Posts Tagged ‘challenge’

At Least Now It’s a Race

Today’s 5k time = 25:35.

In four days I carved almost three minutes off my 5k time. I’ll rest tomorrow, then comes the really tough part. With two weeks left until the race, I’ve still got to slice another 40 seconds per mile to have a chance against Viper.

Better yet, even if I don’t improve a single second more, I’ve worked my way out of the possibility of a “disgraceful trouncing” to manage a “distant second.” The next stages will be:

Respectable

Close

Barn-burner

Nail-biter

Squeaker

Photo finish

Win.

The Great Funny/Viper Challenge

OK, I think I’ve done something stupid.

No, no, I haven’t hurt myself again. I was roaming the blogs yesterday and I came across this post by Viper. He mentioned his training for the Tallmadge Memorial 5k (being held, strangely enough, on Memorial Day) and how he planned to best his PR of 23:28. He has been building mileage, but feels he is currently shy of what he needs to set a new mark. He was looking to motivate himself.

So, naturally, I got the brilliant idea of helping out both Viper and me. I also run a 5k on Memorial Day each year, appropriately called the No Excuses 5k. So I challenged him to a virtual race and he accepted.

My advantages: My 5k PR is exactly one minute faster than his, and I ran my last 5k in 23:08.

His advantages: Viper has run two consecutive 20-mile weeks and will increase. I’ve run about 12 miles in the last six weeks, total. His track sessions are already sub-8-minute miles. He’s also about 20 years younger than I am.

It’s entirely a friendly competition, I’m a good loser, and it’s only for bragging rights, but I am devoted to exercising my bragging rights when I win them.

Anyway, I went out for my first post-challenge run this morning. I arrange my return from injury the same way each time. There is a 1.75-mile loop around my neighborhood that I run every other day until I can do it in under 14 minutes (8:00 pace). Once I’m able to do that, I upgrade to a 2.4-mile loop until I can run that sub-19:15.

This morning I ran a 14:18 (8:10 pace), which is much better than I have any right to expect, but my stamina is AWFUL. If I had to run a 5k tomorrow, I’d be very lucky to go sub-27.

So I’ve got three whole weeks to chop about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes off my 5k time. HA HA HA HA! Now that’s funny.