I was on a pretty good running taper heading into the TNT 5k race this past Tuesday. The first ever of the TNT Tuesday night series running races was held at the Horizon Church near 79th and Fall Creek Road. It's a heavily wooded property with a small but hilly trail system. Having based the Indianapolis Adventure Race here the last two years, I am very familiar with the trails, so I knew to expect a tough course.

Did I write taper? We'll I've actually chosen not to run much the prior two months due to some nagging leg injury issues so I had reserved expectations going in. Cycling is great for aerobic conditioning, but with the time off from running who knew what to expect.

Note to self: once out on the course, keep your mouth shut! I was once again reminded to "turn off the race directors brain." I don't know about other event organizers but I often fall into that trap of thinking about how I would have done this or that with the course design and its a bad habit. So thanks for the verbal slap to the head.

The course was two laps in the woods and I did my best to pace myself but started to run out of gas a bit half way through the second lap. Most of my competitive running is during orienteering meets where we use a map & compass to navigate off and on trails. I really think at the next TNT race, I might just carry a map with me. Seriously! It might actually make me run faster.

It would be an interesting comparison to consider the differences between the high intensity "discomfort" you get during these short events and the low intensity "discomfort" you get during a 24 hour adventure race. That will be a great topic for another post sometime.

In the end the race went well and I'm happy with my run and next time I hope to keep my shirt on!


Second Lap!

Labels: Running