With the new GPS device it monitors my heart rate continually (every few seconds) so today (Saturday) was a good test to see actually what happens during the course of a race. I was feeling good today (partly because the endless number of races I’ve done recently was over) and I really fancied going for a PB (personal best). With the new toy this would tell me if I’m working hard enough or not!
Feel free to look at the picture of todays race (its an anti-clockwise route) together with my heart rate overlaid on the course. I cycled to the race today, which is around 3 miles and jogged a slow 1km or so warm-up. When the race started my heart rate was at 92bpm. By about 90 seconds in it was up to 170bpm. Just over 11 minutes after the start my heart rate had hit 180bpm and it slowly crept up until the finish where it peaked at 187pbm.
Back to the race itself, I had a great start (makes a change from last week) and I pushed hard - very hard. It was a very still morning, but pretty humid so not the most pleasant, especially when you’re pushing for a good time, but its only for a touch under 20 minutes.
There weren’t many people around me today, and only one person overtook me. On the final straight, which is just over 1km I was running side by side with this chap, literally inches apart as we pushed towards a couple of guys ahead of us. I dug deep and pushed slightly ahead and managed to get past all three of them. I opened up a bit of a gap here that I maintained to the finish.
My overall position was 21st out of 398 and my finishing time was 18:34, a personal best by 5 seconds. The only time I’ve finished in higher positions was on Christmas Day and New Years Day. Needless to say I’m very happy with todays run.
As an aside, on the 10 June 2006 I ran my first ever Bushy Park Time Trial and finished it in 21 minutes straight. A pretty good improvement there if I do say so myself!
As for Sharon, today she ran her second fastest 5k with a time of 29:34. She’s very happy with that too, as its the fifth time she’s run under 30 minutes.