2013 Sub-19 5K (Read 1932 times)

    A bad miss this past Saturday.  Set my goal at 19:10, but secretly hoping for sub-19 after a great track session earlier in the week.  I misjudged my early pace badly (on the slow side), hitting the 1-mile split at 6:20.  No way to make up that much time in a 5k, but I tried anyway.  Windy and uphill from there, but still finished at 19:32 after 2.1mi of really solid racing.

     

    If I can get the first mile pace right and then tack on the remainder like two days ago, it's definitely there for the taking.

    "I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

    -- Dick LeBeau

    Runner100


      -

        I bagged the 3/10 race I had planned to do, due to the time change combined with being out until after midnight on a very rare date night (an 18 month old will put a crimp in the quality time).  Scouting races in late April now.

         

        The weather continues to be cold and its got to be the windiest Feb/Mar on record.  Overdid it last week - 22 miles in 3 days including 11 in 1:23, then 2 playoff hockey games.  Our bad team is out of the playoffs now so I can get back on track.

         

        A few months ago I increased my cadence from 150-152 steps/min to 165-170.  Its much more efficient and I feel less tired and less sore (also did PT for 6 weeks).  I had never paid much attention to my form before.  But now my sense of pace vs effort is off and I'm running a good 20-30 sec/mile faster than I'm judging on pace when before I could guess to within 30 seconds.  This morning for example after running at 7PM last night I did 5 and was thinking just under 40 and had 38:32.  Most of my runs have come down to the 7:20-7:50 range/mile and I'm afraid that's a little too fast for my ability level.  Does it sound kinda fast for those who share this goal?  I think if I can get my mileage up over 40 it will slow down a little bit....but even when consciously holding back now I'm under 8 min pace.

         

        I tried intervals a few Saturdays ago - disastrous.  It was windy (of course) with flurries and I only managed 4x400, avg. 84 seconds.  The 79 for #4 precluded an attempt at #5.  Kinda embarrassing for someone who could once do 12 at well under 70 half a lifetime ago and still thinks he has speed.

         

        Dougal - you're close!  Clive - if the conditions where you are are anything like here then 19:32's pretty good!

          kpk, easy pace is pretty variable from one runner to the next.  You might be young, or have run since high school, or ...  If it's easily conversational, then you're doing fine.

           

          A friend here is 50, has race times faster than mine, and runs all his easy stuff at about 9:00/mi.  And there's a guy about my age (late 40s) with race times around mine, who runs his easy days ~30sec/mi faster than me.

           

          I'd be cautious about ramping up both volume and easy-pace at the same time.

          "I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

          -- Dick LeBeau

          Chris UK


            Well as you can see from my sig line I got my sub-40 10K yesterday. According to the RA calculator that gives me a theoretical 18:48 for 5K - although at my age it is harder finding that extra speed over endurance. Need to find a 5K before I get injured..!! Smile

            2013

            3000 miles

            Sub 19:00 for 5K  05-03-13 Clee Prom 5K - 19:00:66 that was bloody close!

            Sub-40:00 for 10K 17-03-13 Gainsborough 10K - 39:43

            Sub 88:00 for HM

             


            Walk-Jogger

              Dougal, so close! You'll get it soon.

               

              Chris, very nice work on that 10k!   That age-grades out for you to over 85%!  Sub-19:00 5K should be a sure-thing, as soon as you get in a good race.

              Retired &  Loving It

                kpk, easy pace is pretty variable from one runner to the next.  You might be young, or have run since high school, or ...  If it's easily conversational, then you're doing fine.

                 

                A friend here is 50, has race times faster than mine, and runs all his easy stuff at about 9:00/mi.  And there's a guy about my age (late 40s) with race times around mine, who runs his easy days ~30sec/mi faster than me.

                 

                I'd be cautious about ramping up both volume and easy-pace at the same time.

                 

                Conversational for the most part although the heavy breathing part I don't pay much attention to - no matter what shape I'm in or how slow the pace is hills will do that to me.  I do test it but I'm always running alone so its more like:  "Ok I'm getting really sick of this wind.  This has got to be the windiest month on record.  How can it be in my face no matter which way I am going?" (expletives deleted)

                I'm trying to be very cautious given a long history of overdoing it.  The effort level is low enough that my usual 5 is no problem and have done 10 or 11.  What's holding me back so far from increasing mileage is my schedule, I think I've got a much better shot at this goal if I can get my mileage into the 40s at least.

