Monday: 8 miles (6:42); 5.4 miles easy with 4x10-12s hill sprints. I got completely smoked by Joe on these, when I could beat him last year. I need to get my power and speed back!
Tuesday: 9.1 miles medium progression with 3 miles each at: 6:20, 5:55, 5:30. Splits were: (6:15, 6:04, 6:13), (5:55, 5:52, 6:01), 5:28, 5:31, 5:26. The heat, hills and headwind on the way back made the last three miles pretty difficult. I wanted to end the workout after the 5:28 mile because I was struggling but you have to be stubborn during both the hard and easy times, so I made myself cowboy up and get through it; 6.1 miles (7:20)
Wednesday: 8.3 miles (7:08); 4.6 miles (6:29)
Thursday: 10 miles medium (5:50); 5.3 miles (7:20)
Friday: 4.6 miles (6:56); 5.5 miles easy
Saturday: 8.5 miles with 5k race in 15:44. Mile splits were 4:50, 4:57 and 5:47 for the next 1.1 miles. First mile was pretty tough but then I was able to back off some. We ran an extra loop in the last mile which added about 10 seconds or so. My goal was to keep it honest but relaxed, with a time goal of 15:30-45, so I was glad to knock that out.; 3.4 miles (7:25)
Sunday: 20.1 miles (6:25)
Week Total= 98.9 miles. I was glad to get in just under 100 miles. I feel like I'm rapidly improving my fitness and am hoping for a good race next weekend.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Runnin' to Beat the Blues
I ran this race last year and had a good experience, so I decided to give it another go. It was only a week after Tom King but since it was a 5k, I was hoping it would serve as some good speedwork. Not to mention, the course is nearly completely flat and takes place at Centennial Park, where I've run some hard workouts in the past.
My goal was to run the race as a tempo run and run somewhere between 15:30-15:45. If I had to, I was prepared to run all-out but I was hoping I would be able to get the wheels moving, while staying under control. While warming up, I noticed that Ken Sullivan was racing. I knew that he ran a 3:45 1500m a couple of years ago and recently moved to Nashville. I knew he wasn't in serious training mode but I took notice of him because who wants to get in a kick with a guy who has run a little bit over four minutes in the mile?
When it was time to head to the line, I didn't see any of the usual suspects, so I knew Ken would be my main competition. Because my training has been geared towards longer stuff and the fact that he was just now getting back into consistent training, my goal was to try and break him by two miles and take it from there.
When the gun went off, I got out slowly while Ken got out pretty quickly. I immediately closed the gap and took the lead. I could tell we were really rolling and I'm sure we were close to 2:20 for the first half mile. At this point, I started to hurt and didn't like it. When racing the longer stuff, you stay patient and relaxed while pushing the pace. While pain doesn't settle in right away, you never feel that comfortable. However, this was something fast and intense and the early pain took me surprise. What it boils down to is that I've forgot how much 5ks HURT.
Shortly before the mile, I started to gap him a bit and hit the mile with a 3-4 second lead in 4:50, which is right at 15:00 pace. It felt hard but I was still somewhat in control. For a second I debated making a run at sub 15 because I haven't broken 15 in an official 5k since 2005 (even though I'm pretty sure I ran a sub 15 5k during my Team Nashville 10 mile race this past fall), but I listened to the voice of reason and backed off a bit.
Ken was still pretty close to me, so I relaxed a tiny bit, while making sure I kept the pace quick. I put a few more seconds on him during the second mile and split 5:07. At this point, I slowly began to back off the pace for a bit before picking it back up again to finish in 15:44, which gave me a 5:16 mile average for my final 1.1 miles. It turns out that we added a loop in the last mile and several people had measured the course as 3.2 miles on their GPS, which theortically is a large chunk of time. However, with the large number of turns in this race, the GPS most likely isn't very reliable and based off the effort of my last mile, I felt the extra loop added 10-15 seconds, depending on the speed of the runner.
