Acura 5k report

The 5k race from two weekends ago. Signed up for this at the last minute. Was intending to use this to get some experience. Based on past experience, the first 5k of my racing season tends to be a disaster (see 2009 and 2008 and 2007). I was expecting this race to be no different. Prepared for this slightly differently. Day before, I did a very short, very slow recovery run with 6 strides towards the end. One thing I did differently was I did it at the end of the day about 12 hours before the actual race. I think this may have helped.

Arrived with plenty of time. Wanted to do a proper warm up so with 20 minutes to start did a slow 1-1.5 mile jog with 3 short strides. Moved into the starting corrals with 5 minutes to go and bumped into Kenny and Lee. Goal was to try and go for 20 minutes, though realistically I thought that breaking 21 minutes was going to be a challenge.

So the gun goes off and I start out at a fairly controlled pace. Usually, I'm in a panic during the first km trying to weave around people, but this time, if I got stuck behind someone, I just hung back a bit until an opening appeared. I was trying to use my garmin to ensure that I was pacing properly and though it looked like I was right on pace, I ended up being a bit too slow in the first km hitting it in 4:07. The first little bit is under the elevated freeway so it's possible the GPS signal wasn't too great. The other thing was that the HR spiked during the first km which is usually a sign of tougher things to come.

I had thought of slowing down after the HR spike and doing the 10 miler instead, but thought I'd try to see how far I could go with the elevated HR before I started to feel like crap. Motor along and hit the 2nd km marker at 4:14 though I think I pushed the lap button a bit late since I was running through an aid station and tried to get some water in my mouth (which didn't work too well). It was probably around 4:10 or so. Hit the turnaround and head for home. 3rd km is in 4:05, but this was actual short due to my previous error so it's probably more like 4:09. So to this point, I've been fairly consistent with the pacing and the HR is still spiking. 4th km is usually where I start to fade and this was no exception, though it wasn't as bad of a fade as it normally is. I usually get this feeling of just wanting to give up during the 4th km, but I didn't get that feeling this time. Sure it was tough, but a sustainable type of tough. There were a couple people ahead of me and I just sort of tried to catch them and passed 3 or 4 people during the stretch. Even so this was my slowest km at 4:14. Last km, try to pick up the effort a bit, and end up with my fastest split of 4:06.

4:07
4:10
4:09
4:14
4:06
Total: 20:46 (6:41 min/mile)

So fairly consistent splits and all this with the HR spiking.  I should probably mention that I still haven't gotten back my heart stress test results yet and won't know till the beginning of August.  At least with this, race, I  now have a gauge of a 5k pace I can hold with the HR going crazy. This was also with almost no VO2Max training.  I did 4x800m 6:20 pace five days before the race and that was it.  I'm keen on trying another 5k since I'm pretty sure that if the HR didn't spike, I could maybe break 20 minutes or at the very least try and set a new PR (20:21 PR),but 5k races take a little too much out of me and end up messing up the marathon training.  Only time I would consider it would be on a Saturday since it still allows me to get a long run in on Sunday.  There was a 5k race this Saturday I was thinking of doing, but it's a first time event on a new course. It starts with a hill at the start and then it's all downhill.  I'd rather race on a certified course, but they are hard to find in this area.  One of these days, I may just try and do a 12.5 lap time trial at the track and see what happens.