Celebrate Westlake 5 mile race
I entered the local 5 mile race today. $1000 to both men's and women's winner. Not that I was a threat for the cash, but it made for some great competition out there. Its been relatively cooler here in NE Ohio and it drizzled much of the morning. Lucky for us, the heavy rain held off until afterwards.
In prep for next week's 50km, my training over the past month has primarily been runs of easy pace and a tempo run session once per week. No fast speedwork. Last Tuesday, I did 4x1600 at (6:22 pace,) so I thought that 6:22 pace, or sub-32:00, might be a good target for today's 5 mile. My PR is 31:40 from year 2004 Bay Days.
The course was virtually flat. The first and last miles were a perfectly straight, wide road. The middle three miles wandered around the Bradley Woods metropark with about a 5/8 mile stretch on a dirt and grass trail.
After a good warm-up and a set of strides I was ready to go. Everything went okay.
Mile 1 in (6:09) as I was just a bit fired up. I found myself within a group of fast runners. I corrected my pace in mile 2 (6:18) as the field started to spread out. This was only my 4th attempt at the distance, yet I knew that the race doesn't start until about the 3 mile mark. I remember that's where the pain really begins, and today was no different. Mile 3 (6:24) was my slowest one, but I managed to keep a small reserve in my pocket for the finish. I hit mile 4 (6:21) in 25:12 and at that point I knew I had a shot at my PR, if I could only run 6:30 for mile 5. We hit the last final straightaway. I pushed on, trying to relax and concentrate at the same time, and broke the tape in mile 5 (6:17) for an 11 second PR.
Final time: 31:29 (6:18 pace)
Splits: 6:09/6:18/6:24/6:21/6:17
Course records broken for both the men in (23:1x) and women in (26:1x.) An extra $1000 each went to a Moroccan and a Russian, respectively. After the race, the heavy rains came and no results posted. I figure there was at least 500 runners, if not more. I'm not sure of my final placing, but I don't imagine I was better than 40th place.
I'm happy with the result, yet it makes me wonder what I could do if I added some faster interval workouts. I certainly felt the pain in those middle miles. Those negative thoughts popped into my head that said "Why are you doing this?" But as normal, once I break the tape the discomfort subsides and the sense of acheivement quickly erases any and all pain I might have felt during the race.
One other comment for today. I can tell that I'm carrying some around extra fat on my body. I have a jelly-belly because with ultramarathons I've drifted away from extreme carb-loading and I've gravitated towards more fat and protein, as a higher percentage of my overall diet. (Translated: I keep a stash of kettle chips handy.) While I can rely on those fat stores to help out in the longer races, it did me no good today. I felt the extra weight dragging me down.
Oh well, on to bigger and better races......fall marathon mania is around the corner.
In prep for next week's 50km, my training over the past month has primarily been runs of easy pace and a tempo run session once per week. No fast speedwork. Last Tuesday, I did 4x1600 at (6:22 pace,) so I thought that 6:22 pace, or sub-32:00, might be a good target for today's 5 mile. My PR is 31:40 from year 2004 Bay Days.
The course was virtually flat. The first and last miles were a perfectly straight, wide road. The middle three miles wandered around the Bradley Woods metropark with about a 5/8 mile stretch on a dirt and grass trail.
After a good warm-up and a set of strides I was ready to go. Everything went okay.
Mile 1 in (6:09) as I was just a bit fired up. I found myself within a group of fast runners. I corrected my pace in mile 2 (6:18) as the field started to spread out. This was only my 4th attempt at the distance, yet I knew that the race doesn't start until about the 3 mile mark. I remember that's where the pain really begins, and today was no different. Mile 3 (6:24) was my slowest one, but I managed to keep a small reserve in my pocket for the finish. I hit mile 4 (6:21) in 25:12 and at that point I knew I had a shot at my PR, if I could only run 6:30 for mile 5. We hit the last final straightaway. I pushed on, trying to relax and concentrate at the same time, and broke the tape in mile 5 (6:17) for an 11 second PR.
Final time: 31:29 (6:18 pace)
Splits: 6:09/6:18/6:24/6:21/6:17
Course records broken for both the men in (23:1x) and women in (26:1x.) An extra $1000 each went to a Moroccan and a Russian, respectively. After the race, the heavy rains came and no results posted. I figure there was at least 500 runners, if not more. I'm not sure of my final placing, but I don't imagine I was better than 40th place.
I'm happy with the result, yet it makes me wonder what I could do if I added some faster interval workouts. I certainly felt the pain in those middle miles. Those negative thoughts popped into my head that said "Why are you doing this?" But as normal, once I break the tape the discomfort subsides and the sense of acheivement quickly erases any and all pain I might have felt during the race.
One other comment for today. I can tell that I'm carrying some around extra fat on my body. I have a jelly-belly because with ultramarathons I've drifted away from extreme carb-loading and I've gravitated towards more fat and protein, as a higher percentage of my overall diet. (Translated: I keep a stash of kettle chips handy.) While I can rely on those fat stores to help out in the longer races, it did me no good today. I felt the extra weight dragging me down.
Oh well, on to bigger and better races......fall marathon mania is around the corner.
2 Comments:
congrats on the pr
Thank you!
Good luck with you running ambitions.
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