Billy Mills to Speak in Utah Wednesday Night

Unfortunately I won't be in town for this event but I strongly encourage anyone who is in the area to go. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Billy Mills, winner of the 1964 Olympics 10,000m gold medal in a thrilling come-from-behind victory, will be speaking in Utah. He will be at Roy High School at 6:30 pm on May 13. Admission is free.

Pics of Pamela's Race 10K Course

I snapped a few pictures with my phone while leaving Pamela's Race in Orchard, Texas a couple weeks ago.



Starting Line



The first half mile was on this dirt/gravel rode. I was feeling frisky and ran with John Yoder, Will Henderson and a couple other stallions ... for about 2 minutes!



Turing off the dirt road and Cooley property, the race went out this long country road.



Fields to the east ....




Fields to the west ....



The course was a "keyhole" so we went out a little less than a mile then made a big loop. This was a little past Mile 4 along the last leg of the keyhole.



A bit before Mile 5 marker.



Around Mile 5, the runners ran toward the photographer in this picture. I put on a short burst right just past this point. It was too early for a kick but a guy had been stalking me since Mile 2. He slowed for a water stop which I bypassed. The course turned left back toward the dirt road. I decided that as soon as I hit the turn I would go hard for as long as I could. I wanted to gap this guy enough that by the time he made the turn he'd give up any hope of catching me.

Thrashed

OBJECTIVE
6 mi.@ 8:04

ACHIEVED
6.20 mi.@ 8:43

5:27 AM 75° 94% 0 mph

Still feeling yesterday's run. Made sure today's run was easy. Tomorrow's off day comes at a good time.

PRE RUN
weight 161

POST RUN
SlimFast, multivitamin @ oatmeal w/brown sugar & 1% milk

Fear

OBJECTIVE
8 mi. incl. warm up, 4 x 1 mi. @ 6:20 w/800 meter jogging recoveries, & cool down

ACHIEVED
WU 1.90 mi.
6:20/6:22/6:22/6:17
CD 1.39 mi.

5:28 AM 75° 88% 8 mph

This was one of those workouts that loomed ominously on my training schedule. Four one-mile repeats at 6:20. When I walked out the door this morning it was warmer than I had hoped it would be. I eased my way over to the high school track and started hammering away. The wind was tough on one of the straightaways. It seems it was slowing me somewhere from 5 - 10 seconds per mile with the same perceived effort. Anyway, little by little I was able to get it done. When I say little by little, my mental approach was that I simply needed to do 16 laps at 95 seconds each. I then broke that do into 4 laps with a 5-minute jogging break. While actually running, I further broke each mile into 4 laps and each lap into 4 100-meter segments. Focus on each segment and don't worry about what was to come. It wasn't easy and as a result there is satisfaction in the completion.

I pushed hard over the last 2 laps of the last mile so I could hit my 6:20 goal (actually came in at 6:17). This got me thinking as I began the cool down back to the house ....

I'm in a bit of a mental trap right now which is holding me back. Several of my running friends have gently pointed this out to me at different times over the past couple of months. Specifically, Stephanie, Josh, and Jonathan have each said something about "going for it" or "breaking through" etc. I've though about this a bit and it's all still crystallizing for me so I suspect it's part of my learning process and maturation as a runner. I think it's the "fear" that's a problem for me. The fear of blowing up, failing, intense discomfort, pain, .... These are some of the fears which are holding me back right now. Running takes courage. The willingness to press on and push through to achieve. I suppose I'll have more to say about this in the future.

Today's last mile of the repeats was setting up to be a 6:26 or slower. I said, "No, it's not going down this way." Over the last half mile, I pushed and it hurt. I'm physically able to achieve my goals. Am I mentally able?

PRE RUN
weight 162
water

POST RUN
chocolate milk, multivitamin @ Kashi GoLean cereal w/1% milk

Pushing It ... Easy ?

OBJECTIVE
6 mi.@ 8:04

ACHIEVED
6.05 mi.@ 8:01

6:10 AM 73° 94% 6 mph

When is an easy run not so easy? When you push it to make your time .... Hope I'm not regretting it tomorrow!

PRE RUN
weight 161

POST RUN
water, multivitamin & GrapeNuts w/1% milk

The Things We See

OBJECTIVE
7 mi.@ 8:04

ACHIEVED
7.18 mi.@ 8:14

5:02 AM 60F 90% 4 mph

This was a weird run! First off, I started slowly. Nothing weird about that. I just let the first mile come at whatever pace I was feeling. From that point, I did the math to work it so Mile 4 would be 8:04, my objective. Miles 5 - 7 would be negative splits at whatever I needed to get back to 8:04 for the entire run. All of this was lost on me shortly after Mile 2.

I saw a runner coming toward me. I watched him pass from across the median and thought, "that guy is running pretty fast." It's not entirely unusual to see people out running, walking or riding this early in the morning but I generally "know" who the regulars are. This guy wasn't. My route had me turn right. A few blocks later I looked up a street to my right and there was the runner again. This time coming toward me. I continued winding through the neighborhood but heard his footsteps behind me. Slightly short of my Mile 3 marker he passed me. Now I wasn't flying along but generally people don't pass me even when I'm just cruising. He was going pretty fast; an older guy who I haven't seen before.

So while pondering that uncommon occurrence, I worked my way out of the neighborhood and on to Cypresswood. Cypresswood is very dark where I come out of the lighted neighborhood. It takes some time for my eyes to adjust. I crossed the street and made the right turn. As I did, some movement in the darkness caught my eye. Still trying to focus, I continued running but heard muffled noises and finally my brain caught up and connected the dots for me. It was a person. Still running, I turned back to see a girl walking on the sidewalk. She was sobbing. It's probably about 5:25 AM at this point. I stopped running and turned back. I asked her if she was okay. She said that her boyfriend had just dumped her out of his car. She said she only had a 5 minute walk home. She was nervous. I suppose a nearly naked guy popping out of nowhere when you're in a distraught state probably wasn't too comforting. Figuring there wasn't much I could do, I started running again. The police station was about a half a mile away. There's always a lot of activity there in the morning. I think they must have a morning briefing at 6 AM or something. I ran up to a car with an officer in it and told her about what I had just encountered. The young officer eased her cruiser out onto the street and headed back toward the girl.

I'll never know the outcome but the whole scenario was rather odd. Oh and by the way, I managed to get a run in ....

PRE RUN
weight 161

POST RUN
water, multivitamin & oatmeal w/brown sugar & 1% milk

May 3 – 9 Training Schedule

Sun: Rest
Mon: Easy 7 mi.@ 8:04
Tue: Easy 6 mi.@ 8:04
Wed: 8 mi. w/4x1600@6:20 & 800 jogs
Thu: Easy 6 mi.@ 8:04
Fri: Rest (CONSIDER SWAPPING SAT LONG RUN=2 DAYS REST)
Sat: Long 12 mi.@ 8:04 (CONSIDER SWAPPING FRI REST)

That Wasn't Supposed to Happen

OBJECTIVE
11 mi.@ 8:04

ACHIEVED
11.12 mi.@ 8:19

6:09 AM 76° 88% 8 mph

I didn't get my scheduled run yesterday so I run this morning. I thought I'd combine a couple training concepts. My schedule called for an 11-mile run at 8:04 pace. I figured I'd run a 3-mile pickup at the end and figured I'd run it at projected half marathon pace - 6:52. In order to accomplish the pickup, I rolled back the pace of the first 8 miles to something around 8:30. That way, if everything went according to plan, I'd end up with an 11-mile run at an overall 8:04 pace.

The 8 mile "warm up" went okay. I wasn't feeling particularly good or bad. I reeled off mostly negative splits with the last 2 miles being 8:23 and 8:14. I was feeling fine. I stopped to reset my watch before embarking on the 3-mile pickup.

The first mile was somewhat of a struggle as I hit 6:58 and wasn't feeling very strong. I thought I'd find a rhythm in the second mile. That really didn't happen ... to say the least. About 1/4 mile into Mile 2, instead of finding my rhythm I found a brick wall. I stopped! Right before stopping, I was focusing on holding it together. I was just running point-to-point mentally and figured I could gut it out. Then it was over just like that. After catching my breath and realizing no sag wagon was coming along to pick me up, I eased it back in over the remaining 1 3/4 miles.

I really don't have a clue what happened. Sleep has been pretty good lately. Nutrition hasn't been great but okay. There may be a problem combining the pickup with the run like I did but I really don't think it should be an issue to run 8 miles at 8:30 and follow it with 3 at 6:52. Especially given the fact that I'm planning to run 13.2 at 6:52 in 2 weeks. The only thing I'm left with is my overall fitness. Most likely I'm just not where I think I am or where I should be at this point.

PRE RUN
weight 159.5
apple juice & ginger snaps

POST RUN
SlimFast, water, multivitamin @ mini wheats w/1% milk