Monday: 5.4 miles (7:06); 7.9 miles (6:55)
Tuesday: 10.7 miles (6:58). Crashed the last couple of miles on this one.
Wednesday: 9 miles with 6400m tempo in 20:28 (5:09, 5:09, 5:06, 5:04). Spencer alternated 800m on/400m off with me since this is right at his goal 5k pace. Felt a little sloppy at first but loosened up throughout the workout and wasn't too tired at the end. I debated adding in a couple of 400s, but since yesterday was bad, I called it a day.; 6.8 miles (7:06)
Thursday: 9.4 miles (6:55); 4 miles (7:36)
Friday: 8 miles (6:59); 3.8 miles with 6x200m faster strides. A middle schooler I work with was doing some 400s, so I paced him on the first 200m of each one.
Saturday: 10 miles with Shade Tree Trot 5k in 15:09. Felt decent on this and I think I could have run in the 14:40s if I really pushed it. I was a little bit worried about Wild Bill but he hung back, so it was just myself and Erick Kigen for the first 1km or so. After that, I gapped Erick on a gradual hill and slowly pulled away from the field over the course of the race to win by a little over 45 seconds. Splits were: 4:54, 4:56, 4:51. The course has some little hills and quick turns, so I think it runs about 15-20s slower than a fast road course. Anyway, a good effort for me.; 4.4 miles (7:09
Sunday: 20 miles (6:20). I haven't gone long in three weeks, so I wanted one more long run before the marathon in six days. While I won't gain any "real" fitness from it, I feel like I can gain a little muscle memory/neuromusclar fitness from it. Felt really smooth and tried to keep it easy since I just wanted the distance and didn't care about pace. I naturally dropped down to lower 6s the last 5-6 miles and it felt like I was jogging.
Week Total: 99.4 miles. Almost a 100 mile week but who cares? I felt a ton better the second half of the week, so I hope I carry that into the marathon this weekend. I'll still get a little bit of volume the first half of the week before backing off the last two days. While I'm hoping to use the marathon as a steady long run, I need to be ready for battle, if required. It's going to be hot and humid, so if I don't have any chumps trying to take me out, my goal will either be to run just under 2:24 or 2:26, depending on how I'm feeling.
Maybe later in the week, I'll give some hot tips (pun intended) for the Nashville Half-Marathon.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
April 11th-17th Training
Monday: No running. Fever gone, but have no mojo.
Tuesday: No running. Rinse and repeat.
Wednesday: 4.6 miles (7:40); 4.5 miles (7:18)
Thursday: 5.4 miles (7:17); 3.6 miles (8:31). Since I had Super Squad practice right across the street, I went by and watched the high school county meet. The boys 1600m was a great race to watch and it was the classic gas tank vs. kicker showdown. Gas tank had about a 10m lead after the first lap, which he kept until 300m to go. The kicker caught him down the backstretch and passed with 200m to go, with about a 5m lead at the start of the homestretch. I thought it was game over but gas tank kicked like a man possessed and passed for the win in the final few meters to win in 4:24. Splits were something like: 65, 68, 69, 62.
I was also impressed with the girl who won the 100, 200 and 400, and who SHOULD be in the 800m, or will be in college, at least. She squeaked out wins in the former two events but smoked everyone in the 400m to win in 60.0. She has very little power and definitely runs like a middle distance runner. But in high school, everyone seems to run the shortest event they are good at.
Friday: 6 miles (7:14)
Saturday: 5.9 miles with SJV Wildcat 5k in 17:47. Obviously, the goal was to win so I could get my $100 and not get beat in almost my own backyard. I ran with the leader in the 5:50ish range and left him with about a half mile to go to win by about 10 seconds. Felt really flat. This could have got ugly because Tommy Kauffman (64:34 half-marathon PR) ran this race and was debating a kamikaze sneak attack on me but he just ran with a friend; 5.9 miles (8:15)
Sunday: 14 miles (6:58). The plan was a very easy 20. Spencer and I started at the normal long run pace for the first 6 or so and then I could feel a little tiredness creeping in. Once we hit 10, I knew it was going to get ugly, so I changed the route and I called it at 14. I hated to cramp Spencer's style because I was running well over 7:00 pace towards the end. My legs were shot and my hip flexors went on strike. Frustrating run.; 2.1 miles (9:16).
Week Total: 52 miles.Garbage week. Looking at my old logs, I've been able to recover much faster than this go around after the flu. This was week two of garbage training, which is frustrating because if I never got sick, I was going to hammer for two weeks, relax a bit this week and try to run 14:30ish in a road 5k this weekend. There's only eight weeks until the Distance Carnival and it's going to be hard to get in sub 14 shape. Maybe I can just go for a 14:12 PR and do a time trial this fall or something.
Tuesday: No running. Rinse and repeat.
