The first round of "Mile Week" went pretty well last night. My legs were a little tired from running a bit too hard on Sunday—I ran into an Earth Drummers teammate in the middle of my seven-mile run, and the last four miles came in at 7:20, 7:10, 7:10, and 7:30—but I felt pretty good overall.
After getting to the track, I ran an initial two-mile warm-up (8:02, 7:33) and changed into my race shoes. After some legs swings, I ran another two laps (3:37) with two strides thrown in to loosen up the legs.
At the start, I got boxed in farther back than I wanted, with probably 10 runners ahead of me. Rather than sprint around wasting energy in the first lap, I decided to be patient and pass the group as they started to slow. As a result, it was 600m into the race before I settled into 4th place behind my Earth Drummers teammate Dan Bird. From there, I held onto Dan. I never had the energy to pass him or even pull up alongside him in the final 100m, but I kept him from gapping me. He ended up half a second ahead of me at the line. The winner ran 4:54, with second place also sub-5:00.
My splits were almost dead even—perfect for the condition of my legs—and I was completely satisfied with the effort:
Lap 1 — 1:19.4 (409.344m at 5:12.2/mile)
Lap 2 — 1:16.7 (5:08.6/mile)
Lap 3 — 1:16.8 (5:09.0/mile)
Lap 4 — 1:16.9 (5:09.4/mile)
Total — 5:09.8
It was an 11.8-second PR from the last track meet of the summer 51 weeks earlier, and I'm confident that I can take at least a few more seconds off. By Saturday, my legs should be fully rested, and it may be a bit easier on the road. Getting boxed in at the start certainly shouldn't be a problem. And I'll probably take another crack next Monday at the final track meet. I'll be happy with sub-5:05, but I don't think sub-5:00 is completely out of the question. (Though I wouldn't put money on it.)
After the race, I cooled down with an easy 4.5 miles in 36:09 (8:02/mile), giving me 8.0 miles for the evening.
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2 comments:
Hi John, very neat to read about your track races. I really want to partake in some all comers meets this summer... but I am still so scared of getting lapped and coming in dead last. Not that that matters in the overall scheme of things, but I'm having a hard time getting over the fear of, "... you can't hide in a track race. Everybody sees your race!"
Did you have the same issue with this before your first track race? I have not raced on the track since high school!
After a hiatus of several years, they restarted these track meets two summers ago. They are very accessible and low-key. They're real races, but they're trying to build the sport of track and field more than they're trying to hold a seriously competitive meet.
They stage multiple heats in everything from the sprints and hurdles to the middle-distance races to accommodate everyone, including kids and slower adults. My kids ran the 800m two weeks ago. (Garrett ran 4:09 by himself; Cedar ran 4:59 with me keeping her company.) In the mile, they typically have two heats, a sub-6:00 heat and an over-6:00 heat. They've even had a few walkers in the mile.
The first summer, 2007, I went twice, racing the mile once and the two-mile once. I finished 10th out of 13 in my heat in the mile and 10th out of 21 in the two-mile.
They ran the 5000m this Monday evening too, and there was quite a disparity in finish times. Chris Reis, the top Earth Drummer, ran 14:53 and two other guys finished in 15-something. At the other end, a young lady and her mother came in around 24 minutes.
Needless to say, you'd do fine. :)
John
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