WEEKLY SUMMARY (December 23-29): 50 miles (87.5% E, 8% M, and 4.5% I paces)
Sunday: 13 miles at 7:07/mi. (last four miles in 6:52, 6:46, 6:46, 6:45)
Monday: 5 miles at 7:36/mi.
Tuesday: 8 miles at 7:14/mi.
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 8 miles at 7:19/mi.
Friday: 8 miles at 7:24/mi. in Raleigh
Saturday: 2.75 E, 3 x (1200m I at 6:11/mi. avg. + 800m E), 1.5 E in Atlanta (8 miles total)
This week I managed to cover 50 miles, in spite of taking a day off, and to get in the two non-easy runs that I hoped to do. Sunday's run was an encouraging sign that running a tolerable marathon in 12 (now 11) weeks might not be too ambitious. After 9 miles I was averaging 7:15/mi. before I kicked it down to 3:00 marathon pace or below for the final 4 miles. It wasn't easy but felt smooth running at that faster pace. By halfway through my run on Tuesday afternoon (Christmas day), I felt like I wanted to speed up to marathon pace again but resisted. The next day's weather was gross: cold and raining hard all day. I needed to finish some work before heading off to a conference anyway, so I took the day off. On Thursday I was just able to run easy again before driving to Raleigh, NC, whose extensive trail system I was able to explore a small portion of the following morning. Then I hopped back in the car and drove to Atlanta, where my conference is. Looking at the map of downtown Atlanta, I discovered a park with a half-mile oval path about two miles from my hotel. So I planned to do an interval workout there. The path turned out to be crushed gravel, and it had rained the night before, which left the footing on the path somewhat uneven. When I showed up on Saturday morning it was still raining lightly, windy, and colder than I expected Atlanta to be (high 30's). The result was that again I had an underwhelming interval workout in the south, but at least this time it wasn't a complete failure. It was just slow. I couldn't even get going faster than my current tempo pace for the second interval, but then for some reason on the third one I managed to run 6:00/mi. pace. The conditions can be to blame only for part of this. I'm also just not used to running faster than tempo pace for more than a quarter mile and need to keep working on this. So I'm considering doing another 1200m interval workout next week (maybe with 4 instead of 3 intervals) instead of a 400m repetition workout, since that's the only type of workout that I haven't been able to get at least a handle on since the MCM. Some people talk about speed endurance as something different from endurance, and maybe this is what they mean. Right now I'm very strong running at my easy pace and pretty strong at my marathon pace, but as the pace descends from there my endurance drops off more rapidly than it should. Anyway, I'd also like to do a longer run next week, maybe 16 miles or so, possibly not incorporating any marathon pace this time. I registered for a 5k race on Sunday 1/6, but after that I'll get back to marathon pace, 400m repetitions, and tempos. Once my travels and the holidays wrap up in the next few days, it'll be time for the long, cold, and dark winter to really set in (if it's going to this year, unlike last). But since December wasn't wintry at all (I ran in shorts more often than not in December), that leaves only two potentially wintry months before March. I have some trail shoes that I wear only for running in snow, and I look forward to getting to use them soon.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
WEEKLY SUMMARY (December 16-22): 50 miles (90% E, 8% T, and 2% I paces)
Sunday: 3 E, 1 x (1200m I + 800m E + 500m I), 1.5 E in Florida (6.1 miles total)
Monday: 8.2 miles at 7:25/mi. in Florida
Tuesday: 6.7 miles at 7:22/mi. in Florida
Wednesday: 2 E, 4 x 1 mile T at 6:18/mi. (1 min.), 2 E in Florida (8 miles total)
Thursday: 6 miles at 7:24/mi. back in DC
Friday: 7 miles at 7:23/mi.
Saturday: 8 miles at 7:26/mi.
Finally, a week with no days off and cracking 50 miles. Not everything went to plan this week, though. On Sunday, my first full day in Longboat Key, Florida, I tried and failed to do my first VO2 max interval workout in some time. I attempted to do 3 x 1200m I (800 E) in 4:15-18 for the 1200m, which is low 5:40's pace. But the 96% humidity on Longboat Key left me huffing and puffing after only 400m and I only managed to cover 1200m in 4:27.5, which is 5:56/mi. pace. I started a second interval but aborted after just over 400m. My easy runs over the next couple of days confirmed that the humidity and sun were largely to blame this, especially since I had just come from cool and dry DC. But on Wednesday the weather was mercifully a bit cooler, and perhaps I had acclimated a bit by then. I managed with little difficulty the basic tempo interval workout that I had been doing before the MCM, then hopped on a plane back to DC. The plan had been to run a 5k club race on Saturday, but several converging factors led me to skip it: I didn't really feel like racing, there was a high wind warning and the race course was very exposed, and my son came down with a cold the night before. So I ended up doing three easy runs in a row at the end of the week. Next week I hope at least to do a medium-long run and to attempt an interval workout a second time. Since I've now done a couple of repetition workouts and one tempo, that will put me back on track towards establishing a regular pattern that incorporates all four of those elements. Soon I hope to be doing something like a (medium-)long run, a tempo (or marathon pace) run, and a track (i.e., interval or repetition) workout each week, with shorter races replacing the track workout and longer (up to half-marathon) races replacing the tempo run about every third week. I'll have to be flexible for the next couple of weeks, because of the holidays and another trip (this time a road trip to Atlanta via Raleigh). But the goal is to get in each type of workout so that they begin to build on one another and so that, after New Year's, I can establish a more regular pattern. Right now I'm still hoping to do the full instead of the half marathon in mid-March, which is only 12 weeks away. And I was accepted in the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler three weeks after that. So if I start getting serious now, then I'll have some fun races ahead of me beginning in early Spring. But my attitude right now is the same as it was right after the MCM: I want to train for the long term, not for any specific races. I want to establish a more balanced routine that will enable me to improve at every distance from 5k through the marathon. I'm thinking of running some short race or other the week of January 6-12, depending on weather - possibly the BRATS Frozen 5k on 1/6 where last year I set my current 5k PR, such as it is. Then, between the half-marathon on January 27 and the marathon on March 16, I'll probably run one or two shorter races TBD - possibly including the GW Classic 10k on 2/17. Anyone local who reads this is welcome to sway me towards one race or another, and of course to join me at any of them.
Sunday: 3 E, 1 x (1200m I + 800m E + 500m I), 1.5 E in Florida (6.1 miles total)
Monday: 8.2 miles at 7:25/mi. in Florida
Tuesday: 6.7 miles at 7:22/mi. in Florida
Wednesday: 2 E, 4 x 1 mile T at 6:18/mi. (1 min.), 2 E in Florida (8 miles total)
Thursday: 6 miles at 7:24/mi. back in DC
Friday: 7 miles at 7:23/mi.
Saturday: 8 miles at 7:26/mi.
Finally, a week with no days off and cracking 50 miles. Not everything went to plan this week, though. On Sunday, my first full day in Longboat Key, Florida, I tried and failed to do my first VO2 max interval workout in some time. I attempted to do 3 x 1200m I (800 E) in 4:15-18 for the 1200m, which is low 5:40's pace. But the 96% humidity on Longboat Key left me huffing and puffing after only 400m and I only managed to cover 1200m in 4:27.5, which is 5:56/mi. pace. I started a second interval but aborted after just over 400m. My easy runs over the next couple of days confirmed that the humidity and sun were largely to blame this, especially since I had just come from cool and dry DC. But on Wednesday the weather was mercifully a bit cooler, and perhaps I had acclimated a bit by then. I managed with little difficulty the basic tempo interval workout that I had been doing before the MCM, then hopped on a plane back to DC. The plan had been to run a 5k club race on Saturday, but several converging factors led me to skip it: I didn't really feel like racing, there was a high wind warning and the race course was very exposed, and my son came down with a cold the night before. So I ended up doing three easy runs in a row at the end of the week. Next week I hope at least to do a medium-long run and to attempt an interval workout a second time. Since I've now done a couple of repetition workouts and one tempo, that will put me back on track towards establishing a regular pattern that incorporates all four of those elements. Soon I hope to be doing something like a (medium-)long run, a tempo (or marathon pace) run, and a track (i.e., interval or repetition) workout each week, with shorter races replacing the track workout and longer (up to half-marathon) races replacing the tempo run about every third week. I'll have to be flexible for the next couple of weeks, because of the holidays and another trip (this time a road trip to Atlanta via Raleigh). But the goal is to get in each type of workout so that they begin to build on one another and so that, after New Year's, I can establish a more regular pattern. Right now I'm still hoping to do the full instead of the half marathon in mid-March, which is only 12 weeks away. And I was accepted in the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler three weeks after that. So if I start getting serious now, then I'll have some fun races ahead of me beginning in early Spring. But my attitude right now is the same as it was right after the MCM: I want to train for the long term, not for any specific races. I want to establish a more balanced routine that will enable me to improve at every distance from 5k through the marathon. I'm thinking of running some short race or other the week of January 6-12, depending on weather - possibly the BRATS Frozen 5k on 1/6 where last year I set my current 5k PR, such as it is. Then, between the half-marathon on January 27 and the marathon on March 16, I'll probably run one or two shorter races TBD - possibly including the GW Classic 10k on 2/17. Anyone local who reads this is welcome to sway me towards one race or another, and of course to join me at any of them.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
WEEKLY SUMMARY (December 9-15): 43 miles (85% E, 11.5% 8k, and 3.5% R paces)
Sunday: 2 easy, 8k race in 30:30 (see below), 2 easy (9 miles total)
Monday: 6 miles at 7:28/mi.
