A Three Month Extension

Since starting this blog a year ago I cut three minutes off my 5K time, but still missed my sub-20:00 goal by well over a minute. I blame this on five different injuries I had in the last six months, so I'm giving myself an extension. If this sounds like I'm fudging the rules, it's because I probably am. But people do this with work and school assignments all the time - I'm just following normal business practices. My 'final exam' for the year was this past Friday's 5K race, which ironically was slower than a 5K I ran the week before for fun. To sum up the past month:

April 28: Crystal City 5K #4 in 21:58. I ran the first mile in 6:45, passed the 1.5 mile mark in 9:48, and then the second mile mark at 13:45, which is where my pace started to fall apart. Race conditions were pretty warm (82 degrees) and humid and my heart wasn't in it. My wife took a photo of me at mile three smiling - I probably wasn't pushing myself hard enough, though I was really happy to see her. One silver lining to this all is that my hamstrings felt fine during and after the race.

April 25: Three miles on the treadmill: I started slowly, eventually building up to a 7:30 pace, but then felt a twinge in my hamstring again at the 2.5 mile mark. Frustrated, I slowed it down and cut short at three miles what was supposed to be a four or five mile run.

April 21: Crystal City 5K #3 in 21:36 (6:57/mile pace). I didn't even bring a watch, since I planned on running this at 80-90% max effort, given that I'm still recovering and haven't trained in over a week. The first mile was pretty smooth and was actually enjoyable. My breathing became a lot more laborious by the second mile and the final half mile turned into a bit of struggle. There definitely was some tightening of the hamstrings that made walking a bit difficult the next day, but continued stretching and frequent use of a foam roller helped me recover.

April 12: Five miles outdoors in 38:50 (8:20, 8:00, 7:51, 7:14, 7:45). I got a little too ambitious and may have re-injured my nascent hamstring recovery around mile four. To my own detriment, I remained stubborn and pushed it til I got back home.

April 9: Four miles outdoors in 30:48 (7:55, 7:18, 7:58, 7:37)

April 3: Two and a half miles on the treadmill (9:06, 7:59) and a half mile cool down.

April 1: Four miles on the treadmill in 35:53 (10:29, 8:31, 8:38, 8:15)

So what now? Given that I only ran 18 non-racing miles in April, it's a wonder I was able to run a sub-22 minute 5K at all. Better conditioning aside, whether I can break 20:00 three months from now largely depends on whether I can stay healthy and injury free.