Monday was W-W-Wilke day. I know it's good running medicine, but Wilke is the Gazelles workout that intimidates me the most. I think about it far in advance, and I dread it to some degree. There are other workouts that are more physically taxing, but there's something about that increasingly steep hill...
At any rate, on a tolerably cool morning, in the low 60's, I met up with Rachel and Amy for the long warmup version of Wilke. We had to start at 5:30am from RunTex, but I was willing to give up 15 minutes of extra sleep in order to get a nice longer warmup and cooldown today. After the big effort on the long run on Saturday, my legs needed the extra mile and a half easy running today. We had nice conversation going over, and soon enough, we were at the base of the mountain for drills. The rest of the Gazelles came in soon after, and we commenced drillage. Then, it was time to start.
For many of the Gazelles, this was their first exposure to Wilke. That's always an eye-opener. Still, Gilbert prescribed 7 x Wilke for marathoners, with 3 x backwards Wilke, and 3 x uphill striders at the end. With the numbers programmed, we got started.
I tried to choose a pace that would carry me through the full workout, and I think I found it. All seven of my main Wilkes today were within a second or two of each other. Using the GPS, it seems that the hill is closer to 225 meters than 300m, but it's still steep, so what does it really matter? :-) It wasn't until number 6 that I started making Wilke noises in earnest, but before I knew it, I was finished with all 7 main Wilkes, and I was very happy to be at that point! Some seriously deep breathing later, I made my way to the launch point for the backwards Wilkes. As usual, I made it through the first two backwards hills in strong fashion, and then started having seriously burning quads on the last backwards hill. It really does feel like you're towing your car up a hill by the end of the workout! After that, the 3 uphill striders are actually a relief. It was still good to get off the mountain, though.
Some Powerade and water, and then it was time to head on back. Rachel, Amy and I took the nice trail going back at Barton Springs, since we could actually see the ground on the way back. The conversation going back was humorous, as well, but as always, what is discussed on the trail stays on the trail. :-)
It was a very productive workout day, with a little over 8 miles of total workout. I stayed around with Rachel for the stretching, and that helped finish things off in good fashion.
As usual, I'm happy that I did the workout, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy the hill repeats while we're doing them. Wilke is good for you, builds strong muscles, and gives you mental strength when you encounter hills in a race, but man it's daunting!
Monday, October 30, 2006
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Bonnell and Beyond [Entered 11/1/06]
Saturday, on a really great weather day, with temps in the low 50's, nice and crisp, we set out for a 15-16 mile effort. The course was Scenic, Bonnell, and then over Bonnell to the bar and back up and over. I like this route, especially when it's nice and cool. I was looking forward to the run today, and was a happy camper at the outset.
Our pace group turned into Colleen, Nelson, Rachel, Amy, Jennifer, Javier and Norma by the end of the run. There were a bunch of others with us through Bonnell, including Rich, but they only needed 13 miles or so, and didn't do the extra fun stuff on the backside of Bonnell today. We got started nice and relaxed, and then by the first powerade/water stop on Lake Austin Blvd., we had settled into our usual long run pace.
After tanking up there, we were off again, into the hilly portion of the festivities. Hitting Scenic, I pushed forward into the lead, and the gang tried to handicap me by asking for the "Bachelor Party" story again. I don't mind telling the story...on the run, but I think I run faster when I tell it, just because I relive the stresses of that long night's adventure by telling it. At any rate, the pace still picked up throughout the Scenic hills, despite my storytelling. We all got quiet once we started the assault on Mountain Bonnell, though, and each went to our internal happy place as we negotiated that big climb. Rachel and Nelson pushed me up the hill this morning.
We regrouped at the water/Powerade/GU stop on top of Bonnell, and the longer run gang headed on down the backside of Bonnell soon enough, adding a mile down and a mile back (interesting how that works on an out-and-back course!) up Bonnell. I'm starting to think that it's an easier climb up the backside of Bonnell for some reason, but it's still challenging. Anyway, another quick water/Powerade stop on top of Bonnell, and we were finally heading off the mountain for good!
We had a nice group of runners coming down Balcones Woods, and then pushed through the 35th Street/Exposition portion of the day. When you can count down the big hills, knowing them by heart, it sure makes it easier to finish off a run! We picked it up subtly throughout that stretch, and hit the O. Henry powerade/water/GU stop for the last time. Everyone seemed to be doing pretty well, and now it was time to finish this thing off.
I wasn't sure how much of a "fast finish" I had in me today, but there was only one way to find out. The largely downhill start to the fast finish from O. Henry launched us, and then by the time we hit the trail, Rachel and I were in some sort of high-speed death march for the last 2+ miles. Once again, we were waiting on each other to ease up, and neither of us did. I kept thinking I was slowing down since I was feeling pretty stressed, but it turns out we were just speeding up instead. It was an awesome fast finish for us, and we were happy to be done!
Splits: 10:12, 9:33, 9:13, 0.5 miles at 8:53/mile pace, 1:59 water/powerade stop, then 9:09, 8:50, 8:35, and the 0.5 mile assault on Bonnell at 9:01/mile pace, 2:40 water/powerade/GU stop on Bonnell, and then 8:44 down and 8:49 back up Bonnell. 1:42 water/powerade since we were there, and then down Bonnell at 8:34, 8:46, 8:31, and 0.28 at 8:45/mile, a quick 1:35 water/powerade/GU stop at O. Henry, and then fast finish at 7:47, 7:38, 7:15 (!), and 0.24 at 6:32/mile pace. Snappy finish, eh? Overall pace, including water stops, was a spiffy 9:11/mile for 15.45 miles. Actual running pace was a nice 8:40/mile.
I'm digging this newfound finishing speed. Anyway, strides done, it was time to stretch. This is where the morning got even more amusing. We set up stretching camp over near Palmer Auditorium, on a nice sunny corner. Auditorium Shores was taken up this weekend by the Orange County Chopper guys for a biker festival of sorts, so we couldn't use our normal spot. About 20 minutes into the stretching, a huge stream of choppers came parading around from Barton Springs Rd., and rolled into the grounds of the OCC production. I was curious why a Suburban with blacked-out windows led the parade, but later found out that OCC gave Guv Perry a chopper, and the Guv was apparently in the biker parade. The Suburban was Guv's "Secret Service" guys and gals. I did spot Mikey Teutel on his chopper, and there were some nice bikes in the mob. They were REALLY LOUD, THOUGH! People had to sort of watch and guess while we stretched during that 10 minute span.
Oh, yeah, as Rachel and I duelled to the finish, we passed a group of the Chicago Gazelles heading the other way on a nice relaxing walk on the trail. It was fun to see them out there, even in a flash passing like we did. Frank and his family, Jan (with her dog), Brad, Alex, and hmmmm, was there one more person? Anyway, they looked very happy to be out there gently reintroducing their legs to locomotion.
It was a great day of running, and that's alright by me. For the week, a modest 34.6 miles, since I missed my Tuesday recovery run. Good running in the meantime, though.
Our pace group turned into Colleen, Nelson, Rachel, Amy, Jennifer, Javier and Norma by the end of the run. There were a bunch of others with us through Bonnell, including Rich, but they only needed 13 miles or so, and didn't do the extra fun stuff on the backside of Bonnell today. We got started nice and relaxed, and then by the first powerade/water stop on Lake Austin Blvd., we had settled into our usual long run pace.
After tanking up there, we were off again, into the hilly portion of the festivities. Hitting Scenic, I pushed forward into the lead, and the gang tried to handicap me by asking for the "Bachelor Party" story again. I don't mind telling the story...on the run, but I think I run faster when I tell it, just because I relive the stresses of that long night's adventure by telling it. At any rate, the pace still picked up throughout the Scenic hills, despite my storytelling. We all got quiet once we started the assault on Mountain Bonnell, though, and each went to our internal happy place as we negotiated that big climb. Rachel and Nelson pushed me up the hill this morning.
We regrouped at the water/Powerade/GU stop on top of Bonnell, and the longer run gang headed on down the backside of Bonnell soon enough, adding a mile down and a mile back (interesting how that works on an out-and-back course!) up Bonnell. I'm starting to think that it's an easier climb up the backside of Bonnell for some reason, but it's still challenging. Anyway, another quick water/Powerade stop on top of Bonnell, and we were finally heading off the mountain for good!
We had a nice group of runners coming down Balcones Woods, and then pushed through the 35th Street/Exposition portion of the day. When you can count down the big hills, knowing them by heart, it sure makes it easier to finish off a run! We picked it up subtly throughout that stretch, and hit the O. Henry powerade/water/GU stop for the last time. Everyone seemed to be doing pretty well, and now it was time to finish this thing off.
I wasn't sure how much of a "fast finish" I had in me today, but there was only one way to find out. The largely downhill start to the fast finish from O. Henry launched us, and then by the time we hit the trail, Rachel and I were in some sort of high-speed death march for the last 2+ miles. Once again, we were waiting on each other to ease up, and neither of us did. I kept thinking I was slowing down since I was feeling pretty stressed, but it turns out we were just speeding up instead. It was an awesome fast finish for us, and we were happy to be done!
Splits: 10:12, 9:33, 9:13, 0.5 miles at 8:53/mile pace, 1:59 water/powerade stop, then 9:09, 8:50, 8:35, and the 0.5 mile assault on Bonnell at 9:01/mile pace, 2:40 water/powerade/GU stop on Bonnell, and then 8:44 down and 8:49 back up Bonnell. 1:42 water/powerade since we were there, and then down Bonnell at 8:34, 8:46, 8:31, and 0.28 at 8:45/mile, a quick 1:35 water/powerade/GU stop at O. Henry, and then fast finish at 7:47, 7:38, 7:15 (!), and 0.24 at 6:32/mile pace. Snappy finish, eh? Overall pace, including water stops, was a spiffy 9:11/mile for 15.45 miles. Actual running pace was a nice 8:40/mile.
I'm digging this newfound finishing speed. Anyway, strides done, it was time to stretch. This is where the morning got even more amusing. We set up stretching camp over near Palmer Auditorium, on a nice sunny corner. Auditorium Shores was taken up this weekend by the Orange County Chopper guys for a biker festival of sorts, so we couldn't use our normal spot. About 20 minutes into the stretching, a huge stream of choppers came parading around from Barton Springs Rd., and rolled into the grounds of the OCC production. I was curious why a Suburban with blacked-out windows led the parade, but later found out that OCC gave Guv Perry a chopper, and the Guv was apparently in the biker parade. The Suburban was Guv's "Secret Service" guys and gals. I did spot Mikey Teutel on his chopper, and there were some nice bikes in the mob. They were REALLY LOUD, THOUGH! People had to sort of watch and guess while we stretched during that 10 minute span.
Oh, yeah, as Rachel and I duelled to the finish, we passed a group of the Chicago Gazelles heading the other way on a nice relaxing walk on the trail. It was fun to see them out there, even in a flash passing like we did. Frank and his family, Jan (with her dog), Brad, Alex, and hmmmm, was there one more person? Anyway, they looked very happy to be out there gently reintroducing their legs to locomotion.
It was a great day of running, and that's alright by me. For the week, a modest 34.6 miles, since I missed my Tuesday recovery run. Good running in the meantime, though.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Easy running [Entered 10/27]
Thursday, I just went out at dusk in the 'hood for 60 easy minutes of running. I ended up with 6.4 miles, nice and comfortable. It finished off the recovery from yesterday's fast laps, and I feel pretty good. I got in some good stretching once I got back in the house, and it was a really pleasant exercise session.
Nothing special, but all things considered, I took joy in the fact that I was able to be out there. Given the way that the week started outside of running, this run was a good opportunity to ponder life's big questions. I'm still working on those questions, but I do know that as far as running goes, I'm really in a good place. Compared to the vast majority of folks running around, I'm in pretty darned good shape. Yeah, among the fast group of Gazelles, I'm a mid-pack runner, but to the population at large, I'm a fairly fast mover. I've got to remember that sort of thing from time to time.
Saturday looks like a Bonnell day, so that'll be fun. I'm actually looking forward to the challenge of that climb.
Nothing special, but all things considered, I took joy in the fact that I was able to be out there. Given the way that the week started outside of running, this run was a good opportunity to ponder life's big questions. I'm still working on those questions, but I do know that as far as running goes, I'm really in a good place. Compared to the vast majority of folks running around, I'm in pretty darned good shape. Yeah, among the fast group of Gazelles, I'm a mid-pack runner, but to the population at large, I'm a fairly fast mover. I've got to remember that sort of thing from time to time.
Saturday looks like a Bonnell day, so that'll be fun. I'm actually looking forward to the challenge of that climb.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Sad Goodbyes [Entered 10/27]
Tuesday, I attended the funeral of my hometown across-the-street neighbor back home in Lufkin. Not the father or mother, but their son. Reich Chandler was just 39 years old, devoted husband to Nancy, and father of 3-year old Sydney, their cute daughter. Reich was a clean-living, vibrant soul, and he was unfortunately one of those who gets cancer for no apparent reason. He fought valiantly and outlived his original prognosis, but succumbed in the end to that hateful disease.
Reich was 8 years younger than I was, so it was only after college that I really got to know him. Before that, he was the tennis prodigy (state and nationally ranked junior player) across the street who would always beat you, mainly by getting every single ball back over the net. He was the sort of guy for whom the term "high achiever" is woefully inadequate. Graduated summa cum laude both at Baylor undergrad and law school. Played varsity tennis at Baylor, and won his share of tournaments, mostly in doubles. He was Baylor's scholar-athlete in the then Southwest Conference. Dedicated and talented attorney. Tremendous friend who was always at the center of gatherings during and after college. Devoted father and husband. He was fortunate enough to join his father's law firm after a few years working for a large big-city firm in Dallas, and distinguished himself in both practices. Reich was always prepared, and even though he didn't win every single trial, any loss was usually on the merits of the case and not the fault of the plaintiff's attorney.
The eulogies from his three friends were magnificent. Reich will never be replaced in the circle of friends, judging from those comments. His father, George, seemed to take Reich's death the hardest, and that was not unexpected. George and Reich had the sort of father/son relationship that is both rare and wonderful. They worked together, played together, and shared a passion for life and for various interests that was exceptional. One has to be envious of such a thing. I can only hope that George and Martha find the strength and peace in the days, weeks, and years to come to continue to live their lives as Reich would have encouraged them to do.
I've had the pleasure of knowing George as a friend, which is unusual, I guess. He's in his 60's, and I'm not quite that old yet. But, we travelled to various 10K races around the state back when I was in college and shortly after college, and he even attended my bachelor weekend those many years ago. He's really my dad's friend, but George and I have a special bond as well. I think I hurt most for him under these circumstances.
So, I guess I write all this to encourage all of you to take the time to reach out to your friends, your family, and your children, and to tell them that you love them. Life can be cruel, and you can never tell those that you are closest to that you treasure their company enough. With cell phones and the Internet, it takes almost no time to do such a thing. Don't wait.
Reich was 8 years younger than I was, so it was only after college that I really got to know him. Before that, he was the tennis prodigy (state and nationally ranked junior player) across the street who would always beat you, mainly by getting every single ball back over the net. He was the sort of guy for whom the term "high achiever" is woefully inadequate. Graduated summa cum laude both at Baylor undergrad and law school. Played varsity tennis at Baylor, and won his share of tournaments, mostly in doubles. He was Baylor's scholar-athlete in the then Southwest Conference. Dedicated and talented attorney. Tremendous friend who was always at the center of gatherings during and after college. Devoted father and husband. He was fortunate enough to join his father's law firm after a few years working for a large big-city firm in Dallas, and distinguished himself in both practices. Reich was always prepared, and even though he didn't win every single trial, any loss was usually on the merits of the case and not the fault of the plaintiff's attorney.
The eulogies from his three friends were magnificent. Reich will never be replaced in the circle of friends, judging from those comments. His father, George, seemed to take Reich's death the hardest, and that was not unexpected. George and Reich had the sort of father/son relationship that is both rare and wonderful. They worked together, played together, and shared a passion for life and for various interests that was exceptional. One has to be envious of such a thing. I can only hope that George and Martha find the strength and peace in the days, weeks, and years to come to continue to live their lives as Reich would have encouraged them to do.