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:20/mi.
Wednesday: 2.5 E, 6 x (400m R in 79 + 400m E), 2.5 E (8 miles total)
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:19/mi.
Friday: 6 miles at 7:29/mi.
Saturday: off (traveling)
Another low mileage week, this time because I didn't manage to fit in a run around traveling to Florida on Saturday. But end-of-semester weariness set in at the end of this week anyway, so I didn't mind the day off. I recovered fine from the 8k race last weekend and had another good repetition workout on Wednesday, which again left me feeling better the next day. Running the quarters in 79 seconds, the same time as two weeks ago when I did 4 intervals, was much less difficult than last time and my form was significantly less bad. Whether this workout will pay other dividends besides improving my form a little remains to be seen. I need and intend to start rotating in VO2 max interval and tempo workouts as well, but all this takes time and I need two easy days between such workouts. Now that my semester is over, I hope to get more serious about establishing the balanced training routine that I wrote about after the MCM. I will be traveling for part of this coming week and then again the next week, though. I'll do what I can around that and keep trying, at least, to avoid taking days off and to get a few more miles in each week.
Sunday: 2 easy, 8k race in 30:30 (see below), 2 easy (9 miles total)
Monday: 6 miles at 7:28/mi.
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:20/mi.
Wednesday: 2.5 E, 6 x (400m R in 79 + 400m E), 2.5 E (8 miles total)
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:19/mi.
Friday: 6 miles at 7:29/mi.
Saturday: off (traveling)
Another low mileage week, this time because I didn't manage to fit in a run around traveling to Florida on Saturday. But end-of-semester weariness set in at the end of this week anyway, so I didn't mind the day off. I recovered fine from the 8k race last weekend and had another good repetition workout on Wednesday, which again left me feeling better the next day. Running the quarters in 79 seconds, the same time as two weeks ago when I did 4 intervals, was much less difficult than last time and my form was significantly less bad. Whether this workout will pay other dividends besides improving my form a little remains to be seen. I need and intend to start rotating in VO2 max interval and tempo workouts as well, but all this takes time and I need two easy days between such workouts. Now that my semester is over, I hope to get more serious about establishing the balanced training routine that I wrote about after the MCM. I will be traveling for part of this coming week and then again the next week, though. I'll do what I can around that and keep trying, at least, to avoid taking days off and to get a few more miles in each week.
