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I shall explain the latter half of the thread title in due course.<br><br>
Woke up in good shape this morning, a bit annoyed by how the weather is unseasonably warm and humid for October around here, but I was well rested and my legs felt good.<br><br>
Got a bit directionally challenged down around the Wilmington Riverfront area and decided that rather than trying to figure out the roadways, I'd park down by the shops near Frawley Stadium as I remembered them being about .75 miles away from the start and registration area. So I jogged there, although halfway there I realized I was still wearing my tee shirt over my singlet and that I was going to be getting another tee at registration. I looked at my watch and determined that I would be able to jog there, register, jog back to car and jog back to the start.<br><br>
I just ran an easy jog. I figured it was good warmup anyhow since I had taken Monday and Tuesday off from running, ran Wednesday, then rested again the last two days.<br><br>
I got to registration and a new tee shirt. On the way back, I pulled the glucometer out of my pocket and tested my blood sugar while walking. 130 mg/dl. It was 8:35, 25 minutes before race and I used my Novolog Flexpen to inject 2 units of rapid acting insulin to help with the liver dump during the race. Once injected, I resumed jogging. I don't know what people who saw me doing all this along the riverfront walk thought.<br><br>
Got back to my car at around 8:44. Dumped my two extra tee shirts in the car and then jogged back to the start, getting back with about 5 minutes to spare.<br><br>
At the start, the lady on the megaphone said something about course changes. I rarely can decipher the utterances over megaphones.<br><br>
I had a very important goal in this race. Keep myself from starting off too fast. It's been tendency of mine to register my fastest mile in the first mile of 5Ks and by the end of the race feel like I'm hanging on.<br><br>
So when things got started, I tried to keep my pace restrained. Not too restrained, but definitely avoid the feeling of how my legs felt during the intervals I had run the week prior. I wanted something slightly less than that.<br><br>
I was a bit dismayed when I got to the first mile marker and it had taken me 10:10 to reach it. Now based upon my heart rate at that point, I should have been about 9:30 or better. Weird. But otherwise I felt good, I felt like I could start to try picking up my pace now that there would only be 2 miles to go, so that's what I did.<br><br>
I began passing others, over the next third of a mile or so there would only be one instance of a trio overtaking me, but they soon dropped into a walk and I would pass them again. My goal for the rest of the race was to try to pull in people who were ahead of me.<br><br>
My heart rate average went up another half-dozen beats in the second mile and I was again a bit dumbfounded at my seeming lack of speed relatively speaking. It was a time of 9:37, but I felt like I was running up near the speed I had been doing in the 800m intervals of the week prior. Perception can be funny, I guess.<br><br>
That motivated me more though. I knew I needed to dial it up another notch and I went to doing so. In prior 5Ks I often felt dragging the last 1.1 miles. This time it felt tough, but it felt better. I worked on reeling in more of those who had been ahead of me and focused on keeping my upper body relaxed and my legs turning circles underneath me.<br><br>
I was also wondering if the course was mismeasured.<br><br>
I also was putting in the hardest kick I've ever put in yet. Glancing at the watch, my heart rate was consistently showing up over 170 bpm, my previous hardest efforts had seen upper 160s. Oh yeah, I was kicking as hard as I could.<br><br>
Still, the finish didn't seem to be showing up about when it felt like it should be showing up. Damn it. Keep kicking. There it is. Why is my watch already over 29 minutes? Why is the clock showing over 29? Fuck. At least let me beat 30 minutes. I've done that twice before, how could I be this slow?<br><br>
30:03. 171 heart rate average the last 1.1 miles. Blood sugar tested at 171 mg/dl upon completion.<br><br>
So I don't know.<br><br>
I wish I had had a Garmin while out there today. I've used Mapmyrun, conservatively, to show 3.2 miles and maybe as long as 3.25.<br><br>
Maybe my legs just weren't there today.<br><br>
I'll get ready for my next 5K in 3 weeks time.
