5K Eve

Tuesday: 22:16, 7'38/m
Thursday: 21:46, 7'29/m

Only 13 hours till my next 5K!

My goal when I signed up for this was to make top 10 overall, considering it's a race of only 200 or so people.  I made the mistake of mentioning the event to the "track stars" across the street. That means I can only be beat by 6 other people to make that goal - cause these kids are going to lap me!!

It'll actually be pretty fun.  Perhaps I can compete with them a bit, or for awhile. I think - Josie, the youngest, mentioned a time of 22:30 being her best "last year", but now I wonder if she said 21:30...  I believe the older boys have had times under 19.   Perhaps if they were a bit out of shape.... not so lucky.  I know at least one has been participating in a running club at school.  I'm toast!!  Fortunately - this won't impact my "age-group" placement ;)  

Competition aside, let's just focus on some personal goals:

Goal #1: Under 22 minutes.  
Stretch Goal: 7 minute pace.

Chances are it'll be somewhere in the middle.  I do think I'll be thrilled if I see 21:XX on the clock when I finish (it's been 5 years) - but I'll be Overjoyed if I can somehow come in under 7 minutes / mile.  This time may seem insane considering my pace at home has been hovering around 7'30 lately (which I couldn't be happier about), but with my last 5K pace being 7:07 somehow - it seems logical that after an additional 3 weeks of training - I should be able to knock 21 seconds off my previous time.

To over analyse things just a bit - my phone clocked the Martian 5K course at 3.04 miles, not 3.11.  If my phone is actually more accurate - then my pace was probably around 7:11 a mile.  I'm just adding this information now in case I disappoint myself tomorrow.

This past week I was pretty smart about training.  I focused more on resting my body and knee.  It was difficult to hold back, but I just ran every other day.   It's paid off. Where as my knee steadily declined last year, it's actually in better shape for this event than the last.

I could have eaten' better this week - but I've shapen' up pretty good the past few days, and feel like my stomach is pretty cleaned out.  Tonight I'm going to enjoy some anticipation time by working on my race playlist - and then going to get some really good sleep.