overtaking haynes

4x5x400m @ 81s with 100m recovery between 400s and 400m recovery between sets.

First blog entry...I ran 14x200 today at ~32 seconds with my training partner Haynes. Sprinting is my least favorite workout as I used to only run trail races 25 miles and over. I'm going to attempt to break the 5 min mile this coming Wed, something I failed to come close to doing in h.s. My best time was a 5:13 and it was only 1600m. After several months of serious training I was able to run a 5:03 mile in a time trial with Haynes leading. He went just under 5 and I couldn't stay with him during the last mile. The first lap + 8m was 72 sec and was way too fast. I could only do a 78 sec final lap. I felt fine until that but couldn't find enough courage to push any harder. The mile has haunted me for so long. It may seem silly why I would care so much since it is such an arbitrary time. It just seemed to be the perfect barrier to separate the real runners from the scrubs, at least in high school. I actually have full confidence I can do it now for the first time. I've decided to do a 14 mile trail race on sunday which won't be ideal for a wed mile. There will be another chance though the following week. After that goes down. It better...then I can get off the track which i'm ready to do after the last 4 months or so and focus on marathon training for the Cape cod marathon in October and also an ultramarathon trail race in iceland in July! It's only 34 miles but I'm really looking forward to it as well as climbing iceland's highest peak. Although my travel guide books haven't come yet and maybe i'll change my mind about that one.

I must say, I was a little disappointed with Haynes' speed today. I thought he'd be able to pull away from me but couldn't even pass me on the last 200.  

easy 8 mile trail run with haynes. Beautiful day. Haynes wanted me to take pictures of him running so he could look fast. the thing is, he's not fast on trails, only on the road. do not be fooled!

Going to a 14 mile trail race tomorrow. Should be fun!

 

Today was pretty awesome. I was sort of on the fence about whether this race was a good idea in preparation of the mile on wed but I simply love trail racing too much, especially when I predicted that the competition wouldn't be as stiff as most of the other races in the grand tree trail racing series. I was hoping for top 5 today and ended up 2nd. Haynes admittedly raced today and I still beat him by 3+ minutes which was sweet. He did scare me though running with me and actually catching up to me and perhaps even taking a 1/3 stride lead around the 15 minute mark. He was dropped on a steep uphill in which walking was required. Little did I know but the two guys who are way better than me got lost and I was actually leading at mile 8 or 9. One of them caught up to me and passed me like I was nothing but I rather that happen than get passed by someone else. I was running with a guy for almost the entire race and I was worried about him. He let me lead and was nice and offered me cliff blocks but I was nervous he would outkick me. Especially after what Haynes did to me in our last 5 mile race in the last 100m. I started feeling good for some reason, maybe the expired cliff shot I took but more likely the nuun I was drinking and was able to pull away on a downhill. I always feel better when i sense weakness in my opponents. I wonder if that is natural and other people feel the same way. I felt good cause I felt like I could keep pushing the entire race today despite burning in my calf muscles after the first 40 min. With only about 1.5 miles to go I took a horrible fall on some rocks. Cut up both knees, one of them swelled up to the size of a golf ball (below the knee) but doesn't really hurt. The most annoying thing was my hand. It was oozing for a couple hours in the car and is still full of dirt I couldn't get out but has stopped bleeding. It was all totally worth it though for the cool rock trophy I got! The food was awesome at the end of the race too and they had veggie burgers. I ate 3.

I also wanted to say good job to Haynes who did really well today! Without his coaching I would still completely suck instead of be respectable. There are now like 6 2nd place finishes...will I ever win one?

I can't wait for the 5 min mile to be behind me. I really hope I don't have to wait another week and can do it this wed.

legs hurt from where i fell. nothing too tight or not moving right though. feel like wed should be good for the mile attempt.
 

Ran easy today 8:05 min/mile in prep for mile tomorrow. Weather may bring rain. Not sure if that makes much difference on a track. I'll just stay with Haynes until the last lap and stay as close to him as possible...hopefully he's planning on a 4:53-4:54 which I'm sure he's capable of.

 Hopefully the motivation of never having to do this again will inspire me to dig deep!


 

Today could very easily have started one of the worst days of my life although for some reason i didn't really care. The story doesn't matter but unjustly and unexpectedly my ex-boss forced me to leave the lab and turn in my computer with my life and data and everything on it. As you can imagine that was pretty upsetting and having to deal with what is going to go down is not going to be all that nice. All of this occurred without warning only 1 hr before Haynes and I were planning on leaving for the mile race up in Boston (~1hr+) away. 

 There had been some chance of rain the day before according to weather.com so i was nervous that it would slow down my time. Haynes said he thought rain was 4 sec in a mile but i disagree. The sky was a clean blue on the drive up there. About 20 min before the race, the rain started pouring, getting my racing flats soaked, and not only that gusts of 40mph winds started. Keep in mind that my primary running goal since h.s. until i had all but given up was to break the 5 min mile. I knew I was properly trained for it, but could the elements prevent me from doing it. Haynes and I just drove 1.5hrs up here for this? Luckily the rain and wind stopped minutes before the race. The track was completely soaked though. 

