Like Clockwork
As a runner, I've had this weird ability to set a desired pace per lap/kilometer/mile -- whatever event I'm running, whether in training or a race -- in my mind and nail it. Back in my competitive days, when I was doing regular interval training with the guys, they loved it when it was my turn to lead the next 200 or 400 or 800 or 1000, because they knew I'd come through the splits within one second of target time. Just call me a human stopwatch.
I'm no longer competitive, and we now run on a weird excuse for a track -- a certain university with a regularly losing football team decided to rip up a world class indoor track in order to give the football team an 80-yard practice field. It's maybe 257.7 meters per lap -- who knows -- it doesn't matter since whatever the distance it is, it's not something you can put into a pace calculator and figure out what your times need to be, and there's no checking at the first 100 meter mark to make sure you're on pace, because who the heck knows where that line is?
But I have an uncanny ability to say, "I need to be over by the entrance doors in 38 seconds in order to make my goal time and, without doing any interval training at all to have my legs know how fast they need to turn over to get to those doors in 38 seconds, they manage to do it. Not 35 and not 40 -- 38. Bam. On the mark.
In my recent 5km road race, I told myself I needed to hit the first kilometer mark in seven minutes to have a shot at my goal. I panicked the entire time thinking that when I used to run this race, my goal for the first kilometer was in the 4:20 - 4:30 range, and I was scared that even though I thought I was going slow, I was going too fast and there's nothing worse than going out too fast in a 5km race.
I got the the one kilometer mark, hit the split button on my stopwatch -- 7:00 flat.
How the heck?
I'm about to go out for a training run -- so I need to empty the splits from my latest race out of my watch. But I want to write them down for my own amusement before I do.
Thursday I ran a 3000 meter race on the indoor "track." I figured -- to the best of my ability -- that if I wanted to finally break 20 minutes after eight years of trying, that I needed to run my laps in about 1:40 to 1:42. Three thousand meters on that "track" is 11 laps plus about 2/3 of a lap. My goal was a modest 19:50.
And my splits?
Lap 1: 1:36 -- a little fast, but adrenaline typically spikes the first lap. Not that far off to worry about.
Lap 2: 1:42 -- perfect, except I didn't think I'd registered my split, so I hit the split button a second time. That registered 1.24 seconds and I spent the rest of this lap trying to figure out how I'd speeded up to a 1:24 per lap pace and trying to slow myself down a bit. The split times are really little on this watch. This is why I prefer a man's sports watch. The faces are bigger and you can read them while running.
Lap 3: 1:44 -- the effect of trying to slow down from what I thought was a 1:24 lap. When you add in the 1.24, it becomes a 1:46 lap, way off pace.
Lap 4: 1:42 -- back on pace
Lap 5: 1:42
Lap 6: 1:43
Lap 7: 1:43
Lap 8: 1:44
Lap 9: 1:43
Lap 10: 1:44 -- Seriously, just call me the human metronome. I was slightly off goal pace but coming around within one second of the previous lap every time.
Lap 11: 1:36 -- I decided I had enough in me to start my kick with one and two-thirds laps left to go
Finish: 19:29 -- no idea the pace, but somehow yelled to me at one point that I had 100 meters to go and I decided to turn that last 100 meters into a 100 meter race.
Slow, true, but I have to go back to March of 1999 to find a faster 3000 meter for myself. I'm 14 years older now than I was then. And the injuries I've been through, and the years I couldn't even walk without being in agony….I'll take the 19:29.
And enjoy the fact that the clock in my head -- or is it my legs? -- still keeps perfect time.
I'm no longer competitive, and we now run on a weird excuse for a track -- a certain university with a regularly losing football team decided to rip up a world class indoor track in order to give the football team an 80-yard practice field. It's maybe 257.7 meters per lap -- who knows -- it doesn't matter since whatever the distance it is, it's not something you can put into a pace calculator and figure out what your times need to be, and there's no checking at the first 100 meter mark to make sure you're on pace, because who the heck knows where that line is?
But I have an uncanny ability to say, "I need to be over by the entrance doors in 38 seconds in order to make my goal time and, without doing any interval training at all to have my legs know how fast they need to turn over to get to those doors in 38 seconds, they manage to do it. Not 35 and not 40 -- 38. Bam. On the mark.
In my recent 5km road race, I told myself I needed to hit the first kilometer mark in seven minutes to have a shot at my goal. I panicked the entire time thinking that when I used to run this race, my goal for the first kilometer was in the 4:20 - 4:30 range, and I was scared that even though I thought I was going slow, I was going too fast and there's nothing worse than going out too fast in a 5km race.
I got the the one kilometer mark, hit the split button on my stopwatch -- 7:00 flat.
How the heck?
I'm about to go out for a training run -- so I need to empty the splits from my latest race out of my watch. But I want to write them down for my own amusement before I do.
Thursday I ran a 3000 meter race on the indoor "track." I figured -- to the best of my ability -- that if I wanted to finally break 20 minutes after eight years of trying, that I needed to run my laps in about 1:40 to 1:42. Three thousand meters on that "track" is 11 laps plus about 2/3 of a lap. My goal was a modest 19:50.
And my splits?
Lap 1: 1:36 -- a little fast, but adrenaline typically spikes the first lap. Not that far off to worry about.
Lap 2: 1:42 -- perfect, except I didn't think I'd registered my split, so I hit the split button a second time. That registered 1.24 seconds and I spent the rest of this lap trying to figure out how I'd speeded up to a 1:24 per lap pace and trying to slow myself down a bit. The split times are really little on this watch. This is why I prefer a man's sports watch. The faces are bigger and you can read them while running.
Lap 3: 1:44 -- the effect of trying to slow down from what I thought was a 1:24 lap. When you add in the 1.24, it becomes a 1:46 lap, way off pace.
Lap 4: 1:42 -- back on pace
Lap 5: 1:42
Lap 6: 1:43
Lap 7: 1:43
Lap 8: 1:44
Lap 9: 1:43
Lap 10: 1:44 -- Seriously, just call me the human metronome. I was slightly off goal pace but coming around within one second of the previous lap every time.
Lap 11: 1:36 -- I decided I had enough in me to start my kick with one and two-thirds laps left to go
Finish: 19:29 -- no idea the pace, but somehow yelled to me at one point that I had 100 meters to go and I decided to turn that last 100 meters into a 100 meter race.
Slow, true, but I have to go back to March of 1999 to find a faster 3000 meter for myself. I'm 14 years older now than I was then. And the injuries I've been through, and the years I couldn't even walk without being in agony….I'll take the 19:29.
And enjoy the fact that the clock in my head -- or is it my legs? -- still keeps perfect time.
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