I've had the pleasure of knowing George as a friend, which is unusual, I guess. He's in his 60's, and I'm not quite that old yet. But, we travelled to various 10K races around the state back when I was in college and shortly after college, and he even attended my bachelor weekend those many years ago. He's really my dad's friend, but George and I have a special bond as well. I think I hurt most for him under these circumstances.
So, I guess I write all this to encourage all of you to take the time to reach out to your friends, your family, and your children, and to tell them that you love them. Life can be cruel, and you can never tell those that you are closest to that you treasure their company enough. With cell phones and the Internet, it takes almost no time to do such a thing. Don't wait.
800's [Entered 10/27]
Wednesday, after a day off on Tuesday spent driving to and from Lufkin (more on that later), it was time for speedwork again, 6-8 x 800m on the track. My legs were a little stiff from all the driving and sitting around, but they loosened up enough on the warmup and drills. Kenny and Bernard were in charge of the workout today. There were three or maybe four groups using the track this morning, so it was pretty crowded. I think everyone was pretty good about track etiquette, though, so we didn't have any real problems.
Kenny was explaining the art and science of 800's to some of the new people, but Amy, Jessica and I decided to just get started. We've done this workout before. Kenny said 5 or 6 x 800m would be enough, but Amy and I had done 7x800m last time out, and figured we needed to do at least that many today, as long as we felt pretty good towards the end. I led the first repeat, just settling into the pace of the day. I planned to shoot for a baseline of 3:30/800m, and hope to gently pick up the pace throughout so that I could end up with an average pace around my PR for this workout, which would be 3:24/800m.
We did some darting in and out of traffic as we negotiated our 800's, but it didn't cause us to lose any time. By the third repeat, we had settled into a routine of Amy or Jessica leading the first lap of each 800, and then I'd pull away just a bit on the second half of the repeat for a slightly faster finish. Amy wanted to end up with 3:30/800m, and that way we all got the pace help we needed. It worked out great. Jessica had to go after 5 or 6 repeats, and Amy and I finished up the last 3. I did the last one totally on my own after Amy told me to do so. She knocked out her 7th repeat on her own as well.
I ended up with a PR set of 800's, and almost nailed my PB 800m repeat on the last repeat. It felt comfortably difficult, if that makes any sense. I was working hard, but not totally gasping at the end of any repeat except the last one. Good stuff.
Splits: 3:28, 3:30, 3:26, 3:26, 3:25, 3:22, 3:09. 3:24/800M for 7x800m (6:50/mile average pace). As usual, the suggested "10K pace" for 800's was widely ignored by us. :-)
Nice and easy cooldown running with Colleen, Amy and Jennifer, and we were done. I stayed around for the full stretching routine and that was a necessary thing. 7.24 miles for the day.
Kenny was explaining the art and science of 800's to some of the new people, but Amy, Jessica and I decided to just get started. We've done this workout before. Kenny said 5 or 6 x 800m would be enough, but Amy and I had done 7x800m last time out, and figured we needed to do at least that many today, as long as we felt pretty good towards the end. I led the first repeat, just settling into the pace of the day. I planned to shoot for a baseline of 3:30/800m, and hope to gently pick up the pace throughout so that I could end up with an average pace around my PR for this workout, which would be 3:24/800m.
We did some darting in and out of traffic as we negotiated our 800's, but it didn't cause us to lose any time. By the third repeat, we had settled into a routine of Amy or Jessica leading the first lap of each 800, and then I'd pull away just a bit on the second half of the repeat for a slightly faster finish. Amy wanted to end up with 3:30/800m, and that way we all got the pace help we needed. It worked out great. Jessica had to go after 5 or 6 repeats, and Amy and I finished up the last 3. I did the last one totally on my own after Amy told me to do so. She knocked out her 7th repeat on her own as well.
I ended up with a PR set of 800's, and almost nailed my PB 800m repeat on the last repeat. It felt comfortably difficult, if that makes any sense. I was working hard, but not totally gasping at the end of any repeat except the last one. Good stuff.
Splits: 3:28, 3:30, 3:26, 3:26, 3:25, 3:22, 3:09. 3:24/800M for 7x800m (6:50/mile average pace). As usual, the suggested "10K pace" for 800's was widely ignored by us. :-)
Nice and easy cooldown running with Colleen, Amy and Jennifer, and we were done. I stayed around for the full stretching routine and that was a necessary thing. 7.24 miles for the day.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Circuitry [Entered 10/27]
Monday morning, we had thought we were going to do an easy 5-7 miles on the trail with some balance exercises. When we got to RunTex, though, we found out that circuit training was on the schedule. Okay. Different than I had planned, but as long as I took it a little bit easy, it would serve the same post-race recovery purposes.
Amy, Colleen, Jennifer and some others were there, and we had some fun chatting about the race on the way over. I really needed an easy warmup this morning, so it was no problem at all letting some of the more eager Gazelles go ahead and run fast(er) to Austin High School. Drills, and then it was time to get going. Bernard and Kenny were there to administer the workout at first. I decided to take the 400's pretty casually, and focus on the stretching aspects of the various circuit exercises. I was just trying to adapt the workout to my own particular needs this morning. I wasn't all that sore, but my quads were slightly tight, and my left foot arch was a little sore after all the concrete yesterday.
I ended up doing 3 circuits and had started the fourth circuit (gotten as far as the step-ups), when Gilbert showed up and we went over to do extra fun stuff. My 400's got a little quicker each time, but they felt really easy. The extra stuff was lots of hopping and bounding, the starter position drill (I made it through all 60 seconds for the first time), and then a new core thing where we alternated arching our backs and pressing them into the ground while holding a leg or two above us. I still can't straighten my legs totally when doing those sorts of exercises, but I did okay on them today.
That was it. We decided to run back the short way, and had more conversation on the way back. It was a pretty casual workout day, but I think it served its purpose. For the day, 5.4 miles. 400's were 2:20 (nice and easy), 2:07, 2:06, 2:05. Nothing blazing fast, but they helped loosen my legs.
Full stretching afterwards, and that was the day.
Amy, Colleen, Jennifer and some others were there, and we had some fun chatting about the race on the way over. I really needed an easy warmup this morning, so it was no problem at all letting some of the more eager Gazelles go ahead and run fast(er) to Austin High School. Drills, and then it was time to get going. Bernard and Kenny were there to administer the workout at first. I decided to take the 400's pretty casually, and focus on the stretching aspects of the various circuit exercises. I was just trying to adapt the workout to my own particular needs this morning. I wasn't all that sore, but my quads were slightly tight, and my left foot arch was a little sore after all the concrete yesterday.
I ended up doing 3 circuits and had started the fourth circuit (gotten as far as the step-ups), when Gilbert showed up and we went over to do extra fun stuff. My 400's got a little quicker each time, but they felt really easy. The extra stuff was lots of hopping and bounding, the starter position drill (I made it through all 60 seconds for the first time), and then a new core thing where we alternated arching our backs and pressing them into the ground while holding a leg or two above us. I still can't straighten my legs totally when doing those sorts of exercises, but I did okay on them today.
That was it. We decided to run back the short way, and had more conversation on the way back. It was a pretty casual workout day, but I think it served its purpose. For the day, 5.4 miles. 400's were 2:20 (nice and easy), 2:07, 2:06, 2:05. Nothing blazing fast, but they helped loosen my legs.
Full stretching afterwards, and that was the day.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Great Day At The Races! [Scenic 10 Miler]
What a day! After weeks of teasing weather, the forecast was finally correct this morning. It was a brisk 52 degrees, crisp and clear, but with a strong 15-20 mph North wind a'blowing as I arrived at the parking for the Scenic 10 Miler. This was an interesting race to begin with, since it is a one-time course. We started and finished at the tollbooths on a new tollroad in North Austin that sweeps up and over to Round Rock. The road opens up for business, so to speak, in a week, so this race and a companion bicycle ride/race were part of the grand opening festivities. It was a true out-and-back course the whole way. The parking for the event was on the actual toll road, as well. They had guys there with the magic flashlights, waving us into our landing slots like aircraft carrier landings at night. I was there early, naturally, but to me it seemed like that part of the logistics worked very well. I had no problem getting out later.
I got out, all bundled up in extra clothes, for the warmup jogging with the Gazelles. It was full dark, but all the lights on the road made for easy travel. I managed to find the Gazelles without too much trouble, and after shivering for a while, we took off at the scheduled 6:00 for an easy 2 miles. We ran the first and last mile of the course, which turned out to be a really smart thing. I know that they are one and the same, but under today's conditions, they were very different animals. The start was straight into the teeth of the wind, so it felt much colder going north, and it was harder going against the breeze. I immediately regretted the absence of a pair of gloves in my race apparel choices. It was hard to hear each other going out, but when we turned around at the mile marker, it was amazingly quiet and much different with the wind at our backs. The course was also a steady incline for the first mile, so the last mile would be a nice downhill, wind at the back kind of deal. After our reconnaissance run, I made a note to run relaxed in the first mile, so I wouldn't waste extra energy fighting the wind and incline and mess up my entire race. Any extra time I spent in that first mile should be easy to get back in the last mile, unless I was totally out of gas.
Since the Gazelles tent couldn't be put up in the windy conditions, I didn't have my post-race gear there at the start/finish, so I made my way back to the car to get ready to race. I ditched the long pants and overshirt, and put on a long-sleeved shirt over my singlet (the "lucky PR singlet" from Indy). Shorts would be just fine. Gazelles cap on my head, and I was ready to go. Chip on the shoe? Check. Race number affixed to the outer shirt? Check. A quick last sip of Gatorade, and it was time to get back to the corrals.
Of course, best laid plans and all that, the announcer came on and told us that the start was being delayed for 15 minutes due to traffic issues. Grrrrr... So, we had to sort of stall and try to keep our warmup feeling going with fitful jogs and strides. There was also a good bit of hiding behind any shelter you could find. There were a good number of people standing behind the edge of the two port-o-let lines. Any port in a storm, eh?
Finally, it was time to get going. We huddled up behind the start line, and heard a rather interpretive version of the National Anthem. I think the singer was either scared or just made a mistake and started too high for her voice. When she got to "...and the Rocket's Red Glare...," she had to shift into what might charitably be called an "alternate melody" for a few lines. Oh, well, I couldn't do that song, anyway, but I do notice it when it's sung. She finished just fine. Wheelchairs, and then, finally, at 7:50am, 20 minutes late, we were off. The sunrise was really beautiful off in the distance, a riot of pastels. I'm glad I noticed it in all the hubbub.
I was lined up with Amy, Venus and a few other Gazelles, and at the start, once we stepped on the timing mats, the two girls went out ahead of me pretty strongly. I gathered my willpower, and stuck to my race plan. I sort of cruised the first mile up the incline into the wind, moving through the crowds, but not trying to push super hard at the gun. I passed my massage guy, Ron, and we chatted a bit as I moved on. Anyway, one mile down, and I was finally warmed up again. It had taken that first mile to get my legs back ready to race, and now it was time to get going.
Mile two had a short downhill and then a long moderate climb up the curving ramp to turn east towards Round Rock. Of course, a nice moderate downhill followed, and mile two was done. I checked my split there, and I was at a pace that I figured I could maintain. I felt great, and with the wind at least off to an angle, it wasn't so bothersome. The sun was up by now. From this point to the turnaround, it was pretty much a dead straight road. That offered its own difficulties, mostly in judging distance and trying to keep from veering into runners around you. I mostly stuck to running along one of the painted stripes in the road to keep on course. My attention wandered a bit when I didn't do this.
Miles 3-5 were pretty much the same, with long stretches of boring inclines and declines. Nothing steep, but not too much in the way of truly flat roads, either. For me, it was fine. I like courses that give you modest changes in elevation, to engage different leg muscles. Sort of like a smoother Decker course. I was doing a good job of moving up through the field, and with each mile, I was chipping away at my overall pace. The leaders passed me on their return leg just after I passed the 4 mile marker, and from that point on, it was fun to check out the runners heading home. Lots of Gazelles, and some other familiar faces as well. I grabbed water and/or Powerade at the 3 mile mark or so, and another quick drink near the turnaround so I could take my GU. I got about half of it down, and held it until after the turnaround, where I grabbed another cup of water on the way back "home." I saw Venus, Amy, Sue, and a bunch of other Gazelles about 100-200 yards ahead of me at the turnaround, so I knew the task at hand for the second half. Stepped on the timing mat at the 5 mile marker, and it was time to retrace my steps. Halfway done. Average pace at the 5 mile mark was 8:00/mile, almost exactly. I was feeling good, moving well, and I didn't feel like I had worked super hard to that point. Time to go for a negative split and to try to catch some of my friends before the finish!
I got a little nervous during mile 6, for some reason, thinking that I was starting to detect signs of fatigue. That passed, but it was just something to work through. I caught up with a woman during that mile, and she stuck with me for a good mile and a half, running side by side with me. Now that's fine, but she was thisclose to me as we ran, and even bumped into me at one point. She apologized, but it was kinda strange. I realized that she was using me as a pacer, but that was okay with me, I suppose. I knew I had further accelerations to come, so if she could stay with me, good for her. A friend of hers passed us by and said something to her. I'd see him later.
I caught up with Amy during mile 7, I think, and kept on going. By now, I was accelerating each mile, little by little, and I knew I was on a good day of running. Every time I thought I was getting in trouble, I just checked the next split, and I realized that I was feeling a little more stressed because I had picked up the pace again. Cool. A last Powerade cup somewhere in there, and I was ready for the big finish. I dumped that girl late in mile 7, early mile 8. I caught Venus during mile 8, on the ramp curving back south. I also caught that guy who had passed earlier. He remembered me (my bright red shirt was probably a clue), and said something to me about how I had "tracked him down" and was doing a good job. That was pretty cool, actually.
I powered up the ramp, and on the downhill on the other side, that guy was back. We started running/racing together from that point to the finish line. We pulled each other to the nine mile marker, and it was time for the big downhill finish. The wind had degenerated into a steady breeze with gusts, so it was a helping wind, but not as forceful as it had been earlier. That last mile seemed to take forever. My new racing partner and I were taking turns pushing the pace, and I was working hard by now. It was difficult to judge how far it was to the finish. You could see the tollbooths from a long way off, and it seemed like they weren't getting closer fast enough. I sneaked a peek at the GPS, finally, and saw that we had just a half mile to go. That guy pulled away from me in the last half mile, but I chased him to the finish just the same, passing a bunch of folks in that last mile. Finally, I heard Evel call out my name, and I was done.
I had really run hard, especially that last mile or two, and it took a little bit to get settled down after the finish. I sucked down some air, and got sort of back to normal finally, and kept moving through the finish area. I saw Bernard, and told him I'd had a good day. How good? My final time of 1:17:03, 7:42/mile average pace, was a huge Masters PR, knocking 5 minutes off of last year's Pervasive 10 Miler time. That was a lot harder course, but I'm not sure it was 5 minutes harder. My time was also within 11 seconds of my lifetime best, set back in 12/93. My furious last mile was responsible for the charge at my lifetime PR, I think. I knew I was having a good day, but I hadn't been able to calculate anything serious out on the course. Probably wouldn't have changed things, but I might have been able to find 11 seconds out there somewhere? Who knows? Second half was knocked out at 7:24/mile average pace, which was also a 5 mile lifetime PR, besting a 5 mile race (37:27) in Stone Mountain, GA, back in 9/93. My last 7 miles today were at an average pace of 7:30, besting my lifetime best at 10K (pace 7:31) set way back in 5/85, when I was a mere child. So, I guess to run a good 10K, I have to do a 3 mile hard warmup? :-) Very satisfying numbers. And it was unexpected. I had had some excellent workouts lately, but that bad IBM 10K had shaken my confidence, and I needed a good race. Mission accomplished.
My HR info was interesting, too. Seems that I ran a very good race, judging from the HR, because I spent most of the race, until mile 9 and 10, in a perfect distance racing zone. It rose during the big finish, but all in all, the numbers backed up my impression that I ran within myself today. I don't think I left too much time out there, though. :-)
Splits: 8:36, 7:59, 7:54, 7:49, 7:44, 7:50, 7:40, 7:29, 7:19, 6:42. 1:17:03. I'm pretty sure that the last mile split of 6:42 was the fastest mile I've ever run in any race, 5K or longer, with the possible exception of that PR 5K race, and that race was way back in May, 1986.
Amy was nice enough to very slowly run our 2 mile cooldown with me, and those very slow miles sure helped relax our legs once we were done. She PR'd, too, along with most of the folks I talked with in the Gazelles. What a great day!
