3 Loops in New Territory

Since I plan to have a high milage (for me) week this week, I decided to do 3 times around the 3.2 mile loop in New Territory where I live, plus the roughly .15 miles it takes to get to the loop and .15 to get home, for a total of 9.9.

I wasn't feeling particularly aggressive about running but we all know how sometimes the legs and lungs take over. I pulled negative splits on this rolling course that is anything but flat. Everything felt fine, no nagging soreness from Sunday and I finished feeling pumped. I plan to get in at least 5 tomorrow, 3.5 Thursday and Friday morning, plus speedwork of around 5 miles Thursday evening, and a long run of 17.75 miles Friday night. That should put me at a bit above 50 with Saturday and Sunday to go. Who knows - maybe I'll make 70. Brian King, if you're reading, we're doing 5 loops in Greatwood Friday night! Coach Lance says to be there or I'll make you do loops as punishment. And Schroeder, you're welcome to join us.

Here are the nuts and bolts of my run tonight:

Loop splits: 22:23 (7:00 pace), 22:07 (6:55 pace), 21:23 (6:41 pace).

Distance: 9.9 miles, 1:08:33 (6:55 pace)

Recovery Monday

I met up with Steve Schroeder again yesterday for our normal Monday 7.1 tempo run. However, since we'd both ran hard at the 1/2 the day before, we knew going in we'd better throttle it back a bit, which was nice since that allowed us to talk and not worry about pace.

We did two times around the 3.55 mile Greatwood loop, beginning at about 5:45 PM. And by the way, this is a weekly run that Steve and I do so if anyone wants to join us we'll be there. E-mail me at Lancec1963@yahoo.com for further details.

Loop splits were: 26:42 (7:31 pace), and 26:18 (7:24 pace). Total time: 53:00 (7:28 pace).

Strider 1/2 Marathon - Takin' Care Of Business/Mile 12

Yesterday morning didn't start exactly as I had planned or hoped. I was very sleepy when the alarm went off at 4:30, and when I walked out the front door 20 minutes later the weather was warmer and more humid than I expected. And once Steve Schroeder and I got to downtown it was much breezier than I would have liked as well. But you take what they give you and deal with it. It ended up not being as breezy during the race as I thought, and I think it actually was colder when I finished than when we started.

My pre-race time went fine. A 1.4 mile jog then some stretching, then a few strides with Doug Schroeder. And several bathroom breaks in there too. Got to just behind the front line of the start and was ready to go. Everything felt fine.

I was careful to not go out too fast and planned to run my own race. If someone (like Doug) was just in front of me and doing a pace 5 seconds faster than my target pace of 6:23 to 6:25 I wouldn't think twice about letting them go. And that's what I did. By the end of mile 2 I was pretty much alone. Somewhere early in mile 3 I realized this and decided to catch up to the small pack in front of me that featured a fairly large guy who I thought I could draft off of. I surged to catch them but I didn't stay with them long and fell back into no-man's land again. I was shortly passed by Chris Robbins, someone I had seen pass me at the 10-miler. We chatted briefly after introducing ourselves to each other but he's a bit faster than me so I let him pull away.

Chris was the last runner I was close to for a few miles until I hooked up with another runner for some company on mile 6. His name was Casey Lajaunie, and he told me he was shooting for a 6:30 pace. Even though that was slower than I planned to go, he and I were on pace for a 6:21 at that point so I decided to hang with him for some company for a bit and see how it would go. I abandoned that plan when we hit the next mile marker (mile 6) at 6:37. I had to get back to my own thing, alone or not so I took off. I had no more company until the very end (more on that later), although I did pass a couple of guys at somewhere early in mile 12.

The next several miles were uneventful and I was running at a controlled pace, in command at all times. I had settled on a 6:25 target pace and just before I came to a mile marker I would compute in my head what total time I'd need to be at through that upcoming mile marker in order to be on target. I knew I was ahead of that pace but I wanted to know by how many seconds. It hovered around 15 or so for the next few miles. This little excercise also gave me something to occupy my mind with.