 I was going to go through with this...

The meet was immediately sketchy as we started on the wrong side of the track with no mile marker. The race directors just kind of guessed but that was too sketchy and I wanted there to be no doubt that i could break a 5 min mile. We luckily found a measuring tape and measured out the extra 9 meters.

The gun went off with no warning and before i expected. We were off. I was purposely in pole position. No one looked all that fast at the meet so I led, knowing that if Haynes led, the speed would be much too fast. I felt nervous the entire first lap. Went through the 409meters in 74.7, about a 73 sec 400. No pain, surprised I wasn't challenged. The second lap I still felt nervous...the track was soaked and i was splattering Haynes who was behind me, I didn't know who else but I noticed one less pair of feet behind me as I went through the first 200 of the second lap. I came through the half way point in 2:28, still felt fine, and nervous but by the start of the 3rd lap, i began to lose the nerves, i think due to fatigue. I kept thinking, when is Haynes going to pass me. He is using me for drafting...just like last time in the 5 mile race. Haynes made a surge with about 600meters to go. This was welcomed as I now had something to focus on. I thought maybe I can hang on with him. This wouldn't be the case. Although Haynes claimed that the pace was lagging, it was not. My first 3 laps were quite consistent and lap 3 was 73.4 sec. I came through with 1 lap to go in 3:41! All I kept thinking was how much slower I could go and make my goal. Haynes was at that point 1 or 2 sec ahead of me. It was weird the uncomfortable feeling and anxiousness. I began feeling the lactic acid in my arms for the first time when Haynes passed me but it came and went. Why the arms? 

I felt like I was tanking it the last lap and was concerned that somehow i would lock up  and fail. I wasn't that pleased with my effort although could I have gone faster, who knows? Last lap was a 76+ and I came through in 4:57, 5 sec behind Haynes.

 I noticed a previous comment in his blog about how he was getting good at beating me...I did beat him by 3 min and 20 sec in the 14.4 mile trail race on sunday! In 3 trail races I have about 20 min on him while he has about 1 minute on me in 6 road races. Oh well! I guess he has a more loyal fan base than me. He's a great guy and deserves it.  

 I wonder how fast we both could have gone in ideal conditions. I think my fitness would max me out at 4:54 if everything was perfect. Tapering especially. racing the 3rd day after a 2hr trail race is surely not ideal. Nor were wet feet.  

I had a picture taken of me immediately before and after the mile. Wish i had a computer to look at it. I wish i had a video so I could see what it looked like to break the 5 min mile. I have no idea how pathetic or not pathetic my running form looks. Maybe i'll run it again but if i don't stop here, when will it stop? 

Easy 2hrs and 8 min trail run. I am now on a paid vacation till the end of June and am wishing I was already at more than 62 miles per week in my training so I could just go out and run 100 miles a week to have something to do. I started reading the Daniels' book in which Haynes gets his mad coaching skills. It was kind of depressing having it be so clear how no training can overcome talent. That I can train three times as hard as someone with more talent and not ever run as fast. That idea was what originally led me to ultra running and the idea that i could be super competitive just due to hard work and ridiculous mileage. Not many people have "the talent" to want to run a 50 mile trail race over mountains. Running goals are kind of anticlimactic after they're achieved and the goal doesn't seem like it was really that amazing after and 5 months of training for 6 sec in a mile seems absurd looking back, although i would have done it every time. For me, doing as well as i can do in a race was a sense of self worth and achievement. And when a goal that took me 10 years to conquer like the 5 min mile is done and over it is a weird feeling and i can't help wondering whether i have worse than average talent or better? 

Another easy trail run 1 hr 41 min at arcadia management area in RI. I kind of like it here slightly more than gilbert hills in Foxboro, MA. It is more wild and more options (40,000 acres) and there are a few old cemeteries. I'm still psyched i haven't seen any snakes yet this year! I like pretending they are all dead. The narrow trails were kind of disgusting as i was covered in spider webs and had 2 inch worms on me when i got back to the car. Haynes and I are going to go up to the white mtns in NH tomorrow for a 2 day trip although i kind of just want to go home after the horrendous week at work and do nothing.

Although he doesn't know it yet, I've picked out what I hope will be a pretty exciting and fun two days. Day 1 will be across the street from mt washington, we'll be getting a late start so just ~8.5 miles out and back with 5, 4000ft peaks. The next day will be across the street going up mt washington on the alleged most difficult hiking trail in the white mtns. I'm terrified of a lot of things and heights are one of them. I'm predicting the huntington ravine trail will be cake and not exposed or dangerous. Then we'll summit and take a side tour to mt isolation. maybe 15-20 miles total. I should probably check the weather...kind of hate camping, hope i can find a reasonably priced hotel nearby. 

