Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

So the Brian Kraft 5K is upon us this long holiday weekend! I’ve gotten in some decent speed workouts lately, and I’m planning to try to hit this race pretty hard.

The indoor 5000 meters that I ran in mid-March was split very evenly (all 5 of my 1000s varied by 0:03 or less), and I was pretty happy with my 17:39 finish time (for not having raced all winter).

Then the Hot Dash 5K two weeks after the indoor race was a bit slower at 17:51. I was happy how I “eased into” that race, but honestly could have made myself suffer a bit more near the middle. I was still a little uncertin of how any elevation change would feel on my treadmill-running-all-winter legs.

And my last race (the Get in Gear 10K) wasn’t AS good, but I was happy that I followed my race plan and turned in my fastest time in years.

So, what’s the plan for this upcoming 5K? I’m hoping some of those recent track workouts will help me fly in the middle of this race. I still want to ease into this race a LITTLE like I’ve been doing this year (because I feel like it’s been successful), but I want to start a BIT harder. I’m looking at a small window here: 2:45 might be too fast of an opening 1/2 mile, but 2:55 is definitely too slow. If I can hold 2:50/half mile (5:40/mile), I'd end up around 17:37, which is where I'd love to be. To do that, I'll have to make myself suffer a bit more in the middle. I really want to race this one hard, and eek out every second in those middle miles. I can’t “settle in” - I need to be hurting at mile 1.5 AND be able to keep the pace up.

Last year, I ran a 17:50 at Brian Kraft. Two years ago, I suffered hard and cranked out a 17:32. In 2018 I crossed over 18 with a 18:02 finish time. (I didn't run hard enough that winter.) And in 2017, I ran a 17:39. So I’ve been within a 0:30 finishing time, but I’ve been ALL over that 0:30 range.

I don’t know if this is realistic, but I'm shooting to try to beat my indoor 5K time from this year of 17:39. So I’d love to be in the 17:30s if possible.

For some reason, I'm not feeling too confident about this. We'll see what race day brings. I just have the feeling that I'll "feel" heavy and slow at the race. I'll try to not let that happen.

Yesterday was my last pre-race run, and I threw in 3 surges of about 60 sec each just to feel some quickness: