Monday: 8 miles (7:18); 5 miles easy
Tuesday: 10 miles medium (5:51); 8 miles with 9x45s strides every half mile. Felt super drained at the start but got a little bit better towards the end. Had less than three hours rest before the first run. My schedule doesn't allow another hard workout until Friday, so I made this day a little harder than usual, to force myself to need extra recovery.
Wednesday: 5 miles (6:41); 8.7 miles (7:21). Ran this run in about 4 separate runs at a track meet. Frustrated that I had to get the mileage that way but life is how you adapt to your circumstances, rather than make excuses and give up.
Thursday: 8 miles (6:51); 6.5 miles with strides (7:12)
Friday: 4.5 miles (7:19); 10.8 miles with 5x1k with 400m jog and 4x400m with 400m jog. Ran 2:50, 2:54, 2:49, 2:50, 2:49; 63, 63, 63, 63. Had some walkers who wouldn't get out of the first lane, so I had to run around them. I felt really smooth on the 1ks and could have done several more without a problem. Motivating first speed workout and this shows me I still have some wheels.
Saturday: 8 miles (7:01); 4.2 miles (7:29)
Sunday: 20 miles with first 15 at 6:28 pace, 4 fast at 5:27, 1 cool-down. I was hoping to get in 5 miles at 5:25, but was running against a headwind and was really tired, so I changed it to four miles. I was pretty drained after this run but was able to refuel with copious amounts of Easter candy.
Week Total= 106.7 miles. First 100 mile week in nearly four months. I feel like my fitness is really progressing but my recovery is still a bit slow. However, I feel things will really be clicking in just a couple more weeks.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Convenant Health Knoxville Half-Marathon
I wasn't really sure if I was going to run this race, even as late as Saturday afternoon. My left knee started to bug me and was showing the same symptoms as my right knee did before getting really painful and I was stuck at one of the world's most slow moving track meets on that Saturday morning/afternoon. Fortunately, I was able to leave the meet a little bit early and had about 3.5 hours to make it to Knoxville. We ran into a traffic jam in Lebanon and I debated just turning around and going home, but eventually it cleared out. Mary and I got into Knoxville at about 7:30pm, which only give me a few minutes to run into the expo, get registered, get my stuff and take off.
I really enjoy the out-of-town races. They give the race much more of a "big-race" feel because you have to travel, stay in a hotel and you have a lot of time to get in the racing mindset and feeling. It's much different than rolling out of bed, drinking a cup of coffee and hoping on the freeway for 30 minutes for a typical Nashville race. I was hoping this extra adrenaline boost would be what I needed for a good performance.
For my pre-race dinner, I was hoping to get some pizza, but when we got there, the place was just closing. We decided to turn around and find a place closer to the hotel. The Italian place was swamped (I guess people thought they needed to "carbo-load"), so we decided to go to Monterrey's. True, one bad burrito could probably ruin your race, but most of the time, you can never go wrong with Mexican. It seemed like I was the only runner in the place, and I ate more than my fill of Mexican cuisine. It was no Casa Vieja but the food was still pretty decent. We didn't get done eating until after 9:00pm, so after dinner, it was time to siesta to get ready for the fiesta.
I got to the race a little over an hour before the gun went off. Surprisingly, it was very easy to find a place to park inside of a free parking garage. I hung around the Convention Center for a bit and watched the women's bathroom line grow in size while the men's line always stayed the same. About 40 minutes before the gun, I decided to start my warm-up and ran my usual 15 minutes of jogging and watched as more people flowed in. With the temperature in the low 50s and with fog all around, the weather was nearly perfect for racing.
With about 10 minutes to go, I started doing some light strides and ran into Stewart Ellington, who fortunately for me, was running the full marathon. He gave me a description of the course and even more importantly, pointed out a hidden dumpster that doubled as a bathroom stall. He let me know the course was probably about 1:00-1:30 slower than a course like Tom King. After hearing that, I made it my goal to at least break my Tom King time (68:34) and maybe make a run at sub 68, if things were going my way.
When I got on the line and waited for the start, Daniel Kirwa lined up beside me. Daniel won a few national championships while running for Harding University, was the winner of the 2011 Rocket City Marathon and while I was in Kenya in 2005, I saw him run 14:42 for a 5k on a dirt track at 7,000ft. in the air, when he was just 18 years old. Needless to say, the guy is a stud. I didn't recognize any of the other guys around me, so I didn't know what to expect.
The gun finally shot and the race was off. I tucked in beside Daniel and I was surprised no one took off. Normally you'll have someone get caught up in the hype before he understands the cruelness of reality but there was no such runner today. A couple of minutes in, Daniel and I were leading side-by-side with a pack of guys behind us. We went through the first mile in 5:19, which was a little bit slower than I wanted. I cranked up the pace a notch and Daniel stayed beside me. I didn't want to turn around, but there seemed to be at least three other guys still with us, which included a guy with a pretty sweet 'stache.
