OK gang--several items to get to for this week's recap!
First off, yet another big week of training, in fact my biggest of the year. At least in terms of swimming yards, bike miles, and total training time. Also, my PT/Strength/Flexibility time in the gym this week was the 2nd biggest of the first 17 weeks of this year:
Swim: 10,000 yards
Bike: 260 miles
Walk/Run: 23.9 miles
PT/Strength/Flexibility: 5:50
Total Training Time: 31:31
Probably not what I should be doing when the last day of the week is my first race of the season but, what can I say, I just went with what felt right!
Today I entered the Ivy 5k here in Wilmington, which is a very low key 5k run. 77 runners in it (I was the oldest guy in the race) and I finished 5th OA and 1st (out of 4) in the 60-69 YO Age Group. Perhaps more importantly, I was able to run 28:53 (9:16/mile) so I'd say that my season goals of building back better (post knee replacement) and breaking 30 minutes in a 5k have been achieved! In fact, as I previously posted, I actually broke 30 minutes at 5k 2X this week, as my temp run on Monday was also sub-30 (the last time I broke 30min in an open 5k race was back in 2011). Certainly my best performance in the "steel knee era"! Further, this is the first time I ran twice in one week this year and my 6.2 miles of running this week, is a high point in terms of actual running distance in a week so far in 2024.
I had a lot of fun but really didn't run a very smart race. I looked around at the start and thought, well, you never know, I might have a shot here so when the gun went I decided to run with the leaders for a while and see what happened. What happened is I went out out a 6:45/mile pace and about 30-45 seconds into the race could clearly see that at least 3 people were decidedly stronger than I, so I dialed it back to my pre-race opening mile plan of about 9:20 (29 minute 5k pace).
Unfortunately, I jacked my HR up to the mid 150s by about 90 seconds into the race (which is Z4ish for me) and I spent the whole rest of the race living on the edge and just trying to hold it together--not the most pleasant way to run a 5K! After the turnaround on this out and back, I had 4-5 episodes of almost puking and tried to just keep the intensity down enough to not let that happen. My splits were:
Mile 1: 9:12; Mile 2: 9:15; Mile 3: 9:25...last 0.2 miles @ 8:45/mile. My HR averaged 153 for the whole shebang....
So, super encouraged by this! Feeling like I'm at a place, fitness-wise, where I can handle lots of low-intensity training and as I now begin to convert to higher intensity/lower volume (I also did 2 interval Zwift sessions this week so starting to begin the ramp on my bike). I could get relatively (compared to pre-surgery) fast, So that's an old, but now new thing and kinda fun. I know I can continue to go faster run-wise and definitely think it may be possible to go sub 9-minutes/mile on a 5k at some point this year.
Next up is most likely the DE Sprint Triathlon State Championship on 5/19. I might try to sneak another low-key 5k race in before but if not, today was a very good day adventure-wise and is a big boost of confidence in front of the first Triathlon of the season!
Onwards and upwards!!!
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