Thursday, March 25, 2010

Lefty's 5K Strategy

I pondered and pondered about Saturday's race. I wondered what sort of race I should run. Should I try and beat my 23:03 time from two weeks ago? Or should I just run an easy 3.1 miles and soak in the atmosphere?

Decisions, decisions...

After some heavier-than-I-probably-should-have-thought-about-it thinking, I've decided that this will be my strategy:

I'm going to run a nice, strong race. I will do so without three things that I usually have during races.

No Polar.
No Garmin.
No music.

I'm just going to go out there, stretch my legs, run hard and fast and have a good time doing so. If that means I break my PR, great! If I fall short of it, that's fine too. I don't have a time dangling in front of me. I'm not going to set myself up for failure by saying that I want to finish in XX:XX and then finishing a few Xs short of that.

Does this mean I don't care about my time? I suppose it might, but I'm not thinking about that. I'm not going to think about that. I'm just going to run a nice, strong and enjoyable 3.1, and whatever happens, happens.

No splits.
No HR stats.
No songs to fuel me.

It's just going to be me and the California Speedway. And whether my time is 22:59 or 27:59, I'm going to enjoy the process the same.

3 comments:

Anne said...

Have a great race!! Enjoy the experience...

Lisa said...

I'm discovering that I kinda like running without my music. Something about the sound of my feet and breathing is very soothing.

Enjoy the race and good luck!

Jacqi said...

I find that I'm able to get in the running zone more easily without music or a watch. I can't wait to hear how racing on the speedway is!

...and I'm too nervous to post my real half time on my blog until the results are official :)