OBJECTIVE
original - 10 mi. b/w 8:08-38/mi. w/last 2 mi.@7:38
revised - 10 mi. race 1:11 - 12 (7:08-12/mi.)
ACHIEVED
10.07 mi.@ 6:59/mi. (official time = 1:10:14)
overall = 59; age group = 6
Stephanie sent out an email that the group was running 22 miles this morning in preparation for the Sunmart 50K in a few weeks. That was much farther than the 10 miles I had scheduled and the course didn't seem to lend itself to good bailout options. However, Shellie and Michele each responded to Steph's email saying they were going to run the 10 for Texas in The Woodlands. BINGO! That's what I'm going to try doing, I thought.
I picked up Aaron and we made our way to The Woodlands and registered. It was a windy, cold morning. I had looked up the equivalent 10-mile race time for a 3:20 marathon. Mcmillanrunning.com had it at 1:11:24 and attackpoint.org had 1:12:01. I decided to see if I could hold the necessary pace of 7:08 - 7:12 per mile necessary to hit these times. I was unsure of myself given that I had not planned on running this race until about 20 hours before the starting gun. I figured I'd go out at that pace and if I faded that would be fine ... at least it could serve as a gauge. I surprised myself and ended up with the following splits:
7:14 started with the 7 min. group; surprising how light the traffic was
7:13 staying focused on running first couple miles slower than overall goal
7:14 still holding back; head wind is gusting
7:12 feeling pretty good; good turnover and running easy
7:07 got a little overzealous upon seeing the turn in the distance
6:58 picked up too early but feeling good and started "racing" rather than clock-watching
6:53 picking off "victims" one by one and liking it; worried about pushing too early
7:00 feeling the early push; pulled back a bit to catch breath for final 2-mile push
6:39 realize that no one has passed me since about Mile 2; not feeling as strong as I would like but can tell I'm stronger than those I'm passing; this is fun!
6:20 this mile flew by; pushing hard I was surprised how fast the finish came up; had a very strong 0.4 mi. kick
0:21 (0.07 mi. on Garmin)
This was a strong effort. I pushed hard and didn't let myself get lazy or coast. I focused on racing and running tactically over the second half of the race. This helped occupy my mind and focus my objectives. I'm very happy with my time. It suggests that a 3:20 marathon is well within reach from a vdot (performance-based VO2Max index for runners) standpoint. I just need to keep building endurance by putting in the miles and 3:20 is mine!
The race was really well done. The refreshments, band, and finish area were all very good. I'd like to do this one again.
While walking around I saw and chatted with Shellie for a bit. I have to say she's one of the nicest people I know. Later, while walking to the car, I saw Michele. It was good to talk with her. It sounded like each of them had good races.
Aaron came in around 1:15. This is a great time for his inconsistent training. He's using this race as a baseline for his training for the Austin marathon in February.
PRE RUN
FRS
Earlier, water & oatmeal w/brown sugar & 1% milk
POST RUN
water & smoothie
Later, bagel w/peanut butter; breakfast burrito; Powerade; & turkey sandwich
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
OBJECTIVE
6 mi. easy (8:08-38/mi.)
ACHIEVED
6.14 mi.@ 8:10/mi.
5:27 AM 61° 100% 1 mph mist
Ran with Aaron again this morning. We covered the 6 miles at the bottom end of my target range. My legs are a bit sore - most likely from the quickened pace over the past couple of days.
Steph's crew is going 22 miles tomorrow. They're getting ready for Sunmart 50K. That's more than I need at this point. I'm scheduled for 10 miles and there's a 10-mile race that was rescheduled from the time Hurricane Ike hit. I think I'll try that and see how it goes. I'd like to hold a 7:08 pace for something in the neighborhood of an 1:11:00 but I'm not sure I'm up to that. I cold front is supposed to be moving in so the morning could bring cold temperatures. Assuming I'm able to register, I'll just run it how I feel.
PRE RUN
weight = 160#
chocolate milk
POST RUN
water, multivitamin, & oatmeal w/almonds, flax, brown sugar & 1% milk
6 mi. easy (8:08-38/mi.)
ACHIEVED
6.14 mi.@ 8:10/mi.
5:27 AM 61° 100% 1 mph mist
Ran with Aaron again this morning. We covered the 6 miles at the bottom end of my target range. My legs are a bit sore - most likely from the quickened pace over the past couple of days.
