Time to do the hustle

This is a cycling blog, but my cross training is part of my racing experience, so I thought I would log an entry about the upcoming 5k road running race I am doing this saturday in muscatine: "The Hayes Hustle". I figure it is short enough that it won't throw off my race the next day in finchford, and will be good preparation for my focus event, the cinco de mayo duathlon, in davenport.

Treadmill running has been saving my sanity this winter, as I can always swap out a ride outside with a run inside when the weather doesn't exactly fit my weekly training plan. I am hoping the run workouts are increasing my VO2 max and keeping my body fat at it's lowest possible percentage.

Some comments I have gotten that show me I am on the right track with my body comp:
1) "You are wasting away, what's going on" - Dean of College, Jeff Armstrong
2) "You are down to your high school weight" - Chad Yocom, Business Partner
3) "You look like a rockstar" - John Anderson - MCC Student President
4) "Don't lose anymore weight, you are getting too skinny" - former girlfriend
5) "The reason you are so cold is because you don't have enought body fat" - fellow cyclist

My goal with running was to get to the point that I looked physically ill, so mission accomplished. Now I can try and do some push-ups or something to add some meat to the bone.

I feel a little like Lance Armstrong going into this 5k race (except he is doing the boston marathon, close enough). I am not going to be competitive in the overall scheme of the run as a race, but I hope to still run fairly fast to show that cyclists are highly fit, regardless of the exact physical endeavor.

I am hoping to run this race in under 20 minutes (which is good considering there is a monster uphill section). That would mean essentially a 6min, 25 second average pace per mile. I should come in top ten if I can pull that off. I will run the first mile in 6 minutes, then hang on from there.