Posts Tagged ‘race goals’

An uneventful few days but lots of thinking going on.  First, I’ll give a catch-up on the running scene.

I recovered just fine, the calf twinge went away by keeping the mileage in check and now I’m back to my battle axe self.  Runs went: 8 Sat, 9 Sun and 6 on Mon.  The 6 was pretty fun because I never run that short, aside from tapering, so I was able to pick up the pace a bit.

Yesterday, in my quest to dial back before the next marathon cycle (can’t believe it starts in 4 weeks!) I took a rest day.  I figure I’ll take one rest day/week through December, then back to 7 days/week with the rare day off.

Now for some fun.  Exactly a year ago someone posted a thread on MRT asking everyone what their goals for 2009 were and it was bumped back up a couple days ago.  I had completely forgotten ever writing these goals, so what a trip it was seeing them again and comparing how it all panned out:

1. Race more
I did, but only by one race.
2. sub 3:38 Fall marathon on a non-asterisk course.
Even with a miserably long bonk, I managed to surpass my if-everything-goes-right-dream-goal by 5 minutes. Talk about putting things in perspective.
3. Low 21:xx 5K
In June I got 20:25 which I might test again in a couple weeks.
4. Keep around 50mpw avg. but enjoy adding more in the summer to achieve #2 (enjoyment necessary)
Did this to a T, averaged 70s+ by Fall and had a great time doing it.
5. No injuries
I was introduced to my IT Band this year, so I can’t say I had none, but that was it.

I look at this list and realize what a different runner I’ve become within a 12-month span.  And while I still have angst about Philly (not helped by the worst race pictures ever – either walking, looking at my watch or just being god-awful ugly) I have so much to be grateful for.

Speaking of angst, I’ve been thinking a lot about marathons and our future together and have made a decision:  The two marathons I have planned for 2010 will determine whether I will continue marathoning or not – if between the two I can’t pull out a good one, or they don’t approach my shorter races Age-grade-wise, I’m done.

I don’t mean this in an “I’m taking my toys and going home” type of way, but as in “OK, turns out I have more fast twitch fibers in me than slow“ so that’s what I’d rather develop.  My 5K from June nets me an Age-grade of 80.86% (National Class…I’m so fancy) and I’m pretty sure, not having reached the 3-year running mark yet, that I have at least a couple years of faster short races ahead of me.  So while I could keep marathoning until I get it right, I’d rather spend my energy doing what I’m better suited for.

The only sad part about this is, if it works out the way I suspect it might, I’ll have to part with a wonderful group of forum friends since my favorite hangout is Marathon Race Training, but I’ve got a year before I need to worry about that.

The important thing here is to be objective about my skill set and not place a value judgment on myself if I can’t run marathons well.  It doesn’t mean I suck, it means it’s not my race, is all.   Should that be the case, I’ll simply develop my strengths and make a killing winning gift cards, turkeys, travel mugs and a buck or two, while having a huge amount of fun doing it.  So here’s to clarity and seeing how the next year unfolds – not knowing is half the fun.

Alright!  333 miles for October, a mileage PR and my body’s behaving wonderfully, no tweaks or sluggishness, knock on wood.  Here’s how October looked (click it for real size):

Now on to today… a “Hard 20″: 1 easy, 18@GMP+20sec., 1 easy.  I’ve been working with 7:30s as my GMP, even though I’ve been waffling about what my goal actually will be.  It’s just an easy number to deal with.  So today’s goal was 7:50s for the 18 portion.

The weather was perfect, 55 and overcast, touch of rain at the beginning and some light wind.  It went swimmingly, ending up with 7:46 avg for the 18, 7:51 avg for the entire run.  With this result, I’m thinking 7:30 is back to being a reasonable GMP, so forget 3:18, sub 3:17 is what I’ll be shooting for.  Yay.

In another reconsideration move, I mentioned I was going to do 90miles this next week.  After some back and forth with one of my favorite posters on MRT, A Muse (whom I consider the Running Buddha at the RW forums with his generous and sage advice) I realized that this was not the wisest placement for a 90.

When I saw A Muse’s peak volume week landed 6 weeks out, I went and looked at Pfitzinger and Daniels and saw that they, too, peak at 6 weeks, so it wasn’t making sense to me to have my highest volume come 3 weeks out, especially when it’s also my hardest quality week.  That’s what I get for following Hudson’s plan as written, I was supposed to think about it and adjust, but was lazy.

