Almost a Serious Runner

According to the June 2012 issue of Runner’s World, my new 5k PR puts me a mere 12 seconds away from marking me as a “serious” runner.

Maybe in another month or two I’ll attempt to shave off 3 seconds per mile and make the leap from hobby jogger to serious runner.

With my new 5k time comes new training paces…

My November HM time of 2:06:48 gave me an equivalent 5k time of 27:20 in RLRF, so I was using that for my training paces the past few months.  I had noted recently that my long run pace seems to have shifted to around a 9:40 pace, and 10:00 has become my easy full-sentence conversational pace, and I guess my new 5k time confirms it.

	Old	New
400m	2:02	1:51
800m	4:08	3:47
1200m	6:18	5:46
1600m	8:32	7:50
Short Tempo	9:05	8:23
Mid Tempo	9:20	8:38
Long Tempo	9:35	8:53
HMP	9:49	9:01
HMP + 20	10:09	9:21
HMP + 30	10:19	9:31
Easy	10:40	9:58

Some of these new paces sound kinda tough.  By the way, a 25:11 (25:10) 5k predicts a 1:56:39 half marathon. Gulp.

I know Run Less Run Faster suggests you do a 5k along the way to gauge progress and adjust training paces if necessary.  I need to go back and re-read parts of the book, but I think my 5k time predicts a 1:56:39 half based on my current fitness…not if I were to just begin the training now.

I was going to share something funny I came across about having curly hair, but I changed my mind because it turns out my hair wasn’t curly at all today.  It was above 90 with minimal humidity.  When allowed to air dry, as usual, this is what my hair looked like.  The natural curl appears to have fallen out– wtf?  And yes, this is pretty straight for my hair as there are no ringlets.

Maybe I need to take advantage of the low humidity and dust off my hair straightener again to finish the job. I kind of gave up on straightening my hair when it took me an hour and a half and in high northeast humidity, it would start to curl up again mid-day.

New PR! Operation School Bell 5k

Let’s start with the most fun part of the weekend- I ran a new 5K PR!

My last 5k was in August, and I ran a 28:07 (9:03 pace). It was hot and humid, and I spent the afternoon at a friend’s pool leading up to the evening race, but it was still a PR (maybe because it was my first time officially running that distance since my first 5k in July ‘09).

Saturday night I was trying to figure out what a good goal pace would be.  I had a bad too-fast tempo run last week that started at an 8:31 pace, went to 8:41 for the second mile, then slowed from there, so I was convinced that any pace faster than 8:31 would be hard (looking back, it was probably the heat and the hills that messed me up on that run).

I looked up equivalent race times in Run Less Run Faster, to see what 5k time would be equivalent to my goal of a 2 hour (or faster) half marathon.  A 2:00:31 half is equivalent to a 26:00 5k, which is an 8:22 pace, and that sounded hard.

I didn’t know what a good pace was for me. So I just went in with the loose goal of beating my previous 28:07, and hoping I could maintain around an 8:20-8:30 pace.  I set my watch up to beep at me at every half mile for more frequent feedback than my usual 1 mile autolap.

Clearly I started off WAY too fast.  When I saw the first half mile was at 3:50 I was surprised and knew I needed to slow down, but I felt surprisingly good for the first mile.  It was an out-and-back course, so there was an awkward turnaround on the bike path at 1.55 mi. marked by a blue arrow on the ground and two people telling us to turn around.  I guess I prefer loop courses- those kind of turns make me feel like I have to stop and then get started again.  There was water at mile 2, but I didn’t stop because it was a little chaotic and I figured I had hydrated enough before.

My legs were not feeling as fresh after 2 miles and I could tell I was slowing down.  [By the way: I’m shocked I ran the same pace for both halves of the 2nd and 3rd miles].  For the 3rd mile, it was feeling harder to maintain the (slower) pace I was running.

You could see and hear the finish area from about .25 mi away.  That’s when I started to pick up the pace. 

[Ignore the green line…Garmin made the 45’ of elevation change over 1.55 miles look way worse than it is]

I remember seeing the clock at 24:39 and knew I wasn’t going to break 25 since I still had .1 mi to go, but decided I was going to try to make it as close to 25 as I could.  I saved enough energy in the final stretch to pass a guy I had been running behind for the last couple minutes.

