Last Friday 5K in Hyde Park. My latest attempt on the quest to break 22:00 failed yet again, but this time I got the closest to it since last May: 22:05. My plan was to run hard from the start and hope to hang on as long as I can. It was rather windy, but I don't think it was a factor for me as I always ran either in a tight pack, or close behind someone. I didn't feel the wind in the race, but I felt it a lot on the warmup and cooldown. First km was 4:17 (6:57 pace). HR 155 - pretty low for me at this pace. The next 2km. were 8:45 (7:02 pace), HR up to 172. Then, about 3.5-3.75km the wheels came off and I felt myself slowing down a lot. The legs went pretty numb. I latched onto a woman in front of me and tried to hang on to her, but she pulled away in the last km. Then I managed a pathetic kick in the last 200m and got back to her. She finished one second ahead of me. Last 2km in 9:02 (7:15 pace). HR averaged 177 with the max. of 182. My breathing was like I was having an asthma attack, but my max. HR hit only 182 (it was 186 in May). That's strange, I certainly felt like I gave 100%. Perhaps, lactic acid slowed me down so much that I couldn't use all the reserves of my heart? Of course, back in June it was a lot hotter, so it could've affected the max. HR. Afterwards, I could barely jog very slowly on the cooldown. The whole race felt hard, there was never a time I was running comfortably, unlike my last 10K. Overall, I'm relatively happy with this time as it seems to be an improvement over my 10K (46:29) a month ago. This race is great for measuring progress because it's held monthly year-round on the same course (which by the way is flat). It's a small (200 limit) no-frills race, put on by Serpentine RC - no t-shirts, no goody bags, no electronic clock, no water or food. They have staggered start, first group for people going for under 21:00, and then 2 min. later for slower runners. But it's very well marshaled, timed accurately by hand and it costs only 2GBP for club runners, and 4GBP for unattached runners like me. It sells out every single month, so I had to apply 3 weeks before to make sure I get a spot. Probably because it's on Friday lunch hour, and people working in Central London can just sneak out and run it during their lunch. I think I'll try to run it fairly regularly, and hopefully, one day I'll break 22:00. Of course, now I'm off to Italy for the weekend and there will be no running there - it's frustrating. I put in couple of 50 mile weeks, and then I have a 35 mile week. Doesn't help my fitness, but I have to make some concessions to family. Most weekends are dominated either by my long run, or my races, or my daughter's swim meets and training. My husband is not too happy about all of this. | 