Not The Way I Planned It

I didn't break 1:30 today. Based on the way I ran I think it was within my abilities but by cutting it too close getting to the starting line I blew any chance.
I ran my easy 2 mile warm up and with 7 minutes before the 8:30 AM start (by my watch) I headed to the 'portos' for a quick pit stop. When I came out of there I jogged along side the pack to get up the the front. This race is on a parkway so I was on the on the other side of the guardrail. When I reached about 200 yards to the front of the pack the horn sounded to start the race. I glanced at my watch and saw 8:28. I couldn't believe that the one time a road race started early for me was this time. I climbed over the rail and squeezed into a section of the pack that was moving at about 20:00 per mile pace.
From here I played Ricochet Rabbit and 'bing-bing-binged' my way through the crowd to find some running room. After a while I reached the starting line and started my watch. For the next half mile I continued to play Barry Sanders until I finally found some room.
At the first mile split I looked down and saw 9:03 and knew my goal of sub 1:30 was already not likely to happen. I said earlier that I felt good for sub 1:30 over 13.1, but I didn't see how I was going to manage 1:20:xx for 12.1.
Still, I tried.
My original plan of 7:00-6:55-6:50-6:45-6:40 was out of the question. Now my first goal was to get the 9:03 average down to the 7:00 range. I went through mile 2 in 15:37 for a split of 6:34. Too fast for my plan, but my average was down to 7:48 and I felt OK. I didn't take splits for the next two miles. Mile 5 came by in 34:38 which brought me down to 6:56 pace. My split for those three miles was 19:00 which means I had run 6:20 pace or faster than I ran the 3 miles in my 5K tempo run/race three weeks ago. Now I knew I was in trouble. Miles 6-7-8 were 6:59, 7:05 and 7:13. I took advantage of a downhill in mile 9 and managed a split of 6:43. At this point my time was 1:02:40 and my average pace was 6:58. I still had an outside chance of breaking 1:31 but my legs were feeling the effort.
(One thing that became obvious today was my lack of training on pavement. The harder surface, while faster than the trails, really pounded my legs. Next year I'll run my intervals on the paved bike path.)
Mile 10 made it clear that the 6:43 was my last gasp at speed today. This split was 7:07. From here I logged 7:30, 7:24 over mild rolling hills in miles 11 and 12 and then a poor imitation of a kick for a final 1.1 in 7:38 (6:56 pace). My final clock/gun time was 1:32:57 and my final watch time was 1:32:19 which means it took 38 seconds just to reach the starting line.

Next up is an easy week with no running until Saturday. The following week I begin the next phase of training where I will run less reps on my interval workouts but at faster paces. I'm aiming at 3 races of 5K/5 Mile/10K respectively in February and March. The first two races are two weeks apart with 4 weeks until the 10K. The interval workouts will have reps geared towards sustaining sub 6:00 mile pace for those distances.

Some time around January I'll see what kind of shape I'm in and decide if I'll forgo the March 10K to instead compete in the National Masters Indoor meet.

Half Off

I meant to run 32 x 440 @ 1:37 this morning, but I stopped at 16 x 440 @ 1:41 (w 40 seconds recovery jog over 110 yards). My legs felt pretty whipped from the combination of the 7 mile HM pace run last Wednesday, the fast tempo on Saturday and the go-out-fast-and-hold-on 14 mile run on Sunday.
For the past 7 weeks I’ve run a track workout on Wednesday morning and each week was a familiar pattern of gradually loosening up in the 2 mile jog to the track, working a little hard in the first mile of reps, and then cruising on autopilot for the remainder at better-then-target pace.
Today I felt fatigued through the 2 mile jog. Fatigued through the first 2 miles (8 reps) of the workout. Fatigued through the second 2 miles and fatigued on the jog home, especially up the big hill. I never hit autopilot today. Instead I needed to push a little bit on every rep to come in around 1:40. When I reached the 16th rep it was clear that in order to finish the planned workout I would have to put in far more effort than I’d needed to run 1:40 pace the previous 7 weeks. This would be too close to race effort - and a bad idea with the race in 11 days – so I live to run another day.
Tomorrow will be a jog to the track, 1.5 miles of diagonals (135 meters) at about 5:20 pace to get the rust out, and a jog back home. Ideally when I run the same next Thursday I will feel light years better then I feel tomorrow. Between those two diagonals workouts I will run 9 miles on Saturday including a trip around the 5.3 mile tempo loop at a pace northwards of 7:30.In a nutshell, my taper from already low mileage will be: 10/2 – 5 miles with fast/5:20 diagonals, 10/4 – 9 miles w 5.3 at 7:30, 10/9 – 5 miles with fast/5:20 diagonals, 10/11 – 3 miles with HM pace diagonals, 10/12 – Race. I would normally run easy distance on Sunday 10/5, but I’m traveling to Seattle for business. I may run 5-6 on a treadmill at the hotel on Monday or Tuesday.

Half Marathon Training - Week #6 of 8

The past weekend marked my final 5.3 tempo effort for the Saturday workout and my final Sunday long run. This weekend was certainly a tester. The prior weekend I ran a 5K on Saturday and then in my long run I purposely started slowly and was able to build to 7:22/mile pace by the end. I felt very strong at the finish and based on my un-scientific estimates the average mile on the trail is 30 seconds slower than the same effort on the track so I was right about at half marathon pace in that 14-miler.

This weekend I ran both the tempo and the long run from the other end of the pacing spectrum. I started fast and tried to hold on. The theory behind this plan was to see if I could hold form physically and mentally when my body was hurting. In the tempo run I aimed for an overall pace of 6:58 or 37:00 for the 5.3 miles. I took the pace out hard and came through the 1.4 mile mark in 10 minutes flat. This was an average pace of 7:08, which is certainly slower than target pace, but the first 1.4 mile segment includes a tough hill that covers a .35 mile at 5.7% grade. I felt strong as I began the 2.5 mile inner loop that includes the Eagle Hill loop which carries a 7.3% grade on the initial quarter-mile incline. After returning to the bottom of the loop I was about 3 miles into the tempo and down to a cumulative pace of 6:55 per mile. A downhill-to-flat section of almost ½ mile follows Eagle Hill and I covered this in 3:02 which means I had run the 2 miles following the 1.4 split in about 6:40 pace. This brought me to the dreaded Pocantico River Trail hill which goes from the Rt 117 underpass to the top of the previously mentioned .35 mile hill (13 Bridges). This is where I’ve stopped many times in tempo runs that began too ambitiously. This hill is only an average grade of 3.2%, but it takes 1500 yards to complete the 300 foot climb to the top. It is simply a persistent hill that has made me pay the price a number of times at around the 500 yard mark when I’ve spent too much en route. Saturday was no different. The effects of what I equate to 6:10 track pace took charge at – you guessed it- the 500 yard mark one third of the way up this incline. The pace to this point was too close to race effort for me to continue. I needed to stop for a quick walking break that turned out to be 1:37. From there I was able to resume the tempo and complete the 5.3 miles. I ran a split of 2:00 on the trip back down the 13 Bridges hill which is only 2 seconds off of my all time best and overall my time was 36:58 when I subtracted the rest stop. I guess this ended up being a cruise interval workout of 3.5 miles, 1:37 recovery, 1.8 miles. I’m still no where near the fitness I had in February when I ran this tempo (non-stop) in 36:16, but I think this hard effort will pay dividends for the half marathon in two weeks.

Yesterday’s run should also qualify as a solid investment. One week ago I started out at 8:45 pace for the first 2 miles before descending to that 7:22 pace in the final 2. I didn’t drop below 8:00 pace until the 5th mile. As mentioned, that run felt strong throughout. Yesterday I was at 8:00 pace through the first 2 and I hit 7:26 pace by the 3 mile mark. I kept the effort constant and predictably my times began to back off as the miles progressed. After the first 3.25 miles this course covers a 2.5 mile loop 3 times. This is the same loop that makes up the center of the 5.3 mile tempo course and includes the Eagle Hill and the first 900 yards of the Pocantico hill. I was well under 8:00 pace for the first loop (19:24 / 7:46 per mi) but lap 2 was in 19:55 and lap 3 was in 20:20 / 8:08 pace. The final 3.25 back to the start took over 27:00 and I was completely wiped out at the finish. This was truly a mental test because I didn’t feel strong/efficient/fast for the final 7 miles. It brought back memories of bonking in last year’s half marathon at mile 5 and struggling to bring it home. My final time was 1:52 and change for an average of 8:03. Quite a bit slower than last week’s 1:51 / 7:55 but still a good workout following the 7 mile half marathon workout on Wednesday and Saturday’s tempo/cruise.

34 miles total for the week in 3 sessions. The upcoming week includes the final track workout which will be 8 miles of volume in the form of 32 x 440 @ 1:37 with 45 seconds recovery on Wednesday morning. From there I have 11 days to run easy and rest up for the race on 10/12.

The 3-days-per-week model has worked out well for me. A hard Wednesday morning interval workout followed by two days rest into a Saturday tempo and Sunday long run followed by another two days rest before the next Wednesday interval session has given my body the ability to run 3 hard sessions per week without breaking down. The fact that I walk 4.5 miles Mon-Fri as part of my commute to/from work means the days off aren't completely rest days as the walks probably serve as some level of recovery effort.

Dress Rehearsal… Boffo!

This morning’s 7-mile half marathon dress rehearsal was the recipient of rave reviews from Timex. I was at or below all target splits and, best of all, when I maintained constant perceived effort through miles 5, 6 and 7 my times continued to drop.

For the record:
Mile 1: Target was 7:00, actual was 6:58.6
Mile 2: Target was 6:55, actual was 6:55.4
Mile 3: Target was 6:50, actual was 6:46.6
Mile 4: Target was 6:45, actual was 6:42.7
Mile 5: Target was 6:40, actual was 6:39.8
Mile 6: Target was 6:40, actual was 6:35.1
Mile 7: Target was 6:40, actual was 6:30.9
Total: Target was 47:30, actual was 47:09

My legs were tight and somewhat out of synch for the first 2 miles (due to only a jog warm up w no strides and it being 5:30 AM). Between miles 2 and 3 I settled into a good rhythm and from mile 4 to the finish I fell into a nice auto-pilot groove that kept the times coming down while not drawing any noticeable increase of effort. If my final two weeks of preparation go well I see no problems (short of 80+ degrees and humid) that will keep me from breaking 1:30. One thing I will need to pay attention to is holding back after mile 5. This morning the splits were too fast after that point for me to sustain for another 6.1 miles.

11 miles total including the big hill back to home.

Finally 14

On my second try I got through the 14 mile run. I set a goal of running it at 8:00 pace but following the 5K yesterday I realistically thought today would be in the 8:15 range and maybe next Sunday I'd run it faster in the final long run before the half marathon.

I started slowly and for the first 6-7 miles my legs felt tight but things changed soon after and my cumulative time began to drop. I was at 8:14 average pace through the 5.75 mile mark and then brought that down to 8:08 through 8.25, 8:03 through 10.75 and finished at a cumulative average of 7:54 for a 14 mile time of 1:50:36.

I'm wiped out now and really appreciate my scheduled Monday and Tuesday rest days coming up. Wednesday will be the half marathon dress rehearsal on the track where I will hopefully run 7 straight miles at 7:00, 6:55, 6:50, 6:45, 6:40, 6:40 and 6:40.

5K Tempo Test

This morning I ran the 5K race that I mentioned in my last post. With my first 14 miler planned for tomorrow I didn't intend to put forth a race effort, but I did want to see what pace my current tempo effort would bring. I hoped that I would be able to run at 6:15 pace. That may be possible on the track but on a course with two decent hills the best I could do was 6:30 pace for a total time of 20:10. Since this was a tempo effort I felt pretty good the whole way and my legs feel like they will be able to cover the 14 this time around.
On the plus side I ran this following a tough interval workout on Wednesday so maybe I would have been a little closer to 6:15s with less tired legs.

8 miles today for 19 week to date.

5 Down, 2 to Go

This morning I survived my 5th Wednesday half marathon pace track workout. With each week I’ve added 1 mile of reps so today’s total was 6 miles in the form of 12 x 880 yards with 220 yard jog recovery. Targets were 3:20 per rep and 1:15 per recovery jog. When I ran 880s three weeks ago I did 6 reps at an average of 3:16.5 with the 220 jogs averaging 1:16.6. Today I was able to improve on both marks with an average rep of 3:16.4 and an average recovery of 1:14.7 while running twice the volume. The 12th rep was in 3:08.8 which just edged out the 6th rep from three weeks ago which was 3:09.9.

This was not an easy workout for me. My quads were tight from the weekend workouts and while they loosened up after my warm up they really started feeling hammered around rep #8. I was surprised that my splits stayed consistently in the 3:16-3:17 range from this point, but certainly encouraged that I’m developing an ‘auto pilot’ at the 6:40 per mile pace. The faux cool down back up the hill to my house was not a pleasant experience to say the least.

11 miles today and for the week to date. I’m going to run a 5K race on Saturday so I may skip the fast diagonals tomorrow to allow my quads to recover and be ‘hitting on all eight’ (he, he, pun) for the race. If I can run 6:15 pace on the tired legs that will result from today’s effort I will be happy.