At mile 10 I was at 1:03:52, which was 18 seconds ahead of what 6:25 would have me at for that point. But mile 11 was 6:27, which put me back at 15 seconds ahead of 6:25 pace. At this point it was "man or mouse" time. A good race, possibly even a great race was in my hands, but I still had a couple of miles to go and didn't want to give anything back in the way of two miles at 6:40 or anything. My stretch goal was a 1:23 something but I remembered from my pre-race calculations that a 6:25 pace would put me into the 1:24 and very low-change area. I decided not to leave anything to chance and strapped on my game-face - it was time for some hard-hat running. Mile 12 went unbelievably well. I passed two guys who were obviously in a different place than I was. I clocked my fastest mile thus far - a 6:13, and had picked up two spots, something that's hard to do when you're in no-man's land and in the first few dozen runners.

Now I felt pretty sure I had sub 1:24 in the bag and just wanted to keep hammering. The 6:13 mile hadn't sent me over into red-line territory but I was getting close to the bottom of the tank now, which is where you want to be with a mile to go. I saw a runner up ahead who I thought I might be able to catch, or at least pursue to make sure I had drained the tank. I crept closer and closer and with about a quarter mile to go could see that it was Leno Rios, a great runner, and a super guy. At the Marathon Kickoff 5K Leno had yelled at me from behind, just before the finish, that he was coming for me and challenged me to show him what I had. He told me later that he didn't think he would catch me in that race but wanted to make sure I worked hard at the end. I decided to return the favor. I yelled up ahead at Leno that I was coming and to show me what he had. He motioned with his arm to bring it on. I closed on him and we were side by side with about 100 feet to go. I wasn't really bound and determined to beat Leno. He's a great guy who I am starting to consider a friend. I really wanted to just use this last-minute opportunity to make sure he ran his best and to make sure I ran my best. Leno put on a little surge of his own right at the end and finished 1 second ahead of me.

THE DETAILS:

1:23:29 (6:22 pace - 1 second per mile faster than my 10 miler)

35th overall, 7th in the 40-44 age group.

Splits: 1st half - 41:58, 2nd half - 41:32 (I love negative splits. Hard to come by though.)
Mile splits:
6:15
6:22
6:19
6:25
6:24
6:37
6:16
6:28
6:23
6:22
6:27
6:13
6:18
:38

This was a great race for me. I'm especially proud of my fastest mile being mile 12. And the hills weren't an issue either. Maybe the squats paid off.

Update

Not a lot to blog about this week. Been running, though a lighter load than normal, and no hard runs, other than speedwork on Thursday. Trying to take it easy before the 1/2 marathon tomorrow. Here's what I've done this week, then a word about the 1/2.

Monday (10/22) - 7.1 miles with Steve Schroeder on the Greatwood Loop. Loop splits were: 26:37 and 25:21. 51:59 (7:19 pace).

Tuesday (10/23) - planned to do speedwork but wasn't fully recovered from the 20K on Sunday. Got in only 1.2 miles.

Wednesday (10/24) - took the day off to be fully recovered.

Thursday (10/25) AM - did 3.5 miles before work. Didn't time myself but felt great in the cold air.
PM - Speedwork with Steve Schroeder at the jr. high track in New Territory. We did 10 fast 400s instead of our usual 12, but man, we flew. We cut the workout short because I had to be home by 6:30 so my wife could run, but go figure, when I got home she wasn't even there. Anyway, here are our 400 splits:

1:20, 1:17, 1:17, 1:18, 1:16, 1:17, 1:18, 1:16, 1:17, 1:10.

Friday (10/26) - AM run before work of 3.5 miles. 24:38 (6:51 pace).


As far as the 1/2 tomorrow goes, I'm really hoping for another good race. I'd love to put those bad races of September behind me and have a good fall and winter. My 10-miler was as good as I could expect and my 20K was another welcomed decent performance. For tomorrow I'm hoping for a pace of somewhere between 6:20 and 6:30. I ran 6:23 for the 10 miler and think I might have been able to go a bit farther that day at that pace. Now, that's a flatter course but on the other hand, it's going to be much cooler tomorrow than it was for the 10-miler, and I've had some solid running since then, including the 20K last Sunday, and the 16.2 miler I did a week ago.

