Nice race. I don't think there is any question that to run your best 5K, you have to go out hard. You'll lose way too much time if you start out slow and try to make it up at the end.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
From the Internet.
Thanks so much everyone I'm a very analytical sort of person so this is what I've been DYING to do since I started running - plan out a training cycle, set a reasonable-but-tough goal, strategize for optimal performance during the race - and I'm so happy that my legs are finally cooperating with me!
Mitch - I will definitely be careful coming back! Don't want to have to take more time off due to my own foolishness!
happylily - nope, not painful at all and it's really tiny, but knowing that it's not something that can heal on its own made me decide to just get the surgery over with now instead of waiting for it to turn into a bigger problem.
LRB - yeah, it was a long struggle to figure out that I need to do what's working for ME, right now, not try to do what other people do. Nearly every day I ask myself if this run is going to help or hurt my long-term training; most of the time the answer is "help", but if I'm feeling extra achy for some reason I'm not upset about taking an extra day off anymore.
I'm pretty much set on running the 10K now, just have to check in with the legs on tomorrow morning's run and make sure all systems are go again. Sitting in the grass right after the finish line I was thinking I'd never want to race again ever, but now that it's been a day I can't wait to get back out there!
music_girl - looking forward to hear what increased mileage does for you next year! Hopefully it'll be good for both of us!
nova_runner - the surgery is just a minor inconvenience at this point, haha - after last year I'm just glad that I'll be out for something non-running-related, and that I could schedule around races!
LTH - true fact; it was good for me mentally to experience that firsthand this time. No more conservative 5K starts for this girl!
delicate flower
Wow, some fast chicas in that field. 'Round these parts, it's rare to see that many women in one field break 20 minutes. Heck, the annual women's 5K here only had three sub-20's this year in a field of almost a thousand, but you had five in your AG? Fast!
Nice job, Lauren! Sounds like you ran it right, and wanting to puke around mile 2.6 is confirmation of that.
<3
Barking Mad To Run
WOW! Impressive race for you! BIG congratulations, Lauren!
Guess I'll never be chasing your Great Legs in a race, Ms. Speedy!
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt
Nice racing Lauren. That pukey feeling is part of what I hate about 5k's. I've spent the last .1 dry heaving before. Ugh. But way to train hard and hit your goal! Congrats!!
What a great description of the 5k. That's exactly what I go through, except for the pre-puking strategy. Congrats!
Thanks guys!
Baboon - we have a *lot* of clubs and opportunities for sub-elite type runners in this area of New England. I'm essentially never going to win an AG award in a race larger than like, 100 people, but it's pretty inspiring to be around runners of that level so often. This year the top 2 were from New Balance and Saucony respectively, and the top scoring team was a club based in Methuen MA who sent 3 women who all went under 19:00. One of our club members is involved with the New England Distance Project, which provides housing, training facilities, stipend for race and general living expenses, and medical support for runners who are really good but not yet at the level of the heavily-sponsored elites - they didn't have any runners in our race this year but usually they do, the top 2 last year were NE Distance runners.
Scotty - my apologies! If I ever run a race in your neck of the woods I'll just turn back and run to the finish with you!
Healed Hammy
Nice race Lauren, glad you could execute well on this 5k. I lack the experience of many on this forum, but after a PR in my last 5k in Sep let me offer what worked for me. In my mind before the race started I wanted to run hard but keep my breathing controlled for the first 2 miles. I was not going to exceed a 3x3 pattern, and allowed my leg turnover to be dictated by that. If I ran too fast and labored too much I would slow slightly. If I was feeling pretty good I would try to pull back on my stride a little harder to go faster. At the 2 mile mark I then switched to a 2x2 pattern, knowing I had 7 min left of pain. Using this method I ran basically even splits (5 sec diff between miles) and had 1 min PR. Go get that 10k.