............Alan's Miles

Track Day

2011-11-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

OK, taking 3-4 months off from all forms of exercise is not recommended unless you want to get fat and out of shape. I am just starting to see a few pounds drop off, but am still 10lbs more than where I was in June, and 20 more than I was when I was really fit. I am definitely struggling to get back into this running thing and am a little worried that I am going to embarass myself bigtime in Boston next year.

I am finally back to running 5 days/week and almost got to 40 miles last week. I've done just one short and slow tempo (3 miles at 6:54) which was slower than I ran the Chicago marathon. Everything else until today has been easy, flat miles.

Today was my first trip to the Tuesday morning track workout. It was cold (only 38 degrees) at 6am this morning and still dark. Almost went back to sleep but decided it was time to man up and see if my legs could still move quickly.

Workout was 10x400. I never liked 400s as I'm not a quick runner at short distances.

#1 was 1:31, or 6:06 pace. felt OK, but I used to run these at 1:15 not that long ago - that 6:06 pace was what I'd do for much longer workouts like 3x2000m.

Got gradually faster and #10 was 78seconds (5:14 pace). Felt pretty rough on the last 2 but overall not too bad. Just comparing these to previous workouts when I wasn't fat and slow shows that a 1:30ish half marathon is achievable. However the fact that I haven't actualy run 13 miles in one go since June may mess with that a little.

Goal at Vegas (in under 4 weeks) is to run at 6:52 pace (1:30 goal time) for as long as I can and then jog it in.

Then another half in early Feb, one in early/mid March and then off to Boston. in April.

Another Long Overdue Update

2011-10-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, my post-Seattle marathon blogging has been a reflection of my post-Seattle running. I strained my calf and had to take some time off. Finally I am back and ran 4 times last week, with a long run of over 7 miles. Doesn't sound like much compared to what I used to run, but I think I ran more last week than I have in the previous 12 weeks combined.

The result of that non running is that I am fat and slow. I am heavier now than I have been since October 2007, and 15lbs heavier than my skinny running weight.

I am very out of shape, 5 miles at 8 minute pace is far from easy.

So the Vegas marathon in December is not going to happen. I amy do the half, our I may skip as I have a work trip I may need to take to the UK (good excuse to not run).

However, I do need to get my act together as I just got this in the mail......

I have 7 months to get in shape and not embarrass myself in Boston.

Mission Accomplished

2011-06-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Back from Seattle after a quick trip. Bottomline, mission accomplished, 3:09:31 was the official time, so met the goal of sub 3:10, and get the ability to register for Boston 2012 early as I am more than 20 minutes faster than the qualifying time for my age group (M45-49 3:30). Not a whole point reading on, but for those that like details......

Start was south of Seattle (the lowest part of the route above), so we shuttled out there. Shuttles ran 4-6am for a 7am start so I figured I'd get there at 5, wait 30 mins for shuttle and then get to start about 6:15, hit the loo and be in the corral around 6:30. But for once, everything went really smooth, no lines, no waiting anyway, quick trip and I was sat at the start line at 5:20am.

We started on time at 7 and the first 9 miles went smoothly - mile markers were accurate, pacing was good, weather was perfect. There was a hill in there but overall I was running just around 7 minute pace and felt good. At that point I started feeling that a stop in a bathroom was going to be a good thing to avoid an embarrassing side of road #2, as dinner/breakfast weren't sitting too well. We hit the bridge to Mercer island at 9 and it was about 1.5 miles out and the same back. After 5 minutes of that I knew I was stopping somewhere, so was crossing my fingers they had a portapotty at the turnaround. Luckily they did, and I happily gave up 1 minute 8 seconds of time.

After leaving the bridge we went into a long tunnel around mile 12ish. This obviously messed up the GPS but I kept a steady effort. From that point on though, everything was off. Mile markers started appearing at odd places - previously they'd all be 1.00 or 1.01, now they were 0.89 or 1.2. someone must have been drunk who was placing those.

Then we headed North from Seattle on a raised viaduct, which was all concrete, no crowds, really boring. Then another tunnel, then a big hill. I was slowing but tried to keep the pace around 7:15 average.

At mile 20 I did the math and knew that if I could keep under 7:30 pace I'd be in under 3:10, but given the uncertainty of the mile markers I decided to push a little. Pushed the pace down to 7:05, but mile 21 and mile 22 were both long, so despite the effort, each mile tool 7:30. Uh-oh, this might be close.....

Mile 23 + 24 were better and I managed to do them in 7:15.

At the mile 24 flag, I had just 2.22 miles togo, time was 2:52:44, so I had 17:15 to cover the distance. If distances were accurate that's 7:46 pace, although my math at the time wasn't that accurate. I figured 7:30 would just about do it.

Mile 25 had a climb and I pushed hard. This mile was short (.89) and I got through in 6:32. Of course, a short 25 likely meant a long 26 so I had no idea where I was. Finish was down by Qwest field and made a bunch of turns, couldn't see the where the finish line was. Mile 26 went on forever (post race analysis shows it was 1.2 miles!), I spent 8:56 on that mile despite running under 7:30 pace and was now in serious risk of missing my goal time.

Finally I could see the finish line so I kicked in for the last (hopefully) .22 miles. Managed that part in 1:19 (6:23 pace) and crossed the line with 29 seconds to spare.

Overall it was an OK effort, I was undertrained and was definitely working hard from about mile 18. My legs got pretty thrashed from all the concrete (combined with very light shoes) and the hills in the second half.

I definitely wouldn't recommend this race. Despite being in a great city, it was not really an interesting course, not great crowd support (despite their being bands every mile) and the mile markers were a trainwreck. I know that mile markers/garmins etc are never going to agree exactly, but to have the 25 mile marker almost a 1/4 mile off in a marathon is a very lame thing.

Here's a few photos I found online from the race....

This captures the true glory of running thru a dark concrete tunnel...

This one, the excitement of running on elevated freeways...

Here, the thrill of taking offramps at high speed...

And this one shows the start, where I was still in contention for the win...

And this is me at about 15 miles, when the wheels were still on (plus I deliberately sped up for the camera guy in attempt to get a good photo for once)...

Seattle, here we come!

2011-06-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

Seattle marathon is tomorrow at 7am. Should land in time to get to the expo to pickup my bib, buy some GUs (forgot to bring them), then go to the hotel, eat and then try to get some sleep.

Tomorrow will be an early start as I need to get the shuttle out to the start which is south of Seattle. I figure I need to wake up about 4am.

The goal is to run under 3:10, or just under 7:15 mins/mile. This is 12 minutes, or 27 seconds/mile slower than when I ran Chicago two years ago, so in theory it should be doable. However, I haven't trained like I did for that race.

Here is how my weekly mileage for the last 6 months looks compared to previous marathons....

Mileage is way down, especially over the last 10 weeks where I have only gone over 50 miles once. Hopefully mileage isn't the only indicator, if it is I am in big trouble.

Here are some other running measures compared to previous marathons....

Obviously not quite where I wanted to be. The good news is that my recent half marathon time was faster than I have ever run before, so I know I have the speed required. But when I look at the long runs (down 62% from Chicago) and especially the tempo runs (also down 62%) I know I can see some very good reasons to doubt my endurance.

So I am hoping that my better speed and 12 minute cushion get me through what will likely be an uncomfortable last 6 miles. If I can stay conservative for the first 18 miles I think I'll be OK. The plan is to run about 1:35 for the first half and then see how it goes. History says I'll probably start too fast, feel good, keep going and blowup.

But now that I am older and smarter I need to follow the plan so will try to hang with the 3:10 pace group and remember that the goal is a automatic early entry for Boston and not a sub three or PR. Save that effort for Vegas in December.

Guess we'll see....

Problem With My Flies

2011-05-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

Went for an early morning run today at Alviso, which has a number of trails on levees around the evaporation ponds in the bay. In the evening it gets windy out there but in the morning it's very still, which sometimes means there are areas with swarms of little flies. Today I ran a new route and encountered a lot of flies. Basically there was a 2 mile stretch where the air was just back with these little bastards. Luckily I had sunglasses, but I had to run with my shirt held over my mouth & nose to stop from choking on them. I passed an old guy walking who looked at me kinda weird, so I stopped and took a photo of myself. When I got back to the car I looked at it and saw why.... Pretty gross....

Catchup Time

2011-05-21T10:21:00.001-07:00

I have been very poor at keeping this blog updated. I blame that on the fact that I started a new job at the beginning of April, so no longer have the whole day to sit around and goof off on the internet. Running has also become something of a challenge to schedule, no more can I go on three hour trail runs during the day. I am seriously missing the whole "not working" thing, but unfortunately, not working doesn't pay so well.

Last update was the Oakland race, back in March. April and May were supposed to be solid mileage months so I would be in good shape for the Seattle Marathon at the end of June. Work schedule has messed that up a little.

I've been averaging only about 45 miles a week, which is very low for this stage. I'd be much happier if that were 70+. That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm definitely faster. Oakland was a PR in the half, I ran a very hilly 10K on May 7th, and finished pretty strong. Then last weekend I ran Bay to Breakers and finished in 46:25 (6:14 pace), which is over 3 minutes better than last year. I also finished that race really strong with the last 3/4 mile being run under 5:30/mile pace; usually i fade when trying to finish that fast from so far out. Track workouts are also quick and I feel in great shape until the runs get longer.

Unfortunately none of these are going to convert to a fast marathon if I don't have the endurance side covered. I've been doing lots of track workouts (early Tuesday morning with a running group) but only occasional tempos. Last was a 10K progressively faster (6:50s down to 5:50s) in 40 minutes total, which felt pretty good.

I definitely need to get in some longer tempos (7-8 miles) and also some good solid long runs (18-22 miles) somehow in the next 5 weeks, or Seattle is going to be a trainwreck finish. I haven't run more than 11 miles in one go since April 24th, so this is not looking like smart training.

So basically I have 3 weeks to get this thing sorted and will hopefully get a couple 50-60 mile weeks in there, then a 1-2 weeks to taper and then it'll be race day. Hopefully the fact that I am faster, have run a lot of hills and am "only" shooting for 3:09 will get me through without the wheels coming off too badly.

After Seattle I have 5 weeks to recover, then it'll be 18 weeks until Vegas, where I'll be shooting for a PR in the marathon.

Oakland Half Marathon

2011-03-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Oakland about 45 minutes before the start. Weather looked good; cloudy, light winds (5mph) temps in the high 40s. the full marathon was already underway as it started 90 minutes before the half. We would meet it about mile 3-4 and run the final 10 miles together. If all went according to plan I would be running with the marathoners who were doing around 2:50 pace. This should give me people to chase and catch as my half pace will be about 20 seconds faster.

The plan was to run even 6:25 minute miles, which would be a 1:24:08 finish. If all was good at mile 10 I would speed up and see if I could get to a PR (1:23:47). If things were bad I could slow and still get under 1:25 and secure a Bay to Breakers seeded start.

Course is pretty much flat except for a 50-100 drop in mile 1 and corresponding climb in mile 13.

Mile 1: gun goes off and I am off like a rocket. Look at my garmin and it says 4:55 pace, which I know is wrong. It was messed up with the building so I keep going. Ease up a little but still hit the mile 1 marker in 6:04. Another dumb start!

Mile 2+3. Got under control here, we were done with the hill and the buildings so I settled down on a comfortable pace which turned out to be about 6:22. Missed the mile 2 marker but crossed 3 at 18:48, which was 27 seconds ahead of plan.

Mile 4+5. Uneventful miles. Felt good, hit a little windy area and tucked in behind a small group to get through that. Merged with the full, which was not very densely populated! Still Steady at 6:22 pace. Mile 5 marker was 31:33, so now 32 seconds ahead of plan.

Mile 6+7. This was in West Oakland, and was long straight sections. I passed a full marathoner who looked pretty strong and he hooked on to me for these two miles. Pretty gutsy of him to hitch a ride at 6:20 pace for miles 20-21 of a full marathon but he hung in there. It helped keep me steady as I did my best to pull him along. Splits were 6:17 and 6:19 and I was done with 7 at 44:09, now a solid 46 seconds up on the plan. At this point I was thinking that a sub 1:25 was in the bag and that a PR was a real possibility.

Mile 8 + 9. Passed a half runner here and dropped my full marathon shadow but was struggling a little. We turned back into the wind which seemed stronger now. I put my head down and pushed on for a 6:26 and a better mile 9 at 6:20. 9 down at 56:55, which was 50 seconds ahead. Just 4.1 miles to go but I was feeling on the edge.

Mile 10 + 11. These went round Lake Merritt and lots of twists and turns as it went down various footpaths. Part of the trail was muddy with puddles and part was new gravel. After the smooth roads for the last hour this was a big change. I was struggling but decided it was time to man up and not flake like I did at kaiser. Managed to hold it together and at the end of mile 11 I caught up with the female marathon leader. She was doing well but as I caught her she slowed and it was clear she was running on fumes. With 2 miles to go she was not going to have much fun, but #2 was nowhere in sight so unless she collapsed she had the win (she won in 2:53). My splits were 6:29 and 6:30, although my garmin pace hadn't slowed much (6:24, 6:22). these 2 miles came in long (as did the next 2) as I think they stretched the end of the course to accommodate the relocated finish line. They had to move that to make the full course the correct length after some road changes and since the half/full shared the same start/finish lines I think we had a little bonus distance added! At mile 11 I'm at 1:09:54, which is 42 seconds up. Fuzzy math tells me that a 6:25 pace will get me a PR so I keep my head down and push on.

Mile 12. Definitely hurting now and I hear breathing behind me from someone definitely working hard. I think it's the marathon girl hitching a ride so I do my best to run a steady pace. We go through mile 12 uneventfully, but painfully & noisily, at a garmin pace of 6:22. Mile split ended up being 6:30, so I'm thinking that the PR is getting very close. I'm now 37 seconds up with 1.1 miles to go. A PR required me to beat the pacing plan by at least 22 seconds.

Mile 13. surprisingly my female shadow overtook me here. more surprisingly it wasn't the female marathoner but some tall superfit looking guy. and yet more surprisingly he kicked my ass. I hung with him for a few steps but he was definitely surging hard. I decided he was not my age group so let him go. This was the mile with the small hill so I just concentrated on running strong and keeping on pace. Aiming for 6:25 as I knew that meant a PR. Mile 13 marker came up and my split was 6:30. Time was 1:22:54. I had 53 seconds to finish to PR. However, you can't see the finish yet as they is a late 90 degree bend before the line. (This photo is just before the turn. Note the huge crowd and relaxed & comfortable looking running stance!)

Final stretch. Now I decided that I am not going to miss a PR by slacking the last part and I gave it everything. Turned the corner at a sprint and the crowd appears and is really noisy. I can see the clock 1:23:16. I have 30 seconds...... I am flying down the home straight and have no idea if I am gonna make it. Cross the line, stop my watch and look down. 1:23:33. Good for a PR of 14 seconds.

Results showed me to be 22nd overall, 4th master, and 3rd in the 45-49 age group. Overall I am really happy with the race. Another dumb start but I think that's just how I race. I managed to stay strong when it got tough in the 8-10 mile range, which was not the case in the last race.

And a race report wouldn't be complete without a "pirate photo". A good pirate shot has to have no visible lower leg, the other leg planted flat on the ground and the body looking as motionless as possible. Extra points for suitably pirate-like grimaces! I swear they try to get these shots. I really like the sticky up thumb in this one!

Next up is Bay to Breakers if I can still get in. Then Seattle marathon on 6/25.

Race Plans

2011-03-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

The race plans are taking shape....

Oakland half is in 2 weeks, need to go under 1:25 to get a seeded entry for...
Bay to Breakers on May 15th. Need to beat last year's time (49:48) significantly
Late May or early June I will do a full marathon with a goal of running under 3:10 which gets me an early Boston registration spot for 2012. Choices are:

Ottawa, San Diego, Minneapolis or Seattle
All courses are OK, and a 3:09 should be doable if I run sensibly

San Jose Rock'n'Roll Half marathon is October 2nd. That will be a PR attempt (1:23:47) with a big, big, stretch goal of getting down to 1:20
Marathon PR (2:58:13) attempt in Vegas on 12/4. They switched to an evening (4pm) start which should be fun. Want to get somewhere near 2:55 for this one.
Then it's almost time to start thinking about Boston in April 2012

Of course, this all assumes I stay healthy and continue to get back into shape.

2 More Weeks

2011-03-06T16:39:00.000-08:00

A couple of reasonable training weeks completed, bringing the total for the last 10 weeks to about 520.

first was a week spent mostly in Hawaii. Before leaving for vacation did a 15x100m stride workout at the track. Then ran another 40 or so in Maui for a weekly total of 50. A little lower than planned, but OK for a vacation week.
65 miles this week, with a sub 40 minute 10K tempo on the track and a 18-19 miler this morning (longest run in a while).

So I am slowly getting back into shape. The tempos are OK at 6:25ish pace and they now feel pretty easy, so it's time to stretch them out a little longer and try to get up to 9 at a similar pace. Trying to get to 70 this week, then 60 and then it's race week in Oakland.

If all goes well I'll get under 1:25 (which gets me seeded entry to Bay to Breakers) and if it is a really good day I'll go for a 1:23 something. I think I am OK on pace, but not really there on endurance yet, so it's likely to be another crash and burn at mile 10 type of race.

Still haven't picked out the next marathon but it's looking like one of these:

Ottawa 5/29 - done it before but it's not a great course.
Minneapolis 6/5 - this would make sense if I take the job that I am looking at that involves some travel to Minneapolis
San Diego Rock'n'Roll 6/5 - OK course, big event - good destination
Seattle Rock'n'Roll 6/25 - same as San Diego

I think a sub 3:10 is realistic in all of those, just need to pick one that fits well with the rest of life and get it done.

Planning Ahead

2011-02-20T17:05:00.000-08:00

OK, so despite a crash and burn in the last race, it was still an OK time so I am thinking I can get back into real PR shape. Thinking ahead on plans, and also considering the changes in Boston registration regulations I have the following basic scheme.....

Run a decent half at Oakland on 3/27 - 7 weeks after Kaiser I am hoping to get into PR shape and do 1:23 something. This may be tough but I'll give it a shot.
Run a marathon under 3:10 to get early qualification to Boston before September 12th. Now I am 45 my Boston time is 3:30:59 which is a pretty easy run for me, but in order to deal with the problem of Boston selling out in 8 hours they have changed the rules. People who beat the BQ by 20 minutes can register a week early. 2 days later they ope to people who beat by 10 mins, then 2 days later those who beat by 5 mins. Then, if it's no full they open to people who meet the qualification time. So for me, it's a 3:10 to get the early (i.e. guaranteed) entry. This should be easy enough if I pick a reasonable race, which I am still researching.
Run a fall/winter marathon and PR (beat 2:58:13). Thinking California International Marathon (CIM) for this. It's first Sunday in December. I'd love to be shooting for 2:55 which I should be able to do if I have a good spring/summer/fall of training.
Run Boston in 2012 and win it (HAHAHA)

So that's the plan. training needs to pick up from the current 60ish to a little closer to triple digits. Although I'm feeling pretty dedicated as I ran it crappy cold wet weather 3 times this week, which is a lot for a soft Californian like me.

Next week I'm hoping to get to 70, but I'm in Hawaii so will probably slack off and drink too much.

Kaiser Half 2011

2011-02-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

A beautiful day last Sunday in San Francisco. When I parked at 7:15 am it was already 67 degrees. Closer to 70 at start time and approaching 75 at the finish. Not ideal for the run, but great for the walk back to the car afterwards!

