Boston Strong

While running 4 miles at my intended tempo pace of 7:15, I found myself wondering how I ever run a sub 20 5k, much less a sub 21!  At 4 miles I stopped, decided I was not enjoying my run, reset my watch & started running again without looking at my watch again ... I ran another 4 miles ... obviously slower ... but it did not matter, I enjoyed myself.

I have decided I am not going to worry about pace anymore, I am going to run when I want, for however long I want, and at whatever pace I want!  I will strive to keep one guideline in place, which was the first piece of advice I got when I joined this blog ... try to run 6 days a week, 1 hour a day, pace does not matter.  I enjoy my runs more that way!

Speed play workout: 4 flat intervals about 240 meters each, 3 uphill about 120 meters, and 2 downhill about 120 meters ... comfortable pace in between.

 An interesting article ... 'Essential Lydiard'

http://runningtimes.com/Print.aspx?articleID=18121

My last post should not be mistaken for 'not trying to continually improve' ... I am simply going to trust my 'inner coach', and in that process I am turning off the pace feature on my Garmin.  I will still wear it, but I have set the display to show only 'total time'.

I have achieved the time goals that are important to me ... in fact I have far exceeded them ... in a years time.  The focus of training now is to improve my performance on the soccer field ... and get back to playing soccer!  Fartlek runs and building base mileage will be most beneficial to me ... pace per mile does not matter on the soccer field.

Oh and the new profile picture is a personally signed poster by Bill Rodgers, who I met last fall at a local 10k race ... the quote at the bottom by him ... which you probably cannot read ... is:

"To be a consistent winner means preparing not just one day, one month, or even one year -but for a lifetime."

I guess to summarize  ... I believe if I decide I want to run a 2:48 marathon ... I can and will ... but there are other things that are more important to me right now.  That is the time standard for elite athletes in my age group to be invited to the USA Masters Marathon championships.  That would be pretty cool, but I would still get crushed by the competition at that time.  So a more meaningful and realistic goal would be to place top 3 in the 50+ age group ... time will tell if that is something I pursue ... but for now I just want to enjoy running.  I think that fits in best with my 5 to 15 year running goals!  :)

Rain tonight, so I did Spin for 30 min, then jumped on TM.  Started at 6.7 & bumped a notch every minute until I hit 8.7, held for 1 mile, got some water & repeated  same thing.  This gave  me a new apprecition for how I hung on & gutted out my marathon, as that was my speed for Mile 26.  1mile of that tonight was enough with a nice easy 2.5 mile progressive warmup.  I was happy when the second round was done, quick cool down on bike, and now time for some hot soup and cold beer!  There was no way to turn the speed display off on the TM, so I figured I would get a couple MP miles in ... surely  these will feel much easier in April!  :)

Relaxing hour run, 5k with Alex in morning ... not really in racing spirit, but hopefully I can muster up 20 minutes of race mojo in morning! We are doing this race for sole purpose of winning nice age group pottery awards as a gift for my mom!  

Nice brisk morning for a race ... luckily my legs responded a little better than they did in my runs all week.  Alex & I ran this for one reason .... to win nice age group awards as a gift for my mom ... mission accomplished!  The awards were hand crafted soapstone pottery dishes made in Kenya, as the race proceeds go to the battle of Kenyan children against Aids.  Really cool awards ... new profile pic!  :)

There was a 15 year old that went out like a rabbit ... and Alex started to follow ... I told him just keep him in sight, it was a long race, not a mile!  Alex half listened to me ... I think we were at about a 5:30 pace at the half mile ... where I told him again to take it easy (didn't want him to kill his old man!)  We hit the Mile Split at 5:52 ... about 10 yards behind the kid.

Mile 2 had some uphill (75'), and about halfway up the first hill, Alex pushed past him ... and I just tried to keep pace with Alex ... fortunately we had slowed down! Mile 2 was a 6:39 ... there was at least one other guy who was right on our heels & we were going to be in a battle for 3rd overall, as we were running 3,4,5.

Mile 3 had some up & down ... I was pushing hard at 2.5 on an uphill ... running side by side with Alex, as I could hear the footsteps & breathing of the guy behind us.  At this point, Alex started to fade a little, but he told me to push on.  I tried to encourage him to stay with me ... but he was hurting a little & wanted me to get 3rd, so insisted I go.  I kept pushing, but the guy stayed right on my heels ... Mile 3 was a 6:15.

With about a 1/4 mile to go, (a little earlier than I usually start a finishing kick) I decided it was time to try to bury the guy.  I ran the last 1/4 mile at a 5:22 pace.