Other than that glitch, it was a great day to race. My friend's wife, Elizabeth Berry, won the women's division in 18:09 and what really impressed me was that the 2nd and 3rd place "women" were only 13 and 11 years old. The post race food is pretty decent with bagels, yogurt, granola bars and other random stuff and it was fun to watch the people race the mile, which took place after the 5k. My friend, John Woodman, won that in 5:03 and 57 year-old David Schamanski nearly got 3rd before being nipped at the line by a guy nearly 20 years younger than him. The 11 year old who took 3rd in the 5k, won the women's mile in 6:20 but I was most impressed with the seven year old who took 3rd in 7:02. Impressive!
Now it's back to training mode and some more base mileage. I'm not sure when my next "key" race will be but as of now, I'm aiming for the Knoxville Marathon in two weeks.
My goal was to run the race as a tempo run and run somewhere between 15:30-15:45. If I had to, I was prepared to run all-out but I was hoping I would be able to get the wheels moving, while staying under control. While warming up, I noticed that Ken Sullivan was racing. I knew that he ran a 3:45 1500m a couple of years ago and recently moved to Nashville. I knew he wasn't in serious training mode but I took notice of him because who wants to get in a kick with a guy who has run a little bit over four minutes in the mile?
When it was time to head to the line, I didn't see any of the usual suspects, so I knew Ken would be my main competition. Because my training has been geared towards longer stuff and the fact that he was just now getting back into consistent training, my goal was to try and break him by two miles and take it from there.
When the gun went off, I got out slowly while Ken got out pretty quickly. I immediately closed the gap and took the lead. I could tell we were really rolling and I'm sure we were close to 2:20 for the first half mile. At this point, I started to hurt and didn't like it. When racing the longer stuff, you stay patient and relaxed while pushing the pace. While pain doesn't settle in right away, you never feel that comfortable. However, this was something fast and intense and the early pain took me surprise. What it boils down to is that I've forgot how much 5ks HURT.
Shortly before the mile, I started to gap him a bit and hit the mile with a 3-4 second lead in 4:50, which is right at 15:00 pace. It felt hard but I was still somewhat in control. For a second I debated making a run at sub 15 because I haven't broken 15 in an official 5k since 2005 (even though I'm pretty sure I ran a sub 15 5k during my Team Nashville 10 mile race this past fall), but I listened to the voice of reason and backed off a bit.
Ken was still pretty close to me, so I relaxed a tiny bit, while making sure I kept the pace quick. I put a few more seconds on him during the second mile and split 5:07. At this point, I slowly began to back off the pace for a bit before picking it back up again to finish in 15:44, which gave me a 5:16 mile average for my final 1.1 miles. It turns out that we added a loop in the last mile and several people had measured the course as 3.2 miles on their GPS, which theortically is a large chunk of time. However, with the large number of turns in this race, the GPS most likely isn't very reliable and based off the effort of my last mile, I felt the extra loop added 10-15 seconds, depending on the speed of the runner.
Other than that glitch, it was a great day to race. My friend's wife, Elizabeth Berry, won the women's division in 18:09 and what really impressed me was that the 2nd and 3rd place "women" were only 13 and 11 years old. The post race food is pretty decent with bagels, yogurt, granola bars and other random stuff and it was fun to watch the people race the mile, which took place after the 5k. My friend, John Woodman, won that in 5:03 and 57 year-old David Schamanski nearly got 3rd before being nipped at the line by a guy nearly 20 years younger than him. The 11 year old who took 3rd in the 5k, won the women's mile in 6:20 but I was most impressed with the seven year old who took 3rd in 7:02. Impressive!
Now it's back to training mode and some more base mileage. I'm not sure when my next "key" race will be but as of now, I'm aiming for the Knoxville Marathon in two weeks.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Tom King Half Marathon
Whenever someone tells me they are planning to run the Country Music Half Marathon, I always suggest they try out Tom King. The race entry is half the price, you have guaranteed parking, free hot breakfast, the course is fast and the weather is usually a ton cooler. Not to mention, you get to see yourself finish on the Jumbotron as you finish on L.P. Field. If you're looking to run a half, signing up for Tom King is a no-brainer.