I decided to pace/run for 1:25 which was a little optimistic based on recent training paces.

Gun went off and I went out like a bat of hell. I blame the fact that I was running on the right of the course, next to the 5K runners, but the reality is that I am just an idiot.

Goal for mile 1 was 6:29. First half mile was under 3 minutes! Mile 1 went by in 6:11 and mile 2 wasn't much better at 6:17 (vs 6:30 plan). So 2 miles in I was on pace for under 1:22 and already 31 seconds ahead of plan.

Got my act together a little for miles 3,4 & 5 and ran them pretty much on target and was now 20 seconds ahead of plan.

Mile 6 was the hill and I flew down at under 6 minute pace. Mile 7 was fast too and as I hit the great highway and passed the 7 mile marker I was 38 seconds ahead of plan, on pace for sub 1:23. So I knew it was either going to be an out of the park PR or a disaster.

As we started on the coast road it was really hot. There was a slight tailwind, so it felt really still. Pretty quickly I knew this was not going to be the out of the park PR and I knew that I was going to pay dearly for my fast start. But still, I had a 38 second cushion and only 6 miles to go. I could afford to drop 6 seconds per mile and still hit my sub 1:25 goal.

Mile 8, I gave up 7 seconds of that cushion.....
Mile 9, I gave up 6 more....
Mile 10 was the turnaround and I was hurting, gave up 5 more with a 6:43.

Now it was back from the zoo to the finish. Hot with a slight headwind. 19 seconds of cushion, and needed to run about 6:35 pace to get under 1:25.

Mile 11 - 6:41, there go 4 of the 19 seconds! Now I needed to do 2.11 miles in 14:09, or 6:36 pace.

Mile 12. I tried to get back into the 6:30s several times, but the wheels were falling off at this point. Heartrate spiked to mid 180s and I knew it wasn't going to happen. Mile 12 came by in 7:00 and I was now 8 seconds behind pace for the first time. Now I needed to go under 6:30 to beat 1:25.

I tried that pace for 50 yards but it was an all out sprint for me and there was no way I could do it for another 6 minutes. With no hope of sub 1:25 I just decided to get 1:25:XX which meant I could jog it in. Last mile+ was at 7:15 pace and I limped across the line at 1:25:56.

So a combination of weather, mediocre fitness but most importantly crazy aggressive pacing bit me in the ass bigtime.

Race Week

2011-01-31T11:48:00.000-08:00

It's now 6 days from my first race in a long time. Feeling pretty fit, and injury free, but not particularly fast. Did some 1,200 repeats at the track last week to try and trick myself that I was still quick! Managed 4 of them in 4:30 average, but it was just an ugly, unpleasant workout. Before the SF half last year where I ran a sloppy 1:28 I did some 1,200s and averaged 4:37, but a month before that had done some in 4:22, so I have no idea what this means.

Mileage has been OK for the last 2 months, I've averaged just over 50 miles/week. Not great, but a lot more consistent than 2010. I've done 5-10K tempos (6:18-6:30 pace) most weeks and something in the 15-20 mile range most weekends, plus lots of hills.

Ran 6 at 6:50 this weekend as part of a 10 miler with a friend who is going to aim for 1:30. That felt very comfortable, so I'm confident that I can do somewhere under 1:30. Just a question of how far under! Sensible plan would be to aim for 1:27ish and see how it's going when I get to the coast at about mile 7. If it's going well I can pick it up a little on the last 6 miles, if not I can just slog it home.

However, sub 1:25 is tempting as that is the time needed for seeded entry into Bay to Breakers. Big problem with that is that I don't think I'm in shape to hit a sub 1:25 and will likely die on the great highway.

Anyway, once I am done with this I will be looking at the result and deciding on when to do a marathon. If I have a good race I'll shoot for May, if it goes badly, I'll look for something a little later in the year.

Magic Shoes

2011-01-25T08:55:00.000-08:00

Two weeks until the Kaiser half and as expected, I have not magically gotten into great shape. So the answer is obviously new shoes! Just got the new Mizuno Wave Musha 3. These are a lightweight (8.7 0z) trainer. I've been running for the last 6 months in Musha 2's, which were blue. Obviously red shoes are faster than blue ones so these must be better.

Had a cold/sinus thing that I have been ignoring but it has definitely slowed me down. I think I'm over it now (which considering I am ignoring it is a strange concept) so can't use that as an excuse for a slow race on 2/6.

last week was 58 (planned 60) with a 2x3 mile tempo. i did the first 3 at 6:20 which was a little optimisitc to be honest - more inline with how fit i think i should be and not how fit i am. it felt ok, no doubt aided by the 150' drop over the 3 miles. the 3 coming back (with the corresponding 150' climb) was not at 6:20, but more like 6:40, so not great. The week before was only 40 (planned 70) with a 20 min 5K (6:25) on the track as my tempo.

So realistically i am nowhere near 1:25 shape for a half right now (6:29 pace) and am more likely fit enough to do a 1:27-1:28. however, knowing me, and the course if the weather is good i suspect i will go out way too fast, run the first 5 at sub 1:25 pace, blast through the downhill hitting the beach at mile 7 well on pace for under 1:25. then it will gradually slow until the wheels fall off completely somewhere on the way back from the zoo on the great highway (miles 10-13). if it happens at mile 12+ i'll be ok, if it happens closer to 10 i'm in big trouble.

fingers crossed that the fancy red shoes can do the trick!

Mid Jan Update

2011-01-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

Training is going OK, I've been running 60-65 miles/week for the last couple, with a 10k tempo and a 5k tempo. I've run every day except New Year's Day so far this year. Starting to feel good on the long runs (~17s) and the tempos are getting a little quicker (5K was at 6:18 pace).

With 4 weeks to go until Kaiser I think I can get into reasonable shape (plans are 70, 60, 50 and 40 miles race week) and have a reasonable shot at sub 1:25 (6:29 pace) I don't think I'm going to get into PR shape (1:23:47 = 6:23 pace)) but I expect I will be dumb enough on race day to go for it and it will be an ugly last 3-4 miles.....

Still haven't decided which late Spring marathon to run. So far it's looking like either Vancouver or Eugene, both of which are on May 1st.

End of Year Catchup

2010-12-31T10:51:00.000-08:00

So I am finally kinda getting back to training properly....

Week of December 13th was good, with a run everyday for a total of 57 miles. Included a 5 mile tempo at 6:18.

Week of December 20th was only 3 runs for 25 miles.

This week is going well - so far I have run every day and am at 58 miles, so I should get to 70 if I can get out the door the next 2 days.

This morning was a fun run. Went with a group for a New Year's Eve sunrise run up Black Mountain (a 2,800' mountain nearby). We left at 5:10 am in the dark and got to the top of the mountain about 6:50. Which meant we had to hang around in the freezing cold for 25 minutes until the sun came up. A pretty spectacular view from up there!

Here's the route according to Google Earth....

Getting Back To It

2010-12-14T16:58:00.000-08:00

Last week was 5 runs for 48 miles. Biggest week in a while. Had a couple of 12 milers, a couple 7 milers and an ugly tempo (4 miles at 6:36, 9 overall).

Starting to feel a little faster/fitter, and the running every day thing is feeling OK. Hopefully I will get 6 runs in this week, and also have a more successful tempo run (longer and faster).

8 weeks until Kaiser SF Half Marathon.

Long Overdue Update

2010-12-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

Well I guess it has been a little while since I updated this blog.....

Quick Catchup

Spent the summer/fall just running for fun. I managed to miss the registration window for Boston 2011 (which was all of 8 hours) so kinda lost interest in training for real. Since I haven't been working I have been able to spend my days running on the many beautiful, but hilly trails of the San Francisco Bay Area. During the week this is a fantastic place to run, most days I saw more deer than I saw people. Lots of climbing and soft trails, but very little structured training (i.e. no track workouts, tempos) and no races since July.

July - 220 miles - 1:28 for SF half marathon
August - 198 miles
September - 154 miles
October - 138 miles
November - 136 miles

Going Forward

Just recently decided to get back into racing shape. I feel pretty strong from the all the hill running but I don't have any speed or real endurance. I think a half marathon would just about kill me if I did one right now. However, I have signed up for the Kaiser Half on Superbowl Sunday and would like to run a good time. Even if I bust my ass over the next 2 months I don't think I can get anywhere near a PR (1:23), but I'd like to get close to 1:25 if I can.

Done a couple track workouts, a couple tempos (4-6 miles), started doing strides and did a 19:36 5K on the track the other day. Not race effort, but at 6:18 pace it was definitely faster than tempo pace.

Now I need to get back to running 6-7 times/week instead of just nice long trail runs when I feel like it.

Catch Up

2010-07-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

Time to catch up on the blogging....

I left my job, and am taking the summer off. So I have no excuses for not running.
Rebuilding fitness after not running in Feb/March is not going as quickly as I had hoped.

The last few months have looked like this.....

April - managed 83 miles, all slow except for one 3.5m tempo.
May - 162 miles. 3 tempo runs, bay to breakers, long of 18 miles.
June - 168 miles. 1 tempo run, 2 lame track workouts.
July - should hit ~200 miles, 2-3 tempos (all short), 1 track workout, and 1 race!

The race is not going to be pretty. It's the San Francisco 2nd half marathon, and it is in 9 days. This is the course that I did last year in 1:23:47. I was just looking at my splits for that race and I am a long, long way off. The first 10K was 40:01, 2nd 10K was 38:31. That first 10K climbs about 200 feet. I don't think I could run a downhill 10K in 40 right now, so this is not going to be a PR or fun.

Last year, I'd run about 1,600 miles from Jan 1 until the SF race and was in great shape, this year it's less than 1/2 that. I was regularly doing 70-80 mile weeks, 6-8 mile tempo runs and long runs of 20-22. I am not doing any of that right now, so I am lacking in both endurance and speed. And the extra 12lbs I will be carrying this year is unlikely to help, although I doubt I will get hungry as I am carrying plenty of stored energy.

Purely looking at track & tempo workouts, I think I'm about 15-20 seconds/mile off, but couple that with the lack of endurance and I am gonna be lucky to stay within 30 seconds/mile of last year....

Last Year - 6:23 pace = 1:23:47
+15 seconds - 6:38 pace = 1:26:58
+20 seconds - 6:43 pace = 1:28:03
+30 seconds - 6:53 pace = 1:30:14

I think I'll start off trying to run at last year +15s/mile and see how long I can hold on. It will give me a real assessment of where I am and how much work I have to do in order to get back into real racing shape.

The good news is that my fall marathon is 8 weeks later than last year (December VS October), so I have all that extra time to train, which I will need. The goal is still to beat my Chicago time in the California International Marathon.

I have 4 weeks after SF to continue building a base and then 15 weeks to do some sort of amazing marathon training plan that is yet to be be worked out......

Back to the Track #1

2010-06-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

I finally feel like I am back to a reasonable level of fitness. The last 2 weeks were both in the mid 40's mileage wise, and I did a couple of OK tempo runs (6:30ish pace for 4-5 miles). So this evening I decided it was time for a trip to the local high school track, to see if the legs still went quickly.

Plan was to start easily, with just 3x1200 in 4:30 (90 seconds/lap), with a walk/jog lap in between. At my fitness peak (pre-Chicago) my fastest was 6x1200 in 4:18, so this workout wasn't supposed to be too strenuous.

Started fast (82 seconds), got under control (89), finished OK (88) for 4:20 overall
Started better (85), OK 2nd lap (89), tough last lap (89) for 4:24 overall
Started OK (86), OK 2nd lap (89), strong, but hard last lap (87) for 4:23 overall

Average was 4:22, which is 5:51 pace. I was happy to be just doing 3 of these, and I'm sure that #4 would have been ugly. Next time (either next week, or week after), I'll go up to 4 reps with a target time of 4:25. Plan is to get back to 6X at 4:15 (5:42 pace).

Now that I am running somewhat properly again, I have worked out a basic plan for the rest of the year.

The big goal race is California International Marathon, in early December. Assuming things go well for the next 6 months I will be aiming for a solid PR (under 2:58:13 - 6:48 pace), with a stretch of sub 2:55 (6:40 pace). Weather can be dicey, but if it cooperates, and I don't kill myself on the downhills in the first half, it's a good course.

On route to that race, I hope to get a half marathon PR (under 1:23:47 - 6:23 pace), with the stretch goal being to get as close to 1:20 (6:06 pace) as possible. I'd love to go 1:19:something but that seems a long way off from where I am right now, given that 6:06 is faster than my best 10K pace, so that will have to be a 2011 goal. I have 2 halves picked: 1st will be San Francisco (the 2nd part of the full course) at the end of July. I won't be in PR shape by then, so that will be a race to see where I am fitness wise. Then the big half will be San Jose Rock'n'Roll in October. It's a fast, flat course so I'll be going for it.

I have the training plan laid out thru end of July (SF half), then I will be about 19 weeks from Cal International. I will do something similar to Chicago, peak around 80 miles/week, with a heavy emphasis on longer (7-8 mile) tempos.

I'll slot in some 5/10K races as the schedule unfolds to assess fitness. First one is a company 5K in 2 weeks. It's not a great race, it's almost always hot (lunchtime run in June), and is usually a long course - but it will give me another data point to see where I am in terms of recovery.

Right now, I feel that I am starting this cycle with more speed, but less endurance, so we'll see how that turns out.

According to Plan

2010-05-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

So I ran a 49:48, pretty much matching my plan (see here). I had a fast start and the hill kicked my butt. Those 2 evened out. Overall the plan was good. Got beat by a pink gorilla, a naked dude, Little Bo Peep, and 2 women's team centipedes; about 261 people in all!

Ran back up the course afterwards, which was a truly mind blowing experience. Passing from runners, to joggers, to walkers, to drinkers. A wild time. I ran back over the Hayes St. hill (about 5 miles) and then it was too crowded/crazy to run, so I bought a beer and joined the party, walking the rest of the way. I got to the back of the pack about a mile from the start! Some people around there were seriously wasted, and were not going to be making it to the beach!

Including the run to the start, warmup, the race, the run back and the walk, I covered almost 19 miles (in my lightweight race shoes), so I suspect a few aches/pains tomorrow.

Overall this race is an absolute blast. The start is fabulous in the seeded corral, you get to warmup with the elites, no lines for toilets etc, and behind you can hear the 60,000 people, already well into party mode. For anyone who can get an entry to the seeded or subseeded corrals I would highly recommend this race. But to be honest, the best part was the run back up the course thru the crowds.

I will definitely do this again next year.

Here Goes Nothing....

2010-05-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

OK, it's time for Bay to Breakers and I am far from "ready". I did manage one week of 37 miles, and a long run of just over 10 miles, so I am at least OK to run the whole course, but I have zero endurance, so what happens after the hill (mile 2.5) is anyone's guess.

Only real quantitative piece of data I have is a single 3 mile tempo run that I did this Tuesday. I ran 3 miles at 6:37, and average heart rate was 167 (which is about normal for my short tempos). Back in January, when I was at my fastest, I did the same tempo run twice, at similar heart rates but at 6:16, 6:18 pace. So using that huge dataset, I am about 20 seconds/mile slower now than I was. However, I also had a lot more endurance then than I have now from running 100's of miles each month for a year. So I doubt I will be able to hold that "20 seconds slower" pace for the whole 7.5 miles.

Anyway, that's the only piece of data I have, so the goal is to run this 20 seconds/mile slower than I would have hypothetically run it if it were back in January. Back then I was shooting for a 38 minute 10k (6:07 pace), this race is 12k, so I have to do the extra 2k. 1 of those K's is up a steep hill, so I would have given myself a little extra time for that, and then hope to do the other extra K at the same pace. so total would have been somewhere around 46-47 minutes (6:10 - 6:18 pace).

So add 20 seconds each mile and you get 6:30 to 6:38 pace. This would be a finishing time of 48:30 to 49:30. Given my suspect endurance I think a goal of sub 50 seems reasonable. Of course, this doesn't take into account the fact that this course may not be as fast as the pancake flat 10K course I was running back in January, but that's just a minor detail, right? Looking at some people who I know, and the times they did last year as seeded runners, I have a horrible suspicion that I have overestimated my ability on this course by about a minute (so I should be aiming for 49:30 to 50:30).

Looking at last year's results, if I do a 49:59 (6:42 pace)

Winner would be 16:28 ahead
Winning woman would be 11:30 ahead
Deena Kastor would be 10:55 ahead
Top centipede would be 9:32 ahead - that's 16 people roped together running at 5:26 pace!
Dude in pink gorilla suit would be 3:48 ahead
Top 40-44 woman would be 2:03 ahead
Top 50-54 man would be 4:57 ahead
I'd beat everyone under 16 and over 60
In my age group (M40-44) I'd be 23rd
For males, I'd be 149th
Overall I'd be 180th

So that's the plan. sub 50, top 200 finish. I found out that there are about 250 seeded runners, plus 50 elites, so top 200 would have me towards the back of the seeded runners, which given the fact that I am slow, and only got seeded because I am in the over 40 "easy seed time" category, sounds about right.

Next year, no excuses, top 100 finish (which was 46:37 last year).

Slowly Getting Less Slow

2010-05-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

Time for another long overdue blog update......

March sucked - I ran 7 miles.

April was better. Decided I needed to start running every other day, and then take things from there. Here's how the last 5 weeks went

3 runs - 13 miles - all slow
3 runs - 18 miles - all slow
2 runs - 10 miles - all slow
3 runs - 18 miles - all slow
6 runs - 37 miles - one tempo, 3.5miles at 6:40 pace

So this last week was getting back towards respectable. Longest run is just over 10 miles and I've done a few hilly runs. I'm obviously nowhere where I was in December but at least I can see the way forward now.

My achilles/calf all seem OK. I have a pain in my right knee but it's getting better - just a side effect of starting to run again.

Bay to Breakers is up in 2 weeks. I just got my race number - I am #51 out of 50,000. I have a seeded start. There are 50 elites, and about 250 seeded runners. So being number 51 makes me the first of the seeded runners. I think this is based on when people registered, not how fast they are! I expect I am going to be one of the slowest of the seeded runners because:

I am old (40+. where the seeded entry times are much easier)
I am really out of shape right now because I have not run much since January

I am thinking I may need to wear some sort of costume so I can run anonymously. Last year there was a guy who ran in the seeded pack in a pink gorilla suit! (He ran a 46 minute 12k, which is just over 6 minute miles!) - No way I am going to be running that fast!

2010 So Far...

2010-03-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

Figured it was time for an update to the blog, which has been neglected so far this year. Main reason for the neglect has been the unimpressive running situation. I finished 2009 on a high, with PRs in every distance. January started well with the first 2 weeks in the mid 50's for mileage. As the rains started I was enjoying running thru the mud and puddles. Then I had a right calf issue after one particularly wet run - I think I strained something jumping over a deep puddle. It was really tight in the top of the calf muscle.

At the same time I got really busy at work, so decided to take a few days off. After some rest it was OK, but still really tight, and also my left calf was starting to hurt, this time at the bottom of the calf muscle (or the top of the Achilles).

Last 3 weeks of Jan were 20-30 miles, running every other day, but the reality was I should have been resting as each run was hurting after 3-4 miles. There were a couple 10 milers that were pretty ugly on the way back home.

So I took the first 12 days of Feb off completely, and then we went to Hawaii. Ran there for a nice easy 5 and couldn't walk for the rest of the day. Decided I was not in great shape. Right calf was OK, but the left calf/Achilles was definitely not healed. So didn't run again for that week.

