Austin Half-Marathon

I think I was expecting too much out of this race. Immediately following the race I was a bit dissapointed with my time, but a couple of friends put it into perspective for me.

First, I wasn't tapering for this race. It was a "train-thru" situation. Additionally, I had been doing a lot of work travel in the days and weeks leading into the race and lastly, I was sick for most of the week leading into the race.

That said, I had been hoping to run a 1:14 or 1:15 but apparently I had also forgotten how hilly the course was. I had it in my head that it was a 'fast' course, but word from everyone in Austin was that it was anything but that.

The morning of the race I felt good and we all had IDEAL race conditions! 40-ish degrees, clear, and light winds. I couldn't have asked for better. I felt pretty fresh and was hoping to run a controlled effort (though splits would be all over the place due to the varying terrain) and see what I still needed to work on over the final 4 weeks of training.

Here are my splits:

Livestrong Austin Half-Marathon

5:33, 5:36, 5:54 (17:45 5K)

6:02, 5:51, 5:50 (35:58 10K)

5:32, 5:42, 5:42, 6:04 (57:54 10mi)

6:07, 6:04, 6:29 (1.1mi)

1:16:26 (5:50/mi avg)

Overall, I am pretty happy with the results. The course has a long uphill section from mile 3 to 6. From mile 6 to 9 it's mostly downhill and then at about 9.5 miles on home it's really hilly with a couple really aggressive pitches. For almost the entire race I barely noticed the effort aerobically. The issue was with fatigue in my muscles. Additionally, I did have some GI distress at about 9.5 miles, which was luckily very short-lived. By Mile 10, I was feeling fine again but the muscle fatigue was certainly an issue.

I'm encouraged by my level of fitness and the fact that I did train thru the race but I am nervous for LA none-the-less. The idea of running twice the distance at only 10-15 seconds slower per mile is daunting but I am hoping that my leadup into the race will be much better next time around and I will come in much more relaxed and ready. 4 weeks to go (actually 3 at the time that I write this now..!)! 

Happy Training to anyone reading this! 

Race Week...

As I mentioned in the previous post, things could have been better as I headed into the week of my "test" race. If being on the road for work, sleeping in hotels and eating out all week wasn't bad enough, I also was in the middle of a cold that had just wiped me out.

Monday and Tuesday I felt terrible and had meetings all day long. I got in an easy 6.25mi on the treadmill on Monday but Tuesday I was destroyed. I got done with meetings at 5pm, went up to my room, took some Nyquil and next thing I know it was 4:30am in the morning!! I still wasn't better, actually, I felt worse than ever, but luckily later in the day I would begin to feel the health coming back to me.

That night I headed out for an easy run in Austin and surprisingly made it 7.50 miles pretty easily and felt good.

By Thursday morning I was feeling about 80% back to health and so decided to fit in the track workout that I had hoped to have done back on Monday. I was still in Austin and one of my old training buddies from Riptide, Pete Mallet decided to jump into the workout to help with pacing.

2 x 3-miles @ 5:50 pace w/800m ez jog rest

1. 17:20 (5:47, 5:48, 5:45)

2. 17:22 (5:47, 5:42, 5:53)

Avg: 5:47/mi pace

Surprisingly after being sick, I felt pretty fresh. With the exception of the final hard mile, most of the workout was just running on cruise control and feeling good.

Friday and Saturday were two more easy runs (7.50 & 6.00 miles respectively) leading into race day.

Catching Up

Wow, life has gotten away from a bit here. Somehow 17 days have flown by since the last time that I had a chance to update this and a lot has been happening...

I'll start right after my last post: On the 7th it was time to do another tempo run. Due to conditions, I was on the treadmill again:

Tempo Run: 9-miles @ 6:06/mi pace

6:05, 6:05, 6:06, 6:05, 6:06, 6:05, 6:05, 6:06, 6:06

Avg: 6:05.75/mi pace

Unfortunately, I think that this workout was the final straw for my immune system, and within 3 hours I was beginning to feel pretty sick. By the next morning, a cold/flu was on me. I tried to fight thru it, but had to take things extremely easy, logging only 7, 7 and 9 mile easy runs for each of the remaining days of the week. 

On Sunday night I headed off to Dallas for an entire week of business travel before (hopefully) racing the Austin half-marathon the following Sunday.