Wednesday: 4.6 miles (7:40); 4.5 miles (7:18)
Thursday: 5.4 miles (7:17); 3.6 miles (8:31). Since I had Super Squad practice right across the street, I went by and watched the high school county meet. The boys 1600m was a great race to watch and it was the classic gas tank vs. kicker showdown. Gas tank had about a 10m lead after the first lap, which he kept until 300m to go. The kicker caught him down the backstretch and passed with 200m to go, with about a 5m lead at the start of the homestretch. I thought it was game over but gas tank kicked like a man possessed and passed for the win in the final few meters to win in 4:24. Splits were something like: 65, 68, 69, 62.
I was also impressed with the girl who won the 100, 200 and 400, and who SHOULD be in the 800m, or will be in college, at least. She squeaked out wins in the former two events but smoked everyone in the 400m to win in 60.0. She has very little power and definitely runs like a middle distance runner. But in high school, everyone seems to run the shortest event they are good at.
Friday: 6 miles (7:14)
Saturday: 5.9 miles with SJV Wildcat 5k in 17:47. Obviously, the goal was to win so I could get my $100 and not get beat in almost my own backyard. I ran with the leader in the 5:50ish range and left him with about a half mile to go to win by about 10 seconds. Felt really flat. This could have got ugly because Tommy Kauffman (64:34 half-marathon PR) ran this race and was debating a kamikaze sneak attack on me but he just ran with a friend; 5.9 miles (8:15)
Sunday: 14 miles (6:58). The plan was a very easy 20. Spencer and I started at the normal long run pace for the first 6 or so and then I could feel a little tiredness creeping in. Once we hit 10, I knew it was going to get ugly, so I changed the route and I called it at 14. I hated to cramp Spencer's style because I was running well over 7:00 pace towards the end. My legs were shot and my hip flexors went on strike. Frustrating run.; 2.1 miles (9:16).
Week Total: 52 miles.Garbage week. Looking at my old logs, I've been able to recover much faster than this go around after the flu. This was week two of garbage training, which is frustrating because if I never got sick, I was going to hammer for two weeks, relax a bit this week and try to run 14:30ish in a road 5k this weekend. There's only eight weeks until the Distance Carnival and it's going to be hard to get in sub 14 shape. Maybe I can just go for a 14:12 PR and do a time trial this fall or something.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
April 4th-10th Training
Monday: 6.1 miles (7:14); 8.2 miles (6:53)
Tuesday: 6.1 miles (7:01); 8.9 miles (7:06)
Wednesday: 9.3 miles with attempted workout. Goal was 20x60s on/off and since my legs felt shot on the warm-up, I decided to use my GPS a bit and run the first five at sub 4:45 pace and drop five seconds after each five. Was able to run the first six intervals successfully and recover well in between even though my hip flexors were completely shot. On the seventh, my legs wouldn't go and I was over 4:50 pace, so I called it a day. I hate ending stuff so soon, especially when I've been a workout diva lately, but my legs were dead.; 4.4 miles (7:16). Legs were completely shot/crapped out. Worst run in months.
Thursday: 8 miles (7:09). Legs still hated me. I just wanted to walk. Skipped second run. Started feeling badly in the morning and it got worse as the day went on. Went to bed at 4:30pm and didn't get out of bed until over 12 hours later. Fever got up to 103.
Friday: No running. Fever at 102-103 all-day and spent the entire day in bed.
Saturday: No running. Fever still at 102-103. In bed nearly all day.
Sunday: No running. Fever dropped to 100-101. Felt good enough to get out of bed and watch a little bit of TV but still felt like crap.
Week Total: 51 miles. Never went to the doctor but being I've had it a few times in the past, this had to be the flu....Body aches, a little cough and congestion, eyes really hurt, insanely weak, tons of body chills, etc. Terrible timing and I hope it doesn't affect my marathon in three weeks and now that I think about it, I haven't had any marathon workouts. Whoops.
Hopefully I can resume some normalcy at the end of next week.
Tuesday: 6.1 miles (7:01); 8.9 miles (7:06)
Wednesday: 9.3 miles with attempted workout. Goal was 20x60s on/off and since my legs felt shot on the warm-up, I decided to use my GPS a bit and run the first five at sub 4:45 pace and drop five seconds after each five. Was able to run the first six intervals successfully and recover well in between even though my hip flexors were completely shot. On the seventh, my legs wouldn't go and I was over 4:50 pace, so I called it a day. I hate ending stuff so soon, especially when I've been a workout diva lately, but my legs were dead.; 4.4 miles (7:16). Legs were completely shot/crapped out. Worst run in months.
Thursday: 8 miles (7:09). Legs still hated me. I just wanted to walk. Skipped second run. Started feeling badly in the morning and it got worse as the day went on. Went to bed at 4:30pm and didn't get out of bed until over 12 hours later. Fever got up to 103.
Friday: No running. Fever at 102-103 all-day and spent the entire day in bed.
Saturday: No running. Fever still at 102-103. In bed nearly all day.
Sunday: No running. Fever dropped to 100-101. Felt good enough to get out of bed and watch a little bit of TV but still felt like crap.