After Hawaii (and another 8 days rest) I tried and easy 5, and it was OK. Not great, but not terrible. 2 days later I went out again and cut my run short after 3 miles with Achilles pain.

Then I gave it 10 days off which brought me up to this morning. Went out for an easy run, Achilles was tight to start but eased up after 1/2 mile. But by 2 miles it was hurting so I turned around and finished a sloggy 3.5 mile run.

So unfortunately I am now admitting to having a messed up Achilles which isn't going to get better if I rest a week, run, rest a week, run..... It's not as bad as my previous Achilles issues back in 2007, so I think I can get thru this reasonably quickly. I plan to take off the rest of March, do plenty of eccentric calf stretches (which is the miracle cure for Achilles problems) and then hopefully will be able to start building up slowly again in April. If all goes well, I should be back to 30+ MPW by the time I get to May.

I had planned to run the Oakland half marathon late March which is out the window now, and Bay to Breakers in mid May is now looking awfully close - I may still run it, but I won't be up at the front running with the Kenyans!

Not really the start to 2010 that I had hope for but all part of the fun I guess. The real challenge for the next couple months is not putting on anymore weight! Already I am 10 lbs heavier than I was for Chicago.

2009 Recap & 2010 Plans

2009-12-31T22:39:00.000-08:00

The year comes to a close, so it's time for the recap. First up, and most importantly, my first complete year of injury free running! Amazingly, I managed to listen to my body enough to not turn any small niggling pain into a full blown injury. Either this means I am maturing, getting stronger or have just run out of things to injure. Whatever the cause, it allowed me to run consistently for 12 months and do 2,805 miles for the year.

The year started with me rebuilding mileage after 2008's sports hernia surgery, and training for the Ottawa marathon in May. This ended up not quite being the race I wanted with a really unpleasant finish and a 3:03:33 time. I sensibly reduced mileage right afterwards, and then rebuilt for Chicago in October. This one was a great race and I got the sub 3 (2:58:13) I had been aiming for in a race where everything just went right on the day. As part of the training for that race I also had a kickass half marathon PR in San Francisco with a 1:23:47 time.

After Chicago I cut mileage way back and focused on some shorter races, and managed to PR in the mile (5:02 on a very downhill course), 5K (18:13 on a flat, fair course) and 10K 38:05 (on an accurate course with a pretty good hill).

I still feel that sub 5, sub 18 and sub 38 were all within my grasp with a little more focus, but I guess I have some goals for 2010 already set for me!

Here's the recap of my 2009 goals...

Distance

Goal
Stretch Goal
Super Stretch Goal

Marathon

sub 3 hour [DONE 10/11 2:58:13]
sub 2:55 - not attempted
sub 2:50 - not attempted

Half Marathon

sub 1:27 [DONE 3/16 - 1:25:28]
sub 1:25 [DONE 7/26 - 1:23:47]
sub 1:20 - not attempted

10k

sub 40 [DONE 4/23 - 38:38, 11/15 - 38:22, 11/26 - 38:07]
sub 38 - attempted twice
sub 36 - not attempted

sub 19 [DONE 3/9 - 18:53, 9/27 - 18:23, 12/5 - 18:13]
sub 18 - attempted twice
sub 17:30 - not attempted

Mile

sub 5:30 - [DONE 12/12 - 5:02* (downhill!) ]
sub 5:15 - [DONE 12/12 - 5:02* (downhill!) ]
sub 5:00 - attempted once

Looking forward to 2010, the plan is to only run one marathon, which will be Berlin in September. This is a fast, flat course and I'd definitely be shooting for a PR, and probably aiming to go sub 2:55 if training has gone well. With another solid year of training since Chicago, this should be achievable.

Along the way I'd like to see how close to 1:20 I can get for the half, and of course get those sub18/sub38 times for the 5k and 10k. I will also be looking for a steep enough hill to run a mile down in 4 minutes something! And one new race this year will be Bay to Breakers, which is 12k. Fortunately I am now old enough that my times allow me to join the seeded start, so I can race it Vs having to wade through 10,000 walkers, so that will most likely be another PR.

Other than that I'll fit races into the schedule where it makes sense, and try to run consistent mileage all year, probably coming in with a total of somewhere around 3,000.

Feeling like Roger Bannister

2009-12-20T11:33:00.000-08:00

OK, so today was my first ever mile race. I figured I was in about 5:20ish shape given other races and some track workout times. Race was in Golden Gate Park, and billed as downhill and fast!

Got to SF early and parked at the end of the race and ran to the start. Definitely not a flat course! Got to the startline, which was on top of the hill on JFK drive. Not only was it downhill, there was also a healthy tailwind. If I can't run a fast mile on this course I don't think I ever will. Wasn't sure about pacing as the course was so "not flat", so decided to run quickly and try to keep the wheels on. Weather was perfect. high 40's & overcast.

Gun goes off, and a lot of people go out way, way fast. Unfortunately this includes me. First 1/4 in 1:09 (4:37 pace) - but this included a drop of about 50' and felt OK, so I kept going.
2nd quarter was 1:15 (5:02 pace) and only dropped 19'. Still feeling OK, but HR is now up to 180.
3rd quarter I try to keep the effort steady based on HR and end at 182, for a 1:20 quarter.
Decide to push for the finish and try to catch a guy ahead, but things are starting to hurt. As I approach the line I can see the clock at 4:50....4:51...4:52 and I don't think I can get there sub 5. Cross at 5:02 after a final crazy sprint with another runner (who got a 5:01).

So this is a ridiculously fast course, with a 140' drop. I think I could have pushed a little harder in the 2nd/3rd quarters and found those 3 seconds to go sub 5. I'll definitely run this next time around and will get that 4:XX - I now know how Roger Bannister must have felt when he was trying to go sub 4 in the mile and kept getting 4:01's (although I suspect he would have easily run a 3:40 on this course!)

25 minutes later was the 5K. The first mile was the same mile I had just run, but the other way, so I knew this was not a PR course. Decided to just run it as a tempo (6:15-6:20 pace) and put on a sweathshirt and my Santa hat. Ran 6:43, 6:02, 6:09, 0:52 (last .15). Ran the last .15 hard as it was an uphill finish and I got into a sprint with a couple runners who were determined to beat the guy in the Santa hat! Overall 19:48 (6:17 pace) so it was a solid tempo. Even without running the mile there is no way I would have PR'd on this course today, so I think I made the right decision.

I might run a DSE 5K next weekend, which is a SF low key (ie. not accurately measured) race as I will be up there for a party Saturday night. Alternatively I may not bother as I suspect I will drink too much.

After that is a New Year's Day 5/10K in Palo Alto Baylands. Not sure which race I'll run yet but whichever it is I'll be gunning for a PR.

Frosty Four Hundreds

2009-12-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

Track day today, and it was a chilly 30 degrees when I got there at 7:30 this morning. The track and football field were completely white - a veritable winter wonderland. I had smartly decided to wear gloves and a long sleeved shirt vs the usual singlet. But there was no wind, and the sun was slowly rising over the trees, so not really too bad when you consider the crap people put up with elsewhere in the world this time of year!

Took a couple miles to warmup, and by the time I was ready to go about half the track was in teh sun and there was a little warmth, but it was still cold out there. Goal was 10x400 under 1:20 with about 2 minutes recovery. I figured a 45 second walk followed by a 1:15 jog would be about 300 meters, so that was the plan.

tried to run a steady relaxed 400, not looking at the watch. 1:21.7, felt pretty easy
need to go a little quicker, 1:18.1. still feeling ok
1:16.3. ok, getting a little too fast, and definitely more of an effort.
try to slow this one down, and got a 1:19.3 - still feeling alright
1:18.6 for the halfway point. now it is starting to feel like a workout
1:20.6 - lost some focus and had to push the last 100 to get an ok time.
focus on pace, hit 1:20 exactly. unpleasant, thinking that 8 is probably enough for today
Ouch - 1:22.1. no way I can bail out with that one. gotta do one more....
1:17.2 - much better. so decided i may as well do #10
1:20.2 for a solid finish

Overall average was 1:19.4, which is exactly 5:20 pace and what I was shooting for. Recovery started at 2:00 and crept up to about 2:20. Heartrate was pretty flat, with each run hitting a max of 175-177. It was still cold at the end, and had only climbed to 35 degrees when I got back to the car. Definitely happy to have been wearing the gloves.

There's a low key, uncertified 5K this weekend in San Francisco, and since I'll be up there on Sunday morning anyway I will be using that as a pacing practice to see if I can start a race at the correct pace, and then not slow down in mile 2.

Then the week after it's the mile and 5k combination. Looks like the mile course is fast, and the 5K isn't, so I will be going all out in the mile, and won't worry about saving anything for the 5K. I have never raced a mile so have no idea what to expect except for unpleasantness.

Bah Humbug 5K

2009-12-06T20:04:00.001-08:00

Saturday morning was the Bah Humbug 5K in San Ramon. Billed as a fast, flat, certified course I was hoping for a PR (18:22 or better) and if everything went perfectly, maybe a sub 18 result.

Weather was almost perfect, in the 40's, overcast, with a slight wind. Got there early enough to warmup by running most of the course, which seemed pretty good as a figure 8. There were more people than I expected (about 600) but it was a very wide startline so I had no problem getting a spot at the front.

for a 5K, 18:22 is 5:55 pace, and 17:59 is 5:47, so I knew what my range should be.

Gun went off and I was off crazy fast. I was in about 5th place but running like a lunatic. The first quarter mile was 79 seconds (5:20 pace), which would have been great if this was a mile race, or some 400 repeats at the track, but not so smart for a 18 minute 5K. The rest of mile 1 was more like 6:00 pace which got me through the mile in 5:49, which was about right timewise, but I was obviously running slower than I should due to the fast start.

Mile 2 starts and I'm already out of breath and thinking it was going to be a really, really bad day. Managed to hang on for a half mile at about 6:00 pace then a guy about my age passed me and I was ready to bail. Then I said, "Hey, what happens if I speedup, and try and run with this guy?". So that's what I did. Next half mile went by at 5:45 pace and I was thru mile 2 in 11:36, which is just a few seconds off 17:59 pace. It hurt, but not that much more than running at 6:00 pace.

Mile 3 started up the hill (not steep by any means, but it was enough to make a difference when running right on the edge of my limited abilities). I decided I had to go for it if I was going to get under 18, and pulled up alongside the guy, then moved ahead. This was not fun, and I was only running about 5:55 pace. he was hurting too, but managed to hang on as I passed. Held him off for half a mile and then he caught me again and I lost concentration and slowed way down to about 6:12 for a quarter mile.

I'd run the final .11 miles in warmup and had covered it in 35 seconds, so I figured if I could get to the mile 3 marker by 17:27 I had a chance. I picked it up again at 2.5 miles, chasing the other guy, and managed to get back down to 5:50-5:55. I hit the mile 3 marker at 17:33 and I knew I couldn't close in 27 seconds but went for it anyway. It took me 40 (5:31 pace) and I was dead at the line. Crossed at 18:13, for a 10 second PR, which was good for 12th overall, and 1st in my 40-44 age group.

So I was happy with the result. Another stupid start (possibly my dumbest ever!), but I managed to stay strong in mile 2 for a change by staying with the guy that passed me (he beat me by about 5 seconds in the end). So the next race I need to focus on steady pace, a reasonable first mile (~5:50), a strong 2nd (5:47) and then a fast finish (5:45). Hopefully that will get me those next 14 seconds.

Racing a mile

2009-12-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

As part of my "run some short races" phase I am going to race a mile. There's a mile race and a 5K on 12/20 in Golden Gate Park, and you can do both (mile is 30 minutes before the 5K). Now I expect that this may well screwup my 5K a little but I'm going to give it a shot. Various websites indicate I should be able to do a mile somewhere around 5:15-5:30, which sounds awfully quick to me. Now I rarely run anywhere near that fast except for strides so decided I'd better see what it is like.

So it was off to the track yesterday for some 400 meter running! Planned to do 8-10 x 400m at 5:20 pace (just under 1:20 for the lap) with a walk/jog lap recovery.

Decided I wouldn't really look at the watch, just run fast.

First one was too fast and I ran about 71! It was 4:45 mile pace, although I wasn't gonna be doing 3 more at that pace anytime soon.
Next was 75 seconds, so a little more reasonable at 5:02 pace
Next 5 were all between 76 and 79 for 5:06-5:19 pace
For the final one I went for it and managed a 73 for 4:54 pace
Average was 76.4 for the 8. So that's about 5:07 pace

I'm thinking that I'll do another round of this before 12/20 and see if I can run 10 of them consistently at about 77 (5:10 pace) with the recovery limited to 2 minutes (some were up to 2:45 yesterday) and if that works out, I will try to go sub 5:15 in the race.

Turkey Trot

2009-11-27T09:55:00.001-08:00

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot yesterday. My cunning taper plan involved running some hilly trails in the desert, hiking at the top of the mountain with my son, eating too much, and drinking too much beer. So despite weighing in at 155 (I was12 lbs lighter at my lightest) I was rested and carbo loaded!

Goal was a PR (38:22) and hopefully sub 38 minutes (6:07 pace). Weather was perfect (mid 40's, sunny, no wind). Course flat and certified. A "no excuses" race if ever there was one!

It was a big race with 11,000 runners combined for the 5k and 10k. I started a couple rows back and had a clean start.

First mile seemed really fast, but there were some buildings so maybe garmin got confused as it had me going at 5:45 pace. I hit the mile marker in 5:56, which seemed a little more likely.
Mile 2 was better, and I settled into low 6 minute pace. Passed the marker at 12:03, for a perfect 6:07 split.
Mile 3 I slowed a little and was feeling it, kept going about 6:10 but crossed the marker at 18:19 for a 6:15 split. The 5k runners had turned off and the course really thinned out. This is not my best time in a 10K and I was not having any fun. But 18:19 was 1 second faster than my 37:59 plan so I was still in this race!
Mile 4 was a battle to keep going strong. I just hate mile 4, and always slack off. Managed to get thru it in 6:14. Feeling bad, and now about 6-7 seconds off pace. sub 38 was looking hard and the PR was now seriously at risk.
We hit the turnaround right at the start of the fifth mile and I decided it was time to STFU and run. I caught and passed the 2 people that had been 20 yards ahead for the last mile. Then started the long home stretch. Got down to low 6 pace for a bit but was struggling. Ended up doing mile 5 in about 6:14 so my little kick at the turn hadn't helped all that much! 30:48 at the marker, against a plan of 30:34.
Mile 6, just 8 minutes to go. Picked it up and got back down under 6 minute pace. Hurt a lot, but I can do this for just a few more minutes and I held off the runner behind me. Mile 6 marker came up quickly after 5:44, so I knew it was wrong (should have been 5:55). I was at 36:33 against a plan for 36:41. However, if mile 6 is short, that usually means that the next part will be long.....
Final .213 miles. This should be about 1:18 at 6:07 pace and I was going faster than that. However it was more than .213 miles and I took 1:32. Crossed the line at 38:05, barely missing the sub 38, but at least salvaging a 17 second PR.

Official result was 38:07, 31st plcae out of 3,200+ runners, and 5th in my age group. Too fast in mile 1 (as usual) and then sloppy in miles 3/4/5 but with a fairly good finish. I did a good job running the tangents on the curvy streets but really need to watch that early pace and somehow find a way to gut it out in those middle miles.

Next up is the Bah Humbug! 5K in San Ramon on Saturday December 5th.

19 Again

2009-11-24T19:23:00.000-08:00

Feels just like college.....

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

This is not good....

2009-11-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

Restaurant has 160+ draft beers.... Not gonna help my 10k on Thursday

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Down hill

2009-11-22T10:39:00.000-08:00

Time to run back down this thing....

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Climbing....

2009-11-22T10:36:00.000-08:00

Not sure how far I've climbed but I found this!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Trail Photos

2009-11-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

Decided to take my phone for some photos on my trail run this morning. 12 miles out/back up some mountain. This is about mile 2.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Palm Springs Running

2009-11-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

In Palm Springs so am running on some hilly trails. An "easy" 5 miler this morning involved an 800' climb up the mountain.

On the plus side, we got upgraded to the Presidential Suite at the hotel. It's literally bigger than our house. The kids can't believe it.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

HomeRun 10k

2009-11-15T13:03:00.001-08:00

Time for the next 10k. Went into this thinking that my goal of capitalizing on my marathon fitness to bag some short race PRs may be somewhat flawed. But the weather was nice, this is usually a well organized race so I decided to run it anyway. Cold at the start (40 degrees) but no wind and clear skies.

Course looked good with a 100' hill at mile 4ish. Plan was low 6's until the hill, struggle up, and then kick it to the finish, hopefully under 38:38.

Got on the start line and tried to pick out the fast guys I could follow.

Fast start (5:40 pace) as we went slightly uphill, got under control by 1/2 mile and was running in about 6th place. 4 people clearly faster than me (hopefully all younger too!), 1 shirtless/tatoo guy who could be 40+ but I figured I'd catch him. First mile marker off, but cruising at around 6:00 pace.

Mile 2 was solid and we went thru 2 at 12:00. Feeling pretty good, running with a 20 something guy in 6/7 place.

Mile 3 - another younger guy passed us, but we caught the shirtless tatoo guy, who went out too fast. A little up/down in 3 but we went thru in 18:14, so had slowed to 6:14.

Mile 4 started to climb, and I was struggling to hang with the 2 young guys. I was within 5 yards as we hit the #4 marker in 24:35 - so it had slowed to a 6:21 mile.

Next mile was the hill for real, it had started earlier than I expected and was steeper than I remembered. The two young guys were pulling away so I let them go to make sure I got to the top of the hill with something left for the rest of the race. Hit the top just before mile 5 in 31:08, for a 6:32 mile. I figured it was 7 minutes home from there, so was looking like a PR was gonna happen.

At this stage the 2 young guys were about 20 yards ahead, and I decided I was gonna get them. Picked it up to about 6:00 pace and was gaining on them, but not fast enough. Decided, due to some fuzzy math, that I could go sub 38 if I hammered it the last mile, so went for it. Dropped to 5:35 pace, caught the two guys and just kept going. They fell back fast but I was dying. HR hit 190 (highest I have every seen) and I knew I had kicked a little early. Held on at 6:00 pace for the next half mile and got to mile #6 in 37:05. The young guys caught me but I'd tried!

Final .22 I knew would take about 1:15, if I kicked again so managed to get back down to 5:45 pace. Finished at 38:22, which is a 16 second PR. Goof for 7th place and 1st in my old person age group.

It was a good event for a change! Well marked, well marshaled, accurate. I could have done a better job running tangents as there were a fair number of curves, and I think I should have run a better mile 3 & 4 as it wasn't hilly enough to deserve a 6:14 & 6:21. I was happy with my final mile effort, although my devastating finishing kick may have been a little early. But then, the sub 38 was there if I could have kept it up!

I think with a flat course, similar competition, a little more focus in those middle miles and no suicide kick at mile 5 1/4 I have a reasonable shot at sub 38. Thanksgiving day at the SV Turkey Trot looks like the ticket, unless i decide to run in this.....

The Next Non-10K?

2009-11-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

Another race at Stanford this weekend. It's the Habitat for Humanity Homerun 5K and 10K. I ran this in 2007 and it was pretty well organized, so I was hoping for a change from the last 2 races. Today got an email from a friend saying race has moved, and there is an "Exciting New Course". Hmmmm...... exciting doesn't exactly sound like fast, flat and certified does it?