The second mile marker was either way short or I set a new personal record in the mile, with a 4:06 split. Daniel and I were still running together and I was hoping someone else would help with the work but no one stepped up. We went through three miles still bunched together in 15:24, which gave us a time of 10:05 for the last two miles. That pace was now a little more aggressive than I wanted, especially over the hills, but I felt really smooth and in control, so I decided to stick with it.
In the fourth mile, Kevin Quadruzzi decided to help with the pace, so I tucked in for a few minutes. We covered the next mile in 5:01, which ended up dropping everyone in the chase pack, except for one guy, Adelaziz Atmani. I never noticed him in the beginning and he appeared to be pretty relaxed but didn't show any signs of wanting to help with the work. I was still feeling strong at this point and compared to the Tom King Half-Marathon, I was feeling much better at this point in the race.
In the 8th mile, we climbed a very steep hill that I was able to power up but shortly after, there was another longer hill and in a matter of a few minutes, I was about 10 seconds behind Daniel and Adelaziz. I tried to not give up any more time in case Daniel dropped Adelaziz but all of the hills were making things tough.
Part of the course goes along a greenway, which had some short dips and climbs, along with some flat sections. I was able to gain a few seconds here and was able to throw together two miles in 4:56 and 5:01. At this point, I was only a few seconds behind the two but once we left the greenway, Adelaziz made a move which ended my bid for for a top two finish.
Since I was pretty much guaranteed third place, I briefly debated backing off, but I really didn't feel that badly. I slowed down a good bit over the last two miles, as the hills returned. Like Tom King, this race had a stadium finish and with about a 1/4 mile to go, I literally ran into the 5k walkers. We had the same finish line and they were taking up the entire road, so I had to zig-zag around them, which became really difficult when you entered the stadium, just before you go onto the football field to finish.
Luckily, once I got onto the field, it wasn't as crowded but Adelaziz told me he got blocked by walkers around the final turn, which he said cost him the race. But to be honest, he wasn't going to beat Daniel. You can be the judge: race finish
When I crossed the line, the finish clock said 67:06 but when I looked at my watch, it said 67:21. To make things even more confusing, the official results had me at 67:09. I almost convinced myself that I really did run 67:09 but just stopped my watch late, but unfortunately, there was video evidence: 67:21 it is.
Overall, this was a pretty fun race. The post race food was indoors and pretty solid (I focused on the pizza, Cheetos and Funyuns), there were a lot of spectators on the course and the course itself was a tough challenge. I'm not sure if I'll come back again next year but it was worth the trip.
Overall, I'm really happy with my time. I haven't done any hard workouts, so I'm very raw and rusty. During the race, my breathing was fine and I felt very strong but I just couldn't go any faster. At Tom King, I was dying but in this race, I felt like I could have run a few more miles. I guess averaging 5:09s is like averaging low 5:00s on the "flats" and my training just hasn't set me up to run that fast yet.
I'm a little dissapointed that I didn't make myself die. Part of it was that I didn't have the necessary capabilities yet but I also think I was a little bit psyched out by Daniel. He's such a strong runner and I knew I wouldn't beat him. If he was some other guy, maybe I would have fought a little bit harder. Who knows. But my racing is ahead of schedule and with hard workouts just around the corner, hopefully I'll be ready to run under 66:00 if the weather is good at the Derby Festival Mini-Marathon in four weeks.
Splits: 5:19, 10:05 (2 miles), 5:01, 5:20, 5:04, 5:03, 5:28 (got dropped), 4:56, 5:01, 5:20, 5:24, 5:32 (1.1 miles)
I really enjoy the out-of-town races. They give the race much more of a "big-race" feel because you have to travel, stay in a hotel and you have a lot of time to get in the racing mindset and feeling. It's much different than rolling out of bed, drinking a cup of coffee and hoping on the freeway for 30 minutes for a typical Nashville race. I was hoping this extra adrenaline boost would be what I needed for a good performance.
For my pre-race dinner, I was hoping to get some pizza, but when we got there, the place was just closing. We decided to turn around and find a place closer to the hotel. The Italian place was swamped (I guess people thought they needed to "carbo-load"), so we decided to go to Monterrey's. True, one bad burrito could probably ruin your race, but most of the time, you can never go wrong with Mexican. It seemed like I was the only runner in the place, and I ate more than my fill of Mexican cuisine. It was no Casa Vieja but the food was still pretty decent. We didn't get done eating until after 9:00pm, so after dinner, it was time to siesta to get ready for the fiesta.
I got to the race a little over an hour before the gun went off. Surprisingly, it was very easy to find a place to park inside of a free parking garage. I hung around the Convention Center for a bit and watched the women's bathroom line grow in size while the men's line always stayed the same. About 40 minutes before the gun, I decided to start my warm-up and ran my usual 15 minutes of jogging and watched as more people flowed in. With the temperature in the low 50s and with fog all around, the weather was nearly perfect for racing.
