Archive for October, 2010

Not a great showing from me.  21:05.

The race was a good size, around 400 people.  It was windy but I didn’t really feel it as a detriment, so I won’t use it as an excuse.  I didn’t draft behind anyone, we were spread out a bit.

Right before lining up, the woman I beat last race who had vied against me, came up to chat and asked my pace plan, then lined up right alongside me at the start. I wasn’t too thrilled because she’s 43, so in my 10-year AG and I knew she was hungry to beat me (though I have to say, she is a really nice woman).

When the gun went off, she zoomed ahead but I wasn’t feeling like pushing the pace.  In fact, I ran this race very much like the last one,  slower early miles, speeding up in the last, but this time it wasn’t intentional, so when I saw my Garmin showing late 6:4xs for miles 1 and 2, I just went with it, didn’t even try to “correct” it by speeding up, I just worked on passing people.  The third mile was when I finally got moving, Garmin says 6:23 but it’s wrong, it was more like 6:30.

The one thing I’m really disappointed in isn’t my time (ok, that’s a suck, but other than that), it’s that I made a huge tactical error involving that woman.  As I mentioned, she’d zoomed out the gate and I figured I’d close the gap eventually, which I was able to do in the third mile.  However, if I’d have been smarter, I’d have hidden behind her until the last 1/4 mile or so and taken her by surprise.  At that point I would have probably been able to outkick her.

My error was coming alongside her with enough distance left that she sped up and was able to fend me off to the finish, knowing I was chasing her.  I think there’s a photo of us right as I slid alongside her, as a matter of fact.  So yeah, she beat me but she also puked at the end of the race.  I like to think that had something to do with me.

I, on the otherhand, wasn’t heaving or anything at the end.  A very healthy finish for me, albeit not so great timewise.  On the good side, there weren’t that many women before me.  Again, I’ll have to see the results to know.  They only had awards for 1st in each AG so nothing for me today.

Reflections
All in all, if I look at the racers I come in alongside at any race, I can feel very good with where I am as a runner – it’s a younger, fit crowd, and I’m definitely in a great area for my age, that’s not in question.  But as far as reality is concerned, I think it’s time to get rid of my PRs on the right and change them out for 2010 PRs only.

There’s something gnawing at having these faster times from last year constantly there as carrots I can’t catch.  Aside from the marathon (and that was basically by default) I haven’t had a PR in over a year.  You know…that’s kinda depressing.  Not that I was trying for a PR today, that was never on the table.

But the truth is, I don’t think I’ll ever push as hard to get those faster times again, trading off some race pain for more headroom (as Adam smartly puts it) instead.  It makes me sad, like I’m giving up, but the collapsing body incidents have definitely changed me.  I’m not sure I’ll ever regain the drive I had before.

That said, I’m never going to stop trying to get faster, I’ll always keep working to improve and I certainly expect to get faster from where I am at this point in time, but…I’m not “getting back” to anything, as I’ve been saying I have.  Yesterday was yesterday, those old race times are history.  Today is where it begins.

The good?  Going to be a luscious 50 degrees.  The not so good?  Going to be 21mph winds, gusts to 30.  It should be interesting – I’ve never raced with that much wind, so it’s about time I experienced it.

I’m a little anxious about how much you dial it back so as not to expend all your energy.  How do you tell?  Any words of wisdom will be appreciated.  I guess the key will be sliding behind some dudes to draft, which’ll be another first.  I’ve never drafted off anyone before.  Look at me, getting all racery! ;-)

The course is just a few blocks from my apartment, but for once, not by the water.  It starts at the Eastern State Penitentiary (now a tourist destination and supposedly the best Haunted House around) then goes up into Girard College, where I’ll get to finally see a track us non-students will never be allowed to use (such a tease) and then returns to the prison.

Goal-wise, I don’t have a time in mind for this one, it’s a “beat as many chicks as I can” goal.  That’s about it.   I’ll report here afterwards with the story.  So have a good Friday, folks!  See you here tomorrow.

When I said in the last post that I wasn’t intimidated by any of my workouts in the schedule, it didn’t mean I wasn’t aware that one or two would be hell on a stick.  Like today’s 2x (5x1k, 1min rec’s) 4min rec. With wu/cd it came out to 10.7 miles total.

