So Why Did I Do A 21.53 Mile Long-Run Last Weekend?

Since I'm a big fan of politics I thought I'd do something that politicians do all the time - answer a question that wasn't asked. But it must seem odd to the four or five people who read my blog that just a week after a 1/2 marathon, and marathon season essentially over locally, why would I be doing a 21.53 long-run last weekend, and at an aggressive pace?

Let me answer that in a roundabout way. My buddy Brian King is as good a runner as I've ever been or will be. His 5K PR is an 18:09 and his 10K PR is an awesome 37:48. I've seen him turn a 60 on the track. He willingly runs any training run I throw at him, never crying uncle, and trains like a mother on his own to boot. We've had training runs where I'm throwing my A-game at him yet watched helplessly as he pulled away from me. But every year something goes wrong for him in the marathon. He needs a 3:10 for Boston but his PR is around 3:30 or 3:31. Heck, we've done numerous 20+ mile training runs faster than that. But in marathons he runs into one problem after another - going out too fast, cramps, stomach issues, and two weeks ago a burning pain in his hip at mile 22! Steve Schroeder and I concluded that we somehow need to trick his brain into thinking that the marathon is just another long-training run with Lance. So that's what I'm going to do.

We're headed to Pensacola, FL on Saturday, Feb. 14, to run the next morning in the Pensacola Marathon. I'm going to lock in a 7:10 to 7:15 pace, Brian is going to put his brain on auto-pilot, follow me, and we're hopefully going to get 'er done. It's too late for Brian to go to Boston this year but the qualification will be good for next year.

So I wanted to get in one long-run over 20 miles at an aggressive pace before we do it. Wish us luck.

Spectacle Spectacular 10K Race Report

This morning my buddy Assynt and I headed down to Angleton to do a race I've done for 6 years now, the Spectacle Spectacular 5K/10K. I like this race. They do a good job with it, have people at every mile marker calling out splits, the course is accurate, not too many turns, and they have plenty of real food at the end (breakfast tacos, sausage biscuits, donuts, hot coffee, etc.). I never managed to run a phenomenal time down there but have lowered my time from the previous year ever since 2005 and intended to do it again (I was 39 and low change last year).

The conditions this morning were ideal for a race - temps in the low 40s at the start but warming rapidly, little wind, and beautiful sunshine. Luis Armenteros was there and another apparently fast guy I've never notice before and those two took off and quickly pulled away from the rest of the pack. Kevin Regis and I settled into a nice 6:10ish pace for the first couple of miles. As we turned into the neighborhood that weaves runners over to another long straightaway, Kevin dropped off the pace just a tad. Eventually I came out on the other side of the neighborhood, having passed the halfway point just prior to doing so.

As I headed down the long straightaway I recalled that it seemed like in years past that we turned just after the 5 mile mark. I hit the five mile mark, looked to my right, and there was a street that looked like the one we turned on but I went on another 20 feet before finally deciding, if I'm going to misjudge which street to turn on, I'd rather turn too early than too late. Shortly after I turned, Kevin came by and yelled something down to me. I couldn't make it out but the fact that he didn't turn told me all I needed to know. I knew I was running parallel to the street I was supposed to be on so I just needed to make a cut. I finally got over to the other street and turned right but I still saw no orange cones. Assynt and I had done our warmup on the finishing street so I knew I should be seeing the orange cones. Time to start looking left again to see if I needed to go over one more street. Finally a 5K runner doing a cool-down came by me and said something about turning early (if he only knew!) so I had to start looking for another road to take over to the next street. I did so finally and got back on course. It certainly was no shortcut I'd taken. If anything, I had to make four turns that other runners did not. My biggest fear now though, as I approached the correct street at last, was that competition might have been able to capitalize on my confusion and dead reckoning and maybe made up some ground. But the road was clear and I had maybe a third of a mile to go to finish.

I hit the finish in 38:36, just ten seconds from my all-time PR. My splits were reasonably flat and I finished third overall and first master. Here are my mile splits:

6:04
6:15
6:08
6:10
6:17
6:18
5:40 pace for the final .2

Miles 3-6 were only 10 seconds slower than miles 1-3 so I'm pleased with that.

Back To The Track

With a 10K on the docket this weekend I needed to remind my legs and lungs what it's like to run fast (well, fast for me at least) so I headed over to the .7 mile lake path for some more of the repeats I was having so much success with before the 1/2 marathon.

It was cold and windy and I had eaten a little something for dinner so I didn't expect to be quite as fast as I was a few weeks ago. I also wanted to do five repeats instead of four so I took a cautious approach to the first one and posted a 4:17 (6:12 pace). The remaining four were:

4:10 (5:59 pace)
4:08 (5:56 pace)
4:05 (5:52 pace)
4:01 (5:46 pace)

I then went on and completed the New Territory loop for a total workout of 8.55 miles.

Long Cold Solo Run

With Steve Schroeder injured and going skiing anyway, and Brian King one week removed from the marathon, both of my usual running partners were not available for a long-run this morning. I called Scott Grischow, who was up for some milage but not 20+. I thought about going down to Memorial Park and hooking up with a group that I know runs long down there every Saturday morning, but passed on that idea for a variety of reasons.

So I headed out solo at about 7:30, once my wife got up and could take over with the kiddos. My plan was to go out on our out-and-back course as far as it would take me then come back. I realized a couple of miles into the run that I was under-dressed. I had on a long-sleeve tech fabric shirt, shorts, gloves, and a cap. The wind was steady and cold out of the north but at my back going out the first five miles or so. At 5.4 miles the course turns and I had a cross-wind to deal with for the next nearly five miles. I got all the way to Highway 6 (10.25 miles out) and actually could have turned south and kept going, but decided that if I needed any extra milage I'd better do it closer to home. Before I even got to the turnaround my hands were like ice even though I had on gloves and had pulled my sleeves over my hands.

I hit the park for water and to get out of the wind for a sec then headed back into it. Once I got back to where I'd normally turn off, and with my hands numb from the cold, I went ahead and did 1/2 a mile down to the intersection then headed back. This allowed me to cover a total of 21.53 cold, miserable miles at a 7:26 pace, including two stops, one short one and about two minutes long.

Runnin' And Visiting With Leno

After five easy miles last night just to make sure everything was in working order, I headed over to Memorial Park today after work to get in something of better quality. I was hoping to hook up with someone who could help me push.

I headed clockwise and soon saw Leno Rios going the other direction. I hammered this first loop all the way through, just because it felt good and I wanted to shake any rust off the legs. Did the 2.9 mile loop in 18:37, then took a cool-down breather and started jogging another one. I saw Leno again and asked him if he wouldn't mind some company. He waved me over to join him so I turned around and we had a good 20+ minutes to catch up on things. It's probably the most I've ever continuously talked with Leno and it was a real pleasure. He's a great runner, a great guy, and gives back way more to the running community than he receives from it.

After the second loop (and first with Leno) he told me he wanted to open it up and hit low six on the next mile or so. I hung with Leno for about 3/4 of a mile before I backed off of the 6:04 pace he was pushing. That first loop had not left enough in the tank to keep it up longer than what I did. I eventually hooked back up with Leno for the final mile or so of the loop and we visited more, and were still talking when the loop was over and I needed to head home.

It was a good workout of 9+ miles today.

Aramco 1/2 Marathon - 1:23:40

I went into the weekend thinking I was about as ready as I could get given the time I had to train, but only after cramming the last couple of weeks before my taper last week. I'm not sure I could have gotten in significantly better shape with another month or two to train but still felt that my 1:23:29 PR was out of reach. My goal was to go sub 1:25 and going into the weekend I felt like I should be able to do that, though not by much.

But then I had a rehearsal dinner Friday night for my sister-in-law and buddy's wedding, which included Mexican food and too many margaritas. A headache yesterday morning and that sluggish feeling all day planted major seeds of doubt. Then last night I probably ate too much, as I know I did Friday night, and didn't get home from the reception until 11:15. I probably fell asleep sometime between 11:45 and midnight, then got up this morning at 4:35. I stepped on the scale and became even more skeptical when it showed me to be about 4 lbs. heavier than I was Friday morning. Ugh. But at least I felt good and wasn't tired. The legs felt great and I did some runs of close to a quarter mile before the start at a very brisk pace and never got winded. And the weather felt okay to me, at least without a shirt on.

