Checking in for Baltimore 5k

Well it’s been a long time…that doesn’t mean I stopped running…just stopped writing about it.  What’s new really???...well I’ve been touring weddings nonstop, running, and working a lot, but I wanted to check in before the Baltimore Running Festival.

  As mentioned above I have been running…but not necessarily training to run the 5K.  The fastest run I’ve had recently was 2 miles at a combined 7:15 pace…I actually felt really good last week.  I usually like to do something on Friday before a long run on Saturday…no idea why, but it just works for me.  The only real change in running routine is phasing into the Brooks Pureflow…I’m currently undecided.  However, in the past 3 weeks I’ve been running in them I have tripped twice…and when I say tripped I mean total wipeout falling elbow and hands first on the streets of Baltimore…if that sounded like it hurt I accurately described it.  The first time I chalked it up as running downhill…maybe going a little fast and catching one of the millions of uneven sidewalks…today…I have no idea what happened, but my left hand took some damage and my right elbow did as well.  This of course happened exactly about 2 miles in…so the quickest way home was a 1.5 mile run straight-line home…awesome.  I’m guessing the tripping is due to staying somewhat lower to the ground or maybe not heeling striking when I’m in a rhythm? 

  But that’s about it….one more run on Wednesday before the Baltimore 5K. 

Goals:

Only one goal this time….

Goal:  21:32 … this means a PR…there is a chance.  The weather forecast is almost perfect for this.  If I can hit 2 – 7 minute miles I’m convinced I can turn it on for mile 3 with this course being almost all downhill for the last mile.  My last 5K was almost a minute slower..but it was hot!  The one before that I ran 21:56 (the same course roughly but in reverse downhill first then uphill).  So here’s hoping!

Rock and Roll Providence Recap - 8/19/12

Well I officially took zero pictures.  About an hour before the race I decided to scrap the idea of taking a cell phone in my armband.  I used that slot in the arm band for two gu instead because I forgot to bring my fuel belt.  Anyways, to the start of the race!  It was pretty comfortable weather wise (pretty lucky for an August race)  I was assigned corral 1…which was a bit of a surprise, but as I got up to that corral it looked super crowded..so I started at the front of corral 2. The gun went off and elites started their run, then corral 1, and corral 2 was off I believe less than a minute after the official time started.

Mile 1:  Mile 1 I was having a hard time getting into a rhythm.  It didn’t help that I really had to resist the temptation of speeding off at the start with everyone else.  I think the whole corral must have passed meJ  I also believe that part of corral 3 may have passed me!  At some point the 1:45 pace group guy passed me. My goal was to run an 8 minute mile in mile 1, so this was all distracting until I passed the mile 1 marker at 7:47…I still felt great, but I’m assuming a lot of these people that went out of the gate crazy paid for it later.  Mile 1 was downhill though, so who knows. 

Mile 2-3:  While mile 1 was mostly downhill…mile 2 was up hill.  Mile 3 I believe also had a slight gain.  I started hearing some fairly heavy breathing for some people around me, but continued on a steady course mile (and took my first gu at mile 3) 2 : 8:01 and mile 3: 7:58

5K Split:  24:51             

Mile 4-Mile 5:  I knew based on the elevation map that there were some hills and that if I could get out of this feeling good I was a capable of turning it on for the final 8 miles.  Mile 4 went as expected, but I had a slight panic at mile 5 with the 8:13 split    Mile 4:  7:50 mile 5:  8:13.

Mile 6:  I got back on track with a 7:58 and also started passing some people.  Very flat portion of the course (my garmin started a 10 ft. loss in elevation and no gains).

10K Split:  49:51

Mile 7-8:  Started feeling strong…and really started passing people (took another gu) and .  Mile 7 -7:53 and mile 8 7:48

Mile 9:  Is when I probably started getting “angry”…it’s not real anger just more of the fact I take it personally that anyone is in front of me.  This happens every now and then, but I’ve had a hard time maintaining that throughout a race.  So I just went with it.  7:40.

Mile 10:  Mile 10 I cranked it up (as much as you can after 9 miles of running).  It was mainly due to checking my pace band and realizing I was way behind my goals for this race.  My thought process was “worst case scenario you can say you went for a PR and it didn’t happen” and I really didn’t want to have any regrets feeling like I had a little bit left in the tank after I finished.  Mile 10 7:28

Mile 10 Split:  1:19:13

Mile 11:  I knew I still had a lot of work to do and it would probably take 7:30s to have a chance for a PR.  The chances of getting under 1:42 were pretty low and anything lower than that near impossible.  When mile 11 buzzed on my garmin I didn’t look (yes I know who does that!).  I didn’t want it to be a distraction.  Now that I look back it was 7:35.  My mantra was “you can do anything for 15 minutes” at this point.  Meaning I knew I had about 15 minutes to the finish line it was going to hurt, but I wanted it.

