2010 Spring Run Off 10km

[SimonC]

After an awesome EES session at IQuest in Kelowna on the weekend, I headed to Kamloops on Sunday to run the 2010 Spring Run Off 10km. The weather could not have been nicer for the time of year and there were over 200 racers on the start line. I planned on using this race as a training race as I was coming off a major cold and had a hard testing session the day before. My goal was to “play around” with pacing/breathing efforts and work on running form/foot placement. To be honest I was a little worried as I’ve been experiencing some serious cramping/stomach issues on the last few runs, and I was wondering if I was going to encounter any issues on this run
I walked to the line feeling so so (I know Joel ... excuses ... excuses). I lined up front row centre to show off the BPR colors in all their splendour 
All the usual psychopaths were on the line to indicate this was going to be a tough race    When the gun went off, there was no doubt that this was going to be a tough race.
My pre race plan was to run 4min Km’s for the first 2 km’s and then slowly ramp up the pace. After glancing down at my Polar (which as everyone know is the only HRM to use)  at the 1 km mark, I noticed that the first Km was done at 3mins ... oopps  I also noticed that I was well under my Balance Point so all was good ... right ?
I then proceeded to back off a little which for those that know me is really tough. I proceeded to run the next few Km’s at sub 4 mins averaging around 4:45mins / km ... still all below my Balance point. I felt good cruising thru the Km’s and feeling good at the 5 km mark. My breathing was also good at 1 breath / 3 strides and I was still cramp free. At about Km 6-7 I started to slow down a little but I was still on track for a sub 40 min race so no bigge. When I reached the gravel dyke (which has no place in a 10km race in my humble opinion) I started to feel some stomach issues ... ohh ohhh. I was starting to cramp up with 2km’s to go. I figured I could tough it out for 7 mins no prob. I started to slow a little due to the gravel partly and also my stomach issues so I need to do a seriously fast last Km to go sub 40mins. I ramped it up only to feel my stomach getting worse and that special feeling in my mouth that all endurance athletes get from time to time ... something was coming up. I just kept letting rip as I didn’t want to be one of those guys who run a 40:05 race. With 100 m’s to go the time was 39:45 so I tried to open it up but my body let me down. My next goal was not to try and puke on the volunteers at the start line ... mission accomplished ... kind of. My final time was 40mins and 05 secs 11th overall  I was one of those guys ...
In retrospect, there were alot of race positives ... my pacing, breathing, and foot placement/form where all good during this race. When I was feeling good, all cylinders were firing. I think my problem was that I was still a little sick (as evidenced by my deposit just after the finish line ... sorry guys  ) and my pre race nutrition is letting me down. I still haven’t nailed the running nutrition as it differs substantially from cycling nutrition. I will be working with Andrew/Ginny/Chris to sort thing out and I will be switching to some Eload product to assist with my stomach issues. The last 2km’s were spent above my Balance Point which caused issue but is a necessity at times in a race. It obviously exacerbated my sick feeling. I probably came back a little soon, but it’s a race man !!!
Honestly, I’m a little disappointed at my race time as I know I have a 37-38 min 10K time in me ... It’s only a matter of time before I let it loose. You frontrunners better beware as I’ll be tweaking a few things with my run and nutrition and next time I hit the line it’s gonna go down !!! 
As an aside ... nice talking to the West Kelowna contingent post race and I hope you got all your Balance Point Racing questions answered ... And thanks for the post race recovery tips and product 
Thanks for Reading ...
Simon Craig

[Andrew]

Interesting account.

The stomach issues may have been tied very closely more with what you did in the first three minutes of the race, rather than what you tried to do in teh final 3 minutes.

Running that fast off the line does incredible things to your physiology, and then even droppping to LBP or just below does not necessarily ensure you will be able to recover. I would suggest you maxed out your resp system and were in fact truly acidotic which leads to the body attempting to dump hydrogen ions through vomiting.

Yes, race day nutrition is important, but perhaps in this case not nearly as important as pacing.

Can you download your HR data for us to see?
Remember, your LBP has dropped significantly, likely due to some structural and functional cardiac changes over the past 6 weeks. But this does not significantly change the metabolic situation at top speed.

Great report. I look forward to seeing those legs in action at a race again soon.

[SimonC]

Attached is the Polar HR Screenshot from the Spring Run Off as Andrew requested ...

[SimonC]

Just for fun ... here is the the Polar HR file of the Feb 7 Starting Blk Race ...

[Andrew]

OK...so not the changes I would have expected.

Here is a summary of the two races. Same distance, totally different HR, with nearly the same overall time.

He in Penticton...MUCH higher. I would argue that you went out much too hard. That is, although you thought you were running just below you LBP, in fact you had shocked the system, and were in fact running at an intensity that was truly unsustainable. You can see this in the continued drift of HR throughout the race, despite a race report that said you were dialing it back. So, the pace was slowing, but the HR was continuing to climb...almost fur sure at this point you were above your LBP.

Compare this to just a month earlier when Simon ran sub :40 with a HR nearly 10 beats lower. It does beg the question what was happening to the heart this week compared to last month?

I would suggest that we consider the most recent discussions at EES, in which we discussed that cardiac output is made up of both HR and stroke volume. It is clear the cardiac output would have t be similar between the two events, just a few weeks apart. Which means the most recent event required a much higher HR due to a smaller stroke volume. Now, this could be due to cardiac fatigue from testing on Saturday, from a lack of sleep, or poor nutrition. What is clearly evident, is that the similar time over the same distance does not tell us the whole story.

Simon...try another step test on a treadmill this week, at 1% incline, and post your results here. Record your HR every 3 minutes and do roughly the same steps as we have done in the past. You do not need to go above LBP for this test. Let's see how your heart has responded to the race and the recovery.