Steph's crew is going 22 miles tomorrow. They're getting ready for Sunmart 50K. That's more than I need at this point. I'm scheduled for 10 miles and there's a 10-mile race that was rescheduled from the time Hurricane Ike hit. I think I'll try that and see how it goes. I'd like to hold a 7:08 pace for something in the neighborhood of an 1:11:00 but I'm not sure I'm up to that. I cold front is supposed to be moving in so the morning could bring cold temperatures. Assuming I'm able to register, I'll just run it how I feel.
PRE RUN
weight = 160#
chocolate milk
POST RUN
water, multivitamin, & oatmeal w/almonds, flax, brown sugar & 1% milk
Thursday, November 13, 2008
An Early Morning Training Partner
OBJECTIVE
4 mi. easy (> 8:38/ mi.)
4 mi. easy (> 8:38/ mi.)
ACHIEVED
4.03 mi.@ 7:57/mi.
5:25 AM 61F 100% 1 mph mist
So the obvious question is why did I run so fast today. Well, there's a good answer ... it's the natural benefit that comes from running with others. My Saturday runs with the group are always faster than when I'm on my own. There are many reasons the Kenyans are such prolific distance runners ... I believe one is that they rarely run alone.
Susan Cline of ChampionsFit dropped me a note earlier in the week that she met a guy who she thought was about my pace. He's new to the area and has Utah connections. I dropped Aaron a note and heard back from him last night. He's actually living with a sister (?) about .7 mile from my house. We met at Randall's at 5:30 and I took him on the Stuebner -Airline Loop. We were obviously faster than I planned but the pace felt fine as we were talking the whole time. He's younger and faster than I am. He's looking to qualify for Boston (3:10 for him) at the Austin marathon in February.
We're planning to run together again tomorrow. Six miles over the Wimbledon Forest Loop.
Later today I plan to put up a video link of a University of Washington women's cross country team workout. They just swept their conference (PAC-10) meet taking the top 5 places. This is an amazing feat for a big conference school. They're led by a freshman phenom.
PRE RUN
weight = 158.5#
chocolate milk
POST RUN
SlimFast, water, multivitamin & 5-grain hot cereal w/almonds, flax, cinnamon, brown sugar & 1% milk
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Pushing through Another Big Workout
OBJECTIVE
8 mi. including warm-up; 7 x 2 min.@ 6:26/mi. & 2 min. jogging recovery; cool down
ACHIEVED
8.37 mi.@ 8:05/mile including
2.42 mi.@ 8:39/mile
6:43/
6:16/
6:18/
6:20/
6:10/
6:09/
6:04/
2.33 mi.@ 8:02/mile
5:51 AM 63° 100% 3 mph
So the ominous, midweek run started out as usual ... with me dreading it! It rained hard overnight so everything was wet but it didn't rain on me at all during the run. I started from the Y and shortly after getting underway, I realized that I had started my Garmin as a regular workout rather than an interval workout. Fortunately, I caught this early and once I reached the end of the first mile, I stopped, saved the first mile, and started a new interval workout. When I uploaded the runs later at the house, I just combined them and it came out just fine on the motionbased.com website.
After coming up a bit short on the pace over the first 2.42 miles (8:39 vs. 8:38 per mile), I started down the gully path on the first of 7 intervals. For some reason, I had a difficult time shifting gears and getting up to speed. The first interval came in at 6:43/mile while the target was 6:26/mile. Maybe I was distracted by how much water was flowing down the gully this morning after the rainstorm. It was practically a raging river. It's usually a modest stream. The rest of the intervals came in well under the prescribed 6:26 pace. The fourth one was the slowest at 6:20 and that one included the turnaround point so I lost speed and the GPS most-likely calculated me as standing still for longer than it actually took me to turnaround.
After the seventh and fastest interval (6:04 pace), I jogged for 2 minutes then picked it up for the car. I wanted to run the final 2.3 miles around 8:30 pace but was pleasantly surprised to manage an 8:02 pace which felt fairly comfortable.
Upon completion while still walking to the car, I clicked through my interval times as I really don't get the opportunity to see them during the run. The Garmin automatically triggers the intervals and the screen clears before I see what my last interval time was. I was surprised this was a really solid workout. I usually can feel early on if I'm having a good day and a solid effort. This feeling feeds on itself and oftentimes results in a good day of running. Today wasn't like that. It wasn't a grind but it didn't feel like a strong day either. I felt like a was giving a great effort but didn't seem to be yielding any special result. Anyway, I was very happy with today's result.
I don't understand all the physiology behind the midweek Big Workout. But it has something to do with getting miles and speed work all in one workout. The way the speed work is constructed, the body is conditioned to become more efficient at clearing the waste generated by the anaerobic effort. I think today's result suggests that my conditioning is ahead of where I am in my training cycle. Next week will be a good gauge of this theory. The midweek workout will add a mile and two more intervals to the mix. That should give me an idea of where my recovery capability really stands.
Looking forward to an easy one tomorrow!
PRE RUN
water, FRS & oatmeal w/brown sugar & 1% milk
POST RUN
weight = 158#
SlimFast, chocolate milk, water, multivitamin, Honeynut Cheerios w/1% milk
8 mi. including warm-up; 7 x 2 min.@ 6:26/mi. & 2 min. jogging recovery; cool down
ACHIEVED
8.37 mi.@ 8:05/mile including
2.42 mi.@ 8:39/mile
6:43/
6:16/
6:18/
6:20/
6:10/
6:09/
6:04/
2.33 mi.@ 8:02/mile
5:51 AM 63° 100% 3 mph
So the ominous, midweek run started out as usual ... with me dreading it! It rained hard overnight so everything was wet but it didn't rain on me at all during the run. I started from the Y and shortly after getting underway, I realized that I had started my Garmin as a regular workout rather than an interval workout. Fortunately, I caught this early and once I reached the end of the first mile, I stopped, saved the first mile, and started a new interval workout. When I uploaded the runs later at the house, I just combined them and it came out just fine on the motionbased.com website.
After coming up a bit short on the pace over the first 2.42 miles (8:39 vs. 8:38 per mile), I started down the gully path on the first of 7 intervals. For some reason, I had a difficult time shifting gears and getting up to speed. The first interval came in at 6:43/mile while the target was 6:26/mile. Maybe I was distracted by how much water was flowing down the gully this morning after the rainstorm. It was practically a raging river. It's usually a modest stream. The rest of the intervals came in well under the prescribed 6:26 pace. The fourth one was the slowest at 6:20 and that one included the turnaround point so I lost speed and the GPS most-likely calculated me as standing still for longer than it actually took me to turnaround.
After the seventh and fastest interval (6:04 pace), I jogged for 2 minutes then picked it up for the car. I wanted to run the final 2.3 miles around 8:30 pace but was pleasantly surprised to manage an 8:02 pace which felt fairly comfortable.
Upon completion while still walking to the car, I clicked through my interval times as I really don't get the opportunity to see them during the run. The Garmin automatically triggers the intervals and the screen clears before I see what my last interval time was. I was surprised this was a really solid workout. I usually can feel early on if I'm having a good day and a solid effort. This feeling feeds on itself and oftentimes results in a good day of running. Today wasn't like that. It wasn't a grind but it didn't feel like a strong day either. I felt like a was giving a great effort but didn't seem to be yielding any special result. Anyway, I was very happy with today's result.
I don't understand all the physiology behind the midweek Big Workout. But it has something to do with getting miles and speed work all in one workout. The way the speed work is constructed, the body is conditioned to become more efficient at clearing the waste generated by the anaerobic effort. I think today's result suggests that my conditioning is ahead of where I am in my training cycle. Next week will be a good gauge of this theory. The midweek workout will add a mile and two more intervals to the mix. That should give me an idea of where my recovery capability really stands.
Looking forward to an easy one tomorrow!
PRE RUN
water, FRS & oatmeal w/brown sugar & 1% milk
POST RUN
weight = 158#
SlimFast, chocolate milk, water, multivitamin, Honeynut Cheerios w/1% milk
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Equipment Check
While on a recent run, I had the thought to post a picture of my shoes. Of course not much equipment is needed for running but shoes are critical. When I started running in March 2007, I was "professionally fitted" and ended up choosing Mizuno Wave Rider 10's. When I needed a new pair, I ordered online and just picked the same model in a different color. The Wave Rider 10's went "out of style" as a newer model was released. It became harder to find them but when I did the price was right. These shoes have always felt pretty good on me so when I had the chance for another 2 pairs on closeout, I jumped. This is how I ended up with 5 pairs of Mizuno Wave Rider 10's. Somewhere along the line I bought a pair of Asics but after running in them once, returned them.
They say a good pair of running shoes should last 300 - 500 miles. I've also read and heard that the shoes are actually worn out before they look worn out. I have not tracked the mileage on my shoes but generally believe they're all either worn out or close to it. I rotate through them through the week.
A couple Saturday's ago, I picked up a pair of Saucony's on a whim (very unlike me). I've added them to the rotation. They feel different and I'm wondering if they somehow aggravate my calves (probably not ... just looking for a scape goat).
So here are my 6 pair of running shoes.
BACK ROW:
Blue & yellow - first pair
Red - St. George 2007
Red & blue #1 - Ogden 2008
FRONT ROW:
Red & blue #2 - training
Red & blue #3 - St. George 2008
Saucony - short, easy runs only ... for now
Why am I mentioning all of this? I don't know. Paige absolutely HATES all of my shoes dominating space in the laundry room. But we've generally reached an accord (haven't we?).
Over the weekend, I ordered 2 pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 11's. I got a good deal because they're orange. I honestly don't care what color I'm running in as long as it's not pink!
I tried the 11's at a Mizuno exhibit hosted by Fleet Feet during the summer. I had my feet analyzed by computer and they essentially told me I'm in the right shoe and to "keep buying Mizuno's". There's a lot of marketing involved. Which makes me wonder about the 300 - 500 mile per shoe wear-out claims. Is it just marketing to get runners out to buy more shoes? If so, I guess it's working on me.
Looking forward to my new orange Mizuno Wave Rider 11's!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Close Monitoring
OBJECTIVE
4 mi. slow ( > 8:38/mi.)
ACHIEVED
4.01 mi.@ 8:34/mi.
5:29 AM 63° 83% 7 mph
It seems I've got something developing that I need to keep a close eye on. During the St. George marathon my calves got really tight around 19 miles. I thought this was from the wind and rain. Of course, I was expecting my quads to be burning which thankfully didn't happen but the calves were pretty bad. Since then I've had similar tightening with my calves. I've mentioned it a few times in my blog. Again today, the problem flared up. It's never been bad enough to stop me but it's fairly unpleasant. Last year at this time, I was feeling good about completing my first marathon, cranked up my training intensity and injured myself. I'm leery of the same thing happening so I'm going to keep a close handle on what's going on here. I don't want it to get away from me.
Today's run was pretty good. I covered the distance too fast; hopefully that's not a problem tomorrow or Wednesday when I'm trying to go farther and faster.
It was warm this morning and it's supposed to rain later today then off-and-on over most of the week.
*** REMINDER *** I need to blog about my shoes, telegrams, and potential shake up to the overall training schedule (this is a good thing!).
PRE RUN
weight = 158#
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
water, multivitamin & 5-grain hot cereal w/brown sugar & 1% milk
4 mi. slow ( > 8:38/mi.)
ACHIEVED
4.01 mi.@ 8:34/mi.
5:29 AM 63° 83% 7 mph
It seems I've got something developing that I need to keep a close eye on. During the St. George marathon my calves got really tight around 19 miles. I thought this was from the wind and rain. Of course, I was expecting my quads to be burning which thankfully didn't happen but the calves were pretty bad. Since then I've had similar tightening with my calves. I've mentioned it a few times in my blog. Again today, the problem flared up. It's never been bad enough to stop me but it's fairly unpleasant. Last year at this time, I was feeling good about completing my first marathon, cranked up my training intensity and injured myself. I'm leery of the same thing happening so I'm going to keep a close handle on what's going on here. I don't want it to get away from me.
Today's run was pretty good. I covered the distance too fast; hopefully that's not a problem tomorrow or Wednesday when I'm trying to go farther and faster.
It was warm this morning and it's supposed to rain later today then off-and-on over most of the week.
*** REMINDER *** I need to blog about my shoes, telegrams, and potential shake up to the overall training schedule (this is a good thing!).
PRE RUN
weight = 158#
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
water, multivitamin & 5-grain hot cereal w/brown sugar & 1% milk
Sunday, November 9, 2008
November 9 - 15 Training Schedule
Sunday - rest
Monday - 4 mi. slow (>8:38/mi.)
Tuesday - 6 mi. easy (8:08-38/mi.)
Wednesday - 8 mi. w/ 7 x 2 min.@ 6:26/mi & 2 min. jogging recovery
Thursday - 4 mi. slow (>8:38/mi.)
Friday - 6 mi. easy (8:08-38/mi.)
Saturday - 10 mi. w/last 2 mi. marathon pace (7:38/mi.)
I'm following the exact same schedule as last week. I want to compare how I'm feeling week over week. Hopefully I notice better recovery over the 38-mile week than I did last week!
Monday - 4 mi. slow (>8:38/mi.)
Tuesday - 6 mi. easy (8:08-38/mi.)
Wednesday - 8 mi. w/ 7 x 2 min.@ 6:26/mi & 2 min. jogging recovery
Thursday - 4 mi. slow (>8:38/mi.)
Friday - 6 mi. easy (8:08-38/mi.)
Saturday - 10 mi. w/last 2 mi. marathon pace (7:38/mi.)
I'm following the exact same schedule as last week. I want to compare how I'm feeling week over week. Hopefully I notice better recovery over the 38-mile week than I did last week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)