So after those predictions yesterday I went out and ran 49:56, exactly what I thought I was capable of. It took a real race effort and great conditions as well as a guy right in front of me the whole time acting as the carrot.
First couple miles were very fast. I was 9:40 thru two miles, much of that due to the downhill and my desire to run in a group for as long as was reasonable. It ended up being the lead pack which was all foreigners and me. After I let them go some other Americans caught up to me and one went by. He remained a couple seconds ahead for much of the race.
Miles 3-5 were weird. I know the race it net downhill but these miles were very gradually rolling. Coming up on City Hall at mile 5.5 you make the only turn in the race and go around the building, staying on Broad st.
Miles 6-8 were my low point in the race. I was hovering just over 5:00 pace, and since I had built up that cushion on my goal time in the first two miles I was creeping over my goal average with these miles. My calves were starting to feel pretty tired and on the edge of cramping, which was not a good sign with almost half the race left. I pushed as hard as I could without going over the Red Line, but I was still by myself chasing the top American ahead.
After I survived those tough miles I kept grinding through, taking it a mile at a time. After mile 8 I started to really push, and I was slowly closing the gap on the guy ahead. After mile 9 I committed to a big move and caught him at probably 9.25. This is the point in the race where you go under I-95 and can't see the entrance to the Navy Yard so it's tough to gauge how far out you are from the finish. Once I saw the Navy Yard sign and hit the little downhill into the yard I started kicking. Not a very good kick because muscularly I was bankrupt but still as hard as I could go. I learned later it was 400m to the finish from the entrance to the Navy Yard, so a good time to go. The entire finishing stretch I was going as hard as possible but breaking down the whole way, so I was nervous the guy I passed was coming back on me. Last mile was in ~4:50.
I was pretty happy to finish just under my goal time and as (I was pretty sure even then) top American. This was definitely a 100% race effort, I was very wiped after and muscularly in pretty bad shape. Calves were used up and the cooldown was tough. Energy was OK on the cooldown trotting at 8 minute pace but even jogging in trainers was hard.
My parents and Emily came to watch (Emily was nice enough to drop me off at the start and drive my car to the finish) and we sat around for the awards, which were pretty poorly organized and took way too long (I'm still grumpy about this). I did get recognized for being top American finisher which was a big deal. However I was still 8th overall so I have room to improve. The winner was 47 low, which wasn't even near the course record of 45:51, crazy fast times.
Overall exactly what I was hoping for from this race. Now the challenge is to see if I can recover for a track 5k next Monday. Very easy recovery jogs should help but it will be a bit of a race against time.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Prediction for Broad Street (tomorrow)
Well it's already May and that means Broad Street is tomorrow. In January when I thought I wasn't going to be running at all until now I would not have ever had serious aspirations about racing this cycle. I'm going to offer a prediction for the race tomorrow and break down why I think what I think.
Prediction/realistically hopeful result: Under 50:00 for 10 miles. The course is net downhill by about 150' and basically a straight line, and it looks like there will be a crosswind/slight tailwind. Coupled with ideal weather, this spells out fast times and the field is always good.
Reasons why I will run under 50: Workouts have been good since I really got back into training. I have been running about 80 mpw with two workouts a week targeted for this distance and pace. Compared with my training from last fall prior to running 1:05, the workouts are very similar and I even managed to run faster for my 4 x 2 miles this spring than I did last fall, feeling much stronger. The course and potential for tailwind and good weather are also in my favor. I ran an honest 5 miler that in hindsight was not quite all out last weekend and ran 25:12, so on a flat/net down hill course I hope to be able to double that.
Reasons why I won't run under 50: Working and running is hard. 80 mpw is about 25 mpw less than I had been doing prior to a full time job, so while workouts have been good, the easy supportive mileage has been much less. This is a big question mark to me; I'm not sure how much of a training impact easy running has, besides supporting workouts, and as I said they have been good. One other thing that it may affect is the relative strength of the taper. Another factor that I don't fully understand is how much a full time job affects racing performance. It definitely affects nervous energy, though I cannot determine how much . Sleep has been OK, and with the race on a Sunday it gives me an extra day to sit around and veg out which I much prefer to racing on Saturday.
