Run a 5k in less than 30 minutes in 2007

My half marathon plan that I am on called for a “5K Race” today. I ran a 5k loop around my neighborhood. As I was doing it, I realized that it was one of my 2007 goals to run one in under 30 minutes. Honestly, I had already given up on the goal. But from that moment on, I ran as best as I could to try to make it.

31 minutes 50 seconds

Probably my fastest in a long while, but not anywhere close to 30 minutes.

When people stop visiting me…I will stop eating (like I promised). Until then, I have no choice but to eat like a normal person.

If this makes no sense to you, I made a challenge in 43T to run a 30 minute 5k by the Fourth of July. My consequence was to go a week without eating food.

To my knowledge, there’s no list of past challenges, whether you failed or not, and no follow-up. So, no accountability, which is too bad.

Very hilly first three miles…nonetheless, I did the best I could and I ran the 1st 5k in 33:15. I think I need to revert to just running my best 5k all the time at home and watch for time improvements. I’ve got over a month until the Chuys Hot To Trot race (which was ALSO HILLY last year, especially that 1st mile) to practice.

Here’s a starting line picture from Sunday.

I signed up yesterday for the Capitol 10k this Sunday and the Chuys Hot To Trot 5K in May. These will both serve as motivation for and tests of this goal.

In the first week of January, I did a 1 mile test on a route which has a fairly steep hill at the end. I run up the hill. Yikes! Anyway, I did it in 9:55 in January.

I ran it again this morning and I did it in 9:40. I made it to the top of the hill somewhere in the 8s, but my heart is pretty beat at that point so I was pretty slow to the finish after that, catching my breath.

Hopefully as my fitness improves, I’ll get this time down to 8:00 and my 30 minute 5k will be within my grasp.

I was so frustrated with my pushups goal today that I decided to give my 30 minute 5k goal a shot. I measured out a route (slightly shorter than my normal jogging route) with MapMyRun and I went out to try to run as fast and as much of the time that I could to finish 3.1 miles. I had to walk during some of it (prolly about 5-6 mins total) just to catch my breath a bit. It was tough out there!

It’s an hour later and I’m still feeling the effects of the run. Wowzers. Thankfully the weather was gorgeous. It’s been in the 70s this week in Austin.

I ran it in 34:07. That’s not too bad for not having run a ton lately. Reviewing my first entry on this subject from 7 months ago, I see that I ran the Chuys 5k race in 34:30. So, this was slightly faster. Just imagine what I could do if I kept my daily exercise schedule going and keep testing myself. I should have this 30 minute 5k licked in a month or two…in theory. :)

So I ran the Chuys Hot to Trot 5k last weekend. It was a bit warm during the race and the first mile was uphill. Damn them! Anyhow, I ran it in 34:30. I had jogged 3.2 without stopping near my house a couple weeks ago and it took 38 minutes. So I definitely ran faster. But I’ve got quite a bit of work to do to achieve sub-30.