Goal of sub 20 5k (Read 13664 times)

After running 9.5 miles yesterday and en route to an upper 50s week mileagewise I decided to try a time trial 5k all alone this morning since I haven't run a race since early June.

 

Started out nice and easy for the 1st half mile and was pleased to hit it in 3:13.

I thought I ran a similar 2nd half mile but it was getting harder and I hit a mile in 6:35.

I thought okay what is my pain level on a scale of 1 to 10.... it was about a 2.

 

My next half mile was run in 3:19.

The 4th half mile in 3:20 so my 2 mile split was 13:14.

 

Once I hit the 2 mile mark a switch went on and told me that this really sucks.

In mile 3 I have a long uphill rise on my local 5k course. 

At least I made this half mile in 3:24

The final half mile has a short but steep downhill at the end which I earned a 3:11 last half mile split.

 

So I hit 3 miles in 19:49

and the final tenth was 34 seconds downhill.

Finishing time was 20:23

 

I was hoping to run sub 20 on my huge mileage increase but I still am a little gunshy on getting out TOO fast.

It looks like my splits were pretty good so I cannot complain. Maybe I need a little more speed but I don't think I have run this course this fast ever before so I am close to my top shape. Hope that running in a race with other runners will give me a sub 20 by a nice cushion.

 

Half mile splits

3:13

3:22

3:19

3:20

3:24

3:11

 

Average half mile split 3:18.

I need 3:13 to go sub 20.

 

 

Yeah and it's making Mr. Potato Head a little nervous.

 

I thought the PH meant you were a doctor as in PHD.

I hit my goal of 60 miles for the week with 10 hours to spare.

I didn't think I would get there but the story of the girl who survived Hodgkins and ran 214 miles in a week definately made it seem more manageable.

 Do you feel like you are ahead of where you were at at this time last year? Not race-wise, but just general fitness-wise. I know you had that brief down period during the winter when your treadmill died. But, it looks like you are back in the saddle.

 

I think I am at the same level of fitness as I was last year when I ran a couple sub 20 efforts. Today's 20:23 solo effort was alot like a tempo run. The only reason I ran it today was to regain familiarity with the fatigue felt in races. After the effort today I remember saying out loud "Ow that hurt.....gee this hurts" but then a minute later I felt back to normal again. I remember counting 30 strides in 10 seconds in the 1st mile so I was right at 180 strides per minute.

 

Around 1.75 mile mark I still thought it hurt about a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10.

At the 2.75 mile mark I thought it hurt about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.

What made things wose was thinking ahead ... I remember thinking "I have to really sprint the last tenth" and that thought put my stomach in knots. I had to stop thinking ahead. That makes it hard to relax and focus on the present.

Today, I ran a track 5k that Jim told me about.  It was a private 5k organized by a running club in Saratoga, CA.  I arrived at about 7, met some of the members on the track, and just started warming up.

 

While I was warming up, there was a race for some of the relatively slower runners.  They weren't that slow.  I think the winner probably finished just outside of 20 min.  After I finished warming up, Jim came to say hi.  We've never met but Jim somehow figured it out who I am.  I guess I was the new guy!  He was so nice to introduce me to various folks, including Ken (Nice to meet you).

 

Weather was good.  Except for some water on the inside lane along one of the curve, the conditions were really good.  I was hoping for a fast finish at 19:30, but I knew my goal was in jeopardy yesterday when my legs were very sore due to intensive training the last few weeks.  I did give it a good run in the 1st mile or so.

 

When the "gun" sounded, a lot of of folks were really fast.  I was pulled along and ran the 1st 200 in about 44 sec.  That was way too fast, so I slowed down quite a bit to finish the 1st lap in 1:33.  But I probably slowed a little too much, so my 2nd lap was 1:36.  The fast guys were already 100m+ ahead of me, leaving me and another runner about 20m of each other (he was ahead).  I sped up to hope to catch him and draft behind him.  We ran at a pretty good pace for the next couple of laps.  But he slowed down after about 5 laps.  When I realized that, we already ran a 1:36 lap.  I sped up along the curve to pass him, only to be passed by him again in the straight portion.  I stayed behind and hoped he wouldn't slow down again.  Unfortunately, he did.  And the next lap was even slower at 1:37.  I had no choice but to pass him again.  I tried to speed up a little.  But I guess I was either too tired or not in shape, or both, the last few laps were a big stuggle and I finished 19:51.  It is still a PR (by 2 sec) but far from my goal.  I think I am having a plateau now.  I know I can run sub 20 consistently, but probably not ready to go much faster yet.  I hope I can do much better after my Marathon base building phase concludes in a couple of weeks.

 

I will run the Lake Merritt race again in 2 weeks and hope to do better next time.

 

Splits are as follows:

 

1-  1:33
2-  1:36
3-  1:34
4-  1:34
5-  1:36
6-  1:37
7-  1:35
8-  1:36
9-  1:36
10- 1:37
11- 1:36
12- 1:32
last 200-44

Nice race, gcklo.  A track 5000m race sounds like fun to me. 

gcklo - those splits look nice and even to me. I would be very interested in running a race on a track. I did not run T&F in high school, so missed my chance.

 

MrPHinNJ - you're just sprouting PR's this summer. good work.

 

Nice run MichiganFlyer. I had always wondered if those time trials you did were helpful, but last year proved they worked.

 

Splits are as follows:

 

1-  1:33
2-  1:36
3-  1:34
4-  1:34
5-  1:36
6-  1:37
7-  1:35
8-  1:36
9-  1:36
10- 1:37
11- 1:36
12- 1:32
last 200-44

 

Gcklo have you ever run a track 5k before?

I think running on the turns is difficult for me because I am used to road races.

A track 5k would be 50% on turns thus it seems like one leg would be running a little further with each stride on the turns. This would really mess with my mechanics.

That and I would struggle to run just to get back to the same place 12 times in a row.

Nice job on the  new record.

 

The splits look great. You never really lost any speed here.