No mention of certification but the course looks OK. Still has the hill but it avoids the construction going on up and down Campus Drive. This race is still part of the Palo Alto Grand Prix, so I have my fingers crossed that they have measured it and it's going to be a 10,000 meter 10K, and not some other "Exciting" distance!

Since the course has changed I haven't got a complicated pace plan (which may be a good thing since I don't seem to be able to follow them anyway!) I'm gonna shoot for low 6 pace (6:05ish) until we get to the hill (mile 4), then keep a steady, even effort up the hill, which will be about mile 4 1/2. And then it's time to hammer it home, taking advantage of the downhill.

On the plus side, I suspect the new location will mean some fast people won't be able to find the start, thus increasing my chances at winning some more giant sized socks and another ugly hat.

Yesterday, in preparation for this great event, I went to the track for some 1600 meter work. Plan was 3 x 1600 in 6:00 with a slow 400 recovery jog (so around 6:02 pace, which is slightly faster than my 10k goal pace). First was 5:54, and felt OK. #2 was 5:53 and felt the same. Did the first 1200 of #3 just about on pace in 4:25 and then decided to go for it in the final lap. Ran an 81s 400 to finish in 5:46. That last lap hurt! Any dream of me running a 5 minute mile anytime soon died during that lap! (5 minute mile equals 74.5s laps)

Not All Races Are Equal

2009-11-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

So in theory, if you have a flat, fast, certified course, good weather and a little competition you have all the necessary elements for a good race.

And then there is reality......

The missing element is having people involved in organizing the race who know the course, and are there to direct the runners about which way to go. I'd been taking that piece for granted and found out yesterday what happens without it.

Started fast in the 10K on a supposed good course, and was running in a group of 3 behind the leader who was off like a shot. Well, he missed the first turn, so we yelled and he came back. We then ran for a bit and went past the registration site for the race. Lots of enthusiastic yells of "Go Runners!", but not a lot of response to our question of "Go where, exactly?". We kept going in what seemed like the right direction but a six foot wall and a bunch of trash cans had us doubting our choice...... We stopped as the leader dug out a map and to find the correct route. At this point (about 3/4 mile) I bailed and decided I'd see if I could get back to the start in time for the 5K.

Got there OK and had about 5 minutes to recover (but a 6 minute mile isn't a good 5k warmup).

That started OK, but at the first turn they mis-directed us the long way, and did the same thing again later at mile 2. I didn't run great as I wasn't mentally ready for 5K pace, but I still managed to catch a couple people in the second half and come in 5th pace overall. Got first in my weird 36-50 age group to win a gift basket of "stuff" including some size 14 running socks and an ugly hat.

Time was really slow at 19:33, on a long course with lots of 90 degree turns. According to Garmin I ran at 6:04 pace, which was about my plan for the 10k, so I guess I didn't get my mind into 5k mode quick enough.

Oh well, hopefully next week is a little more successful! (although I doubt I'll win any giant socks)

Time for Some 10Ks

2009-11-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

The next 2 races will be 10Ks. They are both at Stanford, and both have the same course, which I ran back in 2007. It's certified (and hopefully the actual race will be the same as the mapped race this time!)

It's got a small climb around mile 2-2.5 and then runs downhill for the next mile or so. A couple sharp turns near the end which I recall messed my pace last time, but overall an OK course.

I haven't raced a 10K since June 2008, and have never gone under 40 minutes in a 10K race (although I have done a sub 40 10K during a half marathon). My fastest 10K was a solo time trial on the track in 38:38 in April of this year. Anyway, 38:38 is definitely a soft PR compared to my 5K, half and full marathon PRs, so I should be able to beat it pretty easily in one or both of the next 2 races.

According to the various race time calculators if I compare my other race distances to predicted 10K times I should be able to go somewhere between 37:45 and 38:15, with everything averaging out at 37:58. So the obvious goal is to get under 38 minutes (6:06 pace).

Knowing that my pacing sucks in short races I am going to focus in race 1 on pacing according to plan, which I have laid out to accommodate the hill. Then depending on how that goes, refine things for race #2.

Here are the goal paces

Mile 1 6:06 pace (and not 5:45 like I normally start!)
Mile 2 6:10 pace (hill starts - keep a steady effort) - 12:16
Mile 3 6:30 pace for first half (the hill), 6:02 for 2nd half, 6:16 average - 18:32
Mile 4 6:02 pace - 24:34
Mile 5 6:02 pace - 30:36
Mile 6 6:06 pace - 36:42
Final .213 6:01 pace - 37:59 (6:06.7 average pace)

I like the fact I have a practice run to see how this plays out, and will be able to look at HR etc afterwards to adjust these.

And yes, I will be wearing the shoes!

Shoes Too Slow?

2009-11-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

5K this morning. Wasn't sure if I was fully recovered from Chicago but decided to go for it anyway. Flat, certified race, good weather, looked some there'd be some competition around about 18-18:30. Hoping to PR (under 18:22 - 3:40/KM, 5:55/mile)

Started fast as usual with a half mile at 5:44 pace. Found myself in 4th place, with 2 much faster guys ahead and one person just ahead. Then I kinda lost focus and had a crappy mile at 6:02 and let about 4 people go past. Very lame. Definitely need to work on that part of the race.

Got it back together at 1.5 miles and did a 5:42 mile, starting to catch a group of 4 people who were about 100 yards ahead. Then I couldn't keep it up and did the next half at 6:04 pace.

It was about here that we got detoured due to construction and instead of a nice path, ran up a ramp, round a fountain and down another ramp. Managed to pick it up for the final stretch and closed at 5:27 pace feeling pretty bad.

Got 8th place overall in 18:38, which was only 4th in my age group (too many fast old people round here!). Course was a little long due to the detour - Garmin measured 120 meters over 5K, which from looking at the map seems about right. So official pace was 6:00, Garmin pace was 5:51. No PR today - I think the shoes aren't quick eneough.

A little annoying when you choose flat, certified races and then they don't run the same course as they have a certificate for, but I guess that's part of the challenge.

10K is next - Hopefully that'll be better. 38:38 to beat, which is a relatively soft PR.

Update: just checked the results online and it seems I was 7th overall and 3rd in my age group. So I guess I should have hung around for my award. Oh well.

Track Time and Racing

2009-10-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

So I have found a bunch of local 5K and 10K races in the next 2 months. I now have a hastily assembled, poorly structured, high speed, low mileage, overly aggressive training schedule that gives me many opportunities to try out my shiny new green shoes.

The result should be monster PRs in 5 and 10K racing times, or humiliating oxygen depleted defeat to a bunch of schoolkids, or injury, or some combination of the above.

I have 9 races identified, so it's pretty much a race every weekend. I'll also be doing some speedwork most weeks, some tempo running and the rest is just easy miles (with the occasional 100 meter strides thrown in for fun). Probably running low 40's most weeks.

One of the main things I need to improve is staying on pace during these short fast races. I have a tendency to slow down because it hurts. Well, I think the point is that it is supposed to hurt, so running a few more of them will hopefully help me get over my wimpiness.

Hit the track yesterday morning (it was cold) and did some 1,000 meter intervals. Plan was for 5x1,000 in 3:34 (5:44 pace) with 400 meter jog recovery in between each. Went OK. #1 too fast at 3:30, then the rest were 3:35, 3:37, 3:35, 3:35. Not sure what happened with #3, probably paying the price for going too quick in #1.

5K this Sunday at Stanford. Not gonna shoot for a sub 18 (5:47 pace) just yet, but hoping to get under my current PR of 18:22 (5:54 pace). But to be honest, I'm not sure I will make that time as it's still only 3 weeks post Chicago and the legs are probably still recovering.

Back to Reality

2009-10-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

So after all the fun of Chicago, it's back to reality. I've decided that having met the big sub-3 goal, I am going to step away from marathon training for a while. There are a number of contributing factors here:

It's hard work running lots of miles every week, and I'm tired
I am old and creaky and things will break if I keep doing this
Next race was planned as Boston, in April, and it clashes with spring break so have decided to not screw up the family vacation plans for "yet another race"
I want to see if I can put in some decent times for shorter races

So the plan is to skip Boston, and do some short stuff. I am hoping that with the right focus and several attempts I can get my 5K, 10K and half marathon PRs down from where they are right now. I'm going to start by doing some 10Ks in November, and some 5Ks in December. There's a fast half on Superbowl day (Feb 7th) and finally Bay to Breakers (12K) in May.

So the training for now is going to be only 40-45 miles per week but with more focus on speed at the track. Since initially it's 10Ks I'll be doing longer distances like 1200s and 1600s. Then when I switch to 5Ks I'll do some shorter stuff 1000s, 800s and 400s. I'll still be doing tempo runs most weeks, but usually in the 4-5 mile range instead of the extended ones I have been doing. Long runs become much shorter, usually only around 10-12 miles.

To help with all of this fast stuff, I bought some very ugly fast shoes. Tried them out today with 4x400m at the track and they are super light and feel good.

I'll step the mileage up a bit in Jan as I start to gear up for the Kaiser half marathon. Not suer what I'll do between Feb and May, I guess it will depend on how things have gone.

Then after Bay to Breakers I'll come back to marathons with Berlin in September 2010, where hopefully my new found high end speed, and a solid training program will propel me to some great new time!

Chicago Marathon

2009-10-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

Background

My second attempt at a sub 3 hour marathon, and this was the flattest marathon course there is – the biggest hill is a massive 24 feet! The weather was promising to be good and training had gone well, so this was definitely a “no excuses” race. If I screw this one up it was time to find a new sport!

Pre-Race

Woke up early, about 5:30 Chicago time, after a reasonable nights sleep and got some food & Gatorade down and got ready to go. Forecast was for cold temps (30’s), but I hate being too warm when I run so it was still going to be shorts, singlet and gloves. I did pick up some arm warmers at the marathon expo just to make sure my arms didn’t fall off. I left the hotel at 6:15 to walk the mile to the start and the temperature was just 32 degrees. I was glad I had some throw-away sweats on as it was pretty damn cold hanging around chatting nervously with the other runners.

The Start

After a couple of trips to the boys’ room (OK, one was a portaloo, one was a tree), the start corral had filled up and we were approaching start time (7:30). We did the national anthem and the crowd was getting pretty pumped up - everyone threw their sweats to the side as we counted down to the start. The gun went off and we were moving, I crossed the line just 8 seconds later and it was game time! The crowd was already huge and noisy and I was feeling ready to go! Then I remembered that 5 minute miles were not the plan and got myself back under control.

The first 10K

My plan was to run a steady, constant pace and not go off like a bat out of hell like last time. Each 5K was planned around 21:10, which should bring me home at 2:59:00 – so that’s a 6:49 pace for 26.2 miles. Mile 1 was a little quick at 6:42, so I consciously slowed and did 2 & 3 at 6:47. 5K came in 21:03 (6:47 pace) and I was in a groove. It wasn’t crowded around me, the support was awesome and I was on my way. Next 5K was uneventful and it clicked by in 21:05 (6:47 pace), still feeling like an easy Sunday long run.

The second 10K

At this point I started talking with another runner. He was an 800 meter college runner, doing his first marathon. Turned out he was 22 and had used up all his eligibility as a college runner and decided to run a marathon before he got old and slow. He didn’t really have a time goal so we just started running together chatting away. Next two 5Ks were 21:05 (6:47 pace) and 21:18 (6:51 pace) and we went through 20K (12.4 miles) in 1:24:35 (6:48 pace), about 20 seconds ahead of pace. It was still feeling really easy.

The third 10K

As we approached the half I started looking for my support crew (Liz, my wife and my running friend’s wife). We headed back over the river into downtown and the crowd got really noisy. I was really pumped up and we were flying! I spotted Liz just at mile 13 as she yelled. We turned the corner and then entered the noisiest part of the course. Unbelievable support! My pace picked up with all the excitement (to about 6:35) and I was feeling like a million bucks. 5K times were 21:09 (6:48) and 21:02 (6:46). That was 30K down in 2:06:33, so I was now about 40 seconds ahead of plan. I was really surprised to see Liz again about mile 17, she’d run a couple miles to get to the next corner. Gave me another big boost!

The fourth 10K

This is where things can get ugly in a marathon, as I found out in Ottawa so I was very conscious of what my legs were feeling like. Quads were tightening up, but everything else felt good. I was done with the Gatorade I’d been carrying and I took my first and only Gu about mile 18. I was still feeling fine and decided this was gonna be my day. Mike, my new college running companion, was still with me and he was feeling good too. We were still chatting away, although a little less than before, and he said “No matter what happens, we are going under 3:10”. Having been on pace at mile 20 before and seen things go belly up real fast I wasn’t so sure. But we were still flying along like clockwork and did another 21:08 5K. Then about mile 22 he said “Fuck!” and was gone, he had cramped up badly, stopped on a dime and went to the side. I mumbled “good luck” and kept going. Felt bad for a second for not stopping but then got over it and got back on track. The course then turned back North for the final 3 miles. It was into the wind and people were starting to fade. I still felt great so kept pushing. I was passing people pretty steadily and did another 5K in 21:14.

The final stretch

At this point I knew sub 3 was mine unless something horrible happened. The crowd was massive and was really noisy. I was feeling better than ever and just kept going. There were the usual last few mile casualties and I felt a little guilty as I flew by. With ½ mile to go I reach the big 24’ hill. It seemed bigger than that as I ran up it, but I was on fire and nothing was gonna slow me down. I was sprinting now, passing a ton of people. As I rounded the final turn I had just 400 meters to go. The crowd was incredibly noisy and I ran right by the stands high fiving people as I went by – I didn’t care about the few seconds I lost, I felt incredible. I have never felt that good running and I crossed the line in 2:58:13. It was an amazing experience, and I was pretty emotional and pretty exhausted as it all sank in. It’s weird to finally do something you’ve been working at for so long.

Afterwards

Pretty much the second I stopped I realized it was really cold, it was still 37 degrees. I drank 3 gatorades fast and then heard Liz yelling at me from behind the fence. She’d made it to the end to see me finish but I’d missed her in my excitement. She had brought me some dry clothes so I put them on – what a great support team!

Overall it was a perfect race. My pacing was on the money with my 5K times being all between 20:56 and 21:18. I ran the second half 5 seconds faster than the first. Weather was perfect, course was perfect, organization was perfect and the crowd was unreal, especially Liz hauling ass around Chicago in freezing temps to cheer me on. And later I found out that Mike got over his cramp and ended up finishing just about 45 seconds behind me.

It was a new PR for me by more than 5 minutes, and I was 681st out of 45,000 registered runners, 81st in the male 40-44 division.

So now I get to kick back for a while and enjoy the feeling of being a 2-something marathon runner, which was beyond my wildest expectations when I started running just over 3 years ago!

Mission Accomplished!

2009-10-11T10:16:00.000-07:00

So it looks like the technology failed at the halfway point and the updates stopped. Luckily I didn't!

Ran a 2:58:13, which is a 5 minute PR for me. Came 683rd out of 45,000 runners. First half 1:29:08, 2nd half 1:29:05. Felt good all the way to the end. Pretty much a perfect day for running, with temps around freezing to start and high 30's at the finish.

Grisly details to follow, after a lot of beer has been consumed.

RUN Alert

2009-10-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

Alan Fletcher, 02:58:13 (net) @ Finish (unofficial). Pace 6:47. Presented by Verizon Wireless.

RUN Alert

2009-10-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

Alan Fletcher, 02:06:33 (net) @ 30K. Pace 6:47. Predicted 02:57:50. Presented by Verizon Wireless.

RUN Alert

2009-10-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Alan Fletcher, 01:29:08 (net) @ Half. Pace 6:47. Predicted 02:57:50. Presented by Verizon Wireless.

RUN Alert

2009-10-11T06:53:00.000-07:00

Alan Fletcher, 00:42:08 (net) @ 10K. Pace 6:46. Predicted 02:57:24. Presented by Verizon Wireless.

Ready To Go

2009-10-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

So it is just 6 days until Chicago, and this training cycle is pretty much over. Did a 13 miler on Sunday and all I have left is some easy runs and a couple of marathon paced miles on Wednesday.

Then all I need to do is run 26.2 miles in less than 3 hours to make the last 4 months mean something!

This training cycle has been good. I kept the higher mileage element of my Edinburgh 2008 training (which helped me a lot in the last 6 miles) and the speedwork element of my Ottawa 2009 training (which helped me a lot with making 6:52 feel like a comfortable pace).

I am hoping that the combination of the two is going to work out. I compared the various training components from the three cycles and most of the numbers show I should be able to go under 3 if I don't do anything dumb, such as running first 5k in 19:30 and not the planned 21:10 like I did in Ottawa.

Mileage has been solid, with a couple weeks peaking in the low 90s. Not quite where I was for Edinburgh, but I am trying to train without the need for post-race surgery this time around.

Weather forecast is looking pretty much ideal, with temps forecast to be in the 40's, with light winds and partly cloudy. If that holds it's looking good.

I have a start in Corral A, which should get me over the start within a minute of the gun, so I have no excuses about crowding and having to weave through a bunch slower runners.

The course is pancake flat so the pacing plan is pretty simple. I'm planning to go for 2:59:00, which is 6:50 pace, so I'll pretty much start out at 6:50 pace and stay there for the next 3 hours. Not quite sure if I will start with the 3 hour pace group (6:52 pace) for the first few miles and then pick it up once I've settled down, or if I'll just go out on my own from the gun. Guess I'll see how the start goes, I added an extra 10 seconds to mile 1, so that is 6:59 followed by a bunch of 6:49/6:50s.

I am going to take a sports bottle of Gatorade for the first 5-6 miles to A) avoid the inevitable chaos at the early water stops, and B) get some early calories in. Usually in marathons I don't handle race nutrition too well, so am thinking the extra 150 calories of Gatorade early will help me in those last 3-4 miles when the wheels are starting to fall off. I did that on a number of my longer runs this time and they seemed to end better than the others.

It's a big race (40,000+) and if you look at the times from 2006, a 3 hour finish should be round about 1,000th place (last 2 years were crazy hot so far fewer broke 3).

Splits should automagically appear on my blog as I cross the timing mats due to the wonders of modern technology. I'm not sure exactly which splits will show, or if they are gun time (time since the start gun went off) or chip time (net time since I crossed the start line), but if things are going well my chip times will be around these splits:

5k 21:19
10k 42:28
15k 1:03:38
20k 1:24:50
Half 1:29:29
25k 1:46:02
30k 2:07:14
35k 2:28:27
40k 2:49:39
Finish 2:59:00

So that's the plan, pretty much nothing else to do now but run.

Trailblazer 5k

2009-09-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

A 5k today, which is probably the softest of my PRs to beat at 18:53 (adjusted to take into account a ridiculously short course when I ran an 18:06).

I had two goals, with the A goal being sub 18 (or 5:47 pace), and the B goal being sub 6 minute per mile pace (18:36). Based on my recent running, A was a stretch, and B should have been fairly easy.

It was a warm day, so I was happy to be doing the 5 and not the 10k.

Start was fast, fueled by the youthful exuberance of half a dozen 10-11 year olds who were off like a shot. Usually they fade after quarter mile but these guys hung together and went thru the first half mile around 5:30 pace. I let them go as I figured they may be young but they are unlikely to keep that up for 5k, and the maturity of 43 years, and the endurance of running 70 miles/week hopefully comes youth and ability.