Week 12 Track Work

Hit the track tonight for Week 12's Strength workout:

4 x 2 miles @ 5:50/mi pace (goal: 11:40)

w/800m jog recovery

11:22 (5:34, 5:48)

11:37 (5:43, 5:54)

11:34 (5:49, 5:45)

avg 11:41 (5:45.5/mi pace)

After doing an easy 6.25mi run yesterday evening, my legs felt pretty good this morning, so I was excited to see how they'd handle this workout tonight. Obviously, I was (once again) overzealous on the first interval, coming thru the first mile in 5:34! When I saw it, I couldn't believe it because it felt like I was barely moving, but it was an eye-opener and made me be much more aware of pace in the second half. Still overall, ran too fast tonight, but for whatever reason this 5:45 pace is just seeming to stick more than the 5:50's. Hopefully on raceday I'll have the brakes on so much for the first few miles that this won't cause an issue. 

Tomorrow is a long awaited rest day and I am excited for it! Happy Training to all of you out there in the Blog-o-sphere, I'm off to bed!

Close Call!

Rounding out week 11, after the track workout that I wrote about last week, were a couple more hard workouts, which left my legs completely zapped by the end of the week. On Thurs I had my tempo run again, which I had to do on the treadmill due to the weeks snow. 12-miles on a treadmill with 9 at Tempo SUCK by the way. Here's how it went:

9-mile Tempo Run @ 6:06/mi pace

6:06, 6:04, 6:05, 6:06, 6:06, 6:05, 6:06, 6:05, 6:05

avg 6:05/mi pace

While workouts like this are terribly mind-numbing (especially if you do this at a gym like mine where there's no TV and you're just staring out a window blindly into the night), they are nice because the treadmill locks in the pace and you can just (literally) fight to stay on. Either way, it was a long night, followed once again by lots of core-strength exercises. 

Friday, I got quite the shock though. About 3 minutes in to what was to be an easy 7-mile run, I was running through some grass, not paying attention, of course, and managed to step on a rock that I didn't see was there. Rolled my ankle really badly and had to take a 5 minute time-out to assess the situation. All I could think of was "SHHHIIIIITTTT, 10 weeks of training out-the-window!!". Luckily after a few minutes of massaging it and generally checking things out, I felt okay to finish out the run and did so with very little pain. About 3 hours later though, I'd pay for it! My (right) ankle had swollen up to about twice the size of normal and was really painful. Of course this change happened AT the dinner-party that I had gone to for the evening. So, upon returning home at about 11:45pm, I finally was able to start damage control. Ice, heat, ice and some time with the ultrasound got the ball rolling, then I took a few aspirin and hit the sack with my foot elevated on some pillows for the night. 

The next morning when I woke up, luckily things were more under control. Although I wasn't at 100%, the ankle felt like about 70%. That said, I made the call to push off the long run that was to be done that morning to Sunday and instead headed out for an easy 8-miler. More careful recovery on Saturday and by Sunday I was ready to attempt the long, 16-miler for the week... even though my tired, sore legs were begging me not to. 

Long Run: 16-miles @ 6:41/mi pace

Avg'd 6:45 pace for entire run (incl. first and last miles)

The ankle didn't give me any problems on the long run but I did definitely fall apart. Managed to hold onto 6:41/mi pace thru mile 12 but then hit the wall, and was reduced to around 7:00/mi pace for the last 4. Given that 31 miles of the 60 that I ran this week were between about 5:45-6:50/mi pace, I was just happy to have survived it all and definitely am gaining more and more of an understanding of this Hanson's mentality of "Accumulated Fatigue". I can't imagine how good it is going to feel when I can finally race on fresh legs! 11 weeks down, 6 to go! Happy Training!

Soreness, Snow and Strength...

As I wrapped up week 10 of training, it was the first time in this training plan that I have felt truly beat up. Ever since the tempo run last Wednesday night,  my legs were achy & sore and I was having minor issues with pains in one of my knees, a foot and sciatic issues. I hoped that if I just recovered properly and took my easy runs 'easy', I'd get through it and be fine for the remaining weeks. That said, the remainder of the week was made up of just easy running... 8 miles Thursday, 8 miles Friday, 13.5 miles Saturday and 6.25-miles on Sunday to end the week at just under 60 miles.

Today was the start of a new week and another tough track workout. There was a winter storm on its way and I had been hoping to get as much of the workout in before it hit as possible. Unfortunately, the storm hit Denver just as I was getting changed to head to the track! It's funny how some people hate adverse conditions, but I think that I have found over the years that I thrive in them. By the time I got to the track it was windy and snowing pretty heavily. With no glasses, or goggles, on my eyes were stinging from the snow and I knew it would be a tough workout. Between that and the snow starting to stick, and accumulate, on the track, I wasn't real sure how this workout was going to go.

