My first race (5k) in 17 years

teknofyle said:

I started out with a massive pack and thought I was running slowly enough,
but I checked my SDM and I was running a 9 minute pace. Still, I felt pretty
good. Checked the distance on the SDM which read .76 miles!

Forget about using those doodads for racing. For racing, they are worse than
useless. It said you were doing 9:00 pace when you were doing 8:40 pace ... ?
What does that tell you ? There's a big difference between 5k pace and 20
seconds per mile faster than 5k pace, so your body should be able to identify
intensity (which is the appropriate variable, *not* pace) with much more
precision than the doodad.

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I slowed down. WAY down.

If those doodads are so good, why is it that everyone who wears them has such
a hard time running an even pace ?

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stopping. At 2 miles, my time was 18 and change. One more check of the SDM
and I decided that at 2.5 miles

Again, you didn't need the SDM to do this. You could just start your charge
when the clock hits 22:30.

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I would go balls out and see what I had left. I made a break and finished the
race in 27:14. That was a pretty great result for me.

Good race, but try running without the doodad and you'll probably do even better.

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A couple of thoughts:

Max heart rate must be pretty elusive. This was the first run I ran without
consulting a HRM

Good move! Heart rate monitors aren't much use for racing either. If you'd run
with a heart rate monitor, and said "I'm going to stay under a heart rate of
175", you probably would have been at least a minute slower.

Max depends on lots of variables. So does heart rate itself. You don't have a
fixed max, and heart rate is not dependent only on intensity.

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I went out way too fast.

That's to be expected if you haven't done much racing -- you're going into this
without much feel for pace, and even if you did a lot of track work, the race setting
itself can mess with your pace judgement. My advice to people running a "first race"
or a "comeback race" is to just run it, enjoy the experience and put a time on
the board. There is a time and place for running "the perfect race", and this isn't
it. The old saying,
"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement"
is particularly applicable when it comes to racing.

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If I go out that fast in the 10k in a couple of months, I am going to be in
trouble.

But you have a better idea how to pace yourself now -- just "jog" the first mile of
the 10k, go out cautiously. The start of these races tends to be very "noisy", a lot
of people get the pace wrong on the first mile. So conserve energy and avoid getting
caught up in the mad rush until the smoke clears a little. Even if you drop 30
seconds or so on the first mile, you will get it back on the last one or two
miles.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"teknofyle" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

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ITBS didn't show up at all in the 5k.

Congrats on your race and this part is great, TEK! Hope it doesn't
bother you anymore!!

Mandy "knee-is-still-a-balloon" Barto

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"teknofyle" <[email hidden]> wrote in mesage

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

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I would go balls out and see what I had left. I made a break and

finished the

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race in 27:14. That was a pretty great result for me.

Good race, but try running without the doodad and you'll probably do even

better.

Donovan, just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's
bad for everyone. You often act as if it's your way or the highway
when it comes to giving advice around here.

to teknofyle: wear the SDM if the information helps you. My 5k
PR was set with one, and although I don't wear one now, I believe
I learned a lot during the time I used it. I have also occasionally
raced with a HRM on and learned a few things from that as well
that helped me race in a wiser manner.

cheers,
--
David (in Hamilton, ON)
www.allfalldown.org
www.absolutelyaccurate.com

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Donovan, just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's
bad for everyone. You often act as if it's your way or the highway
when it comes to giving advice around here.

Shut up you canadian [censored].

Well, as I said it *was* my first race in a very long time. In this
particular one, they had volunteers at every mile marker barking out the
time anyway so I probably didn't need it. Is that mandatory for them to have
that at every race?

I wore my HRM but didn't consult it during the race, and downloaded the data
to look at after which is how I found out I set a new PR in Max HR!

In any case, my interest in wearing the SDM is really in the longer races as
each one I do in the coming months (10k and half marathon) will be the
longest races I've done to date. My sense is that when I run my marathon in
March, I will probably do it with just a watch...and let the chips fall
where they may.

"SwStudio" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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"teknofyle" <[email hidden]> wrote in mesage

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

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I would go balls out and see what I had left. I made a break and

finished the

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race in 27:14. That was a pretty great result for me.

Good race, but try running without the doodad and you'll probably do even

better.

Donovan, just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's
bad for everyone. You often act as if it's your way or the highway
when it comes to giving advice around here.

to teknofyle: wear the SDM if the information helps you. My 5k
PR was set with one, and although I don't wear one now, I believe
I learned a lot during the time I used it. I have also occasionally
raced with a HRM on and learned a few things from that as well
that helped me race in a wiser manner.

cheers,
--
David (in Hamilton, ON)
www.allfalldown.org
www.absolutelyaccurate.com

SwStudio said:

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"teknofyle" <[email hidden]> wrote in mesage

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

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I would go balls out and see what I had left. I made a break and

finished the

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Quoted message said:

race in 27:14. That was a pretty great result for me.

Good race, but try running without the doodad and you'll probably do even
better.

Donovan, just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's
bad for everyone.

Like any tool, the SDM isn't "bad" if used judiciously. But using it to
pace yourself is not an example of judicious use.

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You often act as if it's your way or the highway when it comes to giving
advice around here.

Well, when it comes to assertions like "1+1=2", then I say my way or the
highway.

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to teknofyle: wear the SDM if the information helps you.

The information may be useful, but more for subsequent analysis than for
determining proper pace. I'm not completely dismissive of the idea of wearing
the SDM, but more the idea of using it to pace yourself.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"teknofyle" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Well, as I said it *was* my first race in a very long time. In this
particular one, they had volunteers at every mile marker barking out the
time anyway so I probably didn't need it. Is that mandatory for them to

have

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that at every race?

No.
Sometimes they have markers, sometimes with "barkers", sometimes there are
just interim markers but not every mile, etc.
And sometimes the "mile" markers are not exactly accurate anyway.
Note that these are *volunteers* -- and sometimes there aren't enough to
staff every desirable post!
bj
(needs to do some volunteering)

Donovan Rebbechi wrote in message ...

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....

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Max heart rate must be pretty elusive. This was the first run I ran

without

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consulting a HRM

Good move! Heart rate monitors aren't much use for racing either. If you'd

run

Quoted message said:

with a heart rate monitor, and said "I'm going to stay under a heart rate

of

Quoted message said:

175", you probably would have been at least a minute slower.

Max depends on lots of variables. So does heart rate itself. You don't have

a

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fixed max, and heart rate is not dependent only on intensity.

Though I agree that for shorter races HR won't help pace you, and is subject
to drift in any case, it can give useful biofeedback for longer races. I
check it to see if it roughly matches my percieved effort, both in training
and racing, but I don't set my pace on HR alone. Also the analysis it
provides post-race is usually very interesting.

- Tony