Final fast 5K attempt of the year and last hard effort before Philly.
Monday: 4 Miles- Westerly, RI
Easy evening shuffle just to shake the legs out. Didn't need a real run but I like about 30 minutes easy over an off day.
Tuesday: 10 Miles
7 Miles in AM- Westerly, RI
5AM headlamp grabbing a handful of new roads around east avenue. I was really dreading this as I haven't done early morning runs in a while but it was fine. Many more of these as I begin in-person work.
3 Miles in PM- Voluntown, CT
Pachaug state forest dirt road loop. Nice loop but my headlamp wasn't good enough so it was kind of sketchy going over lots of rocks that I didn't see.
Wednesday: 10 Miles
7 Miles in AM- Westerly, RI
Same as yesterday but parked in Avondale and out to watch hill. Knee is getting much better on easy runs but a bit achy on this one. Coldest in a while at around 32 degrees.
3 Miles in PM- Voluntown, CT
More trails than yesterday. Went okay as I ordered a new, much better headlamp.
Thursday: 10 Miles- Stonington, CT
Last real workout of the season. Thought some tempo/HM effort miles would be good. Wanted 3-4 miles tempo. Did this on the lower Pawcatuck loop (river-greenhaven-mary hall) which is a nice loop with some small rollers. Tempo felt comfortable but also hard. I felt pretty controlled until my legs started to lock up around 2.75 and I made the decision to stop at 3 instead of 4. Maybe worth it to push through earlier in the season. Finished up with 4x30s hard/60s rest to get some faster pace in. Knee felt good through the tempo but sore during the harder session. Difficulty: 3/5. Hoping the knee holds up for these last three races.
Started at Barn Island for a nice soft surface warm up and cool down.
Friday: 8 Miles- Westerly, RI
Parked at the top of noyes neck and got some Weekapaug roads I was missing. I wouldn't say running the dark is enjoyable but it's also not as bad I had expected.
Saturday: 6 Miles- Charlestown, RI
Typical pre race ninigret. Felt decent but also a bit heavy/tight.
Sunday: 12 Miles- Needham, MA
Last race, hard effort and run over 10 miles before Philadelphia half. This course seemed pretty fast and I was hoping to get under my Hartford 5K time. This race fit well in the schedule as a final tune up 6 days out and as a good effort to try to run a fast 5K. As the USATF-NE 5K championship, there'd be more than enough competition to pull me along.
My Dad wanted to run a fast 5K too. Got there, had to wait in a frustratingly long bathroom line before a warm up. One of those days where I was visiting the bathroom a lot so I was pretty happy to find a port a potty instead of going back into the school lines. Pre-race went fairly smooth. We previewed the course which has about 80ft of elevation gain/loss and 5 turns. Some of the roads didn't seem like fast for running (quieter neighborhood roads) but ended up being fine. The first two miles were downhill with an uphill finish which could be tough and might be worth going out a little hard.
It rained during the morning meaning all the roads were wet, but fortunately no rain during the race. I did a handful of strides in the parking lot and felt surprisingly really smooth and ready to go. Just a huge difference between I how felt in NYC. While not a small race at 500 people, it felt a lot easier to navigate after doing so many huge races.
The start was a mess. Everyone was talking loudly so I couldn't hear any of the pre race instructions. I lined up in about the 3rd row or so which seemed appropriate. For some reason, we started in the high school drop off zone rather than on the street. It was probably the most chaotic start of the year, simply due to how narrow the road was. The start was cross country style, going very aggressively and trying to get past some people into a good position. It was more settled/comfortable once we got onto the main road but I probably went out a bit too hard. The first few turns went by quickly and were a little awkward with the amount of people. It's funny how after doing several races with 5,000- 10,000 people this year this was somehow the most crowded one. I was essentially just pulled along in a big pack. Not much room to move around but didn't really need to. I felt reasonably comfortable and strong through the mile but definitely felt fast. Hit 4:47 for the mile- okay, pretty fast. But someone around me said something about it being downhill. Good point as I hadn't thought about that.
