Terrific race Norm!!

Outstanding placement!!

lg

5k this morning. 19:40 and 3rd in AG. First ever for that. Rain and roads were wet. Haven't downloaded the HR info yet but it will be interesting.

 

 

MTA: AHR = 168 with MHR of 176 - pretty interesting splits on HR for the miles 1= 160, 2 = 171, 3  = 173, .1 = 174.

 

Not sure what to make of this wrt my racing strategy. Anyone?

Hi Carmel,

Congrats on the placement in your AG!!

You didn't tell us what your race strategy was and how it played out. All I can see is your AVHR for the mile splits. 

Have you calculated what % of Heart Rate Reserve (Karvonen method) or Maximum Heart Rate (your actual MAX HR) your AVHRs are?

It would be interesting to see what % effort you are racing a 5K at. It might give you a better idea of how much more you would expect to push if any more. You have great endurance and you have great aerobic development which means you can race very well. However, you might be able to race even better in the 5K if you do some specific 5K race training. This would mean doing some faster workouts once in a while - what you are after is practising running relaxed at a faster pace (faster than your current 5K race pace) in intervals. Exactly which workouts are appropriate for this is not my expertise but you can look in books by Brad Hudson (I think you are reading it currently, right?) or Daniels Running Formula etc. etc. They know what they are doing and there are many ways to train specifically for faster 5K times.

 What I am thinking is that your neuromuscular system needs a little more training (as your endurance and aerobic systems are already well trained). Have you read the part of Hudson's book in which he discusses how to determine which systems are your weakest and hold you back? He gives some excellent pointers that you can easily use to determine what holds you back. 

The only other thing about racing that is not often mentioned in running books is how to train your mental race game - I have enjoyed Jerry Lynch, "Running within" - he is a sports psychologist and runner who gives expert advice on how to improve your racing by working on the things that hold you back on the mental plane.

______________

I looked at your training log and notice that you are running almost every day. There is nothing wrong with that, on the contrary, if you are able to recover well from day to day you are gaining aerobic benefits from running high mileage. However, if you want to increase the likelyhood of racing faster you may want to consider some kind of rest or tapering 1-3 days before the race - I am sure you will find good advise in some of the aforementioned books. 

Flower - thanks for the pointers. I've been working some race specific training into the mix but mostly mile repeats at 5k pace. One of my local running partners suggested some ladders and I will add those into the mix to keep things from getting boring. I like the idea of the mental side and will look for that book. I'm still digesting Hidson and will review those sections.

BTW - my strategy was to "run like I stole something"  Seriously though, I was trying to go out in 6:10 or less (managed 6:07) and see if I couldn't hold on. Mile 2 was 6:20. Mile 3 was 6:30 and I kicked hard for the last 43 seconds. Just looking at this, I seemed to have lost momentum in mile 2 (as I have done in other races). Not sure if this is a "falling asleep at the wheel" thing or just normal for someone going out a few steps too fast.

Jimmy - I actually left before they gave out the hardware - had to get home for some family time. So I actually don't have any ribbons or trophies. Technically speaking, we could still run together and you would not have to break your rule. . Next trip to ATL we need to hit the hills at Stone Mt.

And 18:59 is a goal of mine. I need to drop some weight and at my pace, I figure that weight will be gone by next summer. I'm all about losing weight naturally as miles increase and reducing some portion sizes. That way I figure it will stick. All those crash diets or fads just don't seem to have the long term effects of exercise and smaller protions.

As always, thanks everyone. Your thoughts have really fueled my training and becoming a better lifelong runner.

Another weekend and another 5k. 19:32 and a 5OA (it was a very small field - 120 people).

Splits were 6:11/6:25/6:17and  5:31 for the last .1

Wanted to go out in 6:10, smooth out in mile 2 and hit is in mile 3. All goals accomplished. Right now I have another 10 seconds in mile 2 available. Perhaps my once day per week at the track will help that. Feeling better about the 5ks now. I think I'm beginning to understand the race.

Best part of the morning - my twin 8 yo boys finished 1 and 2 in the 1/2 mile kids race. Pretty soon they will be dropping me like a bad habit.

Another blistering 5k, Carmel!

Superb, superb!

you da man!

lg

Congrats to all with those good results!   The rewards of wise training.

I'm still new to running, learning to run, still doing Run/Walk/Run.

I took 6 weeks to get to LongRun of 4 miles.

Week  7 of my new fitness adventure, just 6 weeks after my first jog step, I did my first 5K, very hard, didn't know whether I"d make it to the finish line, and ooh, painful recovery.

About 13:00 pace

Time 39:45

After the painful recovery of my first 5K effort, I took a week off and "started over" with

Long Run of 1 mile and took 10 weeks after this to build back up to Long Run of 4 miles (jog/walk/jog)

Week 19 I recently entered my second 5K and did  Run 90sec /Walk 30sec.

Felt good during and after.  At finish line felt I could keep on going.   

I did see HR climb to HR=189 at the 3.0 mile-marker, so I didn't do any  "push"  for the finish line.  No idea what my HR-Max is but didn't really want to see myself in the 190s, just in case.

About 12:00 pace  (Garmin said 11:54 for 3.18 miles)

Time 37:50

So here I am at 20 weeks of  Walk/Jog experience.

I've run Weekly Long Run of 60-70 minutes (jog/walk/jog) )for the past four weeks. A nice milestone for me for time on feet.

And I've set a Goal Race of Half Marathon mid-2010, no time goal, just get to the starting line, and would like to it to feel as easy as possible when the time comes.  So I'm going to give HADD MAF LHR training a go again.

Tomorrow, I am going to enter a little local 5K with a friend.

I am going to Jog/Walk/Jog it at    HR = 130's   to give myself a little Baseline LHR "Test" of sorts. 

Congrats, again,  to all !  Your results are so encouraging

Nice race, Frances! Great progress.

Keep going!

--Jimmy

5k PR

mile   pace   aveHR   (maxHR=186)

1  7:16  162
2  6:54  173

3  7:27  174

Total:  22:29 (7:15 ave Pace) maxHR=178

I completed an 8 week base of all MAF or below running (maf HR = 132) of 25 miles per week with an 8 mile long run per week.  And then I fell of the wagon.

I could not resist this race, as it is a big event with over 5000 runners, and it was a blast.  I was very pleased that I was able to do this without any speed work or above MAF running except for a 2 mile run a few days before at a higher rate, just to get my legs adjusted to a faster pace.

I felt great and I am confident that adding some higher paced stuff will result in more improvement.  I actually thought I could have pushed myself more, but being my first 5k and not having much faster paced running behind me, I did not really push it.

I plan on going back to base kind of running, and I am hoping that my indiscretion will not set me back.  I assume that it will not.  I was most pleased with the feeling that even at this pace, I felt very aerobic and for the first time I am not extremely sore from the run.  I feel pretty recoved two days later.