Okay, I *have* been running, just not that much. It's been reduced to a couple of times a week and 3 miles at most, but at least it's something.
So today was the first race of my season. It was a 5K event at Fort Worth Zoo. It was also about a year ago this time that I entered this very same event for my first 5K ever so this event has some meaning for me.
Today was a pretty overcast day. A good day for running but that was offset with the moisture in the air which made it a tad humid.
I recall the same time last year I was pretty nervous, not knowing what to expect. This year's course layout was the same as last year's so I had some familiarity with it and knew what to expect.
I thought I did pretty good this year. I actually felt better this year than last year but what bit me this year were all the 5K walkers and people walking with strollers that had started near the front of the corral. This caused all the other timed 5K runners to waste energy slowing down, speeding up, dodging side to side, weaving in and out. It totally screwed up my pace at the beginning. Another thing that made it difficult to get a decent pace going at the beginning is the route for the first kilometer of the 5K. The first section actually takes you through the zoo itself, which doesn't have wide laneways. This made it a bit difficult with so many people bunched up at the beginning and getting squeezed together didn't make it easy to get a steady pace going.
Once we left the zoo, we made an ascent up a small, but somewhat steep hill into a residential area that someone separated people out a bit. The residential area was pretty flat and straight which made it easier to maintain a steady pace. It was here that I felt that I was actually going at a pace that faster than normal and felt like I improved over last year.
The last third of the 5K is a downhill descent that takes you back into the zoo parking lot and to the finish line.
I finished in 29:47 (officially) which is under 30 minutes, but significantly slower than I want to be. So, there's room for improvement.
My Nikeplus sensor is AFU and only said I ran 2.4 miles so it's time to recalibrate that.
Oh yeah, I pretty much abandoned the Pose Method/midfoot running for this race. My legs just don't have the strength to maintain that consistently over a long distance. I think I may employ that during training more and "regular" running cadence during events.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
