Monte Sano 10k and 5k

Being a long weekend, my wife (recovering from kidney stones) wanted to visit her Mother in Scottsboro, AL. I saw an opportunity to run the Huntsville Track Club's Monte Sano 10k and 5k runs. These races have been run for at least 28 years, maybe longer. In the early 80's, these races were 6 miles and 3 miles. These are run on top of Monte Sano mountain in the State Park there. The 10k is 2 loops, which means you have to navigate a long, steady hill twice. The 5k only once. I've run these races off and on over the years, whenever I had the opportunity. I never passed up the opportunity to do both races. The HTC always puts on quality races, and has great support from volunteers and the community.
The late entry fee is a whopping $15, quite reasonable this day. The temperatures did not seem so high on the mountain, but you could feel the humidity was elevated. There was a fog on this morning and there had been a large amount of rainfall during the week. I figured to go and knock out a 50 minute 10k and and 25 minute 5k and log over an hour of tempo run time.
There was a large crowd there, especially for the 5k. I ran into a fellow from work who was there with his son. His son is relatively new to running, so I offered my best advice as to where to start to avoid being cutoff at the first turn and the usual, "don't go out too fast". Boy, I wish I had taken my own advice!
I saw very few familiar faces at the races. I ran into Graham Gallemore, Malcolm Gillis, Jim Oaks were a few that I remember seeing back in the 80's. Now it's a new, fresh crop of runners. The wheel keeps on turning and the years keep speeding by!
The 10k started and off we went. I decided to push the pace a little and maintain my heart rate at about 92 to 94 % of my maximum. All seemed well, the first mile I clicked off a 7:31 with an average HR of 91%. Mile 2 the split was 7:59 with the average HR at 96%. I was already redlining! As you can guess, the other miles started to slow due to the lactic acid buildup. I could tell that my legs were in good shape, My legs never really gave out but was the usual heavy from lactic acid. Even today, no soreness in the legs. The heat and the fact that I'm carrying a little extra weight I packed on this summer didn't help the cause any either.
I finished the 10k with a time of 53:50, not exactly what I had hoped for. The average HR ended up at 96% of max. My maximum HR during the run hit 101%. Looking at the HR and the time, I definately need to work on my speedwork/tempo runs and reduce my spare tire.
I really had a negative thought and it actually drifted through my head not to run the 5k. But this is tradition, to run both races. I toed the line at the 5k but this time with a little less piss and vinegar. My strategy just changed, go out and keep the HR 90%, the pace even and cruise to the finish. Well, The pace was slower but the HR still creeped up. I managed to average just over a 9 minute/mile pace but the average HR was still 96% and my HR got up to 103%. 5k time was 28:48.
I recovered well, and as I stated earlier, no soreness today. I wasn't pleased with my times but my goal was a tempo run. I definately broke through the lactic acid threshold and still finished. As we age, our young minds still thinks we can run the 45 minute 10k that we used to, but the body won't respond. Also, with running longer distances, we sometimes forget to train the body to run into this uncomfortable area of lactic threshold. We focus on long slow distances and just finishing. This is the first short distance road race I have run in probably a year.
Here is a good example of specific training. You have got to train for a specific type of conditions. Road racing and ultra trail running are different animals. I think you can be successful at road racing and that will carry over to the trails. However, I think that by training for long slow trail runs won't carry over to short road races. Conclusion: I have been lacking this type of stress in my training, short intervals and medium to long tempo runs. as the Fall and Winter racing season approaches, I will make adjustments to my training to include some speedwork. Man does not live by long distance alone.

Looking forward to cooler weather. It seems like you get a fresh start when Fall rolls around.