I definitely went out too hard because the race went from feeling controlled/strong to holding on as we made the next turn. The road was really slippery and it was not a good feeling for my shoes to be slipping under my feet. Between that and starting to feel fatigued from that hot pace, a few guys went by me and I lost contact with the pack I was with. I started to get really uncomfortable around the halfway point, worse than I felt at hartford for sure. I was running alone hitting the 2 miles- people just ahead and behind but not matching anyone's pace directly. The two mile split is always the moment of truth- at this point if you're not running well, you probably aren't going to. Mile 2 beeped- 4:56. Wow. I was not expecting that, especially given that I had let up a bit. But given I was thrilled with my Hartford 2 mile split (9:55ish) and went onto to run a good time despite my third mile being my worst mile, it was worth a lot that I went through 2 miles here in about 9:43.
That 2 mile split was really encouraging and being 12 seconds faster from when I ran 15:36, I felt I had a great race and PR coming for sure. Just get through that last mile and keep the pedal down. The last mile felt kind of long and difficult. I felt really slow but I figured it was just fatigue at that point. No one was passing me either. I was excited going past a guy at 3 miles to prepare to see the finishing time probably in the 15:20s, maybe even under. I passed another guy who outkicked me up the high school driveway. The clock popped into sight- already ticking over 15:30 when I could see it for the first time. What the heck? The clock must be broken! I couldn't even get there before it hit 15:40 and crossed for 15:43, 25th place. Results here.
Well that was disappointing. I was very, very confident that I had a PR, if not a sub-15:30 in the bag after going through 2 miles that fast (only 11 seconds slower than what I ran for a true 2 mile race on the track). But I failed to consider that was I done with downhill aid and the last mile was mostly uphill. This was not a 5K where I had an extra gear to hammer the last mile and running uphill fatigued I ran the last mile in 5:16, which is not great. My best ever mile 1 split, mile 2 split and 2 mile split but it didn't matter as I ran a poor 3 mile split. It was still a good race- well under 16 and 14 seconds faster than last weekend but not a great one. Those first two miles felt like something special but I didn't keep the ball rolling to finish and that was the difference between a PR or not. I think had I known I was running so slow I could have dug deep to break 15:40 but the PR would be unlikely.
6 mile cool down on the Blue Heron trails. I almost never fall on trails but everything was wet and slippery and I went down hard on a rooty section. Felt terrible early on but fortunately better after a few so I could get through.
In all, it was a good fall 5K season. It would not have been a surprise to run in the 15:50s for all 3 5Ks given the lack of faster training and lack of speed/comfort with 5:00 pace in general. But I went 15:36, 15:57 and 15:43. Had I run those in order from slow to fast I would have thrilled with each race. Hartford went really well and set a high standard. I didn't run bad in the following two races, just not quite as good. I do think much of the time differences were from the courses and overall the efforts were fairly similar.
Anyway, Hartford was definitely the best paced race of the three. One thing I did well in all three 5Ks was running a strong 2nd mile. It's easy to get out and easy to close if you lagged in the middle. What's hard is staying strong mile 2 when the fatigue is setting in and you still have a ways to go. What I did not do well in all three races was not having much of a finish. Last 1K is really important to hammer and get that time down and was probably the slowest 1K for each. Zero kick in the last 200m of any of these races either. Once I get down a good close in addition to the good first two miles I've been running then I can run really well. Something to work on for 2023. Kind of tough to wait for the next opportunity to PR when I was in shape for this one. But the opportunity will come again.
Here's a comparison of splits for my 5 road sub-16s:
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| Splits are estimated. Oktoberfest is the most interesting going out roughly 52 seconds slower than Big Steps yet only running 12 seconds slower. |
Weekly Total: 61 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Running a fantastic first 2 miles at Big Steps. Unfortunately the third mile wasn't there but overall still a solid run.
Weekly Lowlight: Just not closing well at Big Steps 5K. I feel like this was a strength for me in the past but has now almost become a weakness. Really need to work on that finish for next year.
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