Mile 12:  7:28, when I hit mile 12 there was no more trying to fake smile for the Rock and Roll cameramen.  There was a long straight away and I think I may have closed my eyes a couple of times to just gut through this one.  I had checked my cumulative time at mile 12 and knew the PR was in striking distance.  It was also good because I kept passing people, which kept up the motivation. 

Mile 13:  Ouch !  7:25.  I wasn’t looking at the garmin I was just trying to keep going, but it hurt.  I knew I was keeping the speed up, but had no idea how long I could hold on.  As I rounded the turn I forgot the finish was uphill.  Now in hind sight I would have completely laughed if I was spectator at my next couple of moments.  I round the turn and see the uphill climb and actually literally said the f-word…probably fairly loud too (sorry spectators with kids), but I could also see the finish line.  I actually had enough to make a sprint to the finish ran that last portion at a 5:57 pace. 

Overall time 1:42:32

Conclusion:  Set a new PR by 20 seconds and probably ran my best technical race.  I was probably in better shape for DC, but by conserving energy early I had enough to make a push when needed( quick table of the splits from DC vs. Providence). 

	Providence	DC
5 Km	24:51	23:48
10 Km	49:51	48:05
10 Mi	1:19:13	1:18:13
Finish	1:42:32	1:42:52

339 out of 3574

51 out of 229

262 out of 1382

Final Tune Up - Providence

It's been awhile since I last hopped on here.  A combination of my laptop DC jack not working (aka my computer can't get any power) and lots of work!

I had my final tuneup on Saturday for the Providence Half Marathon.  8 miles at a 7:44pace. I felt great and really have had a handful of workouts during this training that made me feel ready. 

I've already decided this is my last half marathon of 2012 and here are the targets:

1:42:51 - One second faster than my DC Half Marathon...I would like to think that I got faster in 2012, but I've been slowly getting slower.  I'm confident I have this in my sights and it will be about not going out fast.  I'm targetting running an 8min plus mile in mile 1 and then hopefully doing negative splits (this is actually what I did in my tuneup first mile was 8:18 and then each mile afterwards was lower ending at a 7:30 in mile 8).  Confidence Level :  8.75

1:41:59 - something about getting into another minute lower digit is a goal.  Confidence Level :  8.25

1:39:59 - This target was my reach goal for my first half and I'm going to keep it as my goal for this one.  Confidence Level :  7.00

So next time I'm back on here will be a race report.  Hope everyone's training is going well!

Pikesville 5k 2012

  When you run a race in July in Maryland you know it’s going to be hot and humid.  This race was no exception.  I ran 8 miles in the rain on Saturday (surprisingly refreshing), so I wasn’t hoping to PR or do anything amazing in this race…well mission accomplished as far as trying to beat a best time! 

It's amazing the effect a
little plastic trophy has!

  However, I got my first trophy (the first benefit of being 30 is that I’m now in the 30-39 group!), so 2^nd place age group award and a nice little trophy.  Anyways, here we go:

    This is nice small race in Pikesville that benefits the Greenbaum Cancer Center.  It start at the Woodholme Center and is an out and back course.  And here we go with the recap:

Mile 1:  Mile 1 was amateur hour…not that we all don’t go out too fast, but with a smaller race like this I watched a lot of people that torched me off the line.  It was an uphill climb in the beginning and all I really knew about the course was that it was an out and back, so I would benefit when this would be downhill in Mile 3.  I felt really good and settled into a nice 7:0Xish pace.  After about the first half mile I passed a bunch of people.  First split 7:05.

Mile 2:  I passed on getting water because I felt I had a pretty good rhythm...here is where I thought the course … well … sucked.  Two turnaround points…so I make the turn around a small cone…and then run about 100 ft then a right turn and then another turn around another cone.  I was a little frustrated and then I hit mile 2 marker at 7:11 pace…I was sweating pretty bad, but nobody had passed me since about the first half mile..

Mile 3:  In the beginning of this mile there was a slight gradual incline…it looks to be nothing on my garmin…however it was horrible…maybe it was the heat maybe it was the effects of running 8 miles the day before…either way I was slowwwwwing down.  However, I dug down deep when someone came to pass me.  I knew if I could hold this guy off to about the 2.75 mark I could beat him…..unfortunately my split came in at 7:35 as I was too concerned with just staying right with this guy and not racing my own race. 

