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USATF Eastern Regional Championships

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20072008
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Location:

Alexandria,VA,USA

Member Since:

Jun 03, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

4:34 mile, DC RR Mile, 2007

15:39 5k, Occidental College, 2007

25:52 8k, Rockville Twilighter, 2007

32:54 10k, Shelter Island (tough course!), 2004

49:30 15k, Tulsa Run, 2001

52:21 10 mile, Broad Street Run, Philly (fast course!), 2007

1:08:49 half marathon, Hobble Creek (downhill), 2001

2:28:55 marathon, St. George (downhill), 2006

2:33:04 marathon, Chicago, 2001

Short-Term Running Goals:

15:20 5k

4:25 mile

2:26:00 marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

sub 15:00 5k

sub 2:22:00 marathon

Personal:

I live in Alexandria, VA, but still consider myself affiliated with Wasatch Athletics in Salt Lake City, UT, and High Noon A.C. in Ithaca, NY. My coach is Demetrio Cabanillas.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
340.000.000.000.00340.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

1:39:01 Georgetown trails + Bethesda to Metro

This was a very chilled out run with a friend of mine, John Mclean.  His father, Norman Mclean, wrote "A River Runs Through It".

After the run I went to Fitness First and lifted weights, only 2 sets of each (lunges, knee lifts, curls, leg press), as opposed to the usual 3 sets.
 

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

Clopper 10 1:15:02.  Beautiful weather!

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

noon: 3 (22:00) NIST, shakeout

pm: Landon H.S. track

6 sets of drills + 4 x 800 w/ 400 rest

2:22.9, 2:22.0, 2:22.3, 2:22.1

Ice bath after the work out. 

This is sort of turning into my pre-race workout. This type of workout is endorsed by coaches like Brad Hudson (Ritz's coach) and Roy Benson for runners like me who are more strength oriented as opposed to speed oriented. Benson argues that strength runners should "freshen" rather than "sharpen". When you sharpen you cut back on mileage significantly and do short, fast intervals like 200s the week of the race. However, I have not had good success with this. Cutting back on mileage too much makes me feel tight and I actually think it is harder for me to recover from fast 200s. Benson and Hudson argue that strength runners should cut back the mileage only slightly and cut back on the intensity of the speed work. Hence, this is the plan I'm following, basically.... 90 miles for the last 4 weeks and 70 miles this week with longer intervals for the final speed session. I did a similar "taper" for the Broad Street 10 mile and had a great race... We'll see how this works out for the 5k this Sat.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.0011.00

noon: Temple 10 10.3 in 1:07:44, then jogged a half mile to and from the gym where I did an abbreviated weights session: 1 set each of lunges, curls, knee lifts, and leg press.  Then came home and took an ice bath.

I felt strong on my run and I think this puts to rest any problems Neal was having with my "easy" noon 10 milers.  This felt like a similar effort that I put in on my noon trail runs from NIST, which even though the Clopper course comes out a little shorter, I think I am getting in decent quality.  Today's run happens to be mostly flat, a little downhill on the way out.
 

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.000.000.006.00

noon: NIST 6 42:52

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.000.000.006.00

noon: NIST treadmill, 43:18.  I went with the treadmill option today because I wanted to monitor my pace closely and not get excited and overdo it on the hills around here.  Tomorrow is the big day: USATF Eastern Championships in Albany, 5k.  Aside from a 6 hour drive that I have ahead of me this afternoon, I think I am ready to go...

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Race: USATF Eastern Regional Championships (3.1 Miles) 00:15:45, Place overall: 7
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

Ugh.  I have been dreading writing this report.  Utter disappointment.  If it weren't for being able to hang out with old friends on this trip, it would have been a total waste of gas.

The sad details...

