"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!
Monday, August 31, 2015
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.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Race/Trip Report - USA 25 KM Championships (Third River Bank Run)
In early April I was starting to gather some momentum in my training after being sick a few weeks earlier right before the Phoenix half marathon. In fact, about 10 days after the Shamrock Shuffle 8K I ran my best 5-mile tempo workout that indicated I might be in low-mid 66 half marathon shape. With my goal race still about 10 weeks away, I thought I would try to find some races in May to back off my training a little bit and get in a couple of hard efforts before ramping up my training again for the last month or so. Coincidentally, I saw that the 25km national championships was the weekend right in between the Country Music half and Bolder Boulder so the timing of the race worked out well. After a few email exchanges with the elite athlete coordinator I was signed up and entered into the national championship field!
I left Colorado Springs bright and early (actually it was storming and still dark on my way to the airport) after a 4 mile shakeout run on the treadmill. I got into Grand Rapids after a couple of short flights, got my rental car, and headed to the hotel. After navigating through the crazy downtown traffic I finally found the hotel's parking lot, picked up my race stuff at the elite athlete suite, and checked in. I got a quick look at the entry list and realized I was probably the 16th or 17th fastest American on paper, and top 15 Americans qualify for the USARC national championship 12K at the end of the year, so I made a mental note that I "just have to beat 2 guys". I should probably clarify that even though this was a national championship race, the host race has a separate smaller open prize purse for Americans as well as non-Americans so there were some Africans in the race.
I then went out for another 2 mile shakeout run to loosen up a bit since I felt a little tight from sitting for most of the past few hours. (either on the plane or driving). Finally, I met up with Andrew Epperson and we hit the spaghetti dinner. I was so busy traveling and getting things done the past few hours that I had apparently forgotten to feed myself sufficiently, since I went back for 2nds and then 3rds, I know I was eating a lot when other runners at our table started commenting on how much I was eating.
On the way back to our hotel I picked up Nick's packet for him to save him a trip, since he was getting in pretty late. I hung out and watched the Cavs/Bulls playoff game until Nick got there, then we just chatted for a bit after he got in and fell asleep before it got too late since we have a pretty important race the next day. There's something to be said about that hotel, because I think that was the best sleep I have gotten the night before a major race in a long time.
Around 5:30 or so we woke up and hit the hospitality room for some oatmeal and coffee. Then about 45 minutes before the race we headed out for a 3 mile warmup. It was super humid and also raining hard, but the great things about our setup was that our hotel was basically around the corner from the start line so we 1) didn't have to wait in line at the porta potty 2) didn't have to wait out in the rain for too long before the race 3) got to change out of our wet clothing after warming up into our race kits. Finally, about 15 minutes or so before our race started we headed downstairs and jogged the 2 blocks or so to the start line. On the way over Nick thought he saw Emily, but I told him he probably just saw another girl who looked like her from the side since she lives on the other side of the country. Then as I was doing some last minute strides I saw her too, apparently she was in town with her boyfriend visiting his family, small world.
I knew for the 24-48 hours leading up to the race that the conditions weren't going to be optimal. It was in the low-mid 60s and extremely humid. It wasn't terrible, but based on my understanding of temperature/humidity impacts this was probably going to cost us about 3-5s/mi, which I confirmed with my buddy Scott Wietecha the day before. He also gave me some advice that I should have taken to heart more, which was to go out just a bit more conservative and err on the side of caution when adjusting my pace earlier on. More on that later.
As we lined up for the race, the national championship / elite field was small enough that we were all either on the line or in the 2nd row. I turned to my side as I usually do before the race and wished the runners next to me good luck and shook their hand. When I turned to my left I realized I was shaking hands with Abdi Abdirahman, which was pretty cool. I didn't have much time to reflect on the moment though as they started the race seconds later and we were off.
I think due to the suboptimal weather, the pace early on was very conservative. So much so that I was pretty much in the lead pack of about 20-25 runners half a mile in. I made a conscious decision to let the group go since the effort felt a little bit faster than half-marathon pace and we were racing a distance almost 2.5 miles longer. I still went through the mile in 5:02, but the first mile was net downhill so it really wasn't as fast as the time indicated. I was also already 3-5 seconds behind the lead pack at this point.
A couple of minutes later people started dropping off the lead pack. I passed 3 guys who were all wearing the same racing outfit, I think they were a local running club or something. I caught up to a guy wearing a Brooks racing kit around 2-3 miles, but it turned out he was running an even more conservative race than I was after he backed off of the lead pack around mile 2 since he kept up with me pretty easily and pulled away around mile 5 or 6 and would go on to finish close to 2 minutes ahead of me.
The rest of the race was fairly uneventful and felt like I was running a really long hard tempo for most of it. I passed an African wearing bib number 1 around 8 miles and then another American around 9-10 miles. With about 5 miles to go I caught sight of Tyler Andrews, which gave me some motivation since he's run sub-2:17 in his last marathon as well as set the world treadmill record 3 weeks earlier with a 63:38. I closed the gap down to about 7-8 seconds by mile 12 but then he must have realized someone was gaining on him and threw down a hard mile and gapped me again. Shortly after, I crossed the half-marathon timing mat in 67:56. I was a little bummed since I was hoping for at least an unofficial PR but missed by 12 seconds. Around this time I was all by myself and I figured I was done passing people, so I eased up slightly but still ran hard enough to protection my place in case I was in the top 15. Surprisingly, I passed another runner with about a mile to go, I surged when I caught up to him just in case he was in the American race too, but it turned out he was one of the foreigners. (these non-American runners in USA championship races is confusing sometimes!). Shortly after I crossed the line in 1:20:55, I met up with Andrew and we went for a quick cooldown in the parking garage right next to the elite athlete tent. His parents told us he was 12th and from our account of the race there may have only been 1 or 2 runners between us, so I was fairly sure I was top 15 (even counting any potential non-Americans) but wasn't sure until I got back to the room and checked results. I was 14th overall and 13th American!
Looking at the results of the race, I was extremely pumped with how I ran compared to the field. Every American who beat me has qualified for the Olympic Trials in the marathon, and the only exception (Zach Ripley, the Brooks runner who I caught around miles and then left me 2-3 miles later) was a 65:10ish guy and qualified for the trials in the steeplechase last time around. On the Jack Daniels vdot table my 80:55 was worth about a 67:15-67:20 half marathon, but given that the couple of runners ahead of me who ran the race last year as well ran about 45-75s (3-5s/mi) slower than they did the prior year i think this may make my run worth something in the mid-high 66s for a half marathon. Either way, extremely encouraging result with 6 weeks to go until the Garry Bjorklund half.
After we got back to the hotel and had a chance to shower and clean up a little we met up with Andrew and his parents for lunch at TGI Friday's. Of course, as soon as they saw a bunch of hungry runners walk in and inquire about their all-you-can-eat appetizer special they just "happened to have stopped that promo recently". No matter, I still had a plate of sampler appetizer as well as some burger and fries and enjoyed some good conversation with pleasant company. Then, since I had an early afternoon flight I hit the road shortly after and was back home a few hours later. I will definitely be back to the race in the future.
Race data:
1 - 5:02.07
2 - 5:06.95
3 - 5:06.89
4 - 5:10.57
5 - 5:07.05
6 - 5:08.31 (30:41.84, so probably another sub-32 10K split)
7 - 5:16.58
8 - 5:10.90
9 - 5:14.13
10 - 5:14.81 (51:38.26, missing my unofficial PR of 51:35 from the Tucson half)
11 - 5:12.44
12 - 5:07.65
13 - 5:23.13 (kinda annoyed with this, I think this mile might have been long but I was going by the race mile makers and didn't feel like I slowed down much here)
14 - 5:23.42
15 - 5:19.87
15-15.5x - 2:49.68 (about 5:20-5:25 pace, but deceptive since the last 400-600 meters is just a long gradual climb).
Final analysis: not great that I gradually slowed down as the race went, but I didn't really die that badly until 2-3 miles to go and even then it was partially due to my conscious effort to not kill myself and possibly end up with a hamstring cramp and DNF the race. I still felt like if I took Scott's prerace advice more to heart and went out in maybe the 5:05-5:10 range I could have run a bit faster at the end. Maybe even low-mid 1:20s. The only person in that time range was Tyler though, and I felt like he probably just ran hard enough to hold me off since he was a minute behind Andrew, so even if I ran in the low-mid 1:20s he still would have run hard enough to beat me, who knows. Either way, a solid step in the right direction and back to putting in a few more weeks of quality training.
I left Colorado Springs bright and early (actually it was storming and still dark on my way to the airport) after a 4 mile shakeout run on the treadmill. I got into Grand Rapids after a couple of short flights, got my rental car, and headed to the hotel. After navigating through the crazy downtown traffic I finally found the hotel's parking lot, picked up my race stuff at the elite athlete suite, and checked in. I got a quick look at the entry list and realized I was probably the 16th or 17th fastest American on paper, and top 15 Americans qualify for the USARC national championship 12K at the end of the year, so I made a mental note that I "just have to beat 2 guys". I should probably clarify that even though this was a national championship race, the host race has a separate smaller open prize purse for Americans as well as non-Americans so there were some Africans in the race.
I then went out for another 2 mile shakeout run to loosen up a bit since I felt a little tight from sitting for most of the past few hours. (either on the plane or driving). Finally, I met up with Andrew Epperson and we hit the spaghetti dinner. I was so busy traveling and getting things done the past few hours that I had apparently forgotten to feed myself sufficiently, since I went back for 2nds and then 3rds, I know I was eating a lot when other runners at our table started commenting on how much I was eating.
On the way back to our hotel I picked up Nick's packet for him to save him a trip, since he was getting in pretty late. I hung out and watched the Cavs/Bulls playoff game until Nick got there, then we just chatted for a bit after he got in and fell asleep before it got too late since we have a pretty important race the next day. There's something to be said about that hotel, because I think that was the best sleep I have gotten the night before a major race in a long time.
Around 5:30 or so we woke up and hit the hospitality room for some oatmeal and coffee. Then about 45 minutes before the race we headed out for a 3 mile warmup. It was super humid and also raining hard, but the great things about our setup was that our hotel was basically around the corner from the start line so we 1) didn't have to wait in line at the porta potty 2) didn't have to wait out in the rain for too long before the race 3) got to change out of our wet clothing after warming up into our race kits. Finally, about 15 minutes or so before our race started we headed downstairs and jogged the 2 blocks or so to the start line. On the way over Nick thought he saw Emily, but I told him he probably just saw another girl who looked like her from the side since she lives on the other side of the country. Then as I was doing some last minute strides I saw her too, apparently she was in town with her boyfriend visiting his family, small world.
I knew for the 24-48 hours leading up to the race that the conditions weren't going to be optimal. It was in the low-mid 60s and extremely humid. It wasn't terrible, but based on my understanding of temperature/humidity impacts this was probably going to cost us about 3-5s/mi, which I confirmed with my buddy Scott Wietecha the day before. He also gave me some advice that I should have taken to heart more, which was to go out just a bit more conservative and err on the side of caution when adjusting my pace earlier on. More on that later.
As we lined up for the race, the national championship / elite field was small enough that we were all either on the line or in the 2nd row. I turned to my side as I usually do before the race and wished the runners next to me good luck and shook their hand. When I turned to my left I realized I was shaking hands with Abdi Abdirahman, which was pretty cool. I didn't have much time to reflect on the moment though as they started the race seconds later and we were off.
I think due to the suboptimal weather, the pace early on was very conservative. So much so that I was pretty much in the lead pack of about 20-25 runners half a mile in. I made a conscious decision to let the group go since the effort felt a little bit faster than half-marathon pace and we were racing a distance almost 2.5 miles longer. I still went through the mile in 5:02, but the first mile was net downhill so it really wasn't as fast as the time indicated. I was also already 3-5 seconds behind the lead pack at this point.
A couple of minutes later people started dropping off the lead pack. I passed 3 guys who were all wearing the same racing outfit, I think they were a local running club or something. I caught up to a guy wearing a Brooks racing kit around 2-3 miles, but it turned out he was running an even more conservative race than I was after he backed off of the lead pack around mile 2 since he kept up with me pretty easily and pulled away around mile 5 or 6 and would go on to finish close to 2 minutes ahead of me.