Unfortunately, I had my worst race as a Tennessee resident at last year's edition of the race. I felt pretty fit but tanked pretty badly. Whenever I run a half-marathon, I think about how tired I was at the 10 mile marker of that race with the goal of never feeling that bad at 10 miles into a half-marathon again. Based off how my workouts were going, I was expecting to run no faster than 70 minutes. I was struggling to close my progression runs at 5:30 pace, but I was hoping I could click off 5:20s in a race environment.
When the gun went off, I didn't want to stupidly take off like last year, so I tucked in behind the guy I figured to be the main threat. Some kid in a college uniform was up there as was well but after a couple of minutes, he started to fall back. When there's two guys right in front of you, you can run right behind them and not be a chump. However, if there's only one other guy with you, it's an unspoken racing rule that you have to run side-by-side, so one guy doesn't do all the work, while the other person reaps all the benefits. People unfortunately do it in their day-to-day lives, but it has no part in the racing world.
When I was giving fuel support to Chris Herren at this past Rocket City Marathon, there was a guy who tucked-in right behind another runner for a solid 10+ miles, while the other guy ran into a 15 mile an hour headwind. He was so close that he would have known the runner he was stuck on farted before the farting runner did. Then after the race, the kid was complaining to someone how windy it was during the race. Go figure. I debated asking Mary to take the wheel so I could jump out of the window and tackle him. It is now one of my life goals to find a race that guy usually wins, run right on his heels the entire race, and then literally and figuratively spank him as I outkick him at the very end.
After we were getting close to a mile, we were separating a good bit from the third place guy and I knew it would most likely be a two-man race. I didn't see the first mile marker, but it felt fast. A couple of minutes later, it felt like my right shoelace popped or something. I figured my shoes were untied but after giving my best glance at it (which is hard to do during a race), it appeared the first three rows of laces lost all of their tension because of the moronic way I tied my chip to my shoe. My shoe was now slipping and I figured it would come off at any second. I knew if I stopped, I'd lose an easy 10 or more seconds, which could cost me the win, so I didn't want to toy with it. It was driving me crazy because I'm OCD about my shoe lace tension. I'll tie each shoe at least twice before a run, to make sure they are both the same tightness. Even if I'm doing an easy jog, if one shoe feels SLIGHTLY tighter than the other, I have to stop right away and make them the same tension. But being a headcase during a race is recipe for a disaster. Once you let negative thoughts creep into your mind, instead of focusing on the task at hand, your race is about to unravel (like my shoe laces). I decided to forget about it and run until it came off.
We went through two miles in 10:34 and at this point, I thought I had about a 25% chance to win. The other guy wasn't showing any signs of tiring and I wasn't feeling very smooth at all. If 5:17s felt this uncomfortable, I didn't know how I would be able to manage 5:20s for another 11.1 miles. When we entered Shelby Bottoms Greenway, we kept the same rhythm, splitting 5:16 and 5:18 for the next two miles. In the fifth mile, I became a little too giddy a little too early and built a two or three second lead with a 5:12 split. I knew it was probably too early to move but he gave me the lead and once someone gives you that power, you take it and hope someone doesn't call your bluff.
In past experiences, if someone gives me a little lead, they will slowly fall further behind, but this guy was hanging on strongly. I tried to continue to press down on the gas and hoped I would get a boost from seeing my friends run after the turnaround. I hit the turnaround hoping my lead would be close to 10 seconds by this point but the guy was still hanging on very well.
A lot of times, I struggle running against traffic in a race. I'm pretty ADD, so it's hard for me to focus on pressing ahead and hammering when people are running towards me. However, I considered this an advantage for me in this race because I had a lot of my friends running the race, who would help me press a little harder while the guy I was racing probably didn't know anyone and wasn't getting that added boost.
I split 5:16 for the sixth mile and started to lose a little bit of focus but then John Ramsey ran by and yelled a nice selection of words that woke me back up and got me moving again, which reflected in my 5:11 next mile. The Monkey Man, Trent Rosenbloom also sped me up a few minutes later and I hit the 8th mile with a 5:10 split.