Drove out of D.C. after renting a sweet, golden Chevy Cobalt (my Jeep is out of commission) and found myself in grid-lock traffic for next hour on I-270 to Frederick.  Made it into Albany at 12:30 a.m.  Jon Healey arranged a room at the Days Inn right across the street from SUNY, Albany.  Woke up at 5 a.m. and went for a 2 mile shakeout.  Eat a bowl of Trader Joe's Cranberry Oat Clusters and then walked next door to Starbucks to read and have coffee (now 6:00 a.m.).   At 7 I went to wake Healey and stretch out and watch ESPN.  At 8 I had a vanilla Frappaccino and ate a chewy granola bar (this is the same drill I went through at Oxy last month).  At 9:30 we (Healey and I) went over to the track and checked in and at 10 we started a 3 mile warm up.  It was already starting to get hot.  They called us to the start a bit early and I really did not get to do all the striders I would have liked.  I probably got 4 striders in.  I threw some water on my head and got ready to go.  There was a pretty good field assembled, with qualifying times ranging from 15 flat to 16ish.  This looked to be perfect... surely I could find a group to go 15:30.  Well, indeed there was such a group... only not the one I was in!  Before the race, Jon had talked to another guy who said he was shooting for 15:30 and I was fairly confident that Healey was in 15:30 shape as well.  So, there did not seem to be any reason to go crazy at the start, since it appeared we had a group that could hit 15:30 with even splits.

At the gun the field quickly broke into two groups.  I stayed in the second group and we went through the first lap in 74, perfect.  Then 73s for the next two and another 74 for a 4:56. first mile.  This is exactly where I wanted to be.  But for whatever reason, the heat, wind, whatever, things got really hard really fast, and within a lap Healey and I were by ourselves.  We traded a couple of quarters, but Jon then fell off pace and I managed to get through the second mile in roughly 5:02.  And here is where I crumbled mentally.  It was just like the 3x1mile workout I had a couple of weeks ago... just did not want to go.  The group ahead of me was in striking distance and I should have been able to use them as a target and go after them... but just didn't.  Instead of focusing on the work at hand I just started thinking about how much I wanted the race to be over.  Hence, the quarter splits just started going downhill, 76,77,78,79, for roughly a 5:12 last mile.  I scorched the last 200 with a 34.9.

Well, back to the drawing board.  There are too many factors to point my finger at just one and say that was the problem.  I could blame the heat, but I have been working out in the heat.  I could blame the drive, but in CA I had a 6 hr plane flight.  In the end I was not mentally tough enough that day.  I think there is something to the theory that you can only put together so many mentally taxing efforts without recharging.  I have seen this before in my running.  I think it is possible that I left my PR race on the track a few weeks ago.  There is just no question in my mind that my workouts point to me being in 15:30 shape.  I mean, even if the weather conditions were ideal in CA a month ago,  I had not done much speed work at that point.  Since then, I have been really hammering the workouts on the track.  This result basically tells me that whatever I had done before CA, which was more or less just a bunch of miles and tempo runs, had maxed out my VO2 max and that all these long interval workouts were doing me no good.  In fact, they were hurting me, because I was losing the edge mentally.  Peaking both physically and mentally is difficult and I apparently have much to learn in terms of how to approach this for the 5k.

Then there is the mileage factor.  Before CA I had about 3 wks of 70, because I had other races leading up to that one.  Here I have been at 90+ until this past week and then brought it down to 67.  Maybe with a couple of 60-70 mile weeks I'd be ready to go (?).  We'll see.  I think I'll take the next couple weeks around 70 and then run a road 5k and see where I am.


 

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.000.000.000.0013.00

Utica, NY, 1:36:21

Ran around Utica and caught glimpses of the Boilermaker at miles 2 and 9.  Dennis and Michelle Simonaitis were running the race.  It was very hot out there.  The performances were impressive. 

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Took a day off, finally. I looked back and had not had a day off in over a month. The result from Sat has made me start to re-evaluate some things and one thing I think I'll try this fall is to take a day off each week. Should be an interesting experiment.

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

noon: Clopper 10 1:14:53, 101 deg F!!

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.000.000.000.0020.00

noon: NIST 6 41:52, HOT!

p.m.: track workout, Washington-Lee H.S.

3 mi warm up/2 mi cool down

9 sets of drills (~2 miles) + 20 x 400m with 200 rest

73.9, 74.1, 74.0, 74.5, 74.8,

74.3, 74.4, 73.6, 75.2, 74.1,

73.2, 72.9, 74.0, 72.8, 72.2,

72.8, 72.8, 73.2, 72.3, 72.2.

 

Very hot, very humid! The goal of this workout was to run each set of five with a negative average split, starting with 5k pace (75) and working down. I was somewhat successful, though there were certainly occasions where I lost concentration. By the time I was done it literally looked like I had jumped in a swimming pool. I'll bet I lost 5 lbs in water weight. I took a short water break after each set of 5.