Overall I think I will be right around 50 minutes, give or take with the weather. The state record for 10 miles is 49:40 which I think is on the optimistic edge of realistic, give how training has been going. I don't know if this course can count for that, but it is a good benchmark to shoot for nonetheless.
Prediction/realistically hopeful result: Under 50:00 for 10 miles. The course is net downhill by about 150' and basically a straight line, and it looks like there will be a crosswind/slight tailwind. Coupled with ideal weather, this spells out fast times and the field is always good.
Reasons why I will run under 50: Workouts have been good since I really got back into training. I have been running about 80 mpw with two workouts a week targeted for this distance and pace. Compared with my training from last fall prior to running 1:05, the workouts are very similar and I even managed to run faster for my 4 x 2 miles this spring than I did last fall, feeling much stronger. The course and potential for tailwind and good weather are also in my favor. I ran an honest 5 miler that in hindsight was not quite all out last weekend and ran 25:12, so on a flat/net down hill course I hope to be able to double that.
Reasons why I won't run under 50: Working and running is hard. 80 mpw is about 25 mpw less than I had been doing prior to a full time job, so while workouts have been good, the easy supportive mileage has been much less. This is a big question mark to me; I'm not sure how much of a training impact easy running has, besides supporting workouts, and as I said they have been good. One other thing that it may affect is the relative strength of the taper. Another factor that I don't fully understand is how much a full time job affects racing performance. It definitely affects nervous energy, though I cannot determine how much . Sleep has been OK, and with the race on a Sunday it gives me an extra day to sit around and veg out which I much prefer to racing on Saturday.
Overall I think I will be right around 50 minutes, give or take with the weather. The state record for 10 miles is 49:40 which I think is on the optimistic edge of realistic, give how training has been going. I don't know if this course can count for that, but it is a good benchmark to shoot for nonetheless.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Adrenaline 5k
So I ran my first race since last December this past Saturday. I had heard about this race during the past few years but could never run it due to conflicts with track season. It has good money for a 5k and is always a deep field with a pack around 15:00 so it would be a good test of where I'm at.
Going into this race I had no clue of where I was in my progression of fitness from taking time off in the winter and not training as hard as I have been training during the past few years, due to the working lifestyle. I guessed beforehand 14:50 but that was without knowing anything about the course, the weather, this year's competition or my own fitness.
The race was in Haddonfield, NJ. A nice town, pretty upscale, sort of like driving through Princeton's main street with Westover Hills surrounding it. The race course was a pretty simple lollipop-style out and back starting at the high school. The first mile felt pretty good and comfortable, but I anticipated that it would get a lot harder once we got deep into the race. We went through the mile in about 4:50 with a big pack, and the eventual winner (Phil Celona) surged and got some distance that he kept for the remainder of the race. That surge broke up the race a bit and I stayed in third through two miles (another 4:50) and until about 200 to go. Two Bryn Mawr guys rolled by me in the homestraight and all of us passed the guy who ran second most of the way so I got 4th. First was 14:45, 2nd/3rd were 14:50 so it was not a total blowout.
I don't have the endurance I would ideally have; when I was in good shape last fall I would feel uncomfortable at these paces but be able to kick hard over the last 800 or so. I do not have that right now. However, this race has gotten me to focus even more on running for the next couple months. I am determined to run as well as I can at Broad Street given my constraints. The immediate first step is to start fixing all of these little aches and pains that I've been accruing over the past few weeks with some beginner strengthening routines. Other than that I will continue to work out focusing on the endurance and paces necessary for a good 10 miler.
Going into this race I had no clue of where I was in my progression of fitness from taking time off in the winter and not training as hard as I have been training during the past few years, due to the working lifestyle. I guessed beforehand 14:50 but that was without knowing anything about the course, the weather, this year's competition or my own fitness.
The race was in Haddonfield, NJ. A nice town, pretty upscale, sort of like driving through Princeton's main street with Westover Hills surrounding it. The race course was a pretty simple lollipop-style out and back starting at the high school. The first mile felt pretty good and comfortable, but I anticipated that it would get a lot harder once we got deep into the race. We went through the mile in about 4:50 with a big pack, and the eventual winner (Phil Celona) surged and got some distance that he kept for the remainder of the race. That surge broke up the race a bit and I stayed in third through two miles (another 4:50) and until about 200 to go. Two Bryn Mawr guys rolled by me in the homestraight and all of us passed the guy who ran second most of the way so I got 4th. First was 14:45, 2nd/3rd were 14:50 so it was not a total blowout.
I don't have the endurance I would ideally have; when I was in good shape last fall I would feel uncomfortable at these paces but be able to kick hard over the last 800 or so. I do not have that right now. However, this race has gotten me to focus even more on running for the next couple months. I am determined to run as well as I can at Broad Street given my constraints. The immediate first step is to start fixing all of these little aches and pains that I've been accruing over the past few weeks with some beginner strengthening routines. Other than that I will continue to work out focusing on the endurance and paces necessary for a good 10 miler.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Back into training after some layout due to thyroid problems
So after a long layoff from posting and a shorter layoff from running, I'm back into both.
I took a month off of running from mid-December through mid-January when it became clear that serious training would be both miserable and yield no good results due to the hormone problems I had going on. At the time I did not know when I would be able to start running again, let alone training seriously, so I wrote off the entire winter and spring racing seasons. In mid-January I realized that I felt antsy and somewhat normal again; as normal as I could expect to feel without running.
I started jogging casually again without any goals sometime in January and once I felt comfortable that I could build up, albeit cautiously, I started logging again. Since then I've gradually increased mileage to the mid-70s and introduced workouts commensurate with my current fitness, being sure to never overdo it and take it easy when I felt like it. I am still not planning to force any gains.
One thing that I have noticed during workouts is that my cardiovascular fitness has remained considerably better than my muscular fitness. By that I mean that my legs get tired relatively easily and my cardio systems are under less stress than my legs. This is good as it keeps me from overtraining, but it has gotten frustrating because it has been so universal.
As far as racing plans go, I've emailed the race director of Broad Street (May 3rd). This is far enough away that I feel confident in my ability to get in pretty good shape, even running once a day as work dictates. I do not have any specific goals for mileage, but I hope to do enough to support workouts that are specific to prepare for Broad Street.
I took a month off of running from mid-December through mid-January when it became clear that serious training would be both miserable and yield no good results due to the hormone problems I had going on. At the time I did not know when I would be able to start running again, let alone training seriously, so I wrote off the entire winter and spring racing seasons. In mid-January I realized that I felt antsy and somewhat normal again; as normal as I could expect to feel without running.
I started jogging casually again without any goals sometime in January and once I felt comfortable that I could build up, albeit cautiously, I started logging again. Since then I've gradually increased mileage to the mid-70s and introduced workouts commensurate with my current fitness, being sure to never overdo it and take it easy when I felt like it. I am still not planning to force any gains.
One thing that I have noticed during workouts is that my cardiovascular fitness has remained considerably better than my muscular fitness. By that I mean that my legs get tired relatively easily and my cardio systems are under less stress than my legs. This is good as it keeps me from overtraining, but it has gotten frustrating because it has been so universal.
As far as racing plans go, I've emailed the race director of Broad Street (May 3rd). This is far enough away that I feel confident in my ability to get in pretty good shape, even running once a day as work dictates. I do not have any specific goals for mileage, but I hope to do enough to support workouts that are specific to prepare for Broad Street.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Not my best month: hormone inbalance
So I haven't put anything on here in a while, but it has been an eventful month. I finished off my fall racing cycle with a 5 mile race in West Chester (Brian's Run). First, I'll talk about this race and then I'll talk about the events leading up to my present situation of being unable to do any real training.
Brian's run was another opportunity to race my least favorite distance and make some money. There were two good Kenyans and Griff Graves, fresh off getting 55th (I think) at NCAA XC for Syracuse jumped in. I had not been feeling great and he was running on tired legs, having finished up the NCAA season the weekend before and run the DE XC open at Brandywine the day before. the kenyans broke away early and ran together while Griff and I whined about African dominance for the first two miles. This race was very hilly for a road race, and Griff put me away mid-race on the uphills. I caught him with a strong last mile and ended up being him by a decent amount, getting 3rd overall. After the race I took a week off of running, with plans to take a fairly easy week of getting back into it and then jumping back into serious training.
