Icebreaker 8km - Inital Race Report

Will tackle the formal report once final results are up, so here is the short version.

Time: 27:11 (8km)
Overall: 13th
Age Group: (25-29): 4th

Goals: C Goal 27:52, B Goal 27:30. A Goal 27:00

So weather was a little bit cold for this sojourn with the temperature around 2 or so degrees. Getting used to racing in this weather so went with singlet arm warmers and gloves which proved to be the correct combination. Got a 30 minute warm up in and felt pretty relaxed for this race. Was worried legs would still have some residual fatigue from training day the previous day and the 3.5 hours on the bike but felt good after warm up.

Did not have a super solid race plan for this one, not sure why but was just trying to focus on a rhythm and not over think the race. This was aided but not starting my watch at the start. Normal hustle and bustle at the start and after about 500m a lead pack started to form of 4 and I sat back in the chase group. No km markers on this one but at about 1500m after moving into 5th on a downhill section or so felt I was going a little bit too fast and eased the pace gradually.

This meant that the chase pack ran way but are still trying to get a natural sense of pacing. At about 3.5km I though I must be on for a 15 minute split as felt nearly to good for this point but hit the turnaround in approx 13:35 which was good and meant that If I held I would go sub 27:30 which I felt was the realistic goal for the day based on the McMillan equation of 27:39 based on my chilly chase time.

Started to gain on a guy who had dropped from the chase pack along with a guy who was on my tail at the turn in km's 4 to 6 and a pack formed at about 5.5km. Tried my normal tactic of stepping up the tempo as I passed but the guy responded so I sat back a let the pack run. Could sense we were amybe slowing a little and another guy closed the gap and we were a pack of 4. With about 1500 to 2km to go the guy who joined got a little bit of a gap on the group when I let somebody else move to the forn to tack the tempo. I decided now was the time to go with him and held the gap of about 15m and steadly gained on the two we left behind.

With about 1km to go there was no risk of dropping further back so stepped up the cadence a got the guy at about 500m, made sure I went past with speed and got a decisive break. Tried to chase down a guy in the last 400m but couldn't close the 50m gap in time (maybe got it down to 15m).

All in all a good race, was happy with the time and felt pretty fresh afterwards. May have a bit more in me but think I executed on the plan however unstrucutred well.

Last Thoughts

• Need to still keep the start slow and controlled and look to let the pack decide tempo until past 50% of race distance.
• 26:30 is very acheivable with a bit mroe speed work and a few less pounds of my frame.
• Room for improvement in my strategy for races, need to work out checkpoints that make sense as using km splits seems to short and can't trust group paces. Will likely go and try and run a few km intervals at 5km, 8km, 10km and half marathon pace to get some more feel for pacing.

Next Race
San Diegeto Half in San Diego - won't need the arm warmers for this one. Is a hilly course so should suit and will consult with others to form a race plan this week. Tempted to be aggresive in my pacing for this one and see what I can do with the risk of having to cruise it in, but will head the advice of others on this.

McMillian indicates 1:16:14 would like to set targets of
A - 1:15:00
B: - 1:17:30
c: - 1:20:00

but need to think about this more.