Hi everyone!
Wow, I didn't realize it's been over a year since I updated this blog. A lot has happened since the last post, and to be honest I was pretty much going to let this blog die until I met quite a few people lately that mentioned they used to follow my blog. (as well as occasionally getting nagged by close friends who aren't on most social media platforms who would like to know what I am up to, but apparently don't want to pick up the phone to just call/text me:)) I can't promise frequent updates, but I'll try to post some race/trip reports that are hopefully entertaining as well as share some of my training insights for those that are interested.
A quick update on what has happened in the last 14 months - with probably more details to come.
1. U.S. Olympic Trials Qualifying Quest - Well, the chase ended with a few disastrous and unsuccessful attempts. I had finished up my summer training cycle with 10 solid weeks of training while averaging 130 miles per week. However, when I took my first shot at the sub-65 standard in Rock n' Roll San Jose Half the race day conditions were just slightly on the warm and humid side. If I ran smart and listened to my body I might have been able to squeak under 66 minutes for a small PR, but that wasn't the purpose of the race. I was on pace for about 4-5 miles before the conditions got to me and I ended up cruising in to save myself for another attempt in a couple of weeks. 2 weeks later I took another shot at the Middle Half in Tennessee but almost didn't make it to the race due to an iOs update to my phone somehow turning off my alarm and again bailed on my attempt at about halfway. 4 weeks later, I ran the Monumental Half and again fell off at halfway. It was weird, I had somehow lost a couple of steps since I put together some really solid workouts in August so I saw a doctor and it turned out I had been running with a sinus infection for the last few weeks, go figure. The doctor prescribed me a first round of antibiotics and I was able to run get in a really solid tempo run. Then, apparently the first round of antibiotics didn't do the trick and my infection came back with a vengeance, so I took a second round of much stronger antibiotics that knocked me flat on my butt for the next week or so.
By the time I was able to resume training again and attempt some semblance of workouts, it was 6 weeks before the qualifying window would close for the trials. One of my good friends talked me into switching paths and going for the sub-2:19 full marathon standard. I went through a quick 6 week cycle and gave it a go in Houston. I thought I was in shape but it just wasn't my day - but at least I would get to take a break for awhile, or so I thought...
2. Birth of a new dream & A Link to the Past - During my quest for an OTQ, I started uploading my training to Strava, and met a few runners through the site. One of them turned out to be a Taiwanese student studying in the U.S, and after a couple of message exchanges I found out that I may have an opportunity to try to qualify for Taiwan's Olympic marathon team since I was born there. I ran 3 marathons in the next 6 months, running a small PR (2:21:52) in my first attempt on a windy day in Hamburg, and came within 20 seconds of qualifying via finishing top 10 in an IAAF Gold Label race at the Ottawa Marathon a few weeks later, but ultimately it was not meant to be.
3. Looking Ahead - I had always planned on training and racing through at least 2020 to see how much faster I can become, because I just never felt like I had fulfilled my full potential as a runner yet. However, with the knowledge that I have an opportunity to race internationally and qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, I definitely feel just a bit more motivated to head out the door and get my training runs. Currently, I am attempting to qualify for the 2017 World Championships next August in London, which also requires the sub-2:19 standard. I took my first shot at it yesterday in the Chicago marathon and ran 2:21:02 on a somewhat windy day. My next attempt on that standard will come in the Houston marathon in 3 months.
There you go, that's the cliff note version on the last 14 months. I'll try to post a race/trip report from this past weekend's Chicago Marathon within the next couple of days. (Although knowing me, it may turn into a couple of weeks or couple of months).
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Monday, August 31, 2015
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Weeks 6 and 7 - 132 and 140 miles
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 6 - 132 miles
Quality Session1: 3x2 mile repeats with 2 minutes rest - I am ready
Following a week where I had a breakthrough mile repeats workout midweek followed by a couple of decent quality sessions over the weekend, I was feeling a little tired. The plan this week was to take 4-5 easy days and then resume workouts. However, by Tuesday I started feeling the "pop" back in my legs again so I met myself halfway on the revised schedule and decided to do a workout Thursday. I took a second shot at the 3x2 mile repeats workout I didn't finish last Saturday.
What a difference a few easy days make! Last Saturday I decided to bail on the workout after a 9:59.8 and 9:55.6 because I felt like I was running too hard by the end of the 2nd repeat. This time I started super conservative with a 5:01 first lap followed by a 4:56 for a 9:57.74 first rep. I kept up the same effort throughout the second rep and ran 9:54.96 with a couple of 4:57s. After another quick 2-minute rest I was full of run and came through the first lap in 4:56-high, I gradually dialed up the pace and ran as hard I could while keeping it comfortable, finishing off the workout with a 9:52.67. Overall summary - 3x2 "MVP Miles" with 2 min rest - 9:57.74, 9:54.96, 9:52.67 -> 9:55.12 (Average = 4:57.56/lap)
This workout projects to a HM of 65:00.8 based on the 4:57.56 pace. I am there! I was so excited I think I even made my first "workout" post on facebook in years.
Quality Session 2: Sunday 20-miler with Kenny Foster
This was more of a moderate / long aerobic stimulus. We started out pretty easy but was in the 6:30s by mile 3. Around mile 12 we started a progression and ran in the 5:40-5:50 range for the next 4 miles before dialing it back a little. 20 @ 6:30
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 7 - 140 miles
Quality Session1: 20x400s, 5x200s.
On Wednesday Kenny and I met up for another session on the track. The original workout plan was 25x400s with 1 min rest, and taking a full lap jog in 2-2:30 after every 5th 400. However, it was a little humid out and my right IT band felt like it was at the very beginning stages of tightening up by the 15th, so I told Kenny that I was going to do 5 more to see if my IT band got worse but probably stop at 20 either way.
I ended up doing all 20 between 70.97 and 69.10 and averaged 69.83. Also, since the IT Band didn't feel too bad we ran 5 more 200s with a 200 jog. I managed to run these in 32-34 and felt pretty good.
Quality Session 2: 20 mile long run with 10 @ MP+3-5% and 5 @ LT
On Sunday, Kenny, Jason, and I went up to Denver to run the Rocky Mountain Road Runner Marathon training series. This is a small low key race on the Platte River bikepath where the runners are offered a 10 mile and 20 mile option. You run out for 5 miles and back to the start/finish line for 10 miles. and then repeat again if you are doing 20. The plan was to run 10 miles @ 5:40-5:45 with Jason for his marathon pace tempo, and then Kenny and I would start progressing down from 5:30 pace and hopefully close around 5:10-5:15 at the end. We ended up going:
5:42.63, 5:41.98, 5:39.70, 5:40.19, 5:42.98
5:40.56, 5:42.82, 5:41.72, 5:37.08, 5:26.24
Jason picked it up a bit on the last mile of his workout and I went with him, I then waited a little bit for Kenny to catch up and we both took a pit break that was a little under a minute. Then we got going again, but apparently we both were a little anxious to dial down the pace and got out a bit quick.
5:15.08, 5:12.84, 5:13.16, 5:16.92, 5:19.05
I was really cruising along and pulled away from Kenny about 2 miles into the 5 mile tempo and was really feeling awesome, but with 2 miles to go my legs apparently remembered they were at the end of a 140 mile week. I tried to keep the effort controlled and relax my form without killing myself, and was able to hold it together some what the last 2 miles. Then, Kenny and I then cooled down the last 5 miles and finished the 20-miler in around 1:58:30. Not a bad day of work. Summary: 10 @ 5:39.59, 1min break, 5 @ 5:15.41.
Total average for 15 = 5:31.53. (Total for 20 = 5:50-5:55 depending on whether one counts the break, and whether one includes the extra bit of jogging/backtracking I did here and there to get my watch to read 20.1 miles at the end of the run).
This was another huge confidence boost. I was hoping to run 5:20 average for my progression after running 5:40-5:45s, but not only did we help Jason exceed the fast end of his goal for his workout, but I also averaged almost 5 seconds/mi faster than I expected for the next 5 miles. The 5 mile tempo @ 5:15 was a run that I could barely handle a few months ago as a stand alone workout on my treadmill, now I did it on a bikepath with some mild rolling terrain and hills after running slightly slower than marathon pace effort for 10 miles first. My overall average of 5:31.5 @ 5200 feet elevation also converts to sub-5:20 pace at sea level, which makes me kind of wonder what I can run for a marathon right now, hopefully I find out next February in LA!
Quality Session1: 3x2 mile repeats with 2 minutes rest - I am ready
Following a week where I had a breakthrough mile repeats workout midweek followed by a couple of decent quality sessions over the weekend, I was feeling a little tired. The plan this week was to take 4-5 easy days and then resume workouts. However, by Tuesday I started feeling the "pop" back in my legs again so I met myself halfway on the revised schedule and decided to do a workout Thursday. I took a second shot at the 3x2 mile repeats workout I didn't finish last Saturday.
What a difference a few easy days make! Last Saturday I decided to bail on the workout after a 9:59.8 and 9:55.6 because I felt like I was running too hard by the end of the 2nd repeat. This time I started super conservative with a 5:01 first lap followed by a 4:56 for a 9:57.74 first rep. I kept up the same effort throughout the second rep and ran 9:54.96 with a couple of 4:57s. After another quick 2-minute rest I was full of run and came through the first lap in 4:56-high, I gradually dialed up the pace and ran as hard I could while keeping it comfortable, finishing off the workout with a 9:52.67. Overall summary - 3x2 "MVP Miles" with 2 min rest - 9:57.74, 9:54.96, 9:52.67 -> 9:55.12 (Average = 4:57.56/lap)
This workout projects to a HM of 65:00.8 based on the 4:57.56 pace. I am there! I was so excited I think I even made my first "workout" post on facebook in years.
Quality Session 2: Sunday 20-miler with Kenny Foster
This was more of a moderate / long aerobic stimulus. We started out pretty easy but was in the 6:30s by mile 3. Around mile 12 we started a progression and ran in the 5:40-5:50 range for the next 4 miles before dialing it back a little. 20 @ 6:30
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 7 - 140 miles
Quality Session1: 20x400s, 5x200s.
On Wednesday Kenny and I met up for another session on the track. The original workout plan was 25x400s with 1 min rest, and taking a full lap jog in 2-2:30 after every 5th 400. However, it was a little humid out and my right IT band felt like it was at the very beginning stages of tightening up by the 15th, so I told Kenny that I was going to do 5 more to see if my IT band got worse but probably stop at 20 either way.
I ended up doing all 20 between 70.97 and 69.10 and averaged 69.83. Also, since the IT Band didn't feel too bad we ran 5 more 200s with a 200 jog. I managed to run these in 32-34 and felt pretty good.
Quality Session 2: 20 mile long run with 10 @ MP+3-5% and 5 @ LT
On Sunday, Kenny, Jason, and I went up to Denver to run the Rocky Mountain Road Runner Marathon training series. This is a small low key race on the Platte River bikepath where the runners are offered a 10 mile and 20 mile option. You run out for 5 miles and back to the start/finish line for 10 miles. and then repeat again if you are doing 20. The plan was to run 10 miles @ 5:40-5:45 with Jason for his marathon pace tempo, and then Kenny and I would start progressing down from 5:30 pace and hopefully close around 5:10-5:15 at the end. We ended up going:
5:42.63, 5:41.98, 5:39.70, 5:40.19, 5:42.98
5:40.56, 5:42.82, 5:41.72, 5:37.08, 5:26.24
Jason picked it up a bit on the last mile of his workout and I went with him, I then waited a little bit for Kenny to catch up and we both took a pit break that was a little under a minute. Then we got going again, but apparently we both were a little anxious to dial down the pace and got out a bit quick.
5:15.08, 5:12.84, 5:13.16, 5:16.92, 5:19.05
I was really cruising along and pulled away from Kenny about 2 miles into the 5 mile tempo and was really feeling awesome, but with 2 miles to go my legs apparently remembered they were at the end of a 140 mile week. I tried to keep the effort controlled and relax my form without killing myself, and was able to hold it together some what the last 2 miles. Then, Kenny and I then cooled down the last 5 miles and finished the 20-miler in around 1:58:30. Not a bad day of work. Summary: 10 @ 5:39.59, 1min break, 5 @ 5:15.41.
Total average for 15 = 5:31.53. (Total for 20 = 5:50-5:55 depending on whether one counts the break, and whether one includes the extra bit of jogging/backtracking I did here and there to get my watch to read 20.1 miles at the end of the run).
This was another huge confidence boost. I was hoping to run 5:20 average for my progression after running 5:40-5:45s, but not only did we help Jason exceed the fast end of his goal for his workout, but I also averaged almost 5 seconds/mi faster than I expected for the next 5 miles. The 5 mile tempo @ 5:15 was a run that I could barely handle a few months ago as a stand alone workout on my treadmill, now I did it on a bikepath with some mild rolling terrain and hills after running slightly slower than marathon pace effort for 10 miles first. My overall average of 5:31.5 @ 5200 feet elevation also converts to sub-5:20 pace at sea level, which makes me kind of wonder what I can run for a marathon right now, hopefully I find out next February in LA!
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 5 - 131 miles
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 5 - 132 miles
Quality Session1: The Mile Repeats Heard Around The World -
On Wednesday morning, I attempted another "mile repeats" session at MVP. This would be the 3rd time I have done this workout in the last 2 months. A quick summary of the last 2 sessions is below:
6/3 - 4:53, 4:53, 4:52, 4:52, 4:50. (Avg = 4:52.56 with 2:39 average rest)
7/22 - 4:50, 4:50, 4:52, 4:56, 4:48 (Avg = 4:51.42 with 2:31 average rest)
Today the goal was to shoot for doing 6, with an average rest of 2:15 and hopefully averaging 4:51 like last time. As I headed out with the intent of doing 6, I eased into the workout but started hammering a bit too early and once again I had to stop at 5. However, I made the decision to stop at 5 after my 4th repeat, and therefore unconsciously tapped into my "high school last repeat" mentality. Splits below:
4:55.31
4:51.65
4:48.69
4:47.83
4:43.84
(Average = 4:49.47, with average rest 2:13)
Needless to say I was psyched. I have brought down my averages for the mile repeats by a little over 3s/"mile" since before the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon while reducing my recovery by around 26s. This is definitely a huge breakthrough workout and tells me that I am at least in 65:15-65:20 shape, maybe even faster if I get perfect weather. Either way, things are looking good with over 6 weeks to go until Rock n Roll San Jose!
Quality Sesson 2: Failed 3x2mi workout.
What can I say, it seems like training has been going well lately and I was due for a subpar workout. Although I am not even too upset at this. I attempted a 3x2 "mile" workout at MVP 3 days after my breakthrough mile repeats performance and the combination of being slightly under-recovered as well as the warm weather (mid 60s at the start and possibly into the 70s by the end of the workout) caused me to bail early. Even then, it wasn't so bad. I ran 9:59.8 (4:59.9, 4:58.9) and 9:55.6 (4:56, 4:58) with a little under 2 minutes rest. I think I might have had another 10:05-10:10 in me, but if you are one of the handful of people reading this blog you already know that I just don't believe in going into the well like that at the end of a workout. Plus I knew I had a potentially tough long run the next day.
Quality Session 3: Moderate/Quick Long Run
Name drop time. I agreed to do a long run with Kenny Foster this weekend and invited Jason along for at least the first 10-15 miles. (Kenny's plan was to progress the last 4-5 miles and get down to the 5:30s-5:40s, I was going to try to keep him company for at least 15 miles until he started doing that). On Saturday night I sent a message out to some of the local runners that Kenny thought we should invite, and by Sunday morning when we got to the meeting spot we found Pat Rizzo, Carlos Trujillo, and Tommy Neal waiting for us. We ran our first mile in a little over 7 minutes and never saw another mile above 6:30 after that. There was a moment of confusion at 10 miles when the group turned around early and I didn't have enough time to explain I didn't want to do a 3rd out-and-back by the time we hit our meeting spot (we had done the first 5 miles as an out-and-back and then headed out for 5 miles in the other direction). I dropped a 5:46 11th mile and then saw Jason who was cruising along (he wisely dropped off the pace around 6-7 miles). The short story is I basically ran 62 minutes for 10 miles after the 7:0x opening mile and then cruised in until I hit 16 and averaged about 45-60s/mi faster than I usually for a long run. Felt solid but definitely pooped. Later that day I did a 4-mile shakeout run (instead of 6) for the first time in months.
Quality Session1: The Mile Repeats Heard Around The World -
On Wednesday morning, I attempted another "mile repeats" session at MVP. This would be the 3rd time I have done this workout in the last 2 months. A quick summary of the last 2 sessions is below:
6/3 - 4:53, 4:53, 4:52, 4:52, 4:50. (Avg = 4:52.56 with 2:39 average rest)
7/22 - 4:50, 4:50, 4:52, 4:56, 4:48 (Avg = 4:51.42 with 2:31 average rest)
Today the goal was to shoot for doing 6, with an average rest of 2:15 and hopefully averaging 4:51 like last time. As I headed out with the intent of doing 6, I eased into the workout but started hammering a bit too early and once again I had to stop at 5. However, I made the decision to stop at 5 after my 4th repeat, and therefore unconsciously tapped into my "high school last repeat" mentality. Splits below:
4:55.31
4:51.65
4:48.69
4:47.83
4:43.84
(Average = 4:49.47, with average rest 2:13)
Needless to say I was psyched. I have brought down my averages for the mile repeats by a little over 3s/"mile" since before the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon while reducing my recovery by around 26s. This is definitely a huge breakthrough workout and tells me that I am at least in 65:15-65:20 shape, maybe even faster if I get perfect weather. Either way, things are looking good with over 6 weeks to go until Rock n Roll San Jose!
Quality Sesson 2: Failed 3x2mi workout.
What can I say, it seems like training has been going well lately and I was due for a subpar workout. Although I am not even too upset at this. I attempted a 3x2 "mile" workout at MVP 3 days after my breakthrough mile repeats performance and the combination of being slightly under-recovered as well as the warm weather (mid 60s at the start and possibly into the 70s by the end of the workout) caused me to bail early. Even then, it wasn't so bad. I ran 9:59.8 (4:59.9, 4:58.9) and 9:55.6 (4:56, 4:58) with a little under 2 minutes rest. I think I might have had another 10:05-10:10 in me, but if you are one of the handful of people reading this blog you already know that I just don't believe in going into the well like that at the end of a workout. Plus I knew I had a potentially tough long run the next day.
Quality Session 3: Moderate/Quick Long Run
Name drop time. I agreed to do a long run with Kenny Foster this weekend and invited Jason along for at least the first 10-15 miles. (Kenny's plan was to progress the last 4-5 miles and get down to the 5:30s-5:40s, I was going to try to keep him company for at least 15 miles until he started doing that). On Saturday night I sent a message out to some of the local runners that Kenny thought we should invite, and by Sunday morning when we got to the meeting spot we found Pat Rizzo, Carlos Trujillo, and Tommy Neal waiting for us. We ran our first mile in a little over 7 minutes and never saw another mile above 6:30 after that. There was a moment of confusion at 10 miles when the group turned around early and I didn't have enough time to explain I didn't want to do a 3rd out-and-back by the time we hit our meeting spot (we had done the first 5 miles as an out-and-back and then headed out for 5 miles in the other direction). I dropped a 5:46 11th mile and then saw Jason who was cruising along (he wisely dropped off the pace around 6-7 miles). The short story is I basically ran 62 minutes for 10 miles after the 7:0x opening mile and then cruised in until I hit 16 and averaged about 45-60s/mi faster than I usually for a long run. Felt solid but definitely pooped. Later that day I did a 4-mile shakeout run (instead of 6) for the first time in months.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
"Chasing the Standard" Fall Training Cycle - Weeks 1-4 of 18
As I mentioned in my last post, the main goal of my current cycle is the sub-65 half-marathon standard required to qualify for next February's Olympic Marathon Trials. My first 4 weeks have gone surprisingly close to script with a little bit more mileage than planned, but I am feeling good so far.
Right after the Garry Bjorklund half-marathon I took some "down time" and ran mostly easy miles for the next 3 weeks with some unplanned farleks/pickups thrown into my runs here and there. The 3 weeks right after the race were 102, 102, and 120. I was also an idiot and ran a downhill half marathon a week after Garry Bjorklund that started at around 10,5000 feet and dropped 2000+ feet. I walked (or limped?) away with the W, but the damage definitely stayed in my legs for the next 3-4 days. Then, about 10 days after the Garry Bjorklund Half, Maureen and I left for a 9-day Caribbean cruise. We did a lot of the excursions available, but with so much time at sea while traveling between ports I was able to put in about 159 miles in 16 runs during our 9 days on the ship, with all except 5 miles of this done on the treadmills in the gym, Most of the runs were steady/easy effort, but occasionally I got bored and would throw in 2-5 minute pickups here and there at tempo/MP effort. I came back from the trip feeling recharged and ready to start my training cycle.
Without further ado, below is what I have been up to since the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon.
Active Recovery Week 1 - 102 miles.
Quality Session: Slacker Half Marathon - 1:10:21 (1st place)
Active Recovery Week 2 - 102 miles
Active Recovery Week 3 - 120 miles
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 1 - 133 miles
Quality Session 1: 25x400s with 60s rest. I got carried away early on and had to take 3 min rest after the 20th (jogged 500 meters) and ended up averaging 70.59 for the 400s with an average rest of a little under 63 seconds. This still compared favorably with the last time I did this session in early May where I averaged about 0.2s/400 slower for 20 repeats.
Quality Session 2: Lake Atwood 10-miler in 53:24. This was a nice money grab with Kenny Foster and Robby Young, unfortunately some Boulder guys and Kenyans showed up so we didn't make as much money as we were hoping for, but I still ran a solid progression in some pretty humid weather. I went out in about 5:25-5:30 and worked my way down, came through halfway in 27 flat or so and slowly grinded the pace down into the 5:17-5:18 range til the finish.
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 2 - 131 miles
Quality Session 1: 5x1 "mile" at MVP. I think my sense of pace/effort was still rusty after the weeks off even though my fitness has apparently progressed a bit. I ended up going 4:50, 4:50, 4:52, 4:56, 4:48 with 2:30 rest in between. Last time I did this workout was 2.5 weeks before the Garry Bjorklund Half, comparing the two efforts I averaged about 1s/mi faster than last time while taking about 15s less rest on average for recovery. I just wish I had started a bit more controlled and didn't "bonk" a little on the 4th one.
Quality Session 2: I set out to do 3x2 "miles" at MVP, and again had to alter the workout slightly. I made it through the first 2 2-mile repeats feeling okay but taking 2-minute recovery instead of 2:30-3 minutes like I usually do with the workout was a bit tougher than expected. I wanted to come through the first lap of the last rep relaxed before picking it up, but when I looked down and saw I had run a 5:06 I temporarily lost it mentally and decided on the spot to take a 2-minute rest. I then came back with a 4:55 for my last "mile". Workout ended up being 10:02, 10:03, 5:06, 4:55 with 2 minutes between everything.
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 3 - 121 miles
Quality Session1: 10x800s with 2:23.54 average. The last comparable effort was 12x800s @ 2:24.97 back in February before the Phoenix half. I had 2 minutes average rest both times, but felt that the conditions for this workout was slightly worse due to it being a bit warm/humid, but not by much. Splits were 2:25.7, 2:23.9, 2:23.9, 2:22.2, 2:21.5, 2:23.7, 2:23.2, 2:24.2, 2:24.5, 2:23.0. Again, I started rolling a little bit too early into the workout and had to hang on for a bit before closing somewhat decently at the end.
Quality Session 2: Nielsen 2-mile (9:58!) followed by 6x(2min on, 3 min off) about 15 minutes later. The original plan was to run the Evergreen Town Race, which is a fast downhill 10K but it starts around 8600 feet and there was apparently no prize money this year. I don't mind the lack of prize money, but it pretty much guarantees lack of competition as well so instead of paying for a race and driving 2 hours both ways I just stayed home and took a crack at the Nielsen. I was pretty much solo after 600 meters and cruised a bit from 1-1.5 miles, which was the toughest 1/2 mile segment of the course but I was able to come back and close hard the last half mile to become the 9th runner to dip under 10 minutes on this course. I averaged around 4:54-4:55 pace for the 2-minute pickups so I was happy with this.
Quality Session 3: I rarely run 3 quality session a week nowadays, but since Jason has been helping me out on the 400s/800s the past couple of weeks and I ran a relatively short workout yesterday I ran his marathon pace workout with him. 2x4 miles with about 2:30 rest and we hit 5:45 pace on the nose. This felt comfortably fast to me, I would estimate this to be about 95% of MP effort right now.
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 4 - 130 miles
Quality Session1: This was supposed to be a down week with one long quality effort scheduled for the end of the week. However, I called an audible midweek and decided to try to do a midweek downhill tempo to get my legs for the my downhill half-marathon this weekend. I warmed up 3 miles up a route with some climbs and planned to do a 10K tempo at somewhere between HMP and MP effort. I came through 3 miles in 15:32 after approximately 330 feet of elevation loss according to Strava. Shortly before I hit the 4 mile mark I hit a substantial uphill that killed my momentum and I ended up running a 5:29. I temporarily pulled the plug on the workout, but then after a half mile "float" at around 6:16 pace I threw down a 4:58 mile. (Yes, I'll confess to doing this on a 1-mile Strava segment to get the CR :)) I did another 85-90s float and then closed out the workout with another half mile at about tempo effort. Summary of workout 4 mile in 21:01 (5:08, 5:13, 5:10, 5:29), 0.5mi float @ 6:16, 1 mile in 4:58, 85s @ 6:44, 2:39 for 0.5mi. (Total = 33:30 10K)
Quality Sesson 2: Georgetown to Idaho Springs HM - 69:41 (1st). Going into this race I had two goals, win and run sub-70:21 (beat my time from the Slackers half). I feel like this is a slightly slower course than Slackers with about 1000 feet of elevation loss at slightly lower altitude. My plan was to run 5:25-5:30 for the first 4 miles or so where the course seemed to be flatter and start picking it up to the 5:15-5:20 range for the second half of the race. Although if somebody faster showed up I felt like I was ready to run 5:15s or even 5:10s to try to win. Luckily, the gun went off and I was pretty much alone after the first 2-3 steps so I could focus on doing my "workout". Below is the data:
1. 5:25 (+10 ft)
2. 5:25 (-9 ft)
3. 5:15 (-80 ft)
4. 5:13 (-60 ft)
5. 5:24 (-22 ft)
6. 5:14 (-135 ft)
7. 5:19 (-80 ft)
8. 5:27 (-88 ft) <- this mile was mostly dirt trails and not very even at all, so I backed off a little so as not go kill myself
9. 5:17 (-109 ft)
10. 5:16 (-96 ft)
11. 5:20 (-69 ft)
12. 5:10 (-73 ft)
13. 5:12 (-68 ft)
0.13. 36s (4:42/mi)
Most of the effort felt like it was right in between marathon pace and true half-marathon effort, although with all the miles in my legs I honestly didn't know if I could run much faster if I had to. Although around mile 11 I started feeling pretty good and closed the race with my fastest two miles despite the fact that course was starting to level off a bit. Given that the course has about 400-500 less feet of elevation loss than the Tucson Half (where I ran 68:04 last December) and the average elevation for the race is about 4000-5000 feet higher (worth about 10s/mi in my book) this was definitely a much better "half-marathon race/tempo" than I did last December in Tucson, possibly by 60-90s. Either way, training is going well and I am really looking forward to the next 7 weeks before I take my first shot at the sub-65 standard.
Right after the Garry Bjorklund half-marathon I took some "down time" and ran mostly easy miles for the next 3 weeks with some unplanned farleks/pickups thrown into my runs here and there. The 3 weeks right after the race were 102, 102, and 120. I was also an idiot and ran a downhill half marathon a week after Garry Bjorklund that started at around 10,5000 feet and dropped 2000+ feet. I walked (or limped?) away with the W, but the damage definitely stayed in my legs for the next 3-4 days. Then, about 10 days after the Garry Bjorklund Half, Maureen and I left for a 9-day Caribbean cruise. We did a lot of the excursions available, but with so much time at sea while traveling between ports I was able to put in about 159 miles in 16 runs during our 9 days on the ship, with all except 5 miles of this done on the treadmills in the gym, Most of the runs were steady/easy effort, but occasionally I got bored and would throw in 2-5 minute pickups here and there at tempo/MP effort. I came back from the trip feeling recharged and ready to start my training cycle.
Without further ado, below is what I have been up to since the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon.
Active Recovery Week 1 - 102 miles.
Quality Session: Slacker Half Marathon - 1:10:21 (1st place)
Active Recovery Week 2 - 102 miles
Active Recovery Week 3 - 120 miles
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 1 - 133 miles
Quality Session 1: 25x400s with 60s rest. I got carried away early on and had to take 3 min rest after the 20th (jogged 500 meters) and ended up averaging 70.59 for the 400s with an average rest of a little under 63 seconds. This still compared favorably with the last time I did this session in early May where I averaged about 0.2s/400 slower for 20 repeats.
Quality Session 2: Lake Atwood 10-miler in 53:24. This was a nice money grab with Kenny Foster and Robby Young, unfortunately some Boulder guys and Kenyans showed up so we didn't make as much money as we were hoping for, but I still ran a solid progression in some pretty humid weather. I went out in about 5:25-5:30 and worked my way down, came through halfway in 27 flat or so and slowly grinded the pace down into the 5:17-5:18 range til the finish.
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 2 - 131 miles
Quality Session 1: 5x1 "mile" at MVP. I think my sense of pace/effort was still rusty after the weeks off even though my fitness has apparently progressed a bit. I ended up going 4:50, 4:50, 4:52, 4:56, 4:48 with 2:30 rest in between. Last time I did this workout was 2.5 weeks before the Garry Bjorklund Half, comparing the two efforts I averaged about 1s/mi faster than last time while taking about 15s less rest on average for recovery. I just wish I had started a bit more controlled and didn't "bonk" a little on the 4th one.
Quality Session 2: I set out to do 3x2 "miles" at MVP, and again had to alter the workout slightly. I made it through the first 2 2-mile repeats feeling okay but taking 2-minute recovery instead of 2:30-3 minutes like I usually do with the workout was a bit tougher than expected. I wanted to come through the first lap of the last rep relaxed before picking it up, but when I looked down and saw I had run a 5:06 I temporarily lost it mentally and decided on the spot to take a 2-minute rest. I then came back with a 4:55 for my last "mile". Workout ended up being 10:02, 10:03, 5:06, 4:55 with 2 minutes between everything.
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 3 - 121 miles
Quality Session1: 10x800s with 2:23.54 average. The last comparable effort was 12x800s @ 2:24.97 back in February before the Phoenix half. I had 2 minutes average rest both times, but felt that the conditions for this workout was slightly worse due to it being a bit warm/humid, but not by much. Splits were 2:25.7, 2:23.9, 2:23.9, 2:22.2, 2:21.5, 2:23.7, 2:23.2, 2:24.2, 2:24.5, 2:23.0. Again, I started rolling a little bit too early into the workout and had to hang on for a bit before closing somewhat decently at the end.
Quality Session 2: Nielsen 2-mile (9:58!) followed by 6x(2min on, 3 min off) about 15 minutes later. The original plan was to run the Evergreen Town Race, which is a fast downhill 10K but it starts around 8600 feet and there was apparently no prize money this year. I don't mind the lack of prize money, but it pretty much guarantees lack of competition as well so instead of paying for a race and driving 2 hours both ways I just stayed home and took a crack at the Nielsen. I was pretty much solo after 600 meters and cruised a bit from 1-1.5 miles, which was the toughest 1/2 mile segment of the course but I was able to come back and close hard the last half mile to become the 9th runner to dip under 10 minutes on this course. I averaged around 4:54-4:55 pace for the 2-minute pickups so I was happy with this.
Quality Session 3: I rarely run 3 quality session a week nowadays, but since Jason has been helping me out on the 400s/800s the past couple of weeks and I ran a relatively short workout yesterday I ran his marathon pace workout with him. 2x4 miles with about 2:30 rest and we hit 5:45 pace on the nose. This felt comfortably fast to me, I would estimate this to be about 95% of MP effort right now.
"Chasing Sub 65" Cycle Week 4 - 130 miles
Quality Session1: This was supposed to be a down week with one long quality effort scheduled for the end of the week. However, I called an audible midweek and decided to try to do a midweek downhill tempo to get my legs for the my downhill half-marathon this weekend. I warmed up 3 miles up a route with some climbs and planned to do a 10K tempo at somewhere between HMP and MP effort. I came through 3 miles in 15:32 after approximately 330 feet of elevation loss according to Strava. Shortly before I hit the 4 mile mark I hit a substantial uphill that killed my momentum and I ended up running a 5:29. I temporarily pulled the plug on the workout, but then after a half mile "float" at around 6:16 pace I threw down a 4:58 mile. (Yes, I'll confess to doing this on a 1-mile Strava segment to get the CR :)) I did another 85-90s float and then closed out the workout with another half mile at about tempo effort. Summary of workout 4 mile in 21:01 (5:08, 5:13, 5:10, 5:29), 0.5mi float @ 6:16, 1 mile in 4:58, 85s @ 6:44, 2:39 for 0.5mi. (Total = 33:30 10K)
Quality Sesson 2: Georgetown to Idaho Springs HM - 69:41 (1st). Going into this race I had two goals, win and run sub-70:21 (beat my time from the Slackers half). I feel like this is a slightly slower course than Slackers with about 1000 feet of elevation loss at slightly lower altitude. My plan was to run 5:25-5:30 for the first 4 miles or so where the course seemed to be flatter and start picking it up to the 5:15-5:20 range for the second half of the race. Although if somebody faster showed up I felt like I was ready to run 5:15s or even 5:10s to try to win. Luckily, the gun went off and I was pretty much alone after the first 2-3 steps so I could focus on doing my "workout". Below is the data:
1. 5:25 (+10 ft)
2. 5:25 (-9 ft)
3. 5:15 (-80 ft)
4. 5:13 (-60 ft)
5. 5:24 (-22 ft)
6. 5:14 (-135 ft)
7. 5:19 (-80 ft)
8. 5:27 (-88 ft) <- this mile was mostly dirt trails and not very even at all, so I backed off a little so as not go kill myself
9. 5:17 (-109 ft)
10. 5:16 (-96 ft)
11. 5:20 (-69 ft)
12. 5:10 (-73 ft)
13. 5:12 (-68 ft)
0.13. 36s (4:42/mi)
Most of the effort felt like it was right in between marathon pace and true half-marathon effort, although with all the miles in my legs I honestly didn't know if I could run much faster if I had to. Although around mile 11 I started feeling pretty good and closed the race with my fastest two miles despite the fact that course was starting to level off a bit. Given that the course has about 400-500 less feet of elevation loss than the Tucson Half (where I ran 68:04 last December) and the average elevation for the race is about 4000-5000 feet higher (worth about 10s/mi in my book) this was definitely a much better "half-marathon race/tempo" than I did last December in Tucson, possibly by 60-90s. Either way, training is going well and I am really looking forward to the next 7 weeks before I take my first shot at the sub-65 standard.
Friday, July 24, 2015
2015 Fall Racing Plans - Chasing the Dream
I had a few people ask me recently about my upcoming training and race plans, and since I was already thinking about making another post on the first week or two of my current training cycle, I might as well go ahead and make a quick post on my general plan of attack over the next few months.
My training between now and January 17th, 2016 (the last day you can qualify for the 2016 Olympic Marathon trials) will be focused on achieving the qualifying standard, specifically the half-marathon standard of 65:00 or faster.
Tentatively, I am going to make my first attempt on the standard at the Rock n' Roll San Jose half on 9/27. Then, I will take a second attempt at the standard if needed at the Monumental Half Marathon 6 weeks later. My fall training cycle will conclude at the USA 12km championships on 11/15.
Hopefully I'll already have my qualifier out of the way at this point, at which point I'll take some down time and just run easy for a couple of weeks before starting my buildup for the Olympic Trials as well as other 2016 spring races. However, the backup plan is another 6-8 week cycle with a Hail Mary attempt at the trials qualifier in either Houston or at the Rock n' Roll Arizona half. (Both will be held on Sunday 1/17, the last day you can qualify for the trials). Houston is obviously the preferable choice, but there are rumors of the race really cutting back on subelite athlete support so RnR Arizona may be the backup for a lot of guys in my shoes.
My training between now and January 17th, 2016 (the last day you can qualify for the 2016 Olympic Marathon trials) will be focused on achieving the qualifying standard, specifically the half-marathon standard of 65:00 or faster.
Tentatively, I am going to make my first attempt on the standard at the Rock n' Roll San Jose half on 9/27. Then, I will take a second attempt at the standard if needed at the Monumental Half Marathon 6 weeks later. My fall training cycle will conclude at the USA 12km championships on 11/15.
Hopefully I'll already have my qualifier out of the way at this point, at which point I'll take some down time and just run easy for a couple of weeks before starting my buildup for the Olympic Trials as well as other 2016 spring races. However, the backup plan is another 6-8 week cycle with a Hail Mary attempt at the trials qualifier in either Houston or at the Rock n' Roll Arizona half. (Both will be held on Sunday 1/17, the last day you can qualify for the trials). Houston is obviously the preferable choice, but there are rumors of the race really cutting back on subelite athlete support so RnR Arizona may be the backup for a lot of guys in my shoes.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Race/Trip Report - Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon
Pre-race Thoughts:
One of my favorite races is the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon. I can honestly say this race was the turning point of my post-collegiate running "career" and one of the major catalysts in me becoming the runner I am today. I remember back in 2011 I was making steady improvements as an amateur runner and getting close to my college times in the 5K. However, I started wondering what else there was left for me to do other than just competing in local races and fun runs. Then, I saw that the Grandma's marathon / Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon was hosting the 2012 and 2013 USA Half marathon championships, with a qualifying standard of 70 minutes for the half marathon. One of my biggest disappointments as a college runner was never having qualified for nationals, especially since I was competing at the division III level, so the idea of running in a national championship with elite/professional runners was extremely exciting to me. At the time, I owned a PR of 74:42, but for some reason I just believed 70 minutes was attainable within the next 12-18 months. By the end of 2011, I whittled my PR down to 72:52 in Las Vegas, and then by the summer of 2012 I took that down to 70:34. I made a few more attempts at the sub-70 standard over the next few months but came up short for one reason or another. However, I decided it wouldn't hurt to ask and emailed the race directors anyways, and to my surprise the elite athlete coordinator, Sarah Culver emailed me back and let me into the race! I was extremely disappointed when I came down with a bad case of ITBS right after the Boston marathon, but cross trained as much as I can because of how badly I wanted to run in this race. I made the trip, made it to the race, and was forced to drop out shortly after 5K after my IT band flared up.
I remember for months before the race, I pictured myself running in the back of the race and finally breaking 70 minutes, and then "retiring" from competitive running after fulfilling my dream of running in a national championship race. Frankly, I didn't see myself running much faster than 70 minutes and was probably just a bit burnt out from running. One unexpected outcome from my disappointing experience was that I was somehow inspired and motivated to keep on going. I saw a lot of runners at the race who didn't seem all that different from me, but maybe they just ran more miles, had better training in college and/or had a few more years of consistent training after college. Sure, first I went on a bender the next couple of months and put on about 15-20 pounds, but when I beat my ITBS and started running again, I somehow had the belief that there was more in me, that I not only had the potential to run under 70 minutes, but maybe even 68 or 67 minutes... and then who knows??? A few months later I showed up in Houston and dropped my PR from 70:34 to 68:12, surprising pretty much everyone besides a few of the closest people in my life who knew about the kind of training I was putting in. The point of all this is... it all started in Duluth.
Last year, I emailed the race against, and Sarah Culver not only welcomed me back to the race despite my DNF in 2013, but also offered me free lodging and travel assistance for the race in addition to a comped entry. I know I am never going to reach the level of elite running where I would earn significant amounts of money from races, but it was nonetheless cool to be treated like an elite as it was the first race where I was offered more than just a comped entry. I showed up, ran a solid 28-second PR and improved to 67:44. I was happy, but definitely hungry for more.
Over the past year, I have put in a lot of hard training and for the past 5 months my training has been geared towards running fast at one race, the 2015 Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon. While I've had a hiccup or two early in the training cycle (getting sick in late February and then having what I thought was a subpar race in the Country Music half) I felt like I have been on a roll going into the race and was looking forward to finally putting it all together.
Trip Report:
On Thursday morning I made the drive to Denver International Airport, and as usual my flight was delayed. Luckily it was only half an hour this time, and since I had a couple of other guys to wait for once I got to Minneapolis it wasn't a big deal anyways. Once I landed, I headed straight for the car rental counter, grabbed my car for the weekend and headed for the other terminal to pick up my travel buddies for the weekend - Scott Wietecha, Brandon York, and Nik Schweikert. The weekend trip got off to a great start as we hit rush hour traffic right away. We grind along for about half an hour or so before having had enough and unanimously decided to stop for a snack break at the next McDonald's we saw. We all got a burger and fries except Brandon who ordered a grilled chicken snack wrap that took a few minutes for them to make, I guess not a lot of people order those. Refreshed, we hit the road and it was pretty much smooth sailing the rest of the way to Duluth. When we arrived, we were all hungry again so instead of checking into our hotel we went straight to some pizza place where we got some decent sized personal pizzas. Shortly after dinner, we checked into the Radisson Duluth Hotel where they put ll the half marathoners. I met my roommate, Thomas Young, who is a converted ex-cyclist. We chatted for a bit, and then I got a surprisingly good night of sleep.
The next morning my travel buddies, roommate, and a few other guys (mostly Nick's buddies from Indiana) went out for a quick shakeout run and then picked up our race packets and travel checks. We got lunch at the media luncheon and then just hung out for a bit before watching Jurassic World at the movie theater connected to the convention center where the expo was. The movie was pretty awesome and a good way to relax and take my mind off of the race that's in a little over 12 hours. I met up with Peter and got the new WPRC jersey from him, which looked awesome but I still decided to stick with the old one at least one last time. Then, we met up with xenonscreams from letsrun, grabbed dinner at the spaghetti feed and went to sleep soon after.
Race Day:
Perhaps I was a bit greedy thinking I was going to get another good night of sleep like Thursday night, but I somehow managed to get about 60-90 minutes of sleep with a lot of tossing and turning. For some reason, I just couldn't turn my mind off. However, I also remember that some of my best races came after similar sleepless nights so I wasn't panicking. Thomas and I caught one of the earlier buses and got to the start fairly early. I jogged a mile or so and then met Peter on the start line, where we ran for another 15 minutes and then hit the porta-potty. I was keeping track of time pretty well and knew we had over 10 minutes before the race start but one of the race volunteers kept on yelling at us to get on the start line even as I was trying to get in one more pre-race pit stop. Finally, I did my business, changed out of my sweats, dropped my bags at the elite athlete gear van, and got on the line with 3-4 minutes to go. During the last few minutes, it also started to rain, but I think most of us were too focused/nervous to notice or care.
The gun goes off and right away I think 40-50 guys shot out ahead of me. From what I could tell there was a pack of about 6-10 guys up front that went through the mile in 4:45-4:50, and then what seemed to be about 30-40 guys that went out in 4:55-4:57, and I somehow once again managed to find myself in no man's land as I went through the first mile completely alone in 5:00.02.
I ran completely again for almost a mile before people started coming back to me. I picked off a someone right before mile two and then it seemed like I was passing another runner every 2-3 minutes or so the rest of the race. At around 5K I caught a runner in an Air Force singlet, but unlike the others he took a glance at me and surged back ahead. I hit 5K in 15:29, which unofficially ties for my 3rd fastest 5K ever. The pace didn't feel sustainable, but I just kept on telling myself that I would run another 5:00-5:05 mile and then re-evaluate if I have to back off to 5:10s. Before I knew it, I crossed 10K in a little over 31 minutes, which would have been a PR but there was no timing mat there. The Air Force runner and I kept on playing our little game of cat-and-mouse, where I would catch up every few minutes and he would surge, and in the process we made our way up through the field. Finally, around 8 miles or so we caught up to another Air Force runner, who I recognized (Matt Williams). Shortly after we hit Lemon Drop Hill and somehow I went from barely hanging on to deciding I should make a (probably idiotic?) move up this hill. I put some distance on the first Air Force guy but Matt stuck right with me, and then surged. We hit 10 miles in 50:18, my fastest 10-mile time by over a minute. I tried to put in one last move on the final uphill before mile 11 but Matt responded and I pretty much ran flat out for the next mile trying to keep him within striking range. Finally, we hit mile 12 in 60:26 and at the same time I got hit with two thoughts "5 minute pace for another 1.1 miles" and "F*** I have absolutely nothing left". Over the next 2-3 minutes Matt pulled slowly away from me, and I avoided checking my watch because I knew I wasn't running sub-5 pace and I didn't want to get discouraged by how far off pace I have fallen, instead just focusing on running as hard as I could. Finally, I rounded the last turn and just threw whatever I had into the last 300m of the race. With about 40-50 meters to go I got close enough to see the finish line clock as well as see it turn from 65:59 to 66:00, a few seconds later I crossed the finish line, 95% excited/satisfied and 5% disappointed I couldn't get those few seconds out of myself the last mile.
Post race:
I hung out for a bit for Peter to finish and then I jogged/walked back to the hotel. I tried to go out for a cool down but the area around the hotel was ridiculously hilly and my garmin died so I jogged around for 13 minutes and decided it was good for about 1.5 miles and called it a day. My roommate came in at some point, poor guy was in great shape but had some issues and had to drop out. I gave him a ride to the shuttle station and then met up with Scott and Nik for a postrace brunch at some local bar/restaurant place. I tried to catch up on some sleep after but Brandon messaged us to see if anyone wanted to eat so I went to grab a 2nd lunch with him and had a big plate of nachos. I tried to sleep again after but was yet again unsuccessful, and by then Scott/Nik was heading out to grab pizza so I joined them and ran into Sam Mueller was well as a couple of other guys he was hanging out with. I was somewhat disciplined and only had the last 1-2 slices that Scott and Nik couldn't finish and offered me. Thoroughly stuffed, we took about a 2-3 hour break before heading out to grab ice cream at some local place Scott had found. As we were finishing up our treats, the Air Force guys that I battled earlier that morning showed up looking for some ice cream of their own. We chatted for a bit, they were all nice guys and super talented, especially their top guy Ben Payne who has had a very inspiring past 12-15 months as he lowered his PR from the 66:40s to 63:10. Well, at least I kept my race with Matt/Jeremy fairly close so I won't get too much crap from my wife when I get home. (She loves to rag on me when I get beat by other Air Force runners, sigh)
Finally, Scott/Nik and I went to the elite athlete / VIP party to get some free drinks. I haven't had a drink since my best friend's bachelor party (or wedding?) last May but figured I might as well try to enjoy myself... I enjoyed myself, but beer still tasted nasty to me, oh well. We hung out for a bit but didn't run into anyone else we knew, and feeling old/tired we all just went back to the hotel and went to sleep. Finally, on Sunday morning we met downstairs around 6 so we can get back to Minneapolis in time to make our flights. We picked up Brandon at his hotel, and the guy not only ran a hell of a marathon the day before but he apparently was out til 2:30-3 and had only gotten 2-3 hours of sleep. Ah... to be young and 30 again.
The drive was fairly uneventful other than one McDonald's stop for breakfast. I dropped the guys off at their terminal, returned the rental, caught my flight home and the magical weekend was over.
Thoughts:
This was definitely the breakthrough race I have been looking for since my 67:44 last year. I am not sure if I have ever run a harder race and rode that red line for so long. As early as 3-4 miles into the race I thought I would have to back off and run 5:10s soon, but after a 5:06 5th mile I never had a mile slower than 5:05 after that. Again, my only regret was not having 8 more seconds in me, but I was pretty much maxed out so I don't know where I could have picked up those extra few seconds. I am definitely pumped up for the next training cycle and the push for sub-65.
Splits:
5:00, 5:01, 4:55, 5:05, 5:06, 4:55
5:03, 5:05, 5:01, 5:05, 5:05, 5:03, 5:40 last 1.1 (Official Time = 66:07)
Note: 3rd and 6th miles were downhill so it wasn't like I threw in some crazy surge.
One of my favorite races is the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon. I can honestly say this race was the turning point of my post-collegiate running "career" and one of the major catalysts in me becoming the runner I am today. I remember back in 2011 I was making steady improvements as an amateur runner and getting close to my college times in the 5K. However, I started wondering what else there was left for me to do other than just competing in local races and fun runs. Then, I saw that the Grandma's marathon / Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon was hosting the 2012 and 2013 USA Half marathon championships, with a qualifying standard of 70 minutes for the half marathon. One of my biggest disappointments as a college runner was never having qualified for nationals, especially since I was competing at the division III level, so the idea of running in a national championship with elite/professional runners was extremely exciting to me. At the time, I owned a PR of 74:42, but for some reason I just believed 70 minutes was attainable within the next 12-18 months. By the end of 2011, I whittled my PR down to 72:52 in Las Vegas, and then by the summer of 2012 I took that down to 70:34. I made a few more attempts at the sub-70 standard over the next few months but came up short for one reason or another. However, I decided it wouldn't hurt to ask and emailed the race directors anyways, and to my surprise the elite athlete coordinator, Sarah Culver emailed me back and let me into the race! I was extremely disappointed when I came down with a bad case of ITBS right after the Boston marathon, but cross trained as much as I can because of how badly I wanted to run in this race. I made the trip, made it to the race, and was forced to drop out shortly after 5K after my IT band flared up.
I remember for months before the race, I pictured myself running in the back of the race and finally breaking 70 minutes, and then "retiring" from competitive running after fulfilling my dream of running in a national championship race. Frankly, I didn't see myself running much faster than 70 minutes and was probably just a bit burnt out from running. One unexpected outcome from my disappointing experience was that I was somehow inspired and motivated to keep on going. I saw a lot of runners at the race who didn't seem all that different from me, but maybe they just ran more miles, had better training in college and/or had a few more years of consistent training after college. Sure, first I went on a bender the next couple of months and put on about 15-20 pounds, but when I beat my ITBS and started running again, I somehow had the belief that there was more in me, that I not only had the potential to run under 70 minutes, but maybe even 68 or 67 minutes... and then who knows??? A few months later I showed up in Houston and dropped my PR from 70:34 to 68:12, surprising pretty much everyone besides a few of the closest people in my life who knew about the kind of training I was putting in. The point of all this is... it all started in Duluth.
Last year, I emailed the race against, and Sarah Culver not only welcomed me back to the race despite my DNF in 2013, but also offered me free lodging and travel assistance for the race in addition to a comped entry. I know I am never going to reach the level of elite running where I would earn significant amounts of money from races, but it was nonetheless cool to be treated like an elite as it was the first race where I was offered more than just a comped entry. I showed up, ran a solid 28-second PR and improved to 67:44. I was happy, but definitely hungry for more.
Over the past year, I have put in a lot of hard training and for the past 5 months my training has been geared towards running fast at one race, the 2015 Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon. While I've had a hiccup or two early in the training cycle (getting sick in late February and then having what I thought was a subpar race in the Country Music half) I felt like I have been on a roll going into the race and was looking forward to finally putting it all together.
Trip Report:
On Thursday morning I made the drive to Denver International Airport, and as usual my flight was delayed. Luckily it was only half an hour this time, and since I had a couple of other guys to wait for once I got to Minneapolis it wasn't a big deal anyways. Once I landed, I headed straight for the car rental counter, grabbed my car for the weekend and headed for the other terminal to pick up my travel buddies for the weekend - Scott Wietecha, Brandon York, and Nik Schweikert. The weekend trip got off to a great start as we hit rush hour traffic right away. We grind along for about half an hour or so before having had enough and unanimously decided to stop for a snack break at the next McDonald's we saw. We all got a burger and fries except Brandon who ordered a grilled chicken snack wrap that took a few minutes for them to make, I guess not a lot of people order those. Refreshed, we hit the road and it was pretty much smooth sailing the rest of the way to Duluth. When we arrived, we were all hungry again so instead of checking into our hotel we went straight to some pizza place where we got some decent sized personal pizzas. Shortly after dinner, we checked into the Radisson Duluth Hotel where they put ll the half marathoners. I met my roommate, Thomas Young, who is a converted ex-cyclist. We chatted for a bit, and then I got a surprisingly good night of sleep.
The next morning my travel buddies, roommate, and a few other guys (mostly Nick's buddies from Indiana) went out for a quick shakeout run and then picked up our race packets and travel checks. We got lunch at the media luncheon and then just hung out for a bit before watching Jurassic World at the movie theater connected to the convention center where the expo was. The movie was pretty awesome and a good way to relax and take my mind off of the race that's in a little over 12 hours. I met up with Peter and got the new WPRC jersey from him, which looked awesome but I still decided to stick with the old one at least one last time. Then, we met up with xenonscreams from letsrun, grabbed dinner at the spaghetti feed and went to sleep soon after.
Race Day:
Perhaps I was a bit greedy thinking I was going to get another good night of sleep like Thursday night, but I somehow managed to get about 60-90 minutes of sleep with a lot of tossing and turning. For some reason, I just couldn't turn my mind off. However, I also remember that some of my best races came after similar sleepless nights so I wasn't panicking. Thomas and I caught one of the earlier buses and got to the start fairly early. I jogged a mile or so and then met Peter on the start line, where we ran for another 15 minutes and then hit the porta-potty. I was keeping track of time pretty well and knew we had over 10 minutes before the race start but one of the race volunteers kept on yelling at us to get on the start line even as I was trying to get in one more pre-race pit stop. Finally, I did my business, changed out of my sweats, dropped my bags at the elite athlete gear van, and got on the line with 3-4 minutes to go. During the last few minutes, it also started to rain, but I think most of us were too focused/nervous to notice or care.
The gun goes off and right away I think 40-50 guys shot out ahead of me. From what I could tell there was a pack of about 6-10 guys up front that went through the mile in 4:45-4:50, and then what seemed to be about 30-40 guys that went out in 4:55-4:57, and I somehow once again managed to find myself in no man's land as I went through the first mile completely alone in 5:00.02.
I ran completely again for almost a mile before people started coming back to me. I picked off a someone right before mile two and then it seemed like I was passing another runner every 2-3 minutes or so the rest of the race. At around 5K I caught a runner in an Air Force singlet, but unlike the others he took a glance at me and surged back ahead. I hit 5K in 15:29, which unofficially ties for my 3rd fastest 5K ever. The pace didn't feel sustainable, but I just kept on telling myself that I would run another 5:00-5:05 mile and then re-evaluate if I have to back off to 5:10s. Before I knew it, I crossed 10K in a little over 31 minutes, which would have been a PR but there was no timing mat there. The Air Force runner and I kept on playing our little game of cat-and-mouse, where I would catch up every few minutes and he would surge, and in the process we made our way up through the field. Finally, around 8 miles or so we caught up to another Air Force runner, who I recognized (Matt Williams). Shortly after we hit Lemon Drop Hill and somehow I went from barely hanging on to deciding I should make a (probably idiotic?) move up this hill. I put some distance on the first Air Force guy but Matt stuck right with me, and then surged. We hit 10 miles in 50:18, my fastest 10-mile time by over a minute. I tried to put in one last move on the final uphill before mile 11 but Matt responded and I pretty much ran flat out for the next mile trying to keep him within striking range. Finally, we hit mile 12 in 60:26 and at the same time I got hit with two thoughts "5 minute pace for another 1.1 miles" and "F*** I have absolutely nothing left". Over the next 2-3 minutes Matt pulled slowly away from me, and I avoided checking my watch because I knew I wasn't running sub-5 pace and I didn't want to get discouraged by how far off pace I have fallen, instead just focusing on running as hard as I could. Finally, I rounded the last turn and just threw whatever I had into the last 300m of the race. With about 40-50 meters to go I got close enough to see the finish line clock as well as see it turn from 65:59 to 66:00, a few seconds later I crossed the finish line, 95% excited/satisfied and 5% disappointed I couldn't get those few seconds out of myself the last mile.
Post race:
I hung out for a bit for Peter to finish and then I jogged/walked back to the hotel. I tried to go out for a cool down but the area around the hotel was ridiculously hilly and my garmin died so I jogged around for 13 minutes and decided it was good for about 1.5 miles and called it a day. My roommate came in at some point, poor guy was in great shape but had some issues and had to drop out. I gave him a ride to the shuttle station and then met up with Scott and Nik for a postrace brunch at some local bar/restaurant place. I tried to catch up on some sleep after but Brandon messaged us to see if anyone wanted to eat so I went to grab a 2nd lunch with him and had a big plate of nachos. I tried to sleep again after but was yet again unsuccessful, and by then Scott/Nik was heading out to grab pizza so I joined them and ran into Sam Mueller was well as a couple of other guys he was hanging out with. I was somewhat disciplined and only had the last 1-2 slices that Scott and Nik couldn't finish and offered me. Thoroughly stuffed, we took about a 2-3 hour break before heading out to grab ice cream at some local place Scott had found. As we were finishing up our treats, the Air Force guys that I battled earlier that morning showed up looking for some ice cream of their own. We chatted for a bit, they were all nice guys and super talented, especially their top guy Ben Payne who has had a very inspiring past 12-15 months as he lowered his PR from the 66:40s to 63:10. Well, at least I kept my race with Matt/Jeremy fairly close so I won't get too much crap from my wife when I get home. (She loves to rag on me when I get beat by other Air Force runners, sigh)
Finally, Scott/Nik and I went to the elite athlete / VIP party to get some free drinks. I haven't had a drink since my best friend's bachelor party (or wedding?) last May but figured I might as well try to enjoy myself... I enjoyed myself, but beer still tasted nasty to me, oh well. We hung out for a bit but didn't run into anyone else we knew, and feeling old/tired we all just went back to the hotel and went to sleep. Finally, on Sunday morning we met downstairs around 6 so we can get back to Minneapolis in time to make our flights. We picked up Brandon at his hotel, and the guy not only ran a hell of a marathon the day before but he apparently was out til 2:30-3 and had only gotten 2-3 hours of sleep. Ah... to be young and 30 again.
The drive was fairly uneventful other than one McDonald's stop for breakfast. I dropped the guys off at their terminal, returned the rental, caught my flight home and the magical weekend was over.
Thoughts:
This was definitely the breakthrough race I have been looking for since my 67:44 last year. I am not sure if I have ever run a harder race and rode that red line for so long. As early as 3-4 miles into the race I thought I would have to back off and run 5:10s soon, but after a 5:06 5th mile I never had a mile slower than 5:05 after that. Again, my only regret was not having 8 more seconds in me, but I was pretty much maxed out so I don't know where I could have picked up those extra few seconds. I am definitely pumped up for the next training cycle and the push for sub-65.
Splits:
5:00, 5:01, 4:55, 5:05, 5:06, 4:55
5:03, 5:05, 5:01, 5:05, 5:05, 5:03, 5:40 last 1.1 (Official Time = 66:07)
Note: 3rd and 6th miles were downhill so it wasn't like I threw in some crazy surge.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Race/Trip Report - The 2015 Bolder Boulder
The Bolder Boulder is one of the biggest and most competitive 10K races in the United States, but unfortunately the race is also at altitude, fairly hilly, and has a net elevation gain of around 75-80 feet. The bottom line - elites and near-elites run about 90 seconds slower on this course than they do on a flat and fast race at sea level. Another thing the race has going against it is that it's about a 1:45-2:00 drive for me, so for the past 2 years I have always been on the fence about signing up for this race until the last 2-3 weeks or so. This year, I was undecided until about a month out, but with the fact that a bunch of my friends are running it (some even traveling from sea level) and that the timing seems to make sense in terms of where the race falls in my training cycle, I finally pulled the trigger and signed up.
There was some minor drama race week when the bib assignments came out and I was put in the 2nd wave. When I contacted the race's general race support/questions, some extremely unhelpful girl "Emily" casually replied "sorry you didn't get in the wave you wanted, it was probably full" and proceeded to ignore my follow-up questions on how I might be able to switch into the first wave. I knew that I could probably drive up before the race and pay a $10 exchange fee, but didn't want to make the 3-4 hour round trip if for some reason the first wave really was full. Long story short, I got in touch with some of the higher-ups involved with the race and they sorted out the issue for me. I did end up making two trips to Boulder race weekend though, one to hang out with my buddy Scott and some of the other Newton guys he was rooming with, who all turned out to be pretty cool. On Sunday, I drove up with Maureen and Jason for the race. We were able to crash with Maureen's cousin Lauren, who generously let us stay at her house for the night. We made it up to their house as their party for Lauren's daughter's graduation was dwindling down and hung out for a bit, then we went out to dinner, relaxed a little, and went to bed shortly after.
My main goal for the race as find out where I stood fitness wise compared to last year. Last year I ran about 110 miles the week before the race, finished 23rd in 32:45, and then went on to run 67:44 in Duluth a month later. This year I cut down to about 103 miles the week before the race and was hoping to be around 31:30-31:45, which would give me some hope for running close to 65:00-65:30 in Duluth 4 weeks later.
Anyways, I woke up pretty early again on race day and knowing I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, tried my best not to wake Maureen and Jason. Around 5:15 or so I ate my standard pre-race breakfast (something small like a pastry or some oatmeal and some coffee), packed up all my stuff, and we hit the road. The drive to Boulder was pretty uneventful until we were a couple of miles away, but we still got there early enough and snuck into one of the parking lots near the race while the volunteers that were supposed to watch the entrances were busy chatting amongst themselves and not paying attention. Jason and I then went out for our warmup, hit the porta potty on the way back, then we got our race gear on and headed to the start.
At 6:55, the gun or start horn went off and we were underway. The lead vehicle for this race is some huge bus, and while I lost sight of that thing pretty early on last year, the fact that I was in better shape this year and the leaders seemed to be running a more conservative pace let me keep the lead vehicle in sight until well past the halfway mark, which also made me a little nervous that I was maybe running too fast. About a mile into the race I caught Scott and Nik Schweikert (or maybe they were just running on the other side of the road as there was basically one giant pack for the first couple of miles). I tried to pack up with them a little bit, as I knew Nik ran right under 32 minutes last year and I would at least like to break 32 minutes as well. However, around 1.5 miles or so I think someone up front made a move and the pack broke up pretty soon after. Scott was 3-5 seconds ahead of me for another couple of miles and we slowly pulled away from Nik. My race plan was to run a race similar to last year - fairly conservative for the first 4 miles through the uphill climbs and then start rolling on the downhill after mile 4. However, the plan quickly fell apart when I accidentally went over the edge around 3-3.5 miles and it felt like a death march to the finish after. I still managed about a 5:03 4th mile, but Scott put about 10 seconds on me this mile and I never saw him again until after we finished. I did manage to control the damage and only got passed twice in the last 2 miles. As we made the climb to Folsom Field with around a quarter mile left in the race, I made one last bid to try to sneak under 32 minutes, but they covered the field with some plastic covering that got ridiculously wet and slippery, so I took one quick look to make sure nobody was going to catch me and cruised in the last 200 meters or so. The race initially had me at 32:08, but I think because it was an "unknown bib" due to the last minute bib switch they later just changed the result to the gun time of 32:10. (I know it doesn't make sense, and 2 seconds don't really matter much so I don't know why I even bothered explaining this). The finish time was technically a 10K PR, although I have run faster than that time about 5-6 times already through the 10K mark of much longer races.After the race, I waited around a couple of minutes for Jason and the other Newton guys. We went around and grabbed some postrace goodies like free food and our "sub-40" shirts and then made the 1.5 mile or so jog back to the start line. We hit the road shortly after and luckily figured out how to get out of there while most of the nearby roads were still closed down for the race. (to make a point of how big the race was, over half of the field haven't even crossed the start line yet by the time we were out of Boulder). We made it back to Lauren's house, took a quick shower, went out for a pleasant brunch with her family, and then made the long trek back home.
Overall, I was somewhat disappointed with the race as I felt it indicated 66:20-66:30 half-marathon fitness, but I felt better later knowing that it was probably on the slow end of what I was capable of running since I was a bit too aggressive early on. Either way, I finished 15th in a pretty tough field and beat some guys who had whopped me pretty good in local races over the last year so it was a solid step forward.
There was some minor drama race week when the bib assignments came out and I was put in the 2nd wave. When I contacted the race's general race support/questions, some extremely unhelpful girl "Emily" casually replied "sorry you didn't get in the wave you wanted, it was probably full" and proceeded to ignore my follow-up questions on how I might be able to switch into the first wave. I knew that I could probably drive up before the race and pay a $10 exchange fee, but didn't want to make the 3-4 hour round trip if for some reason the first wave really was full. Long story short, I got in touch with some of the higher-ups involved with the race and they sorted out the issue for me. I did end up making two trips to Boulder race weekend though, one to hang out with my buddy Scott and some of the other Newton guys he was rooming with, who all turned out to be pretty cool. On Sunday, I drove up with Maureen and Jason for the race. We were able to crash with Maureen's cousin Lauren, who generously let us stay at her house for the night. We made it up to their house as their party for Lauren's daughter's graduation was dwindling down and hung out for a bit, then we went out to dinner, relaxed a little, and went to bed shortly after.
My main goal for the race as find out where I stood fitness wise compared to last year. Last year I ran about 110 miles the week before the race, finished 23rd in 32:45, and then went on to run 67:44 in Duluth a month later. This year I cut down to about 103 miles the week before the race and was hoping to be around 31:30-31:45, which would give me some hope for running close to 65:00-65:30 in Duluth 4 weeks later.
Anyways, I woke up pretty early again on race day and knowing I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, tried my best not to wake Maureen and Jason. Around 5:15 or so I ate my standard pre-race breakfast (something small like a pastry or some oatmeal and some coffee), packed up all my stuff, and we hit the road. The drive to Boulder was pretty uneventful until we were a couple of miles away, but we still got there early enough and snuck into one of the parking lots near the race while the volunteers that were supposed to watch the entrances were busy chatting amongst themselves and not paying attention. Jason and I then went out for our warmup, hit the porta potty on the way back, then we got our race gear on and headed to the start.
At 6:55, the gun or start horn went off and we were underway. The lead vehicle for this race is some huge bus, and while I lost sight of that thing pretty early on last year, the fact that I was in better shape this year and the leaders seemed to be running a more conservative pace let me keep the lead vehicle in sight until well past the halfway mark, which also made me a little nervous that I was maybe running too fast. About a mile into the race I caught Scott and Nik Schweikert (or maybe they were just running on the other side of the road as there was basically one giant pack for the first couple of miles). I tried to pack up with them a little bit, as I knew Nik ran right under 32 minutes last year and I would at least like to break 32 minutes as well. However, around 1.5 miles or so I think someone up front made a move and the pack broke up pretty soon after. Scott was 3-5 seconds ahead of me for another couple of miles and we slowly pulled away from Nik. My race plan was to run a race similar to last year - fairly conservative for the first 4 miles through the uphill climbs and then start rolling on the downhill after mile 4. However, the plan quickly fell apart when I accidentally went over the edge around 3-3.5 miles and it felt like a death march to the finish after. I still managed about a 5:03 4th mile, but Scott put about 10 seconds on me this mile and I never saw him again until after we finished. I did manage to control the damage and only got passed twice in the last 2 miles. As we made the climb to Folsom Field with around a quarter mile left in the race, I made one last bid to try to sneak under 32 minutes, but they covered the field with some plastic covering that got ridiculously wet and slippery, so I took one quick look to make sure nobody was going to catch me and cruised in the last 200 meters or so. The race initially had me at 32:08, but I think because it was an "unknown bib" due to the last minute bib switch they later just changed the result to the gun time of 32:10. (I know it doesn't make sense, and 2 seconds don't really matter much so I don't know why I even bothered explaining this). The finish time was technically a 10K PR, although I have run faster than that time about 5-6 times already through the 10K mark of much longer races.After the race, I waited around a couple of minutes for Jason and the other Newton guys. We went around and grabbed some postrace goodies like free food and our "sub-40" shirts and then made the 1.5 mile or so jog back to the start line. We hit the road shortly after and luckily figured out how to get out of there while most of the nearby roads were still closed down for the race. (to make a point of how big the race was, over half of the field haven't even crossed the start line yet by the time we were out of Boulder). We made it back to Lauren's house, took a quick shower, went out for a pleasant brunch with her family, and then made the long trek back home.
Overall, I was somewhat disappointed with the race as I felt it indicated 66:20-66:30 half-marathon fitness, but I felt better later knowing that it was probably on the slow end of what I was capable of running since I was a bit too aggressive early on. Either way, I finished 15th in a pretty tough field and beat some guys who had whopped me pretty good in local races over the last year so it was a solid step forward.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)