It totally bit, Drew mate. It was 90 degrees heat plus humidity. It was run @ 9:00 in the morning, so there was PLENTY of direct radiation exposure from the sun. Combine that with the general dehydration that came with two weeks of training runs in the heat, and there was nothing an approprate taper could do to boost my performance to standard levels.
Its not all negative though. Although I ran a p1$$ poor time, (43:03) Which I beat on almost all my training runs, let alone my races, everyone else was affected in the same manner by the heat. Therefore I managed to place 3rd in my age group!
The annoying thing was, I ran the first half beautifully, then TOTALLY fell to pieces in the 2nd half, due to dehydration! The 5km race that was ran in parallel was won in 18 minutes. I ran the first half of my 10km in less than 19 minutes (18:24) I could have won the km if I'd entered that!
Then to make my next week feel even worse, I ran a 6km leg in the SEAA road relays when I got back. I was jet-lagged & achey anyway (picked up some sort of back of the heel bruise, getting it looked at), and clocked a dissapointing time. Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed the event/representing the team/etc. And I didnt run the worst time of the day by a long shot, but I feel that I managed to sell both myself and the club a little short.
So you see Drew, this is why I am looking to get back to basics. Get off the accelerator for the while chap, so to speak...