For the day, 14 miles, including warmup/cooldown. For the week, 39 miles. A nice manageable mileage increase. Things are going well. Now, all I have to do is keep doing it. Easy, right?
Oh, yeah, the Gazelles in Chicago did well as a group this morning. There were a bunch of PR's, some startling debut marathons (Brad ripped off a 3:29:xx!), and some Boston Qualifiers. Weather was pretty good for them, but a strong wind knocked them around a bit over the last 5 miles or so. I can't wait to hear more of their marathon stories! I also wish I could have been there to enjoy the post-race pizza and beer! :-)
I got out, all bundled up in extra clothes, for the warmup jogging with the Gazelles. It was full dark, but all the lights on the road made for easy travel. I managed to find the Gazelles without too much trouble, and after shivering for a while, we took off at the scheduled 6:00 for an easy 2 miles. We ran the first and last mile of the course, which turned out to be a really smart thing. I know that they are one and the same, but under today's conditions, they were very different animals. The start was straight into the teeth of the wind, so it felt much colder going north, and it was harder going against the breeze. I immediately regretted the absence of a pair of gloves in my race apparel choices. It was hard to hear each other going out, but when we turned around at the mile marker, it was amazingly quiet and much different with the wind at our backs. The course was also a steady incline for the first mile, so the last mile would be a nice downhill, wind at the back kind of deal. After our reconnaissance run, I made a note to run relaxed in the first mile, so I wouldn't waste extra energy fighting the wind and incline and mess up my entire race. Any extra time I spent in that first mile should be easy to get back in the last mile, unless I was totally out of gas.
Since the Gazelles tent couldn't be put up in the windy conditions, I didn't have my post-race gear there at the start/finish, so I made my way back to the car to get ready to race. I ditched the long pants and overshirt, and put on a long-sleeved shirt over my singlet (the "lucky PR singlet" from Indy). Shorts would be just fine. Gazelles cap on my head, and I was ready to go. Chip on the shoe? Check. Race number affixed to the outer shirt? Check. A quick last sip of Gatorade, and it was time to get back to the corrals.
Of course, best laid plans and all that, the announcer came on and told us that the start was being delayed for 15 minutes due to traffic issues. Grrrrr... So, we had to sort of stall and try to keep our warmup feeling going with fitful jogs and strides. There was also a good bit of hiding behind any shelter you could find. There were a good number of people standing behind the edge of the two port-o-let lines. Any port in a storm, eh?
Finally, it was time to get going. We huddled up behind the start line, and heard a rather interpretive version of the National Anthem. I think the singer was either scared or just made a mistake and started too high for her voice. When she got to "...and the Rocket's Red Glare...," she had to shift into what might charitably be called an "alternate melody" for a few lines. Oh, well, I couldn't do that song, anyway, but I do notice it when it's sung. She finished just fine. Wheelchairs, and then, finally, at 7:50am, 20 minutes late, we were off. The sunrise was really beautiful off in the distance, a riot of pastels. I'm glad I noticed it in all the hubbub.
I was lined up with Amy, Venus and a few other Gazelles, and at the start, once we stepped on the timing mats, the two girls went out ahead of me pretty strongly. I gathered my willpower, and stuck to my race plan. I sort of cruised the first mile up the incline into the wind, moving through the crowds, but not trying to push super hard at the gun. I passed my massage guy, Ron, and we chatted a bit as I moved on. Anyway, one mile down, and I was finally warmed up again. It had taken that first mile to get my legs back ready to race, and now it was time to get going.
Mile two had a short downhill and then a long moderate climb up the curving ramp to turn east towards Round Rock. Of course, a nice moderate downhill followed, and mile two was done. I checked my split there, and I was at a pace that I figured I could maintain. I felt great, and with the wind at least off to an angle, it wasn't so bothersome. The sun was up by now. From this point to the turnaround, it was pretty much a dead straight road. That offered its own difficulties, mostly in judging distance and trying to keep from veering into runners around you. I mostly stuck to running along one of the painted stripes in the road to keep on course. My attention wandered a bit when I didn't do this.
Miles 3-5 were pretty much the same, with long stretches of boring inclines and declines. Nothing steep, but not too much in the way of truly flat roads, either. For me, it was fine. I like courses that give you modest changes in elevation, to engage different leg muscles. Sort of like a smoother Decker course. I was doing a good job of moving up through the field, and with each mile, I was chipping away at my overall pace. The leaders passed me on their return leg just after I passed the 4 mile marker, and from that point on, it was fun to check out the runners heading home. Lots of Gazelles, and some other familiar faces as well. I grabbed water and/or Powerade at the 3 mile mark or so, and another quick drink near the turnaround so I could take my GU. I got about half of it down, and held it until after the turnaround, where I grabbed another cup of water on the way back "home." I saw Venus, Amy, Sue, and a bunch of other Gazelles about 100-200 yards ahead of me at the turnaround, so I knew the task at hand for the second half. Stepped on the timing mat at the 5 mile marker, and it was time to retrace my steps. Halfway done. Average pace at the 5 mile mark was 8:00/mile, almost exactly. I was feeling good, moving well, and I didn't feel like I had worked super hard to that point. Time to go for a negative split and to try to catch some of my friends before the finish!
I got a little nervous during mile 6, for some reason, thinking that I was starting to detect signs of fatigue. That passed, but it was just something to work through. I caught up with a woman during that mile, and she stuck with me for a good mile and a half, running side by side with me. Now that's fine, but she was thisclose to me as we ran, and even bumped into me at one point. She apologized, but it was kinda strange. I realized that she was using me as a pacer, but that was okay with me, I suppose. I knew I had further accelerations to come, so if she could stay with me, good for her. A friend of hers passed us by and said something to her. I'd see him later.
I caught up with Amy during mile 7, I think, and kept on going. By now, I was accelerating each mile, little by little, and I knew I was on a good day of running. Every time I thought I was getting in trouble, I just checked the next split, and I realized that I was feeling a little more stressed because I had picked up the pace again. Cool. A last Powerade cup somewhere in there, and I was ready for the big finish. I dumped that girl late in mile 7, early mile 8. I caught Venus during mile 8, on the ramp curving back south. I also caught that guy who had passed earlier. He remembered me (my bright red shirt was probably a clue), and said something to me about how I had "tracked him down" and was doing a good job. That was pretty cool, actually.
I powered up the ramp, and on the downhill on the other side, that guy was back. We started running/racing together from that point to the finish line. We pulled each other to the nine mile marker, and it was time for the big downhill finish. The wind had degenerated into a steady breeze with gusts, so it was a helping wind, but not as forceful as it had been earlier. That last mile seemed to take forever. My new racing partner and I were taking turns pushing the pace, and I was working hard by now. It was difficult to judge how far it was to the finish. You could see the tollbooths from a long way off, and it seemed like they weren't getting closer fast enough. I sneaked a peek at the GPS, finally, and saw that we had just a half mile to go. That guy pulled away from me in the last half mile, but I chased him to the finish just the same, passing a bunch of folks in that last mile. Finally, I heard Evel call out my name, and I was done.
I had really run hard, especially that last mile or two, and it took a little bit to get settled down after the finish. I sucked down some air, and got sort of back to normal finally, and kept moving through the finish area. I saw Bernard, and told him I'd had a good day. How good? My final time of 1:17:03, 7:42/mile average pace, was a huge Masters PR, knocking 5 minutes off of last year's Pervasive 10 Miler time. That was a lot harder course, but I'm not sure it was 5 minutes harder. My time was also within 11 seconds of my lifetime best, set back in 12/93. My furious last mile was responsible for the charge at my lifetime PR, I think. I knew I was having a good day, but I hadn't been able to calculate anything serious out on the course. Probably wouldn't have changed things, but I might have been able to find 11 seconds out there somewhere? Who knows? Second half was knocked out at 7:24/mile average pace, which was also a 5 mile lifetime PR, besting a 5 mile race (37:27) in Stone Mountain, GA, back in 9/93. My last 7 miles today were at an average pace of 7:30, besting my lifetime best at 10K (pace 7:31) set way back in 5/85, when I was a mere child. So, I guess to run a good 10K, I have to do a 3 mile hard warmup? :-) Very satisfying numbers. And it was unexpected. I had had some excellent workouts lately, but that bad IBM 10K had shaken my confidence, and I needed a good race. Mission accomplished.