I took 3rd by 12 seconds ... and Alex came in 5th with a 19:35 ... we both got 1st in Age Group.  It was a fun race ... and really cool technical shirts too.

PM - 48 minute recovery run

Watching conclusion of NYC marathon, details later

Drove 25 minutes to Little Mulberry Park for a little variety in terrain ... was going to meet some friends there who were planning on 12 miles.  My 'smart phone' turned the clock back 2 hours instead of one ... so I liesurely got ready in the morning, and as soon as I got in my car, I realized I was going to be an hour late & miss them.  Decided to go anyway, as I have run there once before & there are some awesome trails.

 I figured I probably would not get in 12 on my own ... but I got lost ... and was just over 12 by the time I got back to my car!  Guess that worked out good.  Great variety ... started out with a 2 mile loop on the asphalt path around a lake, figuring I might see my friends.  No such luck, so I veered off on a hilly trail into the woods for a few miles.  Came out to a pasture on top of a huge hill, where there was a cross country course that seemed to go on forever ... basically it was just a winding path mowed through the fields & there were spectactular views.  After doing this path for several miles, I headed back into the woods.  When I came back out to an asphalt path, I asked directions back to the parking lot, they said I was close ... well, they sent me to a lot on the opposite side of the 900 acre park from my car.  I was studying the maze of trails on a map when thankfully another runner came by & told me the simplest way to get there.  Great place to run, will head back soon!

Went to Sims Lake Park, which has a great 1.2 mile paved loop around a lake with rolling hills, and mileposts every 0.1 miles.  I did a mile warmup, then did (10) 0.1 mile strides with equal distance recoveries.  After this took a brief water break & ran one fast mile at 5:55 ... then rounded out my hour of running with some recovery miles.  Good workout.

Hilly route from gym, turned around at 45 minutes.  Cooled down with Spin class when got back to gym.

Sims Lake Park ... Ran for an hour ... planned on some intervals ... but didn't really feel up to it ... mentally, physically, whatever.  Decided to do a 40 minute warmup, so I got my hour in without suffering too much!  lol  After a quick water break, I ran a 6:00 mile, then cooled down for a couple miles to round out the hour.  Threw in some short sprints, but nothing worth recording, just a little soccer running simulation.  Overall, workout felt great ... after taking the first few steps ... which always seem to be the hardest.

 PM - Rogers Bridge - Went out again because it is such an awesome day out!  This is a street just down the road from where I live, which is closed to vehicuar traffic, and I recently discovered as a new training ground.  It is short (0.8/1.6 rt), but scenic as it just goes between fields & dead ends at the river.  It is great for intervals, including one short hill which is good for hill sprints, but then it is flat for the rest of the way.  I wanted to measure out a 1/4 mile & 1/2 mile for intervals ... the 1/4 is perfectly flat & straight, and the half just goes a little uphill (15') at the end ... or I guess it could be downhill at the start!  lol

After measuring out these out & my legs feeling good, I decided to do an interval in each direction ... not all out ... but a hard sustained effort.  Uphill 1/2: 5:43 pace.  Downhill 1/2: 5:33 pace.  With warm up & cool down, got in 4 miles total.

LMP - varied terrain/surface, hilly, windy ... but nice fall day ... ran 1 hour.

A progression run run in honor of all those who have made sacrifice for our freedom!

Split 1:  5.53 miles    47:20

Split 2   5.58 miles    42:20

Sims Lake Park

5 easy, 2 MP (6:53, 6:43), 1.3 cool down

4 easy, 0.5 MP (6:52),  0.5 cool down 

Kemp Road Loop - medium effort - 7:40 AP

Kemp Road Loop - This was intended to be an easier effort than yesterday.  At half way split I looked at my watch & AP was 7:40 ... so I eased off more for the return journey.  Overall AP was 7:54

Split 1:  6 miles    46:02

Split 2   6 miles    48:45

Track:  Hot, Humid, Windy

Me:  Stupid

Well, I figured I would go to the track and do a 5 minute pain test ... then try to hang on for another 20 to 30 seconds to establish a mile PR, which I have never done before.  Not that I figured I would get my best time after 3 consecutive double digit mileage days, but thought it would be a good benchmark to gauge if a 5:00 mile is a reasonable goal.  Anyway, I failed the test.

I figure I should be able to run a 5:20 mile, so I set out to do 16 100m consecutive splits of 20 secdonds ... of course I started out fast and ran the first 100 in 17 seconds.  By the time I had 800 meters in, I reasoned that was good enough for today, and bagged my plan for a mile PR ... but did do a little more track work.