When I did the 10-miler I ran a flat pace throughout so I'm thinking I'm going with the same strategy tomorrow - 6:23 pace through to at least the half-way point (or 7 miles if it's not marked). Then I'll determine if I'm going to bump it up a bit until I hit 10 miles, or determine whether I need to just keep doing 6:23s, or if I need to slow a bit (hopefully not). At 10 miles I'll go through the same evaluation - keep going at that pace, slow down, or dig down.

What do I think will happen tomorrow? The most likely scenario is that I have a good, but not great race, maybe somewhere between 6:25 and 6:30 pace. 6:25 I'd take all day, 6:30 I'd be a bit disappointed with. The other two scenarios are a great race, and a bad race. A great race would just have to be one of those magical, "where'd that come from" kind of days - no real formula to make that happen. I've had a good week this week preparing - plenty of sleep, no monster runs to sap the glycogen stores, I did my weights workout Monday, Wednesday and Friday, including leg squats all three workouts (in preparation for the hills). I've stretched every night and have watched my diet. But all these things are done to ensure a good race. A great race is up to God. The final potentiality - a bad race, could result from any number of things, some in my control and some not. I'll try not to go out too fast and hope for the best.

Strider Bear Creek 10K/20K

Steve Sheppard told me two things I needed to try to do for the 20K this morning. One was to take a stab at the course record for male masters (1:27 something) and the other was to save something for the 1/2 marathon next Sunday. I hope he'll settle for one out of two.

Steve had told me that this race was open to anyone who wanted to do it so I talked my running partner Brian King into coming out, even though he's not a Strider (yet). Brian and I did the 16.2 miles Friday night at a pretty aggressive pace so I don't think we were at 100% this morning but not too far from it. I took an ice bath Friday night so the legs were recovered. But even though the temperature wasn't too bad this morning it was very humid, making breathing more of a challange. Oh well, breathing is overrated, right?

Brian and I started off together, along with Çhip Maxa, who was targeting a 7 minute pace. Chip had a Garmin and told us early on that we were running under 6:40 but it felt fine to Brian and I. Chip warned us though about mile 3 - very hilly. At one point Chip said he was going to drop back but I don't think he ever did. He was with us at the 3.1 mile turnaround (20:26) and actually pulled ahead of us on the return back to the 10K turnaround. I couldn't answer and was actually starting to struggle in miles 4 and 5. But Brian was still there with me and we soldiered on. By the time we got to the 10K turnaround Chip was about 15 or 20 seconds in front of us. The 2nd 5K was 20:20 so we'd recovered a bit and I was feeling better.

The first mile going back out was a 6:36 I think and I told Brian I felt like I could hold that pace for a while. He jokingly said, "I'm glad you can!". But Brian stayed with me through to the 3.1 mile (15K) turnaround, which we hit in 1:01:25, and 20:39 for the 3rd 5K. Chip was well out in front of us now, and clearly not in danger of being caught by us, barring a total collapse. Somewhere in the 1st mile of the final 5K I started to pull away from Brian just a bit and was feeling pretty good, all things considered. I just needed some flat course to try to make tracks and get back on the good side of oxygen debt. Somewhere in the second mile Brian caught up to me. I hadn't slowed down but he told me that he had to surge because he was afraid that if he lost touch with me he'd be in trouble in no-man's land.

With less than 1/2 a mile to go I started to pick up the pace a bit and Brian drifted back ever so slightly. But somewhere just past the marker indicating .2 miles to go, Brian kicked and got just past me. I was fine with this. Brian is a 60 second 400 meter guy so I knew if we got into a sprint for the finish I'd lose anyway. So I set my sights on the back of Brian's shirt and hung on. I had known that we weren't going to catch Chip, and I had given up hope of beating the course record but I was still targeting a 1:22 something. I couldn't see my total time very well and was too focused on maintaining pace to worry about it so I really didn't know where I was at, other than the 1:01 at the 15K mark. I had missed a couple of mile markers so was running blind. I clicked a split at the 1-mile-to-go mark, just so I could later look back and see what my final mile was. I knew I had the masters course record in the bag but didn't know much else.

As the race clock came into view I saw it change from 1:20 to 1:21. As I got closer I realized I'd be close to the course record afterall. Actually, it wasn't the course record anymore. Chip Maxa was already in and I knew he'd have gone 1:20 something. But nevertheless, I did my best to make 1:21:37 and that's what I saw as I came through the finish. Officially it was a 1:21:38 (1:21:37 on my watch) but close enough since it's no onger the course record anyway. My final 5K was 20:12, the best of the four, and my final mile was 6:16.

Sorry Steve, I didn't save anything for Sunday, but I've got a light week scheduled (after hitting 61.25 miles this week). I'll be ready.

Total distance: 12.4 miles (+ about .6 warmup), 1:21:37 (6:35 pace).

Lots Of Miles Yesterday

The alarm was set for 6:05 yesterday morning. I woke up at 6 AM thinking I had probably another hour. Looked at the clock and groaned. Made myself get up though I was very sleepy. But it seemed like as soon as I got out the door and felt the nice temperature the sleepiness was gone. I ran 3.5 miles in 24:02, a 6:52 pace. Came back to the house and everyone was still asleep so I did my weights workout real quick, while getting breakfast ready for my two boys and other assorted kitchen tasks. Felt great.

Then last night I met Brian King over at the Greatwood loop at about 9 PM for a long-run. We planned to go 16.2, which would be the farthest Brian has gone this season. The weather was nice and we got it done.

Here are our loop (3.55 miles) splits: 26:13 (7:23 pace), 25:48 (7:16 pace), 25:33 (7:12 pace), and 25:46 (7:16 pace), which included a stop of about 20 or 30 seconds to rehydrate. Then we tacked on the mile out (7:13) and the mile back (6:52).

Total distance on the long-run (including our brief stop) - 16.2 miles, 1:57:25 (7:15 pace).

We had the oddest observation - we were out there for just under 2 hours on a beautiful night with great weather, and didn't see one single person. Very strange. No walkers, no runners, no bicylists, no one. I counted 49 people once on a similar run.

Thursday Speedwork - Got 'er Done

I met Steve and Brian at the junior high track this evening for our normal 400 repeats. Brian and I changed up the workout two weeks ago and we're all loving it. I've explained before but in the past we did 8 fast 400s, with a jogging lap for recovery. Occasionally we'd add a 9th 400 but always felt like we should do more. But our egos wouldn't let us dial the pace back enough to add 400s. So two weeks ago Brian and I decided to do a walking recovery of about 75 meters (2 minutes or so), and we increased the number of 400s from 8 to 12, a 50% increase in speedwork volume. Our total milage stayed about the same, we've increased the number of fast 400s, and our lap times haven't suffered. Because of the conditions today it was tougher than when Steve and I did speedwork last week, but we just had to dig a little deeper. All three of us put in a solid workout. As always, we took turns leading the 400s. Here were my splits:

1:23, 1:18, 1:19, 1:17, 1:19, 1:19, 1:19, 1:19, 1:18, 1:19, 1:19, 1:11.

On that last 400, which is typically all-out and every man for himself, Steve and I both did a 1:11 while Brian clocked about a 1:06.

Double Duty Wednesday

Wednesdays are usually easy days, and yesterday was no different, but I ran twice, for a total of 10.5 miles. I did 5 miles before work in horrible conditions. It felt like August out there. Not even the slightest hint in the temperature that it was mid October, and gawdawful humidity. I was drenched by the time I finished. Then yesterday at 6 PM I got in 5.5 miles. I didn't wear my watch on the morning run (I almost never do), but I did for the evening run. Given the heat my evening run wasn't bad. 5.51 miles in 37:41, for a 6:50 pace.

Tuesday Speedwork

Went over to my old neighborhood after work today and ran repeats of the .4 mile oval I used to live on. The conditions weren't really cooperative for speedwork. I had planned to do at least six fast .4s but could only manage 5. The times were:

2:16, 2:10, 2:08, 2:10, 2:08. Total distance covered: 4 miles.

Nothing Special

Did 9.1 miles in the rain yesterday evening with Steve S. over on the Greatwood loop. We never tried to push the pace, given that we felt we had earned a recovery run in yesterday's 10 miler.

Total distance - 9.1 miles, 1:08:13 (7:30 pace).

