I have set a goal for myself to race a 5K under 19:00
minutes by the end of the year. It could be 18:59 and I would be happy with
that. I did a 5K a couple weeks ago, the first since last October I believe,
and my first race of this year. Think of this as a practice run to see where my
fitness is at this point and to check out this course. I plan to run another
race that will follow the same route on March 12 so now I am familiar with it.
During the race two weeks ago I got off course at the
half way turn around. I should have made a sharp U-turn from the road onto a
bike path but I swung too far out and into a parking lot losing me a few
seconds to get back on the path. I finished with a time of 20:34 which is better
than anticipated at this point giving me 1st in age group and 5th
overall. This was a popular but low key race; the faster runners in the area
did not show up.
The temperature at the start was 52 degrees, which for me
was cold. Even after a warm-up I still felt like I could not relax over the
first mile. I just felt stiff and could not get up to speed.
So my goal for the next race is to work on speed
endurance. I will do this with a couple 20 minute tempo runs, some one mile
repeats and half mile repeats. I keep the recovery time between repeats short
to avoid recovering too much. I only do work-outs two days a week; the other
days are variations of slower runs, only running 5 days a week.
For some tips on getting faster for 5K’s check out this
article from Competitor.com
Follow these workouts and crush your
PRs in no time.
Despite being “short” from a distance
runner’s standpoint, the 5K and 10K are difficult race distances to master.
The 5K requires you to run at close to
maximum effort for 3.1 miles, which usually results in redlining only 1.5 miles
in. While the race is over in just 20 to 30 minutes, toe the line unprepared
and you’ll be suffering the second half of the race.
The 10K, on the other hand, is a blend
of speed and endurance that necessitates running only a few ticks slower than
5K pace, yet for double the distance. Be off your pacing or fitness by only a
fraction and the last two miles will be torture.
