Running 1:15:00 [5] 15.0 km (5:00 / km)
shoes: Asics Tarther
K-100 time! After a few days of rest, headed down to Kananaskis for the classic relay race. Since injury stopped pretty much all running fitness tests since January, this was the big show before the big shows, to see how fast and how fit I felt.
The verdict? Speed good, endurance questionable, muscles grumpy.
I drew leg 4, 14.1 km, with about 200 metres net gain, spaced out with a some flat in the middle, and two larger climbs at the end, with a bit of downhill here and there. Tagged in 4th place, with 3rd place a solid 2 or so minutes up.
Headed out somewhat quicker than I probably should've, but I actually was pretty pleased that I settled down well and probably accelerated as my legs caught up to my brain. Unfortunately about 6k my leg calf that's been bothering lately got immediately very tight and bothersome, which I felt really messed with my form, I don't think I was getting the push-off I wanted, and caused me to drop my hips to compensate. It was really noticeable in the climbs, I really felt inefficient on the climbs, not being able to comfortably push-off and drive through.
Nevertheless, I caught 3rd about half way through. We ran together briefly, until he attempted to surge a bit, I closed that, and then passed him. He held on briefly until disappearing. That felt good. Channeled my desperate desire to make another sprint final during the last mile, which was generally downhill, so there was some overspeed effort. I don't think I pushed as hard as I would've liked. The stitch in my side really kicked in then, and my right trap which often cramps, did, despite my persistant attempts to keep my whole upper body really relaxed. I tend to scrunch up when I'm in a hurry.
Anyhow, had the 3rd best time on the leg, in 53:56, which works out to 3:49/km pace. Not that they're comparable, but last year I ran leg 5 in 4:12/km pace. So one hopes that there's at least some fitness improvement over last year.