Oh, no, it's a 5K.
Feb. 23rd, 2012 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaIt took me longer than I expected to ramp my running back up after Houston; that calf cramp in mile 23 when I unwisely accelerated to HMP must have been the sign of a strain or tear, because it kept hurting during my runs, sometimes acutely. I took more time off than I had planned, and did a lot of fairly slow running, but I'm finally back up to around 50mpw - not as much as I had wanted, but it will do. Now it's time to start adding some speedwork as I focus on shorter distances, leading up to the Canyonlands Half in March and the Steamworks Half in June.
Which means - gulp - running a 5K. The 5K distance is a good one for beginners who are just trying to cover the distance faster than their usual training run, but once you get to the relatively competitive level, you realize that the 5K is a diabolical, awful distance, because you have to run FAST. I like marathons. Marathon pace is only a bit faster than your easy pace, because you have to conserve your energy and judge your fatigue. A 5K, though, is balls-to-the-wall (ovaries-to-the-wall?) puking territory. Which I am not so good at.
I get a lot of ribbing by fellow runners for having a 10K PR (43:06) which is considerably faster than twice my 5K PR (22:14). The thing is, that 10K is net downhill and at an elevation ~2500 ft lower than here. (I only justify driving almost 3 hours to run a 10K by the fact that it gets me a guaranteed entry to the Canyonlands Half. I cannot justify the drive for a 5K!)
My 5K PR is from two years ago; last year I ran the same course 12 seconds slower, partly because I lost sight of the runner ahead (it was a tiny race, fewer than 40 runners) and I'm better at chasing than I am at time-trialing on my own. The 5K on Saturday should have at least 150 runners. But it is a slightly harder course, because it starts downhill and ends uphill rather than the other way around as the other course did, and I have been doing almost zero fast running, so I'm not expecting a PR. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to TRY.
The real reason I'm running it is because, as I said, I'm not very good at time-trialing on my own. I'm lousy at running "5K pace" unless I'm actually running a 5K. This should be a good workout, whether I PR or not. Because the Canyonlands Half is coming up in (*gulp*) three weeks, and that is a race I really do want to PR!
Which means - gulp - running a 5K. The 5K distance is a good one for beginners who are just trying to cover the distance faster than their usual training run, but once you get to the relatively competitive level, you realize that the 5K is a diabolical, awful distance, because you have to run FAST. I like marathons. Marathon pace is only a bit faster than your easy pace, because you have to conserve your energy and judge your fatigue. A 5K, though, is balls-to-the-wall (ovaries-to-the-wall?) puking territory. Which I am not so good at.
I get a lot of ribbing by fellow runners for having a 10K PR (43:06) which is considerably faster than twice my 5K PR (22:14). The thing is, that 10K is net downhill and at an elevation ~2500 ft lower than here. (I only justify driving almost 3 hours to run a 10K by the fact that it gets me a guaranteed entry to the Canyonlands Half. I cannot justify the drive for a 5K!)
My 5K PR is from two years ago; last year I ran the same course 12 seconds slower, partly because I lost sight of the runner ahead (it was a tiny race, fewer than 40 runners) and I'm better at chasing than I am at time-trialing on my own. The 5K on Saturday should have at least 150 runners. But it is a slightly harder course, because it starts downhill and ends uphill rather than the other way around as the other course did, and I have been doing almost zero fast running, so I'm not expecting a PR. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to TRY.
The real reason I'm running it is because, as I said, I'm not very good at time-trialing on my own. I'm lousy at running "5K pace" unless I'm actually running a 5K. This should be a good workout, whether I PR or not. Because the Canyonlands Half is coming up in (*gulp*) three weeks, and that is a race I really do want to PR!