I met up with Matt Nicol and Tuan Nguyen at the start and decided to hang with them as long as I could and as long as it felt right. Tuan wanted 6:20s and Matt was planning to run that pace for awhile, though he didn't expect to hold it to the end. The first mile was a 6:24 but mile two was a 6:10 and I knew before I saw the number that it was too fast. Mile three backed down a bit to a 6:16 but it was at this point that I let Tuan and Matt pull away a little. They stayed well ahead of me as I hit mile four in 6:21. By the completion of mile four I had already banked nearly 50 seconds against the 6:30 pace I was looking to stay just under so I decided to settle down and start hitting some even splits at a little closer to my target pace of 6:29. Miles five through ten were:

6:25
6:19
6:25
6:24
6:27
6:31

I passed Matt somewhere around mile seven or eight but of course knew I was not likely to catch Tuan. I was at ten miles in 1:03:41, a new PR for me, and now had more than a minute cushion over that 1:25 mark I was looking to dip just under. And I still felt fine so nothing to do but keep on keepin' on. Mile eleven was a 6:16. Mile 12 was a 6:30 but I was getting into downtown now and the Garmin picked up a 6:11 mile 13, so I'm not sure both of those miles are accurate. At mile ten I realized that barring a catastrophe sub 1:25 was in the bag and by mile eleven and twelve I started to think I might go sub 1:24 and have an outside shot at my PR. I'd like to think that 6:11 in mile thirteen was accurate - I know I was pushin'.

My Garmin has me at 1:22:38 for 13 miles but I couldn't hear it beep and wasn't paying attention anyway. I know I hammered the last couple of miles as best as I could and enjoyed the fact that Autumn Ray came up beside me in full game-face mode. I did my damnedest to hang with her but she ran strong through to the finish and I came in 4 seconds behind her. My official chip time was 1:23:40, just eleven seconds off my PR, but that means that somehow it took me almost a minute to cover the final .1, which is impossible. I guess maybe I had built up some extra distance over the course of the run and probably ran 13.18 or 13.19. I'll never know because I forgot to click as I crossed the finish line.

I attribute my much-better-than-expected time today to the no pain no gain runs I did over the last month of training, such as the 18 miler where Brian and I did the final mile in around 6:30, or the 9.1 mile run we did last weekend where my final mile was 6:07, or the 10 mile run I did New Year's Eve at a 6:34 pace. If you're unfamiliar with extended periods of running beyond your comfort level you'll back off when you get to that pace. But if you're no stranger too it it's old hat. Today was old hat. I really didn't suffer much at all and wonder if I might have gone faster. At any rate I'm looking forward to a good spring season, and maybe a 10K PR. Mine is over three years old and needs to come down.

Revving The Engine

I went out for something short but fast tonight. I did the big New Territory loop, which is 3.82 miles, plus the .11 to get to the loop as a warm-up, and the .11 to get home as a cool down.

I covered the 3.82 in 23:44 seconds, a 6:13 pace on a rolling, meandering course. I'll take it. That's the last hard run before Sunday but I'll do an easy 3.2 either tomorrow, Friday, or Saturday.

Final Hard Tempo

I met Brian King last night over on the Greatwood loop for our last hard tempo run before the race next weekend. Our plan was to do the Greatwood loop twice then a mile out and back for a total of 9.1 miles, at about a 6:45 pace. That's what we did and it felt great, though it was a little chilly.

We started off fairly slow and I could tell that I probably wasn't 100% due to the speedwork from Thursday. But after a first mile of 7:12 we quickly got things down under 7 minute pace. Mile two was 7:01 but mile three was 6:52. We covered the first loop in 24:36 (6:56 pace), and continued to crank the pace down in the second loop. Mile four was a 6:46 and five was a 6:49. Mile six was a 6:46 again but we brought mile seven down to a 6:32. We completed the second loop in 23:35 (6:39 pace) and were ready to hit the out and back. We maintained that 6:32 pace going out and I mentioned to Brian that on the way back he was free to open things up if he wanted. He said he had no intention of doing that, so I called him a name that starts with a p and can be used to refer to a cat, and told that if he wasn't going to then I was. We hit the turnaround and both picked it up to a pretty furious pace. About half way back Brian, to his credit, said, "Come on Lance, let's go". I was already doing about the best I could so all I could do was watch him pull ahead a bit and finish that final mile about 9 seconds before me. Brian posted a 5:58 and I came in with a 6:07. It was great to finish that fast and I felt terrific. We did about a mile cool-down and are ready for next weekend. Now it's time to taper, maybe get in one more abbreviated speedwork session this week and a 3-4 brisk run later in the week then bring it on Sunday.

