December 27th, 2008
I hope you all had a great holiday week with as little family irritation as possible.
We escaped from the world for a few days with the most romantic, non-angst-ridden holiday I can remember. The B&B we stayed at was empty, even the owners were gone, so we had the place completely to ourselves. Christmas day we went to the “Grand Canyon of PA” (that cracks me up every time I type it), hiked in the snow a little and happily froze our asses off because it was so beautiful and serene. I was this close to having a 3-day non-running vacation, but ended up doing a 4-miler yesterday morning before we left, just to add Wellsboro, PA to my list of places I’ve run.
Back to Philly and running life, something strange has been going on with my running this last week. I suppose it’s the culmination of those weeks of speedwork and tempos in conjunction with races (can’t beat 5Ks for speedwork) because all of a sudden, my “normal” easy pace has taken a dive.
I did that 5K last Saturday, then the next day I ran 9 miles, avg pace 8:29. Tuesday I ran 12, avg pace 8:31. Today I ran 13, avg pace 8:29. And each of these runs started the first couple miles with 8:40s, the bulk of the runs averaged around 8:15/mi. They felt comfortable, not strenuous at all, so I’ve been doing quite a few double-takes looking at my wrist. If I hadn’t been running my usual measured route, I’d think my Garmin had gone batty.
But there’s more to these runs than a new pacing, I had actual bouts of Runner’s High on Tuesday and today. It occurred to me that maybe the high is due to getting faster (big wad of happiness right there) but it’s more than that, it’s an amazing feeling, like dancing all out or fucking, for that matter.
It’d probably be a good idea to wear the HR monitor on tomorrow’s 9-miler, but on the other hand, what makes it special is how it feels and monitoring my HR will surely put a damper on it (because of course, it must be too fast…McMillan’s finger is probably cramped from wagging it at me). Then again, the monitor and McMillan are all about “proper aerobic conditioning”. Must every second of running be the best possible science?
OK, so I hereby declare that my Christmas present to myself is to leave the rulebook at home until mid-January when the new training cycle begins. Just run because it feels good, whatever that may be. Belated, as far as gifts go, but perfect for someone who likes to get high.
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I’ve been double-taking at my wrist too, lately.
Like most people I’ve always had trouble staying down to easy pace, but figured it would become easier as easy pace got faster. Silly me. It doesn’t work that way. If anything the progression from easy to tempo and beyond is getting smoother, so I sometimes catch myself going a minute or more too fast. This morning I was doing an easy 4-miler with a friend, chatting away, and looked down to discover that we were going faster than my 10K pace was a year ago. Oops. Speaking of 10Ks I’m running one tomorrow. Yippee, I can go as fast as I want!
Good luck tomorrow! You are going to blast through it, can’t wait to hear. I am thrilled that you’re also experience double-takes of the speedy kind, too. Isn’t it weird? In an incredibly cool way, of course. What are your thoughts on keeping your easy runs at the “proper” pace? Especially since you’re a Daniels man, he seems pretty rigid on his pace ranges.
I’m not too worried about it, particularly for short runs, which I’m doing a lot of right now. By the time I’m back up to long runs again, I’ll have recalibrated anyway. I’m learning not to pace to my last big race, but to the next one. Somebody here taught me that. Julie, I think.
I came here via a link from RacesLikeAGirl (JT).
I lean towards Daniels — although I’m planning on taking a look at Brad Hudson’s book — and I rarely do my easy and long runs at his pace. I feel much more comfortable at faster paces, although I’m not a high-mileage type. Since I don’t seem to have trouble recovering and, let’s face it, it’s more fun to run faster than slower, I just go with the flow.
“it’s more than that, it’s an amazing feeling, like dancing all out or fucking, for that matter.”
I am a bit turned on right now
Jim, I like that idea! Pacing for your next race, I kind of do it anyway for all things except the easy run.
Joe, hi! I love Raceslikeagirl, Julie’s the runner I want to be someday. I am so happy to hear that you’re not tied to exact paces either. I’ve been pacing by the book since marathon training, before then my easy paces were “whatever” and I’d never even done a recovery run. I feel like I ended up a little slower for being so careful about it. Time to follow my own clock again. Btw, I just went to your blog and looked at your race times…wow.
wmd, lol! Go for a run.