I went thru mile 1 in 5:47, dead on pace for 17:59. There were 3 runners a good 20 seconds ahead, then 3 of the little guys still hanging in there, and then me. I was feeling the effort from the pace and was pretty sure sub 18 was not happening. I was hoping that the others were feeling it too!

The 3 kids faded a little in the next half mile and by the time we turned I was clearly in 4th place, with no-one really around me. We crossed a rickety bridge which cost a few seconds and mile 2 was done in 6:00. I was hurting, and not enjoying myself all that much. (Note to self - 5K's suck).

Managed to hang on for mile 3, also at 6:00 with no lead changes. I could barely see #3 up ahead and didn't see/hear #5 so just kept going, trying not to throwup or collapse.

Managed to pick it up for the crowd at the end and got down to 5:30 pace for the final .1 mile despite being completely on my own, coming in at 18:22, or 5:55 pace. Took 4th overall, and was fortunately a good 45 seconds ahead of everyone who is in the same school as my kids! 3rd place was over 30 seconds ahead so I'm glad I didn't go all out to try and catch him.

So in between goals A and B which is kinda what I expected. Plus it was my first ever race under 6 minute pace!

So a little over 60 for the week. This week will be 45ish, so that is pretty much it now until Chicago. I'll do a few tempo miles, some pace miles, and maybe some 1600s at the track, but nothing difficult. Hopefully the hay is in the barn as they say.

Chicago Week 12 Training - Taper Time

2009-09-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

One day ahead of schedule, but close enough to done for the week. Ran my eight and final 20+ miler this morning taking me into my final three week taper. Tomorrow should be an easy 8-10 miler and then it's off to watch the Niners beat Seattle!

Here's how the week went....

Monday - easy 6 miles
Tuesday - easy 11 miles
Wednesday - 6x1,200 at the track (see last post)
Thursday - 9 miles on rolling hills in Napa (7:30 pace)- nice run
Friday - silly hilly mountain trail in Napa, turned into a hike when it got to 25% grade
Saturday - 20 miles with 2x3 miles at marathon pace (6:47, 6:53) - felt good. I am ready.
Sunday - should be an easy 8-10 miler
Total - low 70s

So now it's taper time. Mileage should be down to mid 60s this week including 5-6 tempo miles and maybe 3-4 1200s at the track, plus a 5k or 10k on Saturday. However, the weather forecast predicts some crazy temps (>100 degrees) for next week so I am not going to worry too much about miles. If it's hot on Saturday I wont race the trailblazer 5/10k as I know that really hot races suck, and more importantly, I suck at running them quickly.

Track Time

2009-09-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning track fun again today. After last week's successful track workout it was time to see if it was a lucky one-off, or if I could do it again.

Plan was for 6 x 1,200 meters, with easy jog recovery lap. Goal time between 4:15 and 4:18 (85-86 second 400s, 5:42-5:46 mile pace, VDOT 57-56). Weather was low 60s, sunny, no wind.

Ran a couple miles warmup at the track, including 3 100 meter pace sprints in 19s (a little fast, as usual, they should be 21). Off we go....

4:13 - after fast 200 I got on pace and stayed there - felt OK
4:17 - lost concentration about 800m into this one
4:17 - tough closing this one out
4:18 - told myself if I finished this one quick (4:15) I could quit after 4 - 4:18 not good enough, so #5....
4:19 - made the same deal as #4 and missed it again
4:15 - decided to go out fast and see what happened. Well, it turned out that it was too fast (80s for first 400m) and the next 800m hurt like hell, but I ran the time I was shooting for (which was good, as #7 was not gonna happen)

Overall not too bad, with a 4:17 average (5:44 pace). Only one of them was slower than the planned pace range. I am thinking that I should aim for about 5:50 pace for the 5k in 10 days, which would be 18:07, although the attraction of 17:xx will probably cause me to attempt something stupid.....

Chicago Week 11 Training

2009-09-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

Alright, 11 weeks done, 4 weeks to go. Ran all 7 days this week (9 runs) and it went well. Feeling in good shape as I get closer to the race. Schedule called for a big week (100 miles) but I knew I wasn't going to go all out as 70-80 seems to be about what I can handle without needing to take some timeoff, and was planning to come in somewhere around 80. Here's how it went....

Monday - AM 6 easy, PM 6 easy
Tuesday - 5 easy
Wednesday - AM kickass trackwork (see Wed's post), PM 6 easy
Thursday - PM 7.5 easy
Friday - 14 easy
Saturday - tempo (ran a 10k time trial with a friend) 6.22m at 6:35
Sunday - 21.5 pretty slowly at 8:21

Overall it was just over 79 miles. Things feel good, heartrate is low compared to last training cycle, and Wednesday's track workout was a good confidence boost. I can definitely feel that I am on the edge of pushing too hard but think I am just on the good side of trouble - Cutting the mileage in these big weeks has helped there. One more big week up around 80 next week, and then it's taper time (which will be something like 65, 50, 30+race).

Then all I need is some reasonable weather in Chicago.

Bank of America Chicago Marathon Runner Tracking

2009-09-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Thank you for signing up to receive free athlete updates on race day.

So, if technology works on the day, my 10k, half marathon, 30k and finish times will automagically appear on the blog.......

Track Time (finally...)

2009-09-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

After a couple half hearted attempts to do track work I decided it was tme to get serious, and stop making excuses about the weather (although 90+ is too hot for trackwork), or sleeping in. So this morning I went to the track determined to run 5x1,200 meters between 4:18 and 4:25 (5:46 to 5:55 pace).

I looked back over my previous track workouts and found that it was 2 months exactly since I did any real workout, and that was 4x1,200 in 4:24. I should be fitter than I was 2 months ago, but not necessarily faster as I have done very little fast stuff recently.

A mile warmup at the track (drove there instead of running as I was tight on time), and then some 100m pace setting sprints - for once, these were not wildly off pace - goal pace is about 21-22 and i ran them at 19, 21 and 21, so OK.

Weather was pretty much ideal, 58 degrees, overcast, almost zero wind. The plan was for a slow 400m jog between each 1,200. Here's how it went..

4:20.3 (5:49 pace) - HR max'd at 175 - felt comfortable
4:15.7 (5:42 pace) - HR max'd at 177 - still felt OK
4:15.2 (5:42 pace) - HR max'd at 179 - felt that one!
4:15.0 (5:42 pace) - HR max'd at 180 - felt that one too, but not too bad
4:10.8 (5:36 pace) - HR max'd at 184 - Decided to push the second 600 and definitely felt it!

Average was 4:15 (5:42 pace), which was 4 seconds faster than my best ever average (and that was just for 4). That final 4:10 was 6 seconds faster than I have ever run 1,200 before. Next week I'll add in a sixth 1,200 and try to keep them at 4:15 or better. Need to do a little research to see how to equate this to a 5k or 10k race but I am feeling good about beating my current 10k PR (38:38 ~ 6:13 pace) or 5k PR (18:52 ~ 6:04 pace) in the coming weeks. I would love to go 37:xx and 17:xx but I'm not sure how realistic that is, especially the 17. Guess I will find out soon enough.

Chicago Week 10 Training

2009-09-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

As expected, this week ended up being lower in miles than my aggressive schedule said, but it was an OK week.

Monday - took a day off to recover from Sunday's fast miles
Tuesday - a 5.5m tempo at 6:28 pace. Was planning to run a few more at pace but bathroom issues stopped that!
Wednesday - 2 easy runs at either end of a very hot day
Thursday - went to the track in the late afternoon when it was 90+ degrees. ran one 1200 and then just did a few 400's and called it quits
Friday - hilly 14 for breakfast, and an easy 7 in the evening
Saturday - super hilly 20+ miler
Sunday - another day off
Total 70 miles

Now I just have 2 big weeks before tapering satrts. Schedule says 100 and 90 for next 2 weeks but I'll keep it down around 70-75 - I do plan on doing the speedwork properly though (need to get out early befoire the heat sets in), and will be doing a 5k or 10k at the end of September.

Chicago Week 9 Training

2009-08-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

After last week's much needed cutback this was the time to get back into the swing of things. Decided I wasn't going to worry too much about mileage, just run when I could and keep everything easy except for Tuesday's tempo and Sunday's long run. Turned out OK.

Monday - 5 easy
Tuesday - Tempo, 8 miles at 6:30 - these are the cornerstone of my training and they are going well.
Wednesday - took a day off after running the last 7 in a row.
Thursday - a very hilly 9 miler on some new trails - great run
Friday - a morning 12 miler and it felt great, the spring was back in the step, and 12 miles at under 7:30 pace on the hills felt easy. Did another hilly 7 in the evening but much slower, as it was almost 100 degrees out there.
Saturday - Life took over and running was out the window, which given the 100 degree heat was probably a good thing
Sunday. Marathon sanity test run. A fairly tough workout of 22 miles with 12 at marathon goal pace (6:52). Did 6 easy, then 12 at 6:49 and the 4 easy miles to bring me home. Felt pretty good - 22 overall at 7:15 pace. This was a few seconds faster and heartrate was 2 beats lower than the last time I ran a test like this (back in April before Ottawa) so I am feeling confident for Chicago.

So 64 for the week. Less than I had on the schedule (85) but I have realised that runnng too much mileage is going to backfire and things will break. Next week schedule say 95, but my body is saying 70.

Chicago Training - Week 8

2009-08-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

A much easier week this week, and I feel much better as a result. Only 43 miles, which felt like not running at all after the last few weeks. I am over all of the aches and pains from last week so it seems to have worked and I am now ready to go into the final phase of my Chicago training.

Monday - off
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - easy 5 at 8:10 pace
Thursday - a pseudo tempo. 2 miles at 6:20, 5 miles overall
Friday - an easy 10 miler at 8:11
Saturday - 6 miles at the track, with 7x100m (5-18s) and 1 mile at 5:57
Sunday - 17 miles at 8:00 pace

The race is 7 weeks today, so now it's 4 big weeks then tapering over the final 3. I am going to adjust the next 4 weeks a little, and probably bring the mileage down a bit to make sure I get to the start in one piece (plan currently says 85, 95, 100, 90 - which will probably do some damage).

Hopefully the weather cooperates in Chicago and I can get a good sub-3 result - then I can turn my attention to something easier, like knitting.

Chicago Week 7 Training

2009-08-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

Finally! I am, at last, done with a pretty tough week. The 3rd big week in a row, +very busy at work, +lots going on at home, +a cold/sinus problem = quite a rough 91 miles. Knees ache, shins ache and I can feel that my hernia is not 100% better when I run this much. Desperately hoping that a cutback week next week sorts all of that out.

Here's the rundown for last week.....

Monday - started with an easy 8 miler
Tuesday - a good tempo with 8 miles at 6:31 pace, followed by a steady 8 in the evening
Wednesday - easy 7, no time to double
Thursday - messed around at the track in the morning with a bunch of 400s in 80-90s, but nothing that was all that useful or impressive
Friday - a solid hilly 14 miler
Saturday - 7 in the morning, 9 in the afternoon
Sunday - 22 long, flat miles, not particularly quick

Overall an OK, but not great, week - Tuesday's tempo was good, everything else was pretty much just alright.

Next week the schedule calls for 70 but I am going to take it very easy and not worry about miles. I have one more big up cycle before Chicgao (the following 4 weeks are 85/95/100/90) so I want to go into that phase feeling as fresh as possible. I'll skip Monday, and then take it day by day the rest of the week. I suspect I'll come in around 50-60 with very little in the way of hard running. Sunday calls for 17 miles with 13 at marathon pace, which would be a good confidence builder, but right now I am not looking forward to it.

Perhaps I am getting to old too run this much......

Chicago Week 6 Training

2009-08-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

6 weeks down, 9 weeks to go. Biggest week of this training cycle so far, at 91 miles. Average for the first 6 weeks has been around 73 miles. Average for the next 6 should be just under 90 if things continue to hang together, so this is definitely going to stress the system.

11 runs this week, so 4 double days. Feeling a little tired from it all but nothing unexpected.

Monday - AM easy 5, PM easy 5
Tuesday - AM easy 6, PM tempo 11 w 8 at 6:30 pace - a good run
Wednesday - AM easy 5
Thursday - PM easy 5
Friday - AM 12 medium long, PM easy 6
Saturday - AM easy 8, PM hot & hilly 6
Sunday - AM 21 mile long run, PM a bucket load of beer

Next week is up again, to around 95 miles. That will probably be 11 runs again, so I need to start stretching those easy 5's out to easy 6-7 milers. I'll do another long tempo run as I feel they are critical for marathon training, may do track on Thursday, or may skip it, will depend how the legs are feeling. By the end of next week when I finish with a 23 miler it will have been 24 consecutive running days and I will be looking forward to a cutback week with a day off!

Chicago Week 5 Training

2009-08-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

After last week's cutback and successful half marathon it was back to the regular schedule this week. Plan was for about 75 miles over 8 runs (so 1 double day). Wasn't sure how I was going to feel after trashing my legs at the SF half, so I had decided I would allow myself to bail on anything if it didn't feel good.

Monday - very easy 7.5 at 8:30 pace at lunchtime. quads definitely feeling Sunday's run but overall not too bad.
Tuesday - easy 7.5 in the morning and a short (3 mile at 6:23) tempo in the evening. Ran the tempo a little slower than normal - no problems.
Wednesday - 8.5 miles at 7:40 pace
Thursday - an easy 6
Friday - 11 at 8:07 pace with some hills
Saturday - a nice hot noon run at the track. decided to run a variety of distances "fast". started with 100m, did 3 of them with the fastest being 15.47 (4:09 pace), then 200 in 33s, 400 in 77s, 800 in 2:53, 1200 in 4:23 and 1600 in 6:02. then it was time to come back down, so i did the 1200 but could only manage 4:32, so i called it a day. next time i will see if i can get all the way back to down the 100s, hitting the same times on the way down as the way up. fun stuff
Sunday - a 19 miler thru the hills. had the added excitement of tripping over my running buddy as he fell to the ground having tripped over an imaginary, invisible something or other. my first ever fall. it was on a gravel path so cut my hands, elbow and knees but i think i'll survive.
Total - 77 miles and not feeling too bad.

Next week it steps up to 85 miles and in terms of workouts I'd like to get a longer 7+ mile tempo in, another trip to the track for another ladder workout, and then a 21 miler to wrap things up at the weekend. Everything else will be 8ish pace.

SF Half Marathon

2009-07-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

Ran the SF half this morning. Here's the story....

Plan

goal was to run a 1:25 (6:29 pace). The course climbs about 300' in miles 2-6 and then drops 300' in miles 7-8 and then is pretty flat. I had calculated mile paces based on the elevation changes. Basically it was going to be "get to the top of the hill, see what I can make up on the downhill and then take it from there".

Weather

Weather was perfect, low 50's, overcast, misty, very little wind. Start was well organized and I was just 2 rows back from the start. We joined the full marathoners when we started (8:15am) and the people we joined were on pace for 4:30 finish, so we were flying by. I'd worked out that a 1:25 finish would have me passing about 2,500 marathoners over the course, which I was hoping was not going to be a problem.

Start was fast as it was downhill for first 1/4 mile, out of the gate at 5:30 pace but got it back under control as we levelled off. First mile still quick overall at 6:09 (plan was 6:30).

Mile 2 and 3 were the 2 slowest according to my plan as they had the hills. Goal was 6:48, 6:51 - got thru them in 6:32 and 6:40 so I had banked 50+ seconds in just the first 3 miles.

Mile 4, 5 and 6 were up & down and plan was 6:39, 6:24 and 6:33 - ran them in 6:30, 6:16 and 6:29 so I was moving fast. Went thru 6 in 38:36, which was 1:06 ahead of plan. (according to Garmin, mile markers were no use as they were for the full, so we had a very helpful 5.9 mile mark...)

So the uphills hadn't been as bad as I had expected and I was feeling about how I expect to feel 6 miles into a half.

Then it was time for the downs of miles 7 and 8. I'd planned to hit these at 6:10 and 6:11, but mile 7 was not really down, it was flat/up with a steep down at the end, mile 8 was better with a more gradual drop so I went thru those in 6:15 and 6:02.

As the course flattened out I realised I was in with a shot at a breakout time if the wheels stayed on, and after a quick systems check figured I had enough left in my legs to hammer the next 5 miles adn gut it out. It was flat and I knew that 6:25 would get me comfortably under 1:25 but decided to just run hard and see what I could do. Quads were definitely feeling it from the fast downhills but I hoped to hang on for 30-35 more minutes.

Mile 9 and 10 were steady and I just reeled in more marathoners, they were in the 22-23 territory so they were having no fun, must have sucked to see people like me whizz by. Ran a 6:18 and then sped up to a 6:13.

At mile 10 I just decided to go for it and pay the price afterwards - 11 was at 6:13 and mile 12 was 6:10. Unless I crashed I was in for a fast time, but I was hurting and my quads were extremely unhappy with my decision.

With just over a mile to go I started picking out the half marathoners and chasing them down, it was pretty easy to tell who was in each race. Caught 3-4 in mile 13 as I did a 6:09.

The final 0.3 (garmin was long as usual) was a sprint thru the barriers and the crowd at 5:45 pace and I crossed the line in 1:23:47 feeling like I'd left most everything I had out there - I beat my 1:25 goal easily and a got PR of just about 2 minutes. Garmin pace was 6:17 and official pace 6:23.

From the preliminary results looks like I was 42nd overall out of thousands, and 4th in my age group (M40-49). I am very happy with the way things turned out and feel I ran a good race, with a very strong finish for once.

This shows splits: blue bars are mile splits, with the blue line showing the cumulative pace. Red shows heartrate, so you can see that I was working hard for those last 5 miles once we got down the hill!

Chicago - Week 3 Training

2009-07-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

An OK week this week. It was hot, and I got really busy at work which messed things up, but overall I think I got through it just about well enough.

Missed Friday's run, which was supposed to be my medium long run of 16, but after starting the day with a meeting at 7:30am and finishing my last call after 6pm I couldn't face a 2 hour run, so instead I swam in the pool and sat in the hot tub with the family and a beer - So instead of 90 for the week I was down at 72.

In terms of workouts, the tempo on Tuesday was pretty good. It was a hot run in the late afternoon, so I decided to run the 6 miles at a more reasonable 6:30 pace, which turned out to be plenty fast in 90+ degree heat. The track workout on Thursday was another matter. Work screwed up the "run before it gets hot in the morning" plan, so it was about 5:45pm when I hit the track and it was still in the high 80s. The goal was 6 x 1,200 at 4:21-4:25. After hitting the first in 4:19 I decided to bail out half way thru #2. It was too hot to be pushing hard on the track so I just ran an easy 7. A little wimpy but there is a limit to what I can deal with.

Did a fairly brutal hill run yesterday climbing up to 1,600 feet in the sunshine, which trashed me quite successfully. Today was a mercifully flat 20 miler which felt really easy after my recent hilly long runs.

Next week is a cutback week, with just 55 on the schedule, although the last 13.1 of those are the SF half marathon. I'd like to get down to 1:25 (6:29 pace) but I'm not sure that I'm in that kind of shape just yet. I'll see how it is feeling after the first 5-6 miles and take it from there.

Chicago - Week 2 Training

2009-07-13T12:23:00.000-07:00

Week 2 is a wrap. Came in just under 84 miles and I am feeling good despite the second week of a big distance jump. Let's see how the jump to 90+ goes this week.