Mile 3.1:  So at the mile 3 marker I basically made it a point to beat the guy I was running stride for stride, picked off another guy before the finish, and just didn’t have enough to catch up to one more guy.  My pace for the last .1 was a 5:48/pace (my faster pace actually started at the 2.8 mark, which proves running is just mental at times as I was telling myself I needed to hold off that one guy until 2.75 mark).

The Good:  This race benefits a good cause…it’s probably also one of the few 5Ks in July.

The Bad:  Two turnaround points, the heat, the humidity

The Ugly:   I’m not sure how I can sweat so much for a 5k…my shirt was more drenched than in Baltimore 10 miler.

Overall:  40 of 540

Gender:  34^th out of ?

Age:  3^rd out of ?  (but 2^nd on gun time which got me 2^nd place age group award woo hoo!)

Track Time Wednesday

Well another speed workout success.  Today was 10 x 400m at a 91 second pace (about a 6 minute mile) with 90 seconds rest inbetween (well it said up to 90 seconds....and since I didn't want to be a hero I chose 90 seconds everytime!)

I warmed up at a nice pace for about 12-15 minutes and then hit the track...I knew I would be annoyed today as there were 4 girls that somehow thought doing yoga on the track was a good idea....better yet they thought it was necessary to take up almost an enitre section (have I mentioned how much I hate people at 5:45 in the morning).  Anyways, they were stupid but I still managed to get my workout.  Here are the splits with some of the thoughts after I finished them.

1.)  86.9 seconds (uh oh a little fast)
2.)  85.0 seconds (you really have no idea how to pace yourself do you?)
3.)  86.5 seconds (you are going to regret doing these at this pace probably around the 6th one)
4.)  88.4 seconds (it didn't feel like I slowed down from the previous ones...)
5.)  89.6 seconds (this is a bad trend...I'm getting slower and feel worse and worse!)
6.)  89.3 seconds (only 4 more!!!!)
7.)  91.4 seconds (the last 3 are going to hurt...just get through 8 and 9...10 will be easy)
8.)  91.7 seconds (yep, that hurt and I can't breathe how are these 90 seconds rests going so fast!)
9.)  91.0 seconds (I think I would die if I had to do 11 of these)
10.)  88.6 seconds (FINISHEDDDDD!)

Overall, I was pretty happy with the workout....any workout you finish is a success and I was a little worried after the first 5 that I would really struggle the rest of the way....I mean I did struggle...that pace feels awful right now, but a little pain now will hopefully pay dividends at my next couple of races. 

The 5th of July

Well the 4th of July was a great day!  I can't remember the last time having a random Wednesday off of work, but it did give me time to test out a semi-speed workout.  As mentioned on Tuesday I had a plan for the madness on Wednesday morning.

400m in 103 seconds, 52 seconds rest (6:57/pace)
800m in 03:27, 01:43 rest (6:38/pace)
1200m in 05:10, 02:35 rest (6:44/pace)
1600m in 06:54 (this will hurt!), 03:27 rest (6:51/pace)
1200m in 05:10, 02:35 rest (7:01/pace)
800m in 03:27, 01:43 rest (7:05/pace)
400m in 103 seconds. (6:26/pace)

The blue highlights equal the pace I actually did.  I believe the targets were for a 6:54/mile pace.  Overall a relatively successful workout.  Although the mile was tough I felt the 1200m after the 1600m was the hardest.  The 800m after that my legs felt really heavy.  The last 400m was probably the fastest due to my excitement of going home and resting!

I hope to do this workout again in a month or so to gauge my fitness progress.  Hope everyone had a good 4th!

Tuesday ... another one

Well this morning started as most mornings do...alarm clock...dread....and then forcing myself to get up.  I felt like this cartoon guy. 

The good news about my recent mornings is my left foot feels great!  The bad news is that the top of my right foot now hurts!  Awesome.  I will blame this all on old age.  The pain isn't terrible and I rarely feel it when running, but notice it more afterwards.  No swelling or anything like that either.  It's probalby my first foot secretly wanting all the attention my left foot was getting for the past 6 weeks.

Anyways, with tomorrow off I'm contemplating a new (new and horrible) workout. 

I found what kids call these day a "Pyramid" ... after reading this workout I realized afterwards I would curse Egpytians all Wednesday, but hey tomorrow will be the 4th of July:)

Anyways,

All done at 5km pace (103 seconds per lap), recovery half of effort time.
400m in 103 seconds, 52 seconds rest
800m in 03:27, 01:43 rest
1200m in 05:10, 02:35 rest
1600m in 06:54 (this will hurt!), 03:27 rest
1200m in 05:10, 02:35 rest
800m in 03:27, 01:43 rest
400m in 103 seconds.

Could be a good challenge for tomorrow.  Here is a link to the site that calculates your workouts based on a target time http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/training/pace

Have a happy 4th !