Firecracker 6 Archives - Lindsey Hein

Fire Cracker 6 Race Report

OutForARunAdmin — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 20:11:00 +0000

Glenn went to our group speed work on Wednesday so I decided to sign up for the Fire Cracker 6 on Thursday and make that my speed work of the week. That would be a much more exciting way to get speed work in, compared to doing it all by my lonesome.

I decided to do the race on Tuesday and told my friend Ashley (friend I picked up from the Carmel Marathon, yep that’s how it went down. Got her digits after the race). Ashley and I have ran together a few times since Carmel and we were trying to find a day this week to run. I invited her to do the race and she rode down with Glenn, Marshall and I.

I’d never raced a 6 miler before. I haven’t raced a 5K in a long time either, other than the 3 miles I raced in the sprint triathlon a few weeks ago. Although that wasn’t actually a 5K, 3 miles instead of 3.1, it’s basically the same thing. But not a true measure of what I could do since it was in a triathlon.

Before the race with Ashley

Going into this race, I said I’d go out at a 6:40ish mile. Haha. That’s funny right? (see mile 1 split below) Whenever I think about the pace I want to run, it always sounds fast and makes me nervous (of course). And then I go out way faster than that.

Mile 1- 6:04

Mile 2- 6:23

Mile 3- 6:18

Mile 4- 6:38

Mile 5- 6:30

Mile 6- 6:21

Total Time: 38:37

Average Pace: 6:26

Place: 2nd Female, 1st age group, 16th overall

Race Results

(Glenn had planted a goal in my head to break 40 min- and at mile 5 I knew I had that no problem. Not to mention my 5K time was way faster than my 5K PR- guess I need to race one soon)

Ashley and I went out together but parted a little before we hit mile 1. We knew we were going out too hard but seriously my watch is all wacky the first mile or so, adjusting and I just couldn’t tell how fast I was really going. I mean I looked down at one point and my watch said 5:15, I knew that wasn’t true and didn’t want to accidentally go out too slow! Looking at my splits, I think going out at 6:25 would have been smart and doable. Before the race though- I thought going out at 6:25 would be too fast. So I went ahead and went out at 6:04. Wha???

The first two miles did feel pretty controlled though- I kept telling myself, you need to feel fairly comfortable these first two miles if you want to make it through the next 4 without hopping on the struggle bus.

I saw Glenn and Marshall at mile 2.5, and Glenn told me it looked like I wasn’t working very hard. I actually think that was what I needed to hear. This is why- if it looked like I wasn’t working too hard, that meant I was in control and hopefully would have it in me to pick it up or at least stay on the same pace and really put some hard work in the second half of the race.

Mentally, at this point though, I was just wondering how I would feel later in the race, since I’ve never raced this distance and was unsure about if I was running faster than I was really capable. Based on my 2 mile repeats last week, it seemed like I was on a right pace for me, but I only did two of them and that was only for 2 miles at a time right? I had 2 extra miles and no stops today. But I was racing, so I should naturally work harder and be speedier than in a workout.

Mile 2.5

There was one girl right ahead of me at this point, but I didn’t realize she was the only one. I thought there were a couple speeedsters up with the faster guys running sub 6’s or close to it. I surged a few times in the next mile and passed her but she kept surging back. We went back and forth at least three times. It was kind of annoying, but I think it made me push.

Then another girl came out of now where. She cruised by, looking comfortable and I thought about trying to go with for a brief second but figured it was too early to pick it up like that. Around mile 4, I finally got rid of the other girl I’d been back and forth with. I surged again and she didn’t come with.

Mile 5 was hard, but a good turning point for me. I kept telling myself to get through this mile and the last mile would work itself out no matter what. (I do this in workouts too… get to the last mile and push her in) I knew mile 4 was a slow one so I should pick it up. When I slowed during mile 4, I knew I was and was hoping it would give me some time to regroup and push harder the last two. I knew the slowing down wasn’t giving up. So I did the work and got to mile 5. I kept telling myself that I felt good so I could push harder if I wanted to.

We were headed back to the start/finish now and a spectator told me I was the second place girl. I could see the girl in first, I had my eye on her for pretty much the entire last two miles and I think I made a little ground since she had passed me, but I didn’t have it in me to catch and told myself I should be really pleased with second place. With a half mile to go, I gave the look back (which I NEVER do) to see if there were in girls within chase distance of me. I saw only two guys coming up but I really could have cared less about them. Since I didn’t see any girls, I think I let up my kick a little bit, not much as it ended up being my third fastest mile in 6:21, BUT if I hadn’t known there wasn’t someone right behind me, I might have ran that last half mile more like there was.

With a quarter mile to go, there were people handing out American flags, so that was fun to run in with the flags. It made the race feel special.

Then I saw the girl who won break the tape. She finished 23 seconds ahead of me. Although during the race, I told myself I was happy with 2nd, when I saw her take 1st, I felt a little disappointed it wasn’t me. I never found her to congratulate her, but I did find the girl who finished behind me that went back and forth with me for a long time. I congratulated her and quickly realized how young she was. She looked like she was in high school- but I looked up her age group and she was 19-24. Still young.

