Goal of sub 20 5k (Read 13664 times)

We've had gObLuE back a few weeks now, and survived a close call with M'Flyer, but it looks like PowerOfQ is still down, and now Quint is dinged (but the streak lives).  You guys get healthy!!  It helps with the motivation knowing somewhere you guys are pounding the pavement and sweating in the heat & humidity of summer just like the rest of us.

 

Hope you guys can get healthy.  I'm slowly bringing sexy back, and I don't have any races near-term to worry about (there pretty much is no summer racing season in Alabama due to the stupid heat), so I plan to crush the 20-minute barrier and make it suffer come this fall.

Hope you will recover soon.

 Yeah, you have been hitting the roads lately, every day in fact. Nice going and back from the hammy. If you keep that up the rest of summer, you'll do more than crush 20 minutes this fall.

 

I got dinged a little bit, but I'll be back soon. It's just a speed bump. I've gotten aquainted with our elliptical.

Mobram, you've been plugging away the last few weeks. Looks like you got a race Sunday and another 5k the following weekend. If the heat isn't too bad on race day, it will be interesting to see how all that will pay off in your next few races.

Funny, had just checked the Weather Channel for Sunday's race day forecast before coming over here...temperture at race time in the low 80s with heat index near 90.  Yip, yip, yipeee!!!

I have been traveling for the past two weeks, and as a result my training has fallen apart.  Prior to this trip, I had 5 straight weeks of 40 mpw and was starting to feel really good.  Last week I did only 16, and this week I'm on pace for around the same. 

Unfortunately, I'm also running a 5k tomorrow.  I think I'm going to shoot for sub-21, which would be a PR if I can pull it off, but I'm not at all confident in my current fitness.  I guess we'll see what happens.

Got my 2nd sub 20 today - but only barely - at 19:59.  I have a few "theorectical sub 20s" based on the finishing times from longer distances as calculated by the calculators. 

 

We are in the middle of having a heat wave and so temp was about 80F at 9am.  But that wasn't the biggest problem.  This course is always tough, not because of some mild hills and many frequent turns, but because it is an open course.  The majority of the running path is about 3-4 ft wide and we have to share with hundreds of walkers, dogs, and casual joggers.  Weather was warm this morning so they all came out.  Hard to go more than 5 sec without dodging someone. 

 

I accidentally kicked a dog after about a mile.  I was trailing a guy for about 7 - 8 yards.  He passed the dog.  I was just following his path.  Then, the dog owner suddently loosened the leash and the dog came onto my path.  I tried to avoid it but couldn't. Good that I wasn't tripped by the dog and fell.  Hope the dog is ok too  (I am an animal lover with a dog and 3 cats myself) and I really think the dog owner should have been more careful.

 

Then just before mile 2, a high school kid passed me.  But he cut in front of me immediately and slowed down!  And the back of his feet kicked into my legs! This brought back the bad memory a few years back when a high school kid elbowed me to the floor in the last 50 yards in a FUN 5k track race.  I spent several seconds scolding this kid this time!  I don't know what their coaches taught them in high school but this is really poor ettiquete.

 

I should have a race in 2 weeks, I hope.  Just waiting for Jim's notification!

Good one! Congratulations. I think I recognize that course...... I kicked a squirrel there once.

I think it was Jim that told me that course was roughly 20 seconds slower than a flat and fast course for a 5k and I'd have to agree with him. If you catch a good day on a fast course I bet you can get close to or under 19:30.

John

Got my 2nd sub 20 today - but only barely - at 19:59.  I have a few "theorectical sub 20s" based on the finishing times from longer distances as calculated by the calculators. 

 Good job, and whether it's one second or 5 seconds, doesn't matter. You still got sub 20 on what sounds like a difficult course in the heat. Like John was saying, sounds like you have a lot faster in you on a good course/day. Congrats.

I have been traveling for the past two weeks, and as a result my training has fallen apart.  Prior to this trip, I had 5 straight weeks of 40 mpw and was starting to feel really good.  Last week I did only 16, and this week I'm on pace for around the same. 

 

Unfortunately, I'm also running a 5k tomorrow.  I think I'm going to shoot for sub-21, which would be a PR if I can pull it off, but I'm not at all confident in my current fitness.  I guess we'll see what happens.

My 5k this morning went surprisingly well.  I was aiming for just under 21, so 6:45 miles.  My runs since coming back from my trip haven't felt great, and I've thrown in race-pace 1/2-mile sections just to get a feel for the pace.  Those 1/2-mile sections have felt pretty difficult, so I wasn't very confident about the race.

Fortunately, conditions for the race were pretty much perfect.  About 70 degrees, overcast, no wind, and a pancake-flat course.  I went out at a comfortably hard pace and finished the first mile in 6:45.  The second mile went by in 6:38, and though I was tired I still felt in control.  I unconsciously picked up the pace in the third mile; I remember looking down about halfway through it and seeing 6:25 for the lap pace on my Garmin!  I ran the final 1.1 miles in 7:00 (6:22/mi) for a final time of 20:25.  That's a big improvement over my previous PR of 20:59 and a big step toward my sub-20 goal for this summer.

Given my big negative split, I probably could have run this a bit faster, but I was feeling very iffy about this race and wasn't confident enough to go out any faster.  I'm very happy with my performance and feel like my consistent 40-mile weeks and interval workouts for the past couple of months are paying off.