THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

Hey--I know you didn't break into the time you wanted, but you still ran well (42 sec. pr. is nothing to sneeze at!)

Keep looking at those positives and analyze what went wrong so that next time you'll do it right!

Look to the next 5K. 2 weeks--you'll get it then!

April, sorry to hear that the mind gave you a bad time, since your body is in shape for that sub 20 5k.

Still a PR is a PR, so CONGRATS!

Enjoy, have an Ice Cream or something.

Cheer on!

wow I don't know if I am in shape for sub-20, but I definitely should have been much closer to 20 minutes. Maybe in two weeks! Now my dilemma is should I go out a bit slower or should I just go out pretty fast again and hope I keep it together a little better?

For a 5k? Go out fast and hold as long as possible.

Its a short race, very hard, but doable at strong-fast pace. And I'm sure you have the necessary fitness, today was just not your day...

At least thats my 2 cent-opinion. =)

I agree with Eric. You don't really have time in such a short distance to start slow and speed up, at least not if you're going to start much slower. Maybe try going out at 6:30 pace. But you might find that the same thing happens next time.

Some people get to the point where they can run a consistent pace throughout the race if they practice that pace long enough, but it takes a while (lots of repeats for a consistent amount of time) to get into that mode.

Oh and hey--congrats on the age division win! How were you overall?

I'm not completetely sure where I was overall, but 99% sure I was the 4th woman. I'll have to wait for the official results. thanks for the encouragement y'all--I'm going to do what you say--just go out hard again next time and try to hold on! They didn't call splits and looking at my Garmin would've broke my concentration, but I'm thinking if I had heard my 2 mile split was 13:07 it would have been enough inspiration to kick it into gear...I just gotta find that inspiration next time!

April, nice to meet you. Awesome run we both had a few thousand miles apart!!! I too have a redemption 5k in two weeks, but it will again be after five of seven night shifts. I also work as an RN, congrats on going back to school, being a nurse is soooo rewarding. I worked days for 10 years in the NICU (total 16 years in NICU) and now I am in the level 2 nursery one mile from my home and also rotate two shifts a pay period to mother/baby, NICU and pediatrics. You will be so happy. Just hope you don't have to start out at nights. Happy running and racing, great job today!!!!!!!!

Nice job April. I don't know if I agree with Eric. I wouldn't go all out. That's just crazy talk. But congrats on the PR!

I don't think my comments were totally clear.

If you go all out and your first mile is 6:00 and then your next mile is 7:00, then I agree with Burt. That is ridiculous. That's like those people that we all end up passing in races because they went out too fast. But if you can go out at 6:30 and sustain (your splits aren't too spread out) then maybe that's your race strategy. You have to figure out what works for you. Some people find success by the all-out-from-the-start strategy and others find more success by pacing.

I say try slowing the first mile a bit (not significantly, by 10-15 secs--if you go much more than that, you won't hit your goal) and then seeing where you go from there.

But be careful of falling into the trap where you think that because you finished your first mile in 6:30, you are automatically going 6:30 pace. You probably are going a bit slower than that since your tendency is to start fast and then settle into a pace. If your garmin will tell you pace, I say sneak a peak to see if you are on pace

I will probably run by feel--go out fast but leave myself feeling I am holding back a tiny bit, and then open up the second mile and hang on from there. Perhaps if I learn to peak at my watch at mile markers I can motivate myself and adjust my pace if need be. Thanks for all the advice!

Whatever Burt says, just do the opposite :)

Congratulations on the PR! You were the 3rd woman overall!!! That's amazing!!!

Rocket!

Well if that's the case, then DON'T look at Camille's blog.

Of course I went straight to Camille's blog! Check it out everybody!

Congratulations on an official sub-21:00 and a PR.

Your description of the race sounds like you had a problem with the lack of sleep or high stress.

When your aerobic development reaches a certain level, then you start hitting the limit of the neural drive/adrenal performance. The symptoms are you are not breathing too hard, HR is relatively low, but for the life of you you cannot go any faster.

More issues.Your mileage has increased in the last three weeks, and you have been doing it at a brisk pace. That can wear out the nervous system, especially for a busy mother.

Also, you had a cold. The body often responds by partially shutting itself down for a few weeks after, so you cannot push at high intensities.

What I would recommend. First, see if you can reduce the stress and increase the sleep to the highest feasible amount. Second, back off the pace on your runs. Do not run faster than 9:00 except for a few miles here and there, and if you do run faster than 9:00, make it count and do not run slower than 7:00. Third, improve the diet. Fruits, vegetables, grains in abundance, meat in moderation, no caffeine or alcohol. Caffeine is particularly harmful for the neural drive because it puts you temporarily into a higher level of agitation than what is natural for the body without giving any real energy to back it up, so that interferes with the natural repair processes.

Once those issues are resolved, you should be able to run 19:30.

High stress. Yup that's a problem. A way of life for me; can't really reduce the causative factors but can work on my reaction to it--running actually helps immensely.

Sleep. That can be a problem too. Depends on what is going on that week. I don't rest near as much I would like to, too much to do. Could squeeze in more by napping at the kid's naptime instead of doing homework. If I can get far enough ahead this is plausible.

Slowing pace on runs. I can do that--is hard because I run mostly by what feels good and some days there is a little more wind in my sails and I like the feeling of comfortably cruising. That said, knocking out a sub-7 minute mile or two if I feel good should be sufficient to wear me out and knock me back down to 9:00's or close for the rest of the run.

Diet. Not too bad, I don't think. There is room for improvement. I am looking forward to next year when nursing school is over and one big burden is lifted. Hopefully this will also herald a job situation and finance improvement for our family as well and maybe than momma will be rested enough to run faster :)

Thanks for the input