I am thinking that the addition of a hot tub in our back yard is helping. We got this a couple weeks back and I've been soaking 4-5 times/week. I was initially a little worried about this as I have heard a lot of stories about hot tubs making it harder to recover from long/hard runs - and that ice baths are much better. Not sure what the physiology is behind all that but it seems to be the general consensus among runner types. However, the family was not so keen on an ice tub in the back yard so I decided to risk it. And fortunately I've found that it is helping (at least so far!), so I will keep using it.

Like most training weeks I had three fun workouts this week, and a bunch of easy runs. Tempo on Tuesday was good, when I did 6 miles at 6:21 pace. This was the best tempo I've had, and I was happy to see it after the previous week's sloggy 5 mile effort. Thursday was my first trip back to the track, as documented in the previous post. And yesterday I did a 21 miler with a bunch of mid sized climbs. It was 9 runs overall and no days off.

This week is similar, but I will get another 7-10 miles in there somewhere, and will go a little longer in the tempo and do a few more reps at the track.

Then I get to cut back the mileage for a week (down to the mid 50's), with a day off and then a half marathon on July 26th.

Track Time #1

2009-07-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

After last week's "track construction" incident, resulting in some enthusiastic, but probably ill advised, 100m and 200m sprints on the soccer field, it was time to get my first real track workout in.

It was an early morning start and I headed up to the local college track, which is just over 2 miles away. Did 3-4 laps with some 100m pace setting sections, just to get the feel for 5:55 pace (4:25 for 1,200 meters). I was all over the place, and way off pace on these 100m runs (5:14, 5:22, 5:25) so decided I was good to go. As it has been 2 months since I ran anything on the track I was only doing 4x1,200, with 90-120 seconds walk recovery in between.

Mentally, I break up the 1,200 into 4 chunks:

the first 200m. usually I start too fast and find I'm flying the first 100m, I try to get back on pace by 200. If I am still quick at this point I am usually in trouble. this is the fun chunk.
the next 400m (200-600). this is about running smooth and maintaining form, getting the breathing right and just hitting the pace. this is usually an ok chunk.
the next 400m (600-1,000) - this is all about holding it together. legs are starting to hurt and it's definitely an effort to keep on pace. real focus on keeping the form good. this is not a lot of fun, and often where I screw up.
the final 200m (1,000-1,200) - this depends a lot on the time at 1,000. if I am on pace this is a good solid 200m effort to the line and is pretty enjoyable - but if I am off pace this is where I try to make it up, and it becomes an all out, ugly ass, arm flailing 200m struggle to the line.

Here's how it went.

Started fast (surprise!), but got under control by 200m, next 400m was smooth enough and it felt good to be running fast on the track again, then the next 400m was an effort but not too bad, final 200m was OK as I was on pace - 4:24
Pretty much a repeat of Number 1, except I was feeling it a little more towards the end.
Ok through 600, then lost focus in the next 400 and slowed down, so I had to haul ass the last 200m and still missed it with a 4:26. No fun on that one.
Took a 2:00 rest before this, to give myself a fighting chance. Got through the first 600 slow in 3:14 (vs 3:12) so had to pick it up in the final 600. Clawed back some time in the next lap to get back on pace and then kicked the last 200 to come in at 4:23. A definite race effort to finish, but it felt good to hit the time goal and close with a 3:09 last 600.

Overall it was a 4:24 average, so I was happy, esepcially as it's the first time in a while. Next week I'll go up to 5 or 6 repetitions, but probably keep the goal time the same at 4:25.

Chicago - week 1 training

2009-07-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

First week of Chicago training is over, 14 to go. This is the combination speed and higher mileage plan, which is going to result in a sub 3 hour marathon, an ugly crash caused by overtraining or injury. I am hoping for #1 and after week 1 feel pretty good. Today's long run was great and I finished feeling pretty fresh.

Monday - easy 5 miles (no rest day anymore....)
Tuesday - 5 miles tempo (6:43), 7 overall - it was hot and I was sluggish - not great
Wednesday - AM easy 7.5, PM easy 5 - my first double in ages
Thursday - crazy speed workout (see previous post)
Friday - easy 14 miler on some hilly trails
Saturday - easy 7.5
Sunday - 19 miles with the last 3 at marathon pace - in SF (Golden Gate Park)
Total - 72 miles

Next week should be around 80, and I will probably skip the 100 meter sprints this time.

Fast Times at Los Altos High

2009-07-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today was my first planned speed workout since Ottawa. I was going to ease back into it, so had only planned to do 2x1,200 somewhere between 4:21 and 4:29 depending on how it felt (5:50-6:00 pace). Ran down to the local high school after work - it was still pretty warm out, around 80 degrees.

Well I get to the school and the track is being resurfaced, and is shut until the end of July. Didn't feel like running fast on the roads, so went to the soccer field at the school and decided I'd run there instead. After a warmup mile I figured I try running some shorter stuff, for a change.

Started with a couple of 100m-ish strides at a reasonable clip, followed by 200m jog recovery. Ran three, at 5:06, 5:03 and 5:01 pace, just to get the legs warmed up.

Then I decided to do some 200m sprints, with 400m jog recoveries. Ran four of those, at 5:01, 5:09, 5:16 and 5:10 pace.

Then I did about a mile of easy barefoot running, figuring it would be good to take advantage of running on the soft grass.

Then I put the shoes back on and decided to do some faster, shorter runs. Did 120m sprints, pretty much flat out, with 400m jog recoveries. Did four of these at 4:34, 4:18, 4:07 and 4:11 pace. I have never run that fast before and it felt great to really push it, lifting the legs high. I decided to see if I could go sub 4 minute pace on one, so did 800m jog recovery and then went for it. I managed a 4:02 and decided to call it a day before I tore something. With a bit more focus on form I am pretty sure I could dip under 4.

So the good news is that I have the physical capability to run at 4 minute mile pace. The bad news is that after 120m I was toast. No way was I going for another 1489.4 meters anywhere near that pace. So any crazy dreams of running a 4 minute mile have been soundly squashed. I will set my sights on running a 4-something minute mile (i.e. 4:59) which seems far more achievable.

So the fastest one equates to a 15.07 100m, which would put about 50% behind the elite runners. It's about the same with marathons where my 3:03 is 50% behind the elites. I guess I am consistent if nothing else. Now, I have to say that distances weren't exact (garmin), and I had a running start, so who knows for sure. Next time I am at a track I will do some certified 100m sprints to see what I can do.

And tomorrow I will see what sort of damage I have done to myself running that fast.

Another Week

2009-06-21T16:48:00.001-07:00

Wrapped up this week with a father's day hilly run. 17.4 miles with 4 humps. That first one was pretty fun, switchbacks up thru the trees. Runnable the whole way (unlike last week).

Got a little tired by mile 15 and that last 200' climb on the final hump was not a lot of fun, but I kept going.

Weekly total was just under 60, with a medium 12 miler Friday, a 3.5 mile tempo on Tuesday and then 3 7-8 milers filling the other 3 days.

Next week should be pretty similar, but I expect I'll skip the hills and do a flat long run on Sunday.

Weekly Wrapup

2009-06-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

Sunday's run was a 4 hump hill run in Rancho San Antonio. Mostly trails, and mostly runnable, but there are couple bits towards the top of the big hump that are a little too steep to run up. Most of the downhill is great running with good footing, except for the first 1/4 mile from the very top - that's a little too steep for me to run comfortably down.

It closed out my first solid week since Ottawa, and the first I'd consider real training. It looked like this.....

Monday - rest
Tuesday - 3.5 miles tempo (6:15 pace) - 7.5m overall
Wednesday - 7.5 miles easy
Thursday - 11 miles easy
Friday - 9 miles easy
Saturday - 5 miles recovery
Sunday 12.5 miles of hills
Total - 52.5 miles

Next week should be similar, maybe closer to 60. Will do a tempo tomorrow, a medium long (10+) early Friday and a long (~18) Sunday. The rest will just be easy running.

Hilly Running

2009-06-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Finished the week with a hilly 16 miler yesterday morning. It was my 4th run of the week, bringing the mileage up to about 36 miles.

Ran some very nice trails out thru Arastradero Preserve and into Foothills Park in Palo Alto. Saw a few hikers and bikers but no runners, and no-one at all once I got over 400'. Great trails for running fast thru the trees.

Recovery from Ottawa has gone well and I am feeling pretty refreshed. Next week will be back to reasonably normal running, with 6 runs and somewhere round about 50 miles. Will probably run a few tempo miles on Tuesday or Wednesday, and some strides here and there, but I won't be doing any real speedwork for at least another week.

Chicago training won't start for real until the end of June, so I still have 3 weeks of "just running". I'll probably do mileage of 50, 55 & 60 for those weeks and then jump into a 15 week plan for Chicago.

National Running Day

2009-06-03T09:33:00.001-07:00

Apparently it is National Running Day today, whatever the hell that is.

So I am going to go for a run.

Ottawa Pictures

2009-06-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

At the start I was in the first, non-elite coral, so started just behind the real fast runners. At this point, just as I crossed the start line I was a mere 10 seconds behind the winner, David Cheruiyot. Unfortunately I was unable to hold the pace and he eventually beat me by 50 minutes....

This was about mile 15, feeling strong, looking relaxed - "Hey, this sub 3 is gonna be easy

About 3 miles later, now I am having to work at it

Into the last mile, the wheels are off and there is no more "smile for the camera" - Pretty surprised to see a picture with both feet off the ground at the same time.

Crossing the line, very happy to be done. I think Cheruiyot was already on the plane home by the time I got there.......

May Summary

2009-05-31T13:31:00.000-07:00

So May is done, with a fairly low total of 183 miles. With the marathon taper, and a very easy recovery week this week I didn't have a lot of big weeks. But the foucs wasn't miles it was Ottawa and that went OK.

June is going to be easy. I have no preset plan, but I am not going to do anything fast until I am feeling completely recovered. There's a 10k at the end of June that I may run, but only if I have found my legs again.

Chicago training is due to start of June 29th and go for 15 weeks. Plan is to keep the intensity/speedwork I had last round, but go a little higher on the mileage.

Ottawa Marathon Report

2009-05-25T20:11:00.001-07:00

The plan was simple: Get it done under three hours (6:52 pace). I planned to run 6:48 for the first 20 miles, and then take it from there. If things were good, I’d keep at 6:48 and run a 2:58. If things weren’t so good I had a couple minutes wiggle room to still bring it home under 3. Training had been solid, I felt great.

Course was described as honest; some rolling hills in the first half, but nothing major. Forecast called for 52 at start, low 60s at the end and 6mph winds from the west. Overall, not bad conditions.

Start logistics were good and I met up with a couple other runners I had met online who were also shooting for sub3. We planned to run some/all of it together. It felt pretty warm, definitely more than 52 degrees (found out later it was 61 at the start).

Course was marked in kilometers versus the normal miles so I had some funky pacing worked out. I’d broken the course up in my mind into 9 chunks: Eight 5Ks, followed by the final 2.2km. I had planned paces for each section based on hills etc and planned to just take them one at a time.

One approach to long runs is to try and disassociate yourself from the task at hand by thinking about something else. Another way is to focus intently on running form, stride rate etc. I tend to do both during a race. To help with the disassociation someone told me to “dedicate” each section to a specific person, and think about them during that time. Seemed a little touchy feely to me, but I figured I’d give it a try. Went with my family in England and my family at home in Los Altos – 9 people in total.

Chunk 1 – KM 1-5

This section was ‘dedicated” to my big brother Richard – someone who is not likely to be running a marathon anytime soon. Gun went off and we were off fast – 6:15 pace. Slowed it down a little but the first 3KM went by at 6:33 pace, despite the rolling hills (distances are kilometers and my pace times are minutes/mile, just to confuse things). Got a little more controlled at that point but finished chunk 1 in 20:47, 24 seconds ahead of plan, feeling excellent. So Richard had done his job.

Chunk 2 – KM 6-10

This one was run for Dad, who would hopefully be tracking me online from England if he was able to work out the instructions I had sent him. Hills continued for a bit then we crossed back from the French side to Ottawa and started running thru a pretty nice neighborhood. Kept things smooth and comfortable and ran this chunk on pace, finishing up overall by 27 seconds. Dad had done just perfectly (although he had failed with the tracking thing so he wasn’t aware of this….)

Chunk 3 – KM11-15

This was Mum’s section. She’d be waiting for updates from Dad at home in England, but given his computer prowess, she had no idea what was happening in Canada. This section felt easy, just rolling off miles about 6:46 pace. Uneventful, easy running and feeling very good. Smack on pace, ended up by 28 seconds overall. My best section so far. Good job Mum!

Chunk 4 – KM 16-20

This was for Dave, my other brother, who is hoping to complete his first marathon next Sunday in Edinburgh. We headed back West here and could now feel the wind for the first time, and it was a lot more than 6mph. But I still felt really good and this was another uneventful section run at 6:53 pace. This was about 20 seconds slower than plan due to the wind, but still left me 9 seconds ahead of my schedule and feeling relaxed. So Dave did his job, hopefully I can help him next Sunday.

Chunk 5 – KM 21-25

Next up was little sister, Kayte, who lives in Spain. Not a marathon runner. This brought me thru the halfway point, in 1:28:55 - 5 seconds ahead of my plan and feeling really good – this sub 3 was going to be easy! I was running smooth and relaxed, sometimes on my own, but some portions with one of the 2 online runner friends or with random people I spoke to (most of whom spoke French…). Got thru this chunk a little off pace, but still figured I was OK since I was pacing for 2:58 and I was only 8 seconds behind overall. Thanks Kayte!

Chunk 6 – KM 26-30

Having worked thru my English family it was time to start with Los Altos. Next up was Anna, my little princess who was at home asleep. This section was when I started having to work a little to keep on track – It was now feeling like a race and not a run. We were out in the wind and I was no longer running easy. Figured I could still go sub 3 as long as I could run below 7 minute pace. Ran this chunk at 6:57, now 36 seconds behind plan, but still within reach of sub 3 if I could keep it up. Princess Anna had done her job

Chunk 7 – KM 31-35

This was for Nick, my little boy. He’d probably be waking up pretty soon. OK I am feeling it now, but determined to stay on pace – Manage kms 31-33 at 6:59 but then there’s a hill in km34 and it just kills me. Can’t do better than 7;35 pace and I’m dying. It’s windy, sunny and hot and I am losing it fast – it is weird when you can feel things start to shutdown. My quads are completely shot – I guess it was payback time for those fast early rollers. Get to the top of the hill and decide that I need to suck it up and get back under 7 minute pace or this game is over. Manage to get to 7:03 but it is soooo hard. This chunk cost me another 48 seconds, and now I am 1:24 behind. Doing the math (which was not easy with no oxygen in my brain) I worked out that I was in deep shit, and needed to close this round about 6:55, which looked awfully daunting. Nick had kept me going but I could feel it slipping away at this point.

Chunk 8 – KM 36-40

This last 5k chunk was for Liz, my wife who puts up with all my running crap and is incredibly supportive. If anyone could get me thru this one it would be her. All I had to do was run a 5k in about 21 minutes for this chunk and I would be close enough to gut it out and get my sub 3. I tried to get back down to under 7 minute pace but I just couldn’t do it. Managed to get to 7:13 and that was so bad that I knew that I was done – today would not be the day. I was bummed but there was nothing I could do about it. I’d had 3 goes to get back down to pace, tried every trick I knew but my legs just didn’t go that fast anymore. Now it was time to roll back to plan B. Unfortunately there was no plan B. I figured a PR (under 3:06:13 was gonna be pretty easy as I could jog it in at 8:30 pace and still hit that). So I sort of wallowed a little bit and eventually decided to just keep going as fast as I could without puking. Turned out that was around 7:45 pace, so that’s what I did. It was getting ugly out there, I was not enjoying myself anymore and I was surrounded by people having a similar funtime. Lost almost 2 minutes in this chunk and was now 3:33 behind plan – officially it was over. Liz did her best, but I just didn’t have it left in me.

Chunk 9 – KM 40-42.2

Final chunk was for me, for all the miles I’ve run, for all the injuries, and for the surgery. Just 2.2 kilometers to go, which is less than 6 laps of the track, but I was empty. Legs were trashed, and I felt worse than I have ever felt. However, I was determined I was not going to walk and that I’d continue to push as much as I could. KM41 was at 8:01 pace – it was a kick in the butt to see 8:XX on the watch when I was meant to be running 6:XX, so with 1.2 km to go I went into my finishing sprint…… this got me down to 7:30 pace and I was flying…… final 400 meters and I am into the final stretch, people cheering from the grandstands and the announcer calls my name out. I give it one final surge and cross the line at 3:03:39. Not the 2-something I had been looking for but I am just happy to be done. I have absolutely nothing left so I sit down quick, before gravity does it for me and drink 3 bottles of water. After 10 minutes I can stand, just. Off with the shoes, got my medal (which is a very cool medal), drink 3 Gatorades and lie down. 10 minutes later I am almost feeling human.

Results

So it was something of a trainwreck finish and a big missed goal but a new PR for me, of about 2:35. And this was on a day when there probably weren’t a whole load of PRs. I came 96^th out of 4,200 registered runners. I was 14^th in my age group (M40-44).

In terms of race strategy it was solid. Execution was OK thru 25km then it started to go pear shaped, and the wheels came off big time at 33km. I did not handle the heat and wind in the second half of the course well. Looking at the top 100 (which along with me, included some true elites like David Cheruiyot) only 6 of them managed to negative split (second half faster than first). And no-one in the top 20 negative split at all. Cheruiyot ran a 1:05/1:08, so he also buggered up the second part (although he likely didn’t run an 8 minute mile to close it out, plus he won the thing). In post race interviews all the elites talked about the wind in the second half slowing them down, so it wasn’t just me.

Overall I am really pleased with my training leading up to this race. 6 months ago I was having surgery and hadn’t run in 3 months. I worked really hard to get back to racing shape and I have had big PRs in every distance from 5K to the marathon. I’m confident that the next one will be sub 3.

Maybe I went a little too fast that first 5km but it honestly felt easy thru 25km. I had decided that I was not going to adjust my plan for the weather. I did that in Edinburgh last year because of the wind and finished strong, feeling I could have gone faster. This time it was going to happen or I was going to die trying – Unfortunately, today I died.

They printed the top 100 in the Ottawa paper toady, and I just made the list down at #96. I never expected to be on the same results sheet as David Cheruiyot. (And yes, I am ignoring the fact that he beat me by about 50 minutes, or almost 2 minutes/mile)

Close, but no cigar

2009-05-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

So it was not to be.... 3:03:40...... and it finished pretty ugly. At 10k I was on 2:57 pace, at the half 2:58, and at 30k 2:59. Then about 33-34k (~21 miles) the wheels came off and I lost 3 minutes in the last 5 miles.

It got pretty warm towards the end and a lot of people were struggling, but I kept on running, and managed to drag it in 7:30-7:40 pace..... legs refused to speedup. Only 76 made it under 3 (vs 130 last year), the winner did 2:13+ vs 2:10 last year, so it wasn't just me.

My time was good enough for 96th overall, out of 4,000+, which I was happy with as I didn't expect to make top 100. (that time would have been 156 last year)

Overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out - it was almost a 3 minute PR - would have been nice to go sub 3, but there you go. Now I have to go and run sub 3 in Chicago in October, which if it is hot, will suck.

I'll post some more details later when I am capable of doing math.

T minus 70 minutes....

2009-05-24T02:51:00.001-07:00

Sunrise was 5:23am, here it is....

Partly cloudy, hopefully that remains for the next 4 hours 10 minutes. Flags are fluttering in the breeze.

