2013 Sub-19 5K (Read 1932 times)

    Hi folks,

     

    I wanted to let y'all know that I have not been around a ton just lately --- I pulled a groin muscle in December, and have been trying not very successfully to recover since, so because I'm logging so few runs I'm only on the site intermittently.  I will get to updates, but I apologize if it takes a while to post.

    rainmakerrc


      Had the day off for MLK Day today, so I decided last-minute to race this morning. This was a "see where I am" kinda race.  I won't be focusing on shorter distances until after my marathon in mid-March.  Still, the race went pretty well, and I finished in 19:25, which is a new PR by 18 seconds. I left a few seconds out on the course in the gradual downhill mile 3 due to aggressive pacing in the hilly first mile of the race, but overall, the result wasn't too bad for an unplanned 5K in the middle of a marathon cycle.

      Runner100


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        Runner100


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          Walk-Jogger

            I ran 18:50 today at the "Freeze Your Fanny" 5K race, a small local 5K, (77 participants) which I decided to run at the last moment this morning. I never commit to this race in advance as the weather can be bad - I skipped it last year due to snow. But today was looking like a decent outdoor running day, with temps at race time of 39 degrees and the rain had stopped. No snow or ice on the ground.

             

            At the start, I led the race over-all for the first mile with a rather pedestrian 6:04 Garmin split, then eased back and let the inevitable happen as three guys passed me, putting me in 4th place. The first two guys were off and gone but 3rd place guy didn't get too far ahead of me, although he looked fast and I basically gave up on any thought of taking 3rd place back from him at that point. I passed mile 2 with a split of 6:11. Somewhere around 2.5 miles #3 guy started slowing just a bit and showing signs of stress, so I moved up on his heels, and then made a decisive pass, to see if he would respond. He stayed with me for a few seconds, till we got to a small downhill/uphill where the path went under a bridge. I pushed the down and the uphill and dropped him, and decided he wasn't getting 3rd place back from me unless he was willing to pay dearly for it. That was about  half a mile to the finish, and I did my usual slow acceleration "kick" all the way to mile 3, 6:02 split, and then sprinted the final .1 in 31 seconds. I'm happy with how this went. Without the guy I was racing for third place, I might have slacked off on the third mile and missed sub-19 by a second or two, which would have been annoying.  As it was I beat him by 23 seconds.

             

            I ran this same race two years ago at the age of 55 in 18:43, 7 seconds faster than today in similar weather conditions, but I was better trained at that time. This year I've only been running for the past 3 months after taking 4 months off and gaining 10 lbs. I've worked off the 10 lbs and I think with a few more weeks of training I'll catch back up to where I was 2 years ago, and then hopefully keep getting a bit faster all spring. At least that's the plan.

             

             

            Anyone else have a good race this weekend?

             

             

            MTA link to race website

            Retired &  Loving It

            Runner100


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              Walk-Jogger

                Nice racing Cecil, congrats on being the first one of the group to meet our 2013 goal. What's that time age-graded btw? I've got a 5k coming up on Feb 10th where I'm going to give it my best shot for a sub-19. I don't have that natural speed like you, so I'm relying on more mileage and shedding a few lbs to get me under 19.

                 

                 

                Thanks, Dougal.  I believe my time ages grades to 83.0 %.  Goodluck on your Feb 10th race! You're really close to sub-19 already, it appears. 

                Retired &  Loving It

                  Hi folks,

                   

                  I wanted to let y'all know that I have not been around a ton just lately --- I pulled a groin muscle in December, and have been trying not very successfully to recover since, so because I'm logging so few runs I'm only on the site intermittently.  I will get to updates, but I apologize if it takes a while to post.

                   

                  Ugh this is exactly me. Pulled it in November and been out since. Exceptionally frustrating.

                  They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."


                  Walk-Jogger

                    Hi folks,

                     

                    I wanted to let y'all know that I have not been around a ton just lately --- I pulled a groin muscle in December, and have been trying not very successfully to recover since, so because I'm logging so few runs I'm only on the site intermittently.  I will get to updates, but I apologize if it takes a while to post.

                     

                     

                     L_Master said:

                    Ugh this is exactly me. Pulled it in November and been out since. Exceptionally frustrating.

                     

                    I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on the internet, but I have had two groin pulls, left and right side, in the past 6 or so years. First one from stumbling over a car tire in the black of the night that had been carelessly left on a public sidewalk. Second time was after I raced a particularly hilly half marathon with big headwinds going uphill, and then stupidly did a few hard speed workouts the following few days. In  both cases I tried to keep running on them, and doing things to make it get worse for a few weeks or months before deciding to take it easy. The first one got so bad after I played ultimate Frisbee on it and stumbled on the turf that I could barely walk off the field. I gave up running for 6 months and went back to my first love, cycling. That didn't seem to bother it. Four months later a dog ambushed me on the bike, flipping me over the handlebars and body-slamming me onto the asphalt, breaking two ribs and one vertebrae in my lower back, putting me off my feet and totally out of commission for any sort of exercise for 6 weeks.

