Saturday, April 6, 2013

That Was Fun!

Okay, so one of my great white whales has been the 22 minute 5K (7.04 pace).  I may have gone faster once or twice in high school, but those times are lost to posterity.  I got close in the hilly Chilmark Road Race in 2001 (22:16), but haven't really come close since.  This Fall, Nike+ told me that I'd run a 22.22 5K in the middle of a slightly longer fun run, so I thought the goal might be in sight.  In the run up to Rome, I ran a couple of 4 milers and one 5K, but always the day after a long run, so my times were slower.

Today felt like it might be the day.  On the up side, I rested yesterday, I'm still pretty fit from Rome, and I'd signed up for the Eileen Dugan 5K, a small (300 runners), flat, 5K in Brooklyn Bridge Park, less than a mile from my house.  On the down side, my left achilles is still a bit sore, and all that pasta from Rome seems to have found my midsection.  

Beautiful day, a bit cold, but that's not a bad thing.  Actually knew the folks at the registration table.  Nice! No line to pee!! Very nice!!!  Lined up, listened to a couple of speeches, including my second speech of the week from Marty Markowitz (Borough President).  Does that man ever sleep?

Took off fast. Concentrated on lifting my knees, and following through on both sides.  Settled in with a group of about 4 guys.  We kept trading places.  Looked at my heart rate monitor.  It said 213bpm.  Decided not to look at my heart rate monitor anymore, as it was clearly not reading correctly.  Feeling fine.  Looked again a few minutes later and it as reading at between 95 and 98%. That seemed about right.  First mile 6:45 pace.  Woohoo!!  Brooklyn Bridge Park is the home of many of my morning runs, so everything felt comfortable and familiar.  There were a couple of sharp turns that were annoying and a fair amount of gravel, very annoying, but still feeling okay.  Second mile 7:05 pace.  Just hang in and you've got it.  At this point, the guys I'd been running with started opening it up a bit, and I felt like I was drifting back slightly.  Gunning it to stay with them felt risky.  Checked heart rate, holding steady. Legs were beginning to hurt, but not too badly.  The finish was visible, for the whole last mile.  An old dude came up from behind, I pushed it some more.  Third mile 7:14 (okay . . .), and then kick it in for the last bit.  21:22.  Yess!!! I finished 15th,  not bad for an old guy.

After a bit of a post-mortem, all of the Garmins polled seemed to measure the course at around 3.06 or 3.07, so it appears that it was about 160 feet short.  But even if you add back about 10-20 seconds (I was kicking at about a 6 minute mile pace), I was still comfortably under 22 minutes, and set a new PR.   Hooray!!

And, the nice thing about 5Ks, is that my morning workout was over after less than half an hour.  

12 comments:

  1. Many, many congrats!

    I don't want to harp on this, but Greg McMillan says a 21:30 5K=3:29:30 marathon. All the caveats apply, of course. I see Ted in Boston in 2015.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Damn you Max Huffman! Damn you and your kind!! You are right, of course. The pace calculators are pretty consistent. My Half Marathon PR is 1:40.52, and that predicts a 3:30.18 marathon, and predicts a roughly 21:30 5K. So, apparently, I am not living up to my Marathon potential . . .

    McMillan also says I should be doing tempo runs at 7:24, and interval training at a 6:20 pace. I am not enthusiastic about any of that. . . I like me my LSD . . . Also, there's not a lot of room for error. If my pace slips even a couple of seconds per mile . . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm tentatively considering the Rehoboth Beach (Delaware) Marathon on December 7. It's reputed to be flat and fast. It should be predictably chilly. It's late enough in the year to allow getting all the other goals out of the way and then building on the base that you can't help having. And so on. Interested in making a big PR push there? Or do you have New York in your sights again?

      Delete
    2. That's a definite possibility. My NYC guaranteed entry is for 2014, so I'm in the market for a Fall marathon. Later is better. Brooklyn or Philly are currently high on the list. this is even later. That would also allow me to postpone the switch from Tri to Marathon until September. There is one important question I have about Rehoboth Marathon. If you look here, you will see what it is: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/12234077

      Delete
    3. I've never run a marathon with a GPS, but I would bet you can easily get .1-.3 deviation from 26.2 depending on how you run the corners.

      On the other hand, it would be nice to find a race with a reported 26.1 mile distance!

      Delete
    4. Philip and I know from hard experience that the Garmin is an imperfect device. I usually find that GPS adds about 0.1 to each half marathon, and 0.2 to each Marathon. In Rome, we got an extra 0.5. But if I'm trying to qualify for Boston I don't have a lot of leeway . . . Wait, did I just even admit that this was a goal?? Damn you Max Huffman!!

      Delete
  3. Does this mean no one is going to join me in Iceland on August 24th? How about it Ted? Another WTF marathon?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Currently thinking about Timberman, August 18. What say you Max? Vicki likes the idea of Iceland, but it coincided with the first week of classes (for me too).

    ReplyDelete
  5. My turn to say "darn you!" I was so proud of picking a third marathon that I could reach just by hopping in the car. I would even bet lodging in Rehoboth is affordable in December.

    Regrettably, the timing for August is probably impossible for me. My big goal event for the year is only 5 weeks later. Goodness knows I'd be cheering for either -- or both, or all three -- of you, if there was a European marathon reunion.

    Ted -- interested in a pre-race warmup or post-race beer if I can find my way to Timberman (and you haven't gone to Iceland instead)?

    (Must remember to do a blog post complaining about racing schedules that are as packed as work schedules. Since when did it become a chore to plan what is supposed to be fun? One day I swear I'll be flexible enough to say "count me in!" for such a fun venture.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Amazing! I am more impressed with a 5K PR than your marathon PR. There is an FDA 5K in May that my whole department is doing, but I don't even remember the last one I did.

    ReplyDelete
  7. FWIW, recovery from the 5K is turning out to be slower than from the Marathon. My legs are dead, both Achilles are angry, and my hamstrings are tight. The law school 5K is on Saturday. I may just spectate. . .

    ReplyDelete