After taking the week off, I ran about 60 miles and did not feel especially good. I chalked it up to being tired from work, or just wear and tear. However, after having to cut my run short on Sunday (planned 12, struggled through 9), I knew something was not right with my body. I got a blood test done the next day and it showed a high level of thyroid hormone (T4, for those interested). This meant that I was hyperthyroid and my body was effectively overclocked. I got a thyroid scan this week (12/23 - 24) and that showed that my thyroid wasn't taking up any iodine to produce more hormone.
Basically what happened was that some stimulus (likely a virus or bacteria) made my thyroid freak out and dump all of its hormone into my bloodstream relatively quickly. These hormones are responsible for essentially every metabolic function, from body temperature to heart rate to digestive processes. Once the thyroid exhausted its hormone from puking it into my body, it was all dried up, swinging the metaphorical pendulum in the other direction. So I started out with too much hormone, now I have too little, and it will take a couple months for my thyroid to correct itself and return to equilibrium.
Bottom line: there is no cure for this except to wait for my body to figure itself out and get itself back to normal. 2-6 months (broad range, I know) is the typical recovery time, but further complicating that guess is that it's hard to pinpoint when it started. So hopefully I'm all back to normal in two months, but until then I am writing off any hope of racing this winter or spring and am just focusing on getting back to normal health before I start thinking about running goals.
Brian's run was another opportunity to race my least favorite distance and make some money. There were two good Kenyans and Griff Graves, fresh off getting 55th (I think) at NCAA XC for Syracuse jumped in. I had not been feeling great and he was running on tired legs, having finished up the NCAA season the weekend before and run the DE XC open at Brandywine the day before. the kenyans broke away early and ran together while Griff and I whined about African dominance for the first two miles. This race was very hilly for a road race, and Griff put me away mid-race on the uphills. I caught him with a strong last mile and ended up being him by a decent amount, getting 3rd overall. After the race I took a week off of running, with plans to take a fairly easy week of getting back into it and then jumping back into serious training.
After taking the week off, I ran about 60 miles and did not feel especially good. I chalked it up to being tired from work, or just wear and tear. However, after having to cut my run short on Sunday (planned 12, struggled through 9), I knew something was not right with my body. I got a blood test done the next day and it showed a high level of thyroid hormone (T4, for those interested). This meant that I was hyperthyroid and my body was effectively overclocked. I got a thyroid scan this week (12/23 - 24) and that showed that my thyroid wasn't taking up any iodine to produce more hormone.
Basically what happened was that some stimulus (likely a virus or bacteria) made my thyroid freak out and dump all of its hormone into my bloodstream relatively quickly. These hormones are responsible for essentially every metabolic function, from body temperature to heart rate to digestive processes. Once the thyroid exhausted its hormone from puking it into my body, it was all dried up, swinging the metaphorical pendulum in the other direction. So I started out with too much hormone, now I have too little, and it will take a couple months for my thyroid to correct itself and return to equilibrium.
Bottom line: there is no cure for this except to wait for my body to figure itself out and get itself back to normal. 2-6 months (broad range, I know) is the typical recovery time, but further complicating that guess is that it's hard to pinpoint when it started. So hopefully I'm all back to normal in two months, but until then I am writing off any hope of racing this winter or spring and am just focusing on getting back to normal health before I start thinking about running goals.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Rothman (and working full time)
So now that I've been working at my new full-time (8-5) job for two weeks and have been training twice a day on top of that, I have a race under my belt and finally got some real feedback from my body and learned how I'm handling it. The answer is apparently not very well. I felt bad in the race and was pretty tired; I didn't sleep exceptionally well going into it but I don't know if it's possible to be well-rested getting up at 5:30 and working all day.
The race itself was a little rough, as I alluded to. I didn't feel 100% beforehand and warming up but I still thought it would be decent. We went out quite fast, 4:36 at the mile, which put me deep into the red. Compounding the problem was the fact that I was utterly alone after the mile, so I slowed down pretty hard despite my best efforts to hold a good pace. I ended up running 24:13 thinking I was in sub 24 shape.