Woke up in good shape this morning, a bit annoyed by how the weather is unseasonably warm and humid for October around here, but I was well rested and my legs felt good.<br><br>
Got a bit directionally challenged down around the Wilmington Riverfront area and decided that rather than trying to figure out the roadways, I'd park down by the shops near Frawley Stadium as I remembered them being about .75 miles away from the start and registration area. So I jogged there, although halfway there I realized I was still wearing my tee shirt over my singlet and that I was going to be getting another tee at registration. I looked at my watch and determined that I would be able to jog there, register, jog back to car and jog back to the start.<br><br>
I just ran an easy jog. I figured it was good warmup anyhow since I had taken Monday and Tuesday off from running, ran Wednesday, then rested again the last two days.<br><br>
I got to registration and a new tee shirt. On the way back, I pulled the glucometer out of my pocket and tested my blood sugar while walking. 130 mg/dl. It was 8:35, 25 minutes before race and I used my Novolog Flexpen to inject 2 units of rapid acting insulin to help with the liver dump during the race. Once injected, I resumed jogging. I don't know what people who saw me doing all this along the riverfront walk thought.<br><br>
Got back to my car at around 8:44. Dumped my two extra tee shirts in the car and then jogged back to the start, getting back with about 5 minutes to spare.<br><br>
At the start, the lady on the megaphone said something about course changes. I rarely can decipher the utterances over megaphones.<br><br>
I had a very important goal in this race. Keep myself from starting off too fast. It's been tendency of mine to register my fastest mile in the first mile of 5Ks and by the end of the race feel like I'm hanging on.<br><br>
So when things got started, I tried to keep my pace restrained. Not too restrained, but definitely avoid the feeling of how my legs felt during the intervals I had run the week prior. I wanted something slightly less than that.<br><br>
I was a bit dismayed when I got to the first mile marker and it had taken me 10:10 to reach it. Now based upon my heart rate at that point, I should have been about 9:30 or better. Weird. But otherwise I felt good, I felt like I could start to try picking up my pace now that there would only be 2 miles to go, so that's what I did.<br><br>
I began passing others, over the next third of a mile or so there would only be one instance of a trio overtaking me, but they soon dropped into a walk and I would pass them again. My goal for the rest of the race was to try to pull in people who were ahead of me.<br><br>
My heart rate average went up another half-dozen beats in the second mile and I was again a bit dumbfounded at my seeming lack of speed relatively speaking. It was a time of 9:37, but I felt like I was running up near the speed I had been doing in the 800m intervals of the week prior. Perception can be funny, I guess.<br><br>
That motivated me more though. I knew I needed to dial it up another notch and I went to doing so. In prior 5Ks I often felt dragging the last 1.1 miles. This time it felt tough, but it felt better. I worked on reeling in more of those who had been ahead of me and focused on keeping my upper body relaxed and my legs turning circles underneath me.<br><br>
I was also wondering if the course was mismeasured.<br><br>
I also was putting in the hardest kick I've ever put in yet. Glancing at the watch, my heart rate was consistently showing up over 170 bpm, my previous hardest efforts had seen upper 160s. Oh yeah, I was kicking as hard as I could.<br><br>
Still, the finish didn't seem to be showing up about when it felt like it should be showing up. Damn it. Keep kicking. There it is. Why is my watch already over 29 minutes? Why is the clock showing over 29? Fuck. At least let me beat 30 minutes. I've done that twice before, how could I be this slow?<br><br>
30:03. 171 heart rate average the last 1.1 miles. Blood sugar tested at 171 mg/dl upon completion.<br><br>
So I don't know.<br><br>
I wish I had had a Garmin while out there today. I've used Mapmyrun, conservatively, to show 3.2 miles and maybe as long as 3.25.<br><br>
Maybe my legs just weren't there today.<br><br>
I'll get ready for my next 5K in 3 weeks time.