The Monkey & The Hay

The Monkey

Is off my back. It was a small monkey, and I didn't exactly kick it to the ground, but it's off my back. Over the past year+ I've really struggled at the 5K distance. I would run fast in track workouts, then long at strong in race distances from 10 miles to 30K. But despite workouts pointing toward mid 15 minute 5K times, I couldn't seem run under 16 minutes for the life of me. I thought a 16:07 in the fall of 2008 (which was 4 days after a 6 mile XC race and 24 hours after a red-eye flight) would fall quickly in 2009. But sigh... despite improving at every other distance in 2009, I got slower at the 5K.

On Thursday night, I went down to the track on my own to run the workout the rest of the team had done Tuesday. It called for a 5000 meters at "hard tempo" pace (i.e. slightly slower than a 10K race pace), followed by a little bit more work at a faster pace. Based on recent workouts, I figured I'd go for 5:10 - 5:15 on the track for my fast tempo. Before the run I was a bit tired from some birthday celebrating (32 now!) the night before. Then when I got to the track, it was packed with joggers from local running groups. I basically almost talked myself out of the workout twice. But when I got running, 77 second laps felt pretty good. I tried not to focus on the distance and just run. My first two 1600 meter splits were 5:07 & 5:08. At that point I realized I was on pace to run right around 16 flat, so I looked at my watch with a lap to go, then picked it up to a 74 second last lap to run 15:59. I capped the workout off with 800 meters in 2:25 & 300 meters in 46 seconds.

Funny how it was it was a crowded Thursday night where I ran by myself to get that monkey off my back. Maybe 16 minutes had turned into a mental barrier, or maybe I was putting too much pressure on myself. Now hopefully I can knock some serious time off my new post college PR.

The Hay

Is in the barn. I just ran my last workout before the Kaiser Half Marathon. 3 x mile in 5:05, 5:03, 4:56, followed by a 2:20 800. The past month was the most consistent month of training that I've had. 270 miles total, with 2 solid workouts every week, my fastest 5K in 8+ years, and my best long tempo run. It time to taper this week, then see what I can do Sunday!