The eighth mile was when things started to get really difficult for me last year, so I took a quick mental check and even though my body was starting to get banged up and I was hurting, I felt like I had at least two or three more solid miles in me and was hoping that would be enough to build a decent sized gap and mentally crack the guy.
I continued to get a nice boost from seeing all of my friends and having them cheer me on, which definitely made the race more tolerable. It also put some added pressure on me because everyone saw me leading when I ran by and I knew they would check the results or ask me if I held the guy off. Not to mention, I am a Nashville Strider and didn't want to lose to an out-of-town guy in a Striders race. And even though bald guys have their camaraderie, I didn't want to get beat by one.
The course branches off onto another path before exiting the park. I took a quick glance behind me and saw the guy still within 10 seconds of me and knew that one bad mile would give him the fuel to chase me down. After the branch off, you don't see any more runners and I used the quiet seclusion as a chance to buckle down and continue to press on. I ran 5:16 for the next mile and 10:24 for the next two miles after that. I was hanging on strong but was also expecting to start to fall apart anytime soon.
Because this guy appeared to be freshly out of college, I knew he could probably pull himself together to throw together a solid last mile if he smelled blood in the water, so I used the 12th mile as a time to pick it up and hopefully put the final nail in the coffin. I ended up running 5:06 for this mile, which was my fastest mile of the day and was able to put an extra 10-15 seconds on the guy and at that point, I knew I had the win.
If I'm in shape and race a half-marathon hard, I'm usually hurting pretty badly for a couple of days and won't be able to run anything fast in training for at least 4-5 days. The fact that I was still really rusty with only a few weeks of easy running behind me, I knew I would be completely jacked up if I hammered until the end. Once I got near the stadium, I backed off the pace and tried to enjoy the rest of the race and ran my last 1.1 miles at 5:20 pace, which was probably my slowest mile of the day.
I crossed the line in 68:34, which was over 1:30 faster than I thought I could run. I am really pleased with my current fitness level because I feel I have a ton of room to improve these next few months. I also felt like I could have run sub 5:00 that last mile if I would have run it all out, which would have put me in the lower 68s. While aerobically, I wasn't completely trashed, my body quickly felt the effects of the race. My left calf and hamstring were really painful and it was very hard to muster a 3/4 mile cool-down with Travis Couch and Jeff Bandy.
This may have been my favorite road racing win. If I would have known 68:34 would have won, I wouldn't have thought I had a chance at victory. It felt good to run so well after some big time running lows. I haven't decided what my next big race will be but it feels good to be ahead of schedule, time-wise. I still feel like my body is still at least a month of away from being strong enough to do consistent hard workouts, so it's back to some more base mileage for now.
Unfortunately, I had my worst race as a Tennessee resident at last year's edition of the race. I felt pretty fit but tanked pretty badly. Whenever I run a half-marathon, I think about how tired I was at the 10 mile marker of that race with the goal of never feeling that bad at 10 miles into a half-marathon again. Based off how my workouts were going, I was expecting to run no faster than 70 minutes. I was struggling to close my progression runs at 5:30 pace, but I was hoping I could click off 5:20s in a race environment.
When the gun went off, I didn't want to stupidly take off like last year, so I tucked in behind the guy I figured to be the main threat. Some kid in a college uniform was up there as was well but after a couple of minutes, he started to fall back. When there's two guys right in front of you, you can run right behind them and not be a chump. However, if there's only one other guy with you, it's an unspoken racing rule that you have to run side-by-side, so one guy doesn't do all the work, while the other person reaps all the benefits. People unfortunately do it in their day-to-day lives, but it has no part in the racing world.
When I was giving fuel support to Chris Herren at this past Rocket City Marathon, there was a guy who tucked-in right behind another runner for a solid 10+ miles, while the other guy ran into a 15 mile an hour headwind. He was so close that he would have known the runner he was stuck on farted before the farting runner did. Then after the race, the kid was complaining to someone how windy it was during the race. Go figure. I debated asking Mary to take the wheel so I could jump out of the window and tackle him. It is now one of my life goals to find a race that guy usually wins, run right on his heels the entire race, and then literally and figuratively spank him as I outkick him at the very end.
