Discipline, "official" PRs, lessons learned, and re-affirmation of theory.
Hello everyone! Fair warning: as usual, my analysis is in metric to prevent the impending doom of my colleagues learning of me using U.S. Standard Units. Engineers and scientists have a severe problem speaking in Standard Units ;-).
First, I had no intention of running/racing this event. Several of my friends were doing it, so I thought it would be a cool way for us to hang out for a while. They are not running junkies like I am, but it was going to be a good time with the guys though!
If you have read any of my previous race reports, you'll notice that I try to learn new things with each race performance and apply them in future races. This race is no exception. The difference with this race is that my lessons learned are more positive and not based off a series of no-no's & screw ups. Bear with me -- I'm still relatively new to the *racing* game. I admit it. You will NEVER hear me say that I "know it all"!
I honestly didn't know how to approach this event. The past several months have pretty much sucked health wise. I have had a fairly severe arthritis flare-up since about June/July. August brought me a week-long hospital stay, two heart procedures to investigate an arrhythmia, and pace/workout restrictions from my cardiologist. Needless to say, I have not been able to do hardly ANY speed work for the past several months and almost ZERO 5k specific training. 99.9% of my training has been specifically tailored toward distances ranging from the HM to ultramarathons.
NOTE: I set an end-of-year goal to race sub 21'30" in the 5k, which paces at 4'20"/km. BUT, I have a goal race coming up in two weeks. I refuse to risk injury or layoff by pushing it too hard on an unplanned 5k. The funny thing is that the course had changed at the last minute due to road construction. We would now be racing on the same course that I raced during my last 5k (in June). What better test and assess speed and running progress?!?
I decided to approach this race in one of three ways:
1.) If my back felt pretty good, start at my goal pace, try it for 1-2km, and decide whether to pull the trigger from there. If it was good, go for it. If not, slow to a comfortable threshold pace and negative split the rest.
2.) If my back felt decent, start off at the upper end of my threshold pace (4'45"/km), treat it as a progression workout, and negative-split each 500 meters or kilometer (by feel).
3.) If the back was no bueno, pace a friend and help them PR. I can jog a PR for all three of them. They're not running addicts like I am.
Option #3 was no longer on the table -- all three of my friends there made it abundantly clear that they didn't want a pacer. Instead, they all encouraged me to go out and kick their asses (which was a positive thing). Only two options remain now..
I gathered all of my lessons learned from previous races and applied them. The starting line for this event is ~5km from my house, so I made sure to get a really good warm up by walking, jogging, and doing my normal drills (skips, high-knees, butt-kickers, grapevines, etc.) to the starting line and used this same practice on my way home as a cool down. The only remote difference from my normal routine was that I decided to race in compression socks. My right calf muscle was a little tender when I woke up Saturday. But this is a non-issue; I have raced in my compression socks several times before with zero problems and knew that this would not hinder/impair my performance.
I also knew (from previous races) that I needed to line up as early as possible for this event. Why, you may ask?? This race was a chip-timed FINISH ONLY. Too far back at gun start means WAY too much lateral movement weaving through slower traffic to get to pace and chewing up precious clock time! I was able to keep warm and line up as soon as they allowed -- directly behind our two local teams of elites. I knew there was NO way I could hang with them (the winning time was 15'23"), but this gave me the ideal opportunity to hit my goal if my back would allow it.
At the starting line, I felt pretty damn good (surprisingly). I decided to go with Option #1 and test the waters at my goal pace of 4'20"/km and hoping to be able to kick well. We'll see what happens!
The gun went off and everything started exactly as planned. Except there was something weird going on.. This is when I learned an important lesson..
LESSON LEARNED: DON'T UNDERESTIMATE YOURSELF
From the gun, I was pacing comfortably with two of our local awesome athletes (one female, one master's division). To be honest, that was pretty damn intimidating! These two racers are certified badasses and I'm pacing with them?? WOW. What a reality check..
Just as planned, I was pacing exactly where I needed to be for the first 2km, splitting them at 4'19" and 4'18" respectively. Around this point is where I felt my back start complaining.. DAMMIT! Hitting my end of year goal isn't going to happen today, but that's perfectly fine. I had a contingency plan if this happened. I only needed to maintain enough discipline and execute it.
LESSON LEARNED: DISCIPLINE PAYS OFF
Immediately when my back started complaining, I LISTENED. I am not going to risk hosing a goal race over an unplanned 5k. I slowed to the fastest, comfortable threshold pace I could maintain, kept racing, and split the 3rd kilometer at 4'39" -- 6 seconds faster than the upper end of my threshold pace. The only task remaining is to negatively split the rest of the race without risking injury.
The master's racer I was pacing was only a short distance ahead of me, the female racer was still adjacent to me, and one of our local running group leaders (who is in my AG) had slowed and was now in my sights. Slowing a little didn't really hurt me that much!
I used the course itself as my "effort" gauge, shaved a few seconds when I could, slowed a touch when I knew I would lose a couple of seconds, and chose my lines as wisely as possible. This paid off really well and I negative-split the 4th kilometer in 4'34". One more kilometer and change (depending on GPS) to go!
I maintained the same strategy to finish up, negative-splitting the fifth kilometer in 4'23" and splitting the "bonus" kick at a comfortable (for a kick) 4'03"/km pace. When the dust settled, my placement was only a couple of seconds behind our master's racer, I actually beat the female racer I was pacing, and the racer in my AG bested me by 13 seconds.
This is also where discipline comes into play: I battled myself the ENTIRE last kilometer. HARD. My pride wanted me to drop the hammer and fly past the other two so bad I could TASTE IT. I knew I had it in me. I had plenty of energy and plenty of HR reserved before red-lining. But, I maintained discipline, checked my pride at the door, and RESISTED.
Stick with the plan. Don't risk injury before a goal race. TRUST THE TRAINING.
Official Race Splits (km):
- 1: 4'19" -- 1 second faster than planned
- 2: 4'18" -- 2 seconds faster than planned
- 3: 4'39" -- Back off throttle on back twinge (still within comfortable threshold pace) per strategy
- 4: 4'34" -- Negative split according to strategy
- 5: 4'23" -- Negative split according to strategy
- 6: GPS Delta (Bonus): 4'03" Pace -- Negative split according to strategy
LESSON RE-AFFIRMED: Long, slow miles PAY OFF. KEEP RUNNING THEM.
Even without 5k specific speed work, this race reaffirmed that the long, slower miles continue to pay off without risking injury. Maffetone's method proved this to me once before while I was building my mileage base to where I am now and is still paying off today :-).
The plan was successful. I felt great after the race. I'm not injured. I'm not flared up more than usual. At the same time, I also set a new *official* 5k PR (I NEVER run for PRs in training) and raced this course 97 seconds faster than I did 4 months ago! I'll take it!
I know that I could have kicked the shit out of my goals if my flare-up had completely subsided. As good as I felt for the first 2km, I would estimate that I would be either at the high 20' or very low 21' range. My back will always be my limiting factor with short distance *speed* races and I have to deal with it. Given all of the good news to report above, I can live with it and am pretty happy!
YTD 5k Progress Report:
- March 2014: 34'xx"
- April 2014: 26'35" (official, but injured)
- April 2014: 23'53" (official)
- June 2014: 24'02" (official)
- October 2014: 22'25" (official)
Official Race Results:
- Official time: 22'25"
- OA Placement: 49 / 571
- AG Placement: 4 / 21
Happy racing!
- Randall
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