Notes
Since this is supposed to be a race I am writing a damn race report.
Whenever I have a scheduled hard work out or a race I fluctuate between confidence and doubt, and today was no different. When the fake race was announced I thought 32:30 would be a realistic goal and the 6:30 pace seemed about right. But the more I thought about it the more I realized my 5K PR was 20:22 which is a 6:35 pace. Hmm. I have another 11 months of running under my belt, I’m probably in the best shape of my life, but I haven’t raced a 5k since August, I haven’t done much speed work, and I didn’t have any reall good 5k races in 2014 except the PR. More doubt. At the end of a good workday yesterday I was fired up to run my 5 this morning. I felt good, had a great easy run yesterday where things just felt super easy and was ready to roll. The St Thomas girls were playing in the Wboro tourney last night and a win would get them in the tourney finals of the Girls B bracket (we are playing in the finals of the Boys B bracket today as well) so the family headed over to the gym to watch the game (they won) and I met them around 6:15. We stayed late to watch the SPV boys and girls play, and also watched the Acton vs Line game (Acton won and we get them today- they are the best team in the tourney). Up a little later then I wanted to be but slept well and got up early. My hamstring has been a bit of a niggle for several days now but I go with the icy/hot and wrap that sucker for about 10 minutes. It feels ok and I start with the warm up. After an easy mile I work my way to strides at goal pace for .10 stretches. Everything feels ok but the legs are a little heavy. Nothing crazy. Thru the first 2 things feel ok. Not struggling but not easy. I decide to start the first mile slower than pace because my race history isn’t great. Every time I go out faster or at pace I fade. Not good. So I decide to work my way down. I think this worked. I continue to work my way down and count down the time left from 32:30. 30 minutes left. 27 minutes left. 20 minutes left. Time is going by quickly but I decide to never get to aggressive with my pace and drop it 1 level after each mile after progressively speeding up on mile 1. At 3.4 mark or so I start to feel the fade but fight it. Once I hit the 4 mile mark I slow the pace to 6:35 and try to hold on for as long as I can. As I get to 4.2 I start to work my way down again (faster) but do so slowly at the .4.25, 4.5 etc. At the 4.9 mile mark I crank it to 10 (No Nigel not 11) and finish hard. All and all happy with effort for now. Definitely need to work on my speed to eventually get under 20mins/5k this year. The hammy was never an issue. Onward.