Finally, A Decent Race

My running watch will hold 100 splits. I of course erase the routine training run as soon as I log the details. However, over the past couple of years I've accumulated about 50 splits that I've been unwilling to part with. They represent some fine days and some fine runs/races. My marathon PR was in there (20 something splits in itself), my 2-loop (Greatwood loop) PR was in there, my best ever 4.4 mile training run on the course I used to run in my old neighborhood, and many others. It was nice to scroll through the numbers from time to time and think, "if only I could do that again". Since this morning's 10 Mile Race was the first major race of the season I decided on the way there to wipe the slate clean and start over. My hope was that I'd have a good number to start the collection all over again. As luck would have it, I pulled it off.

The weather, while not perfect, was "cooperative". Upper 60s at the start I'd guess, and relatively dry. My strategy was to target a 6:24 pace through the first 5 miles and try to go negative on the second 5. But a 6:07 first mile got in the way. It wasn't uncomfortable though, even though I wisely backed off the accelerator after that. Somewhere early on, in either the first or second mile, I found myself running beside Mark Conran, a solid master runner. We exchanged greetings and settled into a nice pace, side by side. The next several miles were about where I wanted them to be - steady Eddy. I hit 5 miles at 31:53, a 6:23 pace, and felt good. Mark was still there. By mile six I was starting to think about what I needed to run 1:04 flat (or really just better than 1:04) since I had set a stretch goal of a 1:03 something. I knew by the end I'd need to be 1 minute better than a 6:30 pace so I started adding up all the seconds I'd been under a 6:30 pace thus far. Somewhere around mile 7 I told Mark what my plans were. By mile 8 we had 58 seconds of the 1 minute we needed. A 6:28 mile nine would just about guarantee the 1:04 if I could just do a 6:30 final mile, which I knew would be easier than a 6:28 mile nine. Mark was still shoulder to shoulder. He was working hard, but then so was I. Mile nine was a 6:26 - 1:04 was in sight now. Time to get everything that was left. I drained the tanks and Mark came in right behind me. Did I mention he's 48 years old, 4 years older than me? Two years ago he ran a 1:15 out here. He just keeps getting better and better.

The stats:

*I finished 41st overall and a disappointing 6th in the 40-44 year age group, but I can't do anything about the other runners. I ran the best race I could run.
*My 5 mile splits were (get this) - 31:53.45, 31:53.94. For some reason the five mile mat didn't pick up my chip. Too bad. I'm proud of that even pace.
*Total time: 1:03:47.
*Previous 10 mile PR - 1:04:30 (December 2005)

*Here are my mile splits:
6:07, 6:25, 6:26, 6:31, 6:24, 6:24, 6:18, 6:27, 6:26, 6:19.

A special note about my running partner, Steve Schroeder. Steve has historically done well in the shorter distances but hasn't fared as well in races of 10 miles or more. The pattern has repeated itself so many times that he had almost resigned himself to the notion that his talent was short stuff and he was destined to be an also-ran in the longer distances. I've been trying to convince him otherwise. Today was critical to the paradigm shift. Mission Accomplised! Steve ran his best 10 miler by 4 minutes! A 1:04:38. It's gonna be a great fall Steve.

Congrats to everyone who had a nice race today. Let's do it again in two weeks!

A Run And A Question For Ya

Got up this morning at 6 AM and headed out for 3.5 miles before work. For the record, I don't run in the morning, unless I have to, or unless someone is chasing me. My bio-clock has me firing on all cylinders throughout the day, but not at 6 AM. But with a race coming up, and me grasping at straws to figure out why I've been underperforming in races lately, I decided this week to log some early AM miles. And mother nature was nice enough to accomadate me too.

There was nothing of note about the run. I left the watch at home but I'm sure my pace was decent. I've gotten pretty good at estimating my pace lately. When Steve and Brian and I did the 10 mile pre-race training run on Monday we were targeting a 6:40 pace. I told Steve and Brian to let me lead and I'd be close. Our first mile was 6:41. Anyway, the weather this morning was nice, I was rested, and I was done and in the shower pretty quick. Now for my question, or food for thought for everyone.

When does a break become more than a break? In other words, how long can a stop be, before it really signals the end of that training run, and anything you do beyond that is more like an interval? Obviously if you stop for 20 seconds to suck down 12 oz of water and then keep going few would consider that a cessation of the workout. And stopping for a 10 minute trip to the porcelein throne is obviously (to most) too long to consider that a quick break during a continuous run. But what about a 2 minute stop? What about a 5 minute stop? When does it become disingenuous to consider it a continuous 2 hour run? I don't have a hard and fast rule. And I'm sure it depends on the situation. That being said, I'd say 2 minutes is probably my tops. And I like to at least be walking for those two minutes. Just something I've been thinking about.