Week Total: 51 miles. Never went to the doctor but being I've had it a few times in the past, this had to be the flu....Body aches, a little cough and congestion, eyes really hurt, insanely weak, tons of body chills, etc. Terrible timing and I hope it doesn't affect my marathon in three weeks and now that I think about it, I haven't had any marathon workouts. Whoops.
Hopefully I can resume some normalcy at the end of next week.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
March 28-April 3 Training
Monday: 7.6 miles. I was going to do a 12 mile progression, but man, I was sleepy. Normally, I'm a 6-7 hour a night guy and last night I got nine and after this run, I took a two hour nap (it's Spring Break). I guess my body know it's "allowed" to catch up on sleep this week; 8 miles (6:58)
Tuesday: 11 miles. Plan was to do 4800m-3200m-1600m with 3:00 jog at 5:05, 4:55, 4:45 pace. It was insanely windy (20mph+ winds). I ran the 4800m in 15:07 and while it felt mostly smooth, but hamstrings were getting really achy and I had the same super sleepiness as yesterday. Shortly into the 3200m, my legs were shutting down in the wind, so I called it a workout. That's three days in a row that I axed my harder run. I need to cowboy up; 6.5 miles with 8x30s fast/2:30 moderate. After taking a nap, I was planning on easy run with hard strides but after a mile warm-up, I decided to run the workout I posted. The plan was just to run hard on the fast portion and keep it on the 5:50s on the jog. I ended up running 5:30 average for the 24 minutes with an "on" average of 4:10. I felt smooth on the fast portion and was able to recover pretty quickly in between. In February, I ran 8x30s on/2:30 slow jog and only averaged 4:23 pace on the fast portion (with a granny jog), so my speed is coming around.
Wednesday: 5.4 miles (7:03); 11.2 miles (7:03)
Thursday: 10 miles (6:58); 5.7 miles (7:22)
Friday: 5.4 miles (7:14); 10.5 miles with 5000m in 14:57. I was supposed to pace two miles of the open 5k at 16:00 pace and 45 minutes later, pace 3k of the high school 3200m at 9:20 pace. After an hour drive and 45 minutes before the 5k, I found out that they weren't allowing pacers and they forgot to notify me. I was pretty annoyed since my plan was out the window, so I jogged around for a while and if I had at least 10 minutes before the race, I'd run just under 15 minutes. If I had less than that, I'd run a few more miles and try a workout in the morning. I had about 10-15 minutes, so I went forward with my plan. I ran the first lap pretty lazily in 75-76, then ran nearly straight 71s until the last lap, where I put on the brakes a good bit the last 200m.
The effort was really smooth and the fact that I was clicking off 71s without paying attention to my splits shows that it was a controlled effort. I feel like I could have run about 14:30 if I raced it all out, which isn't bad during a heavy mileage week and in a solo effort. Hopefully I can chase 14:00 this season.
Saturday: 8.6 miles (8:28). Ran a little over five miles before practice and then a few miles at 10+ average; 5.4 miles (7:09)
Sunday: 21.2 miles (6:24). I ran two loops of the Boomer Route, with the Country Hills extension on both laps, which is about 4,000 feet of elevation change. Spencer ran the first lap with me and we took over a ten minute break after the first loop since I was locked out of my house. I rung the doorbell a million times and threw rocks at the bathroom window for a while but my wife was in the shower and my kids didn't come to the door because they thought a monster was trying to get into the house, so they were hiding.
I was hoping to open up on the hills the second half, especially towards the end, but my legs weren't really having much of it. It's been a tough week.
Week Total: 116.5 miles. Biggest week in a long time and I believe it's my third 100+ mile week in a row, after not doing any weeks that high for over five months. My fitness is still continuing to climb and I want to get in at least two more solid weeks of training. I'm happy with where my fitness is right now, because I was struggling a little over a month ago and my training has been random without much specificity. If I can buckle down in May, I think I'll race well in June.
Tuesday: 11 miles. Plan was to do 4800m-3200m-1600m with 3:00 jog at 5:05, 4:55, 4:45 pace. It was insanely windy (20mph+ winds). I ran the 4800m in 15:07 and while it felt mostly smooth, but hamstrings were getting really achy and I had the same super sleepiness as yesterday. Shortly into the 3200m, my legs were shutting down in the wind, so I called it a workout. That's three days in a row that I axed my harder run. I need to cowboy up; 6.5 miles with 8x30s fast/2:30 moderate. After taking a nap, I was planning on easy run with hard strides but after a mile warm-up, I decided to run the workout I posted. The plan was just to run hard on the fast portion and keep it on the 5:50s on the jog. I ended up running 5:30 average for the 24 minutes with an "on" average of 4:10. I felt smooth on the fast portion and was able to recover pretty quickly in between. In February, I ran 8x30s on/2:30 slow jog and only averaged 4:23 pace on the fast portion (with a granny jog), so my speed is coming around.
