Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 6 miles.

PM - 4 miles w/ Andrea.

I tore through an excellent book during my Atlanta trip that I'd highly recommend: The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease. Lieberman is a very interesting evolutionary biologist and I've enjoyed reading his work since coming across his 2004 publication in Nature back in college, which he co-wrote with a researcher from the University of Utah.

And speaking of health and disease... baseball started.

AM - 7 miles.

PM - 5 miles + 8 x 100m strides.

AM - 10 miles. Fartlek: 3 x (5 x 1 minute) at 15K/10K/5K effort, or thereabouts... just ramped up the effort a bit on each set (4:54/4:50/4:46). One minute jog b/w reps, 3 minutes b/w sets.

PM - 3 miles.

This podcast with John Davis of Running Writings is excellent. He touches on a lot of important topics including injury prevention (hip strength!) and has some great thoughts on recovery.

AM - 5 miles. 

That's all for today. Flying to DC after work. Runnerspace will have results from the race, which means they probably won't be up until Tuesday.

AM - 5 miles + 8 x 100m strides. Around Arlington VA w/ Andrea and Luke.

I was going to just post a condensed version here, but now it seems easier to copy and paste from Wasatch and Beyond with all of Andrea's photos. So here is the long-form Cherry Blossom report with bonus puppy photos...

USA 10 Mile Championships (Cherry Blossom) - 50:12 - 26th overall, 16th American.

I've had Cherry Blossom on the calendar since the day it was announced as this year's USATF 10 Mile Championship back in January. I have a lot of friends in DC and lived there for a summer, so I've been excited all winter about this trip. Andrea and I flew in Friday evening and spent Saturday relaxing and catching up with friends (and did the same all day Sunday after the race). It was a really fun weekend.

On race morning I got dropped off at the Lincoln Memorial and proceeded to warmup around the National Mall. I've run here many times, but its always a cool place to be early in the morning. The elite women started at 7:18, and then we were off 12 minutes later. The field was solid - plenty of high caliber African runners, plus the USA Championship field.

 

 

As you can see on the race video (starting ~17:00 for the guys, I'm still in there a few minutes later), I was able to latch to the very back of the main pack for a little over a mile, as the real elite runners were out at a somewhat conservative pace. The pace accelerated before we hit the Memorial Bridge and I knew it wasn't sustainable to be in the back of that group any longer. The two-mile split was 9:51 (plenty fast). I was already running solo - I recognized some of the guys up in front of me (Sean Brown, Ben Sathre - bibs with names on the back of our singlets was nice) but it would have taken a huge effort to close that gap. I tried to keep them in range and focus on maintaining a steady effort.

I came through 5K in 15:21 and 5 miles in 24:55, picking off a few guys during these miles. 

 

 

The first half of the course has several 180 degree turns, but the out and backs make it an excellent course for spectators. Andrea was at 5-6 spots during the race with Curran and Baumann, the Merkels (on bikes) were all over the place, Luke (running the race) yelled for me during the out and backs, Big Cat Brett was prowling around in the trees, and the ElliptiGo team with Jeff Caron was out cheering as well. It was almost like a track meet during the first 10K - feedback and encouragement every quarter mile!

I was running well as we came through the halfway point and headed out for the loop in East Potomac Park. Miles 6-8 were 4:59, 4:57, 4:52. Sathre pulled away after 10K (30:57), but I passed a few guys before we got to Haines Point including Sergio Reyes, who was clearly having an off day.

I don't know what happened in the 9th mile (5:22!!!). We were running into a slight headwind at this point (look at the flags on the race video as I finished - 1:06:00 on the video - and yes I had to out-kick a girl - we caught a few of the elite women in the final miles), but I don't feel like I slowed down THAT much. I tried to maintain/close the gap to the guy ahead of me (Brown). It was definitely a shock to see that split. In hindsight, that mile was probably marked a bit long and the previous one was short. I came through 15K in ~46:45 and just like that, I was climbing the final hill and the race was over. Finished in 50:12 - 26th overall, 16th American. Five mile splits were 24:55 / 25:17 (yuck).

After the race I spent some time chatting with the other athletes and coaches (Hansons) - that is one of the best parts about championship races... these are the best athletes and coaches in the country - the ones you want to be competing against and interacting with. Andrea and I ran a cool down from the Washington Monument to the Capitol building and back... again, just a cool atmosphere and great location for a big race. And it's a BIG race (17,000 runners!).

I'll make a strong attempt to come back and run this again next year. Now that my parents will be living in the area, I'll be heading to the East coast for races instead of Arizona. Hopefully they'll be hosting the USA Champs again and I can do the Gate River / Cherry Blossom double. I shouldn't be thinking about 2015 race schedules yet, but I can't help myself sometimes.