I did a variation on this a year ago, it was 10x1k, 1min rec’s, so without the 3 extra min. recovery in the middle, though Hudson said 10k-HP so it didn’t have to be quite so peppy.  At the time, I considered it the hardest workout I’d ever done.  I mean seriously, if I’m going to do more than 6 of anything, make it 400s please, a bunch of 1k’s is whacked.  But it’s good for you. sigh

Conditions were not the best, 69 degrees and temp+dewpoint = 130, so basically summer again.  I could have dumbed down my paces from the start but figured I’d attempt it as written.  I got schooled by the end, but at least I gave it a good try.  The goal was 6:48 pace.

The first set of 1ks went 6:51, 6:46, 6:48, 6:49, 6:55, which averaged 6:49/mi.  Not bad.  But I lost it at the end of the 2nd set.  It went 6:52, 6:50, 6:55, 7:05, 7:06, averaging 6:57.  As for the recoveries, I jogged them all except the next to the last one (before the 7s started) when I walked about 20 seconds.

I’m not unhappy with the workout in total, I got in 42:46 averaging 6:53/mi and that’s great (especially given my love of humidity) though of course, those last two were clearly disappointing.  So I’ll appease myself by plugging it into Daniel’s heat compensating calculator and figure I was right on target with him saying the workout averaged 6:47/mi.  Either way, it was a solid session for sure but I’m thrilled as hell I don’t have to do it again.

Before I get into it, a huge congratulations for the Chicago marathoners who suffered through an atrociously hot race, as is becoming Chicago’s hallmark.  Even though I was in PJs, sipping hazelnut coffee while everyone was out there battling, it was insanely exciting because I was tracking 14 dear friends from the 3:20 thread plus a couple Facebook pals as well as fellow blogger Jaymee Marty, who grabbed her Olympic Trials Qualifier with clock-like precision.

Great job, everyone!!  Also, a Hey to my tracking buddies Jackie and Jim, that was too fun yesterday, like going to the horse races or something.

My Newest Training Plan
Same method as the last one: I framed out a training schedule for the next 7 weeks (now 6), then Coach Adam/A Muse got his hands on it, worked his brilliant runnerly magic and made it fabulous.  I truly love the final result.  Thanks again, Adam!

Mileage is a tad less than last time, only because there are a couple races, making the days before and after something to consider.  I also have a cutback week included again, I love those for the mental break as well as the physical.

One of the fun new workouts comes the week before the race, a 15.75-mile tempo sandwich: warmup, then 3 Half pace miles, run easy for an hour (around 7 miles), then 3 more HP miles and a cooldown mile.  I’ve never done that before and I like the point, you’re fatigued by the time you do that last HP section.

Something else I really like are the workouts he gave me for the race weeks themselves.  They’re peppier than what I originally had, better for getting the legs moving.  And the best part of the whole plan is that nothing here intimidates me in the least. All the workouts that seemed (and were) impossible in summer’s heat – like tomorrow’s 2x (5x1k, 1min rec’s) – I’m confident I can carry.

Speaking of, I started policing myself on pace yesterday.  Coach Adam’s a proponent of Pfitzinger’s LR formula (start at MP+20% then whittle down to MP+10% by the end) which for me means 9:03s down to 8:18s.   I’m in this mode of feeling great at faster paces, which is such a welcome change it’s hard not let fly, but I’ll try to stay close to the formula in order to give the long runs the time they require.

A Clue About My Dropping Body
Something I’ve noticed regarding weather and my problematic races.  I’ve come to the conclusion that temperatures are not my true enemy but that humidity is the evil wrongdoer.  We’ve had such low humidity lately that even though I’m running in some of the same summer temps (yesterday was 73), it actually feels cooler and is way easier to run.

So I’m refining “no racing when it’s low 70s” to “if temp+dewpoint equals around 100 or less, low 70s is fine for racing”.  For instance, I just checked my logs and the collapsing Half added up to 130, hospital-visit 5K was 153, May’s 5K (where I ran a very disappointing time) was 131.   This is key.

Now I have to wait an entire year to test my theory.  Thank god.

This has been a really fun week of running, I can feel the speed growing in these ole thighs of mine.  I had those hillettes on Tuesday, then an effortless 12mi progression on Wednesday (from 8:30 to 7:39, avg 8:06), a tired 8miler on Thursday from too little sleep (very rare these days…8 hours is getting to be the norm, yay!) and today, a great tempo.