By the way, you might noticed that I changed my picture to highlight the fact that XC season is just around the corner!

 

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

noon: NIST 6 42:55, nice weather finally!

pm: Bethesda 6 42:36
 

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

noon: Clopper 10 1:16:09

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

Temple 10 1:05:40.  I did a 25 min warm up on CC trail on my usual 10 mile course and then did 10 x 1 min on/off fartlek at between 1 mile and 2 mile race pace for my "on". Not sure if this is the optimal workout right now, but I felt terrible this morning -- woke with a tension headache and just could not stomach the thought of mile repeats. Given that I already did 5 miles worth of speed on Wed and this is only a 75 mile week I figured about 2 miles of speed would be sufficient (the 10% rule of thumb). Maybe it is even excessive. I have to admit that I am sort of flailing mentally right now. Last weekend really shook my confidence in my training. I think this simply means it is time to rebuild. But I am committed to this 8k next Sat. So I am just trying to give myself a fighting chance there. Then I'll try to refocus with a coherent plan.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.000.000.000.0016.00

2:00:56

Brian Tullock and I met at 8 am at Roosevelt Island.  We went out on the GT trails for an hour and then met back at the parking lot to pick up Eric and Kyle.  Brian did another 40 mins or so and I tacked on 20 more min by myself to get 2 hrs.  This probably more than 16 miles, but I am too lazy to map it out.  My guess is that it was close to 17. 

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.000.000.000.0016.00

NOON: Clopper 10 1:14:13

PM: Bethesda 6 40:43

It is amazing how much faster I do my easy runs after a day off. 

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
14.000.000.000.0014.00

NOON: NIST 4 29:40, shakeout

PM:  track workout, Washington Lee H.S., 10 miles total

3 warm up, 6 sets of drills, 1600m, 800 rest, 4 x 400m with 400 rest

4:45.6

67.7, 66.8, 67.2, 65.7

I did this workout mostly in the dark.  I showed up late and did not know the lights were not working last night.  Luckily, the city lights were enough.  But it is still hard to run all out in the dark.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

Clopper 10 1:18:29

Humid!  Finally started sprinkling toward the end of the run.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.000.000.000.004.00

NOON: NIST 4+, 31:42

Just a jog before the race tomorrow night. 

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Race: Rockville Twilight Runfest 8k 00:25:52
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.000.000.000.0013.00

1 PM: 2 mile shakeout, 14:52, Bethesda

8:45 PM: Twilight 8k, 25:52, PR

Mile splits: 5:11.6, 5:18.2 (10:29.8), 5:12.0 (15:41.9), 5:20.6 (21:02.4), 4:49.9 (25:52.3) - last segment equivalent to a 4:58 mile.

I took the Metro out to Rockville and got there aroung 7 PM, checked in, and walked the first 2 miles of the course.  Then warmed up for 3 miles on the last section of the course.  Then did about a mile worth of drills and striders.  Cooled down for a couple of miles after the race with a couple of the guys from DC Road Runners, Joe and Mark.  It is pretty funny: I have met three guys from DCRR and of these three Joe went to Cornell (where I did my postdoc), Mark went to Utah (grad school for me) and Monte went to Tulsa (my undergrad).

A couple of people told me that this course was fast.  But I assure you that it is not.  It is a tough course.  It starts and finishes at the same place and there are two significant hills, as you can see from my 2nd and 4th miles splits and there are other rolling hills in between.  HOWEVER, I will concede that it is a good, and possibly fastish, race.  The reasons for this are:

1.  It is held at 8:45 pm and so it is cool (relatively).  I still doused my head with water at every station.

 2. The competition is amazing!  The winning time was 23 something and this was for a measly $350 and it only went 5 deep in prize money.  Yet I was never in danger of being in "no man's land".  I was surrounded by people the whole race.  I recognized a dude that I had run with at Broad Street 10 miler in Philly.  So I keyed off him for the first few miles.

 3. The last mile is a slight down hill.  So, even thought the first 4 miles are tough, if you have budgeted your effort correctly you can really cruise on the last mile.  I was really happy with the way I paced in this race.  Before seeing the course I had designs on going sub 26.  But once I warmed up I told myself that my best result will come if I can manage a sub 5 for the last mile, and this is what I did.

