20K workout

I usually like long days. Today was not that pleasant, mostly because my old friend the GI issues crept in. I am pretty sure it's from eating birthday cake (contained milk in cake & frosting) and also the rather copious amount of potstickers consumed at the birthday party. Sigh...I really will learn not to eat a lot the day before a long racewalk, someday...painful lesson.

Anyway, I was to do the 20K at a 6:30/km pace (about 10:30/mile). That figured to be some work, but not too painful I thought.

I started out downhill a bit from my house, and planned a fairly flat route for the rest (except a little uphill at the end). Things went more or less fine until about 14 km or so. I did stop briefly to stretch my calf at 6K, 8K, and 12K. At 12K I was feeling tired, but not too terrible. By 14K I had some serious intestinal cramps. Uh-oh. Fortunately, Liberty Park was nearby, and I was going to go right past the bathroom. I stopped at 15K (where the bathroom was), used the facilities, and stretched my leg. I was feeling pretty crappy (pun intended?) at this point but figured I could do 5K more. I didn't really want to, but I thought I could do it, and I didn't want to wuss out on my workout. I didn't have any more problems (thankfully), and actually did find another gear at 16-20K and worked hard to finish in 2:09:30, for just under 6:30/km (2:10 would have been 6:30/km).

Not bad...except I started to think about how the IAAF racewalking World Cup 20K for women was held yesterday in Chihuahua, Mexico, and the winner finished in 1:31 in hot conditions (and at altitude, but the altitude is only very slightly higher than Salt Lake City, so that is comparable). Hmmm, that is 40 minutes faster than me, or 2 min/km faster. Wow! They do 20 km at 4:30/k...sigh...

OK, I am never going to be an elite, but I can still be a good amateur. I am cheered by this thought :).

Here are my splits, ave speed for that split, and ave HR. Note that the stretching and bathroom breaks were off the clock. Sorry, some of them were off by a little...and this is all by Garmin (GPS) so accuracy is good but not perfect.

2K 12:47.70, 6:24/km, 140
4.06K 13:18.57, 6:28/km, 144
6.01K 12:37.39, 6:28/km, 144
8K 12:46.07, 6:25/km, 145
10.04K 13:41.51, 6:42/km, 145
12K 12:40.82, 6:28/km, 145
14K 12:43.58, 6:23/km, 147
15K 6:28.38, 6:28/km, 147 (did this split because I wanted to compare to the 15K masters' national race in Riverside this morning; still no results from that yet, but my total time to 15K was 1:36:54)
16.03K 6:55.71, approx 6:45/km (pushed lap button too many times so had to add up/average and this is a guess), 141 (really slow here - coming off the bathroom break, and felt kinda lousy)
18K 12:36.87, 6:24/km, 148 (kicked it up a notch)
20K 12:53.00, 6:27/km, 154 (slight uphill, working it)

Total: 2:09:30 and 6:28.5/km average speed.

I felt quite tired when I stopped; I stretched a lot but still felt everything stiffen up quite a bit. Now that it's evening I'm feeling OK, though - not really stiff or sore, thankfully.