PRTC 5000m
It’s… a race report? That has been forever. Running has had some highs, but mostly lows due to a left knee patella tendon that gets annoyed too easily, causing setbacks and just generally getting me worried about running too much or too hard. The past maybe half year I have just been very conservative and mostly OK though. After a small teaser at coming back to racing in August, I got invited to join a friend’s club’s 5000m “time trial” race (that club being the “Philadelphia Runner Track Club” or “PRTC” for short). Just a bunch of guys and girls wanting to run fast. Sounds right up my alley, even if I am a long way away from the shape I once was.
Training
The last two years have been less consistent in running, from time to time my left knee patella tendon complained too much and I was forced to put on the brakes, and again, and again. I think I peaked around 70–75 km of running per week in that time with the best stretch (in terms of distance) in the last quarter of 2024. A far cry from the 120 km I often reached before that time period. Besides doing a parkrun somewhat faster during a long run back in summer 2024 and some attempts at Lactate Threshold workouts later that same year, I do not think I have really dared to run fast fast.
Back in January of this year, I had another patella tendon setback. Coming back from that setback, my right achilles tendon suddenly complained in April. I gave it a week or so of rest, picked up some swimming, and decided to just stay conservative for a long while.
In May and June, I just ran every other day. The non running days I either went swimming or walking. Due to running every other day, half the weeks had three days of running, the other half had four days of running. Distance-wise I built up from 31 and 41 km (for the three day and four day week, respectively) to 42 and 55 km (again, respectively).
July and the first week of August, things were a little less consistent. There was a trip to some national parks and a trip to my family across the ocean. The national parks involve more-than-usual walking and I have been more careful with this kind of trip, i.e., I am letting my running take a back-seat when the walking jumps up like that. Visiting the family involves jet lag and that sleep confusion can really mess up your body. So there, too, I tried to be careful. That said, I think I played it all correctly and did not push too hard. By the end of that period I had switched to four days of running per week and about 55–60 km per week.
From the second week of August onwards, I felt more confident again. My body seemed to have survived the switch to four days. I could let my life get into a bit of a rhythm. I was running about 60 km per week. I was eager to try running harder again. I tried a careful Lactate Threshold kind of workout (~1h race pace), just 4×1k. Went OK but I had no clue where I was at in terms of shape, so the workout was largely by feel and “this might be right”.
I signed up for a 5 km race at the end of August (the week after that LT workout) to have an idea where I was at. Ran it probably at the maximum I could do on that day. I finished in 18:51. Did not know how I felt about it, but at least it was a reference point to start doing workouts more regularly. The next week I switched to five days per week so I could have a workout day, a GA day that wasn’t too long, and a long run day. The two other days are recovery jogs to keep the weekly distance where I want it at, hovering near or at that 60 km per week.
The week between that point and now, I stayed on that five days of running schedule. Distance remained largely the same as I wanted to focus on dealing with the workouts. Weekly running distance 60–62 km.
| Day | What |
|---|---|
| Mon | Walk |
| Tue | Jog (7±1 km) |
| Wed | Workout (13±1 km) |
| Thu | Walk |
| Fri | Run (13±1 km) |
| Sat | Jog (7±1 km) |
| Sun | Long run (21 km) |
I made the track my place to go mid week: Repetition (around 1500m race pace), CV (around 30 mins race pace), and VO2max (JD says 11 mins race pace, elsewhere also described as 3–5k race pace, but that’ll depend heavily on your speed) were the workouts I spent time on. During this period the hot humid summer ended and I felt stronger and stronger in the workouts. The VO2max workouts especially gave me confidence to think my shape was closer to 18 minutes for a 5 km. I was doing those workouts at paces that should have been more tiring, but my heart rate remained surprisingly chill.
Similarly, I ended up moving some of my long runs to flat and simple river trails (Perkiomen Trail and Schuylkill River Trail for the locals). This let me run more strictly to heart rate and get an idea of what paces sticking to my heart rate zones gave me. It had been hard to get a view on that in the months prior: my routes had been hilly and the weather had been too sunny, too hot, too humid. These flat long runs in pleasant running weather at a concentrated clip gave me extra confidence too. I seemed faster than that race in August had indicated.