The workout was to be:

4 x 1.5-miles at 5:50 mile-pace (8:45 goal intervals) 

w/400m jog rcvry (~3:00)

Conditions: ~28 degrees F, windy, driving snow

8:34 (mile at 5:41)

8:36 (mile at 5:42)

8:39 (mile at 5:43)

8:44 (mile at 5:48)

~8:39 avg (5:46mi avg)

As you can see, my pacing was terrible. While I did go faster than the intended pace, I am definitely not happy about it. One of the big lessons learned from my last go-round with marathon training was that PACE IS KING. Paces wouldn't be given and so often strove after if they were just suggestions. A training pace is what you're supposed to hit and if you're not hitting because you're going either too slow, or too fast you are not succeeding in the workout. I think way too many people (myself included) get caught up in the 'how fast' can I run question rather than the 'how consistent' can I be question in training. Because of this, I went away disappointed with today's workout. There are a lot of reasons why my pacing was off (bad traction on the snow, hard to read my watch, etc. etc.) but I think what I am learning is that in adverse conditions (extreme heat/cold, snow/rain or on hills) I will often work harder than necessary to achieve my target pace not realizing that I am actually surpassing it. I imagine this is probably a problem for a lot of runners too. Not sure what to do with that info yet, but it's definitely something to keep in mind the next time that you (or I) are training/racing in less than ideal conditions. 

Another thing that I don't often talk about in my blog is simply, my love for running. So often we (runners) get caught up in the numbers, paces, mileage, etc., etc., ... we're slogging along doing all of this training and don't realize that the root of why they're actually doing it, is because we love it. I am very guilty of this! But then, every once in awhile, you have that special run. Whether it's the weather, the terrain, the people that accompany you, or even the challenges that you had to overcome to get through it. It's one of those runs that reminds you that you are doing this for the love of the sport. The love of the feeling that it gives you. Sure, even for the the love of the effects that it has on your health.

Running around that track today in what (at least for an hour or so) felt like a blizzard, I remembered so many other similar runs that I've had in the past. Running in the blistering cold, in driving rain, hail, 100+ degree temperatures and through streets in countries where no one else even bothers to run. I run because of the feeling that it gives me. The strength that I feel from running fast, or running when most others won't. I love chasing my best performances and always striving to be a stronger, healthier, faster athlete. I run because it's who I am. Whether your fast or slow, I imagine that's the real reason why each of us puts on our shoes and gets out the door. 

If you haven't had a run like this lately, I hope that you do soon. I know they're rare, but wow, what a great experience! Happy training everyone!

STRENGTH - Week 10

I did it, I survived the first of the two phases that the Hanson's plan is built on. SPEED is done! Now I can put away the long nights on the track running at 5:20 mile pace and focus on workouts that are done at paces much closer (10 sec/mile under) to race pace but are twice as long; STRENGTH.

This week started off with MLK Day, which allowed me to relax throughout most of the day before heading to the track for an afternoon workout on the day that I began the Strength phase. This workout was one that I had been worried about since day 1...

Track Workout:

6 x 1-mile @ 5:50 pace w/400m jog (~2:20) recovery

conditions: ~50 degrees, sunny, moderate winds

5:51, 5:49, 5:50, 5:49, 5:48, 5:53

avg: 5:50 mile pace

This workout was a HUGE surprise to me, because it was my first time doing miles on the track at an easier pace since beginning this program and I felt amazing. I wasn't breathing hard and felt very little fatigue. Running this pace on the track just felt smooth. 

Tuesday, as normal, was my day off before heading into week 10's tempo run. I did the tempo tonight on the gravel Highline Canal path again and it went like this:

Tempo Run: 8-miles @ 6:06 pace

6:00 6:03, 6:00, 6:02, 6:06, 6:06, 6:10, 6:11

avg: ~6:04.75 min/mile pace

I was bummed that I fell off so much in the last two miles, but given that my legs were a bit tired going into the workout and that I made a terrible choice for lunch today (Chik-fil-a), I was okay with the results. With the start of the Strength phase, I've been thinking to begin doing all of my workouts at the paces suggested for my goal race time (2:37), rather than using the paces for the adjusted finish time (2:40) due to altitude. That said, I was shooting to keep my times as close to 6:00 pace as possible tonight, but it wasn't possible. 

I'm looking forward to some recovery tonight and a few days of easy mileage to end out the week in the mid-50 mile range. Thanks for taking the time to read. I'm glad to have the Blog caught back up now. Happy Training!