My HR info was interesting, too. Seems that I ran a very good race, judging from the HR, because I spent most of the race, until mile 9 and 10, in a perfect distance racing zone. It rose during the big finish, but all in all, the numbers backed up my impression that I ran within myself today. I don't think I left too much time out there, though. :-)
Splits: 8:36, 7:59, 7:54, 7:49, 7:44, 7:50, 7:40, 7:29, 7:19, 6:42. 1:17:03. I'm pretty sure that the last mile split of 6:42 was the fastest mile I've ever run in any race, 5K or longer, with the possible exception of that PR 5K race, and that race was way back in May, 1986.
Amy was nice enough to very slowly run our 2 mile cooldown with me, and those very slow miles sure helped relax our legs once we were done. She PR'd, too, along with most of the folks I talked with in the Gazelles. What a great day!
For the day, 14 miles, including warmup/cooldown. For the week, 39 miles. A nice manageable mileage increase. Things are going well. Now, all I have to do is keep doing it. Easy, right?
Oh, yeah, the Gazelles in Chicago did well as a group this morning. There were a bunch of PR's, some startling debut marathons (Brad ripped off a 3:29:xx!), and some Boston Qualifiers. Weather was pretty good for them, but a strong wind knocked them around a bit over the last 5 miles or so. I can't wait to hear more of their marathon stories! I also wish I could have been there to enjoy the post-race pizza and beer! :-)
Saturday, October 21, 2006
EZ Runnin' and a Morning Nap
Well, this is a funny story. I was in charge of getting the coolers to the top of Bonnell this morning for those not doing the 10 mile race tomorrow. They started their run at 6:00am, so I needed to get the coolers up there by 6:30am or so. No problem there, and I was done with that and all the way down to RunTex by 6:45am. I had an hour to kill before my scheduled 7:45am easy 4 miler with the Distance Challenge people, so I pulled the car around to a quiet spot, turned the radio down to quiet classical music, and caught some ZZZZZZZ's. I set a timer to beep at me after 45 minutes so I wouldn't miss the scheduled run. No problem...
The timer went off as planned, and I peeked at the clock. Still had 15 minutes, so I figured I'd close my eyes just for a minute more. I think you see where this story is going. I snapped awake shortly after that, and it was 7:52am. Oops! Missed 'em again! I climbed out of the car, and after a short walk, I felt awake enough to start jogging along. I didn't know which direction the troops went, but I figured they went out on the trail. I decided to cruise along and would turn around when I met up with them on their way back.
Well, that was a good plan, but it turns out they went a different direction. I turned around about where Woodie plays guitar at Point Neff, and headed back. I was feeling fine, just sort of embarrassed about snoozing away this morning. As I reached the 1/2 mile to go mark, Amy came running onto the trail from the Pfluger bridge. I joined up with her for the last short bit of the run, and ended up with a very modest 2.84 miles, average pace 9:00/mile. It was just enough to break a sweat so that stretching would be beneficial.
Stretching was weird without all the Chicago people, who were doing their last pre-marathon jog up in the Windy City at that same time. I felt fine after all the stretching, and I'm sort of excited about the race tomorrow.
Race Goals for the Girl Scout 10 Miler:
1. Distance Challenge 10 Miler PB: 1:22:00 (8:12/mile) set last year at Pervasive on a much tougher course. This should happen pretty much automatically.
2. Next Round Number: 1:20:00 (8:00/mile). I ran half marathons at faster paces than this in the last 6 months, but it's been a while.
3. Stretch Goal: 1:19:00 (7:54/mile), more or less Indy Mini Marathon PR pace from May 2006.
I'd also like to do a smooth negative split on this full out and back course. It will be strange not knowing the course ahead of time, but I'm just going to have to get over that. Full report to follow the race...
The timer went off as planned, and I peeked at the clock. Still had 15 minutes, so I figured I'd close my eyes just for a minute more. I think you see where this story is going. I snapped awake shortly after that, and it was 7:52am. Oops! Missed 'em again! I climbed out of the car, and after a short walk, I felt awake enough to start jogging along. I didn't know which direction the troops went, but I figured they went out on the trail. I decided to cruise along and would turn around when I met up with them on their way back.
Well, that was a good plan, but it turns out they went a different direction. I turned around about where Woodie plays guitar at Point Neff, and headed back. I was feeling fine, just sort of embarrassed about snoozing away this morning. As I reached the 1/2 mile to go mark, Amy came running onto the trail from the Pfluger bridge. I joined up with her for the last short bit of the run, and ended up with a very modest 2.84 miles, average pace 9:00/mile. It was just enough to break a sweat so that stretching would be beneficial.
Stretching was weird without all the Chicago people, who were doing their last pre-marathon jog up in the Windy City at that same time. I felt fine after all the stretching, and I'm sort of excited about the race tomorrow.
Race Goals for the Girl Scout 10 Miler:
1. Distance Challenge 10 Miler PB: 1:22:00 (8:12/mile) set last year at Pervasive on a much tougher course. This should happen pretty much automatically.
2. Next Round Number: 1:20:00 (8:00/mile). I ran half marathons at faster paces than this in the last 6 months, but it's been a while.
3. Stretch Goal: 1:19:00 (7:54/mile), more or less Indy Mini Marathon PR pace from May 2006.
I'd also like to do a smooth negative split on this full out and back course. It will be strange not knowing the course ahead of time, but I'm just going to have to get over that. Full report to follow the race...
Friday, October 20, 2006
GymStuff [Entered 10/21/06]
Friday, I went to the gym for a full workout. Started with the cycle again, 30 minutes, and then did a full range of exercises, core, legs and upper body. The core and upper body exercises are coming along, and the leg exercises completed the recovery from yesterday's fartlek workout. Not much else to report.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Fartleks [Entered 10/21/06]
Thursday, it was nice out there. Cool enough that you got chilled once you stopped running. Anyway, I met up with the Thursday crew for fartleks in preparation for the Sunday 10 miler. Fortunately, Amy was there, so I had someone to run with. We were to run 12-15 x 1:00 fartlek accelerations with 1:00 jogs between them, after warming up to a specific point on the trail. Off we went, in the darkness of the predawn trail. Within 100 yards, Amy and I were dead last. I mean, no one anywhere near us, except Sean, who decided that we'd be fun to run with today. It was quite humbling after being near the front of the pack in the Monday/Wednesday AT&T group.
We had a nice warmup over to the Milago apartments, and then commenced our fartleks. I was feeling pretty good, which was a good sign. Sean dropped back for a moment, and then caught up with us by about the 5th fartlek acceleration. I pulled away from Amy near Mopac, and started playing the "yo-yo" pacing game with Sean until I was done with my 15 x 1:00 intervals. For my cooldown, I turned around on the trail, and went back to run with Amy to the finish. She wasn't that far behind, and it was a lot more fun to run in with someone than to do it alone.
I was surprised to see that I was averaging right at 8:00/mile for the fartlek section, including the intervening jogging bits. My 1:00 accelerations were in the 7:00/mile pace range. It felt pretty comfortable, and despite being tossed out the back of the larger Gazelles pace groups, it was a good workout.
Gilbert started early with the faster people, so when Amy, Sean and I got to Auditorium Shores, we skipped striders and joined in with the balance drills. Those are always fun.
For the day, 7.21 miles, average pace 8:42/mile, including warmup, cooldown, and everything else. I skipped stretching today, and got home instead.
We had a nice warmup over to the Milago apartments, and then commenced our fartleks. I was feeling pretty good, which was a good sign. Sean dropped back for a moment, and then caught up with us by about the 5th fartlek acceleration. I pulled away from Amy near Mopac, and started playing the "yo-yo" pacing game with Sean until I was done with my 15 x 1:00 intervals. For my cooldown, I turned around on the trail, and went back to run with Amy to the finish. She wasn't that far behind, and it was a lot more fun to run in with someone than to do it alone.
I was surprised to see that I was averaging right at 8:00/mile for the fartlek section, including the intervening jogging bits. My 1:00 accelerations were in the 7:00/mile pace range. It felt pretty comfortable, and despite being tossed out the back of the larger Gazelles pace groups, it was a good workout.
