Sunday March 7 was a 3km time trial that doubled as my running company (Love Training More)’s winter virtual Love Freezing More Time Trial Event and also as a Masters’ Athletics Virtual Event.
I am a member of Athletics NS and Canadian Masters’ Athletics. This time trial event was offered by our region of World Masters’ Athletics: the North, Central American and Caribbean Masters Athletics (NCCMA). It was a series of Virtual Road Runs or Walks from March 1 to 7, 2021 which would be run as a posthumous tribute Cesar Sajche Valladares, the late Guatemalan representative to NCCMA.
Once I got my pre-workout in on the track on Wednesday with my early morning track crew, I had barely any time to think about this time trial. The rest of my week disappeared with work and parenting and hockey-momming.
This time trial would take place on the road when I feel more like a queen than I do on the track. There are lots of variables on the track- audience, weird warm up, weird time of day, the more unfamiliar precision required on the indoor track in 100m and 200m splits etc. The road is familiar and comfortable and in that comes confidence. My Big Bad Mama alter ego stands on the road, waiting for me to step into her. This time, I would be further armed by my fast shoes.
I usually try to run one last run around Coach Cliff’s grave before a key event. I did not manage to do that this week. On my Saturday morning shake out run, I had a fly-by from Ena on my strides who trained with Cliff Matthews. Our “eras” overlapped though she preceded me by many, many years. My other running mentor and idol Salam Hashem has an old news clipping of his masters’ track stardom in his shop and Ena is in the clipping with her. So this was happy and comforting.
My Love Training More athlete Sue also set a huge PB in the Love Freezing More mile, with a 6:37, good for a 27 second PB. That would be where I pull some of my fierce inspiration from. She fought hard. I would too. Doreen and Jody had strong runs. I was hopeful that I would run in Amy and Crystal on Sunday morning and being out there in solidarity would be further fuel. Sam and Christna were doing their 3kms on the South Shore.
I did finally get to sit down Saturday afternoon, in a semi-peaceful house, and try to focus on my 3km by reading through my old 3000m race recaps.
Here are some of my own word gems that I pulled out to focus myself for this, at the end of a particularly unfocused week.
- Challenge your limits. I wouldn’t be setting a time goal or pace goal nor would I be planning to look at my watch. I know how to feel. I will feel the way I should over 3 furiously fast km.
- Be aggressive.
- Prepare for this: Hello pain, I was waiting for you. Not today.
- Don’t give up. Not even for a second.
- More. There’s always more. Go and find it.
- Wise words from my Coach Lee before my last 3000m race:
- “try and be in the moment, break it down but don’t over think. Know it’s supposed to hurt, and be challenging, but that’s the point, we want to push and challenge ourselves to see where we can land.”
On Saturday, I picked up new winter boots at the mall- end of year sale and necessary as my feet have been freezing at hockey rinks all over HRM in my Blundstones. When I pulled them on, my daughter looked at me and said, “are those yours? They don’t really fit your personality.” I laughed. And how is that? “Well,” she says. “These are fancy. And you are more sporty.” We are back to this again. In prep, I could see myself coming down that last familiar, industrial stretch of Marginal Road, hurting for all Big Bad Mama is worth. Big Bad Mama is not fancy. She is sporty.
I was now ready.
Sunday “Race” Day included an early wake up and one hour at the hockey rink with my little boy before I met the gracious and amazing Linda at Point Pleasant Park for warm up at 0930. Linda has crushed her 5km Love Freezing More Time Trial the day before. Goal sub20. Queen, she ran a 19:49.
Warm up was great and I felt that pop that I look for before a race. I loved hearing the kilometer by kilometer recap of Linda’s 5km race.
Now it was my turn. Linda headed farther down Marginal Road to act as my crossing guard.
I had some technical difficulties getting started. The NCCMA Master’s Challenge required use of their app. On a phone. Meaning you had to run with a phone. So I had to hit start and then somehow stuff my phone in my Kangaroo Phone Pouch without losing precious seconds, of which there are few in a 3k. It didn’t go well. When I hit start, I thought the timer would start. When I checked on it, it was counting down. I had already started striding fast, it threw me off. I stuffed it in. I lost a bunch of seconds. Nevermind, I also had my Garmin on and I hit start when I had my phone away and was ready to run. I had it programmed for a 3km interval so I could run “right through the line (beep)” 3000m later.
I don’t have much to recap of the actual 3km because there isn’t much to a 3km. It’s simply fast, furious and with relentless crushing intensity. I did those things. Fast. Furious. I kept with the relentless crushing intensity.