My philosophy is that you should always be pleased with a PR.... and indeed I feel pretty good about this one.  The McMillan calculator equates this to a 15:42 5k, which seems to be about right given my performances of late.  So, I still contend that I am in 15:30 5k shape, and maybe on a flat 8k course this would have been true.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
17.000.000.000.0017.00

Georgetown trails plus the canal path.  This was a 2 hr+ run and probably closer to 18 miles, but I missed clicking my watch at some point and was running the last half with John McLean and so not sure about the total distance.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.000.000.000.0016.00

NOON: Clopper 10 1:16:59 + weights

PM: Bethesda 6 41:59

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.000.000.006.00

NOON: NIST 6 42:27

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Race: DC Road Runners Mile (1 Miles) 00:04:34, Place overall: 5
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

NOON: NIST 2 15:12 shakeout

PM: DC RR Mile, Wakefield H.S.

3 mile warm up, 1 mile strides and drills

Splits: 69.0 (409m), 67.5, 68.5, 68.7 = 4:33.8 PR!

Their hand timer had me at 4:34.2. But I think the dude was snoozin'. So on my "official" time I posted to the blog I split the difference.

The weather was good and the track was nice. This is a really good event. Simple but competitive, and FREE! The Pacers team showed up to take the tape on pretty much every race. The mile was won in 4:24. The elite women's mile was won in 5:06.

After the mile I also ran the 3000 m as a workout in 9:26.7. I started out running 78 and to my pleasant surprise managed to start hitting 75s as the race progressed. Can't remember what place I cam in here. The winner was 9:00. I was like 5th again. All in all, a pretty productive evening. I figure I got in about 10 miles total for the night, giving 12 for the day. I leave for Tulsa tomorrow morning early and get in late. It is going to be a challenge to get my miles in for the week since I already took Tuesday easy before this mile race.

Check it out... Joe LaMonte sent me this link. Apparently, someone from Georgetown Running Co. took a video of the mile. Joe (who ran for Cornell, by the way) is the one leading the second group (once the race gets going), and I am in the white singlet, trailing in the second group for most of the race. Man, it looks like we are jogging!

http://georgetownrunningcompany.blogspot.com/2007/07/video-of-dcrrc-mile-race-on-072507.html#links+



Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.000.000.006.00

AM: Fly to Tulsa.

PM: 6, 45:11, Bud's loop, Tulsa, OK, with Brian McKinney

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.000.000.000.0020.00

NOON: 13, 1:28:38, Golfball Hill.  This is an old Tulsa favorite.  We use to run this from Todd Posey's house near 61st and Yale, but now my buddy Bryan Jewett lives very near the same place and I was staying with him.  It was brutally hot!

PM: 7+, 53:00, I will call this Mike Willmering's old loop.  Ran with Brian McKinney.  Basically started at Brian's place and go through Maple Ridge and out and around Utica Square and back on the first part of Bud's loop.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
14.000.000.000.0014.00

AM: 11.5, 20 x 200 on/off at about 31 on the river.  Ran with McKinney and Jason Lee.

PM: 2.5, 18:09.  This is one of the first times I have ever done this, but I just wanted to get in 90 miles this week, so I jogged a couple in the afternoon... again, I cannot tell you hot it was! 

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.000.000.000.0016.00

NOON:  Ugh!  This was a death march.  We had our band reunion last night and I was up until the wee hours.  I missed the 6:30 AM (relatively cool) run with McKinney and Jason and ended up getting to the river around 10:30.  I started feeling human again around mile 8 and then the sun stroke started to set in.  This run was basically 16 x 1 mile at 7:30-8:00 pace.  Brutal heat.  I went to the river because they have water fountains every mile.  So I just stopped and took a bath every mile.  I survived.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
18.000.000.000.0018.00

NOON: NIST 6 41:39

PM: 12, track, 3 mi warm up, 2 miles drills, 8 x 800 with 200 rest "cruise intervals"

2:36, 2:34, 2:33, 2:35, 2:35, 2:29, 2:32, 2:32

I did this workout with Joe and Mark from DC RR.  Joe suggested the workout.  According to McMillan, for someone in 15:30 5k shape, cruise intervals should be at 2:33 - 2:36.  So, we hit our marks pretty well.  In the end, this felt a bit too easy.  But maybe that is a good thing.  We are racing a deuce on Friday night.  Let's save the heroics for then.

 

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
340.000.000.000.00340.00
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