On Saturday I did nine nifty niles --- er, miles --- in 1:16:##. Although the average pace was 8:31/mi, I did work an old fashioned fast finish into the final 0.2 miles. I kept looking down at the instantaneous pacing on my Forerunner, waiting for it to get below 6:00/mi and, just before I hit Stop, it read 5:37/mi. Tomorrow at Ryken will likely be one of the most crucial workouts of the spring. I'm psyching myself to run each of the two 2400s sub-8:45 --- because, if I can do that, then breaking 18:00 (or at least 18:32) at Hospice won't seem too impossible. I'll be mildly satisfied, however, if I can run each in under 9:00. Perry, you said you wanted to run 4 X 800, so perhaps you could join me for the two 2400s but sit/stand out the middle 800 on each. That would certainly help me with pacing, even if you were running a few clicks faster. And I also plan to do a fairly all-out 200 in between the 2400s.

I'll aim to arrive at Ryken tomorrow around 4:50 p.m. Any earlier and we'd likely find the track occupied by spring sports --- including Track.

Breaking 20:00 in a 5k will require an average pace of 6:26 or lower. Do you think at Hospice you'll be running that speed at the same heart rate with which you achieved 6:45 at the last race? In other words, will your heart rate have adjusted to run the faster pace at the same level of exertion? The more I think about it, the more breaking 8:45 on BOTH 1.5-mile intervals seems overwhelmingly overambitious. Perhaps a sound strategy would be to run each mile in 6 flat, and then strive to run each of the third 800s sub-3:00. The main idea behind this workout is for the three intervals (1 X 2400 + 1 X 200 + 1 X 2400) to add up to my desired 5k time --- which, hypothetically, is 17:59. So if I ran the 200 in 33 seconds, that means I would have 17 minutes and 26 seconds left for THREE miles ... or about 8 minutes and 43 seconds for each 1.5-mile interval. That would entail running each of those 2400 intervals at a 5:49 pace. But then again, an average pace of 5:48 or lower is absolutely necessary for breaking 18:00 in a 5k.

Track team is on the Ryken track right now, so we're heading over to the Leonardtown library to run around the governmental center.

Hospice should be interesting Rick -- I'm thinking I'd like to run the first couple miles at 6:20. I don't know how I'll really do, but if we both follow our plans more or less, you'll be nearby with a GPS watch, so I might ask you how we're doing I measured out approximately where the quarter and half mile marks are on the Hospice 5K course this evening, so I can check via stopwach my pace at them. I already know where the mile marks are. Ryken had lacrosse game, field hockey game, JV field hockey game, and two softball games, I think -- both field hockey games in the field inside the track, but surprisingly they really stayed off the track, and we still ran the intervals. I ran the first & third 800m of each of the 2400ms, and I ran the 200m in the middle. I believe the first three 800ms were under 6min pace, and my last was just on it. My 200m was a little slower than 34s (I got 34s on my watch, but so did DR, and he was ahead of me, so I must have stopped short.)

Based on that workout, I think you're underestimating yourself. Yesterday was definitely a long sleeve workout day, but I managed with shorts (as opposed to long pants). The Charm City Run spring race training program is done, giving way to the Baltimore Road Runners Club beginner 5K program. Despite CCR and BRRC having no official affiliation, a lot of the faces remained the same. I warmed up a half mile before stretching. I never really count this in my weekly mileage total, though... I just want to do a warm-up jog so I can stretch out a bit better. As I stretched out, the beginner 5K runners took to the track, but only lightly jogged. Some other of the more experienced runners went out to the trails for a tempo run. After stretching out, I warmed up for 1.25 miles. The intended workout for the evening was 3x1600 at roughly 10K pace, which I estimated to be a 7:20 - 7:30 per mile pace. The first interval felt very good. I was relaxed throughout most of it, and had no trouble negotiating my way through the crowd (for the most part, they stayed out of Lane 1). I finished the first 1600 in 7:10. After an 800 meter recovery (9:21), I began the second 1600. It was at this point that I began to feel challenged by a kid from BRRC who was doing 800 meter intervals (with 400 m recoveries). There's nothing worse than the feeling of being passed, even when it's only a workout and someone is (by design) running faster than you. That being said, I ran finished the second 1600 in 6:55, followed by another 800 recovery (4:53). I ran the third 1600 at a similar pace as the second. However, much like with the 1200s two weeks ago, I opened up my stride on the final lap. I wish I had thought to hit the lap button right before the lap, because I'm interested in knowing my split. While that information is lost forever, I ran the third 1600 in 6:39. However, I do know that my pace peaked at 5:45. I cooled down for another 1.25 miles and stretched out, finishing the day with 6.5 miles total. I also found my average heart rates for the intervals to be interesting... Interval # / Time / Average HR 1. 7:10 / 173 bpm 2. 6:55 / 176 bpm 3. 6:39 / 179 bpm The third was done at about 90 - 95% of max HR, which is close (i.e., a bit slower) than what 5Ks are generally run at (according to a few articles I've read). This suggests that a 6:26 average pace over a 5K is probably a bit out of reach at the present. However, a pace closer to 6:35 may not be asking for too much. I still plan to go out with two 6:30 miles, and hopefully adrenaline can help the rest of the way. I'm planning on doing an easy five miles tonight. However, to mix things up a bit, I'm going to do somewhat of a throwback to a high school cross training run... I'll run 2.5 miles at the normal pace, at which point I'll drop to the ground and do my full core routine (~10 minutes). I'll then get up and run another 2.5 miles. I'm prepared to look ridiculous this evening at the NCR Trail.

I was just using that RA Calculator Perry has in his posts, and it looks like the difference between 1.5 miles and 1.57 miles is more significant than I realized. Whereas running 1.5-miles in 9:01 equals a 6:01 pace, running 1.57-miles in 9:01 indicates a 5:45 pace! Conversely, running 2400 METERS in 9:01 equals a 6:03 pace (because 2400 meters equals 1.49 miles).

Now that I think about it, your first-mile split at the last race was sub-6:00, right?