Coach Adam gave me training paces to shoot for the other day based off my Half PR from last year.  That seems to fit well since, despite what happened in last month’s Half, I do feel as though I’m back to that shape now. Training paces are: HP=7:08-7:10, 10K=6:48, 5K=6:27 (note: these aren’t current race paces per se, but based around Canova’s training principles).

So today’s workout was 9mi with 1.5mi@HP, 2min rec, 1.5mi@15k, 2min rec, 1.5mi@10k.  They were originally written as 10 minutes at each pace, but since the Garmin isn’t exact, I changed it to 1.5mi so I could use the park markers, the better to compare the workout to future ones. Conditions were 63 degrees and a bit windy.

Avg pace results:
1.75 warmup=8:53
HP section=7:08
15k section=6:57
10k section=6:48
2.75mi home=8:11 (surprisingly zippy…didn’t feel that fast)
Avg for the entire run=7:49

Not bad for having drunk 1/2 bottle of wine the night before.

Breathing Test Results
Got the results of the breathing test: normal…Yay!! But wait, normal…Fuuuuuck.  Of course it’s great that nothing is found but I really wanted there to be a simple, straight-ahead reason for these collapses.  On the bright side, I don’t have to worry about where to carry an inhaler, on the dull side, it looks like racing in anything warmer than 65 is a crapshoot.

I still have the Echo Stress test at the end of the month and if I get to see an official max HR out of it (which is all I’m expecting) that’ll be cool.

GOOD LUCK Marathoning Friends!!
This is a huge marathon weekend with about 6 races going on, the largest of which, Chicago, will contain the majority of my friends from the 3:20 thread and a ton of Facebook friends as well.  The weather is being an ass, likely in the 60s, which is certainly not optimum but these are strong runners with solid determination and I’m sure they’ll do what it takes to make it a great race.

I wish you all the best of luck, whether you’re doing Chicago, Steamtown, Mohawk-Hudson, Portland, Hartford, Towpath or another.  Run relaxed, run strong and race like you mean it.  Sending hugs, love and speedy wishes to each and every one of you.

I was waiting to post in hopes I’d have results for Monday’s medical test, but not yet.  The test is called Spirometry and it measures lung capacity/breathing.  You breathe into a tube thingy a few times normally, then take in a huge breath and exhale as fast as you can, then you take 12 fast breaths.  You do each of these things two times in a row.

I didn’t (and don’t) expect anything to be found from this or the Echo Stress Test, just because it seems like you’d have to duplicate the conditions to get the same response, though there was a little hiccup worth noting.  On the last one with the 12 breaths, the second time I did it, about 4 breaths in, I lost power which changed the way I felt, sounded and also affected the level of the sine waves on the monitor.  Who knows though, that may be a typical response or within normal standards.  Anyway, I should have the results today or tomorrow.

Oh, and Zipcars rock!  I had my virgin experience and it was all good, the car was a pure pleasure to drive.  I’ll miss my stick shift a bit, but not having to hunker down in embarrassment while my car pollutes holes into the ozone is a fair tradeoff.

7 Weeks To The Philly Half
Been figuring out the next few weeks – I have 6 weeks to train, then one for taper.  I’ll be doing a lot of the original workouts from last cycle, before heat necessitated dumbing down a few.  I’ll also be doing less long Long Runs this time: only one 17 plus a couple 15s and a couple 14s.

This, after a chat with Coach Adam where he thought I should apply Daniels’ max length of 2-hour Long Runs.  I’m game!  This gives me a couple more medium long runs (just 11s and 12s since I’m Half training) which I happen to enjoy a lot.  There are also a couple races scheduled, though the effort level I attach to them remains to be seen.

This Week In Workouts
Monday was a rest day.  Yesterday was an 8miler with my “hillette” workout at the end (12 x 30sec up the museum ramp, jog down).  The weather was so energizing, 55 and raining, that it really was fun.  It’s startling how much easier it is to run in Fall temps.

Today I have an easy 12-miler, tomorrow 8, then a tempo combination on Friday (Half, 15k and 10k paces).  I’ll post after that one to share how those paces felt.  It’ll be interesting to see what the heartrate monitor shows without heat impeding the way.