So I’m going to keep it around 81 for the third week in a row.  Like I wrote in the Hudson thread, the only reason I’d be going 90 is to assuage my ego and my ego’s not running Philly.  I’ll save 90 for the Boston cycle.  That means I also get to skip the one double in the plan, since I don’t need to split that day up now.

Lastly, I’m subtracting some mileage from my taper weeks because Hudson would have me at 70 the week preceding race week and that doesn’t seem very taperish to me.  So today was my last 20 of the cycle!  Next weekend’s LR will be 17 (thank you,  A Muse).

The week ahead looks like this:
Mon: 8 w/10 hill sprints
Tues: 12 w/8x2min @ HP
Wed:14 last 7 moderate
Thurs: 8 or 9 easy (supposed to be another progression but I’ll see how I feel)
Fri: 14 w/10MP
Sat: 8
Sun: 17

Crossing fingers there’ll be no life drama interweaving said schedule,  just some steady running.   Later, fellow running fiends.

OK, this marathon business has been starting to get me down a bit, not in a major way, but enough that I’ve been questioning myself and what my goals are and thinking I’m biting off more than I can chew.  Yet, when I step back and look at the difference between an aggressive goal and one that seems more doable, there’s only a couple minutes between them! Which is the nature of racing, when you think about it.

Take my Half, for instance.  I was disappointed because it was a minute over what I’d envisioned (going with my original goal of sub 1:33 here).  Now, take a minute, 60 seconds, and divide it by 13.1.  We’re talking the difference of about 4.5 seconds per mile.  4.5 seconds.  It’s so…nothing!  Yet that time frame is all one needs to beat oneself up.  It’s kooky when you think about it.

So here I am, thinking about the Big M, The Philadelphia Marathon, and re-evaluating what I think will be good for me.  Yes, I want to hit it out of the park without doubt, and in the back of my mind, I’d been entertaining 3:16ish but as it gets closer, I’m thinking that’s too aggressive for where I’m at.  My times, while better than a few months ago, aren’t dropping as I’d hoped.  Not to say I’ve plateaued, but I thought my mileage would make the bottom drop just a bit quicker than it has been.

Along with this, I’m in the RW sub 3:20 thread which is taking a hit on my ego, though entirely my own fault.  The thread was started for sub 3:20ers, but almost all of them have surpassed that dramatically, yet they stay in the thread for the camaraderie (they really are a super cool crew and I love being in the circle).  But they’re faster than me and when I post my workouts, I feel like the slow cousin.

I know this is my own mental crap and if I’d only remind myself that I’m twice the age of the other gal (zoomy Agile) and the rest are men (the majority younger than me), then I’d be able to give myself a break.  But I can’t help it, I feel like one of the crowd, so I feel the pressure.

Anyway, all this to say, I need to stop wanting to perform like those around me and just stick with what I’m capable of.  I’m still going for sub 3:20, no doubt about it, but I’m taking it down a notch and at this point, I’m thinking 3:18 is the top lid of what I should be aiming for, no higher.

Which brings me back to the difference between that and my original goal.  What is it?  Maybe 3 seconds different per mile?  3 seconds! Yet enough to bring me out of “oh shit, I’m not sure this is going to work” to “ok, I can do this”.  Crazy how a couple minutes spread out over the span of over 3 hours can make such a difference to the mind.

But enough mental strife for the moment.  I had a strong speed session today: 10 miles w/5×1000@5k pace w/2min recoveries.  The fast bit went 6:30, 6:24, 6:26, 6:30, 6:29…avg 6:28.  No reason for anything but satisfaction, but I guess that’s not in my DNA.

Eeewwww scary…3:16:38.  There, I said it.  At least, that’s how it looks from a big fat 18 weeks away.  My reasoning?  I like 7:30, it’s pretty.  And 26.22 of them = 3:16:38 (edited to get that .02 in).

OK, my outside goal is sub 3:20, which my 5K PR more than agrees with (a useless fact if I didn’t have a 60 mpw base to back it up).   In a couple weeks I’ll be averaging 70mpw and plan to peak at 90.  Add to that 4 months of focused quality work and 7:30s seem quite reasonable.