In two weeks from today I'll run another 5 miler, Brian's Run up in PA. It has decent money but perhaps better for me is the fact that it's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, which will give me 3 days beforehand of no work and good rest.
Another change I'm making starting this week to get more rest is running once a day and sleeping in an extra hour or so. Obviously my mileage will drop a bit but since it is the end of this cycle I figure it's a good time to experiment and see how I feel the next two weeks running 80-90 mpw in fewer runs. If it goes well I may continue this schedule indefinitely and see how I can race throughout the next cycle on singles. Since I'll be focusing on 1500-5k distances I shouldn't see performance suffer much if I increase the quality a bit.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
My first real plunge into road racing (September 2013)
This past month I took my first real introduction to serious road racing. I had been training all summer with the goal of running a fast half marathon on September 15 at Philly RnR, but I wanted to do a few prep races to get back into the swing of things and win some money. I was also pretty curious to see how training strictly for the half marathon would benefit my shorter racing.
The races I ran were:
Sept 2 - 5k (14:25, 2nd)
Sept 6 - 5k (14:19, 1st)
Sept 15 - half marathon (1:05:40, 15th)
Sept 28 - 5 mile (24:30, 2nd)
I would definitely characterize 4 races in a month, with one being 13.1 miles, as a dense racing schedule. All were good experiences: I won some money, set PR's every time out, beat some good people, and made some new friends. The half marathon was obviously the highlight, with a time that is only 40 seconds away from qualifying for the Olympic Trials.
This month of racing was a good learning experience. I learned that I definitely can't realistically race every week perpetually. It's pretty tiring and tough to stay in good shape while constantly backing off or recovering from races. Maybe every 2 weeks is a sustainable frequency, at least for races in the 5k-10k range.
Another lesson learned is that I can race extremely well off of half marathon training. I knew this in an academic sense, that half marathon/LT training is very beneficial and probably the best training for getting in overall good distance shape (assuming adequate base) but I was surprised to run 14:19 on the roads with no specific 5k work whatsoever. That's my 3rd fastest 5k ever, counting the ones on the track where I was sucked along in a paceline. I ran 14:19 on the roads leading every step of the way, beating Owen and Kyle Dawson, both of who have no business losing to me.
I'll take an easy week this week and hopefully resume good training again soon, I just need to get some goal races to keep me motivated. Besides Rothman/Philly half, I'm sure there are some other ones in November/December to carry me through to indoor track where I want to race the mile/3k and see what all this good distance work translates to.
The races I ran were:
Sept 2 - 5k (14:25, 2nd)
Sept 6 - 5k (14:19, 1st)
Sept 15 - half marathon (1:05:40, 15th)
Sept 28 - 5 mile (24:30, 2nd)
I would definitely characterize 4 races in a month, with one being 13.1 miles, as a dense racing schedule. All were good experiences: I won some money, set PR's every time out, beat some good people, and made some new friends. The half marathon was obviously the highlight, with a time that is only 40 seconds away from qualifying for the Olympic Trials.
This month of racing was a good learning experience. I learned that I definitely can't realistically race every week perpetually. It's pretty tiring and tough to stay in good shape while constantly backing off or recovering from races. Maybe every 2 weeks is a sustainable frequency, at least for races in the 5k-10k range.
Another lesson learned is that I can race extremely well off of half marathon training. I knew this in an academic sense, that half marathon/LT training is very beneficial and probably the best training for getting in overall good distance shape (assuming adequate base) but I was surprised to run 14:19 on the roads with no specific 5k work whatsoever. That's my 3rd fastest 5k ever, counting the ones on the track where I was sucked along in a paceline. I ran 14:19 on the roads leading every step of the way, beating Owen and Kyle Dawson, both of who have no business losing to me.
I'll take an easy week this week and hopefully resume good training again soon, I just need to get some goal races to keep me motivated. Besides Rothman/Philly half, I'm sure there are some other ones in November/December to carry me through to indoor track where I want to race the mile/3k and see what all this good distance work translates to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)