                I did run in HS and college, but frequently injured due to too many hard training runs...I'd get excited that I was improving and press it.  If you set PRs in practice, you're training too hard.  Now I'm 38 and do back off more often.

                Buelligan


                  This isn't going well at all.   I'm starting to get PF in my left foot!   Gonna have to back off on the intensity of my speedwork.

                   

                  I may not even make an attempt until fall if the PF really flares up.  Dammit.


                  Mmmmm...beer

                    Damn, sorry to hear that Buelligan, hope it clears up quickly.

                     

                    kpk33x, I always gauge it by effort and not pace, sometimes it's 7:20, sometimes it's 8:15, but both days will feel the same effort wise.  A lot of factors go into it for me, how much sleep did I get, what did I eat, etc.  But so long as I'm not having to push to maintain pace, then I call it easy and I let my legs go at whatever pace they feel is comfortable that day.

                     

                    Today was a 10 miler that ended up being a progression run, even tho that's not what I set out to do.  First time on an indoor track, 1/8th mile, started out running :58-:59 laps and worked down to :55 laps, and kicked for a strong :39 final lap.  Paces went from 7:52/mile down to 7:20/mile and that kick was a 5:12/mile pace. Shocked  I was pretty surprised I had that much left in me, or that whole run for that matter, since I did a 16 miler yesterday.  Just one of those days I guess. I'll take it.  At first I thought doing 80 laps was gonna be really boring, but it wasn't, I actually enjoyed it.  It was fun tracking my splits on each lap, maybe that's why I kept getting faster?

                     

                    Really looking forward to my next 5k in five weeks.  It'll be two weeks after a half, so I'm gonna have to be careful to recover fully afterwards so I'm ready for the 5k.  Altho, today is exactly a week after my big PR half last Sunday and I had a great run in me today on the heels of a 16 miler yesterday, so hopefully I'll be pretty solid for a 5k two weeks after my next half.  Given my half last week, McMillan puts me at a 19:03 5k, and I think I can shave a minute or two off of my next half in three weeks.  I think with five more weeks of running and a good well paced effort, I might be able to skip my sub-20 altogether and jump right to a sub-19.  Maybe throwing my hat in the ring in Dec wasn't such a huge leap afterall. Smile

                    -Dave

                    My running blog

                    Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!


                    some call me Tim

                      Failure! But I can't just post the good stuff so here's a little report from a 5k this morning... about 1200 runners, out and back course, steady climb of a little over 100 feet in the first mile, then mildly rolling hills and a fast downhill finish. The whole thing, while well intended, was not terribly well organized and so they had to back up the entire field to get us all behind the starting line. Packed like sardines we were. So it wasn't a great start, but I had intended to try not to kill myself on the incline and try to run some strong negative splits. People were out in full Easter costume for the race as well as some other random kind of costumes. One guy ran barechested with an open women's fur coat and carrying a plastic sword(?) And Spiderman passed me at about the 3/4 mile mark. "Grr," I thought, "I'll get you yet, Spiderman."

                       

                      First mile split was 6:37, much slower than I wanted, but to be honest I didn't know what I had in me. I train on huge hills by virtue of where I happen to live, but I don't generally try to run 5k pace on them. I picked it up as planned and began to pass a lot of people who had just burned themselves up on that hill. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, and I tried to let that distract me from the discomfort settling in. I reached the turnaround and started back, eventually seeing my wife and friends along the way. That helped, too.

                       

                      I continued to methodically pass other runners and turned in a split of 6:17 for the second mile. Too slow! I tried to pick it up some more, knowing that it was next to impossible to hit my goal now. But I tried. The downhill came and I let it carry me - one benefit of training on hills is that I've spent a lot of time trying to economize form running down. I pushed for a little more speed and started to feel a burn in my legs, so I held it right there, thinking it odd that they were the limiting factor. I passed Spiderman (YES!) and poured it on for what little of the race was left. 3rd mile split, 6 flat, with a finish time of 19:36. I just wasn't able to make it up, and though I was close to my current ability, I think I didn't feel bad enough afterward. Bungled the strategy a little... oh well. It's still my second best 5k result ever, and I got a nice chocolate bunny as an age group award. Next time!

                      flyrunnr


                        I just broke 20 min in Dec 2012, and I just broke 19 min (18:57) on 3/16 at the Haddonfield Adrenaline 5K in Haddonfield, NJ. Wow, that was a fast field and course. My 18:57 got me 124th overall out of 885 participants. The first 57 people ran sub-17. I guess I look for a sub-18 thread. Good luck!