Overall I'd say this was a good, but not great, performance. It was my best run of 2014 so far (season bests for 5K, 10K, and 15K en route), but I still feel like I should have broken 50 minutes. The good thing about this race is that it tells me exactly where I'm at... and that means probably aiming for 65:15-30 instead of 64:XX in Indianapolis next month (although things can change with another good month of training). I'm very glad I already made the decision to skip the spring marathon and keep my focus on the half through the end of June. I think that I'm definitely on the right trajectory (steadily improving) but it is going to take some more time (and laser focus on the little stuff) to achieve my goals this spring. I embrace that challenge.

Playing with Maggie the puppy and hanging in the sunshine took up the rest of the weekend...

 

AM - I suppose I could have gone for a run before our flight, but that didn't really seem necessary or the best way to recover.

PM - 8 miles.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 7 miles. Last 4 w/ Andrea at Wheeler Farm.

Congrats to Collin for winning the FRB NCAA bracket. He gets a pair of shoes. Andrea won the women's division... she gets eight cases of powerbars and $1,000 cash.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles + 8 x 100m strides.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles + 8 x 100m strides. Last 4 w/ Andrea at Wheeler Farm.

Another recovery day. Actually doing the post-race thing correctly (for the first time ever). I want to get the full stimulus from the race and be fresh for the last block of workouts before Indy, which will start tomorrow.

AM - 18 miles. LT Shuffle: 10 x 3/1 minute efforts. Same guidelines/recovery as usual. Average paces were 4:57/mile for the 3 minute efforts and 4:47/mile for the 1 minute efforts. 6:15/mi avg for the whole run. Probably could have hit this a little harder, but started conservative and never really got motivated to start blasting it. Splits were very tight... except the last 3 minute effort where I opened it up a bit and realized I should have done that a few reps sooner. Better to leave a little in the tank, though... back to the track on Monday.

PM - 4 miles.

AM - 8 miles. Andrea and I drove the one mile over to the horsepark to maximize soft surface time.

Zero percent chance that I'll stay up late enough to watch this, but London is going to be quite a race.

PM - Skinned up to the Emma Ridge before a full hour in the Peruvian hot tub and then a fancy dinner. Pure slush conditions.

AM - Skinned to Twin Lakes Pass after breakfast. Dust on crust skiing. Better than we thought it would be after how warm and sloppy it was yesterday.

PM - 8 miles + 8 x 100m strides. Andrea biked along. We waited until the sun came out for good.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 8 miles. 30 minute warmup w/ Andrea + 8 x 100m strides on the track. Workout was 8 x 400m (90s, 1500m pace). Averaged 66.3 seconds. Cooled down 15 minutes on the grass at SHP. 

Not an awful workout, but not what I was looking for. Ran the first one in 64.2 which I found out I'm not ready for yet. This workout exposes a very obvious weakness... but then again, weaknesses like this are also very obvious opportunities. I need to be spending more time on the track running shorter intervals in May and June. I have time to make some serious improvements before Duluth. And when I look at the whole plan for the year, I have a little over 3 months until I'll start my Chicago buildup. There's no doubt that by that time I can get fast enough to properly train for the marathon.

AM - 9 miles. Decided to really shake things up and run something other than eight miles. Gotta keep the body guessing. #CRoSsFiT4Life#

PM - 6 miles.

AM - 18 miles. LT Shuffle: 8 x 5/1 minute efforts. Average pace was 5:02/mile for the 5 minute efforts and 4:52/mile for the 1 minute efforts. 6:08/mile average for the entire run.

FLAT this morning. I could tell from the first one-minute effort. I did this same workout a few weeks ago (March 25) faster (although I blew up at the end of that one). I just didn't have any pop in my legs (obvious on the 1 minute portions), which is almost definitely because I did this too close to the Monday evening 400s. I have a (stupid) work trip in the middle of next week to New Jersey, so I shuffled a few things in my workout schedule to avoid having to do a harder workout while I'm there. The downside is that I did today's session on tired legs. The upside is that I kept it at true threshold and completed the full workout at a consistent effort level without trying to match the last time I did this and destroying myself in the process.

Splits:

PM - 4 miles.

AM - 9 miles.

PM - 8 miles.

Somebody tell this guy to make a website with some actual details.

AM - 5 miles. 

PM - 5 miles. 

Took the day off from work and we went up to Snowbasin to ski. It was slushy. The low elevation combined with warm temperatures turned the entire mountain into mashed potatoes. Hardly anyone there... had the place to ourselves. Fun day.

