5 Mile Run

Who: Alone
What: 5 Mile Run
Where: Struble trail

Two goals for this run. Goal the first: Run the whole thing - no walksies. Success! Other than having to pause to cross the street twice… and I’m not counting that.

Goal the second: 9 minute miles. Success! This was admittedly not as strong of a goal, but I find it difficult not to set time goals. 8 minute miles is just… not reasonable for distance runs for me right now.

For half of this run, the 9 minute miles felt great. For up to the fourth mile (and I was running some quarter mile cuts in the 3-4 mile range at faster than pace), it felt doable.

I fell apart a bit on the last mile. I know it was my slowest one, and mentally it was tough to keep running. I dropped my pace intentionally because goal the first was the most important but… man, I wanted to stop.

Somehow, even with that though… I ended at 44:58.9 Right on pace.

6 miles is my longest distance, and I did those in the 9:30 range the few times I’ve done it. Running 5 @ 9 is a pretty big deal to me, mentally. I’m happy. Now… I’m gonna go die.

3 Responses to “5 Mile Run”

  1. shubbe - September 20, 2008

    Congratulations on a good run and on meeting your goals!

    One thing you gotta be careful about is running your long runs “too hard”. I have no idea how you ran this one, but your coach may emphasize that your long runs should be conversational. Where you can have a normal conversation with the person running with you, and not have to stop talking in order to breathe.

    That’s my unsolicited second-hand advice that may not even apply, because you might already be doing that.

    Sorry.

  2. drw - September 21, 2008

    Please don’t apologize for offering good advice. :-)

    I do sometimes do a verbal test, saying something to myself to see if I can do so without feeling out of breath.

  3. Therese - September 22, 2008

    I am so impressed with you! Sounds like you are getting your pace down. 5 miles is that magical distance when you are truly doing distance running. That’s what my body usually tells me. Way to go! 6 will be a cinch now.

    Thanks for the link to my site!

Leave a Reply