How many furlongs is a 5K?*

Today's workout (street run): 2.4 miles at 9:21/mile

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from my friend and financial advisor who was asking whether our run on Friday was still on. We had talked about running the West Side bike path on Friday but I told him I'd prefer to try for Thursday instead because I'm abstaining from running after today. I explained that I wanted to be well rested for Sunday's race. He laughed and said it sounds like I'm talking about a racehorse and I said that a bag of oats and a leg massage certainly wouldn't hurt my chances. We ended up rescheduling for a week from this Friday.

I know it seems unnecessary to rest two full days prior to a short race like Sunday's 5K. However, I'll argue that 5K's require more prior rest than longer races because the pace is faster and more anaerobic. In two of my 2009 races I ran with either one or no day's rest and my performance took a hit as a result. This morning I did my last training run and was once again pleased with the Garmin FR60. I had set the watch to signal when my pace slowed past a certain threshold (10 min per mile) and I made sure I moved along so I wouldn't be subjected to the scolding chirp from the Garmin. Happily I avoided that (except once, just as I'd started the run). I really liked the splits alert that told me when I'd passed another mile. It's very helpful to have this feature, especially for the fact that the run summary details each mile's individual pace. I'm aiming for negative splits on Sunday, especially with that big hill to face at the beginning.

Today's morning run was good. My pace was non-competitive but okay for 4:00 AM. Sunday's race starts at 8:30 AM and that fits well into my 8:00 AM-10:00 AM window when I do my best running. Cool dry weather is predicted for Sunday morning. I hope that prediction holds.

*24.8