AM - 12 miles. 4 mile warmup to HHS + 8 x 100m strides. Workout was 5 x 800m (3K, 2:00) in 2:17.5 average. Exact same average as last time, but splits were tighter today. Since I didn't go any faster, I needed to add something to the session, so I did 10 x 200m (1500, 200m jog) in ~33 seconds average. Should have been a man and just added on an additional 800m rep. Cooled down 3 miles back home.

PM - 3 miles. Laps around the Alta parking lot for 25 minutes. We might have spent close to 3 hours in the hot tub before/after dinner. My muscles should be sufficiently loose now.

Workouts were sort of "blah" this week... in some ways I felt like I was just going through the motions. It's difficult to keep the sharp mental focus all the time. The important thing is that I start to dial it back in over the next two weeks as I get closer to Indianapolis.

AM - 4 miles. Laps around the Alta parking lot for 37 minutes. I figured 9:00 pace was being generous so I threw in that extra minute just to be safe. 

PM - 6 miles.

Skied closing day (sort of - they're actually open for two more weekends) at Alta. We watched some pretty impressive hot dogging during the afternoon. Two guys (fully naked, of course) launching double backflips was the highlight of the competition. After that run, a guy (with 3 kids) skied by and said "Man, it doesn't get any better than that." I'd agree. Spring skiing is great. What a way to spend Easter Sunday!

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 6 miles.

I guess 122 is the magic number :-)

I'm sure there will be a thousand quotable quotes about Meb this week, but I like this one from Scott Douglas to start: Draw strength from setbacks. Work hard while maintaining perspective. These simple principles can be hard to regularly practice. Of the many reasons to appreciate Meb, his embodiment of those lessons in good times and bad is the best.

AM - 10 miles. Bombed workout. Plan was a LT Shuffle: 4 x (2 miles, 1/4 mile)... a more HM-specific version of the 5 x 8/1 that completed this set of workouts. I ended up cutting it short and only did 2 x (2 miles, 1/4 mile) in 10:05, 72, 10:10, 73. I started the third rep and had to stop after about a minute, then walked home. There are two specific things I don't talk about on my blog, and the reason this workout was a failure falls into one of those categories. I'm not injured.

PM - 8 miles. Mainly around Weequahic Park in Newark, NJ. The park has a two mile rubberized (track surface!) path. I've never seen anything like it. A pleasant surprise among all the power lines and cemeteries.

Awesome - American Strong: The Untold Story of American Teamwork and How Ryan Hall Helped Meb Keflezighi Win Boston

AM - 8 miles. Weequahic Park.

PM - 4 miles. Snuck out for a lunch run because my flight leaves immediately after this meeting breaks.

Not my photo but you get the idea...

AM - 10 miles.

PM - 6 miles w/ 10 x 30 second pickups, starting very sluggishly ~MP effort and working down to ~3K effort by the end.

I'm planning a track workout tomorrow and then a very short tune-up tempo on Monday. That's it between now and Indy. Hopefully some powder skiing this weekend if the storm hits right!

AM - 11 miles. 8 x 600m in 1:46.2 avg (5K, 90s, target ~1:47) + 6 x 400m in 67.9 avg (3K, 90s, target ~68-69) + 4 x 200m in 31.7 avg (1500, 60s, target ~32-33). 3 up to the HHS track, 3 down back home.

PM - 4 miles. Horsepark.

AM - 10 miles. Horsepark. Almost squeezed this in before noon, so I can call it a morning run.

Seems like racing at the Portland Track Festival in June won't happen due to logistical reasons, so I think I'm finally going to be a man (at least for a half-hour) and run Bolder Boulder this year. [4/29 update: Or maybe not. I think that I have changed my mind about this... AGAIN]

Went up to Brighton in the afternoon to check out the snow and skin a lap off Millicent. Sierra Cement, blustery wind... forecast is looking good for tomorrow to be a really great day, though!

AM - 5 miles.

PM - 5 miles.

Skied at Brighton w/ Andrea and Amiee. It felt like the middle of winter - cold, but the snow was powder and since Brighton has been closed for a week - untouched. Days like this are always great. We found a perfect spot in the trees and lapped it four times. I'll hold out hope for another storm like this, but I fear this may be our last powder skiing of the year. Another foot of snow really helped our chances of skiing well into June, though.

Since neither of those girls use the blog anymore, I'll post a lot of photos...

AM - 8 miles. Warmed up ~20 minutes, then 5 x 30s (5K effort), 2 miles at HM pace (9:58), 5 x 30s (3K effort). Tempo loop.

PM - Awesome night. Headed straight up to Brighton after work and got in a few laps. Another 8-10" came down last night (and it was really cold), so it was light, perfect, hero snow. I would say the best powder I've skied all season. More photos on the Wasatch blog: Monday Night Special.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 4 miles.

Another cheater goes down.

AM - 8 miles.

PM - 3 miles + 8 x100m strides.