Wednesday: 5.4 miles (7:03); 11.2 miles (7:03)
Thursday: 10 miles (6:58); 5.7 miles (7:22)
Friday: 5.4 miles (7:14); 10.5 miles with 5000m in 14:57. I was supposed to pace two miles of the open 5k at 16:00 pace and 45 minutes later, pace 3k of the high school 3200m at 9:20 pace. After an hour drive and 45 minutes before the 5k, I found out that they weren't allowing pacers and they forgot to notify me. I was pretty annoyed since my plan was out the window, so I jogged around for a while and if I had at least 10 minutes before the race, I'd run just under 15 minutes. If I had less than that, I'd run a few more miles and try a workout in the morning. I had about 10-15 minutes, so I went forward with my plan. I ran the first lap pretty lazily in 75-76, then ran nearly straight 71s until the last lap, where I put on the brakes a good bit the last 200m.
The effort was really smooth and the fact that I was clicking off 71s without paying attention to my splits shows that it was a controlled effort. I feel like I could have run about 14:30 if I raced it all out, which isn't bad during a heavy mileage week and in a solo effort. Hopefully I can chase 14:00 this season.
Saturday: 8.6 miles (8:28). Ran a little over five miles before practice and then a few miles at 10+ average; 5.4 miles (7:09)
Sunday: 21.2 miles (6:24). I ran two loops of the Boomer Route, with the Country Hills extension on both laps, which is about 4,000 feet of elevation change. Spencer ran the first lap with me and we took over a ten minute break after the first loop since I was locked out of my house. I rung the doorbell a million times and threw rocks at the bathroom window for a while but my wife was in the shower and my kids didn't come to the door because they thought a monster was trying to get into the house, so they were hiding.
I was hoping to open up on the hills the second half, especially towards the end, but my legs weren't really having much of it. It's been a tough week.
Week Total: 116.5 miles. Biggest week in a long time and I believe it's my third 100+ mile week in a row, after not doing any weeks that high for over five months. My fitness is still continuing to climb and I want to get in at least two more solid weeks of training. I'm happy with where my fitness is right now, because I was struggling a little over a month ago and my training has been random without much specificity. If I can buckle down in May, I think I'll race well in June.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
March 21st-27th Training
Monday: 6.3 miles with 4xhill blasts (7:22); 8 miles (7:01)
Tuesday: 12 miles with 8x1k with 400m jog at 2:59 average. Started in the lower 3:00s and broke it on my fourth. I was feeling smooth and debated dropping it down to 2:55s for the last three intervals but my legs were getting a little worn out. Aerobically, it was fine but my legs/muscular system are still getting used to more extensive faster running. Spencer tagged along for the first 500m of every interval, which helped out a lot; 5.4 miles (7:25)
Wednesday: 5.4 miles (7:21); 10.3 miles (6:57)
Thursday: 8 miles (7:00); 7 miles (8:04)
Friday: 10.1 miles with 2xbaby uphills and downhills. Since the plan was a long moderate run on Sunday, I decided to get a little turnover work with the hills. I was hurting on the first one but was surprised to open with a 1:23. I ran slightly faster on the second one and on the downs, I ran right at/just under 1:15. I ended up averaging nine seconds faster per hill than six weeks ago, which is right at thirty seconds a mile faster. Glad my speed is coming around; 4.3 miles (7:35). Warm-up and cool-down at Spencer's 5000m.
Saturday: 9.5 miles (6:57); 3.4 miles (7:23)
Sunday: 3.8 miles (7:06). The plan was 20 with 16 working from 5:50 to 5:30 pace. The weather was perfect but after my warm-up, I felt guilty that it was Easter and my kids were about to wake-up and I'd miss out for two hours. So I turned around and will try something tomorrow; 10 miles (6:48)
Week Total: 103.5 miles. I was on pace to hit right at 110 before I shortened Sunday. Next week, I'll make-up for it and run 115ish. Next week, I need to get in a solid workout, a good long run and I'm also pacing the 3200m at a high school track meet on Friday. I'm supposed to run 70-71 per lap, so I think I'll be able to run that pretty smoothly and will run somewhere around 3km, before dropping out so the youngans can duke it out.
Tuesday: 12 miles with 8x1k with 400m jog at 2:59 average. Started in the lower 3:00s and broke it on my fourth. I was feeling smooth and debated dropping it down to 2:55s for the last three intervals but my legs were getting a little worn out. Aerobically, it was fine but my legs/muscular system are still getting used to more extensive faster running. Spencer tagged along for the first 500m of every interval, which helped out a lot; 5.4 miles (7:25)
Wednesday: 5.4 miles (7:21); 10.3 miles (6:57)
Thursday: 8 miles (7:00); 7 miles (8:04)
Friday: 10.1 miles with 2xbaby uphills and downhills. Since the plan was a long moderate run on Sunday, I decided to get a little turnover work with the hills. I was hurting on the first one but was surprised to open with a 1:23. I ran slightly faster on the second one and on the downs, I ran right at/just under 1:15. I ended up averaging nine seconds faster per hill than six weeks ago, which is right at thirty seconds a mile faster. Glad my speed is coming around; 4.3 miles (7:35). Warm-up and cool-down at Spencer's 5000m.