| Week | Workout Type | Workout Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Aug (-11) | LT | 4×1 km |
| 25 Aug (-10) | Race | 5 km mostly flat |
| 1 Sep (-9) | Repetition | 3×(200, 200, 400) (goal: 41s for 200m) |
| 8 Sep (-8) | CV | 6×800 (goal: 3:08, actual: ±2s faster, jog 200m recovery) |
| 15 Sep (-7) | CV | 6×800 (same approach, again 2–3s too fast) |
| 22 Sep (-6) | CV | 4×800, 1×600 (leg felt off, stopped, had been same goal) |
| 29 Sep (-5) | VO2max | 4×1 km (3:38, :40, :42.5, :40.5, goal was :41, jog 300m recovery) |
| 6 Oct (-4) | VO2max | 4×1 km (:35, :36, :34, :33, goal was :37) |
| 13 Oct (-3) | VO2max | 4×1 km (:33, :33, :38, :36, goal still :37) |
| 20 Oct (-2) | Repetition | 4×200, 3×200, 3×200 (goal: 40s for 200m, jog 200m recovery, 400m between sets) |
| 27 Oct (-1) | Repetition | 3×(4×200) (same note as previous) |
| 4 Nov | This Race | 5000m |
Don’t let this overview fool you, I was not prepping for this race. I got invited to it the week prior and it seemed like a great opportunity. That said, I am happy enough with this preparation.
Goal and Strategy
So when I got invited, I had to give an estimated time. The VO2max at 3:37 per km pace still felt easier than I think VO2max should feel like. That 3:37 per km for that workout is prescribed for people with an 18:22 5 km time (JD tables). If it feels too easy, I should be faster than that, right? Round it up and you get 18 minutes. So I filled that in as a goal. Was I sure that I could run that? No, not at all. In fact, it felt a bit like an optimistic stretch goal. Not much strategy involved in aiming for that, just go for the even split. 18:00 is 3:36 per km, 43.2 seconds per 200m, 1:26.4 per 400, 2:52.8 per 800. Remember enough of those numbers and hope for the best on the day.
Pre-Race
The race was in the evening, which usually involves me overthinking everything I eat all day and when I eat it. None of that today. Made sure to eat enough oatmeal for breakfast, was hungry at lunch and ate more bread than I usually have been eating at lunch. Had some dinner leftovers around 15:00–16:00. Drink enough water during the day and stop early enough with it. Was an hour drive in traffic to get there, so left around 17:00 to arrive at the track at 18:00.
Found the organising group on the track and got my bib (a sticker for your chest, a sticker for your pants). Passed by the toilet. Swung my legs and hips a bit. Jogged on the track from 18:30 onwards. Toilet again. Some more dynamic stretches. Switched into race clothes and shoes with 12 minutes to go (19:00 start). Started some strides with 2–3 minutes to go, heading towards the other side of the track to arrive at the start position.
At the start line, I found out they had organised some pacers. One of them was was going to do 18 minutes. Perfect. We said our hellos, one other guy and a woman also were aiming for 18:00, so we had a little group of us. With that, we were ready to get going and all lined up.
Race
We were off and I quickly tucked into the inside of lane 1, right behind the pacer. His back was going to be my view for a while. I listened to them call out the time at the first 200m, 400m, and 800m, the pacing seemed on point. I pressed the lap button at 1000m and indeed: 3:35.8.
There was some headwind on the far side (and thus probably some backwind on the home stretch), but it was not that bad. The pacer reminded us to tuck in behind him to have the wind blocked. I think I was still maybe half a head taller than him, but I replied that I was trying and that it was mostly OK. I also told him he was doing a great job, pacing us like clockwork.
The next five laps were uneventful. Things felt easy, sometimes feeling like I was holding back a step to not bump into the pacer, but I also figured the typical 5k pain could come quickly. I split at 1800 and the lap time looked fine still. I forgot to split till 3000 and did not remember what a 1200m split should be at. Did not bother trying to work that out and trusted the pacer.
Around that 3000 mark I started thinking “OK, stopping running would be pleasant now”. There’s that familiar feeling! I brushed the thought away by reminding myself it was only five more laps, less than nine minutes (dividing 18 by 2 is about all the math I could deal with).
Our group of four (pacer, me, other guy, woman) had dwindled down to three at some point, the woman had to leave a gap. It did not really register during the race, I think I vaguely noticed one running shadow fewer, but it also did not matter much to me. I was here to see my time, not to place.