Got up to Mt Washington, NH and started hiking around 4pm. Kind of cold as we ascended
2000+ vertical feet in under 2 miles. Got to the top of wildcat mtn and summited the other 5 wildcat summits. Had to negotiate an annoying 2 feet of snow trail which was at least solidified. Unbelievable how only 250 miles away there could still be that much snow. A fun highlight was running down wildcat mtn on the ski slopes from the very top. Blues were too steep, greens were just right. The next day we would most likely change our plans of summiting washington due to snow and ice.
 

Ran the inner loop of the pemigawasset wilderness. I had run the outer loop the previous year over the high peaks which is beautiful but due to snow and our lack of long distance training as of late were excited to be able to run most of the day. The first 8 miles were gradual uphill and almost free of roots/rocks as the trail was previously an old railroad. Got up to 13 falls campsite area in only about 1.5hrs and had fun with the falls and the swift river current. Little did we know that the next 3 miles of trail would be nonexistent. At least we knew the trail followed the river. Bushwacked for 1-2hrs and finally found the trail and the turn off for owl's head, which would be a 1500 foot climb in ~1 mile. I felt slightly nauseated today for some reason. Once down from owl's head we kept up a strong pace for the last 7 or so miles which was all slightly downhill. good day, but right around and above my achilles tendon started acting up. hopefully this will go away in a couple days

thought about not running to recover but couldn't say no to Haynes. achilles still hurting. didn't get worse during the run but probably take the next day off. there is a trail marathon looming next sunday so more rest is probably better anyways. 

Was nervous after my first day off in at least a month. Was glad I did. Felt pretty tight and slow and decided against driving somewhere for a technical trail run. Just ran the normal route on the dirt path. It was disheartening not passing people with ease at first and i wondered how i've ever run a 5 min mile and i can't even blow by recreational runners. running is so mental. i initially thought of turning around but it turned out to be good and i loosened up and felt faster by the end. anytime i think i have a serious injury i think about quitting the sport forever but i know i'm just feeling frustrated. The achilles feels no worse than before the run and 2 days of no running i don't think i could handle. Also, if i need to take more than a day off for an injury it's probably going to be a lot more and i may as well run on it and see if it gets better anyway. it's kind of funny how i didn't believe in icing until last year when after going to physical therapy for a couple months with little improvement he asked me if i was icing and i said no. after that i decided to give it a try and i now ice instead of doing physical therapy with 10x better results. who would have thought! An ice bath every day is probably the way to go. 

Today was my first ever win in any running race! Not super exciting since it is a 24 week series race but still...at least I can say i've won a "race" although it wasn't really a race as Haynes told me he would let me win today. I'm pretty sure I would have beaten him if we were racing though :) I've only ran 7.5 miles in the past 2 days before while haynes ran 22 or something.

 We planned on running right around 31 min for the 5 miles. I was kind of nervous that I would be slow even though we ran a mile race the previous week with pretty good ~5 sec PRs. When we were doing 3 workouts a week there wasn't anything to be nervous about because i knew how each workout was going to feel like. i always wonder if suddenly i forgot how to run and will just be weak and slow. we went out in 6:09, then 6:14 on the only uphill mile, then 6:03, and I felt really good at this point and felt like i was just in the zone. my left hamstring felt tight like it did a couple weeks ago after a few miles and i was worried about it again, but like the last race, it just lets me know i have a muscle there and then goes away by the end. hopefully i won't have any real problems with it. i don't know if it's just my body or if other people's act up. my shin hurt during warmup,  then  my foot. then they just go away. So mile 4 was 6:01 and during this mile Haynes was complaining about the pace. I felt like I wasn't straining at all so decided to keep it there and actually accelerate to ensure that Haynes wouldn't have a change of heart and outkick me at the end. The last mile was a 5:54 which felt pretty easy. Averaged 6:04. My second fastest 5 mile yet on probably my least effort of the season. It's hard to taper though as i feel like i'm going to get fat because i like eating too much. I'm feeling pretty good and excited i may be injury free going into the marathon.

how do people normally taper? There is probably a great deal of differences of opinion. Do they run the day before? I plan on running maybe 4 miles or so to stay loose and an easy 7-8 2 days out. The two races i really care about are a 34 mile trail race in iceland on july 12 and the cape cod marathon on oct 27, although i don't see the point in signing up for a race if i'm not going to race. it's kind of a pride thing.

ran my pre-race day 3.3 miles on the dirt path in town. felt weak, tight and got my weird shimmering vision and dizziness thing going on. it's all anxiety related. finally figured it out. It didn't progress to spots and losing vision though which was good. For some reason easy runs do that to me. Never in a race or hard workout cause i'm distracted from myself. i'm kind of nervous about doing well at nipmuck tomorrow. I have all these expectations for myself since i came in 2nd place at my last trail race. I just want to feel good and not bonk tomorrow. I have no idea how conservatively i need to start but if i don't push myself as much as i can i'll be disappointed. a marathon, especially a trail marathon is a strange distance because you can't keep a steady pace due to the terrain and it is impossible to know what that steady pace should be. i'll be psyched when it's over although i'm looking forward to it.