After we were getting close to a mile, we were separating a good bit from the third place guy and I knew it would most likely be a two-man race. I didn't see the first mile marker, but it felt fast. A couple of minutes later, it felt like my right shoelace popped or something. I figured my shoes were untied but after giving my best glance at it (which is hard to do during a race), it appeared the first three rows of laces lost all of their tension because of the moronic way I tied my chip to my shoe. My shoe was now slipping and I figured it would come off at any second. I knew if I stopped, I'd lose an easy 10 or more seconds, which could cost me the win, so I didn't want to toy with it. It was driving me crazy because I'm OCD about my shoe lace tension. I'll tie each shoe at least twice before a run, to make sure they are both the same tightness. Even if I'm doing an easy jog, if one shoe feels SLIGHTLY tighter than the other, I have to stop right away and make them the same tension. But being a headcase during a race is recipe for a disaster. Once you let negative thoughts creep into your mind, instead of focusing on the task at hand, your race is about to unravel (like my shoe laces). I decided to forget about it and run until it came off.
We went through two miles in 10:34 and at this point, I thought I had about a 25% chance to win. The other guy wasn't showing any signs of tiring and I wasn't feeling very smooth at all. If 5:17s felt this uncomfortable, I didn't know how I would be able to manage 5:20s for another 11.1 miles. When we entered Shelby Bottoms Greenway, we kept the same rhythm, splitting 5:16 and 5:18 for the next two miles. In the fifth mile, I became a little too giddy a little too early and built a two or three second lead with a 5:12 split. I knew it was probably too early to move but he gave me the lead and once someone gives you that power, you take it and hope someone doesn't call your bluff.
In past experiences, if someone gives me a little lead, they will slowly fall further behind, but this guy was hanging on strongly. I tried to continue to press down on the gas and hoped I would get a boost from seeing my friends run after the turnaround. I hit the turnaround hoping my lead would be close to 10 seconds by this point but the guy was still hanging on very well.
A lot of times, I struggle running against traffic in a race. I'm pretty ADD, so it's hard for me to focus on pressing ahead and hammering when people are running towards me. However, I considered this an advantage for me in this race because I had a lot of my friends running the race, who would help me press a little harder while the guy I was racing probably didn't know anyone and wasn't getting that added boost.
I split 5:16 for the sixth mile and started to lose a little bit of focus but then John Ramsey ran by and yelled a nice selection of words that woke me back up and got me moving again, which reflected in my 5:11 next mile. The Monkey Man, Trent Rosenbloom also sped me up a few minutes later and I hit the 8th mile with a 5:10 split.
The eighth mile was when things started to get really difficult for me last year, so I took a quick mental check and even though my body was starting to get banged up and I was hurting, I felt like I had at least two or three more solid miles in me and was hoping that would be enough to build a decent sized gap and mentally crack the guy.
I continued to get a nice boost from seeing all of my friends and having them cheer me on, which definitely made the race more tolerable. It also put some added pressure on me because everyone saw me leading when I ran by and I knew they would check the results or ask me if I held the guy off. Not to mention, I am a Nashville Strider and didn't want to lose to an out-of-town guy in a Striders race. And even though bald guys have their camaraderie, I didn't want to get beat by one.
The course branches off onto another path before exiting the park. I took a quick glance behind me and saw the guy still within 10 seconds of me and knew that one bad mile would give him the fuel to chase me down. After the branch off, you don't see any more runners and I used the quiet seclusion as a chance to buckle down and continue to press on. I ran 5:16 for the next mile and 10:24 for the next two miles after that. I was hanging on strong but was also expecting to start to fall apart anytime soon.
Because this guy appeared to be freshly out of college, I knew he could probably pull himself together to throw together a solid last mile if he smelled blood in the water, so I used the 12th mile as a time to pick it up and hopefully put the final nail in the coffin. I ended up running 5:06 for this mile, which was my fastest mile of the day and was able to put an extra 10-15 seconds on the guy and at that point, I knew I had the win.
