Weblog Alex Reuneker

Today I ran a tune-up race to check how things are going.

The race

I was planning on doing a 5K, but I got together a team from work to do a relay of 4.44K each. (Yes, that's a weird distance, but it's in celebration of our University's 444th birthday.) The race was a sponsor event to support the UAF for refugee students. Running for such a good cause is great, of course.

Afterwards

I find it hard to do short races and this was no exception, especially because the wind was brutal (several races got cancelled this weekend), as was the rain, and the course was quite tough, with lots of small bends, corners, and even woods and fences. I was planning to run at an average pace of 3:25, but I ended up at 3:35, which was mostly due to one long stretch of windy road and the fences and woods I had to travel through. That being said, I should keep working on maintaining speed for the next tune-up race, which hopefully provides me with better conditions for a proper test run.

Apart from that, I felt the running went pretty okay, although I should pay attention to proper breathing. That said, form was good, as were stride and a nice, high cadence of 200 spm. Funny thing is that I started the first relay and I immediately took the lead and after I think around 1 kilometer, I didn't hear the runner-up and I have not seen him again, although I heard his trainer (on a bike) say to him right after the start: 'just hang in steady, that guy [me] will drop pace in a minute or so'. That's actually good advice, I think, but it did work out a bit different.

The start of the race. I'm the one in front wearing the blue 444 shirt

I ended up crossing the line first, which meant getting a medal from, having a chat and getting a photo with the Rector Magnificus of the University, Carel Stolker. I think it's great he's so involved with these kind of events and I even like it more that he kept cheering and presenting medals until the last runner finished, supporting both the running teams and the UAF.

Of course, I did a warming-up of 2K including dynamic stretches and a cooling-down run of 2K and some static stretching afterwards.

Workout data If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.

A very early long run, as I have a conference and other appointments the rest of the day and evening.

The workout

An 12K long run in heart rate zone 2, pace around 5:00/8:00.

Afterwards I miscalculated and ended up running 14K. No problem, but I had to shower and eat (and drink coffee) very fast to catch the train.

Photo by Lucaxx Freire on Unsplash

What is a problem, though, is that my left knee still aches. I don't know what it is, as I didn't change anything, except doing more faster workouts and adding some miles. No a lot though, because the first and second week of the program were not much bigger in terms of miles than what I'd run before starting. So, it might be the fast workouts, or the one-legged rope jumping. For now, I stopped doing the latter and I'll see where it brings me. The problem isn't as severe that I can't run, and running doesn't hurt, but the nagging feeling does worry me.

(Note to self: it might also be related to the weight lifting and strength training, but I don't think this is the case.)

Workout data

If you want to see the workout, check it out on Garmin or on Strava.

It's core/cross-training day again, so no running, but an hour of circuit training at the gym at work.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Although I'm not really into gyms, weight-lifting et cetera, I do enjoy these workouts, as they are hard to do, but you're not alone and you get good feedback on your form and technique.