It's now 5:50am, heading out the door in 5 minutes. Slept reasonably well last night, ate and hydrated well yesterday, and had the appropriate "movements" this morning!

All systems go! Ottawa, we are green for launch!

Canada

2009-05-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

20 hours to go. Just ran my final run, a nice easy 4 miler. Ran 5 last night after getting in. The course looks good. Big "mile" markers every kilometer, and the finish counts down 750m, 500m, 400, 300m, 200m, 100m. Seems like a very well put together race.

Weather forecast for tomorrow looks reasonable - should be 62 degrees when I am done, and little wind.

So it looks like I have no excuses left. Time to get it done, as they say.

Tempting Fate?

2009-05-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

I'm a believer in stating my goals for races in advance. Perhaps it's tempting fate but I believe it creates a little accountability and when things get tough it can make the difference between backing off to something comfortable or pushing thru.

So Ottawa the goal is pretty simple; sub 3 hours. And with the advent of preprinted race shirts, you now get the opportunity to publicise your goals during the race! Ottawa is allowing shirts from wearyournumber.com, who print your race bib on the shirt, and allow you to add a message to the shirt. Here's mine for Sunday (it is sweaty from my final pace run yesterday evening)...

It's going to be a little embarassing if I run a 3:25 wearing this.

And to put some more pressure on, the kids have decided that I am going to win the race (last year the winner ran 2:10, so it's not likely to happen....) since I came 1st and 2nd in my last 2 low key 5k races. There weren't hearing it when I tried to explain that there are big races and small races. They did a couple pictures of my much anticipated victory.......

Marathon Training Cycles

2009-05-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

So part of the attraction of running is the science behind the training and the analysis of its effectiveness. Some would say I am perhaps a little over analytical and should just “run more” but to each their own.

As I come to the end of my Ottawa training cycle I’ve done some comparison to my last marathon training cycle (for Edinburgh in May 2008). Both were 5-6 months but different in composition.

Since I was coming back from surgery and 4 months of little to no running I knew I was not going to be able to do the same high mileage as I did before, so I laid out a plan that built up the miles gradually and was more reasonable in maximum mileage on the big weeks. In an effort to not get injured again I included a rest day every week. And to compensate for the lower mileage I had more focus on speed with regular track workouts.

Chart shows the weekly mileage with Ottawa in green. Mileage was much lower, but more consistent. As I wasn’t doing any big weeks over 75 miles I didn’t beat myself up so much, and as result didn’t need to take as big a cutback on my easy weeks. Plus it let me keep relatively fresh for the faster stuff.

Even though mileage was lower, I still kept the 20+ long run as a staple of the plan. In 2008 I ran 9 runs over 20 miles and it really helped build the endurance to finish strong. This time I still had 7 over 20, and 6 of those were in consecutive weeks, and a couple were fast (I did a 22 miler at the same pace as I raced Edinburgh last year). The other weeks I was running somewhere in the high teens every Sunday, so I think that I’m covered there.

Another core, every-week-workout, was the tempo run. Did about the same number, but this time I went up to 7 miles Vs 6 last time, and regularly ran them under 6:30 pace. For shorter tempos I was faster at 6:13, whereas last time I never got down below 6:20.

And speedwork was night and day. Only 3 small track workouts last year, but 10 this time, with some pretty quick stuff (1200s in 4:21 = 5:50 pace). And because of that speedwork I was able to crush my old 5k/10k and half marathon race times, taking over 2 minutes from the half, almost 2 from the 10k and a minute from the 5k. So speed should be covered too.

Overall I’ve run much more consistently, haven’t had many days when it was a struggle and also run a lot more of my runs on hilly trails. I feel in very good shape and the weekly rest day has helped keep any niggling injuries at bay. I finally feel that I am running with no Achilles problem for the first time in about 2 years. The sports hernia is fine, I get the occasional “feeling” in the neighborhood but nothing even close to how it was before. Compared to 2008 I think I am in better shape (which is good news as I’m trying to run faster this time around)

So the training has been good, and my various charts, data and race times suggest that a sub 3 hour marathon is a possibility, but definitely not a given. The difference between 2-something and 3-something for a marathon is such a big difference to me that it is my only goal this time around and I’ll be disappointed if I don’t achieve it. Backup goal, (to be used only in case of emergency), is a PR which means I need to beat 3:06. I am pretty sure I can do that as I’ve practically done that in several training runs. However, if I switch to the backup goal it’ll probably be because the wheels have fallen off at about mile 20 so all bets will be off.

Course is described as honest. It’s a loop so there is no net elevation gain. It’s got some small hills but nothing major. Weather is a variable and weather.com shows Ottawa as pretty random (50s-80s, rain-sun, calm-wind) so we’ll see what race day brings although I will be shooting for 2-something pretty much whatever the weather. (There will be no excuses about the wind and running a safe 3:10 this time).

Only a few days to go, and it all comes down to whether I can run 26.2 miles 14 seconds per mile faster than I did last time.

Ottawa Countdown

2009-05-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

6 days to go, so it's officially time to start obsessing about the weather. Here is the 10 day forecast....

It seems to be pretty random, ranging from cold and wet to hot and sunny. Ideally it'll be low 50s, misty with no wind, but that is asking for a lot!

Currently Sunday is forecast for a low of 50 and a high of 75. Race starts at 7am, and I'm hoping to be done by 10, so it should still only be low 60's by the time I'm looking for a beer. Partly cloudly with light winds is good, so I have my fingers crossed that this doesn't change too much over the next few days.

It's obviously a light running week for me this week. Rest today and easy miles every other day except for a couple marathon pace miles on Wednesday. At this point the "hay is in the barn" as they say, and there is little be gained, and a lot to be lost with a dumb workout.

Tuneup 10k (5k)

2009-05-17T11:20:00.001-07:00

Final tuneup race today. A flat, certified 10k. It was hot so I wasn't too sure what I was going to run, so decided to go out at 6:10-6:15 and see how it goes.

Mile 1 was 6:10 but I was was sweating big time and knew that another 5.2 miles like that was going to be ugly and do nothing to help me in Ottawa next Sunday, so I dialed it way back and ran the next one at 6:25. Decided at that point, which was conveniently at the 5k turnoff from the 10k, that I wasn't going to get much mental or physical benefit from a 40 minute 10k so turned left to run the 5k, and get out of the heat sooner.

I found I was in second place so picked it up a little to get back on 6:10 pace. I could see first place ahead and was just doing the math to see if I could get him in the last 3/4 mile when some dufus coming the other way (we had just rejoined the outbound trail and there were lots of slower runners still coming out) jumped out from behind another runner and we collided head on. I had enough time to get my arms up, he didn't - he definitely got the worst of it (and deservedly so) and I'm not sure if he has got up yet, but I got enough to remove any thoughts of a hero finish to win with a dive at the tape. Finished in 19:33 (6:15 pace) which was good enough for 2nd. Winner was 45s ahead, so I wouldn't have caught him anyway.

10k winner was 36 something so I wouldnt have won that one in any conditions!

So not a great time, but given the weather it was probably the right decision.

and here is the picture......

Catch Up

2009-05-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

Been down in sunny Florida so it's time to catch up.

First, a picture of part of a run I did the other day. For some reason I figured it would be fun to do this. Apart from getting the "n" backwards it wasn't too bad.

Did my last long run on Sunday - 15-16 with the last 2 at marathon pace (Did them about 6:47). Felt pretty good, so I'm officially done with that long stuff.

Ran a couple times in Florida - Once at 11pm on the treadmill and once outside around 6pm. The air conditioning wasn't working in the gym so the treadmill run was worse than outside. I got off looking as if I'd been in the pool. It was my first treadmill run and it pretty much sucked, but it beat running at night on concrete in a thunderstorm.

I am planning a couple 10k pace miles today (round about 6:00 pace) in preparation for Sunday's 10k. Depending on weather and competetion I will either go all out and attempt to get somewhere close to 38 minutes, or just make it a fast tempo and run at 6:15-6:25. Will decide when the gun goes off.

Other than that it's mostly just easy running for the next 10 days.

Back to the Track #10

2009-05-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my final, pre-Ottawa track workout. It was time for some 1,200 meter repeats, aiming to do them in 4:21 (5:50 pace). My last attempt at this a couple weeks ago was not great, with the first one too fast at 4:16 and then failing to hit 4:21 in any of the subsequent attempts. So after a couple of good training weeks, including a solid 10k time trial I was ready to try again.

I've technically started my marathon taper so wasn't dead set on doing all 6, but I was determined that all of them would be 4:21 or better!

Had planned to run early am but slept badly and didnt feel like it, so put it off to the late afternoon. Hit the track about 5:15pm and it was hot, at 78 degrees. Plus there was a reasonable amount of wind, making the final 100 meter stretch into a headwind. Not good signs.......

Ran some warmup, with a few 100m sections trying to get on pace - they were 5:14, 5:21, 5:24 so still starting way too fast. Oh well, better than too slow! Again, 4:21 means 87 seconds laps, or 43.5 seconds for each 200 meters - Here's how it went.....

Started fast again - first 200 in 40, 400 in 84, finished in 4:17. So pretty much on pace except for that first 200. Felt OK
Fast start again in 40 - finished in 4:18. still feeling OK
200 in 40 (yes, again...) - finished in 4:20 - feeling the effort and the heat
Started a little better (200 in 41) and struggled a little in the middle 400, but closed it out in 4:21

Decided that 4 was enough for today. I know I could have done #5 in 4:21, but #6 would have probably been hard - don't need to be killing my self within a couple weeks of my race. Average was 4:19 (5:47 pace), so the 4:21 1,200s are officially checked off my list!

No track next week as I have a final 10k race on the Sunday, and apart form that it's just a couple tempos, some pace running, a few 10-15 milers and easy running to go. Fingers crossed!

Mountain Running

2009-05-03T16:57:00.000-07:00

Pretty crazy elevation chart from today's run in Palm Springs! Decided to run the 5 miles to the base of the aerial tram at about 6:30am (to get the 8am first tram to the top). A big climb from 600 to 2,600 feet, with all of the climbing happening in 3.5 miles. Relentless hill, just goes on and on...... Was ready for a rest by the time I got there.

The tram is awesome, goes up to 8,600' and is way above the valley - the views go on forever. Plan was to run to the peak of Mount San Jacinto which is 10,600, so anotnher 2,000 feet of climbing. However, trail conditions were not ideal, and what started as a great trail, went to trail with patches of snow, to snow with patches of trail, to just snow. After losing the trail, sinking to my knees in icy snow and starting to climb past 9,200 I decided it was not going to be great running, and was likely to get worse. So I turned around amd ran a couple other trails around the mountain top and got some good climbing in.

Then it was time to take the tram back down and finish up with a hot 5 mile downhill run. As I descended to the valley floor it got hotter and hotter - by the time I was back at 600 feet it was 95 degrees and my quads were fried from the downhill miles. It didn't help that there was a 35 mile an hour tailwind coming down the hill so I was constantly braking to stay under control.

Overall a good run, and after a bunch of gatorade and beer I feel human again!

3 weeks to go - time to start tapering.

Long Long Run

2009-04-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

Ottawa is 4 weeks, and next weekend I am in Palm Springs, with a somewhat strange final long run planned (in Mt San Jacinto park at the top of the tram) so today was my last "normal" long run. I had been scheduled to cut back a little to 16 but decided that I could probably benefit from one last 20+ with some marathon pace miles. Decided to go with a relatively flat course (down to the bay, flat around the bay, and uphill home) and do about 23 with 10-12 at marathon pace after doing 8 easy. Weather was good, in the low 50s with aa light wind and sunny.

Fisrt 1.5 miles climbs up into the hills so kept that easy at 8 pace, then got into a stead groove at 7:30 for the next 6.5 miles. A little fast for the easy part of a marathon paced run but it felt good so I kept it going. Then I started the MP miles and found 6:50-6:55 comfortably and just clicked off the miles. It was flat and other than a little wind down by the bay it felt pretty good. The first 7 miles went by quickly and then it started to head slightly uphill back towards home. Not a big climb, just about 50'/mile, but enough to make me notice. At mile 18 (so after 10 fast miles) the trail goes over some freeways so there are bridges. I went with the bike ramp VS the steps but the uphill portions kicked my butt. Struggled to keep it in the 6:50's but got thru. Mile 20 (12 fast) finished at the top of an overpass and I was ready to slow down, so called it a day after 12 at MP. The last 3 were just a slog home in the low 8s, which to be honest I could have done without.

Overall 23.24 miles at 7:16 pace (with 12 at 6:52), which was way too fast for a training run. First 20 went by at 7:10 pace, which was about what I ran at Edinburgh last year. So now I have 4 weeks of final training to go. I'll do 2-3 tempos, 2-3 track sessions, a 10k final race the week before and the rest will be easy runs (although Palm Springs may end up being a pretty good effort).

So a solid run, at the end of another solid week of training. Looking back over the last 6 weeks mileage has been 67, 61, 70, 74, 69 and 63 including a fast half marathon, a fast 10k time trial, lots of tempos, lots of hills and 6 long runs from 21-23. It's been a little compressed and I'm ready to ease off a little as I get close to the race.

Back to the Track #9

2009-04-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

After a none too great track session two weeks ago, and a week off from fast running it was track day again. I decided to skip the intervals this time and instead run a 10k time trial. Wasn't too sure how fast I could go but based on recent races, and current training level I figured it should be somewhere between 38 and 39 minutes. I made a simple pace band for 38 minutes and decided to take it from there. 38 minutes for a 10k is 25 laps at 91.2 seconds each, 6:07 minutes/mile. My last 5k was at 6:04 pace, so 38 flat was stretch. Weather was good, low 50's, partly cloudy, no wind. Warmup was 2 miles up to the local college track early in the morning.

Here's the lap times

91.3 - too fast first 200 but eased back sensibly in second 200
93.6 - oops, slowed too much
91.2 - back on pace
91.2
92.5 - feeling comfortable, decided to not worry about pace - first 2k in 7:40 = 6:10 pace
92.1
92.5
92.7
94.2 - lost focus a little thinking about upcoming 2k split time
93.5 - second 2k in 7:45 = 6:14 pace
93.3
92.7
91.8 - pushed a little thru the 5k mark, halfway thru this was 5K, in 19:16 - 6:12 pace
94.1 - feeling it a little and slowed to keep effort level pretty flat
94.7 - third 2k in 7:46 = 6:15 pace
94.7
94.3
94.1
94.3 - 94s feeling pretty comfortable, probably easier than this stage of a 10k should be
93.5 - fourth 2k in 7:51 = 6:19 pace
93.0
93.3
93.8
93.5 - feeling good, time to kick for that final lap
82.9 - last lap 5:33 pace! - fifth 2k in 7:37 = 6:08 pace, second 5k was 19:22

Overall time was 38:38, 6:13 pace - first time I've gone under 40 for a 10k. average heartrate was 169, which is a little lower than I'd expect for a 10k race (last 2 have been at least 172) so that shows that it wasn't a 100% all out race effort. I only pushed hard for the last lap, the rest was a solid hard pace (definitely above tempo pace), but I never felt that I was on the edge. Race calculators show this is pretty much the exact equivalent to my recent half marathon time, which I still suspect was a slightly short course., so I am happy with that.

In a 10k race I think I could have gone a little faster than today given some good competetion and a good, honest course - just by pushing my HR to 172 vs 169 should have got me down to about 38 flat. I have a 10k race planned the week before Ottawa, but it is not certified and competetion could be light around 38 pace, so we'll see if I can go 37:xx at that.

This is a Daniels' VDOT of 54.1, which is about where I thought I was. I had hoped to be closer to 55 (10k = 38:06) at this point in my training, but I still have a little ways to go before I'm there (which I knew from the trouble I had during the last track session, which was at VDOT 55 paces). I'm pretty sure I can push it to 55 by Ottawa.

A VDOT of 55 has a marathon predicted time of 2:56:01. However, my research shows that most people underperform in the marathon by about 2 VDOTs (depending on training mileage, and ability to hold it together in a long race) which puts me at about a 3:01:40. So sub 3 at Ottawa is going to be a real goal for me but certainly not easy. A PR (current best 3:06) should definitely be on the cards if I don't blow up shooting for 2:59:59.

31 days to go......

Desert Miles

2009-04-17T17:25:00.001-07:00

After some time in Virginia, I am now just outside Phoenix, so it was time for some desert running. Plan was to run East to McDowell Mountain Park, and then back. Wasn't too sure there was actually a trail between the end of the road and the park but decided to try it out instead of running the longer route round the other roads. Weather wasn't too bad for Phoenix, probably only about 70 at 9am.

The part by the arrow in the map was my only problem when I got "off" the trail. There were a number of "trails" but most of them were overgrown with these razor sharp bushes, so I shredded my legs. Once I got back on track I was fine, although I must have looked pretty scary with blood pouring down my legs running thru the desert.

Route was mostly good trails, although occasionally the footing was a little soft as it was a "wash" which is apparently where the water runs when it runs twice a year here in the desert.

Ran 11 miles out, bought a Snickers bar, refilled my water and ran back. 700' drop going out so a 700' climb coming back. Saw wild horses, hawks, lizards and a scorpion - no rattelsnakes. A few hikers near the camp in the park, some horseback riders and a group of mountain bikers who passed me only to then drag their lazy asses so slowly up the hill that I ran past all of them.

22 miles overall at 8:02 pace, which given the heat, the elevation change and the time spent ripping myself to pieces on evil-cactus-bush things, not too bad!

Hotter tommorow (mid 80s, and hotter again Sunday high 90s) so we'll see how those runs go.

Jamestown Run

2009-04-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

Staying out in Virginia right now, so yesterday's long run was uncharted territories. Route was from Williamsburg, to historic Jamestown Island and back. No real hills, just 25' rolling roads. Weather was good (50's and sunny, with a medium wind - tailwind out, headwind back).

Started OK and settled quickly into a 7:30-7:35 pace. Found water at 7 miles, so no repeat of last Sunday's dehydarting deathmarch. Miles 8-15 were round Jamestown Island which was very nice. Got to 10 miles in 75 minutes, then did 4 marathon pace miles at 6:47. Water again about mile 14 then back into the wind.

For some reason it didn't feel too bad so I kept things moving about 7:20-7:25 pace. Ran the final mile again at race pace (6:46) and finished up just under 22 miles at 7:22 pace overall. If I'd kept going for another 4.5 miles at the same pace it would have been a 3:13 marathon, and that wouldn't have been a big problem to finish.

Given that is only 7 minutes off my Edinburgh time, I'm thinking that I am in pretty good shape. Course was similar in elevation profile to how it looks for Ottawa, so that is encouraging.

Rest today, then tempo Tuesday, easy Wednesday and then we are off to Phoenix for some hot desert running.

Back to the Track #8

2009-04-10T18:23:00.000-07:00

After 6 weeks without any trackwork, it was time to get back today and run some 1200s. Chanage of location: now that the highschool has started doing their trackwork in the mornings I relocated to the local college. It's just over 2 miles away and a pretty nice track.

Last time I ran 1200s I was doing them in 4:29 (6:01 pace). This week the plan was 4:21 (5:50 pace) - A big step up in pace. My recent 5k and half marathon showed that I am getting fitter and I have a pretty agressive training schedule. This is Daniels' VDOT 55 for those of you that speak Daniels. My half was 54.25, so this was a bit of stretch but the last few weeks have gone well, and my tempo runs have been pretty good.

