I have not run a 5k race for quite a while so it was very inviting last Saturday morning when I read Kenley's blog about a scheduled virtual 5k race on Jan21. It led me to this blog by Doug that invited runners from all over the world to participate in the first ever #TwitterRoadRace 5k. Realizing that this could also be a chance for me to assess the Maffetone training that I'm currently doing, I decided to sign-up and strap on my Vibram Bikilas after lunch for a 5k.
The route was going to be done on a 1km-loop that I use regularly for 1k-cruise intervals during marathon training. Thus it would have to be done 5 times.
After a 1.4km jog warmup and set my Garmin to count-down from 5km, I was off with my virtual race.
I reminded myself to start off comfortably as much as I can. This is to avoid the blow-up that happened a month ago when I did my own mock 5k race (ran out of gas after 3.6km). I clocked in the 1st km at 6:20.
I needed to catch up on my pace if I wanted to make sub-30.
Fortunately, I could say that I ran a smart race as I managed my splits fairly well, accomplishing a very rare negative split performance. Here are my splits for the rest of the 4kms: 6:02, 6:00, 5:52, 5:46.
Finish time: 0:29:59. PR!
Yup, I BARELY finished sub-30. On a sunny Saturday afternoon.
After I finished, I went for a 1-mile cooldown jog/walk.
Total mileage for the day: 8km.
As I logged in my race time in the #TwitterRoadRace results, it was nice to see the results page filled with runners from the US, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Panama, UK, and, of course, the Philippines (who were very well represented if I may add). I finished 215th out of 376 total runners and I was 61st out of 75 in my age group (M 30-39).
As to my race performance, I felt very comfortable throughout the run as I slowly (smartly?) increased the pace after each loop. I forgot to mention that the 1k-loop had two gradual climbs and two quick descents so it was really a challenge to keep my mind concentrated on the goal, especially on the uphills. My heart rate averaged 157 (gradual increase from 140+ to 172) and max'ed at 172 towards the end. I think I still had more left in the tank if I wanted to push harder so I'm excited to see further improvement of Maffetone training when I finish another 5k virtual/mock race in a month's time.
For now, it's back to slow run efforts below 142 heart rate.
Great job Roelle!!! Congratulations. So next time you should might get down to 29:00? or somewhere in that neighborhood. Thanks for the mention. I have never done a 5k so I thought I would go for it. Now I am hooked. 5 1k loops. Mighty impressive for mindset. hahaha. Yeah, I was amazed to see all of the entries from the PH. What would be cool is to gather points for each country. To be honest though, I don't know if Maf training and 5ks go hand in hand, if you know what I mean. The 5k is awesome and I am hooked now. I am going to do another one Feb 4th, and just call it what I want. Like winter sucks 5k for an example. So.....Let's motivate each other and kick some @$$!!! Who knows, we might actually do a half or full marathon together some day in the PH. Take care, and feel free to keep me posted on any new developments your way. Again, Congratulations on the sub 30! Oh, I tried running barefoot on the TM the other day. I lasted for about 1km. I HAD to go fast I noticed for the forefoot landing, and if I even tried to land on my heels it felt like a big flop! lol
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