It wasn’t chip-timed, which meant I had to try to be coordinated enough to rip the bottom part of my bib off and hand it to someone as I ran across the finish line.  My time was 25:11.  I didn’t remember to stop my watch until after I had my bottle of water.

Overall I came in 50th/386 and shockingly, I won 1st place in my age group (small field of 25-29 year olds I guess).

  [Picture from a friend’s phone, don’t know why it’s B & W]

There were plenty of water bottles, orange slices, bananas, bagel chunks, and coffee at the end.  It was a nice low-key event and the proceeds go toward a good cause.  There was a Kid’s 1k Fun Run at 8, then the 5k run/walk started at 8:15.  Since the bike path used for the race is in full sun, I wouldn’t have minded if it started a little earlier.

The rest of April 30-May 6:

Mon: Above-referenced bad tempo run. 6.07 mi. Tempo parts were 8:31, 8:41, 9:13, 8:56, 9:00.

Tues:
AM-: 6 mi Running Store Fun Run/avg pace 9:57
PM- Track closed…7.71 mi/avg pace 9:35

Thurs: 10 mile loop in 1:42.  Killer 1.5 mile long hill at the beginning.

Sat: Running group’s prediction run (no watches). 3.66 miles in 36:38. Half trails/half paved roads. Ran 1:02 slower than my predicted time.

Sun: 3.1 miles in 25:11

Miles for the week: 36.65

Race Report: Flying Pig 5k

Wednesday night I ran a 5k!

It was at 7pm.  I'm not used to planning out my eating before a night "race."

I wanted to put forth respectable effort at the 5k, however, I also wanted to enjoy the rare opportunity for an afternoon at my friend's pool.

I had my usual coffee in the morning and some wheat cinnamon raisin toast with almond butter.  An early "lunch" involved some pita chips and hummus, Greek yogurt and honeydew melon.  (sounds good, right?)

Then I went to my friend's pool where over the course of 3.5 hours I got some slight sunburn on mostly the right side of my body, enjoyed a cold beer in the pool, had some soft pretzel sticks dipped in cheese sauce that another friend brought from the Philly Soft Pretzel factory, and a slice of ice cream cake.  Real nice.  I also made sure to drink 20-some ounces of water that I brought (I had good intentions of staying hydrated!)

I got home an hour before the 5k to choke down down a banana (no cramping) and more water.  I showed up at the park 20 minutes before the race to pick up my number and t-shirt (Only ~160 runners! Small races are so nice!)

The race started right on time... I forgot to start my watch because I was talking at the beginning...I think I started it about :30 late.  It was in the low 80s and not so humid (maybe only 50% humidity?).

At mile marker 1 the guy yelling out times yelled out 8-something but I didn't believe him, I don't think I was that fast. Since I screwed up mile 1, I hit the lap button when I hit that mile marker so at least my watch could have meaningful data from that point on.

Remaining paces:
Mile 2- 9:14
Mile 3- 9:08
.11 nugget- ( :56) 8:22
Overall Time: 28:07
According to the results page, I finished 92/157.

Thanks to some basic math, that means my first mile was below 9:00 after all?  Crazy.

Thumbs up for a new best time.

This is a new PR, but it is important to note: this is only my second real 5k.
My first race/first 5k was July 2009- pre-blogging days- and I ran it in 30:39 (9:51 pace).

I did do a "virtual 5k" on my own back in early June in 29:15.   Yay for improvement!


The race was run entirely in this park: through fields/dirt paths.  There was a cool part where we were running under really low trees that branched out over the path, from both sides, and kind of made a tunnel.  It was nice to run a race not on roads.  There was a water stop soon after the 2nd mile marker where I did grab a quick swig.  The water was nice and cold and gave me a little boost for the last mile.

My sub-$20 entrance fee got me a t-shirt, the motivation to run 3.1 miles faster than I would have on my own, and proceeds benefited Athletes Helping Athletes and a local school's track & cross country program.  Win- Win- Win!

My fantastic husband had a slice of Brooklyn pizza & salad waiting for me when I returned home.

no time for well-centered photos. hungry.

The pictures do not do it justice. This Brooklyn pie is amazing. 

And way too close to our apartment.

The End.