Gilbert started early with the faster people, so when Amy, Sean and I got to Auditorium Shores, we skipped striders and joined in with the balance drills. Those are always fun.
For the day, 7.21 miles, average pace 8:42/mile, including warmup, cooldown, and everything else. I skipped stretching today, and got home instead.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
GymStuff
The weather turned muggy and warm again today, so I went to the gym instead for a workout. Started on the stationary cycle for 30 minutes to warm up, and then did core and upper body stuff. I've not been as diligent about the gym as I should, so I struggled with the Roman chair ab exercises, but the other core stuff wasn't too awful. I've had to back down on weight a little on the upper body stuff, but there's a clear path to getting that back up to where I was, so I'm not too worried there. For an "off day," it was a decent workout. Tomorrow is fartleks, and then it's easy street until the race on Sunday.
iPod note of the day: It's only on headphones that you hear some of the crazy stuff that Jimi Hendrix did on some of his recordings...I heard "Voodoo Chile" today, and there was lots of wild swings of the guitar sound back and forth across the sonicscape. It made me a little woozy hearing the guitar drift back and forth across my brain, so to speak. Trippy, man! :-)
iPod note of the day: It's only on headphones that you hear some of the crazy stuff that Jimi Hendrix did on some of his recordings...I heard "Voodoo Chile" today, and there was lots of wild swings of the guitar sound back and forth across the sonicscape. It made me a little woozy hearing the guitar drift back and forth across my brain, so to speak. Trippy, man! :-)
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Two Of Us: My Run With Amy
Okay, so it's nothing more than a nice recovery 7 miler with Amy, but wasn't the title a good one? :-) The two of us had a fun and relaxing run around Town Lake on the I-35 loop, going clockwise for a change just to give us a different look at the trail. We always go the other direction, and it's amazing how a simple thing like a direction change can make that stretch of dirt seem sort of new. It was really dark when we started, and stayed that way for the whole trip. Seemed that we took about the same amount of time to start feeling loose after the mile repeats from yesterday, and from that point on, it was truly relaxing. We covered topics galore, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Once we finished, we knocked out 5 x striders, and called it a day. It was pretty nice out there, with temperatures finally back into the low 60's, and that made for a lot more pleasant experience. My HR stayed nice and low throughout, so that's a sign we were doing it right.
7.09 miles, 1:06:30, 9:23/mile. No water stops today, none needed. I stuck around and did the full stretching and chatted a while with Sean, Liliana and Gilbert. Thumbs up.
Afterwards, I dashed up (well, I drove up) to Gold's for Essential Leg Exercises, to finish off the workout day. No problems there, so I give the day an "A" to start with, anyway.
Tomorrow I'll run on my own in the 'Hood for 50 minutes or so and then will head to the gym again for core and upper body stuff. I don't want my mileage for the week to go up excessively from the last couple of 36 mile type weeks, so I don't need 7 miles on Wednesday. 5 will be plenty. Looks like a 40-45 mile week, depending on how much of a warmup/cooldown I do on Sunday around the 10 mile race, so I'll be careful.
7.09 miles, 1:06:30, 9:23/mile. No water stops today, none needed. I stuck around and did the full stretching and chatted a while with Sean, Liliana and Gilbert. Thumbs up.
Afterwards, I dashed up (well, I drove up) to Gold's for Essential Leg Exercises, to finish off the workout day. No problems there, so I give the day an "A" to start with, anyway.
Tomorrow I'll run on my own in the 'Hood for 50 minutes or so and then will head to the gym again for core and upper body stuff. I don't want my mileage for the week to go up excessively from the last couple of 36 mile type weeks, so I don't need 7 miles on Wednesday. 5 will be plenty. Looks like a 40-45 mile week, depending on how much of a warmup/cooldown I do on Sunday around the 10 mile race, so I'll be careful.
Monday, October 16, 2006
...And the Hits Just Keep on Coming! (Mile Repeats)
Today wasn't a great weather day (that seems to be the default weather report for runs these last months, huh?), but we had our work to do, Zilker mile repeats. A fairly small group of AT&T folks trundled over to Zilker through the thick and humid air in the seriously dark morning. We had some fun chatting, though, and despite my poor job of navigation to the bridge under Barton Springs Road, we made it to the warmup site without injury. Some of the new folks were a ways behind us, and they went to the wrong spot to meet, but that's understandable given Gilbert's spoken instructions ("By the Zilker Pool"). They'll get it next time. After some initial confusion, we all managed to get our drills drilled and we were ready to run.
Gilbert gave us instructions, and the AT&T folks set out for their prescribed 4 x 1 Mile Repeats. G didn't set us up with pace groups, but we sort of figured out who to run with as the workout progressed. Dennis, Braz and Eric ran just ahead of Rachel and I on the first repeat, which was supposed to be "easy." It was easy, I suppose, in a relative sense of the word. Funny how our whole perspective on such things changes based on where we are in our training.
Rachel and I were basically a self-contained pace pod for the entire workout, which was very helpful. She joked that she had to run with me step-for-step because she couldn't work her watch, and needed to know her times. I would bet that she was kidding, but whatever the reason, it was nice to have someone to share the psychic load of running fast. We just caught Eric at the end of the second repeat, going the direction that included the steeper hill. On the third repeat, we trailed Eric the whole way, but ended up the same time for that lap. On number four, we were basically just running on survival instincts as the drizzle became more persistent. We were careful going down the hill to the first corner, and tiptoed up the steep little hill to make sure we didn't slip and bust our butts. Once we hit the last half mile of the last repeat, I think we were actually moving faster than on previous repeats, but our overall time for number four was a tiny bit slower than number 3. We were pleased with our efforts, though, on a warm and very muggy morning. It was on repeat 4 that it was most crucial that Rachel and I were running together. We agreed that we'd have run substantially slower on that lap had we had to run alone. This is why training with the Gazelles is a big deal to me. Sharing the stresses of hard workouts like these is critical to completing them, especially when you are stretching to the edges of your abilities.
Splits: 7:32, 7:06, 6:57, 7:02. Avg. mile was 7:09, which was pretty solid. "PR" for this workout is either 3x1 mile @ 7:03/mile average or 4x1 mile @ 7:04/mile average, so I'm right where I need to be at the start of AT&T training. On a cooler morning, I think we'd have dropped that last repeat so that each one would progressively be faster. But, that'll have to wait for the next time.
After everyone else finished up, we eased back to RunTex at a nice relaxed cooldown pace. Our cooldown crew was Amy, Rachel, Eric, and me. It was a long day at the workout desk, but I know these are important workouts, and I'm pleased with our results.
It was raining for real by the time we finished the cooldown, so we stretched underneath the shed by the ice machines. It was cool to see the Chicago folks as they finished up their little 3000m marathon goal pace cruise. I probably won't see them until after their big race on Sunday, so I took the opportunity this morning to wish them luck. They're going to have great weather, it looks like, so I'll be watching online with high hopes for them all. I stretched with Lisa , Colleen and Rachel, and had a good long talk with Lisa about Chicago. It's going to be cool to see them succeed at their various race goals. Oh, well. My time will come in February. For now, I need to focus on each workout week, and do the proper job on the Distance Challenge races in the meantime. I've got a good idea of my race goals for Sunday, but I'll hang onto those for now. At least this year the course won't be as awful as the old Pervasive 10 Miler course!
For the day, 7.8 miles, and a great start to the running week it was!
Gilbert gave us instructions, and the AT&T folks set out for their prescribed 4 x 1 Mile Repeats. G didn't set us up with pace groups, but we sort of figured out who to run with as the workout progressed. Dennis, Braz and Eric ran just ahead of Rachel and I on the first repeat, which was supposed to be "easy." It was easy, I suppose, in a relative sense of the word. Funny how our whole perspective on such things changes based on where we are in our training.
