\nThere was a mix-up in the scoring and I’m pretty sure that I got moved-up in the times as a result. The bottom line is this: I haven’t been able to beat that record for years and by heck, now that I’m old … It’s going DOWN! <\/em><\/p>\n
My training consisted of running 5 or 6 days a week in 21 day “cycles”. Each cycle had 4 days off and 5 key work-outs Other training antics included seeing how fast I could run my short-loop, mapping mile markers for my long loop, running on the local high-school track & rewarding myself with high-tech sweat wicking shirts\/pants. Oh, and losing 5 pounds while putting on muscle – in other words: getting lean & mean.<\/em><\/p>\n I planned on running a local weekend race at the end of September, but unfortunately, when I checked a few weeks before the race I learned that it had been canceled! I hastily planned to run my big race the following weekend at the The guy that was pacing me slowly pulled ahead on the hills as I hadn’t done enough incline work and I was running way ahead of my target pace. Somewhere around 2.5 miles I really had to fight to avoid true gasping. Controlled breathing is always better for the race even if it doesn’t get you as much oxygen as full-blown wind sucking. I forced myself back into the 1 full breath for every 4 steps rhythm that has served me well over the past few years. I guess I could <\/em>have slowed down, but since I didn’t even know where I was or how fast I was running, there was NO way I was going to risk missing my PR.<\/p>\n When I finally rounded the final turn and saw the finish line I pushed myself to run yet faster as I fancy myself a runner with a kick! <\/em>As I got closer I heard the race announcer yell out “Here comes our third finisher!” Yikes! I never dreamed that I had passed that many people! I’ve never been top 10% yet alone a meddler! I didn’t have time to dwell on this achievement because 2 seconds later I saw my time:<\/p>\n A new Personal Record 22:47<\/strong>! As I crossed the finish line I pumped my fist in the air, yelled “New PR!” and generally made a fuss. They handed me my Bronze, and I offered a winded congrats to the guys who finished ahead of me. Besides my well-run race, I’m proud to say that Heather also ran and ran well. She set her own PR with a time of 34:31!<\/p>\n There you have it folks. I’m old, but I have a new record that I’ll probably never beat. Thank god I can start eating again!<\/p>\n The Official Race Results<\/a> courtesy of the Jersey Shore Running Club Back in May I started training in earnest to defy Oldification and set a Personal Best\/Record in the 5K. Could I succeed? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericles.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericles.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericles.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericles.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericles.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ericles.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericles.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericles.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericles.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nconsisting of a selection of Long runs, tempo-runs, cross-training, hill-climbs, and Fartlek<\/a> to keep it interesting. The other days are just easy-jog recovery days. It was important to me to remain flexible so weather & work-schedule juggled my cycle days a bit, but I always completed the cycle even if I was a day or two late.<\/p>\n
\nPoricy Park<\/a> 5k without knowing anything about the race or the course. This is something typically called a “Big Honking Mistake”. If your only goal is speed, it’s best to pick a Fast<\/em> course – one that is flat & smooth & typically, paved. What I got was a trail run with a few hundred feet of ascents & descents including a scramble down an embankment, over a creek and up some wooden steps. This is not a course to try for a PR! Regardless, The day was beautiful, I was well rested & the crowd was minimal. I was going to go for it anyway.<\/p>\n
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<\/center>The course started off across a field and down a hill and then through a forest and across some meadows. If I wasn’t so bloody focused on breathing and keeping my legs pumping I think I would have really enjoyed this race!<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.ericles.com\/images\/poricy1.jpg\")
Within the first mile the pack had slimmed, the Mercurial had sprinted far ahead and it was just me and one other guy running approximately the same 7:30 pace (#331 leading the pack above). In preparing for the race I had relied on the mile splits to know the pace I had been running. Unfortunately, this race didn’t have a timer set up at the mile markers – in fact, I never saw marker 2 or 3! I had experience on my side though as I’ve run enough 5ks to get a feel for how far I’ve run – and I knew where in relationship to the course the finish line was located. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
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\nThe Runners World Article<\/a> that inspired my Cycle Training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"