Your opinion?

Today

Today started off with 3.5 miles this morning. No watch but a brisk pace, probably around 7:00. The cool air was nice, and overdue.

This evening I met Steve at the junior high track for speedwork. Last week Brian and I experimented with an approximately 2 minute walking recovery, rather than the 400 meter jogging recovery we'd always done in the past. The idea was that this might allow a fuller recovery, while ultimately enabling us to complete more 400 speed laps. Last week Brian and I did 12 x 400, a 50% increase in speedwork volume over our previous 8 x 400. We had to dial the pace back a bit to be sure we had enough in the tank. Overall things worked out great. Steve wasn't with us last week so today I described to Steve what we did and he agreed to give it a try.

Things went well. Last week Brian and I did laps at anywhere from 1:23 to 1:28, and a final lap of 1:17. I figured Steve and I would stay pretty close to those numbers, maybe a bit faster. Boy was I wrong. We must have both eaten our Wheaties this morning. Here are the splits:

1:23, 1:19, 1:20, 1:21, 1:21, 1:20, 1:20, 1:20, 1:19, 1:20, 1:19, 1:09.

That 1:09 at the end represents a 400 meter PR for me by one second. Steve posted a 1:07. These are the kinds of times we turned when we did 8 x 400 with the jogging recovery. That walking recovery makes a big difference in the volume of work we're able to do.

Tomorrow morning it's another 3.5 miles, then I'm off until the 10 Miler on Sunday morning.

Yesterday

Yesterday evening I ran 6.8 miles. No watch but decent pace, probably 7:20.

Monday 10 Miler

I met Brian and Steve Monday evening at 7:15 for our 10 mile race preparation run. We were targeting a 6:40 pace which I figured would be beyond conversational pace for me, but not too terribly challanging, given that I've done it in sub 6:30 recently. Too bad the elements didn't cooperate.

We managed to hold 6:42 through 7 miles but that was about as far as we could maintain it before we took an "every man for himself" approach. Brian and I hung together until near the end and Steve charted his own course. We all did 10 miles, and all of us managed to hold on to sub 7 pace overall, but just barely. It was damned hot and humid. I pray it's not like that Sunday morning. I know it's going to cool down but by Sunday it appears to be getting back to above normal. It's amazing to me that people can deny global warming when even a cold front doesn't take us down to normal (i.e. average) temperatures. The afternoon high has been above average for 26 days straight, and since September 1st I've seen 3 mornings where the low temperature was below average. Summer is long enough in Houston without it stretching into October. 93 yesterday. Tied the record.

Week In Review

Training has gone well this past week, though I haven't posted about it. Monday's run with Steve was a hard 7.1 run with the 2nd half being near all-out. Tuesday I did 10.2 miles at all-out, race pace. Wednesday was an easy 5.5 mile recovery run and Thursday was 12 x 400 meters of speedwork with Brian at the track. Friday was too busy to get in a run. Saturday night I went out for 13.1 miles at a pace that averaged between 7:15 to 7:20. Not race pace but not slow and easy. I had planned to run yesterday (Sunday) but was just too beat up from the 13.1 and a very very active day around the house. Still got in a hair over 40 miles.

I went out this morning for 3.5 miles before work and will be meeting up with Brian and Steve tonight at 7:15 for 10.2 miles with a target pace of 6:40. This is in preparation for the 10-miler on Sunday. Wish us luck.

The Latest

Yeah, I know, it's been a few days since I posted. I mentioned before that my posts may be intermittent until I have something good to report and that hasn't changed. I had a bad race this past Saturday and am working on diagnosing the problem. My training has been on-track and my performance at the 10K Saturday morning was so off-track that it seems to be a larger problem than "just a bad day", or "need to train harder", etc. I saw a doctor for a physical yesterday morning and had blood work done. So we'll see what that shows. I suspect an iron level deficiency again though I'm taking supplements. You may be right Bez.

In the meantime I'm training as usual, with my fingers crossed that I'll have things ironed out by the 10-miler a week from Sunday.