Thursday, July 19, 2012

So Long, 5K...Let's Never Meet Again!

Nothing too exciting to post about recently, but no one ever said training was sexy...certainly not the training I'm doing anyway. See, while trying to reach my 16:29 5K goal, I realized it was waaayyyy easier to get on the treadmill and have the machine force me to go fast. Otherwise, I was finding the internal conversation between my brain and legs always went something like this while running on the road:

Brain: OK Legs, we need to run this next mile at 5:40, and then drop 5:15s the next two.

Legs: Yeah....about that. Listen, me and the lungs were talkin', and we decided we're not gonna do that.

Brain: C'mon guys, don't you want to break into the sub-16:30 5K world?

Legs: No. No we don't. What we do want to break into is a bag of Doritos. No wait...donuts! We want donuts. Is it too late to change our request to donuts??

Brain: I hate you guys.

So as you can see, the decision to move my 5K time trials to the treadmill was really the only option. I see the 'mill as sort of like a big mechanical arbitrator in this debate.  Anyway, with the help of the good ol' hamster wheel, and a lot of really loud heavy metal on my ipod, I ran a 16:25 earlier this week and have happily checked the box on that goal. My reward, I'm happy to report, was that I didn't throw up at the end. ...and I have to say I appreciated that just about as much any of the 100 mile buckles I've earned in the past. So long, 5K...time to hang out with your big brother Mr. 10K for a while now. ....35:30 is the goal for this one!

In other news, I'm slowly piecing together my race schedule for the rest of 2012. As indicated on the upper right side of this page, I'm signed up to run the Dahlgren 50k in a couple weeks (definitely a "tune-up" and not a "race" for me this time around), and then I'll be heading to the hills to take on the 71 nasty mountain miles of The Ring. I'm looking forward to actually being in shape for that one so I can make an honest effort at grabbing the CR out there (I still own the record running in the opposite direction, but I think both times are a bit soft). I have a ways to go yet in training, but I think it's a worthy goal to shoot for.

Beyond that, I do want to make a return to the 24 HR world and put forth an honest effort at qualifying for the US Team again. I think a trip to the Netherlands for the 2013 World Championships sounds pretty cool to me, so I'll either throw my hat in the ring for the UltraCentric Gold Rush in November (the winner gets a 1oz Gold Coin!), or the Desert Solstice in December. We'll see how training goes the next couple months before I make that call.

In the meantime, I'm happily looking forward to bailing on work tomorrow and heading out to the mountains to run. It's the least I can do to reward my poor legs for all that treadmill torture the past couple weeks!



3 comments:

nmp said...

I talked with Nick over the weekend. Sounds like Desert Solstice is shaping up to be quite a race based on interest he has received so far. You should definitely consider coming back.

Congrats on hitting your 5k goal - that is fast! I think your 5k time was faster than my per mile pace at hr ;-)

Dan Rose said...

Way to hit a HR at HR, Nick!! Killer time out there. I'm guessing you didn't go off course this time around! Maybe you even had a pacer who didn't lie to you about the distance to every aid station in the second half. I think I know a guy who does that...

Good news on DS24. I'll keep it on my schedule for a few months to see how the field shapes up!

nmp said...

Yeah, I stayed on course this time...definitely helps in terms of running a faster time!

From talking to Nick a lot of people are interested in DS24 but just havn't signed up yet (myself included). I know at least Jay is doing 24 hrs this time, and it sounds like several other faster folks will show up as well. May just be a while until everyone finally pulls the trigger.