Better late than never.... decided to do a quick RR for my 5K last Sunday.

Short Version: No PR, but a fun day raising money for my school for children with Autism!

Long Version:

On Sunday, April 27^th I ran the Harbor Fitness Race for Autism 5K in my neighborhood of Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, NY. This race was put on by a gym in my neighborhood (Harbor Fitness) and the proceeds go to benefit the school I work at, The HeartShare School, which is a school for children with Autism. This race was fun, as I had a lot of co-workers that were there as well, some running and some walking. Other than the 5K they also had a kids race (about a block) in which a few kids from my school ran in, which was really nice to see. Then they had a lot of family oriented activities such as face painting and a bouncy castle, and the Zumba instructors from the gym had outdoor Zumba after the race. I did Zumba with a girl who goes to my school for probably 45 minutes after....and had a blast! They also had a bunch of raffles and free food. It was a very nice event, and a BEAUTIFUL spring day! One of the kids from my school that I worked with even walked the whole 5K race, it was so awesome to see!!

As for my race, I didn’t really have a strategy. #1 priority was to enjoy the day, have fun with some co-workers and friends, and support my school. I haven’t had a new 5K PR in almost a year. Which is crazy as my first 6-7 months of running I had one huge 5K PR after another. My first 5K was October 2012, a 37:07. My second was November 2012 and I PRed by over 3 minutes. My third was March 2013 and I PRed by over a minute. My 4^th was April 2013 and I PRed by 4 minutes and got my first sub-30 5K (and killed it at 28:30). My 5^th 5K was May of 2013 and I had a teeny PR (28:16). I went from a 37:07 in October 2012 to a 28:16 in May 2013. Almost 9 minutes off my initial time, and huge PRs each race. ANNNNNND I haven’t PRed since. So I feel that I am overdue! The problem is, in May of last year my focus shifted to half marathon training. And I have been training for and running half marathons (or injured, or recovering from injury!) ever since. I have run several 5Ks since May 2013 but either was just doing it for fun and not trying for a PR, or it wasn’t the right time in my training to give a PR a real shot, or had injury issues, or I HAVE tried to PR, and failed. My 3 previous 5K PR attempts have fallen short by at least 45 seconds….all of them in the 29s somewhere. Needless to say, I WANT A NEW PR! I had hoped that this race may be my day. HOWEVER….. since I returned from Hawaii the week before I was REALLY TIRED. I didn’t adapt well back into the time zone, I had come down with a bit of a head cold, I was just exhausted. I had run a cumulative of only 8 miles since my half marathon in Hawaii on 4/13, and not a step since I had came home on 4/20. So….. hard to determine going into the race if that would help me or hurt me.

I didn’t have much of a strategy other than maybe try to PR but if I couldn’t then just enjoy the run. I decided just to start fast and see what happened…if fast felt good I’d go with it, if not then I would just run easy. I ran the first mile in 8:37. Which was DEFINITELY below PR pace (a 28:16, my still current PR that was set 5/5/13 is a 9:06 pace). Had I kept that up I would have had a HUGE PR. However, maybe I should have tried to pace myself a little better because I quickly realized I had gone out too fast. I didn’t really look at my Garmin during that mile, I just RAN….and maybe I should have been a little more disciplined. After the first mile I felt myself slowing down a little. I glanced down at my Garmin a few times and was seeing paces in the low 9s…. generally like 9:05, 9:03, 9:08…in that range. Which is still PR pace, and if I could run the last 2 miles at that pace I would still PR. But I hit the halfway point and my body just said NO. My calves cramped up bad and I was really sucking wind. And….just…..no. I decided not to kill myself over this race and let my pace fall way off. My last mile was 10:40. Meh. I was just out there to have fun….a PR would have been a nice bonus but when I wasn’t feeling it I was ok with letting it go. My time was 29:23. Not even close to a PR. Meh. It was, however, my 6^th sub-30 5K time, which was a HUGE goal for me when I started running. And best of all I had fun raising money for my school on a beautiful spring day in my neighborhood.

And....pictures:

Race outfit:

"Before" and "After" with my good friend Marilyn, who PRed in her 3rd 5K and got her "A" goal of sub-40 minutes!

Me and my co-worker Darnell

Thanks for reading!

No pr? No big deal. Train specifically for a 5k and you will get it. You still met your main goal of having fun and the fact that it was a benefit for your school makes it even better. As usual, great pictures.

Nice report Kristin, and cool matching skirts with Marilyn.

If you commit to training for a full, and use a plan that includes some stuff at 5K pace (cough, Pfitz ), my guess is that you will demolish your 5K PR if you do one after several of those speed sessions.

Thanks everyone!!!

Jay- Hmm....that is good to know.... I will, of course, be begging everyone here for full marathon training advice when the time does come (so far aiming for fall of 2015)...and a plan that could make me faster at shorter distances too would be a great bonus!

Nice job! I'm glad you were able to have fun and enjoy the day regardless of your time. I think with some speed work you should be able to beat your PR.

Your matching skirts are awesome too!

George- I do run fartleks once a week as speed work usually. Taking a break from them as my plan is ramping up my weekly mileage quite a bit right now, but gets more speed work intensive soon.

I think you're right about the mental part. I need better mental toughness. I give up on myself. I know I do. I think I may be better cut out for longer distance running sometimes for that reason. I can push myself to a strong finish of a half marathon when the general pace is moderately hard but I am lacking the mentality to push myself to an all-out 5K right now.....the kind of lungs burning hurt is different from mile 11 of a half marathon hurt and I'm less comfortable finding the mental fortitude to power through that last 1.5 miles of a fast 5K. Or maybe I just need to work at sustaining a faster pace for longer. I ran the first mile of my last 4 5Ks at PR pace then blew up. Or maybe I need to start slower? Sigh I don't know!

Hi Kristen, love that you still have the juice to race often and for good causes.

 

One suggestion to you for a 5k PR is to focus on the mental side.  I note that you started looking at your paces on the Garmin and perhaps mentally you figured you had to slow down.  Too often when we race we slow down at the first twinge of pain or uncomfortableness or if we think we are going too fast.  Its only a 5K!  Pushing thru the initial pain barrier is tough, but it can be done.  You play mind games such as "it hurts but in a good way", "just let me endure this pain for 100m more and then I'll decide if I should slow down".  Soon thereafter you begin to learn that your body has way more ability than we often think.  Yes that last .1 mile may not have a kick in it, but its the 2nd and 3rd mile where the games really take place.

 

Try some fartleks in your runs, or strides to increase your turnover, sometimes really trying to go fast (but not sacrificing form), just push yourself a little.  Remember, training can be hard at times, and it is then you gain fitness.

 

Always love your RR and you continue to look great.

Glad you had a fun day and helped raise some money for your school!

I agree with fourouta5 that working on the mental aspect of racing could help you out a lot--  If you have a race that you really want to PR in (not just a fun 'enjoy the day' kind of race) try to rehearse some positive self-talk strategies that you can use when you start feeling like you want to slow down.  Counter your negative "I've got to slow down" thoughts with something like "I am running strong and relaxed".

If I start feeling really bad around the halfway point of a race and start to mentally check out, I sometimes tell myself to at least keep up a tempo pace... That way even if it's not a PR, it's still a good workout and so it has a purpose in advancing my training. More often than not I'll realize that I haven't slowed as much as I thought, and that a good performance might still be possible if I can find another gear.

Nothing worth having comes easy.

Nice socks!