Saturday: 9.5 miles (6:57); 3.4 miles (7:23)
Sunday: 3.8 miles (7:06). The plan was 20 with 16 working from 5:50 to 5:30 pace. The weather was perfect but after my warm-up, I felt guilty that it was Easter and my kids were about to wake-up and I'd miss out for two hours. So I turned around and will try something tomorrow; 10 miles (6:48)
Week Total: 103.5 miles. I was on pace to hit right at 110 before I shortened Sunday. Next week, I'll make-up for it and run 115ish. Next week, I need to get in a solid workout, a good long run and I'm also pacing the 3200m at a high school track meet on Friday. I'm supposed to run 70-71 per lap, so I think I'll be able to run that pretty smoothly and will run somewhere around 3km, before dropping out so the youngans can duke it out.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
March 14th-20th Training
Monday: 6.1 miles (7:10); 8 miles (657)
Tuesday: 8.7 miles (6:53); 5.4 miles with 3xhill blasts (7:09). First time doing those since before Chicago. Last time I ran these, I would run by a few empty lots on the hills and now, there are houses with people living in them.
Wednesday: 8.5 miles with 12x400m. The plan was to run up to 16, broken into sets of four. The first three would be 70-72, with 1:00 jog, with the last one sub 68 with 3:00 jog. I ended up running: (68.8, 68.2, 68.4, 63.9); (67.5, 67.3, 66.7, 62.6); (67.0, 65.8, 66.3, 62.8). I would have run another set but I ran out of time. Solid workout and my first good one since before Chicago. Just two weeks ago, I only ran 4x800m with 800m jog in 2:26. I feel like I'm getting all my super powers back. I was feeling really smooth on the first three of each set and each set didn't feel any worse than the prior one. Spencer was running some repeat 800s, and as fate would have it, we were both on our last interval at the same time. I wanted to beat him but my quads started getting a little shaky and I didn't want to bust my face. He ended up finishing about a second before me (albeit 100m ahead since we started from different places); 2.1 miles (7:31). Ran at my K-2 running club since they've gotten lazy on me, recently; .1 miles (7:52). Ran about an hour after finishing running club. My knee was killing me and my groin was screaming me at all. I think both tightened up on me after taking a bit of a break in between the two runs.
Thursday: 10.6 miles (6:45); 2.3 miles (7:08) and then 3.9 miles (8:58) at Super Squad practice
Friday: 8 miles (7:10); 4.5 miles (7:10)
Saturday: 15.7 miles with 15k progression run in 48:30. Jumped into the Special Kids 15k and my plan was to run three miles at 16:30 (5:30), 16:00 (5:20), 15:30 (5:10). I thought it would be pretty tough since I averaged 5:20 for a half-marathon two weeks prior but I was going to at least attempt it. I ended up running: 16:20 (5:29, 5:26, 5:25), 15:41 (5:05, 5:18, 5:18), and 14:56 (4:59, 4:55, 5:02). First section=super relaxed with some decent headwind. Second section= Picked it up about ten seconds, effort wise on the first mile but I ended up running with a tailwind, before slamming on the brakes the last two. 3rd section= Sub five pace came very easily. I was going to still run 5:10s but I felt it wouldn't have been what I wanted, effort wise. I would probably run 4:55ish on the last mile but the 5k started twenty minutes later and right before eight miles, I ran into a TON of 5k runners.
The lead car couldn't go through and it was literally shoulder to shoulder on both sides of the road. I ended up running on the side of the road, which was grass with bad footing. After a little over half a mile, I was able to run on the far side of the road. For some reason, I showed up in the 5k results before getting it fixed. More often than not, those A Matter of Timing guys butcher results; 4.5 miles (7:13)
Sunday: 7.7 miles (6:49); 4.5 miles (7:18)
Week Total: 100.6 miles. Finally a solid post-Chicago Marathon week! I feel like I've become much more fit over the last two weeks and in another month, I feel like I'll be a new man. I just have to stay on top of this injury stuff. I've started scrapping my knee every night, which seems like it's now helping but I'm pretty sure I have a sports hernia that I need to get looked at. It's really achy for a mile or so and then it loosens up. But any time I sneeze, it feels like the Hulk is trying to yank my leg off.
Tuesday: 8.7 miles (6:53); 5.4 miles with 3xhill blasts (7:09). First time doing those since before Chicago. Last time I ran these, I would run by a few empty lots on the hills and now, there are houses with people living in them.
