New PR - Al Gordon Snowflake 5K

Today I ran the Al Gordon, who's still alive at 107, 5k in Prospect Park.

Race Results:
Overall place - 499
Gender place - 444
Age place - 89
Net time - 22:11
Ave. per mile - 7:09 (which is the number of the house in which I grew up!)

Notes on the race:
There was a huge disturbance in the force as I picked up my blue race bib - which meant that I could line up with the elites for the first time in my NYRR career. Hoping to live up to the billing of my 360 bib number, I jumped in the coral after a nice warm up with Brian. The first mile was basically straight up hill.

Per mile times:
#1: 6:58
#2: 7:09
#3: 7:19
rest: 47 seconds

I stopped to tie my shoe (which was initially tied in the corral before the race) - it looks from this like I 'lost' 10 seconds during the re-tie exercise - bummer! You can see the V in my heart rate, right by the dotted vertical line.

This race reminded me how hard it is too improve, as I ended up beating my personal best by nearly a minute, and yet, didn't run my fastest per mile race ever for NYRR - that would be the 4 mile 7:04 per mile burner that I completed last Mother's Day (thanks MOM!). Even with those ten seconds back I was not as fast as last May. But I'm certainly 100% faster than I was last February.

Along those lines I wanted to illustrate how the 'new' training method was playing out. Remember that the concept is to run longer, slower and build cardiac capacity. As you can see from the graphic above - my heart rate average per exercise is clearly coming down (with a couple of exceptions like the recent races), and my pace is staying the same (not pictured) or even going up, especially for long runs.

Another nice thing to pick up from this chart is that my miles are going up very quickly - back to a higher per week level than before Dylan was born (in July 2008 - note the dramatic fall off as well as the quiet period just before 2008 close). I thought that this was hands down the chart of the day.

I'll try to keep integrating interesting graphics, especially when they are this 'telling' or illustrative.

As seems to be a common theme for me lately, this race was a win on many fronts, but left me with a feeling of what could be, rather than of complete accomplishment. It felt a lot harder than I'd expected. So I've got to get out more frequently, push the pace, run some hills, and leave the excuses (and old times!) behind.

I am very proud of Brian and will comment on his blog when he posts - I also expect that he'll share the pedometer of our run today - I don't want to upstage him.