How Much Discomfort Can I Tolerate?!

Weather - 86 degrees, sunny, humid.

An easy 5 miles today through Busey Woods and the park. Lately my easy runs have included a fast paced 1-2 miles. Today the final 2 miles were run at 6:10 pace. A few months ago I would not have considered that an easy run, but my current fitness level is not strained by shortened bursts of speed. If I were to run 5 miles at 6:10 pace, that would be too hard, I am not fit enough yet for that to seem easy.

#247

Weather - 86 degrees, sunny, humid.

I wanted to run some short distances at a hard effort, so I headed to the track so that I could put a time to my effort.

I ran an initial 400m at a moderately hard pace to get warm, and came in at 81 seconds.

The second 400m I went at 95% effort, and hit a 73. I had never run a 400m faster than race pace, so I did not know what to expect concerning time, perhaps a 76-77, so was pleasantly surprised.

After a 4 minute walking recovery I decided to run a mile at 95% effort, and came in at 5:54. I was expecting to run 5:46-5:50.

After thinking about the mile run, I realize that I have rarely run a mile at full effort. I have no idea how to pace myself with the distance. It is short enough to not allow an initial easy pace, yet long enough to prevent a sprinting pace at the start. With practice I should be able to bring my mile time down.

I then ran easy to the arboretum and took off my shoes and ran .75 miles in the grass.

Afterward 3 sets of strength exercises, stretching, and a 15 minute walk home.

#248

Weather - 83 degrees, sunny, humid.

An unusual running day. Michelle will be watching our pets this weekend since we will be in the Quad Cities for the Bix 7. She wanted to meet me today for a run with the 2nd Wind club at Meadowbrook Park so that I could give her our house key.

A couple of years ago I never missed a Tuesday "fun" run with the club. However, I eventually determined that running the concrete pathway at Meadowbrook was causing too much stress on my feet. Once I stopped going to the fun run and did the majority of my workouts on trails and grass my body felt less stressed.

I arrived at Meadowbrook at 6:30, just in time for the mile portion of the run. I decided I was going to give another hard mile effort, just as yesterday. I was talking with Michelle in the back of about 40 people when the mile started, so I had to run on the outside grass for about 100M. When I got to the front I saw Ken Welle giving a good effort, so I tried to get close to him. I caught him with 800m to go, and then started to press the effort. There was one runner ahead of me, and I used him to pull me through to the finish. I ran 5:55, so 1 second slower than yesterday, although I am not sure if the pathway is an accurate mile. Because I was surrounded by other runners, today's effort felt easier than yesterday.

After a 15 minute break of socializing, everyone lined up to run the 3 mile course. I decided I was going to run easy with Mike. We started at 8:45 pace and eventually worked our way down, and with 1 mile to go we were cruising easily at 7:00 pace. With 800m to go I pressed and was moving at 6:15 pace.

After the run I ran 1 mile easy back home, then walked the final mile.

The next three days will be short easy runs, with some hard sprints thrown in.

#249 

Weather - 80 degrees, sunny. 

Not as humid today, so running felt relaxed and light. Ran 4 easy miles, 1.5 barefoot at the arboretum.

Afterward 3 sets of strength exercises, stretching, and 10 minute walk home.

#250

Weather - 80 degrees, sunny.

Another nice day for a run. Ran 1 mile to the track and ran 8 laps at 6:50 pace. I was trying to get a feel for how it would go at Bix in a couple of days. The only thing missing was 6,000 runners, bands lining the streets, and hills.

Afterward 3 sets of strength exercises, stretching, and 15 minute walk home.

#251 

Weather - 78 degrees, sunny, humid.

Ran 1 mile to the track, then did 6 x 100m accelerations, followed by a few easy laps.

Nothing else to report.

#252

Weather - 78 degrees, sunny, slight humidity.

Good weather for a July race. I lined up with 13,000 others at 7:40am and waited for the 8:00 start.

I ran this race 2 years ago, when I was just starting out with racing. I made the mistake of checking the "over 60 minutes finish time" box on the entry form, and I was put into a chute with some very slow runners. It took over 3 minutes before I crossed the start mat, and because of the wall of people I was forced to run the first mile in over 10 minutes. I was not able to get away from the crush until mile 3.5. I ended up averaging 8:00/mile and finished in 56:00.

This year I confidently checked the "under 49:00 finish time" box, and it only took 30 seconds to cross the start mat. I hit the first mile in 7:00, which was faster than expected because of the 600m Brady Street hill which starts the race. Second mile was crossed in 13:30, and I then settled into a consistent 7:00 pace for the rest of the race.

Not much out of the ordinary concerning my own running, other than the external sights and sounds - bands, Elvis sightings, Bill Rogers and Joan Benoit on the course somewhere, and the Kenyans with their super-silky long strides. Oh, I almost forgot, when I was trying to find my way to the proper chute, I must have looked lost, because a race volunteer came up to me and asked if I was an elite runner - that made me smile....

I finished in 48:09, which is what I was expecting. The average pace was 6:52, which is a slight improvement for road races in the 7-9 mile range. Considering the course was hilly, I probably could have averaged a 6:48 on a flat course.

What did surprise me was my age group place - I was 26 out of 497 runners, which put me in the top 5%. Even though I train hard, I am still a slow runner. Reading the blogs here give the impression that 1 out of every 2 runners averages 5:30 miles in races of 5k and above. I have to remind myself that someone averaging 5:30/mile is sub-elite, and definitely not common.

#253