Silviu Burcea

May 12th was the last race of the spring season, used as preparation for the highlight of the year, the Bucharest marathon in October. Bettering my old PR of 1:34:37 in the half marathon was the main goal of this season, as I wanted a better long distance fitness before embarking into a marathon cycle again.

I've started with a poor season opener, but I wasn't too concerned, as I haven't had any serious taper for it, the winter mileage was still heavy in my legs. However, as the weather improved, so did my race times and I think I've done a good job at peaking for the right races, but a lighter race week here and there could have yielded better results.

Mar 16th: 3.8K @ 4:04 pace
Apr 06th: 5K @ 3:57 pace
Apr 21st: HM @ 4:23 pace (1:32:31 PB)
May 12th: HM @ 4:19 pace (1:31:12 PB)

I should have raced a 10K on Mar 31st but totally missed it due to illness, which was very unfortunate as I was hoping it would be a confidence booster. That 5K gave me the confidence I needed that training is working and that season opener was just that, an opener. Maybe I could have raced that 5K a bit faster but I haven't had any strong race results recently to indicate what shape I'm in.

The first half of the season was promising. I was out for a few days in Netherlands, where I've just jogged around, no speedwork, and this acted like a taper, getting me at the start line with pretty fresh legs. Even the weather was nice, but few factors impacted my chances of getting a sub 90', including a missed start and the chance to run with people of similar strength and a forced toilet break at 10th km, when I was starting to catch up people with decent speed. This forced me to sign up for another half, one last shot to dip under 90 before season ends.

This time, I haven't missed the start, but something felt off right from the warm up, with elevated HR and some heavy legs, but I have ignored this as I'm not used to run in the mornings anymore and thought it is just my legs waking up. Met with friends in the nearby park and finished the warm up together. The start was crowded and couldn't get to the front right away. I've crossed the start line around the 1h40m pacers, I had to work my way to get in touch with the 1h30m pacers in the first hundred meters.

My plan was to stick with 1h30m pacers for first 5K or so, as I was unsure how to tackle the uphill section of the race and then get ahead and try to shoot for 1:28:xx, as the previous race gave me hopes that I could get it. The plan was quickly out of the window as I was kind of struggling to keep up with the pacers, but tried to stay positive and stay close to them, as Mo Farah would say, "one mo' mile", or, in my case, kilometer.

The 10K milestone is right where the HM finish line is and the MC said that official race time was 42:29. I started a bit behind, so I had maybe like 42:20 for 10K, so I was right on 1:28 pace, but my legs were already tired. I had to let the pacers go around 10.5K and regroup at a slower pace. Have I not done that, I'm sure it would have ended in a DNF.

I have gone from cranking up kilometers at 4:15 to 4:25-4:30, which allowed me to take a GU gel at 13th km and continued at the same 4:25-4:30 pace until I started to hit 4:20-4:25 again and the gel kicked in, closing the race in 4:17 and 4:18 for 20th and 21st km and a 21s for the last 100 meters.

The cool down was a slow death march, the first hundred meters were at over 7:00 pace, all muscles screaming at me to stop, which I did, but only on my terms, after 2 km. I just couldn't stop wondering how my muscles were so weak, compared to my aerobic fitness, where I haven't felt challenged at all for the entire race.

I've still missed the sub 90' goal, but a PR is a PR. I won't say no to 79 seconds of improvement in just 3 weeks. Compared to my last year PR of 1:34:37, also set in May, in Pleven, it's almost 3.5 minutes of improvement. I can't be mad with that, even though a minute or so of improvement compared to last race felt like a very tiny reward for the massive effort I've put in.

I've had an OK season, it is now that time of the year when I have to embrace the heat of the coming months. It ain't easy, but everyone knows that PRs in the fall season are born in the scorching days of summer.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11390887649

May 12th was the last race of the spring season, used as preparation for the highlight of the year, the Bucharest marathon in October. Bettering my old PR of 1:34:37 in the half marathon was the main goal of this season, as I wanted a better long distance fitness before embarking into a marathon cycle again.

I've started with a poor season opener, but I wasn't too concerned, as I haven't had any serious taper for it, the winter mileage was still heavy in my legs. However, as the weather improved, so did my race times and I think I've done a good job at peaking for the right races, but a lighter race week here and there could have yielded better results.

Mar 16th: 3.8K @ 4:04 pace
Apr 06th: 5K @ 3:57 pace
Apr 21st: HM @ 4:23 pace (1:32:31 PB)
May 12th: HM @ 4:19 pace (1:31:12 PB)

I should have raced a 10K on Mar 31st but totally missed it due to illness, which was very unfortunate as I was hoping it would be a confidence booster. That 5K gave me the confidence I needed that training is working and that season opener was just that, an opener. Maybe I could have raced that 5K a bit faster but I haven't had any strong race results recently to indicate what shape I'm in.

The first half of the season was promising. I was out for a few days in Netherlands, where I've just jogged around, no speedwork, and this acted like a taper, getting me at the start line with pretty fresh legs. Even the weather was nice, but few factors impacted my chances of getting a sub 90', including a missed start and the chance to run with people of similar strength and a forced toilet break at 10th km, just when I was starting to catch up people with decent speed. This forced me to sign up for another half, one last shot to dip under 90' before season ends.

This time, I haven't missed the start, but something felt off right from the warm up, with elevated HR and some heavy legs, but I have ignored this as I'm not used to run in the mornings anymore and thought it is just my legs waking up. Met with friends in the nearby park and finished the warm up together. The start was crowded and couldn't get to the front right away. I've crossed the start line around the 1h40m pacers, I had to work my way to get in touch with the 1h30m pacers in the first hundred meters.

My plan was to stick with 1h30m pacers for first 5K or so, as I was unsure how to tackle the uphill section of the race and then get ahead and try to shoot for 1:28:xx, as the previous race gave me hopes that I could get it. The plan was quickly out of the window as I was kind of struggling to keep up with the pacers, but tried to stay positive and stay close to them, as Mo Farah would say, "one mo' mile", or, in my case, kilometer.

The 10K milestone is right where the HM finish line is and the MC said that official race time was 42:29. I started a bit behind, so I had maybe like 42:20 for 10K, so I was right on 1:28 pace, but my legs were already tired. I had to let the pacers go around 10.5K and regroup at a slower pace. Have I not done that, I'm sure it would have ended in a DNF.

I have gone from cranking up kilometers at 4:15 to 4:25-4:30, which allowed me to take a GU gel at 13th km and continued at the same 4:25-4:30 pace until I started to hit 4:20-4:25 again and the gel kicked in, closing the race in 4:17 and 4:18 for 20th and 21st km and a 21s for the last 100 meters.

The cool down was a slow death march, the first hundred meters were at over 7:00 pace, all muscles screaming at me to stop, which I did, but only on my terms, after 2 km. I just couldn't stop wondering how my muscles were so weak, compared to my aerobic fitness, where I haven't felt challenged at all for the entire race.

I've still missed the sub 90' goal, but a PR is a PR. I won't say no to 79 seconds of improvement in just 3 weeks. Compared to my last year PR of 1:34:37, also set in May, in Pleven, it's almost 3.5 minutes of improvement. I can't be mad with that, even though a minute or so of improvement compared to last race felt like a very tiny reward for the massive effort I've put in.

I've had an OK season, it is now that time of the year when I have to embrace the heat of the coming months. It ain't easy, but everyone knows that PRs in the fall season are born in the scorching days of summer.

OMV Petrom Bucharest Half Marathon - 1:31:12 (PB) - Silviu B's 21.2 km run