800 meters:  2:38  (79/79) at least I was on pace for my 5:20 mile!  :)

400 meter recovery

400 meter: 78 seconds

400 meter recovery

Mile 5:49 (88/89/90/82)  Never looked at watch, just hit lap button every 400 meters ... this was not intended as a mile PR, just fast running at a pace I felt I could sustain for the whole mile ... I did push hard the last 200 meters.

Mile cool down at 8:20

Overall I was pleased to get some faster running in on high mileage.  On a side note, just to confirm the inaccuracy of Garmin on a track, my mile time (1600 meters) showed 1.07 miles and a 5:27 pace ... which is why I never look at avg. pace while running on a track!

Perhaps over Thanksgiving Alex and I will head to a track and establish a mile PR ... although I doubt I will rest up for it, building an aerobic base is higher priority for me right now.  Having Alex on the track with me will definitely make it easier to keep pushing past the 800 meter mark!

 PM - Went out for a nice jog in light rain - medium effort - 4.2 @ 7:43

Sims Lake Park - Ran for an hour - (5) 160 meter strides in Mile 6 - 8:15 AP

PM -Windermere Park loop from gym before spin.  4 at 7:32  AP 

Had to do something while they put tires on car for trip.  Ran from Discount Tire to Mary Alice Park, 1mile on trail, and back.  Car was done ... woohoo.

7.5 @ 7:58 AP 

PM - Stopped at Rogers Bridge on way home to attempt to jump start metabolism to counter double serving lunch of Bejing Beef & chow mein ... and future liquid carbs.  1.5 @ 6:55

Cochran Shoals - ran with a group that meets every Saturday morning, mostly chatted with a gal who just ran a sub 3 in NYC ... and ran the first 16 miles with a guy from the blog who she randomly met at the start line ... who was also going for a sub 3.  About 8 of us went for breakfast after ... nothing better than a good breakfast after a run!

18 @ 7:30 pace, felt good so just kept going, cooled down with2 slow miles at finish to hopefully aid recovery.  Never really pushed, thought about trying to finish with a  3:18 26.2, but wisely stopped at 18  as I was running on a bagel and had no GUs or liquid, other than my handheld bottle of cranberry juice! Had no idea what I was going to run when I started.

I am in PA visiting parents for holidays with my son, so yesterday was a 10 hr drive, not sure that counts as a day of rest, but there was no running. 

8 @ 7:54pace along windy river.   

11 @ 8:10 AP

 Happy Thanksgiving to All!

7.2 @ 7:45ap, followed by large  piece of pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream

Always love a good progression run, legs felt good today - 9 miles @ 7:25 AP, 0.6 cool down

8:28, 8:11, 7:55, 7:37, 7:28, 7:13, 6:54, 6:42, 6:15

Ran the Harrisburg 'Capital City Greenbelt' loop, 18.6 miles @ 8:20 pace.  Easy pace, felt pretty good, until last mile when I really, really just wanted to be done!

Was going to go light for a few days, but got on Internet to look for a trail.  Found a rail trail just 22 minutes from my parents ... flat & soft surface thru countryside ... perfect! I think it goes for ever ... and kind of wanted to see where it would take me ... but decided it best to turn around at 9 miles where I found a place I could refill my water bottle.  I really need to keep a spare gel in my water bottle pocket for these unplanned adventures!

Anyway, trail was awesome ... I love flat, soft surface running!  18 @ 8:16 pace. Out in 1:15:40, Back in 1:13:17 ... finished with only sub 8 mile in 7:37 & was glad to be done, but was comfortable whole run ... pretty countryside.

Found a great diner on way home, was feeling quite famished ... and now feel bloated!

8 easy on ss trails at Wildwood lake with a bunch of short strides thrown in randomly.8:30 AP

PM - After running 100 miles in the last 10 days at a 'slower' pace, I was afraid I might forget how to run faster ... so I went out in the wind and rain to run a few faster miles.  No warmup, just jumped right into it & legs felt pretty good, so at the 1 mile mark, I decided to make it a 5k effort ... without going overboard & putting forth race effort.  Ran a 20:30 5k with splits of 7:04, 6:29, 6:23, & 5:49 pace for the last tenth. 

Considering my 5k pr a year ago was 21:07, I was pretty pleased with this effort after my highest mileage month ... and I feel a little better that I have not forgotten how to run faster!  Did a half mile cool down ... I don't do it that often, but it is always refreshing to run in the rain followed by a hot shower!

I set out to do a 40 mile bike ride on the rail trail ... flat tire at Mile 26 ... so I got to run the last 14 back to the car.  So much for a day of running rest!Ran with the bike at my side the first couple miles until I came to a crossroad where I could stash it.  Made for a pretty long day.