1km: I started at the stop sign at the very top of Marginal Road, just off Point Pleasant Drive. About 300m, I started to feel lactic acid starting to bloom in my gut and forearms and I knew I was going too fast. I took a peak at my watch, set to average pace per 1km lap and it read 3:24/km. I can run one kilometer at 3:24/km. I can not run 3 of them. Mental image of both Coach Lee and Nick McBride shaking their heads, disapprovingly. I pull back every so slight and tell myself to just feel it. I know what it needs to feel like.
I have my Sport PowerBeats Pro in and music from 2 Friends podcast blaring in my ears, playing from my Garmin. My ear buds deliver my 1km split: 3:35. It’s right.
2km: now I think nothing but “be brave.”
Linda shows me where to cross and I cross the road. There are 2 runners out for their long run and it’s somewhat distracting but I get over on the Garrison Brewery side of the road where I need to be. It’s windy. I say brave and keep at it. Linda’s voice is speaking to me, “don’t give up, even for a minute.” I don’t.
I just need to get myself to the top of the Seaport Market and I can hammer home the last 1200m.
The right hand turns x 2 are tight and a bit awkward but such is racing solo in a pandemic. It’s not an indoor track.
Now I run powerfully.
2km split is spoken in my ear- 3:40. It’s ok, that kilometer had a lot of things- wind, road crossing, two tight turns. I will be faster now.
3km: Big Bad Mama run like holy hell. That’s all.
By the time I see Linda near the end, the lactic acid has bloomed into a giant firework but I keep at it. She’s shouting. I don’t know what she is precisely saying but I know it means, “harder, stronger, faster” so I reach for that more and it’s there.
Beep, beep, beep! 3km.
I feel victorious. I don’t know where I landed but I know that I found what “more” was available on this day.
I go to hit save on my Garmin and accidentally turn it back on, hahah. Just adding a few more seconds, no big deal, in an event where there are precious few seconds, ha. I quickly shut it off and save. Now I see: 10:56 according to my Garmin.
My stand-alone 3000m PB from the track is 10:59.5. The fastest 3km I have ever clocked was within my 5km PB of 17:33 and was a 10:27. I was in peak shape then, in July of 2020. On this day, I have been slowly coming off a long pelvic floor injury flare that lasted November to January and basically have one full volume 4-week training block on me. When I get home, I see that on Garmin Connect that my 3km interval was 10:52.5. That is a new stand-alone PB. I gotta be very pleased with this. And also: I know there is more. I can do more.
Linda told me afterwards that while she was waiting for me to appear, she was looking up the road and thought to herself, “who’s that fast guy coming?”
It was me.
I am that “fast guy”.
That’s my highlight of this event!
The tech of the NCCMA Masters Event didn’t go well. My slow start with getting surprised by the countdown timer and then trying to shove it back in it’s pouch put me at 11:11 on my phone. Oh well. It still ranks me second among women and I’m betting the lead woman had the same issue.
How to do Pandemic-Virtual Racing
A few key things helped me pull off this virtual run today. Like I said in my recent New Leaf Podcast Running Interview, if you treat it like a real race event, your body will show up for you. It will give you that course of race day adrenaline that will fuel your best performance on that day.
Here are the things that I did:
- I signed up for a virtual event that would record my results in an official capacity so there’s that extra motivation. Though still solo and virtual, it’s less of what my 6 year old calls “a made up race.”
- I sat myself down to think about it as a race
- I laid out my Flat Erin outfit like a real race
- I told a few people what I was doing so that I had that accountability. My friends would ask. That’s some quit insurance.
- I laid out my race day supplies just like usual. Routine. A brain responds to routine.
- I ate my race day breakfast. And as I brushed my teeth that morning, I had that sweet, delicious burst of race day butterflies that you only get when it’s race day. Nothing else produces them.
In cooldown with Linda, we talked about how valuable these small stepping stone time trial events are in the grand scheme of your running year and your running life. They are fun. They provide some performance feedback: here’s where you are! They allow you to practice your racing and performance skills. And that intoxicating feeling of success and accomplishment makes you want more. It leaves you more invigorated and excited for the next training block, en route to more of that victorious feeling. For me, that feeling can be independent of the time on on the “made up race clock.” It’s more tightly tied to, “did I get the best of myself today.”
So in pursuit of all of you striding to get the best of out of your athlete selves, I salute you.
Oh and about those “fancy” boots. I’m pretty sure I just turned them into sporty by pairing them with a hockey hoodie and a Road Hammer toque. Ha.
