Tomorrow I run cross country for the first time...a 5K race in hilly Van Cortland Park. I don't know what to expect. However, I'm feeling pretty good, because:
-My resting heart rate seems to be down. It hit a low of 41 the other morning while it had been hovering around 44, 45 till recently. At my best, in the Fall of 2005, it was down as low as 37 (briefly). Steady lows right around 40 is a sign of good conditioning.
-My running heart rates also seem lower. Yesterday afternoon I averaged 118 for a slow paced 6 miler. Anything under 120 is a good sign and my heart rates are generally higher in the PM. That my max HR never hit 130 also seems like a good thing.
-I'll enter this race a bit more rested than the last one when I'd done a solid 4 mile tempo only 2 days before.
-The weather has gotten better. It should be in the 60s tomorrow with low humidity. In fact, long range prediction is for similar temperature next weekend when I race a road 5K.
Though my time in the recent 4 mile race doesn't suggest it, I suspect I could run about 7 flat pace (21:42) in a regular 5K with good weather conditions. But cross country is supposed to be slower, so it's hard to know what the equivalent time might be. Would I be totally off to guess 30 seconds per mile slower? If so, then my goal is:
-22:45. So let's say 23 minutes or better is a reasonable goal.
I could add more goals but they'd just be guesses...as, I think, this one is! So let's leave it at that and see what happens.
Truthfully, given my inexperience with cross country and a recent course description that makes it sound like the footing in some areas is insecure, I'm thinking of this as more of a hard workout than a race. My mind is most set on the upcoming Newport 5K next weekend. That is the flat, fast course on which I ran my best 5K time. Since it seems that the weather will be good, that should be a good measure of where I stand in comparison to the period 2 years ago when I did my best racing. Grete's, 2 weeks after that, and the Paramus 10K (if I run it about 2 weeks later) should also give me nice comparisons.
It's starting to get interesting!!!!
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