Category: Running

5 minutes, 25 seconds.

First lap 1:15 (75s)
Second lap 2:35 (80s)
Third lap 4:00 (85s)
Fourth lap 5:25 (85s)

Conditions: 30 degrees, light wind

Since I’ve been training mostly for distance, it’s not too bad of a mile time. I guess I’ll have to do more speed work next year to really knock that time down. Funny how I ran a 4:58 when I was 15 years old…

Ran a mile time trial yesterday at the track yesterday. It was pretty windy and I was still pretty stiff from the other day’s 5K. I started the day wanting to do a 7 mile run but after my first mile (7:32) it started sprinkling and that combined with the cold was not something I wanted to put myself in for an hour since I didn’t want to possibly get sick from running in this weather. I’ve been really curious about my mile time since the half-marathon results and decided to just go for it.

First lap was 1:22
Second lap was 1:20
Third lap was 1:28
Fourth lap was 1:20
Total: 5:30

I’m definitely happy with that time given all the training I’ve done since May of this year and I figure I could probably shave off 5-10 seconds if conditions were better and I wasn’t as stiff. Earlier this summer, around mid-July, I did a mile time trial and clocked in at 5:44. I have to say that the Garmin watch has really improved my running times since I can pace myself better and it’s a good way to push yourself if you’re running slower than you thought you were.

I’ll probably do another one this week… hopefully it’s not too cold.

Did a 5K time trial per my Garmin watch on the track. It turned out to be about 400 meters short (11.5 laps), so I’m not sure what to think. Once I hit 3.1 miles on the watch, I stopped since I was pacing myself based on the watch’s distance and pace calculations. I have to say though it’s kind of annoying that the track and my watch don’t sync closer in distance since I look at my watch a lot to determine how fast I’m going and how much farther I have to run. Mapmyrun.com and my Garmin are almost exactly the same though.

Anyway, this morning the weather was perfect, around low 50’s, slightly cloudy with a little sun. Did a short jog around the track and got ready for the time trial.

Mile 1: 5:52
Mile 2: 5:58
Mile 3: 5:45
3 to 3.1: 0:31 (5:13 pace)
Total: 18:07

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the time but I recognize the fact that in an official 5K track race, I would probably have to tack on another 80 seconds or so. Either way, I probably should have rested one more day since I was still a little tight from last week’s half-marathon but I just woke up today wanting to do a time trial… With winter coming around the corner, I think I’m going to do one last time trial next week without the watch since it’ll just be a mile time trial and we’ll see how that goes. Goal is < 5:30.

12.5 laps around the track. 18:00 to 18:30 is the goal. I’m going to shoot for 6:15 for the first mile, 6:00 and then 5:45ish.

Finished the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon this morning. It was 28 degrees Fahrenheit at the start of the race (8:00 AM).

Ran it in 1 hour, 35 minutes and 45 seconds which completely destroyed my original goal of 1 hour and 45 minutes.

My unofficial splits based off my Garmin watch were:
Mile 1: 8:25
Mile 2: 7:34
Mile 3: 7:31
Mile 4: 7:31
Mile 5: 7:26
Mile 6: 7:15
Mile 7: 7:00
Mile 8: 7:07
Mile 9: 6:45
Mile 10: 6:44
Mile 11: 6:47
Mile 12: 6:56
Mile 13: 6:20

According to my watch, I ran 13.37 miles which I think means two things, I did a lot of zig-zagging around to get around people which added to my total mileage and also, I personally think mile 12 to mile 13 was 100 to 200 meters longer than it should have been since my watch was always at most .1 miles off on every mile marker but for the last mile it was 0.2 miles off which was quite odd.

Either way, I was really happy to have negative splits throughout most of the race. However, I think a big reason for the negative splits was that I had no idea what kind of shape I was in and didn’t know what kind of pace to run at since I had basically stopped training hard for 2 months from August 15 to the Chicago Marathon on 10/10/10 which I figured probably hurt my overall condition. After the Chicago Marathon, I started training pretty intensely for 3 weeks with my fastest workout being 5 miles at an average of 6:37/mile pace but I didn’t think 3 weeks would do much since I normally only ran 5 miles a day which isn’t even half of a half-marathon’s distance.

Anyway, I’m really excited that I was able to beat 1:45:00 let alone get 1:35:45. I think I’m done training hard this season since I just did a marathon and half marathon within a month of each other and I kinda need a break from intense training and I got a lot of stuff I need to finish up in my MBA program. My next goal that I’m going to shoot for is < 18 minutes for a 5k which is basically 5:47/mile. Probably going to need to do lots of speed work. My best 5k when I was younger was around 18:10 I think, so this will definitely be a challenge. I definitely want to break 1:30:00 for a half-marathon one day but I'll shoot for that maybe in a few years or something...