With about 10 minutes to go, I started doing some light strides and ran into Stewart Ellington, who fortunately for me, was running the full marathon. He gave me a description of the course and even more importantly, pointed out a hidden dumpster that doubled as a bathroom stall. He let me know the course was probably about 1:00-1:30 slower than a course like Tom King. After hearing that, I made it my goal to at least break my Tom King time (68:34) and maybe make a run at sub 68, if things were going my way.
When I got on the line and waited for the start, Daniel Kirwa lined up beside me. Daniel won a few national championships while running for Harding University, was the winner of the 2011 Rocket City Marathon and while I was in Kenya in 2005, I saw him run 14:42 for a 5k on a dirt track at 7,000ft. in the air, when he was just 18 years old. Needless to say, the guy is a stud. I didn't recognize any of the other guys around me, so I didn't know what to expect.
The gun finally shot and the race was off. I tucked in beside Daniel and I was surprised no one took off. Normally you'll have someone get caught up in the hype before he understands the cruelness of reality but there was no such runner today. A couple of minutes in, Daniel and I were leading side-by-side with a pack of guys behind us. We went through the first mile in 5:19, which was a little bit slower than I wanted. I cranked up the pace a notch and Daniel stayed beside me. I didn't want to turn around, but there seemed to be at least three other guys still with us, which included a guy with a pretty sweet 'stache.
The second mile marker was either way short or I set a new personal record in the mile, with a 4:06 split. Daniel and I were still running together and I was hoping someone else would help with the work but no one stepped up. We went through three miles still bunched together in 15:24, which gave us a time of 10:05 for the last two miles. That pace was now a little more aggressive than I wanted, especially over the hills, but I felt really smooth and in control, so I decided to stick with it.
In the fourth mile, Kevin Quadruzzi decided to help with the pace, so I tucked in for a few minutes. We covered the next mile in 5:01, which ended up dropping everyone in the chase pack, except for one guy, Adelaziz Atmani. I never noticed him in the beginning and he appeared to be pretty relaxed but didn't show any signs of wanting to help with the work. I was still feeling strong at this point and compared to the Tom King Half-Marathon, I was feeling much better at this point in the race.
In the 8th mile, we climbed a very steep hill that I was able to power up but shortly after, there was another longer hill and in a matter of a few minutes, I was about 10 seconds behind Daniel and Adelaziz. I tried to not give up any more time in case Daniel dropped Adelaziz but all of the hills were making things tough.
Part of the course goes along a greenway, which had some short dips and climbs, along with some flat sections. I was able to gain a few seconds here and was able to throw together two miles in 4:56 and 5:01. At this point, I was only a few seconds behind the two but once we left the greenway, Adelaziz made a move which ended my bid for for a top two finish.
Since I was pretty much guaranteed third place, I briefly debated backing off, but I really didn't feel that badly. I slowed down a good bit over the last two miles, as the hills returned. Like Tom King, this race had a stadium finish and with about a 1/4 mile to go, I literally ran into the 5k walkers. We had the same finish line and they were taking up the entire road, so I had to zig-zag around them, which became really difficult when you entered the stadium, just before you go onto the football field to finish.
Luckily, once I got onto the field, it wasn't as crowded but Adelaziz told me he got blocked by walkers around the final turn, which he said cost him the race. But to be honest, he wasn't going to beat Daniel. You can be the judge: race finish
When I crossed the line, the finish clock said 67:06 but when I looked at my watch, it said 67:21. To make things even more confusing, the official results had me at 67:09. I almost convinced myself that I really did run 67:09 but just stopped my watch late, but unfortunately, there was video evidence: 67:21 it is.
Overall, this was a pretty fun race. The post race food was indoors and pretty solid (I focused on the pizza, Cheetos and Funyuns), there were a lot of spectators on the course and the course itself was a tough challenge. I'm not sure if I'll come back again next year but it was worth the trip.
Overall, I'm really happy with my time. I haven't done any hard workouts, so I'm very raw and rusty. During the race, my breathing was fine and I felt very strong but I just couldn't go any faster. At Tom King, I was dying but in this race, I felt like I could have run a few more miles. I guess averaging 5:09s is like averaging low 5:00s on the "flats" and my training just hasn't set me up to run that fast yet.
I'm a little dissapointed that I didn't make myself die. Part of it was that I didn't have the necessary capabilities yet but I also think I was a little bit psyched out by Daniel. He's such a strong runner and I knew I wouldn't beat him. If he was some other guy, maybe I would have fought a little bit harder. Who knows. But my racing is ahead of schedule and with hard workouts just around the corner, hopefully I'll be ready to run under 66:00 if the weather is good at the Derby Festival Mini-Marathon in four weeks.
Splits: 5:19, 10:05 (2 miles), 5:01, 5:20, 5:04, 5:03, 5:28 (got dropped), 4:56, 5:01, 5:20, 5:24, 5:32 (1.1 miles)
Monday, April 2, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
March 19th-25th
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.
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.
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)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)