Rollercoaster week and race report

Last week was really  too full of upsets... and end up with a much better then expected result...

Mon: I felt legs really sore from the race, so I did not feel like running
Tue (late evening): a good 15k at good pace, legs felt better
Wed: could not run
Thu: I woke up very early in Dongguan and went for a long run in the forest. It was a "chilly" morning and the air was very crispy, so it felt very easy. I went left, right, north and south for 1h30', and I was ready to run back home....      .....I was less than 3 meters from the end of the forest trail, when I stepped poorly on a root and felt the ankle twisting...  ... in a flash I saw myself in crutches for the next 2 month, but by a split second later I was already aware that it was a twisted ankle, but not a serious one...
Now the issue was that I was alone in a forest in China, 6km away from home, with a mild twisted ankle...
.... as a matter of fact, the only solution that I found was to run back home as fast as I could (3'45" pace...) before the ankle get cold and become swollen.
Once home, I started aggressive icing, because I really did not want to skip Sunday's race
All counted... I run 26km (in 1h56', including many trail section) and I was feeling really good.

Fri: not run, icing all day, I could not walk well
Sat: same as above

Sun: icing plus a couple of pills of Voltaren did the miracle and with Saturday's evening self assessment I gave myself the green light to race.

Mid november... is the day of the "10K HK championship": a massive event with 6000 runners at the start.
I like this race because everybody in town is there, there is a huge atmosphere and the course is quite fast (even if not flat)...
In my last attempt (2007.. time flies), I scored a 8th place overall with 34'00" time, but I am nowhere near to that levels...
I would have been happy to close below 35' and win the Master category.
I was also the debut of our gorgeous uniform (more on separate post), so I felt compelled to to well !

The start was as expected a crazy fast affair, especially if there are 6000 runners starting on top of a flyover....
I clocked the 1st Km in 3'05", which was barely the minimum to stay in the bunch...

just to give an idea of the crowd

So I settled into my own pace (around 3'25"-3'30") and especially took notice if anybody was wearing the bib for Masters....Compared to last week, It was a completely different story. I did not feel sharp, but at least with a good amount of energies and quite in control of my stride.
KMs passed by relatively quick and by 7K I was wondering if I still have forces to increase the speed a bit and catch the large group slightly ahead or just keep going and content myself with the win of the Master category...
Maybe the body still had something left, but my mind was refusing to suffer more to gain some unuseful positions... especially in the last 500m, when everybody else was charging for the uphill sprint to go back to the top of the flyover, I was really shutting down my "fatigue receptors" and cruising to the end...

So I closed 1st Master, 19th overall in 34'53"...
The ankle was not 100% but I did not felt it too much...

For our "Team Italia" : congratulation to my buddy Stefano for arriving 2nd Overall and to Colin for an outstanding 7th overall.

Even today, 1000HK$+Asics shoes as price, so I did not end up empty handed...

Here some nice pics of the day

in action

Stefano on his way to 2nd place

Another "Team Italia" strong showing...

Kenyans wins everywhere... even in  HK...

more modestly....I get the prize for 1st old guy

ITA: "Team Italia" vince...

Magari la nostra atletica e' in un momento di sofferenza, ma in Oriente cerchiamo di tenere alta la bandiera....

Domenica, alla "New Balance 15K race", abbiamo presentato un "Team ITALIA" che ha sbaragliato la concorrenza di "LWRC" "Team NewBalance", etc, etc...

Il nostro team: Stefano (maglia ASICS), Roberto (maglia Blu), Curtis (maglia NewBalance) , con supporto del nostro grandissimo Marcello (canotta Nike rossa).

Tra l'altro, ottimo risultato individuale di Stefano che si piazza secondo assoluto dietro ad un Kenyano (eh si... vincono dappertutto da Est a Ovest...)

Wk 44 - running asleep @ 15Km race

I am really struggling... the sleep deprivation and all the additional workload of the newborn is really taking a toll... but let's go in order

Monday: I reached the track at 21.40 (!)... after all the kids were in bed (I have 2 night owls).
a 2000m in 7'30" as "warm-up", then I did 5x1000m in 3'20" with 200m in 2' as recovery. The right leg was a total mess... It was always getting tight after 800m...even if I was really paying attention to avoid overstride, etc
I stopped at 5 basically because the track was closing at 22.30 and they kicked me out...

Tuesday: 8k recovery
Wednesday:15k off-road
Thursday: (night): 14k easy (after dinner I felt really heavy...)
Friday (night): 8k easy
Saturday: 10k easy
Sunday: 15k race + w/u - c/d
TOTAL: 87km

Now let's go with the race report...

Since it was my first ever 15k... it was a sure PB but I was targeting to do a decent race...
In reality, after a week of poor sleep I was totally sleepy and numb at the start line.
I felt completely devoid of energies during the warm-up and not even a good dose of caffeine did anything... basically I was ready for a nap even when we were counting down to the start...

Nice pic of the start line.... the sea at the back... the mountain in front!

The race has a crazy uphill start and I took it easy staying glued to the people who know are at my level. We hit the 1st Km in 4'55"... and then eventually hit the flat section.
I was trying to keep a 3'40" pace but I felt totally non reactive. So slowly but constantly I got dropped and run all by myself.
I could say that I was not even pushing hard, but simply I did not have it... I wanted to quit, but then I thought to our team classification, so just hang up there...
Luckily, albeit slow, nobody caught me and I basically kept my position from 5k to the finish.
At the end, a modest 12th place overall and 2nd Master...

Team classification award ceremony

There will come better days...

the positive note is that our team "Team Italia" (2 italians + an american) destroyed the competition in the team classification...

NOTE: I have a big surprise ready on this matter... once finalized, I will write everything...

Week 43

Sunday night, when I was stepping into the emergency room of the hospital with a abdominal colic, I was really wondering which spells of bad luck I was having in the past weeks... for one way or another, I am only in survival mode and no real progress on my training.

- 80km in 6 runs

Monday: I was able to sneak into a sport ground during lunchtime and do a very quick 3x1000m with w/u and c/d.
Tuesday: easy 13.4k
Wednesday: the temperature dropped from 30C to 15C in 24 hours because of a strong norther monsoon... it was gorgeous running weather even if very wind.
I planned a Tempo run of 10k and went on the outer ring in Dongguan because it is the only road with bitumen and not concrete...
I felt quite easy organically, but my right leg started to seize after 9k and I had to stop. 9k at 3'38" average, with quite many windy stretches. HR was around 87%max which was pretty good.
I really have to solve the issue on the leg or otherwise it is no point to train...
Thursday: quite tired and sore after yesterday's tempo run. I jogged around for 14k but running on concrete is very beating for the legs...
Friday: I headed for the forest and run around for 16k. It was a wonderful cool and dry morning and I could have run around forever.
Saturday: busy in the morning and in total pain the afternoon... DNR
Sunday: Buscopan can do miracles... and while I was a wreck in the morning, I was able to drag myself for a run in the late evening... it was cool, so 12k come out quite easy and I did the final 3k hard in 10'30".

a) I need to sort out the right leg... I got a good link from Rick  on a website with good trigger point release technique... video and good explanations....
I really need a lot of exercises and stretching, etc, etc....(if time allows)

b) sleep deprivation from baby feeding is really taking a toll... I am a kind of zombie and just crave to sleep more... in some days I almost felt asleep while running...

c) sunday I have the very big seasonal race...15k.
- being my first road 15k, it is going to be a sure PB...
- i think that organically I am quite good and can run around 3'38" pace if the weather keeps cool, but I can not predict if the right leg will not cramp/seize... so there is a big question mark... race report at the next post