.

Next race: Tartu Rattaralli 70K (cycling) on Sunday. I’m scared! 😀

Next running race: my very first half-marathon in just 3 weeks. I just cannot express my excitement. Let’s do this!

In Workout Week posts I will tell you everything about my last week’s workouts.

Monday was the day when the heatwave hit Estonia and there was well over 30 degrees Celsius outside. But we had an interval training planned and it was not going to be cancelled, especially since the weather for my Satuday’s 10K race was supposed to be just as hot.

First we ran for about 20 minutes which already got me super sweaty. Then we ran to the stadium, did some stretches and running exercises and then it was time for 3×1000 metres in race pace with 800 m of slow running and even walking (to get my heart rate down a little) in between. The heat made the task even harder, I drank a ton of water and was exhausted after the workout. My 1K times were 5:15, 5:40 and 5:27. I can be pleased with that. But what is the most important: my ankle didn’t have any pain or tension!!!

Am I really… recovered? Keep reading…

I thought I would never say this but I really didn’t enjoy Tuesday‘s BodyPump. 😦 It was just bad. I was in desperate need for new summer clothes (old clothes are either too big or well… too old) and was out shopping for 6 hours. I was exhausted from the heat and trying stuff on when I got back home and I had no time to rest. Had a quick dinner and rushed out the door again. I didn’t even have time to cycle/run to warm up before the class. Bad. And then in squats I felt like I had added +5 kg on both sides when I actually had my normal weight. I hoped that maybe it was just my legs that were tired but no: I stripped that bar down in almost every track. My heart rate was through the roof, I was feeling weak and weird. I was so disappointed. Well, every workout can’t be golden…

Wednesday‘s Jooks Jõud Venitus was easier as it always is before most of are racing on the weekend. All in total nearly 40 minutes of running (average pace: 6:10 min per km), 15 minutes of running exercises and then some stretches. Luckily it was a little cooler outside that day. And as always, I foam rolled in the evening. It has become a nice routine for me. 🙂

Oh, and that evening when looking at my fitness club workouts history, I found out it had been exactly 1 year (21.05.2013) since I first took my favourite coach Maris’s class. One year anniversary and I forgot, oh damn it. 😀

I actually shouldn’t even have been in BodyPump on Thursday but I already know that if I take easier weights and don’t push myself to the edge, I’ll be fine for weekend’s races. So it was a nice chance to really work on enhancing my technique. Literally stripped the bar down by 30–50% in every track to save my muscles. But since we did program 88 instead of 89, it still was a little harder and worked better for the body.

Friday: rest day. Only did an hour of foam rolling.

Saturday: 10K race. Summary coming in a few days.

Sunday: post-race rest day. Well needed! Spent the day walking around in parks and sunbathing on the beach. I also swam breaststroke in the river for about 15 minutes. In the evening did an hour of foam rolling again. But my injured ankle started to let me know it’s there…

In total:

2 hours of BodyPump

3 hours 15 minutes of running

4 hours 45 minutes of foam rolling / stretching (taking it seriously obviously :D)

30 minutes of cycling

15 minutes of swimming

19.-25.05.14 — (Heart rates are not correct)

A far less impressive week than last week. 11 hours of physical activity (last week: 15 hours) and a lot of it was foam rolling or stretching. But I did have 4 (really) intense workouts: intervals, 2 BP-s and a race. And I also didn’t mark down any walking that I did this week, there was quite a lot of it.

This hot weather is just not for me. My heart rate has been abnormally high all week long and my workouts haven’t been great. It will cool down next week but I can imagine going from +30 degrees to +10 will be rough as well. I also have 70K of cycling coming at me on Sunday. I’m sure about the weather for that day yet but if it’s under +16, I might have to buy some more cycling clothing. Sports gets pretty expensive.

Ankle report: fine up until today, Sunday. Today I felt discomfort, tension and a little bit of pain in the lower inside part of my calf when I was walking around. I’m a bit worried. 😦

I won’t be doing any long runs before my 21,1K. Hopefully the long cycling race will be a good enough workout to substitute one 15+ km run. Hadn’t I gotten injured, I would have done a few long runs according to my training plan by now… But you gotta work with what you’ve got.

Narva Energy Run 21,1K: in less than 3 weeks.

Rubriik: Spordijutud

Tartu Olümpiajooks 2014 10K

Results:

Workout Week 19.–25.05.2014

In total: