Posts Tagged ‘tempo’

Another 65 mile week in the books and I’m really pleased with how good I feel physically (and mentally, for that matter).  I had a day off today, first in two weeks, and while I enjoyed it and made a crapload of headbands, I didn’t feel as though I needed the day off, which is heartening.

Moving backwards in time…

Last Friday’s tempo was swell: 9 w/ 3mi@Half, 2min rec, 2mi at 10k.  Wore my HR monitor for the first time in many weeks and was happy with the outcome.  An easy 9 on Saturday and on Sunday, 16 into the trails.  That was a cool run because I was dragging at the start but on the way back, managed to hit paces I rarely run in easy runs anymore.

My Facebook friends know that for 2 miles, I was followed by some spitting, hocking, wheezing guy, then when I got to my half-way point and turned, the guy said “Oh no, you were giving me great paces!”.   It made me laugh, but I’ve never been happier to separate myself from another runner as I did then.  I so wanted to say “Good luck with those allergies” but didn’t bother.

On a more fun note, I passed 3 groups of XC runners (I guess they’re XC?  Is any college type group of runners a group of XC runners?  Is there such a thing as a group of track runners?  But then I guess they’d be on a track.  I have no idea about these most elementary running things) – anyway…one set of guys, two sets of girls.

The girls were pretty cool, looking way fierce, and one group was led by a definite Alpha, she was very tall and telling a story while everyone was laughing.  When I passed them on the return, they’d all become silent as the heat of the morning and their effort had obviously made a dent.  I was surprised when the Alpha said “good morning” as they passed, usually those groups keep to themselves.

I like the way I can peek into these alternate universes that I’d never noticed before, understand what people are doing even though we have so many years between us.  It’s funny because I know that to many, I must look like an old hand at this running thing, but half the time, I still feel like an interloper or someone playing being a runner.  Not that I mind really, it doesn’t affect my enjoyment at all, but I wonder what it’ll take to feel permanently ensconced.  Maybe it has to do with starting so late that I’ll always feel like I’m borrowing somebody’s sport.  Then again, I’m a transient in life, so maybe it’s just my M.O.

Anyway, got back from the run and spent the rest of the day making a Facebook page for GIMheadbands and bugging my friends to “Like” it.  Big hugs to those who did, especially the men…that’s pure support right there.

Super big hugs to those who’ve bought some already.  I got the testimonials/customer photo page working, so don’t be shy, send me a photo of you rocking a headband, I want to see many lovely faces up there soon!!

And now, time to chill out, got an early morning tomorrow with quite a hard workout: 5 x 1.25mi @10k pace, 3-4 minute recoveries.  Hmmm…given the choice, do you think I’ll take 3 or 4 minute recoveries?  What is that 3 even doing there?  Making me feel guilty because I sure as hell will be doing 4.  Once a slacker, always a slacker.

Back to running speak, this past week yielded 65 miles with some satisfying workouts.

On Tuesday, I had 10mi w/ 5x1K @ 5K pace – 90sec rec’s, though the original schedule was 2x(5x1k@10k – 1min rec’s). I changed it because A) first and foremost, it was 80 degrees and the dewpoint equation was 149, so I wasn’t going to do 10 of anything much less 1ks and B) I remember that workout as the hardest one when I was training for Philly, and since I’m not marathon training anymore, I reserve the right to balk at such things. :-)  So I shortened it but sped it up.

My other workout was a tempo on Friday: 9mi w/6@Half pace, which went well albeit with an adjusted target pace for 79 degrees.  No heart rate to compare since I haven’t worn the strap in weeks, so I’m trusting it was the right effort.

Lastly on the quality front was a 17-miler in the trails yesterday.  Happily, it didn’t follow a tempo day, as my recent LRs have due to weather switch-ups.  Because of that, my legs were feeling good but it was humid as hell so it was still a slow one.  It rained through a large part of it which was wonderful except for the one shoe squeaking for about 14 miles.

Hydration was crazy: I refilled my 12oz. handheld 3 times plus long slurps from each fountain.  So I figure I had about 60 oz while on the road and still needed a couple large glasses once I got home.  Which makes this next bit somewhat ironic…

Giving Up The Bottle
They added a new fountain on my loop which happens to fall at a key point on my runs, so aside from trail runs, I haven’t carried a handheld all summer – a fact I’ve come to adore.  But it hasn’t escaped my mind that I need to address this since I have a Half coming up.

As most of you know, I always do Halfs and Fulls with a handheld, thanks to that first hospital incident a couple years ago.  I’ve yet to feel confident about doing water stops efficiently so it’s been easier mentally to carry my own.  But the fountains have spoiled me rotten so I’ve asked my friend Lara to help me practice in a couple weeks – she’ll stand outside my apartment building with a raincoat and galoshes while I soak both of us until I get it right.

Btw, I know how to fold the cup and all, it’s really more of me respecting the time it takes to get the fluid down, which’ll probably have me walking through the stops.   The good thing is that since I’ve already demoted the Distance Run from a goal race to a race race, I can afford to forfeit clock time if need be (not that I should lose a great deal, but hydration must be the priority).  So with this as a practice race, November’s Half should go swimmingly.

Headband Talk
Thanks to everyone who took a look and especially those who purchased and also shared the link via Facebook or email.  That was so sweet of you kids, I couldn’t believe it.  I’m really excited about the biz and have already had a couple opportunities come my way.  Between invites to do a blog giveaway and the Pittsburgh Marathon Expo, I’m already dreaming ahead of myself.  So this week’s task is to make a Facebook page and start promoting.  In fact, if any of you guys have some promotional ideas, please let me know.

Aside from that, the wide velvet came in, so 1.5″ headbands are ready, as are solid colors.  It took all my will, and I mean ALL my will, not to go to the fabric store this weekend.  I had forgotten what a drug that is, all those gorgeous bolts of potential just begging you to take them home.  But I already have a crapload of materials, so I’ll wait a week…or 3 or 4 days anyway.

OK, that’s it for blather, I’m off for a 6 with 6×30/60 hillettes.  The weather is finally calming down this week so I can sleep and run later.  Woohoo!!  Have a good one, folks.

I had a good weekend of running, wrapping up a 61-mile week.

Due to some schedule switching, Saturday was an 11-miler with about 5.5 miles of tempo thrown in: 2x(15min@HP w/3min rec’s.), 10min@10K.   Yesterday, I had a 15-miler which I’m embarrassed to say around you marathon freaks, is my longest run since Boston!  I was looking forward to it for the distance and to take it to the trails so I could have that extra elevation/footing bonus.

The only hitch was that between the previous day’s tempo and 5½ hours of sleep, I was genuinely exhausted and certifiably dead-legged.   I really needed a recovery run instead of a long run, but I was stubborn about gettin ‘er done, so I took it reeeeeeaaaal slow.  Not that I had a choice.

The great thing was that even though I was too pooped to party, all my parts were working without complaint – not a twinge or niggle.  After 4 long months, the ankle problem is gone! And  I continue to do the hip exercises before every run – I can tell they’ll not only help with economy but ward off injuries as well, not to mention warming me up before I hit the road…so I’m loving them.

Speaking of Sleep
It’s getting better but still not great – July only had 3 nights of 8-hour sleep.  Also, I suspect that the one weekend where my HR dipped beautifully low was due to sleeping until my body woke on its own instead of my “beat the heat” alarm clock.  I’ll be thrilled when summer’s over and can sleep in regularly.

More Weight Stuff
The Racing Weight book has a lot of good stuff in it. One big change I’m making starting today, is how I time my caloric intake.

I’ve always been terrible about splitting my calories for the day.  I eat about half of them after 6pm (dinner and 2 snacks).  Dinner’s always been my “destination meal” and even though the snacks are healthy, I don’t need to be eating that much that late.  This is common wisdom we’ve all read enough times, but seeing his schedules of how to split it up percentage-wise made it clearer and looks sensible.

For those of you lapping up the weight talk, Jaymee (aka The fastest female runner I know) posted a great entry on the subject.  Also, on today’s entry she posts a sample day of what she eats which is cool to see.  I was actually shocked at the pro athletes’ sample menus in the Racing Weight book,  it looks like they eat hardly anything, whereas Jaymee’s intake looks more like what I’d expect a healthy athlete to eat.

Lastly, I’m anxiously awaiting UPS today – my fancy Tanita scale is scheduled for delivery, woohoo!!  Will let you know how I like it and what my reported weight and body fat are in the next post.

Runners Round Table This Wednesday
I’ll be on it again.   Joe’s hosting the episode about running in the heat.  I imagine we’re all pretty good at it by now, but I’m sure the conversation will be stellar and sparkling.  If you want to ask questions, listen to it live, otherwise, I’ll post it here afterwards.

Hair Bands That Stay On Your Head!
I ordered a headband from Sweaty Bands after a recommendation from a fellow forumite.   I’d stopped wearing hair bands because the Goody Stay-Puts were the only ones that would stay and even they required a clip behind each ear for stay-put peace of mind.