If I'm in shape and race a half-marathon hard, I'm usually hurting pretty badly for a couple of days and won't be able to run anything fast in training for at least 4-5 days. The fact that I was still really rusty with only a few weeks of easy running behind me, I knew I would be completely jacked up if I hammered until the end. Once I got near the stadium, I backed off the pace and tried to enjoy the rest of the race and ran my last 1.1 miles at 5:20 pace, which was probably my slowest mile of the day.
I crossed the line in 68:34, which was over 1:30 faster than I thought I could run. I am really pleased with my current fitness level because I feel I have a ton of room to improve these next few months. I also felt like I could have run sub 5:00 that last mile if I would have run it all out, which would have put me in the lower 68s. While aerobically, I wasn't completely trashed, my body quickly felt the effects of the race. My left calf and hamstring were really painful and it was very hard to muster a 3/4 mile cool-down with Travis Couch and Jeff Bandy.
This may have been my favorite road racing win. If I would have known 68:34 would have won, I wouldn't have thought I had a chance at victory. It felt good to run so well after some big time running lows. I haven't decided what my next big race will be but it feels good to be ahead of schedule, time-wise. I still feel like my body is still at least a month of away from being strong enough to do consistent hard workouts, so it's back to some more base mileage for now.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
March 12th-18th Training
I decided to add my weekly training on here to make an easier to read format for me to analyze and go back and review later. Hopefully some people will steal some ideas as well. I'll still keep my more extensive log on runningahead.com.
Monday: 8 miles (7:15); 5.6 miles (7:11)
Tuesday: 9.8 miles. Ran 6x1/2 mile on/off at 2:52 avg for the fast portion. Ran this with Boomer to get him ready to break 3:00 at Boston; 4.5 miles (7:48)
Wednesday: 9.8 miles (7:07); 3.4 miles (7:22)
Thursday: 10.6 miles with 8x3:00 on/1:00 off at 5:20 average and 4x30s on/off at sub 4:30 pace. I was shooting for 10x3:00 at 5:15 pace, but it was over 80 degrees and I was slowing down throughout the workout, while I usually run these faster as the workout goes on. That was enough of a sign to bag it early. I added the 30 second surges to help with muscle fiber recruitment. Frustrated with the average pace but you have to take the whole picture into consideration: hot, hilly and still a little flat from Tom King; 3.4 miles (7:36)
Friday: 8.5 miles (7:18); 3.4 miles (7:19)
Saturday: 18.9 miles Striders long run at Stone Rivers Greenway. Ran with Boomer for the first 15.7, but my GPS was dead. Boomer and I probably ran right at 7:00 pace and then I headed over to Shelby Bottoms for two miles fast at 5:05-5:10ish. I thought I'd struggle on the fast miles but it felt really smooth.
Sunday: 3.4 miles very easy; 6.4 miles (7:18)
Monday: 8 miles (7:15); 5.6 miles (7:11)
Tuesday: 9.8 miles. Ran 6x1/2 mile on/off at 2:52 avg for the fast portion. Ran this with Boomer to get him ready to break 3:00 at Boston; 4.5 miles (7:48)
Wednesday: 9.8 miles (7:07); 3.4 miles (7:22)
Thursday: 10.6 miles with 8x3:00 on/1:00 off at 5:20 average and 4x30s on/off at sub 4:30 pace. I was shooting for 10x3:00 at 5:15 pace, but it was over 80 degrees and I was slowing down throughout the workout, while I usually run these faster as the workout goes on. That was enough of a sign to bag it early. I added the 30 second surges to help with muscle fiber recruitment. Frustrated with the average pace but you have to take the whole picture into consideration: hot, hilly and still a little flat from Tom King; 3.4 miles (7:36)
Friday: 8.5 miles (7:18); 3.4 miles (7:19)
Saturday: 18.9 miles Striders long run at Stone Rivers Greenway. Ran with Boomer for the first 15.7, but my GPS was dead. Boomer and I probably ran right at 7:00 pace and then I headed over to Shelby Bottoms for two miles fast at 5:05-5:10ish. I thought I'd struggle on the fast miles but it felt really smooth.
Sunday: 3.4 miles very easy; 6.4 miles (7:18)
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