Mothers Day 5k Review

Our friend Gary Westlund runs several races over the summer, and we like them.  Always low key, always allowing everyone to finish regardless how much time they need.  One of these was today's Mothers Day 5k in Maple Grove, MN.  This race was well organized, as always.

I haven't run a 5k race in a long time.  My plan was to run 7 minutes, then walk 3, until the finish, according to my usual training method.  However I quickly switched to 70 seconds and 30 seconds.  Same ratio, but much easier for me somehow.  I'll get back to the longer runs in training, but this works pretty well for races.

By my watch my finish time was 33:07.  This was not a chip-timed race, so official results are not up yet.  I imagine, though, that I will be first of one or second of two in my m75-79 age group.  Doesn't matter - I'm happy enough with the time.  If my watch was correct (it might be better than their clock) then my pace was 10:37.  I can do better, and I will.  Faster every week.

Weather was perfect.  The loop around the little lake is very nearly 1 mile, so we ran it three times.  In addition I ran one before the race, as a warmup, and another after my race with my girls, for a total of five miles.

There's another 5k in two weeks, flatter than this one in fact, and I'll try to get that pace below 10.

Watch: 10:47, 10:38, 10:31 (31:56), 1:11, total 33:07

Medtronic TC 1 Mile Race

Thursday, May 11, 2017:

The race went very well.  I ran the whole mile without walking and finished in 9:04, better than any of the mile runs that I've done in training recently.  I'm more than happy with that.  I was third of four in my 75-79 age group, and finished before 791 of 1969 other runners, including 165 of 1009 other men.

After traveling to 100 marathons, this race became an exploration of our own Twin Cities.  We drove from our town to Union Station in downtown St Paul, where Amtrak, light rail, and buses all connect.  We took the METRO Green Line train to the new US Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis, 37 minutes in a clean, comfortable commuter train which we had never had occasion to ride before.  Thanks to the race committee, we had free passes. Then a short walk to the race itself, where my race number and shirt were waiting.

I enjoyed meeting up with long-time running friends that I had neglected during our drive to finish 100 marathons.  The race itself circled the Guthrie Theater of Minneapolis and lovely new parks. 

A 1-mile race is very intense, and I did try to go as fast as I could, but it was over in 9 minutes and I'm uninjured.  All is well.

We three had a very nice evening of it.

Another Mile

I set out to run 1.5 miles (6 laps) without walking today, having run 1.25  miles (5 laps) last week.  But two things happened: (1) I remembered that I have an actual 1-mile race later this week, and (2) I just didn't feel like running the extra two laps.  So I stopped at four laps - what the heck, I have no one to please but myself.  I did manage to shave a few seconds off my recent times for the mile.

Perhaps I'll do a little better still during the actual race.  We'll see - I'll try.  I'd like to do an 8-minute mile again someday, but not this week.  First a 9-minute mile.

Watch readings: 2:32, 2:28, 2:25, 2:13 (400 M laps), total for the run 1:06:00. Time for 1600 meters: 9:38.  Adjusted for a mile: 9:41 (a mile is 1609 meters.)  Total distance 5.5 mi, average pace for the run 12:00.

Valley Runners

This run/walk included another one-mile run with no walking.  Total of about 4 miles, with plenty of walking in the other three.  The one mile took just 9:35, very nice, but with two qualifications: (1) It's a little bit downhill, and (2) the mile markers are on a trail, and those markers are notoriously inaccurate.  I'll try the same mile uphill someday.

I had a little hitch in the right foot at first, had to walk it off, but it cleared and bothered no more.  After the run nothing hurts, all is well.  I feel great.  A very successful run.  A little shorter than usual, but very nice.  We'll compensate with a nice long walk among the flowering crab trees later today.
 
My friend Doug accompanied me on this trek - he's probably a better runner than I but was hurting a little today.  Hope he gets past that - he has a pretty good doctor.

Watch readings: 10:37, 9:35, 1:07, turnaround, ... total about 45:00.  The 9:35 is the one mile between mile markers 2 & 1.

Thursday, May 4, 2017:

2K Meters w/o Walking.  That's five laps of the 400 M outdoor track.  A beautiful day and a nice run.  I was actually able to pick up the pace a little in the last lap.

Splits: 28:34, 2:28, 2:30, 2:27, 2:26, 2:20. ...total for 5 laps = 12:11, pace 9:50/mile.for the five laps.

Tuesday, May 2:

On Tuesdays we sometimes (often?) walk from our home to the downtown organic grocery & back, about 3 miles each way and at least a 300-foot elevation change.  I don't usually include those walks in this blog, but last Tuesday I got hurt - "ITB syndrome" in the right thigh, thought to be overuse, after a tough enough run the day before.  The ITB problem healed within three or four days.

No problem today, despite yesterday's fairly hard run.  But I think that I should take a day off now, not run tomorrow.

Monday, May 1:

One Mile at the YMCA.  11:00,, 11:01, 9:01, 3:04, 5:33, 9:24, 11:23, 49:27 tot, only the 9:01 makes any sense - supposedly 1 mile, 13 laps.  I think it's probably short of a mile by at least a lap.