4:21 means 87 seconds per lap, which doesn't seem that much faster than the 89-90 that I ran last time.... Here's how it went:

first lap 80! man, that was fast. finished in 4:16 (5:43 pace). I am gonna pay for that I know
payback time - struggled big time to run a 4:23, so decided to stretch the recovery from 90 seconds to 3 minutes
4:26 - ugly, ugly, ugly
determined to get this one back on track, I started OK but slowed and gave up at 800m in 2:58. decided to jog a couple laps and see if I could recover and salvage the workout.
Decided I would do 4:24 or better. ran a 4:23
Decided I would finally run a 4:21, but failed and ran a 4:25, which included having to sprint the last 150 meters.

Overall it averages 4:23 but it was pretty much a mess. I guess the 8 second jump was a little big after not doing track for 6 weeks, and the first lap was just suicide. Next time I hope with a little more smarts I can run them in 4:21. The goal before Ottawa is to get down to 6x1200 in 4:18, so I have some work ahead of me.

Then late this afternoon, just for grins I ran my second run of the day as I skipped yesterday. It was a hilly 15 miler out on the trails. A great run, although I started to get tired on the last mile.

Rest of the week has been OK:

Monday was a recovery 5, Tuesday I skipped and Wednesday was a great tempo in the morning (7 miles at 6:27, including my first ever sub 40 minute 10k) and a second run of 9 miles of hills in the evening. Off tomorrow as I am travelling to Virginia, and then a 20 miler somewhere in Virginia is on the schedule for Sunday. So it'll be high 60s for teh week, with 60+ coming on just 3 days. Not smart, but that's how it happened.

Water is a Good Thing!

2009-04-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

Inadvertantly tested my ability to run while being totally dehydrated today (short answer: it is not one of my big strengths). Did a long run with my running buddy - we got dropped off about 22 miles away and then ran home. It was hot (low 80's) and the route we chose was pretty much exposed, dusty and for the last 10 miles, into a headwind. In all, pretty spectacular planning on our part!

Started fast, feeling good, had a few sips of water at mile 3 from a fountain. Then kept going reasonably fast, but found no more water until mile 13.5. By then we were completely dried up - no longer sweating. So the combination of no water, heat, wind, and a 1:40 half marathon, left us feeling pretty crappy. So after drinking way too much water we set off again, now running into a headwind. The next 5 miles sucked, it was on the road, hot & windy, a boring route by the freeway, and of course, there was no water.

At mile 18.5 it became a deathmarch home - running from water fountain to water fountain, but by then the damage was done, and no matter how much we drank it was all messed up.

Finished at exactly 23 miles in exactly 3 hours. So not too bad, but certainly a lesson in hydration for me. Took me a good 45 minutes and about 53 gallons of gatorade to start feeling normal again.

Rest of the week was good, with a tempo-ish kinda run and some good hills on Friday. Total was over 74 miles, which is my highest since last July.

Next week should be mid 60's but it's a little weird as we are off to Virginia on Saturday, so I need to run my long run out there somewhere.

Running Plans

2009-04-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

Been thinking forward on the running plan front and this is what I have come up with for teh next 3 years....

Running the 5 marathon majors. These are the "big 5" marathons, and my running buddy and I decided it would be good to run all 5 over the next 2-3 years, so here's the schedule

2009 - Chicago (October)

2010 - Boston (April), Berlin (September)

2011 - London (April), New York (November)

I have signed up for Chicago, and got a spot in corral A based on my half time of 1:25 and full time of 3:06. Assuming the weather cooperates it is a fast course, so a good time is possible. I'll set my goal after Ottawa.

I think my Edinburgh time from 2008 will still get me into Boston 2010, and if not I should get a sub 3:20 at Ottawa or Chicago. Boston isn't the fastest course, but I would want to run it as fast as possible just because it's Boston.

Berlin seems very easy to get into to (you just signup) and they have a well organized corral system so I should be able to run a good time there. Last year over 1,400 runners ran under 3 hours! Current world record was run at Berlin.

London has something called "Good for Age", which is open to British people. As a 40-50 year old my time only needs to be under 3:15, so that should be easy enough. If the good for age thing doesn't work out I can buy my way in as a foreigner, although not sure what sort of start corral I get that way. It is also a fast course, so I'd definitely make this one a big effort if I can get a good starting position.

And the finale in New York has guarenteed entry for either sub 3:10 or sub 1:30 half. Both of which I have run and hope to be able to repeat within the New York entry window for 2011. Course isn't all that fast, and hopefully by then I will have hit all my marathon time goals in the earlier races.

I'll be weaving in a bunch of smaller races in between but will worry about those closer to the time. I have worked through the plan between Ottawa and Chicago, which is 20 weeks. I'll take 5 weeks to recover and just run easy miles, then I have a 15 week schedule roughed out. I'll run the 2nd half of the San Francisco marathon at the end of July and a local 10K 2 weeks before Chicago.

So that is the 3 year plan - I'll be 46 by the time it's over and probably be too decrepid to run anymore.

Happy 3rd Running Anniversary to Me!

2009-04-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

Today is the 3 year anniversary of when I started running. I was 40 years old and had finally realized that a combination of crappy diet and zero exercise was probably not so smart, and that being blessed with a high metabolism that kept me relatively slim wasn't going to be enough. So on April 2nd 2006, after telling all my friends, family & colleagues that I would run the Honolulu marathon for charity in December, I ran/walked for 3 miles at a blistering and exhausting 10:55 pace. I hadn't intended to walk at all but after 3/4 mile I was unable to run any more.

Roll forward 3 years and I recently ran a race which was about the same distance as that first adventure in just over 18 minutes (6:04 pace). Amazing the difference a little exercise can make. I still have the GPS track for that first run and I run that some route occasionally just for fun . Man, was I out of shape back then!

I had peaked in weight at 169 lbs before starting running, and am currently about 20 pounds under that, although I dipped to 143 when at the height of training last July. Blood pressure is down, as is heartrate (I have never measured my resting heartrate, so not sure what it is but now I often see HRs in the 50's when I put my garmin on).

My cholesterol, which was one of the reasons I started running is way down. Pre-running I peaked at 265, with bad cholesterol hitting a pretty scary 186 (recommended value is under 130). Last year total cholesteroal was 221, with bad being way down to 123 (Good cholesterol is now up to 88). I have another test next month and I am hoping that the last year of running will result in even better results.

Mileage-wise the last three years have been 1,250 followed by 1,900 and then 2,350. If I can manage to run a full 12 months without injury I expect to break 3,000 in the next year.

I also expect my race times to continue to improve for a while, but obviously not in a linear fashion. My first ever race was a half marathon, which I ran in 1:51 (8:31 pace). I recently ran a half in 1:25 (6:31 pace), which was exactly 2 minutes/mile faster. It would be awesome to trim 2 more minutes/mile from my pace but it's a little unlikely that I am running 4:31 pace for a 59 minute half marathon anytime soon.

So after 3 years I am more into running than ever, and what was initially an activity to get in shape is now truly an everyday part of my life.

Weekly Summary

2009-03-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

My first "run every day" week since July. Not planned, but decided to run a recovery 5 on Monday to loosen the legs up. Overall it was 69 for the week and things are feeling pretty good. Didn't do any trackwork but did a 7 mile tempo (6:31 pace), a nice hilly run on Friday and a good long run (20.5 with 3 at marathon pace today). The rest was just easy miles.

Next week should be about the same mileage, spread over 6 runs. Tempo on Tuesday, long Sunday (21 w 10 at MP), a medium long run (14) on Friday and maybe trackwork on Thursday. I may skip the track if depending on how I am feeling. This is the high mileage portion of my training, so I don't want to screw that up with too much fast stuff. I'll probably stay off the big hills this week as I don't want to push things with my wimpy achilles.

And if you were wondering about the pushups, it's going very slow. I am yet to do day 1. I tell myself it's because I wanted to start week 1 fresh on a Monday, but deep down it's probably because I don't want to do them. Maybe tomorrow.....

More Hills

2009-03-27T17:02:00.001-07:00

Ran this trail route today. A beautiful day, somewhere around 72 degrees - Nice day for some topless trail running. Kinda ran uphill for an hour or so and then ran downhill.

Saw lots of wildlife out there - a fox, a deer and a bobcat type thingy.

100 Pushup Challenge

2009-03-24T11:11:00.001-07:00

So with summer approaching, and the high likelihood of weather that is suitable for shirtless running I have decided to do something very foreign. Which is basically any form of exercise or workout that is not running.

I have chosen to do the 100 pushup challenge. A 6 week structured plan that can supposedly transform my pathetic puny runner upper body, barely able to do a single pushup, to a bulging bicepped, ripped monster, capable of doing 100 in a row. I am lazy in pretty much everything except running, so was attracted to the promise of startling results and the fact that it's 3 times a week, for a total of just 30 minutes. Sounds pretty easy.

So, last night I took the initial challenge, which is to see how many "good-form" pushups you can do before collapsing. I managed a pretty pathetic 14, and it sucked. That puts me in the "officially lame" category, although the name they use in the program is a much more PC "Rank 3", but I should probably mention that I only just crept out of rank 2 because I am over 40.

So now I get to recover for a few days before starting on week 1, day 1. That will be 5 sets of pushups, with 60 seconds rest in between sets. Sets go 10, 12, 7, 7 and then the maximum I can do. That maximum should be at least 9. Seems pretty brutal to me, and that's just day 1.

Oh well, we will see how this little challenge plays out but hopefully in just 6 short weeks, with my new ripped upper body I will be able to safely run half naked thru town without the fear of being spotted by someone I know.

You know you want to do this too, so click the image for details and join the fun!

Weekly Summary

2009-03-22T15:07:00.001-07:00

A hilly long run to round out a reasonable week of training. It was a 21 miler, which is the longest I've run since July. Route went over a small hill then out thru the Stanford campus, then I climbed up into the foothills and back home thru Los Altos Hills. It was a headwind on the way out which worked out pretty well. Kept the whole thing about 7:50 pace, except for those last 2 miles which came in a little quicker. Felt pretty good overall, despite getting hungry just 2 miles in - managed to gu my way thru it.

Rest of the week was OK. Mostly just easy miles with the exception of the 1600s and the hilly run on Friday morning. Total was 62 miles, so it's good to start getting back up there after a couple of low/mid 50's due to weekend races.

Next week I should get a little bit higher, into the mid 60's. I have a tempo (7 miles), speedwork (probably 6x1,200) and also a fast finish long run (20 w last 3 at MP). I'm also going to be pretty busy at work, likely doing some strange hours - Not sure when I'm going to fit it all in, but hopefully I'll manage somehow.

Back to the Track #7

2009-03-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

Tardy post on yesterday's track workout. I had planned to skip track this week, after the excesses of the weekend's race, but since I also skipped my Tuesday tempo for the same reason I decided to join my friend early Wednesday morning for some 1600 repeats at the local high school. I haven't run 1600s in a while but recall not liking them all that much. Plan was to go very low 6's in terms of pace with a slow recovery lap in between. It was just 3x1600 on the agenda....

6:02, with a fast first lap, then settled down - felt OK
6:01, pretty steady splits, definitely had to pick up the effort to close this one on pace
6:02, felt pretty tough from about 1000, was happy there was no #4

Overall not bad, but I definitely didn't like them. I much prefer 1,200s for some reason.

Today's run was supposed to be my weekly medium long run at 15 miles, but my schedule forced me to split it. Did the first part this morning. Took advantage of being in the car dropping the kids at school, so drove to Rancho San Antonio park and ran up a 4 mile hill, turned around and ran back down. Great run - 8:00-8:50 going up, 6:00-6:50 coming down.

Here's the elevation chart...

Shamrock'n'Half Marathon 2009

2009-03-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

This morning it was race day once again. My first half marathon after surgery where I expected to run fast - I'd run Kaiser 6 weeks ago, but wasn't really trained up and ran an OK 1:29:22. This time I had no excuses, and I was definitely hoping for a PR (previous best is 1:27:25)

Course is advertised as flat, but it has a lot of turns/out and backs etc, the goal was to run under 1:27, and I'd planned to pace at 6:37 minutes/mile, which should bring me in at 1:26:45.

Weather was good, forecast called for showers (30%) but it was dry at 7:15 when I left the hotel. Shorts, singlet, gloves and hat was the plan, temps in the high 40s/low 50s.

Did a pretty weak warmup and got it line. I was only 1 row back from the line. Gun went off and I was over the line within a second.

Mile 1: 6:13 - started fast, lots of faster runners than me! Didn't feel 6:13 fast though

Mile 2: 6:31 - felt faster than 6:31 - I think the mile 1 marker was a little early. started running with a guy who was aiming for 1:25-1:22 - decided I was running too fast!

Mile 3: 6:35 - this was a straight mile with a little climb - decided to let speedy guy go ahead, which I think was the smartest decision I have ever made in a race (he went on to run a 1:23:24)

Mile 4: 6:35 - this had a turnaround so I could see the leaders, I was 51st at the turn and feeling good

Mile 5: 6:34 - back up the straight and saw the rest of the pack - a reasonable race at 4,000 runners

Mile 6: 6:28 - had a freeway underpass and I flew down, the speed carried me through a fast mile

Mile 7: 6:27 - over halfway. feeling things but not terrible. At 6.5 a biker girl called out and told me to drop my arms a bit as I looked really tense. I focused on running more relaxed, and just staying on course for the next 3 miles.

Mile 8: 6:31 - lots of twists and turns but kept relaxed and on pace.

Mile 9: 6:32 - I caught the guy ahead (he had passed me about mile 4) - we started chatting and he said he was shooting for 1:28. At this point we were 1 minute ahead of my 1:26:45 plan. We decided we

could run together and hold on for big PRs.

Mile 10: 6:38 - this was the final out/back. at the turn we had to climb up 20' and turned back into a headwind by the river. We put our heads down and pushed thru.

Mile 11: 6:35 - After 1/2 mile we dropped back out of the wind and kept up teh pressure. We were starting to catch a straggler plus the group of 4-5 ahead of us. Hurting but we kept each other moving

Mile 12: 6:31 - several turns, one more little climb but moving fast and passed a couple more people

Mile 13: 6:38 - running on fumes at this point. more twists and then we approach the baseball stadium for the finish

Final .11 - 36 seconds (5:50 pace) - we enter the field and both sprint, catch another guy and it's a race for the line (which I lose). Crossed the line feeling like I didn't leave a lot in reserve.

Overall 1:25:28 - 6:31 pace

- a 1:57 PR and

- pretty even splits with first half at 42:35, second 42:53

- an improvement of 3:54 since Kaiser just 6 weeks ago.

I was 45th out of 4,000 runners

- which was good enough for 9th in my age group (M40-44)

I was very, very happy with the result. Pacing was good, and I managed to focus on running relaxed (many thanks to anonymous biker girl) in those tricky miles 7-10, and kept going strong when things got tough about mile 10.

I was hoping to run a 1:25 sometime before Ottawa but I think that I am going to settle with this one - I'll probably do a 10k a couple weeks before the race as a final sanity check but another 10 weeks will have me even fitter so I am feeling that I have a legitimate shot at sub 3.

Here's some proofs from the race photos - both at the finish - not looking too comfortable.....

Team ASHA 5K

2009-03-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

So I ran my 5K this morning. It was a reasonably small race, on an out/back mostly flat course. Shared the route with the 10K that started at the same time. Race was a charity race for Team ASHA, a group that is raising money for education in India. The runners were very much a community and I wasn't sure how much competetion there was going to be at the pace I was planning.

Weather was perfect, low/mid 40s, partly cloudy and practically no wind. Got out there and registered, and had time to run a mile or so with some strides to try and lock in pace - Goal was to run 6:06, which should bring me in just under 19 minutes. Based on recent training, and my goal time for next weekend's half marathon, a sub 19 should be achieveble. But 5K's pretty much suck and I don't have much experience running them, so it's always a crapshoot.

First half mile included a 20' downhill, followed by a 180 degree turn thru a narrow gate. Not ideal for getting locked on pace.

Race started and we were off. Started quick and after the crazy sprinters dropped off I was left in 3rd place. The leader was running the 10k, I wasn't sure about runner #2. I could hear footsteps behind. First 1/4 mile was very quick - went by at 5:31 pace! I consciously slowed, got under control and completed the 1/2 mile in 2:53 (5:46 pace).

Decided I needed to really focus and spend the next mile trying to settle down and run a steady 6:06 thru the turnaround. Next 2 halves were 3:03 and 3:03, so I was doing OK. Turnaround comes up right about 1.5 and I turn at 8:57, so it is going to be short, and by quite a bit. I knew this wasn't a certified race and suspected the distance was going to be off.

Lead guy was still ahead and he sped off to the 10k turnaround, runner #2 turned so I figured I had a race to run. He was about 20 yards ahead at the turn but he looked worse than I felt, so I picked it up right after the turn. Caught him pretty quickly and he slowed a little as I passed. I kept teh pressure on and it did the trick - That 1/2 went by in 3:00, but I was pretty much max'd on heartrate and still had a mile to go, and I was now running on my own. (and this was not the sort of race with a police bike to clear the path for you....)

Slowed to 3:06 for the fifth 1/2 mile and was feeling like crap. I figured that was how 5K's are supposed to feel and managed to keep going OK. #2 was nowhere near so I knew I had the win, and given the short course knew I had the sub 19. So I decided I needed to focus on coming in under 6:06 pace. Managed to finish out in 3:00 for a total time of 18:06 (8:57 out, 9:06 back). Got first place by about 20-30 seconds and the total distance (from Garmin) was 2.98 miles. Pace was 6:04, which I was happy with. That would have been a 18:53 for a full 5K - which feels about right.

It was the first race I have ever won outright, and it was very cool to run through the finish line ribbon - I suspect that the finish line photo will be terrible as I was trying hard not to throwup. As a bonus, I picked up a prize of $150 in gift certificates for a local running store, (entry was only $25) so not a bad return for 18 minutes work!

After adjusting for short distance, that is a VDOT of 53.25 (for the Daniels' followers out there) - which converts to 1:26:43 for a half. A big confidence booster as my race plan next week is 6:37 pace, or 1:26:45.

We'll see how it goes........

Tuesday Tempo

2009-03-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday, so it's tempo day again. Stretching it out a little this week to 7 miles. Pace goal was a little up in the air as it's been a while since I have run a long tempo. Decided to aim for 6:30ish but base it on perceived effort (obviously slower uphill and faster down). Course was my usual tempo, extended a bit. Overall the net drop was about 60', so a reasonably honest course, especially given the fact that it climbs for the last 2.5 miles.

Chart pretty much shows it all - the effort based approach seems to have worked if you look at the haertrate - climbing slightly towards teh end, so perhaps I should have eased off just a little on the last mile or so.

Overall pace was 6:30 for the seven miles. I think that may be the quickest that I have ever run 7 miles. Mind you, I don't run 7 miles fast very often with a 10k only being 6.2 miles.

Happy with the 6:30 pace. Maybe there is a slight chance I can actually run my half marathon in 12 days at 6:38 pace and get my sub 1:27 result. I am sure hoping it is the case since I chose a bib number of SUB87 and I will look pretty stupid coming in at 1:31 with that on.

I'm in for the 5k this Sunday. I'm thinking of trying to run at 6:06 pace, which on an accurate 5k would bring me in at 18:59. Now I'm sure the course won't be precise and I'm sure I won't be able to hold 6:06 for 3+ miles but I am hoping to get somewhere round about 19. My best ever for a 5k was a solo time trial on the track (accurate distance, but no-one to run with) at 19:38, so I should be able to better that at the very least.