I was reading a report about "ideal running training" and of course there are a million opinions about this but this time it was from the same source that lead me to being able to quite easily run a 10k, which is something that I never thought I would be capable of especially considering my age and that I have no running experience in my past.
The idea was called 80/20 and basically it was saying that in any given week, you should be focused on 80% endurance training at a moderate effort, and that 20% of your running should be pushing your limits on a shorter run. I'm not really clued in on the science behind this but I figured i would give it a go anyway and shoot for a 5k at a higher speed than I would ever attempt at 10k as far as my per km speed is concerned.
By my body standards anyway, it gets damn cold here in Chicago in winter but after the first 500 meters or so and until I stop running, the cold conditions are actually pretty ideal for me as far as running is concerned since one of my limiting factors as far as exercise in general is concerned is that I get overheated quite easily. This is not a factor in a Chicago winter although I am pleased to report that I still sweat so much that I have to be quite careful with what my start and finish points are because i'm going to be covered in sweat despite the cold, and a wet shirt in these temps spells danger if you aren't close to home at that point.
While I was pushing myself quite a lot on this, I was still carefully monitoring my watch to ensure I didn't enter the top heart rate section which is considered dangerous territory for people my age or older.
When I was done, I really felt like I gave it my all and while I could have maybe given about 10% more effort, I honestly think that at my current weight and cardio levels, this is about as fast as I can do a 5k run.
Normally, and when running longer distances, I try to stay just barely entering the anaerobic section of heart rate, but in this run I was mid to high end in it the entire time. I wasn't in pain or anything, but this was putting a lot more stress on me than my normal zone 3 to low zone 4 runs that I utilize for my longer runs. I still wasn't huffing and puffing though, although I do have some sort of breathing techniques that I use when something like this happens.
This is something that never really happens to me - the huffing and puffing - what I experience is overheating and muscular soreness if I am pushing too hard, and since I am not interested in having an early heart attack, I don't try to get into the higher regions of my physical capabilities. Even though this is quite a bit higher than my normal heart rate would be on my longer runs, it is still in the safe areas of what is recommended by basically all experts in sport science
I'm pretty happy with this pace, and as far as I know this is the fastest 5k I have ever run. I may have run one faster than this as a young kid, but we didn't have sport watches back then and if I was running fast for a long time I was probably just playing cowboys and indians or doing some other silly kids' game at the time.
The first km speed is a little off kilter because my watch does something where it will record my pace prior to me pressing the button even if I don't want it to. So really can can knock another 20 seconds off the total time and not be lying about anything.
So that means that for me anyway, that I am capable of running a 5k in just under 32 minutes which means I am less than 2 minutes off of my goal. I've been told that a real milestone in jogging is to pull off a sub 30 minute 5k and as of right now I probably could actually do this but I would be putting myself at risk. I think zombies would need to be chasing me for me to feel motivated enough to maintain a sub 6 minute per kilometer pace at this point.
Keep in mind that I am still pretty muscular from my 20+ years of weight training and while I like that I have this, it is not ideal for running. Since I like having muscle mass I may not actually aspire to be the fastest in running and once again, the thing I like about running is that the only person I am competing against is my biggest rival, me.
Now I will return to my 10k's at a lower heart rate because even though the distance was half or less than what I have been doing, the aftermath of doing this so fast was a lot worse than a longer run would have been on me. I felt sore the next day and I needed to soak my feet in this little foot soaking tub that I bought months ago. I also had nipple burn and you may not know what that is unless you are a runner. Time to invest in some cheeky bandages for under my shirt I think.
So while it might start to sound a bit old me patting myself on the back for these accomplishments I hope you will bear with me. This is something I never really tried to do at any point in my life and I am just pleased as punch that for me, doing a 5k isn't something that is really all that difficult anymore. Doing a FAST 5k is, but then again, I am only really planning on doing 1 or perhaps less of those per week.