Seeing Progress

I'm not happy with the inadequate base milage I've accumulated over the past couple of months. I don't even want to discuss what my total milage was for the month of December. But realizing that it was time to put the icing on the cake whether the cake had finished baking or not, I started doing speedwork a couple of weeks ago, hoping to do four or five sessions before tapering this next week. Call it crash-speedwork. I headed over to the .7 mile path around the lake here in New Territory last night and found that I've made real progress in just two weeks and four sessions.

My plan was to do what I did last Friday - four repeats, with the .34 mile recovery, then complete the loop that goes around New Territory - about a 3 mile cool-down. I had a cup of coffee on the way home from work so I was pumped and ready.

No easy first one this time, although speedwork can surprise you sometimes, and not in a good way. You'll think you're flying only to click your split and be very disappointed. But not last night. I thought I was moving pretty good on the first one but not all out. I clicked a 4:02, which equates to a 5:46 pace. Feeling emboldened and knowing there was room for more I fired off a 3:52 on the 2nd one, my best ever. That equates to a 5:31 pace. I eased back into the slightly-less-uncomfortable zone on the 3rd and posted a 4:01 (5:44 pace). On the last one I picked things up a bit and came in at 3:56, a 5:37 pace.

Now, if I could only do true mile repeats this fast. Maybe soon.

The Rest Of The Week

Following on the heels of my 10 mile hard-tempo on New Year's Eve, I did an easy 5.37 at my mom's on Thursday. On Friday I went out for some speedwork and cool-down milage. I headed to the .7 mile path for four uninspired repeats, then continued around the New Territory loop for a total of 7.58 miles. The repeat times were nothing to get too excited about but I did them. They were: 4:20 (6:18 pace), 4:11 (6:04 pace), 4:05 (5:58 pace), 4:08 (6:01 pace). Dang it was hot yesterday afternoon.

This morning I met up with Brian King at 6 AM for some long-run milage. Since he's doing the full marathon in two weeks he wanted 20+ but I didn't want to go that long so he got in around 4.5 miles before I met him on the New Territory loop. We did an abbreviated version of our long-run out and back course because we were concerned that heavy rain had been forecasted. We headed over to the park on the other side of 59 (about 5.35 miles from my house), then headed back. We added some other doglegs once we got back into New Territory and I ended up with exactly 16 miles once I went just past my house and around the corner at the end of my block. Conditions were less than ideal this morning, with the temperature at around 68-70 degrees. We got a drink of water at the park but by the time we passed another watering hole at about mile 17 for Brian, 13 for me, we were parched. We held a strong pace without even trying. Here are my mile splits:

7:51
7:31
7:19
7:32
7:36
7:21
7:22
7:16
7:20
7:15
7:24
7:25
8:10 (water stop)
7:32
7:31
7:26

The average pace of 7:29 was nothing, and given the conditions and the fact that we weren't even worrying about pace, that's very encouraging, especially for Brian.

It Wasn't Fun But It Was What I Needed

I haven't been overly pleased with my training lately, mostly the inconsistency. Been working alot and alot going on outside of work and there have been days where training had to take a back seat. And yesterday, with a party to go to last night and me not being able to get home from work much earlier than 6 PM in the best of circumstances, I wasn't sure what I'd be able to work in before we went out, if I was able to work in anything at all. But after finding out that the party didn't start until 8 PM and getting the okay from my wife, I planned a 10 mile tempo run for as soon as I got home.

In order to save time I decided to just do the 3.19 New Territory loop here where I live. Including the .11 between my house and the loop I'd still need to tack on a run around the block at the end to get to 10. I grabbed a cup of coffee on the way home from the office just to prevent any motivation issues from popping up. I wouldn't say I was overly eager to hit it hard when I headed out the door, but if there's one upside to not getting in enough miles, when you are finally able to run your legs have a nice spring in them.

I took off and was immediately sub-7 in my pace, which was definitely where I wanted to be. Here are the mile splits:

6:47
6:39
6:35
6:33
6:33
6:35
6:34
6:29
6:31
6:27

Total time 1:05:41, 6:34 pace.

I couldn't have gone much faster and this was a great confidence run for the half marathon on the 18th. The New Territory loop is not pancake flat and last night wasn't a race, so hopefully I can hold a 6:29 pace or better for the 1/2 and get that sub 1:25 I'm targeting.