                     

                    Anyway, before this story gets too much longer, what worked for me for the second groin pull to stay in shape was doing some cycling, which was pain-free, and only running when it didn't hurt, which was about every third day. And then most importantly, I was able to walk or run pain-free on a treadmill that was set to at least 12% slope, preferably more. The rec center where I work out has two incline treadmills that go up to 30% slope. I started on these walking about 2.5 mph art 21% incline and worked my way up to the full 30%. At 2.5 MPH, that is roughly the equivalent to running on flat ground at a 7:30 pace. I started doing a few uphill sprints as well, and found that this regimen did NOT bother my groin pull, and did keep my fitness level up and in fact increased it. And one more thing, I used a heating pad on the sore groin area for 30 minutes at bedtime to increase bloodflow to the area, and this really seemed to speed up the healing.

                     

                    In both cases my groin sprains took about 6 months to heal and go away completely.  In retrospect, I feel that part of the contributing cause of my second groin sprain  and a number of other problems with my feet and ankles was my greatly increased weekly running mileage while running in neutral, non-supportive shoes. I now wear orthotics in my daily work shoes and Sole brand inserts in all my running shoes except when I'm racing, and this has cured my foot and ankle problems, and I believe the additional arch support helps protects the muscles and tendons that connect the knee up to the groin from over-stretching.

                     

                    That's my 2 cents worth on the matter of groin sprains

                    Retired &  Loving It


                    some call me Tim

                      Cecil, I must chime in and say I really enjoyed reading your race report - it put me right there beside the course in just a few words -  and I am inspired by that age grade percentile. Congrats!

                       

                      I had a decent result in a two miler today (12:30), but it only confirms that not having got into speedwork for the year I'm not getting any faster... yet.

                        Congrats Cecil and nice report.  Gives me hope that I can still get my times down (turning 38 in a couple weeks).

                         

                        Not prepared to race yet.  I'm one of those people who don't like to race unless I feel fully prepared....which for me right now would be stringing together several 30+ mile weeks in a row.  30 miles 2 weeks ago, 19.5 last week (sick a couple days).  Off to a good start this week with a nice 9 miles yesterday.

                        Working on my form some, I have very sore hips, now going to see my friend to do PT (he's a PT doc).  I was relieved its not bone related, seems to be problems caused by being lazy with my form which has really never been great.

                         

                        Good luck everyone, maybe I'll have a nice race report come April...


                        Walk-Jogger

                          Thanks KPK and Blargendarg,

                          I see you're both still in your 30's - in 20 years from now you'll look back and realize how YOUNG you still were then, from a running perspective! I was too busy with career and family in my 30's to do the amount of training I'm able to do now. That probably describes most of us. I was a 25-30 mile per week runner back then. By running about double that amount now, I can still get my 10K times within about a minute or less of what I could do back then...

                          Retired &  Loving It

                            Cecil

                            Did you run in HS/college or did you pick it up as an adult?  If you were running all along where was your peak?

                             

                            I have had several folks here and outside tell me I could get my times back down or even better than they were in college (low 17's).  Trick is getting the miles in....more than I have.  With a wife, a 16 month old, a job and a house that's proven difficult...may even give up the ghost and start running at 6AM instead of the evenings just to get a longer run in for the day than I have been.  I am totally a night owl.

                             

                            This thread's helping me stay motivated at least early on so far....now that my name's been put on the list I don't want to get an F!

                              I have had several folks here and outside tell me I could get my times back down or even better than they were in college (low 17's).  Trick is getting the miles in....more than I have.  

                               

                              Miles help always - as long as you don't do so many that you become injured or overtrained.

                               

                              The other thing that many of us do over the years is put on a few pounds. Whatever else you do the best way to give yourself a chance is to lose the middle-aged mid-rift spare tyre, if you've developed one. I know some people just stay super-skinny throughout their lives, but most don't.

                                 

                                Miles help always - as long as you don't do so many that you become injured or overtrained.

                                 

                                The other thing that many of us do over the years is put on a few pounds. Whatever else you do the best way to give yourself a chance is to lose the middle-aged mid-rift spare tyre, if you've developed one. I know some people just stay super-skinny throughout their lives, but most don't.

                                 

                                The best shape of my life was a period of 3 months when I stayed healthy and did 60-70 MPW. I was doing very little speedwork - a few strideouts twice a week - and was only 1 sec off my mile PR while taking down the 3000m PR by 15.  Then I killed that by pushing too hard...as I always did because I got excited at how well I was doing....tore the hammy.

                                 

                                I was 165-170 at my best (I'm 6-3).  Have spiked as high as 217.  Currently 187 though I've definitely put on muscle through the years too.  Last summer I got down as low as 178 but had blood in my urine after some moderate distance runs in hot weather.  That may be my lower limit now.

                                 

                                One of the guys I talk to who is usually among the leaders at the local races is 43 now, says his weight hasn't varied more than 5 pounds up or down in 25 years.  Don't know how he does it!