So I’ve got 18 weeks until D-day…one can do some good damage in that amount of time.  In fact, I just realized today that it was 18 weeks between Jan 1st and May 3rd (my Spring goal race).   Granted, I’m sure I won’t see quite such a dramatic drop as those months brought since part of that was a 10lb weight loss, but still, the trend continued steadily for each successive month after I’d lost the weight, so I’m certain there’s room for another good chunk of improvement before November.

To that end, I started marathon training on Monday.  Yeah, I know, I said I’d start first week of August, but I looked at the plan again (prompted by comments in the last post) and figured it’s pretty much what I’d be doing if I was freeforming, so why not give Hudson the credit and call this week 3 of his Level III plan?  I miss being told what to do.

So…Monday was an easy 8, avg pace 8:19.  Tuesday was 9 with 8 x 40sec. “fartleks” (Hudson’s version) at 10k-3k pace – avg for the run, 8:22.   This morning I had 11 with the last 5 “moderate”, which turned out to be 7:36s for the faster bit and 8:10 avg. for the whole run (trying to keep my easy miles a tad slower these days).

Ah, a fresh training plan – its framework shows potential like nothing else.  It’s like building a bigger and better house every single time.  Exciting to imagine the possibilities.  God, I love it.

Today’s run: 11 miles – 2 miles warmup, 6 tempo@goal Half pace, 3 cooldown.

Last Friday’s tempo post resulted in some interesting comments from my blogging/running friend Julie, a speedy broad whose opinion I highly respect.  She thought my HR for that tempo was on the low end for a Half and after thinking about it, I agreed, realizing that it would have been a very comfortable HR had I been running the Half that day instead of May 3rd.  So I bumped it up today keeping her HR suggestion in mind of 86-87% avg.

It felt like a more reasonable race effort than last week, though frankly, I’m surprised at the max HR – it maxed as high as my 10k race last month!  It didn’t feel anything like the 10K though, just felt like a good tempo run.  Go figure – could be the temps, hydration, sleep…or that I ran too fast.   Silly monitor.

Here’s the dirt:

Pace    Avg HRR     Max HRR
7:22    169(81%)    175(85%)
7:18    175(85%)    177(86%)
7:11    178(87%)    181(89%)
7:14    180(88%)    182(90%)
7:19    181(89%)    184(91%)
7:17    182(90%)    184(91%)

Avg pace 7:17, Avg HR 178 (86.7%)

Even with the high Max, I’m feeling good about it.  After all, I still have 1/3 of my cycle left to go, ain’t no way I’m done yet.   So, as of this moment, 1:35:xx  is firmly in my sights.

As per our usual catch up, Wednesday was an easy 11@8:29 and yesterday was an easy 7@8:32.  On the latter run I wore my HR monitor, which I rarely do for easys, but I wanted to see where I stood lately after all this racing.   It ended up giving me some very positive feedback so I was excited to use it for today’s tempo.

Since the run today was focused on goal Half pace and with 6 weeks to go, I’m still mulling it over, I’ve been thinking about 7:25/mi. which would get me a 1:37:04.  But then, how can you look at that and not think, “so close to 1:36″ so I finally aimed for 7:23s today, figuring that if the HR monitor told me “too much, back off”, I’d obey without a fight.

It was a lovely day out, 61 degrees, which I thought might work against me since I’ve been running in cooler weather and anything above 55 makes me nervous, but it ended up being juuust right.  My splits were 7:24, 7:23, 7:21, 7:21, 7:24 for an average pace of 7:22.  The best part is my Heart Rate averaged 172 (83% HRR) – well situated for a Half.

As comparison, my last tempo on March 6th (haven’t done them recently due to racing) on a similar 55 degree day was 6 miles @ 7:35, so here’s how the first 5 tempo miles of that run compares to today’s 5 miles.

March 6,   7:35/mi, avg. HR 176 (86% HRR, Max 89%)
March 27, 7:22/mi, avg. HR 172 (83% HRR, Max 86%)

I do believe that 1:36:30 is now a reasonable goal for May 3rd.  Woohoo!

Funny thing, I was looking at my receipt for the Half yesterday which I paid for back in October (a couple weeks before I’d even run Steamtown) and you had to fill in a projected finish time.  I had written 1:43 – and that was me being optimistic.

This is an entertaining time, is all I can say.