A Freezing But Fast 5 Miler in 49:10! Progress at last!
Posted on Feb 09, 2012 under 5 miles, Milestones, Regular Runs, Season's Best | 1 CommentPhew, at last one of those runs where things click into place and the work seems to be paying off!
Had some things on in the afternoon and some notes to write up when I got in, so had to make sure I ate something and then the clock was ticking to get a run in before it got too late in the evening. Was very cold out and had been utterly pouring with rain most of the day. Fortunately this turned to light drizzle so I got out, trying out the green supernovas I raced in last year, for a change. It was cold out, so cold in fact that the Garmin froze before it found a signal and I had to take the batteries out to restart the damn thing! Then it took ages to get going as yet another paranoid looking youth smoking weed walked past me…
Set off a bit quick, hoping to do at least 5k to get some kind of proper run under my belt, and settled into a comfortable rhythm, then took the risk of heading down a route that would take me in a big circle and be about 5 miles. Attacked the hill over the motorway bridge and passed another mad runner, and noticed the hill didn’t hurt TOO bad, then it was a case of coasting to the half way mark, which I got through in about 24 minutes, and figured that all I had to do was keep my pace and I could run sub 50 for the 5 miles. So far so good.
Was barely breaking into a sweat due to the cold and the light, refreshing drizzle, which was nice on my head but I had to keep wiping the Garmin with my sleeve. Mind you this Garmin, battered as it is, has been with me for some 4 years now so can’t complain! As I turned the corner to start the long straight back home I felt my energy dip a little and had to slow down, as I knew another torturous hill was coming before I was done. Had put in a few sub 6 minute kms but the Garmin told me I was slowing. Even so, when I had 2KM to go I calculated I could probably run them in 7 minutes each and still get under 50 minutes, so just tried to keep my pace as best I could.
The big motorway bridge at Denton Rock slowed me as much as I attacked it, and I briefly stopped at the top, before ploughing on and trying to inject some pace. I now knew I would get under 50 minutes it was just a question of by how much, and I wanted to finish relatively near home. Saw another mad runner and then it was just a matter of reaching the last oasis of streetlight so I could see the Garmin, and the 8.05KM ticked over in a time of 49:10. According to my records, I have not run a 5 miler anywhere near as quick as that since 2010, so it may be a sign that I still have some speed left in me as long as I can stay uninjured.
I recovered pretty quickly and felt good, so was really happy to break 50 minutes, and if I could have kept going it would have been 10k well under the hour. So my next targets are really a sub 49 5 miles and a sub hour 10k, and then I will start thinking about intervals as I look forward to the Great Manchester Run.
February 10th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
Ooops – really got my KMs and miles mixed up there, another mile would have been 10 minutes, was thinking another KM would have made a sub hour 10k but of course there were 2 to go so am not quite running sub hour 10k pace yet lol!!!!!!