Cork BHAA Musgrave 5km Race August 2018

Introduction

It's been a few years since I ran a race with the Cork Business House Athletic association. This was not deliberate I love the BHAA races but honestly I've had more race choices of late. My return debuted as it were came on Wednesday August 15th 2018 at the Musgrave 5km Race. I registered for the race at the Shandon Boat Club on the Marina. They had the food spread already laid out. I didn't need an incentive to run faster but now I had one. I am used to the fun motivation signs at various road races 'The beer is on ice at the finish line', 'Hurry up we left cake at the finish line' or 'Run faster and you'll get more cake'. This design of registering right next to the tea, sandwiches and cake was a new one on me. I would keep it. I ran two PR segments that night in the 5k and I was just out for a Tempo run. The race was just a chance to see some friends and pace myself with them, against them or more likely behind them.  

The Race

Below is the BHAA new 5k new route. 

This was my first time running this new course. The course hasn't been modified hugely you start roughly where you finish, you still do the classic two loops of Center park road and Monaghan road and it's still flat (with slight roll down) and ridiculously fast. If you want to run a PB in 5 km race in Cork this is where you should go. 

My goal was simple for this race. I wanted to get a tempo run in. I wanted to bring myself to a point where I could sustain a fast pace at lactate threhsold for about 18 - 22 mins. I worked out from my current VDot measures that I should be looking to hold my pace between 4:10 - 4:20 mins/km over 5 km. I wasn't ruling out a burst in the final kilometer the course lent itself to that and I was looking to push myself into that high intensity running zone. 

I kept myself steady for the first 4 kilometers. I was holding back waiting to make a burst for the finish line. Over 5 km the biggest mistake that I have made is to treat this race distance like it's a sprint. In reality this distance can trouble you if you don't manage your pace just like you would any longer race distance. I find that the problem with going hard in a 5k from the gun is that I find myself 800 meters from the finish line with no 'finishing power'. I learned this the hard way and changing it was painful mentally and punishing physically. A 5k is over much quicker than a 10k, half marathon or marathon. Before you have a chance to re think your strategy you can either be out of gas or out of road.

The race starts from 1km. I did a 1 km warm up.

Towards the back end of this race I took the hand brake off and ran hard. I hit a personal record on the strava segement Monahan Rd- Centre Park Rd Loop and a PR over the Monahan Road segment. When I dug into the stats the following day they both happened in the second half of the race giving me a negative split. A negative split is where you run faster in the second half of the race. Despite it's popularity with endurance athletes it's incredibly difficult to achieve. Most people naturally assume they will running fast in the latter half of a race unfortunately most get dragged off at a much faster pace at the start of the race and then suffer with fatigue in the second half of the race. 

I crossed the finish line with 20:57 on the clock and reached by goal for the night. 

  Health and Fitness Coach Signature

As a finale to this piece please see the action below from the Musgrave BHAA 5km Race. As a health and fitness coach I'm acutely aware that I am expected to look the part. My definition of the part is that I portray what training and racing hard really looks like. Here I am chewing my cheek during a race. No amount of chrome filters will make this any less hilarious. Enjoy