I mentioned in my post from 7 Aug that I had a bit of a worry about the 5k on the 8th. Well the 8th has come and gone and to be honest I'm more pleased than I had thought I would be. It must have been the nice slow run on the 7th that helped loosen the muscles etc, but I ran much better than I thought I would.
The conditions were better this time, which probably contributed to the better time. During the run on July 4th, shortly after the turn around point (the course is essentially an out-and-back) we were greeted with a vicious head-wind. This time the wind was mostly from the side so it probably didn't play a major factor in the times.
I tried to improve on pacing this time as well. I did my best to resist the urge to go out too fast. Basing my pace off my heart rate monitor I tried to maintain an even, slower pace during the first half. It didn't necessarily work as I felt like I couldn't maintain the pace by about the 3.5k mark.
I also tried to run 'with' people during this one. A dangerous tactic I'm sure, but I figured in a 5k I might be able to get away with it. I found a group of people running at about the same pace I was trying for and tried to stick with them. It worked okay until the end, when a gentleman at least 2 age divisions above me that I'd been running near demonstrated significantly more 'kick' than I possess.
It all worked out in the end though. My time (by my watch) was 22:48 (besting my previous time on the course by nearly a minute and a half).
(Oh, and I bought a new pair of shoes the next day.)
3 comments:
How do you like your heart rate monitor? I never really thought about getting one until Vince got one and told me how great it was. I got a Polar F11 (I think Vince has the same one).
I really like that it tracks my workouts and all, but I wish it would work with a stand-alone program on my computer instead of requiring access to the internet. It'd be nice if while I was out at sea I could use the features of the Polar website for keeping track of mileage, calories, times, etc.
It has been interesting to do the fitness tests and see my level of fitness change over time. Back when I was on shore duty in DC and going to the gym or running every day, I scored a 47 on the fitness test (I think that's VO2), and I got the best PRT run time I've EVER had (even beat my college best time). Then about midway through SCC, I was down to a 37. Then in the middle of deployment I was down to 27. During the transit from Norfolk to Pearl Harbor, I made a commitment to run EVERY day on the treadmill, and I did every day except for the day we were in the Panama Canal. That got me back up to a 35. Now that we're here in Hawaii and running command PT on Mon-Weds-Fri, I'm back up to a 40 again.
BTW - How do you like your Mizunos? I have been partial to New Balance for some time now. Actually, I got my first pair of New Balance shoes in Monterey and have had several other NB pairs since then.
I recently wore my running shoes out to the point I wore a hole in the back of the heel, so I decided it was time for some new running shoes. I did some research on the internet first, and found this website www.roadrunnersports.com where you tell it what type of feet you have (high arch / flat foot / what type of pronator, etc) and it tells you what shoes will best work for you.
I printed off that list of shoes they recommended and took it with me to go shopping. The NEX had a decent selection, but all they had were sizes 8, 9, 14, and 15. Foot Locker at the mall didn't have any of the NB shoes I was looking for. I tried the Nikes and the Asics, and they just didn't feel right on my feet. The sales guy at Foot Locker was very helpful and told me there is a New Balance store at Ward Center in Waikiki, and a place called the Running Room not far away. I figured one of the two would be able to take care of me.
First we went to the NB store at Ward Center. The lady there was very helpful and just looked at the way I was walking and said I was a whatever-pronator (where my feet roll out) and recommended the NB 1061 - which just happened to be one of the shoes recommended on the roadrunnersports website and had good user reviews. I put them on, and it felt like I was putting on my same comfy shoes I'd been wearing for a long time. SOLD!
Maybe next time I'll actually check out the Running Room, too. The NB store gave me a 10% military discount though, and that brought the price down below what I would have paid at roadrunnersports.
Oh! The point? Sorry, that was a long tangent. The thing that made me think of it was that on the list of shoes the roadrunnersports website recommended were the Mizunos, and I had never heard of them before (nor seen them in any stores). Did you buy yours off the internet, or did you actually find them in a store?
Re the heart rate monitor.
I've got a Polar S120. It's very basic. No real connectivity or anything. It will record your work out, and you can program it. I really like it though b/c it gives me an independent indication of my workout effort. I find myself looking down to see how I'm doing all the time. It was really fun back in England when I got to experience Polar-to-Polar interference with my Norwegian friend. I'd look down and less than 3 minutes into a run my heartrate would be around 208!!! Or, our combined heartrates were about 208, or something like that. He is super human though and probably didn't get his heart rate above 75 when running at my pace. :)
I didn't realize how much I rely on it for that until this week. I left it in Germany when I came back to the states (hopefully, the dutiful wife will put it in a box on Monday...maybe with my super cool ultimate direction water bottle?).
I really enjoyed the progress monitoring too. I've watched my resting heart rate drop significantly over time with it too.
I love my Mizunos. I used to wear Asics, and I really liked them too. But I had a no kidding proper fitting for running shoes in Hawaii last year. It came down to the Asics or the Mizunos. I just couldn't say no to them. I'm still impressed. Although, I've had to go up a size in the Wave Rider 10s I just bought and they are just at the cusp of being to loose. The problem is with the next size down my obscenely long second toe rubs on the front of the shoe (blisters in waiting...). Still like them though, I just have to make sure they're tie nice and snug.
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