So I got it and, man…it works!!  It genuinely stays on your head.  It’s quite ingenious actually, what keeps it in place is (drumroll)….velvet.  The top part is regular woven ribbon from the notions counter, the lining is velvet ribbon and there’s just a small piece of 1/4″ elastic that goes under your head.

With shipping, the hair band was $20, but because I’m a frugal runner and handy with the sewing machine, I’m going to make a few for about $2.50 each.  I won’t give measurements since I feel kind of bad about giving away the company secret, but if you’re a crafty gal, buy one from the company and then make the next ones, like I’m doing (or not) .  Just remember if you get rayon velvet to wash it first so it doesn’t shrink when you wash it later.  Or if you’re lazy like me, get nylon velvet.

And that’s it for a chatty Monday.  Have a great coupla days, folks.  Later!

Wow.  I had an extremely boring post ready to go, then wouldn’t you know, something happened on my run to spice it up.  Just not in the good way.

The irony was I woke up feeling like a million bucks, my ankle has been great for the past few days thanks to going back to full-dosing on the Glucosamine and changing brands.  Suddenly, that dark cloud hanging over me since April was finally receding for real.

And yesterday I had the pleasure of running with a fellow blogger, MarathonMaiden, who was in Philly for job training.  She’s sweet as can be and it’s always a blast meeting someone you’ve come to know online, in the flesh.  We happened to run into each other in the park this morning, too, which put a huge smile on my face.

So I was feeling great for today’s tempo workout: 9 miles with 10 min@Half pace, 10min@15k pace, 10 min@10k pace, w/2 min. rec’s. between each.  Even though the weather was pure suckage (79 w/dewpoint 75), I felt confident about it and completed the first portion only 5 seconds over my “if the weather wasn’t pure suckage” pace, so 7:15/mi.  About halfway into the second portion is when it happened.

In the blink of a hamstring
I’ve heard the injury description “it felt like I’d been shot” , and while I’ve been held up by a gun-wielding man before, he didn’t actually use it, so I can’t say that’s how it felt.  And I imagine that if I was shot, I’d start crying and this didn’t make me cry, but damn, it was an instant shock of pain.  If we were to compare it to imagined weaponry, I’d say it felt like I got tasered.

That was the end of that tempo.  That was the end of that run.  It hurt too much to do anything but limp home, 4.25 miles.

I stopped once to feel along the leg and check for swelling, there wasn’t (and still isn’t yet) but while I ran my fingers over the area, I felt the taser again, so now I’m reticent to even touch it.  I’m not even familiar enough with where it is on my leg because I don’t want to feel that feeling again, but it’s somewhere above the crook of my knee.  Time for a Google injury hunt, woohoo…

So now it remains to be seen what damage has been done.  I’m sitting on my huge pillow-sized icepack while I write this.  This was a cutback week and tomorrow, thankfully, was a scheduled rest day anyway.  I’m just worried that this is a “real” injury.  If so, I’m screwed.  So I’m not going there mentally yet.  Ice and NSAIDS will be my BFFs for the next couple days and we’ll see what Sunday brings.  Definitely not a long run, that’s for sure.

Never a dull moment.

11am Edit: OK, feeling way better already.  I’m not limping one bit and it doesn’t hurt unless I stretch it by mistake.  Consider it a comma, not a full stop!

Here’s the podcast if you haven’t moseyed on over yet.  It was fun to do and the guys on the panel were way cool – an enjoyable time was had by all.  I don’t think we helped Joe decide whether to race the NYC marathon or just run it, which was probably the whole point of the podcast, but I think he’s getting closer to figuring it out.

Runs
Yesterday, a 13-miler.  I dawdled too long so it was hot by the time I got out, but that helped keep my pace easy @ 8:47 avg.

Today, Kick Ass.    An 8 miler w/3 tempo and whoa doggies, the speedwork is working! Compare my previous tempo run to today (note the temperature difference):

May 7, 66F:  7:11, 7:12, 7:09, average 7:11
Today, 75F: 7:05, 7:05, 6:58, average 7:02

And I suck in the heat!  The best part?  Both my interval and tempo this week are a hair’s breadth away (5 seconds) from where I was this time last year and that was my short-race prime.  Whew!

