A local group, the Tallman Track Club, puts on a winter series every year. There are three races in the series: a 5K, an 8K and a 10K. I have never been able to run the series but I can this season. The weather was about 55 and raining. Not hard but constant. Bottom line. I ran about 18:58 (waiting on official results) with splits of:
1 Mile - 5:55
2 Miles - 6:16
3 MIles - 6:10
3.1 MIles - 0:35 (5:50 pace)
There is a dip in the road that's about like a very long underpass between Miles 1 and 2, then you have to stop, turn around a cone and run through the dip again so the slowdown between Mile 1 and Mile 2 was expected. My complete inability to pick it up after that is a disappointment. Possible reasons for this less than favorable result.
1. Training. I spent all summer focused on endurance in preparation for my 50 miler and then immediately focused on stamina in preparation for my half marathon. I haven't focused on speed in a long time. My legs felt that today as I just couldn't seem to find another gear.
2. Weather. 100% humidity and 55 degrees are not the best combination.
3. Mental weakness. I am really irritated with myself in this one. I was unable to push as hard as I wanted. In contrast to the HM in November when I was able to dig down and pick it up when everything got awful, today I let up. I'm not sure why that happened but happen it did.
4. Too much warm up. My warm up for a 5K is fairly extensive and covers about 3 miles. Based on a couple of tempo runs I have done recently, I extended the warm up today and it covered over 4 miles. That may have been too much. (Editorial note. I have never bought into the "nothing new on race day" mantra. If you don't experiment on occasion, you don't know what might work. Moreover, trying it in training is never the same thing as trying it on race day).
5. Inadequate mileage. Since the 50 miler, I have found it difficult to find the motivation get out the door on some days. My mileage has suffered for that. This week was a high mileage week at 71 miles and that may have had something to do with my performance as well although I took yesterday off so I'm not pegging it to this week alone.
I'm resisting the temptation to go out and race again in the next week or two. Instead, this is my plan.
1. Focus on speed. I had intended to do that anyway and this merely confirms what I had planned.
2. Get my mileage up. I finished this week over 70 miles and I'm going to keep my mileage high. I feel better when I do.
3. Remind myself of today's mental lapses when I reach tough points in workouts. The real irritant is that "mental toughness" was my theme for this year and I did a great job of not cutting workouts short. I was able to find that toughness a month ago and I'm still not sure why it deserted me today.
4. Lose some damn weight. I have allowed myself to gain about 7 or 8 pounds over where I'd like to be as a runner. Those pounds need to come off.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
Caretaker/Overlook Hotel
Speed training, mainly. The rest reads like a pity party. Suck it up, buttercup!
Seriously, though, speed training combined with your high mileage week would be the 2 most important things, to me, that might have killed it. I haven't been to the track in months and the last time I did that I had jaw dropping losses in speed when I got back. I shudder to think what my mile time would look like right now, yet I know in a matter of a few weeks, I could pull it down drastically.
Oh ya........and none of us are gettin any younger!
Oh.....one more thing.......you still killed it!! Nice time!!
Randy
I'd be ecstatic with pace times like that.
That's a darn fast 5K time. How far off your PR were you? Your RR has lots of good info and nugs in there, as usual. I'm sorry you were disappointed with your performance, but it sounds like you've spent a great deal of time analyzing what went wrong and that you know what to work on going forward if you want to drop your 5K time further. I think you ran a pretty impressive time, but I know you are your own worse critic. I look forward to hearing how the rest of the series plays out.
Chief Unicorn Officer
Mile 5:49 - 5K 19:58 - 10K 43:06 - HM 1:36:54
MJ, I thought about that as well. I had an unexpectedly good HM and this race was unexpectedly slower than I'd hoped by 15-20 seconds. It could be as simple as, "some days you get the bear; some days the bear gets you." I didn't have a bad day but I didn't have a terribly good one either.
What Heidi and MJ5 said... It's hard to train for one thing and excel at all distances. Plus, it's hard to be in peak racing conditions at all times of the year. I bet your body needed that extra 7 or 8 lbs for that period. You can't be at race weight all year long, because frankly, race weight is usually pretty low on the BMI chart. Not sure it's what is healthiest for you... Anyway, congratulations on still a very fast race!
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
I need to hit those same 4 goals, focus on speed work, increase weekly mileage, improve mental toughness, and lose 10 lbs or more.
And like MJ5 said, I need to pick up the pace on long runs. When I run a marathon, my pace is reliable but it's too close the training pace.
I remember the RR, but wanted to ask what your overall time or pace was on the 50 mile birthday run a few months ago?
levitation specialist
I want to find that gear that you lost....holy balls man, your OD gear must be amazing! I don't think I even have your first gear!
LRB told me once that 5ks befuddle the most experienced of runners, I guess he was right coulda woulda shoulda. I guess at least there is always next year!
Nice race, BTW. That pace overall looks pretty consistant. Nice!
Are we there, yet?
I doubt the warm-up had any bearing on the results. I've warmed up as much as 4 miles before a 2.25 mile race with no ill effects. I've also run 11 miles over hills a couple hours before a mile race and still been able to pull out a 70 second last quarter, as fast as I've ever run the last quarter when rested. The weight probably was a small factor but more likely it's the lack of intervals and repeats and too much mileage leading up to the race. Taking one day off isn't much of a taper even for a 5K.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Skirt Runner
That is still an amazing time! I hope one day I can run a race that fast and still have something to be critical about. Sounds like you know what you need to do to do better next time and that you understand where you may have gone wrong. I haven't raced enough yet to know from experience, but from reading RRs from the experienced runners on here it seems sometimes "bad" or "disappointing" races can be as important as the PRs because they teach you lessons. You learned yours and you'll kill your next 5K!!!
PRs: 5K- 28:16 (5/5/13) 10K- 1:00:13 (10/27/13) 4M- 41:43 (9/7/13) 15K- 1:34:25 (8/17/13) 10M- 1:56:30 (4/6/14) HM- 2:20:16 (4/13/14) Full- 5:55:33 (11/1/15)
I started a blog about running :) Check it out if you care to
Old , Ugly and slow
maybe you should not have spent so much time filming buckwild.
first race sept 1977 last race sept 2007
2019 goals 1000 miles , 190 pounds , deadlift 400 touch my toes
Tinman, the 50 miler was a bit over 9 hours. Then again, I wasn't trying to run for time on that one. I even stalled for 10-15 minutes at one point so my mother could get to the finish with my oldest daughter. That was by far the best running decision I ever made. If you look at my avatar picture, that's her finishing the 50 miler with me.
Damaris
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That's a great photo too! I remember seeing that in your RR before. And just over 9 hours is darn fast for that distance.
You can tell I'm approaching 50 in a few years and what I'm thinking about............