Monday, December 10, 2012
JINGLE ALL THE WAY 8K (race report):
This race is on the same course in downtown DC as the St. Patrick's Day 8k in March, and I've done both several times. Every time I've run it, my Garmin has measured the course at or just over 5 miles, perhaps because of the wide avenues downtown. The course is mostly flat except for a small hill from the end of the first mile through roughly the first third of the second mile, which you then run back down. The main feature of the course that slows one down are the turn-arounds, of which there are four, including two in close succession at the top of the hill just mentioned. Going into this race, my "8k" PR was 30:51 from the last time I ran the course in March 2012. Since tons of superfast runners show up for this race, I wasn't foolish enough to imagine that I could come anywhere close to winning or even to running with the leaders briefly. My goal was to break 30 minutes, or at least to beat my previous PR. I tried to run the race as if I were doing a 5k and trying to hold a 5:58 average pace, and then I just hoped that after 5k competitiveness and guts would kick in to help me maintain or lower that pace for another two miles. Basically, I stuck to my plan through 5k but slowed down after that. Here are my paces for each mile, next to those for the last time I ran the course (but the times don't add up perfectly because the distances are not exactly the same, depending on how well or poorly I ran the tangents):
12/9/12 3/11/12
mile 1 - 5:58 5:58
mile 2 - 6:05.5 6:11
mile 3 - 5:55 6:09
mile 4 - 6:18 6:17
mile 5 - 6:11 6:16
finish - 30:30 30:51
My pace through 5k was 5:59, just a hair slower than my goal. I can blame the weather both for being slightly under my goal pace at 5k and partly for slowing down after that, because a little before 5k we hit a moderate headwind that we ran into for much of mile 4, which (like mile 5) also included a turn-around. Before hitting that headwind my pace for mile 3 was in the high 5:40's, but even the 5:55 split I ended up with for mile 3 accounts for most of the difference between my finishing time in this race and in the race last March. The wind may have been at my back for part of mile 3, but I think the main difference is that I was able to conserve more energy (and run slightly faster) on the hill and the turn-arounds in mile two, and then discharge that energy in mile 3, simply because I'm in slightly better shape than I was in March. Maybe I could have broken 30 or gotten closer to it with better weather - besides the wind, it had stopped raining shortly before the race and was oddly muggy for December. But such speculation aside, my actual performance shows that I'm slightly stronger in miles 2 and 3 than I was last Spring, but after 3 miles I remain as weak as I was before at this sort of pace. It's a small PR, which means that complaints are not allowed. But it's still disappointing that I haven't made more significant gains in 9 months, even if I was focusing on the marathon for most of that time. With some more balanced training, I should be able to run faster at this and similar distances soon. I'm starting to think that 6:00/mi. pace is just a kind of psychological barrier for me. If winter weather continues to hold off for a while longer, I may test that hypothesis in a 5k or two by starting out with and trying to hold onto a pace that's much faster.
WEEKLY SUMMARY (December 2-8): 47 miles (87% easy and 13% 10k paces)
Sunday: 2 E, 10k race in 40:42 (see report below), .8 E (9 miles total)
Monday: 6 miles at 7:24/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 13 miles at 7:24/mi.
Thursday: 6 miles at 7:20/mi.
Friday: 7 miles at 7:21/mi.
Saturday: 6 miles at 7:34/mi.
Again I took a day off this week, but still I managed to get a little more than minimum mileage in thanks to a mid-week medium-long run. After Sunday's 10k, which I discussed in my previous post, I recovered well on Monday but had an unrelated stomach problem that prevented me from running on Tuesday. I still felt puny on Wednesday but could manage 13 miles at easy pace well enough. The rest of the week involved ordinary easy runs, with Saturday's extra easy because of another race the following day. So, running-wise, this was a pretty uneventful week between races. I'm quite busy with work right now but am eager, when possible, to quit slacking with running and get back into some more serious training. Next week I hope, once more, to avoid taking any days off, to get back over 50 miles for the week, and to do two quality workouts in addition to the 8k race on Sunday.
Sunday: 2 E, 10k race in 40:42 (see report below), .8 E (9 miles total)
Monday: 6 miles at 7:24/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 13 miles at 7:24/mi.
Thursday: 6 miles at 7:20/mi.
Friday: 7 miles at 7:21/mi.
Saturday: 6 miles at 7:34/mi.
Again I took a day off this week, but still I managed to get a little more than minimum mileage in thanks to a mid-week medium-long run. After Sunday's 10k, which I discussed in my previous post, I recovered well on Monday but had an unrelated stomach problem that prevented me from running on Tuesday. I still felt puny on Wednesday but could manage 13 miles at easy pace well enough. The rest of the week involved ordinary easy runs, with Saturday's extra easy because of another race the following day. So, running-wise, this was a pretty uneventful week between races. I'm quite busy with work right now but am eager, when possible, to quit slacking with running and get back into some more serious training. Next week I hope, once more, to avoid taking any days off, to get back over 50 miles for the week, and to do two quality workouts in addition to the 8k race on Sunday.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
DC ROAD RUNNERS CLUB BREAD RUN 10K (race report):
This race marks the beginning of a new attitude toward racing for me. My goal now is to win, rather than just to run some particular time. If I can't win, then my back-up goal is to place as highly as possible. The idea is to use competition to spur me on to running faster and to dictate my pacing strategy (along with how I feel, of course) instead of some pre-race plan. Deploying this attitude is difficult at big races in the Washington, DC area, because they draw elite and semi-professional runners with whom I can't possibly compete, although I find running behind them motivating in a different way (when I can see them). But I can let competitiveness drive me at big races in relation to the runners I find around me at a given point. It's easier to deploy this attitude at smaller races, though, which I do have some realistic hope of winning. My plan at this DCRRC race was to stay at the front as long as possible, unless the leaders were obviously much faster than me, in which case I'd let them go and stay with the fastest runners I could possibly imagine keeping up with. Again, the idea is to push myself through competition, and I realize that going out fast and trying to hang on for your life isn't the best pacing strategy for a fast time, because you're likely to drop off and slow way down. But it's a great strategy for testing your limits and trying to push through them.
I started this race knowing nothing about the course except that about half of it was on the C&O Canal towpath, which is a dirt and gravel trail that's mostly flat and straight. The rest of the course was on an asphalt path and, briefly, roads. Immediately before the race, the starter said something about steep hills, mud, and low tree branches, but it was difficult to tell whether this was truth or bravado. I led the race from the start as the course went up a short hill, turned 180 degrees, and then followed an asphalt bike path for a couple miles. One runner was just off my left shoulder and occasionally I could hear at least one other runner behind him, but I never looked back and had no idea how many others were nearby. My first mile split was 6:13 and I felt comfortable. But I must have slowed a bit after that, because the runner on my shoulder decided to pass me and set the pace after 1.5 miles. At that point I realized that I was in a pack of six runners that was stretched out a bit because of the narrow bike path. Our split for mile 2 was 6:17, and I was still doing fine. Then the course turned off the bike path and onto residential streets that sloped gradually downhill. Another runner moved to the front and pushed the pace down to around 6:00, which felt good to me although I knew that I couldn't do it for very long. Soon, though, we were directed to turn off the street and onto a narrow, dirt path that zigzagged down a steep hill. At the bottom of the hill, we crossed a bridge and careened down a tightly curled spiral walkway that zipped us around 2-3 times before throwing us out onto the towpath. By this point I was getting disoriented. I pretty much always run on asphalt or concrete and haven't been running many hills lately. That steep downhill trail, then the weird spiral thing, and now the loose footing on the towpath left me struggling to stay with the lead pack. Just before halfway I started falling back and never regained contact. Another runner, the one who first passed me, also fell back shortly after I did and stayed about 20 feet ahead of me as the pack maintained its pace and receded down the trail ahead of us. The two of us slowed down at roughly the same rate: my split for mile 4 was 6:32, and mile 5 was 6:43. I had lost my drive once winning was no longer a possibility, but what I should have done was pushed until I caught the guy in front of me. Then we could have had a mini-race of our own to the finish. Instead, I just kind of hung on as the course crossed back over the canal after 5 miles and started up a dirt trail as steep as the one we had flown down before. It was so steep that wooden steps had been built into it so that people don't just slide down the dirt. About halfway up the hill, I figured that I wasn't running much faster than I could walk, so I power-walked up the steps for a little while. This enabled the next runner back to make up some ground on me. I waited until he was about 10 feet away before starting to run again, figuring that I could hold him off once the course leveled out. At the top of the hill, we found ourselves on the bike path again, and the guy ahead of me looked to be doing at least as badly as I was. So I set my sights on passing him and holding off the guy who was closing in on me from behind. But in the end I achieved neither. The guy behind me really got moving on the level path and passed me just before the 6 mile mark. Soon he caught the guy ahead of me too, which galvanized him to speed up and try to hold onto his place (which he also failed to do). No doubt I could have dug deeper and put in more of a fight at the end, but honestly I quit fighting when I lost touch with the lead pack miles earlier, and that steep climb near the end was not the sort of thing I'm used to encountering in a 10k. I coasted across the finish line in seventh place in 40:42 - a time that reflects the nature of the course. It was at least as much a trail run as a road race.
So this was a learning experience. Next time, especially if I don't know the course, I'll try running with the lead group without setting the pace from the start. Even if I had done that today, it wouldn't have helped me deal with that steep off-road downhill and spiral thing that forced me out of my rhythm, which I couldn't get back again on the towpath, in part because of the loose footing. I don't deal well with pace or course changes that break my rhythm, or with trails for that matter. But still, in hindsight I think I could have just suffered for a little while longer in order to stay with the pack and see whether I could find a new rhythm on the towpath at that pace instead of slowing down.
This race marks the beginning of a new attitude toward racing for me. My goal now is to win, rather than just to run some particular time. If I can't win, then my back-up goal is to place as highly as possible. The idea is to use competition to spur me on to running faster and to dictate my pacing strategy (along with how I feel, of course) instead of some pre-race plan. Deploying this attitude is difficult at big races in the Washington, DC area, because they draw elite and semi-professional runners with whom I can't possibly compete, although I find running behind them motivating in a different way (when I can see them). But I can let competitiveness drive me at big races in relation to the runners I find around me at a given point. It's easier to deploy this attitude at smaller races, though, which I do have some realistic hope of winning. My plan at this DCRRC race was to stay at the front as long as possible, unless the leaders were obviously much faster than me, in which case I'd let them go and stay with the fastest runners I could possibly imagine keeping up with. Again, the idea is to push myself through competition, and I realize that going out fast and trying to hang on for your life isn't the best pacing strategy for a fast time, because you're likely to drop off and slow way down. But it's a great strategy for testing your limits and trying to push through them.
I started this race knowing nothing about the course except that about half of it was on the C&O Canal towpath, which is a dirt and gravel trail that's mostly flat and straight. The rest of the course was on an asphalt path and, briefly, roads. Immediately before the race, the starter said something about steep hills, mud, and low tree branches, but it was difficult to tell whether this was truth or bravado. I led the race from the start as the course went up a short hill, turned 180 degrees, and then followed an asphalt bike path for a couple miles. One runner was just off my left shoulder and occasionally I could hear at least one other runner behind him, but I never looked back and had no idea how many others were nearby. My first mile split was 6:13 and I felt comfortable. But I must have slowed a bit after that, because the runner on my shoulder decided to pass me and set the pace after 1.5 miles. At that point I realized that I was in a pack of six runners that was stretched out a bit because of the narrow bike path. Our split for mile 2 was 6:17, and I was still doing fine. Then the course turned off the bike path and onto residential streets that sloped gradually downhill. Another runner moved to the front and pushed the pace down to around 6:00, which felt good to me although I knew that I couldn't do it for very long. Soon, though, we were directed to turn off the street and onto a narrow, dirt path that zigzagged down a steep hill. At the bottom of the hill, we crossed a bridge and careened down a tightly curled spiral walkway that zipped us around 2-3 times before throwing us out onto the towpath. By this point I was getting disoriented. I pretty much always run on asphalt or concrete and haven't been running many hills lately. That steep downhill trail, then the weird spiral thing, and now the loose footing on the towpath left me struggling to stay with the lead pack. Just before halfway I started falling back and never regained contact. Another runner, the one who first passed me, also fell back shortly after I did and stayed about 20 feet ahead of me as the pack maintained its pace and receded down the trail ahead of us. The two of us slowed down at roughly the same rate: my split for mile 4 was 6:32, and mile 5 was 6:43. I had lost my drive once winning was no longer a possibility, but what I should have done was pushed until I caught the guy in front of me. Then we could have had a mini-race of our own to the finish. Instead, I just kind of hung on as the course crossed back over the canal after 5 miles and started up a dirt trail as steep as the one we had flown down before. It was so steep that wooden steps had been built into it so that people don't just slide down the dirt. About halfway up the hill, I figured that I wasn't running much faster than I could walk, so I power-walked up the steps for a little while. This enabled the next runner back to make up some ground on me. I waited until he was about 10 feet away before starting to run again, figuring that I could hold him off once the course leveled out. At the top of the hill, we found ourselves on the bike path again, and the guy ahead of me looked to be doing at least as badly as I was. So I set my sights on passing him and holding off the guy who was closing in on me from behind. But in the end I achieved neither. The guy behind me really got moving on the level path and passed me just before the 6 mile mark. Soon he caught the guy ahead of me too, which galvanized him to speed up and try to hold onto his place (which he also failed to do). No doubt I could have dug deeper and put in more of a fight at the end, but honestly I quit fighting when I lost touch with the lead pack miles earlier, and that steep climb near the end was not the sort of thing I'm used to encountering in a 10k. I coasted across the finish line in seventh place in 40:42 - a time that reflects the nature of the course. It was at least as much a trail run as a road race.
So this was a learning experience. Next time, especially if I don't know the course, I'll try running with the lead group without setting the pace from the start. Even if I had done that today, it wouldn't have helped me deal with that steep off-road downhill and spiral thing that forced me out of my rhythm, which I couldn't get back again on the towpath, in part because of the loose footing. I don't deal well with pace or course changes that break my rhythm, or with trails for that matter. But still, in hindsight I think I could have just suffered for a little while longer in order to stay with the pack and see whether I could find a new rhythm on the towpath at that pace instead of slowing down.
WEEKLY SUMMARY (Nov. 25 - Dec. 1): 40 miles (97.5% E and 2.5% R paces)
Sunday: 7 miles at 7:26/mi.
Monday: 2.5 E, 4 x (400R at 79 + 400E), 2.5 E (7 miles total)
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:22/mi.
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:21/mi.
Thursday: off
Friday: 8 miles at 7:16/mi.
Saturday: 4 miles at 7:33/mi.
Life prevented me from achieving my main goal for this week of not taking any days off. On Thursday, there was nothing wrong with me physically, but I just couldn't fit in a run and unfortunately had a tempo run planned for that day. With a race the following Sunday, and remembering the hole I recently dug myself into by doing workouts too frequently, I decided to skip the tempo run altogether instead of doing it on Friday. Then I did only a short and slower run on Saturday, because I couldn't manage to run until afternoon and had a race the next morning. So for the second week in a row I've now run what I consider the bare minimum weekly mileage (barring injury or, perhaps, marathon recovery). On the positive side, I think I'm getting a lot more out of the miles I do run lately in comparison with before the MCM when I was running as much as twice this volume. My easy runs feel great in this new, faster pace range, and with two days of them in a row I seem able to recover well enough between workouts - at least while my mileage remains low. Monday's repetition workout also felt good. Well, it felt hard and my form was abysmal. But it felt very productive and left me feeling better rather than worn out the next day. A 79 second 400m is 5:18-19/mi. pace, and I took full recoveries (i.e., stood around and stretched for a minute or so) instead of going straight from the recovery lap to the next interval. My bad running form would benefit significantly from doing this workout more often (building up gradually to doing more repetitions). Next week, my main goal is again to avoid taking any days off and to get in around 50 miles. Exactly what runs I do on which days depends on how I recover from Sunday's race, and I'll be careful not to try fitting in too much because I also have a race the following Sunday. One possibility that I'm leaning toward is to do a medium-long run on Wednesday and to do regular easy runs on all the remaining days. Another possibility is to try to fit in another repetition workout mid-week instead, but that may be too much faster running right now with a race on two weekends in a row. We'll see.
Sunday: 7 miles at 7:26/mi.
Monday: 2.5 E, 4 x (400R at 79 + 400E), 2.5 E (7 miles total)
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:22/mi.
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:21/mi.
Thursday: off
Friday: 8 miles at 7:16/mi.
Saturday: 4 miles at 7:33/mi.
Life prevented me from achieving my main goal for this week of not taking any days off. On Thursday, there was nothing wrong with me physically, but I just couldn't fit in a run and unfortunately had a tempo run planned for that day. With a race the following Sunday, and remembering the hole I recently dug myself into by doing workouts too frequently, I decided to skip the tempo run altogether instead of doing it on Friday. Then I did only a short and slower run on Saturday, because I couldn't manage to run until afternoon and had a race the next morning. So for the second week in a row I've now run what I consider the bare minimum weekly mileage (barring injury or, perhaps, marathon recovery). On the positive side, I think I'm getting a lot more out of the miles I do run lately in comparison with before the MCM when I was running as much as twice this volume. My easy runs feel great in this new, faster pace range, and with two days of them in a row I seem able to recover well enough between workouts - at least while my mileage remains low. Monday's repetition workout also felt good. Well, it felt hard and my form was abysmal. But it felt very productive and left me feeling better rather than worn out the next day. A 79 second 400m is 5:18-19/mi. pace, and I took full recoveries (i.e., stood around and stretched for a minute or so) instead of going straight from the recovery lap to the next interval. My bad running form would benefit significantly from doing this workout more often (building up gradually to doing more repetitions). Next week, my main goal is again to avoid taking any days off and to get in around 50 miles. Exactly what runs I do on which days depends on how I recover from Sunday's race, and I'll be careful not to try fitting in too much because I also have a race the following Sunday. One possibility that I'm leaning toward is to do a medium-long run on Wednesday and to do regular easy runs on all the remaining days. Another possibility is to try to fit in another repetition workout mid-week instead, but that may be too much faster running right now with a race on two weekends in a row. We'll see.
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