Now for the meat of the post…

Age Grading Explanation and Stuff
I initially became aware of age-grading when I got my first running book (and running bible), Bob Glover’s Competitive Runner’s Handbook.  In the first few pages, he has tables for what he calls “Basic Competitor” through “Semi-Elite” with ages and corresponding race times for each group.*

I drooled over the different tables and as I moved up from Basic to Advanced to Local Champion, it was exciting, but it wasn’t till I’d owned the book a couple years that I realized the numbers next to his categories were age-grade percentages, split up like this:

Basic Competitor (50%)
Competitor(60%)
Advanced Competitor(65%)
Local Champion(75%)
Semi-Elite (85%)

How Age-Grading Is Calculated:
They (World Masters Athletics) take the world record holder of each age and sex, call that 100%, then your race time is divided into that, giving you a percentage called your Age Grade.  So, taking an example from Running For Fitness, “the world record for a 53 year old woman running a 10km is 35:01. So if a 53 year old woman finishes a 10km in 45:18, she has an age-graded performance of 77.3% (which is 35:01 divided by 45:18).”

Bottom Line:
It’s tells you how high you rank in your age group and is often used for major track meet classifications.

This is the breakdown:
100% = Approximate World Record Level
Over 90% = World Class
Over 80% = National Class
Over 70% = Regional Class
Over 60% = Local Class

What This Means For Me:
Last year I came very close to 80% in several race distances and now I’m ready to get in there and sit my ass down.   So my goal from here on in, besides the standard time-based ones, is to enter “National Class” for all my race distances (sans Marathon) and then see how far I can move up.  I’d be lying if I didn’t admit Glover’s “Semi Elite” classification sounds pretty sweet to me.  Hell, even the phrase “National Class” makes me giggle.

Now here’s the cool thing…
I didn’t realize till last night that my 5K PR, which was 79.91% at age 47, is 80.86% at age 48…I’m in the door!  Kind of.  I mean, I have to redo it to count, but that’s in the cards and then some (sub 20 will be mine by Fall, gosh dern it!)

Which brings me to my upcoming 5K.  To get 80%, I need 20:38, which looks doable (if the temps are good).  If not this race, I’ll get another chance 2 weeks later.   So there you have it: a race goal, thanks to the goodness of Age-Grading.

*It should be noted that in my version of the book, Glover’s tables are outdated, which might have been fixed in a newer edition.  There are two sets of age-graded numbers floating around the interwebs: 1994 and 2006 factors.  The latter is most current and happily, more generous, so if you see conflicting numbers between online age-grading calculators, the slower one is using the older, outdated world records.

I’m enjoying my runs more than ever lately – without a huge scary race to worry about, the fun factor has gone up 10-fold.  In fact, I’m not taking a rest day this week so it looks like I’ll be around 65 miles by Sunday.  This is unexpected (was planning on keeping it mid-50s) but I’ll ride the wave and just keep doing what feels good.   Hell, I even considered doing a double the other day but gathered my wits about me to nip that one in the bud.

Monday was 7.5 easy, Tues 10.5 and Wednesday was my first speed session in a while (8 x .25mi with 1 minute recoveries, aiming for 6:35 pace).  It was a toasty 75 degrees and I’ve been out of the speed loop so I expected a rocky start…it was.  My first interval was a lethargic 6:56 pace but each one got progressively faster till my last one @ 6:16 pace.  The only reason I did that one so fast was a cute guy passed me earlier and I felt compelled to pass him back. Total for the run, 8.75 mi.

Yeah, it was some terribly erratic pacing but I’m just getting my feet back in the game, next week will surely be steadier.  I feel really good about the session – it’s the complete opposite of my first speedwork after the Philly Marathon when I went from bad to worse and had to abandon the workout entirely.

Yesterday was 9 easy and today was a tempo run.  I had planned on 7mi w/3 tempo but there was a huge regatta in the park, university rowers everywhere, so I couldn’t start my tempo till a couple miles beyond my usual start point so it ended up being 9 w/3 tempo.   The tempo miles were a tad slower than I wanted but I was doing some dodging and it was hot for me (near 70) so they went 7:11, 7:12 and 7:09, average 7:11.  Average for the entire run was 8:01.

Again, very satisfied with the session despite not hitting my intended pace target – like I say, it’s one more coin in the speed bank and every coin counts.  Also, the weekly recipe of 1 speed, 1 tempo, a medium long run and a long run is my favorite.  When I’m able to get all 4 in, I know I’m doing the best I can for myself.

Now, about Saturday’s group run and that vow…  The weather report says there’s a 50% chance of thunderstorms but it’s supposed to clear off by the afternoon.  So please don’t hold it against me if it’s thunderstorming and I don’t go clubbing tomorrow.  I’m genuinely excited about getting involved now so it won’t be because I’m trying to weasel out of it, I just want my intro run with them to include zero chance of electrocution.