Run Wild 5k

So the race this morning didn't go as well as I was hoping, but my training the past 5 days hasn't been going that well either. I've been feeling very 'flat' and I haven't had much energy. I think the combination of heat, humidity, traveling, and the interruption of my training routine are the main culprits. I also think I've neglected VO2 work in the past several weeks as I have been focusing on the mile. I've been doing a lot more repetitions instead and I could definitely feel a difference today. The pace never felt too fast, the race just felt too long.

The race started at 7:30am in Houston. I check the weather before I left and it said the humidity was going to be about 90% and it definitely felt that way. My only thoughts in the first mile were "hold back," and I felt like I did. The pace felt 'under control' and I hit the first mile in 6:43. Before the race started I had accepted that given the conditions and how I had been feeling the previous days that I was probably not going to PR, but I wanted to give it a good run given the conditions and place well in my age group (at least top 10). However, I was about 13 seconds slower than I wanted to be at this point. I felt I moved well in the second mile, but only managed to split 6:55 (13:38 for 2 miles). I knew I was in trouble at this point as my only thought was, "I hope I can just finish." I ran 7:26 for the 3rd mile (21:05 for 3 miles). I managed a 40-second last 172 yards for a finishing time of 21:45.5. I was spent.

I'm going to experiment with running at different times of the day to figure out which I prefer. I typically sweat more than others and the humidity has been killing me lately. Maybe running late in the evenings will work better for me (sleeping in later sounds nice). I have just over 2 weeks of training left before I take a short training break before getting ready for the Houston Half-Marathon in January (more on that later). Hopefully I can get something figured out to salvage these last two weeks.