Personal Bests

ByNichole Porath

It’s been a while, eh? 🙂

Brief recap:
GAC Alumni 5k: 17:27.22, a 9 second lifetime PR.  Missed the stadium record by 9 seconds.  Bummer.

New Prague 1/2 marathon: 1:19.53.  Done as a marathon pace workout (goal was 1:20-1:21).  Happened to be a 2+ minute lifetime PR as well (only because my previous PR was from the last half of the Trials marathon. :))

New Prague was done at the end of a 103 mile week.  Things have ramped up significantly since the GAC 5k 🙂

GAC 5k recap:

Brooke, a fellow GAC alum, graciously was a “rabbit” for this race.  Her task was to take us (Linda, a junior U of MN Morris runner looking to get a better NCAA qualifying time) through the mile in 5:35.  She did SO well — we came through in EXACTLY in 5:35.  I’ve never been led before, and it was wonderful just to tuck behind.  
She stepped to the outside after the mile, and Linda and I were off.  We worked very well together.  When I felt the pace slipping, I took the lead.
We worked off of each other until the last lap, when Linda passed me & I tried to counter — and my legs came completely undone.  I wasn’t even that tired, lungs-wise, but my legs just stopped working.  I finished in 17:27, while she was able to kick it in to a 17:20 (2 secs from the stadium record).  Ug, where is that track speed when I need it?!?

So – Linda now has the meet record (I previously held it), and I didn’t set the stadium record.  Bummer.  But, I’m very happy with the race — a 9 second PR!  Yipee!!!

Although the time is slower than I was hoping, I am really happy to have focused on the shorter distances this early spring.  I needed it (rewind back to my first 200m workout, where the 200s I did were practically at marathon pace — I had NO ability to change pace at all!).  It also reminded me that I’m not a talented 5k runner :).

New Prague 1/2 marathon:
I try to line up these long Daniels-prescribed 13 mile MP workouts with a race just to help me through them.    New Prague is perfectly timed – 5 weeks before Grandma’s.

Goal was to try to “feel” marathon pace for this “workout”.  It’s a challenging course, no doubt – completely rolling hills.

Early on, I hit 6:05s and felt that this was my natural rhythm.  Despite the fact that this was a 103 mile week, my legs have felt really good (massage helping, perhaps?) and today 6:05s felt surprisingly effortless.  My lungs also felt huge, which is also surprising since I’ve been fighting a good cold (think green stuff since Monday night) for most of the week.

I was super excited to come through in 1:19:53.  That’s a lifetime PR for me (I haven’t raced many outright 1/2 marathons… and when I have, it hasn’t been pretty), and an awesome MP effort.  Makes me think that sub 2:40 is within my reach!!  And as Jerry reminded me, perhaps something close to 6:00/mile might be do-able (yikes…).  I looked that up and that would be a 2:37 low… sometimes his optimism impresses me.

Edit: As Steve pointed out, I should mention that I took home the win by over 7 minutes :).  I also, surprisingly, set a new lifetime PR in the 10 mile (what?? I wasn’t even racing all-out!) at 1:01:10.  I didn’t know that until Nate pointed it out.  That’s sort of crazy, when you think about it… guess that means I need to work on my shorter distance PRs :).  Or that I’ve just improved a lot in the past two years (which is also very much the case).

So… now on to continued mileage.  Yikes.  This week is 103, next close to 90 (due to a day off).  The next week we’ll be on vacation, and Jerry’s plan calls for anything between 80-100 (our vacations are basically run/hike as much as possible, see as much of national parks as possible, etc :).  That’s the most I’ve ever done in a 3 week period.  Just need to keep myself healthy, happy, and feeling great!!!

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