My wife surprised me earlier this week by signing us both up for a 5K this weekend despite her having to work 7 days this week and me spending the weekend redoing the kitchen floor in our house. Gotta make time for some enjoyment in life...I'm honestly exhausted right now so I'll stop rambling and get to the point.
This is one of the flatter race courses in the area we live in and it's the course I've run my best 5k time on 6 years ago (19 minutes 15 seconds). The course has changed a little bit since then and a hill was added since then (BOOOOOOO HILL) but I still managed to defeat my time goal of 21 minutes for this race.
I'm still working on getting back to the speed I was at six years ago and I have no doubt that I've yet to hit my peak even though I'm 38 years old. My wife is just now getting back into running after a year plus hiatus and I'm happy to see her getting back into it. It's nice having a partner who shares so many common interests with me.
I had it in the back of my mind that I might shock myself and come in under 20 minutes but that was more of a pipe dream at this point in my training but it was nice to get close to it! Those first 2 miles I was on pace to hit 20 minutes exactly but I kind of tanked the last mile by about 16 seconds and my 2nd mile was a few seconds slower than my first.
I was very happy with the overall result, especially since I wasn't planning on racing this weekend until a couple of days ago when she told me she'd signed us up for this race. Below are some stats showing the best few times, my time and the total number of finishers (620).
So overall I placed in the top 7% out of 620 finishers and in my age group I placed 7th out of 33 men age 35-39...tough age group!
It also really gives me confidence that I haven't yet hit my peak as far as speed goes after seeing that the 3rd overall finisher was my age and he ran it at a 5:27 / mile pace and finished in under 17 minutes. I've done a single mile that fast before but not 3 of them in a row (I probably could do about 5:50 right now for one mile).
If I don't get any more surprise races in the next month, my next race will be a 10K the last weekend in May. Seeing the time I ran today makes me want to re-evaluate my goal for that one....Maybe @toofasteddie is right and I should shoot for 42 minutes in that race instead of 44. That course has a lot of hills on it though...a lot more than this one did.
But we'll see. I'm gonna keep on training and see what happens before the brutal heat of summer restricts my training to mostly shorter runs.
Time for me to sign off...gotta get up and work on that kitchen floor some more tomorrow so I'd better get a good night's sleep after racing and doing so much else today...(sigh).
Congratulations on your progress! I wrote a Blog on how to improve your stride.. you could check it out here: https://steemit.com/running/@gflfitness/lovehow-to-improve-your-running-performance-with-resistance-training
Looking forward for your comments 💪🏾
Well the post is past the 7 day mark so I'd upvote it but it wouldn't pay out anything for you so here's a little something for your comment.
I have used weight training before as part of my training regimen on top of running 3 days per week when I was training for the Las Vegas marathon in 2016 and I must say I was shocked at how much it helped me maintain my speed over long distances and helped me get faster as well.
There is definitely value added for runners in adding resistance / weight training to their exercise regimen for sure. Thanks for sharing your post with me!
Come on! of course I am right ;-)!!!
20'19" in 5K means less than 42' in 10K! More than that I would consider it a total defeat :-)
No, seriously, I think is achievable and, also you can get better than that... anyway, first target is to enjoy the race!!!
A lot of it depends on the course honestly...the Knoxville track club likes to put huge hills on some of their courses and the upcoming 10k is one of the hilliest courses of all the races they hold. But if I throw in some serious hill training in exchange for a tempo or speed interval run during the week It could help me not lose much time on the hills. I try and bank time on the flats and downhills and it works pretty well, it's all a matter of finding that perfect pace on the uphill that doesn't burn me out before the end of the race.
I appreciate your faith in my capability my friend! 4 weeks to go and we'll see where I finish. My fastest 10k ever and only one I've run in under 40 minutes was actually the first 10k out of a 15k race but it was a net downhill so I don't really count that. For just a 10k distance my record is somewhere just under 41 minutes. So 42 will be a challenge but I'm gonna give it a shot!
I bet for 41'30" ;-)
@cryptokeepr Thank You for inspiring me and many others to do The Best We can and to keep Working Hard and not to be discouraged. Life has many challenges and the way we build Character is to see how we confront those challenges..................
Man life has been nothing but challenges lately it seems. Sometimes it's overwhelming, but ya just gotta keep on going and trying to make a better life no matter how good you already have it. Glad you're inspired by my accomplishments. Making time to run and disciplining myself to stick to it has been one of the harder things for me to do lately but I do it.
Keeping up with blogging here is also hard to make time for sometimes but I just can't pass on the enormous opportunity that exists here. I look at how far my account has come in less than a year (more of it is due to my own investment) and I think about in a few years my life might be completely different. I may have more time for the things I love doing. But for now I do what I can and I do it the best I can and that's all I can do is my absolute best.
It's worked for me for many years now and I can't wait to see what the future holds.
Seventh in your age group!!! Yey and congrats!!! :)
When I was in the 30-34 age group I would fairly often place in the top 3 and get an award but I'm a little bit slower now...I'll get my speed back though and I plan on getting to a level I've never been at before by the time late fall rolls around.
Good for you! Go! :)
5 kms en 20 minutes ! Bravo. Good luck for the 10 kms.
Thank you :) I'm looking forward to that next race!
really you showing very inteligent running project.i like your running game..because alltime giving run post in your blog..you really inteligent person of game.thanks to sharing for your great post..my dear friend.. @cryptokeepr
But in order to make dreams come into reality,
it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication,
self-discipline, and effort.
Jesse Owens
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Hey @cryptokeepr!
Would you be interested in joining our MoveMob for May? We've set targets for running goals for this month and we'd love to have you!
https://steemit.com/fitnation/@aussieninja/movement-may
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