*Blush*
No wonder my ears were ringing last evening…
For the past couple of years I’ve been searching for a way to combine fucking with running. So far, no luck. I imagine trying to throw dancing into the mix is a recipe for injury.
Congratulations on your dropping paces. As for heart rates, as a Pfitzinger (nee Beck) devotee, I go for a range. For easy/general aerobic, that range is anywhere from 75-82% of max. That’s a pretty wide range, allowing for harder efforts on days you feel good (or have a jones for that elusive high), and easier ones on days that you don’t.
I’ve never heard of the Grand Canyon of PA. Having seen the actual Grand Canyon, it’s hard for me to imagine what version of that PA would produce.
Here’s todays race, as requested.
10K. Two laps around the lake. A lot of people were running the 5k, one lap, same start.
Started out a bit fast, because I wanted to get some elbow room on part of the course that’s been made narrow by landscaping work. At the first mile, I discovered that my gloved finger had missed the start button on my watch. Arrgh!, so I started it. Post-race math puts that first mile at 6:45. I had guesstimated 7:00
Next mile 7:13, better pacing. Slowed a bit more for the the rest of the lap to recover.
Going into lap 2, I heard footsteps. I didn’t look around, which encourages the person behind, but listened. Rapid gait, bit of a slap. No one I know. I sped up a notch (7:10), and the mystery runner seemed happy to stay there. Later I glimpsed a shadow on the grass. Pony tail, probably not in my division then!
She faded a couple of times, but came back each time. With a quarter mile to go, I heard her move out to the side. I wasn’t planning to start my kick this early, but went anyway. I gapped her, but felt kinda dizzy by the time I reached the line. We high-fived.
So: 45:14, for a 5:37 PR. According to Daniels, thats in line with my recent marathon result, so maybe I don’t suck at the short stuff after all.
Oh, and my nemesis ran the 5K, so I won my division
Woohoo Jim!! What a great race, a win for you! And yeah, you can no longer say you suck at shorter stuff. Too funny about the person shadowing you and then seeing her literal shadow, whew, a chick.
Wonderful to have your race times line up, too, if only for one less reason to ask “what do I need to work on?”
Julie, hah! I’ve messed around scuba diving but you’re right, running and fucking are a difficult combo, though I’m sure somebody’s managed it somehow, people are so creative that way.
About the PA Grand Canyon, it’s not exactly Grand and I guess it’s kind of canyonish, but really, just a 40-mile long hole in the ground with a creek going through it.
The PA Grand Canyon sounds kinda nice. And probably has no super-scary mule trails!
Running and dancing? Done that, badly, past a couple of of the bands at the S.F. marathon. That other combination? Yes that would be hard!
More on my nemesis. Turns out he was actually behind me when he finished the 5K, no his days as nemesis may be numbered.
Sounds like this nemesis is already past tense. Time to start knocking them off like a carnival game. bing…bing…
Hmm. Running short. Might have to look for nemesises in other divisions.
Aw, tough situation, huh? Eat the young.
Or eat the old. There are some fast guys here in the 60-70 age band!
Speaking of age, I’m running a couples relay in Feb. It’s 2 X 5K, Women go first. Divisions work by adding the partners ages together, Anna and me are in the 100-120 division!
Flo,
It sounds to me like you have turned a corner. I love reading stories about other people’s success. Vicariousness at it’s best:)
Hey Tobey, hope things are going well in your running world, too. OMG, I see you’ve started a blog, too. Yay for you! Cool that RW’s improvements offer that. Time to go read it now.
I see the RW blogs are moderated, so my “Inaugural comment” on Tobey’s will probably be number 15 or so
Jim, where’s your blog? No excuse now.
Darn it! I just knew that was coming. You are my standard of entertaining bloggery, Flo, and I don’t think I can compare. But of course, it would mean I wouldn’t have to clutter up your comments with my race reports. Hmmm….
Race reports are not clutter by any means, they’re always welcome here. Having a blog is great though, fun when people check it out and is a great way of having your history right there, can’t beat it as a diary. Go for it!
Jim,
Maybe you could just copy some of your comments to Flo’s blog? That would probably give you enough material for at least 6 mos. (not meant to be negative, I have enjoyed reading your RR’s).
Jim you should start one. First of year is right around corner good time to start one. It cannt be worse then my cure for insomnia blog.