deanscox wrote:

 

Just finished my second organized 5K on Saturday at Run Seal Beach.  It was foggy and overcast and very humid.  I over dressed and got pretty hot.   Also they had a weird, very tight, race-traffic-jamming u-turn on the course that caused quite a back up and probably cost mid pack runners like me 20 seconds or so on their time.   But, I accomplished my goal of beating 30 minutes.  I did it 29:11:80, down from my first time of 31:44.  Now I need to schedule one for late in May and figure out what my next goal is.   I am thinking 27?

Congratulations on your run and on your progress! Concerning time, one thing that you can do is use a running calculator, input your best mile time and see what the calculator says. This things are never exact science, but they do give surprisingly accurate approximations.

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/calculator

Ideally, it works best for longer distances, so you could also see how fast you could run 5 miles or 10k assuming you trained for it.

In any case, focus on having fun and you will see how times improve steadily and you get better and better.

As usual, keep up the good work. You will see how your times keep on improving. Now another goal to shoot for is distance, once you get used to 5Ks then it will probably be time to start thinking about 10k (which, by the way, will not be half as tough as going from the couch to 5k).

deanscox wrote:

 

VERY disappointed.  This will teach me to get all braggy pants about running under 27:00! While still a PB (if you get to claim PB's after only three events) of 28:40, I have no one blame but myself... Eyes on the next race and going to make a more disciplined effort.  Doing research to figure out how to translate desired finish times into appropriate training.

Well, as someone said, XXXX happens, so do not worry too much. I myself had a similar experience recently, I wanted to run a HM in under 1:35 and was quite convinced that I could do it, but when the day came I got nowere near it (1:39) and even had to put a lot of effor to get there. My explanation that day was that I got killed by a terribly steep hill in km 13, but when I went back to the course I discovered that that "mountain" existed only in my mind.

So what I would say is that running depends on many things and you end up having better days and worse days. There are so many possible explantions (diet, bad nigh't sleep, wheather conditions, not knowing the course, training charge, your mind being somewhere else...) that it is just better not to spend too much time looking for the right one. Your progression will naturally get slower as you get better but one bad result does not mean it has stopped. Moreover, as you run more you will broaden your range of experiences and be able to run in different conditions, so I believe the challenges and the fun in running go on for a long time.

Concerning research on trainig, I recently stumbled on the "Runner's world complete guide to running" which contains many useful ideas for building your own training. It might be worth looking into if you are planning on building your own training plan. Also in this same site there are plenty of plans for 5K which might help you run faster.

Last but not least, CONGRATULATIONS on your new PB!