10km Road Race

This is a great way to lose weight 10km of road weaving up and down mountains (ok hills – big ones!). From my jogging, I knew my heart rate should be below 150 bpm for comfortable cruising. But in the race, I found it hitting 163 bpm so well outside the fat-burning-zone.

It was tough but rewarding at the same time. I was using my Polar heart rate monitor to try and keep myself from pushing too hard and being unable to complete the race running. So as it nudged 160 bpm, I new I was in the area where I was quickly going to be running out of breath. So when I was half way up a hill and seeing 160+ I slowed down slightly to lower the intensity.

Compared to jogging, a race enables you to work harder since you are kind of pulled along with other people and you don’t want to be last My legs were ok and not feeling strained, it’s just the amount of oxygen you need to get into your lungs that can be the problem. Also there is a psycological thing about enduring the hardship. Again this is helped by being part of a race.

I also had a running partner with me to chat with along the way. Another factor can be cheering crowds pulling you along too. In this case, we were in the country side of the Noto Peninsula in Japan. It’s a semi-tropic place so very humid, but not hot on this particular day.

I did the Reading Half Marathon in the UK in Winter and it was terribly cold. So this was very unpleasant at the start but I was sweating during the race. I started it really slowly and towards the end I was passing lots of people that had run too fast at the start. Also, some people had collapsed from exhaustion or become injured towards the end.

Half way through the half marathon, my legs were getting tired and during the last half I had to keep moving to stop the muscles seizing up. I could feel them tightening all the way to the finish. Afterwards, I could barely walk and it took days to recover. I did a time of 1 hour 55 minutes which I was very pleased with for a first attempt. But afterwards I decided once was enough for a half marathon. It was too painfull.

For the 10K I did today, I weighed 98kg which is 10kg more than when I ran the half marathon. Another reason to be happy with my time. Plus, after the race, my legs are OK. So I will probably do another 10K and aim to improve my time.

Start:

Enjoying a cold shower after the finish: