Fastest 5K of the year

This year has been a real challenge for me. March 14 was the beginning of what turned out to be quite a decline in my running. That was the day I slipped while getting out of a bath tub and broke three ribs. It was 3 weeks before I was able attempt a run. I was just getting back in condition and on April 26 I had to stop running due to severe bronchitis. Once again, I missed a significant number of days of running.

Once I got over the bronchitis, it just seemed like I had lost all motivation to train. I was in poor racing condition and I really was not motivated to attempt a come back. My ribs still hurt and I just did not want to work hard at running.

That was my mental and physical state when we left home on June 20 with a plan to be on the road with our travel trailer for 2-3 months. It has been my experience that it is very difficult to train while on the road. That is when I made the decision to just enjoy the trip and run when I could. I did have a goal of getting back a solid mileage base. I accomplished that and along the way I did a 5K and a 10K race. Both were much slower than my usual times, but I just enjoyed the races and figured when I got home I would get serious.

After 10 weeks on the road, we arrived back in Hattiesburg on August 31, my first race was a 5K on Labor Day. My only goal was to not walk. I was successful, except I was still very disappointed with the 9:51 pace. I tried not to be too down and I continued to work my training plan. This typically consists of 22-29 miles a week, with speed on Tuesday and either a long run or a race on Saturday. Last week I did a 6 mile run so that is my starting point for the long run and I will attempt to work up to an 8 miler so that I can race 10Ks.

Today I raced a 5K with a goal of being under 30 minutes. I thought I might be able to get under 29, but that did not happen. My time was 29:07 which is a 9:22 pace. I am OK with that and I will continue to work my plan. Over the course of the next 4-6 weeks, I'm not sure when I will be racing. I have to go to Atlanta for a week and I'm having a hard time figuring out when to race and when to do the long runs. I'll think more about it for a few days before I come up with a plan of action.

In the meantime, I feel good and I will just keep on taking those baby steps as I get back in racing condition. As I told someone today, a couple of weeks ago I was in 1.5 mile race condition and today I felt like I was good for 2.25 so I am making progress.