The rest of the race was fairly uneventful and felt like I was running a really long hard tempo for most of it. I passed an African wearing bib number 1 around 8 miles and then another American around 9-10 miles. With about 5 miles to go I caught sight of Tyler Andrews, which gave me some motivation since he's run sub-2:17 in his last marathon as well as set the world treadmill record 3 weeks earlier with a 63:38. I closed the gap down to about 7-8 seconds by mile 12 but then he must have realized someone was gaining on him and threw down a hard mile and gapped me again. Shortly after, I crossed the half-marathon timing mat in 67:56. I was a little bummed since I was hoping for at least an unofficial PR but missed by 12 seconds. Around this time I was all by myself and I figured I was done passing people, so I eased up slightly but still ran hard enough to protection my place in case I was in the top 15. Surprisingly, I passed another runner with about a mile to go, I surged when I caught up to him just in case he was in the American race too, but it turned out he was one of the foreigners. (these non-American runners in USA championship races is confusing sometimes!). Shortly after I crossed the line in 1:20:55, I met up with Andrew and we went for a quick cooldown in the parking garage right next to the elite athlete tent. His parents told us he was 12th and from our account of the race there may have only been 1 or 2 runners between us, so I was fairly sure I was top 15 (even counting any potential non-Americans) but wasn't sure until I got back to the room and checked results. I was 14th overall and 13th American!
Looking at the results of the race, I was extremely pumped with how I ran compared to the field. Every American who beat me has qualified for the Olympic Trials in the marathon, and the only exception (Zach Ripley, the Brooks runner who I caught around miles and then left me 2-3 miles later) was a 65:10ish guy and qualified for the trials in the steeplechase last time around. On the Jack Daniels vdot table my 80:55 was worth about a 67:15-67:20 half marathon, but given that the couple of runners ahead of me who ran the race last year as well ran about 45-75s (3-5s/mi) slower than they did the prior year i think this may make my run worth something in the mid-high 66s for a half marathon. Either way, extremely encouraging result with 6 weeks to go until the Garry Bjorklund half.
After we got back to the hotel and had a chance to shower and clean up a little we met up with Andrew and his parents for lunch at TGI Friday's. Of course, as soon as they saw a bunch of hungry runners walk in and inquire about their all-you-can-eat appetizer special they just "happened to have stopped that promo recently". No matter, I still had a plate of sampler appetizer as well as some burger and fries and enjoyed some good conversation with pleasant company. Then, since I had an early afternoon flight I hit the road shortly after and was back home a few hours later. I will definitely be back to the race in the future.
Race data:
1 - 5:02.07
2 - 5:06.95
3 - 5:06.89
4 - 5:10.57
5 - 5:07.05
6 - 5:08.31 (30:41.84, so probably another sub-32 10K split)
7 - 5:16.58
8 - 5:10.90
9 - 5:14.13
10 - 5:14.81 (51:38.26, missing my unofficial PR of 51:35 from the Tucson half)
11 - 5:12.44
12 - 5:07.65
13 - 5:23.13 (kinda annoyed with this, I think this mile might have been long but I was going by the race mile makers and didn't feel like I slowed down much here)
14 - 5:23.42
15 - 5:19.87
15-15.5x - 2:49.68 (about 5:20-5:25 pace, but deceptive since the last 400-600 meters is just a long gradual climb).
Final analysis: not great that I gradually slowed down as the race went, but I didn't really die that badly until 2-3 miles to go and even then it was partially due to my conscious effort to not kill myself and possibly end up with a hamstring cramp and DNF the race. I still felt like if I took Scott's prerace advice more to heart and went out in maybe the 5:05-5:10 range I could have run a bit faster at the end. Maybe even low-mid 1:20s. The only person in that time range was Tyler though, and I felt like he probably just ran hard enough to hold me off since he was a minute behind Andrew, so even if I ran in the low-mid 1:20s he still would have run hard enough to beat me, who knows. Either way, a solid step in the right direction and back to putting in a few more weeks of quality training.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Training Summary - Weeks 19-22 of 22 - Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon Training Cycle
Week 19 (5/25 - 5/31) - 132 milesThe week started off with the Bolder Boulder 10K, honestly a little disappointed as I was hoping to run around 31:45 or possibly even 31:30. Perhaps I was a little ambitious or just didn't back off enough. I wanted to race well, but I also wanted to be able to compare this year's race to last year's race apples-to-apples so I ran almost as much in the week leading up to the race as last year. I did feel great leading up to the race and closed the prior day's shakeout run in close to 6-minute pace feeling completely effortless.
Q1: (Monday) 2015 Bolder Boulder in 32:10. Originally the race results said 32:08, which matched what I had on my watch but I think due to me having a last minute bib change (they accidentally put me in wave AA somehow) they had to go off of my gun time when they finalized the results or something. Either way, I missed breaking 32 minutes. I worked out splits for a 31:45 or so and was on pace through 3 miles before just dying a bit and hung tough after cresting the high point of the course at 4 miles. (only got passed twice in the last 2 miles).
Q2: (Saturday) 3mi-2mi-1mi - 15:35, 10:04, 5:00. (3 min rest after the 3mi and 2mi). Original workout was actually a 10K tempo, and I wanted to do this on the Classic 10K course and given that the course is net downhill and loses about 30-40ft/mi (so about 3-5s/mi faster than on the flats) I wanted to run around 5:10s. Apparently taking 4 easy days after Bolder Boulder wasn't enough recovery and my workout quickly went downhill 2 miles in so I stopped to regroup and was able to salvage the workout a little bit with a couple of fast shorter intervals, but to be honest I went pretty hard to hit those times and it definitely wasn't threshold effort.
Week 20 (6/1-6/7) - 122 miles - Got in two solid workouts this week, although looking back my pollen allergies probably started around the day of the 2nd workout or the night before.
Q1: (Wednesday) 5x1 mile @ MVP with about 2:45 average rest. Averaged 4:52s for "MVP Miles". (about 0.96-0.97). Felt really good and smooth the whole way. Tried to pick it up a bit the last one but I "only" hit 4:50 after running the first 4 in 4:52-4:53.
Q2: (Saturday) Nielson 2-mile (10:01) + 2x2 mile. A little disappointed with the 2mile as I ran 10:03 last August, but I just didn't feel great. Got in 2 more 2 mile repeats with Kenny after about 10-15 minutes in 10:58 and 10:22. A little deceiving since the first 2 miles had about 80-90 feet of elevation gain and the 2nd had 100-110 feet of elevation loss so they were probably worth about 10:40 and 10:30 after adjusting for elevation.
Week 21 (6/8-/14) - 107 miles
Q1: Wednesday - MVP loop workout - 2 loops in 10:08 - 2min rest - 5:02 loop - 3-min rest - 4:51 mile. Another workout that was pretty much adjusted on the fly. The goal was actually a 6 mile/loop tuneup, but as with my last few training cycles my final long tempo never seems to pan out. This one seems like I was just a headcase, I made it 2 loops in, was running about 2-3 seconds / mi slower than goal pace and got discouraged so I stopped and tried to change it to 3x2mi. A mile into the 2nd repeat I just felt like I was running too hard so I decided to nix the workout. I just around for 2-3 minutes and felt I still had enough so I decided to run one hard mile to get the Strava record for the loop. I ran a full mile from where I thought the course was to be safe and hit 4:51 for a full mile (and 4:42 for the loop course record). Glad I did that last mile, it was definitely a confidence booster as it made the botched workout seem like a mental issue than a fitness issue. I was pretty surprised as I thought I would have to work pretty hard to go under 4:50 on that loop but ran 7-8 seconds faster than expected.
Week 22 (6/9-6/21) - 67 miles - I was trying to stay positive going into the week and race but honestly I was pretty bummed. I have been pretty congested the past week and alternated between feeling okay and feeling awful all week. Initially I thought I was getting sick, but by the middle of this week (2-3 leading up to the race) I was pretty sure it was some sort of seasonal allergies to some type of pollen that I somehow developed as an adult. The allegra / mucinex mix I was taking seem to slowly get it under control.
Q1: Monday - 2 x 2 "MVP miles" with about 3-4 min rest in 9:57, 10:01 - the idea was to see if I can run 4:57-5:00/loop for 3 loops but I think I was a little too excited or just wanted to make sure I hit my times. Anyways, I went out in 4:52-4:53 and came back with a 5:04. Again, I stopped and reset, then ran 2 more even miles in 4:59-5:01ish. Not great, but at least i ran about 5:00-5:04 sea mile level equivalents after tying up somewhat hard early on.
Q2: Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in 66:07 - Will post a race report later, but obviously the biggest race of my life and a huge step towards achieving my dream of qualifying for the trials. I was very very very slightly bummed that I ran out of gas with a mile to go and didn't have enough left to throw down a 4:58 or so mile to go under 66, but overall it was one of the hardest races I have ever run in my life. To be honest by 3-4 miles in I was already in "let's just go one more mile and then maybe back off" mode, which continued until mile 9-10 and I just ran as hard as I could the rest of the way.
Splits: (based on course markers, except for mile 13 where there was none so I estimated based on last 1.1)
1 - 5:00.02
2 - 5:01.42
3 - 4:55.39
4 - 5:04.95
5 - 5:06.32
6 - 4:55.07 (30-35 ft elevation drop) - 31:05-31:10ish at 10K which is an unofficial PR. (garmin had 31:05 for my fastest 10K and given that I started slowing down after this mile it must have been in the first 10K... garmin also tends to measure a little short so maybe about 31:10 for first 10K?)
7 - 5:03.52
8 - 5:05.21
9 - 5:00.78
10 - 5:05.79 (50:18 @ 10 miles, previous fastest 10-mile split was 51:35 at Tucson last year but most people know how I feel about downhill courses)
11 - 5:04.61
12 - 5:03.01
13.1 - 5:39.75 (average pace around 5:05-5:06 ish). - 66:05.74 on watch, 66:07 officially.
Q1: (Monday) 2015 Bolder Boulder in 32:10. Originally the race results said 32:08, which matched what I had on my watch but I think due to me having a last minute bib change (they accidentally put me in wave AA somehow) they had to go off of my gun time when they finalized the results or something. Either way, I missed breaking 32 minutes. I worked out splits for a 31:45 or so and was on pace through 3 miles before just dying a bit and hung tough after cresting the high point of the course at 4 miles. (only got passed twice in the last 2 miles).
Q2: (Saturday) 3mi-2mi-1mi - 15:35, 10:04, 5:00. (3 min rest after the 3mi and 2mi). Original workout was actually a 10K tempo, and I wanted to do this on the Classic 10K course and given that the course is net downhill and loses about 30-40ft/mi (so about 3-5s/mi faster than on the flats) I wanted to run around 5:10s. Apparently taking 4 easy days after Bolder Boulder wasn't enough recovery and my workout quickly went downhill 2 miles in so I stopped to regroup and was able to salvage the workout a little bit with a couple of fast shorter intervals, but to be honest I went pretty hard to hit those times and it definitely wasn't threshold effort.
Week 20 (6/1-6/7) - 122 miles - Got in two solid workouts this week, although looking back my pollen allergies probably started around the day of the 2nd workout or the night before.
Q1: (Wednesday) 5x1 mile @ MVP with about 2:45 average rest. Averaged 4:52s for "MVP Miles". (about 0.96-0.97). Felt really good and smooth the whole way. Tried to pick it up a bit the last one but I "only" hit 4:50 after running the first 4 in 4:52-4:53.
Q2: (Saturday) Nielson 2-mile (10:01) + 2x2 mile. A little disappointed with the 2mile as I ran 10:03 last August, but I just didn't feel great. Got in 2 more 2 mile repeats with Kenny after about 10-15 minutes in 10:58 and 10:22. A little deceiving since the first 2 miles had about 80-90 feet of elevation gain and the 2nd had 100-110 feet of elevation loss so they were probably worth about 10:40 and 10:30 after adjusting for elevation.
Week 21 (6/8-/14) - 107 miles
Q1: Wednesday - MVP loop workout - 2 loops in 10:08 - 2min rest - 5:02 loop - 3-min rest - 4:51 mile. Another workout that was pretty much adjusted on the fly. The goal was actually a 6 mile/loop tuneup, but as with my last few training cycles my final long tempo never seems to pan out. This one seems like I was just a headcase, I made it 2 loops in, was running about 2-3 seconds / mi slower than goal pace and got discouraged so I stopped and tried to change it to 3x2mi. A mile into the 2nd repeat I just felt like I was running too hard so I decided to nix the workout. I just around for 2-3 minutes and felt I still had enough so I decided to run one hard mile to get the Strava record for the loop. I ran a full mile from where I thought the course was to be safe and hit 4:51 for a full mile (and 4:42 for the loop course record). Glad I did that last mile, it was definitely a confidence booster as it made the botched workout seem like a mental issue than a fitness issue. I was pretty surprised as I thought I would have to work pretty hard to go under 4:50 on that loop but ran 7-8 seconds faster than expected.
Week 22 (6/9-6/21) - 67 miles - I was trying to stay positive going into the week and race but honestly I was pretty bummed. I have been pretty congested the past week and alternated between feeling okay and feeling awful all week. Initially I thought I was getting sick, but by the middle of this week (2-3 leading up to the race) I was pretty sure it was some sort of seasonal allergies to some type of pollen that I somehow developed as an adult. The allegra / mucinex mix I was taking seem to slowly get it under control.
Q1: Monday - 2 x 2 "MVP miles" with about 3-4 min rest in 9:57, 10:01 - the idea was to see if I can run 4:57-5:00/loop for 3 loops but I think I was a little too excited or just wanted to make sure I hit my times. Anyways, I went out in 4:52-4:53 and came back with a 5:04. Again, I stopped and reset, then ran 2 more even miles in 4:59-5:01ish. Not great, but at least i ran about 5:00-5:04 sea mile level equivalents after tying up somewhat hard early on.
Q2: Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in 66:07 - Will post a race report later, but obviously the biggest race of my life and a huge step towards achieving my dream of qualifying for the trials. I was very very very slightly bummed that I ran out of gas with a mile to go and didn't have enough left to throw down a 4:58 or so mile to go under 66, but overall it was one of the hardest races I have ever run in my life. To be honest by 3-4 miles in I was already in "let's just go one more mile and then maybe back off" mode, which continued until mile 9-10 and I just ran as hard as I could the rest of the way.
Splits: (based on course markers, except for mile 13 where there was none so I estimated based on last 1.1)
1 - 5:00.02
2 - 5:01.42
3 - 4:55.39
4 - 5:04.95
5 - 5:06.32
6 - 4:55.07 (30-35 ft elevation drop) - 31:05-31:10ish at 10K which is an unofficial PR. (garmin had 31:05 for my fastest 10K and given that I started slowing down after this mile it must have been in the first 10K... garmin also tends to measure a little short so maybe about 31:10 for first 10K?)
7 - 5:03.52
8 - 5:05.21
9 - 5:00.78
10 - 5:05.79 (50:18 @ 10 miles, previous fastest 10-mile split was 51:35 at Tucson last year but most people know how I feel about downhill courses)
11 - 5:04.61
12 - 5:03.01
13.1 - 5:39.75 (average pace around 5:05-5:06 ish). - 66:05.74 on watch, 66:07 officially.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Training Summary - Weeks 17 and 18 of 22 - Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon Training Cycle
Week 17 (5/11 - 5/17) - 119 miles
Q1 (Wednesday) - Intended workout was 25x400s with 1-minute rest. I ended up doing 20, jogged a few minutes and jumped back in to do 2 more with Kenny Foster (he did all 25). We basically started our warmup as some American Distance project runners were starting the same workout and their coach Scott Simmons invited us to jump in with them when we were ready to start so our first 15 was their 11th-25th reps. #1-10 were all between 69.66 and 71.05, then I idiotically went with them on their "hammer" interval on the next one and dropped a 65.9, then was struggling to run 70-72 the rest of the way until I decided to call it a little early.
Average for first 20 were 70.79s - (21 and 22 were 70.29, 68.89)
Average rest was 61.23s
Q2 (Saturday) - Did a tempo intervals workout mixed into a long run with Kenny Foster. We met at Colorado College and ran north on the trails for about 7-8 miles, then we did 2mi-2mi-1mi-1mi with 4min/4min/3min rest after the intervals. Times were 10:26, 10:13, 5:06, 4:56. Although on average we had about 30-40 feet of elevation loss per mile so the times probably would have been about 3-5s slower per mile on a flat surface.
Week 18 (5/18 - 5/24) - 103 miles
Back off a bit this week because I wanted to run well at Bolder Boulder next Monday as it's probably my last hard tuneup race before the Garry Bjorklund Half. Only had one workout this week.
Q1: (Thursday) - 3x1mi + 4x1/2mi on treadmill at home. Might be a good thing my treadmill at home tops out at 5 min miles as I wasn't planning on running much faster next Monday anyways. Ran 5:03, 5:01, 5:00 and 4x2:30. (2:30 rest after each interval)
Q1 (Wednesday) - Intended workout was 25x400s with 1-minute rest. I ended up doing 20, jogged a few minutes and jumped back in to do 2 more with Kenny Foster (he did all 25). We basically started our warmup as some American Distance project runners were starting the same workout and their coach Scott Simmons invited us to jump in with them when we were ready to start so our first 15 was their 11th-25th reps. #1-10 were all between 69.66 and 71.05, then I idiotically went with them on their "hammer" interval on the next one and dropped a 65.9, then was struggling to run 70-72 the rest of the way until I decided to call it a little early.
Average for first 20 were 70.79s - (21 and 22 were 70.29, 68.89)
Average rest was 61.23s
Q2 (Saturday) - Did a tempo intervals workout mixed into a long run with Kenny Foster. We met at Colorado College and ran north on the trails for about 7-8 miles, then we did 2mi-2mi-1mi-1mi with 4min/4min/3min rest after the intervals. Times were 10:26, 10:13, 5:06, 4:56. Although on average we had about 30-40 feet of elevation loss per mile so the times probably would have been about 3-5s slower per mile on a flat surface.
Week 18 (5/18 - 5/24) - 103 miles
Back off a bit this week because I wanted to run well at Bolder Boulder next Monday as it's probably my last hard tuneup race before the Garry Bjorklund Half. Only had one workout this week.
Q1: (Thursday) - 3x1mi + 4x1/2mi on treadmill at home. Might be a good thing my treadmill at home tops out at 5 min miles as I wasn't planning on running much faster next Monday anyways. Ran 5:03, 5:01, 5:00 and 4x2:30. (2:30 rest after each interval)
Race/Trip Report - Country Music Half Marathon
Like a lot of runners, Maureen and I seem to like to combine races
and vacations together. This trip was no different, we decided last
winter to visit her cousin's Kerry's family in Columbia, Tennessee, an hour
south of Nashville, and combine the trip with the Country Music
Half-Marathon. We also somehow decided it was a good idea to drive instead of fly, so on
Wednesday after dinner we loaded our luggage and the puppies into the
Subaru and headed east. The car trip was pretty uneventful as we drove
through Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The only surprising
thing was how close to the Mountain time / Central time border we lived,
apparently the easternmost part of Colorado is actually in the Central
time zone, which we passed about an hour or so into our drive.
We arrived at Maureen's cousin's house on Thursday afternoon, and after we settled in I went for a quick shakeout run. It's funny how with sleeping about 2 hours in the last 30+ hours I still run faster at sea level at the same effort than I do back at home at 6200 feet altitude. Shortly after we went out for a nice dinner and then fell asleep shortly after we got back.
When we woke up on Friday we went out for a short run and then headed to the expo to grab our race packets. I also took a quick look at the seeded runners list to see what kind of competition there would be for Scott and I. Not that he needed the help, but Scott was the only runner with an elite bib in the full marathon (lucky bastard!) and I had Ryan Sheehan and Roosevelt Cook seeded ahead of me. This was going to be a bit more trouble than I was expecting, but with my first week under 110 miles since the Shamrock Shuffle and a bit more pop in my legs I was feeling fairly confident. We went home and relaxed for the rest of the day, then fell asleep shortly after dinner.
We woke up early on race day and headed out in the rain. Traffic wasn't too bad until we got pretty close to Nashville. When I got my elite athlete bib the day before they also gave me a parking pass to the VIP/Media parking lot, but when I tried to head that way the road was blocked by a couple of cop cars. I rolled down the window and showed them the map of the lot, and was directed to go some other way. Finally after 15-20 minutes of trying to find this place I just gave up and headed towards the general parking lot, which was closed off by then and I got funneled onto some road leading away from Nashville. At which point I basically made an illegal U-turn and got stuck in traffic for another 15-20 minutes heading back in town. By the time I found a parking garage and settled in it was 40 minutes before race start. Maureen and I quickly made the 10-15 minutes walk to the start line, and since she really had to use the bathroom and I really needed to warm up so I gave her my race day VIP bracelet so she can skip the port-a-john lines and go into the bar where the pre-race VIP area was. As I dropped her off I also ran into Scott, so we headed out for a very short warmup and then tried to get into our corral. We ran into Joseph Elsakr who was also running the half, but disaster nearly struck when we tried to get into the corral and the volunteer that was guarding the gate tried to make Joe and I go into the 2nd corral because our bib numbers started with 2 (203 and 204) and Scott/Joe/I had to argue/explain to her that we had elite bibs on and they weren't the 4-digit bibs that started with "2" that belonged in the 2nd corral. It's unbelievable that every year I see people with 5 digit bibs hogging the front line of the Rock n Roll Las Vegas marathon but we run into the one misinformed corral guard that almost screwed us. Oh well.
The race started and I knew with the lineup it would go out hard for at least a mile or two, but shortly after the first mile the place slowed a bit (probably due to the hill) and given how strong I felt I took the lead. From mile 2 to the 5K point I had two challengers that took the lead from me for a minute or so before I would basically maintain my pace through the next uphill climb and they would drop back. I believe at one point I had about a 6-8 second lead, but around mile 9 I hit a bad patch and Roosevelt caught up and we ran the next couple of miles together. It was a little frustrating as I felt like I was comfortable sharing the lead, but whenever I tried to surge and make a move he would cover it with ease. Finally, with 1.5 miles to go he made a move up one of the hills and I didn't respond in time, and given that the last 1-1.5 miles had one climb after another I just didn't have a chance to close that gap. It was pretty disappointing to lose a race like that, but the overall experience of leading a RnR half race for over 10 miles was pretty cool, hopefully I can close the deal next time. Final result - 68:54 / 2nd place. The caveat is that Scott told me before the race that this course is about 1:15 slower than a flat course like Houston, so while I don't actually count things like this, it would "convert" to a 67:39 or a 5-second PR, which made me feel a little bit better.
Shortly after the race I jogged back to the car and changed quickly, I then jogged out onto the course to cheer for Scott who looked like he was out for a stroll (I found out later he basically pulled away a mile or two earlier and was just trying to keep the effort easy until they hit 5-6 miles to go) as well as look for Maureen. She didn't have a great race, but still ran her 4th fastest half marathon ever on a tough course. Due to the fact that I finished in the top 3 they gave me another VIP bracelet, so we went and hung out in the postrace buffet for awhile until Maureen got pretty sick so we headed out. At least I was there in time to see Scott finish and get interviewed as we were walking out, and got a chance to chat with a couple of promising up and coming runners Joseph Elsakr and Ben Li for a few minutes before we got out of dodge. We stopped back at Maureen's cousin's place for a quick lunch with some delicious barbecue they had picked up. Another 18-20 hours and close to 1000 miles later, we were back home. I pretty much went to bed shortly after, definitely wasn't up for a run.
Upcoming race/trip reports:
-USA 25 KM championships
-Bolder Boulder 10KM
-Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon
We arrived at Maureen's cousin's house on Thursday afternoon, and after we settled in I went for a quick shakeout run. It's funny how with sleeping about 2 hours in the last 30+ hours I still run faster at sea level at the same effort than I do back at home at 6200 feet altitude. Shortly after we went out for a nice dinner and then fell asleep shortly after we got back.
When we woke up on Friday we went out for a short run and then headed to the expo to grab our race packets. I also took a quick look at the seeded runners list to see what kind of competition there would be for Scott and I. Not that he needed the help, but Scott was the only runner with an elite bib in the full marathon (lucky bastard!) and I had Ryan Sheehan and Roosevelt Cook seeded ahead of me. This was going to be a bit more trouble than I was expecting, but with my first week under 110 miles since the Shamrock Shuffle and a bit more pop in my legs I was feeling fairly confident. We went home and relaxed for the rest of the day, then fell asleep shortly after dinner.