With maybe three (or four? I don’t remember) laps to go, the other guy started speeding up. He went around me on the straight, then around the pacer around the very start of the turn, then stayed on the inside of lane 2 for the rest of the turn rather than cutting back into the inner lane. I wanted to yell at him to not run so much extra, but did not feel like I had breath to spare at that point. I also did not bother matching the acceleration whatsoever. Again, I had the one goal here: see whether I could go under 18 again. I still did not feel confident about it, I really was not sure about my shape. So instead I stayed behind the pacer, letting him keep it at a nice just below 18 min pace.
With like two laps to go (I am guessing here with lap counts, things just get blurry and keeping notes is not my main focus during the race) my choice not to follow felt vindicated as I started feeling painful stabs in my abs, slightly right from center, slightly below the end of the ribs there. Running long with those stabs was not going to work. I focused on switching my breathing a little and after 200 metre the pain subsided.
At about 500 metre to go, on the home stretch, the pacer started slowly veering into the second lane. I got the hint, he wanted me to start pushing for the end. Man, this guy knows what he is doing. I slowly passed him during that home stretch. The other guy that had tried to break away from us was still only 5–10 steps ahead of us. I don’t know when exactly I started pushing, I think I waited till the 400 metre mark. I caught up to the other guy fast, went around him, and immediately broke away again. By the middle of the turn I had a gap already. The pacer yelled at the other guy that he should try to hold on to me. The other guy could not. On the far side, with 250 metre to go, I reigned in the pace a little bit, but not entirely. Things felt surprisingly acceptable still. I was a little worried I had gone out too hot on that final lap, but the body was not ready to call it quits yet. I kept going, leg turnover remained OK. I pushed to the line without cracking.
Results
(Strava)
Official time is 17:41, but it was all hand timed I believe, so let’s say ±1 second. They also gave a “1 mile” and “2 mile” splits in the result. I assume they mean 1600 and 3200 metre, because getting that mile, i.e., 1609 metre, exactly seems unlikely. With that assumption, these are the numbers from the official results.
| Distance | Time | Lap Distance | Lap Time | Lap Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1600 | 5:43 | 1600 | 5:43 | 3:34 |
| 3200 | 11:27 | 1600 | 5:44 | 3:35 |
| 5000 | 17:41 | 1800 | 6:14 | 3:27 |
I also have manual splits from my watch. “Lap Offset” compares actual lap time to expected lap time for an 18 minute 5000m (3:36.0 per km). “400m Offset” normalises it to a 400m distance.
| Dist | Time | Lap Dist | Lap Time | Lap Offset | 400m Offset | Lap Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | 3:35.8 | 1000 | 3:35.8 | -0:00.2 | -0:00.08 | 3:35.8 |
| 1800 | 6:27.6 | 800 | 2:51.8 | -0:01.0 | -0:00.5 | 3:34.8 |
| 3000 | 10:44.6 | 1200 | 4:17.0 | -0:02.2 | -0:01.1 | 3:34.2 |
| 3800 | 13:37.2 | 800 | 2:52.6 | -0:00.2 | -0:00.1 | 3:35.8 |
| 4600 | 16:27.8 | 800 | 2:50.6 | -0:02.2 | -0:01.1 | 3:33.3 |
| 5000 | 17:42.2 | 400 | 1:14.4 | -0:12.0 | -0:12.0 | 3:06.0 |
That kick was quite strong, I might have left too much in the tank. :)
Oh yeah, it was a race too. There were two heats, I was in the slow heat. I was 6th out of 10 people in my heat (pacers not listed in results). The fast heat had 21 people. It was won in 14:46 with a slowest time of 16:50. So I was 27th out of 31. The other guy from my group finished 4 seconds behind me. The girl from our group that wanted to go sub 18 finished in 18:04. The friend that had invited me to this race had been aiming for sub 16:00, which might already have been a PR for him. He blasted that goal out of the water and finished in 15:34 with a big negative split and looking in control for a lot of it. Fireball.jpg.
Musings and Future
Well. My workouts will be getting a jump in intensity now. I surprised myself today. My maybe sub 18 turned into blasting under and having some left in the tank. It also feels nice to achieve this on just 60 km per week. I was running twice as much before all this nonsense, though my PR was also more than a minute faster back then. I have to learn to stop comparing myself to that though. Those days are gone. For now.
Now logically I should be looking for another race a month or so from now. Regroup, do a few workouts, aim for something faster. Find out the limit of this shape I am in. However, we have some travel coming up later this month. Then the end of the month after that, we are heading to my family across the ocean. Both of these trips will mess up my running consistency a little. I might decide on a race on a whim, but I do not dare to plan for one.