Wednesday: 8.5 miles with 12x400m. The plan was to run up to 16, broken into sets of four. The first three would be 70-72, with 1:00 jog, with the last one sub 68 with 3:00 jog. I ended up running: (68.8, 68.2, 68.4, 63.9); (67.5, 67.3, 66.7, 62.6); (67.0, 65.8, 66.3, 62.8). I would have run another set but I ran out of time. Solid workout and my first good one since before Chicago. Just two weeks ago, I only ran 4x800m with 800m jog in 2:26. I feel like I'm getting all my super powers back. I was feeling really smooth on the first three of each set and each set didn't feel any worse than the prior one. Spencer was running some repeat 800s, and as fate would have it, we were both on our last interval at the same time. I wanted to beat him but my quads started getting a little shaky and I didn't want to bust my face. He ended up finishing about a second before me (albeit 100m ahead since we started from different places); 2.1 miles (7:31). Ran at my K-2 running club since they've gotten lazy on me, recently; .1 miles (7:52). Ran about an hour after finishing running club. My knee was killing me and my groin was screaming me at all. I think both tightened up on me after taking a bit of a break in between the two runs.
Thursday: 10.6 miles (6:45); 2.3 miles (7:08) and then 3.9 miles (8:58) at Super Squad practice
Friday: 8 miles (7:10); 4.5 miles (7:10)
Saturday: 15.7 miles with 15k progression run in 48:30. Jumped into the Special Kids 15k and my plan was to run three miles at 16:30 (5:30), 16:00 (5:20), 15:30 (5:10). I thought it would be pretty tough since I averaged 5:20 for a half-marathon two weeks prior but I was going to at least attempt it. I ended up running: 16:20 (5:29, 5:26, 5:25), 15:41 (5:05, 5:18, 5:18), and 14:56 (4:59, 4:55, 5:02). First section=super relaxed with some decent headwind. Second section= Picked it up about ten seconds, effort wise on the first mile but I ended up running with a tailwind, before slamming on the brakes the last two. 3rd section= Sub five pace came very easily. I was going to still run 5:10s but I felt it wouldn't have been what I wanted, effort wise. I would probably run 4:55ish on the last mile but the 5k started twenty minutes later and right before eight miles, I ran into a TON of 5k runners.
The lead car couldn't go through and it was literally shoulder to shoulder on both sides of the road. I ended up running on the side of the road, which was grass with bad footing. After a little over half a mile, I was able to run on the far side of the road. For some reason, I showed up in the 5k results before getting it fixed. More often than not, those A Matter of Timing guys butcher results; 4.5 miles (7:13)
Sunday: 7.7 miles (6:49); 4.5 miles (7:18)
Week Total: 100.6 miles. Finally a solid post-Chicago Marathon week! I feel like I've become much more fit over the last two weeks and in another month, I feel like I'll be a new man. I just have to stay on top of this injury stuff. I've started scrapping my knee every night, which seems like it's now helping but I'm pretty sure I have a sports hernia that I need to get looked at. It's really achy for a mile or so and then it loosens up. But any time I sneeze, it feels like the Hulk is trying to yank my leg off.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Tom King Half-Marathon
The Tom King Half-Marathon is usually the most important half-marathon to me each year. I may run bigger or more competitive half-marathon races, but since most of the Nashville area runners come out for this one, and you see nearly all of them on an out-and-back section, I always feel pressured to win.
I've won the half the last three years they've had it along with the 5k last year (the half was cancelled due to snow) and I didn't want that to change! You never know who is going to show up but I knew I was going to have a showdown with local runners Joey Elsakr and "Wild" Bill Martin.
While I do well at time-trial type races, I perform the best in one-on-one showdowns. I love the pressure, the mind games/strategy and the chance to snag the win. But if it was going to be a three-way race between us, it would become a little more tricky as Joey is a pure gas tank guy (has never broken 60 seconds in a 400m) and Wild Bill is a speedster (sub 4:05 mile speed in college).
I know that they've been training together for their faster runs over the last couple of months so I tried to sneak some info from Joey over a text the night before. But the guy claimed he wasn't sure if Bill was in shape! I had to give it to him though because he is a loyal training partner.
So with those two guys combined, I didn't know what to do. But to be honest, it's impossible to have a real strategy when you're battling for the win because anything can happen. You have to be prepared for every situation.
Going into the race, I wasn't sure about my fitness. I felt like I could potentially run 68:00 but I only had one short tempo run under my belt, along with a couple moderate efforts (and the trail race). Joey thought he was in around 67:30-68:00 shape and since he wouldn't give up Wild Bill, I wasn't sure on him.
But what I expected to happen would be for Joey and Wild Bill to stick together from the gun. They are training partners, so it's what they know and are used to. I figured they'd open up in the 5:00ish range and I'd hang back 5-10 seconds or so. Eventually, one of them would crack, and I would try to chase down the "victim" and hopefully use him to catapult myself to the whomever was leading.