Instead of being disappointed with missing 1st, I quickly reminded myself that I run my own race and although it’s good to be competitive and yeah it would have been nice to take the W, what I love about running is that you are competing against yourself. I run my own race and for me, that was a PR, a new distance that I’ve never raced and I am pleased with how I handled myself. I never had a blow up, which was what I was nervous about. Early on in the run, I pictured how I might let myself creep down to 6:50-7:00 miles and I was mentally and physically strong enough to not go there, so I’m happy with that.

During the race I also thought about how I’d like to run a half marathon at a pace fairly close to this and I can’t even talk about how bad that would hurt. And one thing I proved to myself during this race is that I should probably be running my miles repeats faster than I do. I kind of want to throw up thinking about it though.

My friend Ashley ended up taking 5th- pretty darn fast, with an average pace of 6:36 miles. Now if only I can convince her to come to speedwork with us on Wednesdays.

After race picture with Marshman– Don’t worry- he got a haircut today! His first.

Lauren, Me, Ashley & Natalie

Family

Handsome Gentlemen

I’d do this race again – I like doing races on holidays. It’s a positive and uplifting way to start the day and then you get to celebrate and enjoy the rest of the day. I do kind of wish it was an actual 10K instead of just 6 miles, so I’d have a 10K time, but oh well. Another day, I’ll make that happen. Oh and had Glenn ran this race- we calculated paces out and on a good day- he also would have taken 2nd. Well, wouldn’t that have been cute?

After the race, we packed up and headed to good old Crown Point for some Hein family time.

Who raced on the 4th?

Any good 4th of July stuff happen?

I hope the neighbors don’t get too rowdy with the fire works this weekend!

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Group Speed Sessions and today’s repeats

GlennHein — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 18:15:00 +0000

Lindsey had the idea a couple of months back to organize and offer group speed sessions as part of Coaching services and I have got to say that I love it. Not just from a coaching perspective but personally I love it. All speeds and runners are welcome. Its free and you get a great workout. If you are in Indy…think about joining us. We will be out there every Wednesday getting it.

There is something good about doing a workout as a group. All out there getting it done. Supporting each other. Hanging out afterwards. Its an environment that breeds success if you ask me. I mean don’t get me wrong I still do a vast majority of my workouts alone. I like them alone but once a week its nice to have the group to push and support. It is a different mental game doing them alone and I believe there is great value in that as come race day its just you and the clock. But there is also great benefit in being to feed off the group, push yourself with group. Group suffering is also good. I guess, as just with everything else, there is a balancing act between group and solo work.

We have been doing them now for 4 weeks and I have made two them. We try and alternate who attends since apparently Marshall is unable to watch himself and it is frowned upon if we leave him alone…whatever responsibility.

Today was my turn to attend. The workout called for 3 x 1 mile repeats with 2:00-3:00 recovery and the option for a 4th for whoever wanted to flex their muscle :).

I ran up from the house to meet the group. Its about a two mile run up the Monon to our meeting place by Einstein’s. It was pretty foggy outside this morning…which is pretty strange for July in Indiana but the weather has been kind of weird lately so who knows. We had another great group out this morning ready to do work at 5:30. I love it! Its an early start but with jobs, the heat, and everything else it is just easier to get the session done early then have it hanging over your head all day.

Amy, Jake, Gabe, Meghan, Jeff, Blake, and Sean were all ready to go when I got there. We warmed up about a mile and half and then it was time to work.

Sean is getting ready for his first marathon, the Monumental Marathon downtown, and is a heck of a runner…I mean he took 3rd in state for Cross Country, has a 1:14:xx Half PR and ran for a year or two at IU before retiring so I was glad to have him out there to do some work with me.

The Workout:
Mile 1 – 5:28
Mile 2 – 5:33
Mile 3 – 5:33
Mile 4 – 5:26

That last mile hurt. The goal was to run them in about 5:30 – 5:34 so I was happy with the splits. The weather helped today…last time we did this workout it was obscenely hot and humid for even 5:45.

Everyone in the group was working hard up and down the Monon. Amy tweeted earlier that she took 20 secs per mile off her previous splits from the last time we did the workout. I’m telling you work works. She will kill her PR here in the fall! It will be exciting to see!!

Once everyone was done with their workout we did another group cool down about another mile and half….well it was kind of a group cool down. Jake had a false alarm with his keys. He thought they had went missing so we were up and down the trail looking for them but they never turned up. Turns out they did a little hide and seek in his compression shorts and were found once Jake changed. HAHA. I’m glad they turned up because if it was me that would have drove me crazy. Ask Lindsey, I can’t stand losing or not being able to find something. I have to look until I find it. I have to.

Finished the run off with another two miles back to house. It feels good to have about 11 miles with some speed done before 7:30.

With it being 4th of July this week, I ended up taking today and Friday off…so that is nice. Just hanging with Marsh and Lindsey today and then I think we are going to head up to CP for the 4th to see my family and best friend, who just had a baby.

Also Lindsey is allegedly running the Firecracker 6 tomorrow downtown. She’s already nervous. Weather should be good. We’ll see how she can hammer. 6 miles is hard. Its long enough to be into endurance but short enough to really push. Its a tough distance. Next up for me after some easy runs tomorrow and Friday is 16 steady state miles @ 6:35. I’ll be doing this alone.

Oh and I think we might go check out the new Earth Fare in Carmel later. We like to keep it hippie and organic.

Have a great 4th! Happy birthday America! Come run with us next week!

Questions: Do you like running with a group? What about tough sessions alone? Racing any 4th of July events?

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