Although training has gone well summer, with three months of 60-70 mile weeks now, and I have had a smattering of good races over the past couple of years I have not put it together for 5K since 2019. That was my last good year for 5K, when I ran 17:28 on a hot hilly course in Atlanta for a USATF masters championship and a couple months later 18:06 at 5000 feet elevation here in Colorado.
A few weeks after that I developed an injury, followed by several months of rehab, a global pandemic, and eventual gradual return. I have not done any 5Ks at sea level since Atlanta 2019, and best results at altitude in 2020 and 2021 were no faster than 18:45.
This July I managed a 19:07 in Fort Collins on a fast course and 19:28 in Denver on a slower route. For those efforts I was just getting my base back following recovery from the Boston Marathon in April and a bout of covid in May. Now with another two months of base work/marathon training and a 5:26 mile on the track last month. I felt ready for a 5K breakout this week as a final tune-up for next week’s 12K road championships. So not only was I hoping for a season’s best and sub 19, but a best in three years, i.e., 18:40 or faster. Why not?
The base is there, and now the speed. But I’m jumping ahead.
Snippets from the Training Block
With a marathon in November I only dallied in speed training in August but it was enough to enjoy a pleasant surprised with that mile.
I have not done much 5K specific training this summer, but have consistently hit that range of pace (around 6:00/mile) in progression workouts, including a challenging Michigan workout the other week–5.5 miles of faster work with alternating track repetitions, each shorter and faster, each interspersed with a tempo mile. I hit 6:10, 6:00, 5:55, and sub 5:20 for the 1600, 1200, 800, 400, on the track, and the tempo segments were at 6:22-23. That workout at 5500′ elevation indicated I might be in 18:30 shape.
However, since then I have been a little tired. And while I kept up the mileage at 68-71 miles a week, with long runs of 16 to 20 miles, I have backed off some on workouts. I have been running on tired legs, but also felt ready to take on a hard 5K effort this weekend. I decided to work through this race (with a seven day running total of 74 miles through Friday) but ran an easy double on Thursday only ran 46 minutes at 8:30 pace on Friday. So I felt reasonably ready
Race Day
Weather has been quite hot–record breakingly so–over the past couple of weeks, with highs in Denver into the upper 90s every day, and even to the mid-upper 80s up in the foothills. However, on Friday, the temperature dropped precipitously and did not exceed 60, and by Saturday morning it was raining and misting and only in the mid-upper 40s. Good racing weather, and while warming up I was lamenting that this wasn’t a cross country race. Perfect weather for that!
The course wrapped around Sloan’s Lake in Denver, with some twists and turns. In fact this year’s version, altered due to some construction in the park, featured several (I think) rather ill-placed hairpin corners. One at 0.1 mile after a downhill start and another at 3.0 miles. They easily could have eliminated those turns if they had us go southeast from the park to the lake path, and then we would go into the park at an easier angle at the finish. Made no sense.
Also, with the construction on the south and southeast side of the lake path they had to re-route us to the road for a couple of blocks. Again, there were a couple of sharp turns and curb hops to navigate around that. That’s not really the race’s fault, but just another thing. And finally, at about 2.4 miles you have this jetty with a couple of weird zig zags and yet another 180 degree turn. This is a typical feature of the course and I’m not sure why they do that other than to add on a few tenths onto the loop.
Everyone running the race has do navigate these diversions, but time wise each of these will add a second or two onto your race time. Otherwise, it’s a fairly flat and fast course on cement bike path.
We lined up at were off at 8:30. I tucked into about 10th place right away, but after that first hairpin a slew of runners shot past.
Off to a fast start!
I checked my watch a couple times over the first half mile and saw some 5:45/5:55 instantaneous paces, so I tried to check my speed. I wanted to go under 6 for that first mile, and run a little more aggressively than my previous outings this summer (going out in 6:10-6:20 on those occasions). Within a kilometer the most other other runners (except one) who had shot ahead early on started coming back one by one.
There was no mile marker by my watch buzzed at 5:58, right as we hit the construction detour and a slight incline onto the street. I was probably in about 12th place, but already feeling the pace. And I figured sub 6 would be a stretch today, so I just tried to maintain effort for the rest of the way. I picked off a couple more runners as we rounded around the south and west side of the lake at 2 miles (12:12).
At the jetty out and back (about 0.1 mile each way) I tracked past most of front field (the race leader was already well on his way to the finish). Back onto the main bike path with just a half mile to go the next guy up was a good 20 seconds ahead, but I had two whom I had passed in the second mile in fairly close pursuit (within 5 or 6 seconds of me). Wasn’t feeling anything great but knew I could hold this effort and have a little more for the kick. And I would need it!
As I rounded the final turn at 3 miles I could see one of those guys just 3-4 meters back. I maintained my effort for a few seconds, then increased my cadence on as we rose a few feet in elevation, as I neared the crest with less than 100 meters to go I tried an all-out sprint and thought I had him. But with maybe 40 meters to go he popped a strong surge and got a couple steps ahead in an instant! I can’t do that anymore, and could not respond. Initially I as annoyed a bit, no one likes to be outkicked, especially with such a short distance to go. But that’s racing and if I had wanted to put him away I should have done so earlier than I had tried.
I finished in 19:09 and 9th place. The time was 20-40 seconds slower than I had hoped to run. Again, I was disappointed at first but as the day wore on I figured it was a decent enough effort.
I had splits of 5:58, 6:14, 6:17, and 40 for the final 0.1. My heart rate was at the 150-52 range (>90% max) for the final 16.5 minutes of the race. So I ran at my max. Looking back, going out a little less aggressively at the start (say 6:05 pace) might have left a little more in the tank for miles 2 and 3 and an overall faster finish. However, then again it is sometimes also good to test your limits at a low-key 5K race.
As far as age grading, that was an 85.8% age grade and easily the best overall for the day (second best being an 81% by Jay another competitor in my age group). Converted to sea level that would be an 88.3% and and 14:31. So considering that I worked through this race, it’s not bad at all. The fitness is there, even if the 5K sharpness is not. It was a good day!
Thanks to the Denver 5K crew and volunteers for making this a good quality event for the city.
rrunnin234 