                        https://www.strava.com/athletes/2507437

                        PR's - 5K - 17:57 (2017) | 10K - 38:06 (2016)  | 13.1 1:23:55 (2019)  | 26.2  2:58:46 (2017)

                        2020 Goals - Sub-2:55 Marathon                       Up Next: TBD, Boston on 9/14?

                         

                        snapa55


                          I'll throw my hat in the ring.  I'm shooting for sub 19 on April 20th.  I'm hoping my Feb marathon and my recent speed training will pay off!

                          5K: 18:43 (12/13) 10K: 42:50 (12/12) HM: 1:30:10 (3/14) M: 3:34:46 (5/14)


                          some call me Tim

                            snapa55, looking at the numbers on that speedwork you mentioned it sure seems like you'll get there to me!

                             

                            flyrunner, I don't know that there's a sub-18 thread, though you could always start one. in lieu of that you could stick around here. I'll out my super secret goal for the year is also sub-18 just in case by some miracle I end up needing something else to strive for - but 6:05 to 5:45 pace is a big leap and just because the brain is attached to tidy figures doesn't mean the body is ready to comply Wink

                              Surprised myself this weekend and ran a 18:53 last weekend.  Didn't have high expectations but expected to see a bit of improvement on my 19:53 from February. I was realistically thinking maybe 19:20-19:30 somewhere in there. Only 4 weeks of consistent "training". I'll take it.

                               

                              Sub 18 is a whole 'nother animal all together but that is\was the goal for this year...we'll see.

                                Congrats, kmark!

                                 

                                Following blargendarg's lead ...

                                 

                                I ran a 5k on March 9th.  Time goal coming in was 19:10 or better; the secret goal was sub-19. Things were hectic pre-race: I'd only decided at the last minute to run this race instead of another one downtown, and I inadvertently punched the starting address for that race into my GPS. I realized what was happening when all the tall buildings were in my rear-view mirror, got turned around, and eventually found parking (but not any of the free garages) and packet pickup. That went smoothly, but I left myself only a sliver of time, so I warmed up (and raced) in race gear and trainers instead of flats.

                                The 5k and HM (~2500 runners total) all started together, which promised a pretty jarring mix of paces. I recognized no one (but could tell who the really FAST people were), and there were were no expected-pace signs to line up by. So I lined up pretty close to the front but still took 5sec to cross the mat. Went out smoothly, trying to recreate the early feeling of some 5k-pace 800s I'd recently run. There were loads of people ahead of me, both 5k'ers and HM'ers, making it hard to get a sense for my pace. I heard someone ~0.5mi behind me say they were doing 6-flat, so I eased off only slightly. It was trafficky overall, though -- I got hung up a handful of times, having to pause before escaping the box. Between that and the minor easing-off, I went by the big 1mi clock at 6:20. Dammit! 

                                Worked on maintaining a feeling of pressing a little -- if I'm comfortable, I'm going too slow. A trio of momentum-killing sharp turns in the second mile, one with a steep hill right after, added three more dollops of time. After the third turn, we ran a little over a mile directly into the wind on rolling but net uphill terrain. I went through the second mile in 6:17, still slower than target but not surprising given the terrain, turns and wind.  The few guys near me were going slower than I wanted (either slowing down or, at least, not increasing pace./effort as I was); pulling away from them meant putting myself into the headwind as I tried to catch guys ahead. 

                                I reeled people in over the final mile-plus. The last segment was 90* turn/uphill/90* turn, then a very short straight to the finish mat (too short to work up a truly meaningful kick, although I did sprint). I looked across the final 90* corner, saw the arch clock say "18:5n", realized I was not going to get sub-19, then thought I was, then realized I wasn't even close. Surged up the remainder of the last hill, around the corner, and sprinted uselessly to the arch. No one close ahead of me, no one really close behind; time-trialing again.

                                This course, weather and field were not a great match for what I was looking to achieve today. But it drove home my need to work on my race-craft over the first kilometer. I have to find a HARD pace earlier on and lock it in. I'm going out well initially, but I'm settling into something that's a little on the slow side of true 5k race-pace. I realize it at some point and then spend the rest of the race going ever-faster ... but I'd run lower times if I'd be quicker early and just maintain.

                                "I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

                                -- Dick LeBeau