We woke up early on race day and headed out in the rain. Traffic wasn't too bad until we got pretty close to Nashville. When I got my elite athlete bib the day before they also gave me a parking pass to the VIP/Media parking lot, but when I tried to head that way the road was blocked by a couple of cop cars. I rolled down the window and showed them the map of the lot, and was directed to go some other way. Finally after 15-20 minutes of trying to find this place I just gave up and headed towards the general parking lot, which was closed off by then and I got funneled onto some road leading away from Nashville. At which point I basically made an illegal U-turn and got stuck in traffic for another 15-20 minutes heading back in town. By the time I found a parking garage and settled in it was 40 minutes before race start. Maureen and I quickly made the 10-15 minutes walk to the start line, and since she really had to use the bathroom and I really needed to warm up so I gave her my race day VIP bracelet so she can skip the port-a-john lines and go into the bar where the pre-race VIP area was. As I dropped her off I also ran into Scott, so we headed out for a very short warmup and then tried to get into our corral. We ran into Joseph Elsakr who was also running the half, but disaster nearly struck when we tried to get into the corral and the volunteer that was guarding the gate tried to make Joe and I go into the 2nd corral because our bib numbers started with 2 (203 and 204) and Scott/Joe/I had to argue/explain to her that we had elite bibs on and they weren't the 4-digit bibs that started with "2" that belonged in the 2nd corral. It's unbelievable that every year I see people with 5 digit bibs hogging the front line of the Rock n Roll Las Vegas marathon but we run into the one misinformed corral guard that almost screwed us. Oh well.
The race started and I knew with the lineup it would go out hard for at least a mile or two, but shortly after the first mile the place slowed a bit (probably due to the hill) and given how strong I felt I took the lead. From mile 2 to the 5K point I had two challengers that took the lead from me for a minute or so before I would basically maintain my pace through the next uphill climb and they would drop back. I believe at one point I had about a 6-8 second lead, but around mile 9 I hit a bad patch and Roosevelt caught up and we ran the next couple of miles together. It was a little frustrating as I felt like I was comfortable sharing the lead, but whenever I tried to surge and make a move he would cover it with ease. Finally, with 1.5 miles to go he made a move up one of the hills and I didn't respond in time, and given that the last 1-1.5 miles had one climb after another I just didn't have a chance to close that gap. It was pretty disappointing to lose a race like that, but the overall experience of leading a RnR half race for over 10 miles was pretty cool, hopefully I can close the deal next time. Final result - 68:54 / 2nd place. The caveat is that Scott told me before the race that this course is about 1:15 slower than a flat course like Houston, so while I don't actually count things like this, it would "convert" to a 67:39 or a 5-second PR, which made me feel a little bit better.
Shortly after the race I jogged back to the car and changed quickly, I then jogged out onto the course to cheer for Scott who looked like he was out for a stroll (I found out later he basically pulled away a mile or two earlier and was just trying to keep the effort easy until they hit 5-6 miles to go) as well as look for Maureen. She didn't have a great race, but still ran her 4th fastest half marathon ever on a tough course. Due to the fact that I finished in the top 3 they gave me another VIP bracelet, so we went and hung out in the postrace buffet for awhile until Maureen got pretty sick so we headed out. At least I was there in time to see Scott finish and get interviewed as we were walking out, and got a chance to chat with a couple of promising up and coming runners Joseph Elsakr and Ben Li for a few minutes before we got out of dodge. We stopped back at Maureen's cousin's place for a quick lunch with some delicious barbecue they had picked up. Another 18-20 hours and close to 1000 miles later, we were back home. I pretty much went to bed shortly after, definitely wasn't up for a run.
Upcoming race/trip reports:
-USA 25 KM championships
-Bolder Boulder 10KM
-Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Easy Run Pace / Sample Training Schedule for April 2015
One of the most common type of questions I get are related to my easy/recovery run paces, and from reading blogs of elite/sub-elite runners I have seen a lot of them getting similar questions too. I read a message board thread on letsrun earlier this week where someone was questioning Alan Culpepper's suggestions on easy run paces and Robert Johnson, one of the site owners chimed in with a story from his coach about how "the last thing we'll worry about in training is the pace of the easy runs". I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, nonetheless the questions still keep coming so I'll post a couple of my sample weeks (and trust me, these are NOT outlier weeks) from this past cycle to drive this point home:
Week starting 3/30 - 110 miles (the day after the Shamrock Shuffle 8K)
Monday AM - recovery run with my wife. 10 miles @ 9 min/mi.
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:27
Tuesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:30
Wednesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:33
Wednesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Thursday AM - 10 mi @ 7:48
Thursday PM - 6 mi @ 7:10
Friday AM - 10 mi @ 7:03 (poor excuse, but I had to finish running by 9 to take a conference call, so I picked it up the last couple of miles)
Friday PM - 7 mi @ 7:12
Saturday AM - 3mi, 2mi, 1mi workout on treadmill: (13 miles total)
Warmup = 4 mi @ 7:20
Workout = 3mi @ 5:15, 2:22 rest, 2 mi @ 5:13, 2:21 rest, 1 mi @ 5:09
Cooldown = 3 mi @ 7:30
Saturday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Sunday AM - 16 mi @ 7:16
Week starting 4/06 - 124 miles
Monday AM - 10 mi @ 7:17. Last mile in 6:43.
Monday PM - 7 mi @ 7:50. Slightly hillier / more trails than usual, but not by much.
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:42
Tuesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Wednesday AM - (12 total) -
4 mi warmup @ 7:20, 5 mi tempo @ 5:14, 2:20 rest, 1 mi @ 5:07, 2 mi easy @ 7:15
(workout was 5mi tempo + 1 mi fast with a 2:20 rest on treadmill)
Wednesday PM - 6 mi @ 6:35. Felt really good on this run so I wore some lightweight flats and by mile 3 I still felt pretty good so I threw in 2 miles @ 5:11.5/mi average. I occasionally do this, but never planned. (a very short 2nd workout like a short tempo or fartlek on the afternoon of a planned workout)
Thursday AM - 11 mi @ 7:20
Thursday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Friday AM - 10 mi @ 7:22
Friday PM - 6 mi @ 7:15 (started around 7:40s and finished around 7:00)
Saturday AM - 14 mi w/ 6.5 @ tempo.
Warmup - 4 mi @ 7:25
Treadmill tempo - 6.5 mi @ 5:14.3 average
Cooldown - 3.5 @ 7:22
Saturday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Sunday AM - 15 mi @ 8:40s - very hilly trail run. I tried to do this while waiting for Maureen to do a trail race and I am a terrible trail runner (as well as being very sore from yesterday)
Sunday PM - 5 mi @ 9:00 - another shakeout run on the trails in Palmer Park. Again very hilly but even if I did this on flat roads or on my treadmill I doubt this would have been much faster than 8:00/mi.
Week starting 4/13 - 117 miles
Monday AM - 9 mi @ 7:23
Monday PM - 6 mi @ 7:06
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:24
Tuesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:10
Wednesday AM - Workout of 4-3-1.5-3x0.5 (Total = 16 miles)
Warmup = 3 mi @ 7:30
Treadmill Workout = 4 @ 5:17.7 (4min rest) 3 @ 5:14.3 (3 min rest) 1.5 @ 5:14.8 (60s rest) 3x800 @ 2:30 (60s rest).
Cooldown = 3 mi @ 7:36
Wednesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:10
Thursday AM - 10.5 mi @ 7:05
Thursday PM - 6 mi @ 7:14
Friday AM - 10 mi @ 7:08
Friday PM - 6 mi @ 7:07
Saturday AM - 10 mi @ 7:05
Saturday PM - 6 mi @ 7:06
Sunday AM - 16 mi @ 7:40
Week starting 4/20 - 69 miles (week of Country Music Half-Marathon, including a "0" on Sunday)
Monday AM - Tune-up workout (9.5mi total with 4 mi progression/tempo)
3.5 easy @ 7:25
4 mi progression - 5:15, 5:12, 5:10, 5:06. (on treadmill)
2 mi easy @ 7:00
Monday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:22
Tuesday PM - 5.5 mi @ 7:13
Wednesday AM - 9 mi @ 7:12 (with 5x1mi pickups @ 4:55-4:57 average)
Wednesday PM - 5 mi @ 7:04 (last mile in 6:35, felt smooth)
Thursday PM - 5 mi @ 7:03 (not bad after getting 2 hours or so of sleep during the 18 hour car trip from Colorado to Nashville)
Friday AM - 5 mi @ 8:30 (shakeout with Maureen)
Saturday AM - 13.5-14 mi (Finally parked 40 minutes before race started and spent another 10-15 walking to the start line, managed to get about 2-3 minutes of jogging beforehand). Country Music HM in 68:54. Then I jogged around for a few minutes afterwards, didn't really track anything since I was just trying to find the parking garage with our car.
Sunday - OFF (was going to run but just felt tight and awful when I got home after another 18 hour drive)
I will admit though, that my easy pace runs have steadily gotten a little faster as I have gotten in better shape these past couple of years. 2-3 years ago when I was a 70-72min half-marathoner I was doing runs around 7:30 average at sea level, and most of last year I was averaging 7:30-7:40 on my easy runs. Now lately it seems to be in the 7:00-7:15 range. However, I am running my easy runs at the same effort as I have been the past couple of years.
I have also been starting my runs around 7:45-8:00/mi and ending around 6:40-7:00/mi. Again, the increase in pace isn't forced at all, just a result of my legs loosening and warming up after 2-3 miles and slowly getting going.
Week starting 3/30 - 110 miles (the day after the Shamrock Shuffle 8K)
Monday AM - recovery run with my wife. 10 miles @ 9 min/mi.
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:27
Tuesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:30
Wednesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:33
Wednesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Thursday AM - 10 mi @ 7:48
Thursday PM - 6 mi @ 7:10
Friday AM - 10 mi @ 7:03 (poor excuse, but I had to finish running by 9 to take a conference call, so I picked it up the last couple of miles)
Friday PM - 7 mi @ 7:12
Saturday AM - 3mi, 2mi, 1mi workout on treadmill: (13 miles total)
Warmup = 4 mi @ 7:20
Workout = 3mi @ 5:15, 2:22 rest, 2 mi @ 5:13, 2:21 rest, 1 mi @ 5:09
Cooldown = 3 mi @ 7:30
Saturday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Sunday AM - 16 mi @ 7:16
Week starting 4/06 - 124 miles
Monday AM - 10 mi @ 7:17. Last mile in 6:43.
Monday PM - 7 mi @ 7:50. Slightly hillier / more trails than usual, but not by much.
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:42
Tuesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Wednesday AM - (12 total) -
4 mi warmup @ 7:20, 5 mi tempo @ 5:14, 2:20 rest, 1 mi @ 5:07, 2 mi easy @ 7:15
(workout was 5mi tempo + 1 mi fast with a 2:20 rest on treadmill)
Wednesday PM - 6 mi @ 6:35. Felt really good on this run so I wore some lightweight flats and by mile 3 I still felt pretty good so I threw in 2 miles @ 5:11.5/mi average. I occasionally do this, but never planned. (a very short 2nd workout like a short tempo or fartlek on the afternoon of a planned workout)
Thursday AM - 11 mi @ 7:20
Thursday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Friday AM - 10 mi @ 7:22
Friday PM - 6 mi @ 7:15 (started around 7:40s and finished around 7:00)
Saturday AM - 14 mi w/ 6.5 @ tempo.
Warmup - 4 mi @ 7:25
Treadmill tempo - 6.5 mi @ 5:14.3 average
Cooldown - 3.5 @ 7:22
Saturday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Sunday AM - 15 mi @ 8:40s - very hilly trail run. I tried to do this while waiting for Maureen to do a trail race and I am a terrible trail runner (as well as being very sore from yesterday)
Sunday PM - 5 mi @ 9:00 - another shakeout run on the trails in Palmer Park. Again very hilly but even if I did this on flat roads or on my treadmill I doubt this would have been much faster than 8:00/mi.
