As with my previous marathons, I used Hal Higdon's Post-Marathon training program to recover, reset and re-train. The intermediate version is five week plan includes some speed work, in order to get the short game back on track, and ends with a 5K race.
Training didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked. It seems I must have peaked last year because the speed was not coming back this time around. I struggled on my mile repeats, pushing as hard as I could and only coming up with 6:10-ish miles, and I barely had the stamina to run at peak sub-6 pace for the 10 to 15 minutes in the middle of my tempo runs. And when I finished each of these runs, and my long runs, too, I was aching in my legs and, especially, my buttocks.
Nevertheless, I picked out a tiny no-frills trail race in Freehold to run on Sunday, but I found out last week that it was cancelled because there was still too much snow on the ground from the recent storm. Desperate for another race to run (because, dammit, I trained), I was alerted to the NYC Runs five-mile race in Central Park. So I go to the website to register and...cancelled due to the extreme cold.
OK, it was 12 degrees on Sunday morning. Maybe it was too cold to race after all.
But, I repeat, I trained. And I trained hard. Even if the results were less than desirable, I put in the work (in the freezing cold!), and I wanted the payoff.
So I strapped on the ol' Garmin, put on my most lightweight winter gear and ran my own damn 5K here in Parsippany. On the plus side, the course I ran near my apartment was mostly flat, save for one annoying incline (not even a hill, really). On the negative side, with no other people and no race atmosphere, it was hard to get into the mental state of racing.
Nonetheless, I gave it all I had and blasted out the first mile at a surprising 5:50. My first thought was, I'll never sustain that, but I almost did, clocking the second mile at 5:54.
By that point, the cold was affecting me - not on the outside, but in my lungs and heart. It felt like I was breathing glass and my heart was pounding.
It's a race, I kept telling myself. It's a race.
And in a race, you push on, despite the pain and that voice in your head that tries to convince you that there is no shame in slowing down.
I did slow down a little, but still managed a 5:58 for the last mile, finishing up the 3.11 miles with an 18:21 finish time. Not bad, all things considered. It took a frighteningly long time for my heart rate to finally stabilize and for me to fully catch my breath, but it was all well worth it for my fifth best 5K time ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment