21 minutes here I come
This morning before the race, my friend Ryan Slight asked me about my goal. He said something like - You're looking for 25 minutes, right?
Yeah, 25 minutes. I told him I'd been looking for 25 minutes for a long time but I hadn't quite seen it. My 5K pr was 25:45 and that came from way back in September. And that was 9 seconds off being three minutes faster than my previous pr.
What I didn't say, didn't really think about until just a few minutes ago, is that it felt like I'd beaten that 5K pr a long time ago, I just hadn't done it in a race. It's an old goal. My new goal is to get a 21-minute pr.
First things first though. Today's race. The 1st annual Mother Road Route 66 5k.
And a new pr. 24:37. That's two seconds off being a whole minute faster.
The only depressing thing about today's race is I know I could have run faster. I just didn't do it.
My friend and sometime training partner Jim Evans passed me near the half-mile mark in the race. Later, he said I was barely breathing hard at that point. Of course, when he passed me, I had negative self-talk going crazy and I thought that perhaps I'd started way too fast. I thought he would already be far ahead.
But I did have some positive self-talk going for much of the race. I remembered lines from my most recent slam poem. I talked to myself about how much I love hills. And I got a bit offended when I saw shadows closing in or heard footsteps a little too close to me.
I was able to separate from some people but since I can't look back too much when I'm running, I'm not exactly sure how many. The second half of the race was hilly and I love the hills. It's much more fun though to pass people than it is to hold them off.
One girl, a freelance writer who I recently met at the office, passed me in the last mile of the race. What she didn't realize is that I've got a good kick. At the very end I was definitely sprinting, more so to make sure I got under 25 minutes than to pass her. But passing her was nice.
Still, I must get faster.
Now, I've got to work on increasing my weekly mileage and getting up the intensity in my speed work, hill work and tempo runs.
21 minutes, here I come.
Yeah, 25 minutes. I told him I'd been looking for 25 minutes for a long time but I hadn't quite seen it. My 5K pr was 25:45 and that came from way back in September. And that was 9 seconds off being three minutes faster than my previous pr.
What I didn't say, didn't really think about until just a few minutes ago, is that it felt like I'd beaten that 5K pr a long time ago, I just hadn't done it in a race. It's an old goal. My new goal is to get a 21-minute pr.
First things first though. Today's race. The 1st annual Mother Road Route 66 5k.
And a new pr. 24:37. That's two seconds off being a whole minute faster.
The only depressing thing about today's race is I know I could have run faster. I just didn't do it.
My friend and sometime training partner Jim Evans passed me near the half-mile mark in the race. Later, he said I was barely breathing hard at that point. Of course, when he passed me, I had negative self-talk going crazy and I thought that perhaps I'd started way too fast. I thought he would already be far ahead.
But I did have some positive self-talk going for much of the race. I remembered lines from my most recent slam poem. I talked to myself about how much I love hills. And I got a bit offended when I saw shadows closing in or heard footsteps a little too close to me.
I was able to separate from some people but since I can't look back too much when I'm running, I'm not exactly sure how many. The second half of the race was hilly and I love the hills. It's much more fun though to pass people than it is to hold them off.
One girl, a freelance writer who I recently met at the office, passed me in the last mile of the race. What she didn't realize is that I've got a good kick. At the very end I was definitely sprinting, more so to make sure I got under 25 minutes than to pass her. But passing her was nice.
Still, I must get faster.
Now, I've got to work on increasing my weekly mileage and getting up the intensity in my speed work, hill work and tempo runs.
21 minutes, here I come.
posted by bl at 9:59 am
2 Comments:
Nice work. Good goals, too.
thanks.
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