Week starting 4/13 - 117 miles
Monday AM - 9 mi @ 7:23
Monday PM - 6 mi @ 7:06
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:24
Tuesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:10
Wednesday AM - Workout of 4-3-1.5-3x0.5 (Total = 16 miles)
Warmup = 3 mi @ 7:30
Treadmill Workout = 4 @ 5:17.7 (4min rest) 3 @ 5:14.3 (3 min rest) 1.5 @ 5:14.8 (60s rest) 3x800 @ 2:30 (60s rest).
Cooldown = 3 mi @ 7:36
Wednesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:10
Thursday AM - 10.5 mi @ 7:05
Thursday PM - 6 mi @ 7:14
Friday AM - 10 mi @ 7:08
Friday PM - 6 mi @ 7:07
Saturday AM - 10 mi @ 7:05
Saturday PM - 6 mi @ 7:06
Sunday AM - 16 mi @ 7:40
Week starting 4/20 - 69 miles (week of Country Music Half-Marathon, including a "0" on Sunday)
Monday AM - Tune-up workout (9.5mi total with 4 mi progression/tempo)
3.5 easy @ 7:25
4 mi progression - 5:15, 5:12, 5:10, 5:06. (on treadmill)
2 mi easy @ 7:00
Monday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:22
Tuesday PM - 5.5 mi @ 7:13
Wednesday AM - 9 mi @ 7:12 (with 5x1mi pickups @ 4:55-4:57 average)
Wednesday PM - 5 mi @ 7:04 (last mile in 6:35, felt smooth)
Thursday PM - 5 mi @ 7:03 (not bad after getting 2 hours or so of sleep during the 18 hour car trip from Colorado to Nashville)
Friday AM - 5 mi @ 8:30 (shakeout with Maureen)
Saturday AM - 13.5-14 mi (Finally parked 40 minutes before race started and spent another 10-15 walking to the start line, managed to get about 2-3 minutes of jogging beforehand). Country Music HM in 68:54. Then I jogged around for a few minutes afterwards, didn't really track anything since I was just trying to find the parking garage with our car.
Sunday - OFF (was going to run but just felt tight and awful when I got home after another 18 hour drive)
I will admit though, that my easy pace runs have steadily gotten a little faster as I have gotten in better shape these past couple of years. 2-3 years ago when I was a 70-72min half-marathoner I was doing runs around 7:30 average at sea level, and most of last year I was averaging 7:30-7:40 on my easy runs. Now lately it seems to be in the 7:00-7:15 range. However, I am running my easy runs at the same effort as I have been the past couple of years.
I have also been starting my runs around 7:45-8:00/mi and ending around 6:40-7:00/mi. Again, the increase in pace isn't forced at all, just a result of my legs loosening and warming up after 2-3 miles and slowly getting going.
Training Summary - Weeks 15 and 16 of 22 - Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon Training Cycle
Week 15 (4/28 - 5/03) - 109 miles: Did 4x2mi on Wednesday, and tuneup 5K race on Sunday.
Q1 - 4x2mi with 2:30 rest. I went back to base to use the hilly road loop I was doing workouts on last fall. Goal was to do 10:40, 10:30, 10:20, 10:10 and I ended up running a little faster for the first 3 reps but died a little on the last one. I was surprised with how good I felt through the 3rd one, but then again I was using my garmin so maybe it was off by just a few seconds...
10:28, 10:21, 10:06, 10:20.
Q2: Ran a 5K up in Denver that Andrew told me about. It was sponsored by the Colorado Rockies so I ended up winning a bunch of Colorado Rockies memorabilia. Course was slightly hillier than expected but I got in a solid effort. I ran 15:59 but my garmin read 3.20 miles. I normally hate it when people cite garmin readings as proof of race courses being long, (most notably every April when tons of idiots claim Boston was long because their GPS watches say so) however my garmins have always consistently read 3.11-3.14 for every other certified and accurately set up 5K I have run the last 3-4 years so I am going to argue for about another 15 seconds here. The other argument was that I am definitely in much better shape than when I ran 15:58 and 16:00 at altitude last year during my tuneup races, but I guess we'll see next weekend.
Week 16 (5/04 - 5/10) - 80 miles
I thought about trying to squeeze in a short tuneup session, but my calf was just a little tight on Monday and Tuesday so I decided to just run easy until race day on Saturday. Not sure when the last time I had 5 easy days before a race was, but it seemed to have worked out okay.
Q1: 5th 3rd River Bank Run / USA 25KM Champs - Grand Rapids, Michigan - 14th men, 13th American - 80:55 (5:12/mi).
Very happy with the run. It was "VDOT PR" in slightly suboptimal conditions and every American in front of me has either qualified for the Olympic Trials or was a former trials qualifier
Upcoming blog posts: Race reports for CMM Half (this will be short) and the USA 25KM champs (will be longer) as well as a more detailed breakdown of a couple of my training weeks per one of the reader's request.
Q1 - 4x2mi with 2:30 rest. I went back to base to use the hilly road loop I was doing workouts on last fall. Goal was to do 10:40, 10:30, 10:20, 10:10 and I ended up running a little faster for the first 3 reps but died a little on the last one. I was surprised with how good I felt through the 3rd one, but then again I was using my garmin so maybe it was off by just a few seconds...
10:28, 10:21, 10:06, 10:20.
Q2: Ran a 5K up in Denver that Andrew told me about. It was sponsored by the Colorado Rockies so I ended up winning a bunch of Colorado Rockies memorabilia. Course was slightly hillier than expected but I got in a solid effort. I ran 15:59 but my garmin read 3.20 miles. I normally hate it when people cite garmin readings as proof of race courses being long, (most notably every April when tons of idiots claim Boston was long because their GPS watches say so) however my garmins have always consistently read 3.11-3.14 for every other certified and accurately set up 5K I have run the last 3-4 years so I am going to argue for about another 15 seconds here. The other argument was that I am definitely in much better shape than when I ran 15:58 and 16:00 at altitude last year during my tuneup races, but I guess we'll see next weekend.
Week 16 (5/04 - 5/10) - 80 miles
I thought about trying to squeeze in a short tuneup session, but my calf was just a little tight on Monday and Tuesday so I decided to just run easy until race day on Saturday. Not sure when the last time I had 5 easy days before a race was, but it seemed to have worked out okay.
Q1: 5th 3rd River Bank Run / USA 25KM Champs - Grand Rapids, Michigan - 14th men, 13th American - 80:55 (5:12/mi).
Very happy with the run. It was "VDOT PR" in slightly suboptimal conditions and every American in front of me has either qualified for the Olympic Trials or was a former trials qualifier
Upcoming blog posts: Race reports for CMM Half (this will be short) and the USA 25KM champs (will be longer) as well as a more detailed breakdown of a couple of my training weeks per one of the reader's request.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Training Summary - Weeks 13 and 14 of 22 - Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon Training Cycle
Week 13 (4/13 - 4/19) - 117 miles:
Just one workout this week, but a good one o Wednesday.
Q1 - Intended workout was 4-3-2-1, but I felt on the edge halfway through the "2" so I changed it a little and did 4-3-1.5-3x0.5.
4 miles - 21:10.8 (5:17.7 average)
4min rest
3 miles - 15:42.9 (5:14.3 average)
3 min rest
1.5 miles - 7:44.2 (5:15.8 average)
1 min rest
3x800 @ 2:29-2:30 (60s rest after each)
Week 14 (4/20 - 4/27) - 69 miles
Two hard sessions this week. First one went well and second was slightly below expectations. Unfortunately the 2nd one was way more important.
Q1: (Monday) - 4 mile progression/tempo/tuneup in 5:15 - 5:12 - 5:10 - 5:06. Felt good and ready to roll.
Q2: (Saturday) - Country Music (RnR) Half-Marathon in 68:53 - 2nd place.
I am going to hold off on posting a race report for the Country Music half for a couple of weeks since I think it would be more valuable to post a "what did I do wrong?" along with it. Luckily I have the USA 25K champs in Grand Rapids, Michigan coming up in a little over a week (Saturday 5/9) so I can try to make some of those adjustments and see how it works out. So for the 5 people or so that actually read the blog my apologies for making you wait, but at least you should get to read 2 race reports in mid May. In the meantime one of my reader's requested a more detailed breakdown of my weeks so I'll try to get that up in the next few days.
Just one workout this week, but a good one o Wednesday.
Q1 - Intended workout was 4-3-2-1, but I felt on the edge halfway through the "2" so I changed it a little and did 4-3-1.5-3x0.5.
4 miles - 21:10.8 (5:17.7 average)
4min rest
3 miles - 15:42.9 (5:14.3 average)
3 min rest
1.5 miles - 7:44.2 (5:15.8 average)
1 min rest
3x800 @ 2:29-2:30 (60s rest after each)
Week 14 (4/20 - 4/27) - 69 miles
Two hard sessions this week. First one went well and second was slightly below expectations. Unfortunately the 2nd one was way more important.
Q1: (Monday) - 4 mile progression/tempo/tuneup in 5:15 - 5:12 - 5:10 - 5:06. Felt good and ready to roll.
Q2: (Saturday) - Country Music (RnR) Half-Marathon in 68:53 - 2nd place.
I am going to hold off on posting a race report for the Country Music half for a couple of weeks since I think it would be more valuable to post a "what did I do wrong?" along with it. Luckily I have the USA 25K champs in Grand Rapids, Michigan coming up in a little over a week (Saturday 5/9) so I can try to make some of those adjustments and see how it works out. So for the 5 people or so that actually read the blog my apologies for making you wait, but at least you should get to read 2 race reports in mid May. In the meantime one of my reader's requested a more detailed breakdown of my weeks so I'll try to get that up in the next few days.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Training Summary - Weeks 11 and 12 of 22 - Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon Training Cycle
Well, it looks like my training is finally coming around, although I hope with 10 weeks to go until my goal race I am not turning it on too early.
Week 11 (3/30 - 4/5) - 110 miles:
Given that I was pretty sick on Sunday after the race and we were traveling home on Monday afternoon I took the week pretty easy and just did 10/6 doubles for the rest of the week until Saturday. On Saturday I attempted a 5-6 mile tempo @ 5:15 pace. However, shortly before 3 miles I hit a bad patch and switched the workout to 3-2-1 on the fly.
Q1 = 3 miles @ 5:15s (2:22 rest) 2 miles @ 5:13s (2:20 rest) 1 mile @ 5:09.
Week 12 (4/6 - 4/12) - 124 miles
This was the week where things really seemed to be turning around. On my workout on Wednesday the opposite of Saturday happened. I planned a 4-1-1 workout, but when I hit 4 miles I felt so good I extended the long tempo portion another mile. Q1 = 5 miles @ 5:14.4 (26:12), 2:20 rest, 1 mile @ 5:07.
I came back on Saturday for a long tempo. Given that I decided midweek to try to enter the USA 25KM champs in 4 weeks I decided to do something a little longer than if I was just training for a half. Besides, I also felt like I have been working on the faster stuff a bit so an injection of strength work might provide a solid stimulus. I didn't feel great when I started the workout, but soon found myself cruising along at 5:15s. I ended up making it 6.5 miles in 34:03 (Q2 = 6.5 miles @ 5:14.3 avg)
Obviously another huge confidence boost since I averaged 6 miles @ 5:25s with about the same effort before I ran 68:12 last year, so to be able to run a little farther at 10-11s/mi faster bodes well for my upcoming races.
Week 11 (3/30 - 4/5) - 110 miles:
Given that I was pretty sick on Sunday after the race and we were traveling home on Monday afternoon I took the week pretty easy and just did 10/6 doubles for the rest of the week until Saturday. On Saturday I attempted a 5-6 mile tempo @ 5:15 pace. However, shortly before 3 miles I hit a bad patch and switched the workout to 3-2-1 on the fly.
Q1 = 3 miles @ 5:15s (2:22 rest) 2 miles @ 5:13s (2:20 rest) 1 mile @ 5:09.
Week 12 (4/6 - 4/12) - 124 miles
This was the week where things really seemed to be turning around. On my workout on Wednesday the opposite of Saturday happened. I planned a 4-1-1 workout, but when I hit 4 miles I felt so good I extended the long tempo portion another mile. Q1 = 5 miles @ 5:14.4 (26:12), 2:20 rest, 1 mile @ 5:07.