But I did not want it to come down to the last mile. Even though my 400m PR is quite a bit faster than his, I still didn't want to get in a kick with Joey. And Bill would definitely whoop me in a sprint. I really haven't done anything intense and would be scared my legs would fall apart if I hammered after nearly 13 miles of running. So my ideal plan would be to take over the lead around 10-11 miles in and have a long drive for home. A lot of speculation there.
After the race started, a pack of five quickly formed with myself, Joey, Wild Bill, some out of town guy I didn't know and David Mokone, who has a 1:47 800m PR and is like twenty five feet tall. I knew I didn't want to get in a kick with that guy.
In races, I will usually put my GPS on "lap time" and then manually split it every mile. I don't really watch the pace, I just focus on each individual mile. But for this race, I decided to start it but then just race without manually splitting anything. I had to be really patient in this one and not let myself get into the racing mindset too early.
I hung in the back of the pack at first and the pace felt smooth and controlled and we were running in the low 5:20s.
A little after the mile, the out of town guy fell back and Mokone seemed like he was going to stick behind us as long as he could. The pace stayed relatively smooth with Joey throwing in a very short spurt every now and then.
After a couple of miles, you hit a greenway for the next fourish miles, before turning around. Once or twice, we would briefly drop Mokone before he rallied back. I told Bill that Mokone was on the "last kicks of a dying horse" phase and would drop soon and then he was gone.
We were still running in the low 5:20s and around five miles in, Wild Bill surprisingly fell back. I mentioned to Joey that if we kept up the pace, we would break Bill in a couple of miles. I was also happy he fell back for obviously selfish reasons and was pleased that it would now be a one-on-one race. I would then use the next few miles to get a feel for where Joey was and would move when I felt like it would be best to.
After the turnaround, Bill proved me wrong and was still hanging in tightly. At this point, you start to pass people on their way out, which is a good and bad thing. It's good because you can see how the other runners are doing, cheer on your friends and get support in return. It's bad because it takes you out of the racing mindset and is a bit of a distraction. But since I knew I wasn't race sharp, distractions were occasionally good.
While I race my bigger races out of state, I stay pretty involved in the local running community and as a result, have gotten to know a ton of runners in the area. In the Team Techa vs. Team Joey competition, I was winning in the cheer department by about 50 million to one, so I let Joey know that if he took me out, the people would riot. He then said that it'd be worth it and I told him it'd be well earned. I was even planning on giving him my bib with a message on it since I don't have much of a scalp to give him.
I was still feeling mostly smooth and it sounded like Joey was starting to breathe pretty hard. Every once in a while, I'd do a slight surge to see how Joey would respond. At first, he'd hang right there but eventually, I'd get a second or so on those before he came right back up to me. I felt like that meant his body was breaking down some but would realize it and mentally force it. I kept up this little cat-and-mouse game until I developed about a 3-4 second lead,, which was about nine miles into the race. Once you get a lead like that, you need to push whether you're tired or not. In a way, it's a glorified game of chicken, where the other guy mostly thinks you have the upper hand.
Within a couple of miles, I built my lead up to around a hundred meters and was hoping he thought I had more left than I did. My hip flexors were getting pretty tired, which felt more like a tiredness from not having my muscles run that kind of pace for that length of time, rather than the flat out tiredness you get in a race where you're race fit and can destroy your body.
I made it to 12 miles and while I thought I had the win, I was still getting pretty tired. The cool thing about this race is that you traditionally finish on the Tennessee Titans football field. But since there was a soccer game going on that afternoon or something, we had to be rerouted around the parking lot for a while.
I finished just under 70 minutes to run 69:50, with Joey finishing second in 70:24 and Wild Bill hanging on to third in 70:44. Out of town guy (Brett Pierce) was 7th in 73:24 and David Mokone was 8th in 74:13.
I was pretty tired at the end and i thought that I'd be able to run that time at an easier effort. But supposedly after the last minute course change, the course was a little bit long, which made me feel better.
I still have work to do but was happy to come away with the win!
Strava mile splits: 5:21, 5:20, 5:22, 5:19, 5:16, 5:15, 5:16, 5:20, 5:11, 5:11, 5:13, 5:17, 5:22.
I've won the half the last three years they've had it along with the 5k last year (the half was cancelled due to snow) and I didn't want that to change! You never know who is going to show up but I knew I was going to have a showdown with local runners Joey Elsakr and "Wild" Bill Martin.
While I do well at time-trial type races, I perform the best in one-on-one showdowns. I love the pressure, the mind games/strategy and the chance to snag the win. But if it was going to be a three-way race between us, it would become a little more tricky as Joey is a pure gas tank guy (has never broken 60 seconds in a 400m) and Wild Bill is a speedster (sub 4:05 mile speed in college).
I know that they've been training together for their faster runs over the last couple of months so I tried to sneak some info from Joey over a text the night before. But the guy claimed he wasn't sure if Bill was in shape! I had to give it to him though because he is a loyal training partner.
So with those two guys combined, I didn't know what to do. But to be honest, it's impossible to have a real strategy when you're battling for the win because anything can happen. You have to be prepared for every situation.
