February Freeze - Run

Run had some fairly good hills on it. Enough that keeping the HR in target zones was tough without sacrificing pace. The weather was really nice, but a tad windy. Made going out nice, but the return half was more difficult and a tad chilly.

Started off towards the front of the pack, and it seperated out rather quickly. My goal time was 21:00 but I was really wanting to do it under 20. As we were waiting for the race to start, Chris said rather loudly to me, "so you're shooting for sub 18 right?". To which a bunch of people, including all the FOPers turn and start staring at me. So the race started and I wasn't passed and I ended up passing about 5 people before the front spaced out. My stradegy was to keep the first half in zone 3, then let my HR climb into zone 4 for the last half, finishing in zone 5. I ended up matching pace fairly well with a 14 year old kid.

After the turn around when I started picking up the pace, I passed a guy who to my surprise told me "Good job keep it up." Quite encouraging coming from someone getting passed. I ended up chasing this kid. I just kept my pace sold, not worrying about him, but I ended up being slightly faster. So I'd approach him and start to get next to him, and he'd sprint ahead 20 feet to keep me from passing. I have to admit he had spirit, as he did this for about a mile and a half. On the last hill, my riding legs and swimmers lungs kicked into gear and I was next to him right towards the top. Right then I see Chris, who decided not to race today, and he starts yelling "half mile all down hill!" so I kick it in to gear and take off blasting by this poor kid who spent all his energy over the last mile trying to stay ahead of me. I kind of felt sorry for him, but hey...it is a race.

Crossed the line in just over 20:55, coming in under my goal time by 5 seconds. Overall I'm happy with the result. My first 5k was on halloween and was 28:00 and my second 5k ever was on thanksgiving and was 23:30. So in 4 months I have managed to drop my 5k time over 7 minutes and moved from a MOP to a FOP finisher.

Nothing.

VO2. I took my asthma pill but did not take the inhaler like I planned. Not sure if it would make a difference, but I could feel that lung capacity was holding me back on the final sprint.


Race was nice. The check in was inside, which was nice for this time of year and plenty of food was provided. The race part wasn't all that organized though. No official times or placings were recorded, it was just a guy with a stop watch reading off your time as you crossed the line. A little disappointing for my first FOP finish, but oh well.