I came back on Saturday for a long tempo. Given that I decided midweek to try to enter the USA 25KM champs in 4 weeks I decided to do something a little longer than if I was just training for a half. Besides, I also felt like I have been working on the faster stuff a bit so an injection of strength work might provide a solid stimulus. I didn't feel great when I started the workout, but soon found myself cruising along at 5:15s. I ended up making it 6.5 miles in 34:03 (Q2 = 6.5 miles @ 5:14.3 avg)
Obviously another huge confidence boost since I averaged 6 miles @ 5:25s with about the same effort before I ran 68:12 last year, so to be able to run a little farther at 10-11s/mi faster bodes well for my upcoming races.
Monday, April 13, 2015
The 2015 Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8K - Chicago, IL
One of my favorite cities in the world is Chicago. My wife and I started dating in 2006 and we lived there until a couple of months after we were married in 2009. I also moved there shortly after I started running again after college, and given that I pretty much hopped back into races right away it's always fun to look back at how far I have come with my running since then.
Back in December, Maureen asked if I would want to make a trip back there to run the Shamrock Shuffle. I ran this race in 2007 after a couple of months of training, with a modest goal of running under 30 minutes, and was on pace for about 2 miles before I crash and burned to a 31:32 finish. Obviously I was going to crush that time this year, but it would still be fun to see by how much.
We got in late Friday and after visiting a couple of old spots we went to bed. On Saturday morning Maureen and I did a shakeout run ending back at our old apartment. I grabbed a couple of egg white mcmuffins and hash browns before we looked around a little bit more. Our original plan was to try to get on a bus for the mile or so trip back to our hotel, but after waiting in the cold for a couple of minutes we just jogged back. No cramps at all for me despite a decent sized meal, I obviously have a future in ultras. (That's all it is right? Eating big meals and running 8-minute miles?). We ran a few errands later and I grabbed lunch in Chinatown after we picked up our bibs at the expo.
In the afternoon Nick got in and we went out to get dinner at the Flat Top Grill. After dinner we got all our gear ready and watched Notre Dame almost take down Kentucky in the elite 8 of the NCAA Men's basketball tournament.
The weather forecast for race morning was subpar all weekend and it didn't change by race morning. With a wind chill of close to 20 degrees I opted to warm up on the hotel treadmill and then jogged over to the race start. I bumped into my old friend Richard Heffron in the corral and we chatted for a few minutes, which helped me calm my nerves a bit especially with the cold weather. The race was delayed a couple of minutes, but that just gave me time to squeeze my way a little closer to the front and I ended up starting about 3-4 rows back. Finally after the short delay with no explanations we were off.
I had scaled back my expectations for this race in recent weeks. A month or so before the race I would have wanted to run in the low-mid 24s, or even crack 24 minutes if the weather was decent and I had a great race. However, I had a couple of subpar races in the past two weeks and my tune-up 5000 the week before converted to about a 15:30 at sea level, or about a 25:30 8K. Considering a year ago I split about a 25:40 8K in the middle of my 10-miler I was less than excited about my prospects coming in. What I did have going for me is that I was still in the "2-4 week recovery period" after being sick to I may still be gaining a lot of my fitness back. With all this said, I decided I would just try to run a conservative first 2-3 miles and "go for it" in the last half of the race.
As with all Bank of America races in Chicago (i.e. Chicago Marathon, Shamrock Shuffle, and RnR Chicago half before it was sold to the competitor group) the first mile heads down Columbus Drive before taking a left on Grand and then turns back downtown again. I kept my effort pretty relaxed and hit the first mile in 4:58. At this point a pack caught me and I just latched on, figuring that we were going to catch a bunch of runners that had gone out too hard. My new friends and I gradually moves up through the field, and when we made the turn onto State avenue I could still see the lead vehicle up ahead. Pretty soon we hit the 2nd mile mark - 4:53 for the last mile, oops. The effort didn't feel too bad though so I just kept on running with the same pack and hit mile 3 in 4:57. The cool thing about the race was that they had a timing mat down at 5K, which I crossed in about 15:20. (official split later was 15:21, which was a 5K PR by 8 seconds). At this point we were running directly into a nasty headwind (based on forecast it was around 15-20 mph). I tried to be smart and tucked into a huge pack of about 10-12 guys. The effort actually felt a little slow and I was tempted to make a move, but as I was contemplating it somebody in the pack clipped the heels of a runner near the front and the guy in front went down hard and the pack splintered a little since nobody wanted to be next. Pretty soon we made a left hand turn and hit mile 4 in 5:01. Everyone was laying their cards on the table for the last mile and I apparently was holding the equivalent of 3-of-a-kind to most people's straights and flushes. I was clinging desperately onto about 5 guys in the last half mile as we headed up the only major hill of the race (the same one as in the last quarter mile of the Chicago marathon) and after we crested the hill the entire pack pulled away from me like I was standing still and I was just running as hard as I can to not lose any more spots. I was estimating that I was in the 50s or 60s placewise but like any competitive runner I was just trying to make sure I don't lose any spots unnecessarily. Finally I hit the line in 24:4x (official time was 24:44).
I came away with the race with mixed feelings. It was the first time I have run under 25 minutes for 5 miles. (well, 5 mile equivalent, since 5 miles would have been about 24:54 after adding 10 seconds or so to the 8K). Hell, in a standalone race it was the first time I broke 26 minutes. It was also definitely a sign that I am back on track with my training. However, it also showed me that I had a lot of work to do. I felt better when I saw the results later that a lot of people ran 15-30 seconds slower than the year before despite being in same/better shape so maybe that spoke to the conditions a little. More importantly, I finished within 15-20 seconds of a few guys who have qualified for the marathon trials and a few more that have run in the 65-66 min half-marathon range.
After a cooldown back on the treadmill at the hotel (yes, I am a wimp) we cleaned up and went out to lunch at my favorite deep dish pizza place in Chicago - Lou Malnati's. The food was good and one of Maureen's friends was also able to join us. Following lunch we walked around the Magnificent Mile a little bit to do some shopping and then head back to the hotel. Unfortunately I got pretty sick later in the day so the rest of the Chicago trip was a slight bummer as I ended up not having much of an appetite for about 36-48 hours.
I think this race may have made it's way onto my annual racing schedule. The 8K is a rare distance for a road race but also a pretty fun one, and an excuse to come back to visit Chicago is always good as well. Unfortunately I think because of the proximity between my postrace meal and me getting violently ill I have developed an aversion to deep dish pizza even though I KNOW it couldn't have been the pizza. Hopefully I can break that association before I am back in the windy city again.
Next up, Country Music Half-Marathon on Saturday 4/25.
Back in December, Maureen asked if I would want to make a trip back there to run the Shamrock Shuffle. I ran this race in 2007 after a couple of months of training, with a modest goal of running under 30 minutes, and was on pace for about 2 miles before I crash and burned to a 31:32 finish. Obviously I was going to crush that time this year, but it would still be fun to see by how much.
We got in late Friday and after visiting a couple of old spots we went to bed. On Saturday morning Maureen and I did a shakeout run ending back at our old apartment. I grabbed a couple of egg white mcmuffins and hash browns before we looked around a little bit more. Our original plan was to try to get on a bus for the mile or so trip back to our hotel, but after waiting in the cold for a couple of minutes we just jogged back. No cramps at all for me despite a decent sized meal, I obviously have a future in ultras. (That's all it is right? Eating big meals and running 8-minute miles?). We ran a few errands later and I grabbed lunch in Chinatown after we picked up our bibs at the expo.
In the afternoon Nick got in and we went out to get dinner at the Flat Top Grill. After dinner we got all our gear ready and watched Notre Dame almost take down Kentucky in the elite 8 of the NCAA Men's basketball tournament.
The weather forecast for race morning was subpar all weekend and it didn't change by race morning. With a wind chill of close to 20 degrees I opted to warm up on the hotel treadmill and then jogged over to the race start. I bumped into my old friend Richard Heffron in the corral and we chatted for a few minutes, which helped me calm my nerves a bit especially with the cold weather. The race was delayed a couple of minutes, but that just gave me time to squeeze my way a little closer to the front and I ended up starting about 3-4 rows back. Finally after the short delay with no explanations we were off.
I had scaled back my expectations for this race in recent weeks. A month or so before the race I would have wanted to run in the low-mid 24s, or even crack 24 minutes if the weather was decent and I had a great race. However, I had a couple of subpar races in the past two weeks and my tune-up 5000 the week before converted to about a 15:30 at sea level, or about a 25:30 8K. Considering a year ago I split about a 25:40 8K in the middle of my 10-miler I was less than excited about my prospects coming in. What I did have going for me is that I was still in the "2-4 week recovery period" after being sick to I may still be gaining a lot of my fitness back. With all this said, I decided I would just try to run a conservative first 2-3 miles and "go for it" in the last half of the race.
As with all Bank of America races in Chicago (i.e. Chicago Marathon, Shamrock Shuffle, and RnR Chicago half before it was sold to the competitor group) the first mile heads down Columbus Drive before taking a left on Grand and then turns back downtown again. I kept my effort pretty relaxed and hit the first mile in 4:58. At this point a pack caught me and I just latched on, figuring that we were going to catch a bunch of runners that had gone out too hard. My new friends and I gradually moves up through the field, and when we made the turn onto State avenue I could still see the lead vehicle up ahead. Pretty soon we hit the 2nd mile mark - 4:53 for the last mile, oops. The effort didn't feel too bad though so I just kept on running with the same pack and hit mile 3 in 4:57. The cool thing about the race was that they had a timing mat down at 5K, which I crossed in about 15:20. (official split later was 15:21, which was a 5K PR by 8 seconds). At this point we were running directly into a nasty headwind (based on forecast it was around 15-20 mph). I tried to be smart and tucked into a huge pack of about 10-12 guys. The effort actually felt a little slow and I was tempted to make a move, but as I was contemplating it somebody in the pack clipped the heels of a runner near the front and the guy in front went down hard and the pack splintered a little since nobody wanted to be next. Pretty soon we made a left hand turn and hit mile 4 in 5:01. Everyone was laying their cards on the table for the last mile and I apparently was holding the equivalent of 3-of-a-kind to most people's straights and flushes. I was clinging desperately onto about 5 guys in the last half mile as we headed up the only major hill of the race (the same one as in the last quarter mile of the Chicago marathon) and after we crested the hill the entire pack pulled away from me like I was standing still and I was just running as hard as I can to not lose any more spots. I was estimating that I was in the 50s or 60s placewise but like any competitive runner I was just trying to make sure I don't lose any spots unnecessarily. Finally I hit the line in 24:4x (official time was 24:44).
I came away with the race with mixed feelings. It was the first time I have run under 25 minutes for 5 miles. (well, 5 mile equivalent, since 5 miles would have been about 24:54 after adding 10 seconds or so to the 8K). Hell, in a standalone race it was the first time I broke 26 minutes. It was also definitely a sign that I am back on track with my training. However, it also showed me that I had a lot of work to do. I felt better when I saw the results later that a lot of people ran 15-30 seconds slower than the year before despite being in same/better shape so maybe that spoke to the conditions a little. More importantly, I finished within 15-20 seconds of a few guys who have qualified for the marathon trials and a few more that have run in the 65-66 min half-marathon range.
After a cooldown back on the treadmill at the hotel (yes, I am a wimp) we cleaned up and went out to lunch at my favorite deep dish pizza place in Chicago - Lou Malnati's. The food was good and one of Maureen's friends was also able to join us. Following lunch we walked around the Magnificent Mile a little bit to do some shopping and then head back to the hotel. Unfortunately I got pretty sick later in the day so the rest of the Chicago trip was a slight bummer as I ended up not having much of an appetite for about 36-48 hours.
I think this race may have made it's way onto my annual racing schedule. The 8K is a rare distance for a road race but also a pretty fun one, and an excuse to come back to visit Chicago is always good as well. Unfortunately I think because of the proximity between my postrace meal and me getting violently ill I have developed an aversion to deep dish pizza even though I KNOW it couldn't have been the pizza. Hopefully I can break that association before I am back in the windy city again.
Next up, Country Music Half-Marathon on Saturday 4/25.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Trip Report - 2015 Gate River Run / USA 15K National Championships
In college one of my goals was to qualify for a national championship, and unfortunately it never panned out. Then 2 years ago I was fortunate enough to get let into the USA Half-Marathon championships in Duluth, Minnesota by the hosting race (Grandma's Marathon) despite being 34 seconds outside of the qualifying standard, and it was definitely an eye-opening experience to toe the line with Olympians and runners who have represented the USA in international competition. Sometimes when you face a level of competition so out of your league, some people get discouraged and eventually move on to different pursuits. For me, I realized that while I will never be in that front pack competing for the win or a spot to represent team USA, I wanted to keep on working hard so I can be as competitive and place as high as I can in races like that in the future. I dropped out of the race that day when my IT Band flared up early on and while I knew well in advance that it was probably going to happen, it was disappointing nonetheless.
Last year I got to run in my 2nd national championship race, the Gate River Run, the 15K championships. I had another injury scare a few weeks before but after weekly massages for the month leading up to the race I was able to toe the line and come away with a top 50 finish. Not great, but at least respectable by my standards. When race registration opened, I was a little surprised to receive an invitation to return to the race from the elite athlete coordinator Richard Fannin. Maybe I was underselling myself a little bit, but I felt that typically the top 20-30 runners in this race are the true elites (Olympic Trials qualifier caliber or faster) and the rest of us were at best "sub-elites". If you ask any runners who are regulars on the USA road racing circuit they will tell you that Richard is one of the top elite athlete coordinators around, and he cares about putting together a deep, competitive field and not just the top few runners in the race. I was perfectly happy paying my own way for a chance to compete in a field like this, but a few weeks before the race he messaged me to let me know that I will be getting a room from the race, saving me a couple of hundred bucks!
On Thursday before the race I got in a quick shakeout run and then Maureen drove me to the airport. The race had arranged a shuttle to pick up the elite runners for the race from the airport and take us to the hotel. I shared a shuttle with Andrew Epperson, Kiya Dandena, Allison Morgan, and Heidi Greenwood, immediately making me the only person in the group that has not qualified for the trials yet. I chatted with Andrew for a bit since it turned out he lives about 2 hours away from me and is currently working on his grad degree while assistant coaching at Colorado School of Mines.
When we got to the hotel it turned out our rooms weren't ready yet, so Kiya and I walked to a Panera to grab a quick bite to eat and when we got back to the hotel our rooms were ready. I quickly changed so Kiya/Andrew/I can head out for a shakeout run. On my way out of the room my roommate for the weekend, Johnny Crain, the 2014 D3 10,000 meter national champion and also a Olympic trials qualifier came in and we quickly introduced ourselves before I ran out. After the shakeout run we all went back to our own rooms to shower/change and then the same crew + John met up at an Italian place Andrew had found. We made quick work of the bread they brought out, as well as the refills. Everyone got the lasagna besides me, I went with the chicken and eggplant parmisian combo. Someone at the table next to us was apparently on vacation and didn't have a fridge in their hotel room so they gave us a plate of their leftover spaghetti meatballs which were quickly devoured as well.I was definitely glad not to be the pig of the group sticking like a sore thumb as is the case most of the time when I go out to eat with other people.
The next morning the four of us went for another shakeout run followed by breakfast at a nearby diner/cafe type place. Two other runners Johnny met the day before joined us, Brandon York and Sam Mueller. At least now I am not the only guy who hasn't qualified for the trials anymore, but Sam (who missed it with a 66-low in Houston) has also run sub-30 on the track so he's still significantly faster than me. Before we headed out to breakfast, I ran into Ryan Vail and took the chance to quickly say hi and have a short conversation. For those you who don't know the back story, I won his 2014 London marathon singlet in a prediction contest he had last year. Like all the other fast guys he was very down to earth and approachable, and even gave me some advice/warning on being conservative tomorrow given the suboptimal weather forecast.
After breakfast we walked back to the elite athlete hospitality suite, grabbed some more water and snacks and watched a course tour video before heading back to our rooms. In the afternoon we went to "The Sanctuary", an event organized by the race where we go and visit a place for underprivileged kids in the Jacksonville area and we introduced ourselves and did relay races with the kids. Afterwards we went to the technical meeting / elite athlete dinner where Todd Williams was the guest speaker this year. Following this dinner I met up with my sister-in-law, her boyfriend (my brother-in-law passed away a few years ago), my nephews and the boyfriend's son for another dinner at a nearby restaurant on the river. I recalled a discussion Johnny and I had during lunch about spicy foods prerace and ordered the Jambalaya, which may or may not be a mistake.
On race day I woke up nice and early per usual, but Johnny appeared to still be asleep so I tried to be as quiet as possible til he woke up. Since we were staying at the other side of the bridge from the Hyatt where the elite hospitality suite was, we were just going to jog/walk over but Richard picked us up on his way! Talk about going all out for his runners. I grabbed a couple of bowls of the baked oatmeal and a couple of cups of coffee, then we all got on the bus and headed to the staging area. We hung out for about half an hour or so before I decided to head out to warmup. In a similar setup to last year, they blocked off a road loop that's around 0.6-0.7 miles for us to warm up on, and this year instead of 5 porta potties reserved for elite athletes we got some really nice RV-style bathrooms (hard to describe, but basically these bathrooms are as nice as ones you would see in most 4 star hotels). I warmed up for about 3 miles, then headed back to the staging area to change into my race gear so we can be led out to the start line with the rest of the elites. On the way I met/chatted with Tommy Gruenewald. When we got up to the start I did some more easy jogging and a few easy strides, then lined up with everyone else. After the national anthem and a short wait we were off.
Due to the extremely humid conditions the early pace was very very conservative, and given the double whammy of my poor history of racing in humid weather and being sick recently I was even more conservative. After the first quarter mile it was pretty much everyone that was in the elite field and a few jokers in one giant pack and I was 2-3 steps behind them. By the first mile the pretenders had fallen off and it was still one giant pack of about 65-75 guys and I was the lone chaser 10 seconds back. I basically ran in no man's land for the next 4-5 miles and tried to stay positive and not think about how I was running 15s/mi slower than my goal pace coming into the race. Finally around mile 5 I started picking off some stragglers and by the time we hit the beginning of the climb up Hart bridge I was making my way slowly up the field. Unlike last year where I didn't get passed in the second half of the race, this year there was a "downhill mile" competition for the fastest last mile of the race and one of the guys decided to go after the $1000 award after he fell back from the lead pack around 2-3 miles in so I had the rare experience of watching someone put 43 seconds on me in about 3/4th of a mile. After the race it seemed like pretty much everyone other than the top 3-4 guys and a handful of others guys out of the 70-80 of us in the men's elite field felt like we had good races. I had a short conversation with Tommy about how weather like this tends to hurt bigger runners like us, misery loves company I guess.
After we got back to the staging area I went out for a cooldown with Eric Loeffler (who sat next to / with our small group in the staging area). Eric is one of the few guys in the entire field who is older than me, but chatting with him made me even more optimistic about my chances of improving over the next few years since he's about 5-6 years older than me but said most of his PRs have come in the last 3-4 years. After the cooldown I went into this area where they had a bunch of free food for us and proceeded to devour about 3-4 hot dogs, some pastries, and a few bottles of gatorade over the next half hour or so. I was about to head back to the hotel to shower/pack and head to the airport but Johnny saved the day (he's also leaving the afternoon of the race) and said we should check with Richard first if there's a shuttle to take us to the airport, and there is! So I ended up saving a nice chunk of change on a taxi. There was a girl sharing the shuttle with us that was also on Johnny's flight so the three of us ended up getting lunch before our flight, then we parted ways and one of the coolest 48 hours a running nerd could experience (minus about 50 minutes of subpar/forgettable "racing") came to an end.
A few quick notes on the weekend:
1. Elites are normal people too.While I spent a lot of my time talking running with other runners during my 48 hours or so in Jacksonville, we also spent a decent amount of time talking about "normal" non-running stuff. John and I talked basketball/football a bit while killing time and Andrew gave us a pretty interesting description of what he would like to do after he finishes his graduate degree in mechanical engineering. (making equipment/gear for special olympics athletes)
2. In general, people who choose to run after college are incredibly supportive of other runners' dreams and goals. While it was obvious that I wasn't on the same level as most of the company I was keeping, there was nothing but support and nods when I was asked about my goals going forward and I mentioned chasing the Olympic Marathon trials standard. Obviously when you have a dream you have to believe in it yourself, but having others who have made the journey before you telling you that you are on track is a huge confidence boost.
3. When things aren't going well in a race, never throw in the towel. I was feeling absolutely awful about 2-3 miles into the race, but I kept plugging away and started pulling in some runners. While my time was very subpar by my standards (I ran about 4s/mi faster than my marathon pace for crying out loud) the level of competition I finished with/near made me feel a little bit better. Finishing with/near 66min HM / 30:30-31:00 10K guys even when they're probably not having great days still puts the race in perspective somewhat. I also finished about 2min behind a ton of 63-64min HM guys as well.
4. Consistency in training is key. I have started to learn this lesson myself, but for some reason in our sport the point usually comes through even more when it comes from a much faster runner. John told me he basically had a 4-5 months stretch of 110+ mpw before he ran 63:21 in Houston. So you don't need to do insane mileage, but finding a "sweet spot" where you can get in quality workouts while staying healthy and letting your fitness build is huge. My focus going forward now is to not get sick again (easier said than done) and not push the envelope too much with my training mileage but just staying consistent and do the small things it takes to stay healthy and I believe I'll be able to make another fitness jump or two in the next few months.
5. It seems like a lot more 22-24 year olds are sticking with the sport and making a go at it. It was pretty cool to watch a former D3 guy like John run a fearless race and mix it up with the likes of Bobby Mack late in the race after he blew by Luke Puskedra and Shadrack Kipchirchir. While I don't have illusions of grandeur of ever racing at that level, I do hope I took away some of that competitiveness to mix it up with guys that I would normally think are a couple of tiers above me on paper.
Last year I got to run in my 2nd national championship race, the Gate River Run, the 15K championships. I had another injury scare a few weeks before but after weekly massages for the month leading up to the race I was able to toe the line and come away with a top 50 finish. Not great, but at least respectable by my standards. When race registration opened, I was a little surprised to receive an invitation to return to the race from the elite athlete coordinator Richard Fannin. Maybe I was underselling myself a little bit, but I felt that typically the top 20-30 runners in this race are the true elites (Olympic Trials qualifier caliber or faster) and the rest of us were at best "sub-elites". If you ask any runners who are regulars on the USA road racing circuit they will tell you that Richard is one of the top elite athlete coordinators around, and he cares about putting together a deep, competitive field and not just the top few runners in the race. I was perfectly happy paying my own way for a chance to compete in a field like this, but a few weeks before the race he messaged me to let me know that I will be getting a room from the race, saving me a couple of hundred bucks!
On Thursday before the race I got in a quick shakeout run and then Maureen drove me to the airport. The race had arranged a shuttle to pick up the elite runners for the race from the airport and take us to the hotel. I shared a shuttle with Andrew Epperson, Kiya Dandena, Allison Morgan, and Heidi Greenwood, immediately making me the only person in the group that has not qualified for the trials yet. I chatted with Andrew for a bit since it turned out he lives about 2 hours away from me and is currently working on his grad degree while assistant coaching at Colorado School of Mines.
When we got to the hotel it turned out our rooms weren't ready yet, so Kiya and I walked to a Panera to grab a quick bite to eat and when we got back to the hotel our rooms were ready. I quickly changed so Kiya/Andrew/I can head out for a shakeout run. On my way out of the room my roommate for the weekend, Johnny Crain, the 2014 D3 10,000 meter national champion and also a Olympic trials qualifier came in and we quickly introduced ourselves before I ran out. After the shakeout run we all went back to our own rooms to shower/change and then the same crew + John met up at an Italian place Andrew had found. We made quick work of the bread they brought out, as well as the refills. Everyone got the lasagna besides me, I went with the chicken and eggplant parmisian combo. Someone at the table next to us was apparently on vacation and didn't have a fridge in their hotel room so they gave us a plate of their leftover spaghetti meatballs which were quickly devoured as well.I was definitely glad not to be the pig of the group sticking like a sore thumb as is the case most of the time when I go out to eat with other people.
The next morning the four of us went for another shakeout run followed by breakfast at a nearby diner/cafe type place. Two other runners Johnny met the day before joined us, Brandon York and Sam Mueller. At least now I am not the only guy who hasn't qualified for the trials anymore, but Sam (who missed it with a 66-low in Houston) has also run sub-30 on the track so he's still significantly faster than me. Before we headed out to breakfast, I ran into Ryan Vail and took the chance to quickly say hi and have a short conversation. For those you who don't know the back story, I won his 2014 London marathon singlet in a prediction contest he had last year. Like all the other fast guys he was very down to earth and approachable, and even gave me some advice/warning on being conservative tomorrow given the suboptimal weather forecast.
After breakfast we walked back to the elite athlete hospitality suite, grabbed some more water and snacks and watched a course tour video before heading back to our rooms. In the afternoon we went to "The Sanctuary", an event organized by the race where we go and visit a place for underprivileged kids in the Jacksonville area and we introduced ourselves and did relay races with the kids. Afterwards we went to the technical meeting / elite athlete dinner where Todd Williams was the guest speaker this year. Following this dinner I met up with my sister-in-law, her boyfriend (my brother-in-law passed away a few years ago), my nephews and the boyfriend's son for another dinner at a nearby restaurant on the river. I recalled a discussion Johnny and I had during lunch about spicy foods prerace and ordered the Jambalaya, which may or may not be a mistake.
On race day I woke up nice and early per usual, but Johnny appeared to still be asleep so I tried to be as quiet as possible til he woke up. Since we were staying at the other side of the bridge from the Hyatt where the elite hospitality suite was, we were just going to jog/walk over but Richard picked us up on his way! Talk about going all out for his runners. I grabbed a couple of bowls of the baked oatmeal and a couple of cups of coffee, then we all got on the bus and headed to the staging area. We hung out for about half an hour or so before I decided to head out to warmup. In a similar setup to last year, they blocked off a road loop that's around 0.6-0.7 miles for us to warm up on, and this year instead of 5 porta potties reserved for elite athletes we got some really nice RV-style bathrooms (hard to describe, but basically these bathrooms are as nice as ones you would see in most 4 star hotels). I warmed up for about 3 miles, then headed back to the staging area to change into my race gear so we can be led out to the start line with the rest of the elites. On the way I met/chatted with Tommy Gruenewald. When we got up to the start I did some more easy jogging and a few easy strides, then lined up with everyone else. After the national anthem and a short wait we were off.
Due to the extremely humid conditions the early pace was very very conservative, and given the double whammy of my poor history of racing in humid weather and being sick recently I was even more conservative. After the first quarter mile it was pretty much everyone that was in the elite field and a few jokers in one giant pack and I was 2-3 steps behind them. By the first mile the pretenders had fallen off and it was still one giant pack of about 65-75 guys and I was the lone chaser 10 seconds back. I basically ran in no man's land for the next 4-5 miles and tried to stay positive and not think about how I was running 15s/mi slower than my goal pace coming into the race. Finally around mile 5 I started picking off some stragglers and by the time we hit the beginning of the climb up Hart bridge I was making my way slowly up the field. Unlike last year where I didn't get passed in the second half of the race, this year there was a "downhill mile" competition for the fastest last mile of the race and one of the guys decided to go after the $1000 award after he fell back from the lead pack around 2-3 miles in so I had the rare experience of watching someone put 43 seconds on me in about 3/4th of a mile. After the race it seemed like pretty much everyone other than the top 3-4 guys and a handful of others guys out of the 70-80 of us in the men's elite field felt like we had good races. I had a short conversation with Tommy about how weather like this tends to hurt bigger runners like us, misery loves company I guess.
After we got back to the staging area I went out for a cooldown with Eric Loeffler (who sat next to / with our small group in the staging area). Eric is one of the few guys in the entire field who is older than me, but chatting with him made me even more optimistic about my chances of improving over the next few years since he's about 5-6 years older than me but said most of his PRs have come in the last 3-4 years. After the cooldown I went into this area where they had a bunch of free food for us and proceeded to devour about 3-4 hot dogs, some pastries, and a few bottles of gatorade over the next half hour or so. I was about to head back to the hotel to shower/pack and head to the airport but Johnny saved the day (he's also leaving the afternoon of the race) and said we should check with Richard first if there's a shuttle to take us to the airport, and there is! So I ended up saving a nice chunk of change on a taxi. There was a girl sharing the shuttle with us that was also on Johnny's flight so the three of us ended up getting lunch before our flight, then we parted ways and one of the coolest 48 hours a running nerd could experience (minus about 50 minutes of subpar/forgettable "racing") came to an end.
A few quick notes on the weekend:
1. Elites are normal people too.While I spent a lot of my time talking running with other runners during my 48 hours or so in Jacksonville, we also spent a decent amount of time talking about "normal" non-running stuff. John and I talked basketball/football a bit while killing time and Andrew gave us a pretty interesting description of what he would like to do after he finishes his graduate degree in mechanical engineering. (making equipment/gear for special olympics athletes)
2. In general, people who choose to run after college are incredibly supportive of other runners' dreams and goals. While it was obvious that I wasn't on the same level as most of the company I was keeping, there was nothing but support and nods when I was asked about my goals going forward and I mentioned chasing the Olympic Marathon trials standard. Obviously when you have a dream you have to believe in it yourself, but having others who have made the journey before you telling you that you are on track is a huge confidence boost.
3. When things aren't going well in a race, never throw in the towel. I was feeling absolutely awful about 2-3 miles into the race, but I kept plugging away and started pulling in some runners. While my time was very subpar by my standards (I ran about 4s/mi faster than my marathon pace for crying out loud) the level of competition I finished with/near made me feel a little bit better. Finishing with/near 66min HM / 30:30-31:00 10K guys even when they're probably not having great days still puts the race in perspective somewhat. I also finished about 2min behind a ton of 63-64min HM guys as well.
4. Consistency in training is key. I have started to learn this lesson myself, but for some reason in our sport the point usually comes through even more when it comes from a much faster runner. John told me he basically had a 4-5 months stretch of 110+ mpw before he ran 63:21 in Houston. So you don't need to do insane mileage, but finding a "sweet spot" where you can get in quality workouts while staying healthy and letting your fitness build is huge. My focus going forward now is to not get sick again (easier said than done) and not push the envelope too much with my training mileage but just staying consistent and do the small things it takes to stay healthy and I believe I'll be able to make another fitness jump or two in the next few months.
5. It seems like a lot more 22-24 year olds are sticking with the sport and making a go at it. It was pretty cool to watch a former D3 guy like John run a fearless race and mix it up with the likes of Bobby Mack late in the race after he blew by Luke Puskedra and Shadrack Kipchirchir. While I don't have illusions of grandeur of ever racing at that level, I do hope I took away some of that competitiveness to mix it up with guys that I would normally think are a couple of tiers above me on paper.
Training Summary - Weeks 7-10 of 22 to Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon
Week 7: 75 miles.
Q1: Friday - 3mile, 1mile, 1mile with 2:20-2:30 rest in between. 16:11, 5:09, 5:06. Felt good to finally be able to get in a quality effort.
Week 8: 88 miles.
Q1: Tuesday - 4x1mile with 2:30 rest. (5:10, 5:08, 5:05, 5:01). Another step in the right direction.
Q2: Saturday - Gate River Run / US 15K championships - 49:52 (57th). Hot and humid day and most people ran 1-2 minutes slower than the year before so my +27s performance from 2014 wasn't "terrible", especially considering I feel like I don't handle humidity as well as most.
Week 9: 105 miles.
Q1: Tuesday - 6x0.5mi on treadmill at home. I just maxed out the speed to 12.0mph (5min/mi) and ran for 2:30 on, 1:30 off. Felt decent but didn't feel like it was as controlled as I wanted.
Q2: Saturday - 5000m race at CSU Pueblo. 15:52/4th. Felt like I was on pace through 6-7 miles and then just locked up and then fell apart mentally the last mile. Pretty discouraging since this race was at 47000 feet and the NCAA conversion chart I found only gave this performance about a 22-23s adjustment to sea level.
Week 10: 92 miles.
Q1: Wednesday - 3x1mi with 2min rest - 5:07, 5:02, 4:59. Another step in the right direction. Running close to 5min/pace at altitude is starting to feel comfortably hard, hopefully that means in a few days I can go down to sea level and do this almost 5 times in a row without a break.
Q2: Sunday - Shamrock Shuffle 8K - 24:44 / 38th. Officially a 8k PR by 1:34. (although I had a few splits in the 25:20-25:40 range during half-marathons last year). Still happy, although slightly daunting with the prospect of having to hold this pace for another 8 miles by the end of the year. (or mid January of 2016). Feeling optimistic though.
___________________________________________________________________________
This was a decent mini-block after having my Phoenix Half Marathon phase derailed by some sort of flu/cold/bug. Despite feeling good enough about 4-5 days after returning from Phoenix to get in a decent quality effort, I ran two pretty mediocre races in the following weeks and was pretty discourage heading into the last race of my "speed" mini-block. Luckily this past week I had some conversations with a couple of pretty experienced runners and everyone pretty much told me that even though I was no longer sick my body is still recovering and may need another 2-4 weeks before I feel 100% again. This basically confirmed a pattern that I have seen in my own training logs over the past few years (yet another plug for keeping a detailed training log). While it wasn't great news with the Shamrock Shuffle coming up in less than a week, at least it let me head into the race with tempered expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. At the end I ran a time that was about right in between what I wanted to run a few weeks ago and what I thought I was going to run a week ago, and given the fact that I finished pretty close behind some 66:00-66:30 half-marathon guys on a slightly cold/windy day I would consider this mini block a success.
Q1: Friday - 3mile, 1mile, 1mile with 2:20-2:30 rest in between. 16:11, 5:09, 5:06. Felt good to finally be able to get in a quality effort.
Week 8: 88 miles.
Q1: Tuesday - 4x1mile with 2:30 rest. (5:10, 5:08, 5:05, 5:01). Another step in the right direction.
Q2: Saturday - Gate River Run / US 15K championships - 49:52 (57th). Hot and humid day and most people ran 1-2 minutes slower than the year before so my +27s performance from 2014 wasn't "terrible", especially considering I feel like I don't handle humidity as well as most.
Week 9: 105 miles.
Q1: Tuesday - 6x0.5mi on treadmill at home. I just maxed out the speed to 12.0mph (5min/mi) and ran for 2:30 on, 1:30 off. Felt decent but didn't feel like it was as controlled as I wanted.
Q2: Saturday - 5000m race at CSU Pueblo. 15:52/4th. Felt like I was on pace through 6-7 miles and then just locked up and then fell apart mentally the last mile. Pretty discouraging since this race was at 47000 feet and the NCAA conversion chart I found only gave this performance about a 22-23s adjustment to sea level.
Week 10: 92 miles.
Q1: Wednesday - 3x1mi with 2min rest - 5:07, 5:02, 4:59. Another step in the right direction. Running close to 5min/pace at altitude is starting to feel comfortably hard, hopefully that means in a few days I can go down to sea level and do this almost 5 times in a row without a break.
Q2: Sunday - Shamrock Shuffle 8K - 24:44 / 38th. Officially a 8k PR by 1:34. (although I had a few splits in the 25:20-25:40 range during half-marathons last year). Still happy, although slightly daunting with the prospect of having to hold this pace for another 8 miles by the end of the year. (or mid January of 2016). Feeling optimistic though.
___________________________________________________________________________
This was a decent mini-block after having my Phoenix Half Marathon phase derailed by some sort of flu/cold/bug. Despite feeling good enough about 4-5 days after returning from Phoenix to get in a decent quality effort, I ran two pretty mediocre races in the following weeks and was pretty discourage heading into the last race of my "speed" mini-block. Luckily this past week I had some conversations with a couple of pretty experienced runners and everyone pretty much told me that even though I was no longer sick my body is still recovering and may need another 2-4 weeks before I feel 100% again. This basically confirmed a pattern that I have seen in my own training logs over the past few years (yet another plug for keeping a detailed training log). While it wasn't great news with the Shamrock Shuffle coming up in less than a week, at least it let me head into the race with tempered expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. At the end I ran a time that was about right in between what I wanted to run a few weeks ago and what I thought I was going to run a week ago, and given the fact that I finished pretty close behind some 66:00-66:30 half-marathon guys on a slightly cold/windy day I would consider this mini block a success.
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