Saturday, April 21, 2007

Even with the power of science, I still sucked ass.

After last weekend's 5k, I decided I should give a 5k that didn't require eating Krispy Kremes a try to see where I stood these days. I figured that I probably ran a 29:30 5k last weekend, subtracting the time it took to eat the donuts. So I was shooting for under 30 (sadly still 2 and a half minutes off my PR). So today I did an Earth Day 5k put on by the evolutionary biology and ecology grad student group. I figured that this would be a perfect time to whip out my newest nerdy t-shirt (note I am horrible taking photos of myself):And look at that! I got number 42! I mean, this has to bode well, right?

Uh, not! (Let' go back 15 years, why don't we?) My friend who had never run a race before was there and she asked me what my mile pace was. I told her these days for a 5k race, it was about 9:45. She seemed to think this was fast, even though she said she was a 10 minute/mile girl and I told her she would probably run faster in a race than she does on her own. The race starts and I don't see her until the end - she came in at about 25 minutes! Gees, I wish I went that much faster in a race.

Anyways, I started out a bit too fast, but I was sucking wind the entire time. My heart rate stayed above my lactate threshold the entire time (which theoretically meant I should slow down, but even though I have the pretty numbers, I tend to ignore them and just run how I feel).

I came in at 30:38. Gees, this is my slowest 5k time since February 2005, when I started doing distance running, so I am not a happy camper. I don't necessarily think that it was just a bad day either. My hamstring didn't hurt while running, I just think that having to do very conservative running training for the past six months has taken its toll. My hopes of being able to do a 30 min 5k in the tri are pretty much blown. But surprisingly, I have been feeling pretty good on the bike lately and really, the triathlon is all about the bike, right?

6 comments:

Laurie said...

Love the shirt, that is a classic.

You shouldn't be so hard on yourself about your time. You been injured and it will take a while to fully come back from that. That's why I haven't entered any 5Ks, I don't want those numbers. Though I'd never be embarrassed with a 30-something 5K.

Audrey said...

hi! love the shirt :) and yeah, laurie's right...it takes some time to stop sucking wind. like, starting running again can be so excruciating!! it's cool you got your bad self out there (and had the perfect clothing for the race)! :)

Tammy said...

Well, my fellow scientist, did you know that there is research showing that WOMEN can maintain pace well above LT much longer than men can? Now you know why you didn't slow down :)

BTW, I NEED THAT T-SHIRT!!!!

Joe said...

I printed the logo from this shirt off the website and hung it on the cluster I run at work. It feels so appropriate. I also figured hanging the "Science: it works, bitches" one would be inappropriate for work. :)

Al Dimond said...

As far as XKCD stuff goes, I've sometimes thought about printing and posting the "FUCK. THAT. SHIT." comic on my cube, but I think it would just focus unnecessary corporate scrutiny on my blog.

The first few races coming from injury are always frustrating, especially when you have a goal in mind. Senior year of HS, track season, had a great indoor season immediately followed by some nasty tendonitis. In my first few races back I was running 40 seconds slower (in a 10-minute race, which is like being 2 minutes slower for a 30-minute race). And that was a pretty short injury, even. It takes pretty brilliant training to stay fast through an injury.

Joe said...

Tammy: meant to post the link to the shirt the other day and forgot. Sorry!

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