Sometimes you just have to smile and start to look forward to running a little quicker than usual for a longer distance. This is something that I would like to do once every couple of weeks or so, just to see where I am with my fitness and also it gives me a lot of feedback on the shoes I am wearing. In some ways it is better than my test course, because it also includes the dirt road section. Which is where I run a lot.

The Run

Planned run and focus: I wanted to do a bit of an experiment today and see how the Beacon v1s do at a faster 5K at around 85-90% effort and just see whether I could hold form, effort and pace for a while longer than I have been. Then finish off a 7.0 mile total run.

Part 1

• Course: Tiffany 5K
• Weather: Partly cloudy, 72*F, 74% humidity and 5 mph from S
• Distance: 3.10
• Time: 24:56
• Pace: 8:03

• 1.0 – 8:03 / I started out a little too slow and then slowly picked it up, although if you look at my Strava pace graph it looks more like steep roller coasters than a steady effort. The road down-back was in pretty good shape, but it did slow me down
• 2.0 – 7:54 / This mile felt pretty good and while I seemed to surge and slow several times, I felt as though I was maintaining a nice steady effort.
• 3.0 – 8:13 / Yes, even though I pushed a little hard than usual on this section I still slowed down more than I expected. This is something that I have to work on for getting in racing shape.

Part 2

• Course: Tiffany 5K Finish – Goodhue to Philbrick TOH
• Weather: Partly cloudy (lots more sun), 75*F, 76% humidity and 6 mph from S
• Distance: 4.01
• Time: 38:31
• Pace: 9:36

• 1.0 – 9:32 / Once I caught my breath, I started back up, I could tell that I was still recovering from the faster effort and had zero plans to run fast coming back.
• 2.0 – 9:18 / This is usually the section that I purposely pick up the pace, today I just ran comfortably
• 3.0 – 9:34 / Once I got back on the dirt road I slowed down a lot. It seemed as though all the rocks that didn’t seem like a big deal coming out, seemed to have moved and were all finding my path.
• 4.0 – 10:03 / By the time I got to Stevens Hill, my hat was raining sweat and when I reach that point, I stop attempting to push at all and just relax to get to the finish. I made it to the full 4.0 miles although it was not all that easy the last 3/4 of a mile.

The Good?

The 5K harder effort was successful and while I didn’t quite break the 8:00 minute mile time goal, I was fairly close for each split. While the graph doesn’t look like it, I felt that my effort was very consistent and that I had another gear maybe two available to me at any part of the 5K.

Despite the mid 70’s temps and humidity I made the last 4.0 miles back and finished up the total of 7.0 miles.

The Bad?

By mile 6.0 I was starting to suffer a little and when the hat starts to rain sweat, I tend to shut down effort levels and go into just finish mode. I don’t do great in higher humidity so I keep a close eye on myself when the hat has sweat dripping off it.

On the dirt section on the way back I swear that someone either swept the rocks into my path as I was running or else I was moving so slow that they had time to move under my feet as I was running by.

Shoes:

New Balance Beacon v1 – They did great, no issues running the faster 5K and I actually felt more comfortable running fast in them than I do either the 1400 v6 or Razor 3s. Which means more experimentation will be happening on that front next week.

What was I thinking?

I focused primarily on form and attempting to use/activate my glutes. I guess it must have worked, because this afternoon when I was walking with Mary, I whined about my arse muscles bothering. 😉

Although I did get a little pissy when I waved and said hi to a cyclist going by and he totally ignored me. I might have said a few unkind words in his direction. It really is not all that hard to nod or lift a finger or two to acknowledge someone else out busting ass too, especially since he had just come out of his driveway and wasn’t anywhere near being in the zone.

Otherwise, I just kept focusing on keeping the body pointing forward and working on not seeing my shoes in my peripheral vision.

Progress:

This faster 5K is a good progress check for me at this time. I am not running super hard and not letting the effort levels get too much above 90% and still able to do fairly well. I am not at race pace, well at least I hope I am not, but I am within a minute per mile of where I want to be at some point for a 5K this year and haven’t started hard training yet and won’t until I can actually enter a few races.

I also left the music buds at home so I didn’t have the beat to keep me moving a little more consistently. I can tell the difference between a music based run and with music based on the spikes in the pace graphs.

Overall a nice 5K test and 7.0 miles total on a muggy day.