Another year of training capped off with my local 5K. This year, of course, was different as Covid has driven the race to virtual. I've been doing virtual distance challenges for the last 3 months, which I enjoyed. However, this was my first virtual race. In retrospect, I was underwhelmed by the experience as it felt a bit empty. The heart of racing is the thrill of competition. Without the social aspect I really don't get the point. On the positive note, the virtual race construct did give me the focus and motivation to go out and run a hard fast effort 5K.
I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning so I could get out and take advantage of the relatively cool Saturday morning. I followed my normal wake routine and then headed out for a 1 mile warmup, followed by some leg swings, lunges, and squats. I then put on my Vaporfly's and jogged the 1/3 mile to the starting point of the course.
I got there at 6:45 am, settled myself, made sure my watch was properly connected to GPS and within 30 seconds I was off.
Despite it not being a true race I still felt some excitement and I wound up going out a bit too fast. My target pace was Sub 6:05 but I was moving at 5:00 pace for the first 30 seconds. After about 200 meters I course corrected and settled myself down to a more appropriate rhythm. The fast start didn't seem to have much effect except for getting my HR up to 160. Once I slowed down to 6:00 minute miles the pace felt relaxed and easy relatively. I cruised along just trying to stay relaxed and without much event hit the 1 mile mark at 5:52 (a 1 mile PR). I continued cruising along through the 2nd mile, focusing on not slowing down. I ran past a group walking the course with dogs on the back stretch of town (I assume they were participating in the virtual race as well). I hit my second mile split in 5:57.5. At this point my HR was in oscillating in the 171-175 range.
I wasn't hurting too bad but I could feel the fatigue creeping in and my mind started questioning if I should let up a bit. I thought even if I ran a 6:20 for the third mile I'd still be at my goal of 6:05 pace. I pushed those thoughts aside and kept moving, not really pushing harder but just trying not to slow down. I headed down the slight hill to my house and then down Calhoun street. I started to feel the slight pain in my gut which normally accompanies hard efforts but it wasn't too bad.
At the end of Calhoun there's a very short but steep hill (maybe like 10 strides worth). My HR reached a peak at 181. I rounded the curve onto a slight downhill and my HR went back down to 177. I hit the final turn onto the main street and had .20 left to the finish.
I picked it up slightly to 5:50 pace and hit the 3rd mile at a 5:56.5 split. With .10 left I pushed a bit harder and finished the last bit at 5:30 pace with my HR finally getting back to 180 by the end.
Final stats:
3.12 miles
0:18:25
5:54 pace
After, I jogged home, swapped out of my Vaporflys and finished with a 1.73 cooldown.
Some thoughts:
- Going into the day I thought I was probably in 18:45 shape so I exceeded my expectations by a bit
- This was definitely a hard effort... it hurt but I never hurt too bad. I think there's still a bit more to give
- I didn't really truly kick at the end. I ran hard but not like I would have kicked at a race.
- I didn't really taper for the race so that should buy me a bit of time.
- I ran just about perfect splits for all 3 miles, never really slowing, with my HR right at the correct amount of effort. I don't think I could have done any better really at pacing and maybe having other people to race against could have messed me up
- I need to start off slow at my next real race. I could easily see running a 5:30 first mile and dying.
- Even though it was a huge PR I'm still hungry for more. Now I'm thinking sub 17 for next years goal.
- Even though it was a huge PR it felt empty. Just not the same excitement as doing it in an actual race :(
- I'm at 2.5 years of consistent cardio exercise. 2018 I mostly biked with a bit of running for a combined time of 105 hours 32 minutes. 2019 I split biking and running for a combined time of 186 hours and 34 minutes. 2020 I've mostly run with a bit of biking with a combined time of 209 hours and 12 minutes (so far). Consistency is the key here.
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