Time for another 5K race - same one as last year so I was hoping to see how much I improved. To develop a plan I ran the course a few weeks prior. My plan was to do the first mile under 11 minutes while I warmed up. Then the next mile I wanted to maintain 10 and the last mile I had done under 9 minutes so I should be able to make it to the finish line at 30 minutes.
Weather was 22 degrees F with a very light wind. Last year the temperatures were in the 40's and for my practice run in the 50's, so big difference and not a good sign for setting a personal best.
Started out at a faster pace then I did last year, with a time of 9:54 and HR average of 150, but the pace felt right, so I stuck with it. The hill went about as planned, at 10:22 and an average HR of 162. So far my average heart rate was up a lot higher for longer then I had trained with in the past. Now I wasn't sure how the last mile would go and was wondering if I made a mistake and pushed it too hard and fast on the first part of the race, but I still felt okay. Tried to pick up the pace, but it didn't seem like I was going that much faster, HR average ended up at 166 with a max of 173, but despite the feeling my pace was faster at 8:52, some slight downhills helped. The last tenth was slower, but still under 10. Finished with an official time of 31:00 last time I finished at 32:36.
Due to the cold I feel pretty good about my time. They also say the cold will increase the heart rate a bit too. The fastest runners were about 10 seconds slower then last year, so it wasn't just me. If they had a timed us from the starting line, instead of gun time, I might have actually gotten a time under 30 minutes (or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself.)
576 617 Dana M MANCHESTER NH 54/86 341/585 M50-59 31:00 10:00