Going into the race, I wasn't sure about my fitness. I felt like I could potentially run 68:00 but I only had one short tempo run under my belt, along with a couple moderate efforts (and the trail race). Joey thought he was in around 67:30-68:00 shape and since he wouldn't give up Wild Bill, I wasn't sure on him.
But what I expected to happen would be for Joey and Wild Bill to stick together from the gun. They are training partners, so it's what they know and are used to. I figured they'd open up in the 5:00ish range and I'd hang back 5-10 seconds or so. Eventually, one of them would crack, and I would try to chase down the "victim" and hopefully use him to catapult myself to the whomever was leading.
But I did not want it to come down to the last mile. Even though my 400m PR is quite a bit faster than his, I still didn't want to get in a kick with Joey. And Bill would definitely whoop me in a sprint. I really haven't done anything intense and would be scared my legs would fall apart if I hammered after nearly 13 miles of running. So my ideal plan would be to take over the lead around 10-11 miles in and have a long drive for home. A lot of speculation there.
After the race started, a pack of five quickly formed with myself, Joey, Wild Bill, some out of town guy I didn't know and David Mokone, who has a 1:47 800m PR and is like twenty five feet tall. I knew I didn't want to get in a kick with that guy.
 |
| Wild Bill, Joey and myself in the lead |
In races, I will usually put my GPS on "lap time" and then manually split it every mile. I don't really watch the pace, I just focus on each individual mile. But for this race, I decided to start it but then just race without manually splitting anything. I had to be really patient in this one and not let myself get into the racing mindset too early.
I hung in the back of the pack at first and the pace felt smooth and controlled and we were running in the low 5:20s.
A little after the mile, the out of town guy fell back and Mokone seemed like he was going to stick behind us as long as he could. The pace stayed relatively smooth with Joey throwing in a very short spurt every now and then.
After a couple of miles, you hit a greenway for the next fourish miles, before turning around. Once or twice, we would briefly drop Mokone before he rallied back. I told Bill that Mokone was on the "last kicks of a dying horse" phase and would drop soon and then he was gone.
We were still running in the low 5:20s and around five miles in, Wild Bill surprisingly fell back. I mentioned to Joey that if we kept up the pace, we would break Bill in a couple of miles. I was also happy he fell back for obviously selfish reasons and was pleased that it would now be a one-on-one race. I would then use the next few miles to get a feel for where Joey was and would move when I felt like it would be best to.
After the turnaround, Bill proved me wrong and was still hanging in tightly. At this point, you start to pass people on their way out, which is a good and bad thing. It's good because you can see how the other runners are doing, cheer on your friends and get support in return. It's bad because it takes you out of the racing mindset and is a bit of a distraction. But since I knew I wasn't race sharp, distractions were occasionally good.
While I race my bigger races out of state, I stay pretty involved in the local running community and as a result, have gotten to know a ton of runners in the area. In the Team Techa vs. Team Joey competition, I was winning in the cheer department by about 50 million to one, so I let Joey know that if he took me out, the people would riot. He then said that it'd be worth it and I told him it'd be well earned. I was even planning on giving him my bib with a message on it since I don't have much of a scalp to give him.
I was still feeling mostly smooth and it sounded like Joey was starting to breathe pretty hard. Every once in a while, I'd do a slight surge to see how Joey would respond. At first, he'd hang right there but eventually, I'd get a second or so on those before he came right back up to me. I felt like that meant his body was breaking down some but would realize it and mentally force it. I kept up this little cat-and-mouse game until I developed about a 3-4 second lead,, which was about nine miles into the race. Once you get a lead like that, you need to push whether you're tired or not. In a way, it's a glorified game of chicken, where the other guy mostly thinks you have the upper hand.
Within a couple of miles, I built my lead up to around a hundred meters and was hoping he thought I had more left than I did. My hip flexors were getting pretty tired, which felt more like a tiredness from not having my muscles run that kind of pace for that length of time, rather than the flat out tiredness you get in a race where you're race fit and can destroy your body.
I made it to 12 miles and while I thought I had the win, I was still getting pretty tired. The cool thing about this race is that you traditionally finish on the Tennessee Titans football field. But since there was a soccer game going on that afternoon or something, we had to be rerouted around the parking lot for a while.
I finished just under 70 minutes to run 69:50, with Joey finishing second in 70:24 and Wild Bill hanging on to third in 70:44. Out of town guy (Brett Pierce) was 7th in 73:24 and David Mokone was 8th in 74:13.
I was pretty tired at the end and i thought that I'd be able to run that time at an easier effort. But supposedly after the last minute course change, the course was a little bit long, which made me feel better.
I still have work to do but was happy to come away with the win!
 |
| Bill Rodgers in the house! |
Strava mile splits: 5:21, 5:20, 5:22, 5:19, 5:16, 5:15, 5:16, 5:20, 5:11, 5:11, 5:13, 5:17, 5:22.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)