Rachel and I were basically a self-contained pace pod for the entire workout, which was very helpful. She joked that she had to run with me step-for-step because she couldn't work her watch, and needed to know her times. I would bet that she was kidding, but whatever the reason, it was nice to have someone to share the psychic load of running fast. We just caught Eric at the end of the second repeat, going the direction that included the steeper hill. On the third repeat, we trailed Eric the whole way, but ended up the same time for that lap. On number four, we were basically just running on survival instincts as the drizzle became more persistent. We were careful going down the hill to the first corner, and tiptoed up the steep little hill to make sure we didn't slip and bust our butts. Once we hit the last half mile of the last repeat, I think we were actually moving faster than on previous repeats, but our overall time for number four was a tiny bit slower than number 3. We were pleased with our efforts, though, on a warm and very muggy morning. It was on repeat 4 that it was most crucial that Rachel and I were running together. We agreed that we'd have run substantially slower on that lap had we had to run alone. This is why training with the Gazelles is a big deal to me. Sharing the stresses of hard workouts like these is critical to completing them, especially when you are stretching to the edges of your abilities.
Splits: 7:32, 7:06, 6:57, 7:02. Avg. mile was 7:09, which was pretty solid. "PR" for this workout is either 3x1 mile @ 7:03/mile average or 4x1 mile @ 7:04/mile average, so I'm right where I need to be at the start of AT&T training. On a cooler morning, I think we'd have dropped that last repeat so that each one would progressively be faster. But, that'll have to wait for the next time.
After everyone else finished up, we eased back to RunTex at a nice relaxed cooldown pace. Our cooldown crew was Amy, Rachel, Eric, and me. It was a long day at the workout desk, but I know these are important workouts, and I'm pleased with our results.
It was raining for real by the time we finished the cooldown, so we stretched underneath the shed by the ice machines. It was cool to see the Chicago folks as they finished up their little 3000m marathon goal pace cruise. I probably won't see them until after their big race on Sunday, so I took the opportunity this morning to wish them luck. They're going to have great weather, it looks like, so I'll be watching online with high hopes for them all. I stretched with Lisa , Colleen and Rachel, and had a good long talk with Lisa about Chicago. It's going to be cool to see them succeed at their various race goals. Oh, well. My time will come in February. For now, I need to focus on each workout week, and do the proper job on the Distance Challenge races in the meantime. I've got a good idea of my race goals for Sunday, but I'll hang onto those for now. At least this year the course won't be as awful as the old Pervasive 10 Miler course!
For the day, 7.8 miles, and a great start to the running week it was!
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Another Good Long Run
This morning, I had yet another really good long run. I know they won't all be like this, but it's sure nice to enjoy some good results after a long summer with some tough longer runs.
We met up at 6:00am today for a 13 mile tour of Town Lake and its surroundings. The pack was pretty big, in the 10-12 person range, for the initial part of the run. It was especially nice to have Shannon rejoin us after her recovery from stress fracture. She and Teek ran great, and Shannon mostly resisted the urge to kick it into a faster gear at the end.
We made four water/Powerade/GU stops during the journey, just because we could. The group splintered a bit after the first water stop at Holly Power Plant, and I ended up with Rachel, "other" Shannon, Emily, Tonya, Colleen, Jennifer and Sue after that. I don't remember for sure, but I think Javier stayed with us as well. We were moving along quite nicely, and as it turned out, I was in a very comfortable HR zone for a huge percentage of today's workout. I took a GU at Holly Power. We stopped again at I-35 where Gilbert had put out a table of stuff, and then cruised from there all the way to Mopac.
While we were getting water there, a bunch of folks turned back to RunTex for a 10 mile day. The rest of us took off north under Mopac for the extra 3 mile loop. That was interesting, as the sidewalk there on that trail has finally pulled away and crashed into the creek in some spots. You can still run along the path, but you have to be careful about your footing. It would be impossible in the dark or pre-dawn timeframes. We caught a small group of runners as we headed up to Enfield, including Marty, Leslie and Shannon, and gathered them up in our gang for the finish of the run.
The conversation was nice and light as we cruised up Enfield, then down Exposition to the last water/Powerade stop at O. Henry. I took my second GU there just for fun. After tanking up on fluids one last time, we headed for home. Gilbert had suggested a "fast finish" from O. Henry, so I started picking it up. I guess I was having a really good day, because I didn't have any pace buddies for the last 3 miles.
I was surprised to see my mile split at Mopac, and tried to just enjoy the good feeling and not try and judge my run before it was done. It didn't feel tremendously hard paced as I knocked out the last two miles on the trail, but it wasn't easy either. I did not look at the watch during the last couple of miles, just to preserve the surprise. It was the usual game of picking new people to chase down and pass, even if none of them were Gazelles. I noticed that the trail behind Zilker Park is going to be shut down during the Rolling Stones concert next Sunday evening, which I suppose is a normal security precaution, but that might cause some arguments next weekend. We'll see.
I finished really strong today, and ended up with a terrific long run. Yes, it was cooler today, maybe 69 or 70 degrees, but it wasn't a nice and brisk 50, either. It looks like things are coming together for me, and that's very encouraging.
The splits: 9:56, 8:55, 8:49, 0.78 miles at 8:58/mile pace, 1:48 water/GU stop, 8:56, 0.36 miles at 8:59 pace, 1:03 water/powerade stop, 9:02, 9:00, 0.89 miles at 8:51 pace, 1:15 water stop, 9:02, 0.78 miles at 8:51 pace, 2:03 water/Powerade/GU stop, then fast finish at 7:35, 7:36, 7:30, and 0.2 miles at 6:45 pace. 13.01 miles at 9:08/mile pace including all water stop time. Actual running pace a swift 8:40/mile.
My fast finish was pretty close to the same pace as my tempo run on Thursday. That probably says a lot more about the tempo race being well within my capabilities (read: "Should have run faster on Thursday") than about today's run, but it's a good sign nonetheless.
Gilbert prescribed 8 x 100m striders today, and they weren't too bad, really. The whole pace gang did very well today, so it was a successful workout for all concerned. The stretching was entertaining, and then the day was done.
I hung out for a while and chatted with Frank, Alex, Brad, Jan, Marcy and Brian about Chicago next week, but it's obvious that they are getting into that serious focus zone, and since my marathon is quite a ways away, it's sort of strange for me now. It will be nice after they finish at Chicago and rejoin the herd so we can all be together again. I am hopeful that a long list of race goals will be achieved in the Windy City next Sunday. At least the weather looks to be very nice as a long-range forecast...
For the week, almost 37 miles and 5 runs, so I'm in that decent mileage zone. It will pick up as a function of the increasing long runs, and I'll ease the recovery runs to 7 miles every time over the next week or so, so that's a few more miles there, too. Gradual does the trick.
We met up at 6:00am today for a 13 mile tour of Town Lake and its surroundings. The pack was pretty big, in the 10-12 person range, for the initial part of the run. It was especially nice to have Shannon rejoin us after her recovery from stress fracture. She and Teek ran great, and Shannon mostly resisted the urge to kick it into a faster gear at the end.
We made four water/Powerade/GU stops during the journey, just because we could. The group splintered a bit after the first water stop at Holly Power Plant, and I ended up with Rachel, "other" Shannon, Emily, Tonya, Colleen, Jennifer and Sue after that. I don't remember for sure, but I think Javier stayed with us as well. We were moving along quite nicely, and as it turned out, I was in a very comfortable HR zone for a huge percentage of today's workout. I took a GU at Holly Power. We stopped again at I-35 where Gilbert had put out a table of stuff, and then cruised from there all the way to Mopac.
While we were getting water there, a bunch of folks turned back to RunTex for a 10 mile day. The rest of us took off north under Mopac for the extra 3 mile loop. That was interesting, as the sidewalk there on that trail has finally pulled away and crashed into the creek in some spots. You can still run along the path, but you have to be careful about your footing. It would be impossible in the dark or pre-dawn timeframes. We caught a small group of runners as we headed up to Enfield, including Marty, Leslie and Shannon, and gathered them up in our gang for the finish of the run.
The conversation was nice and light as we cruised up Enfield, then down Exposition to the last water/Powerade stop at O. Henry. I took my second GU there just for fun. After tanking up on fluids one last time, we headed for home. Gilbert had suggested a "fast finish" from O. Henry, so I started picking it up. I guess I was having a really good day, because I didn't have any pace buddies for the last 3 miles.
I was surprised to see my mile split at Mopac, and tried to just enjoy the good feeling and not try and judge my run before it was done. It didn't feel tremendously hard paced as I knocked out the last two miles on the trail, but it wasn't easy either. I did not look at the watch during the last couple of miles, just to preserve the surprise. It was the usual game of picking new people to chase down and pass, even if none of them were Gazelles. I noticed that the trail behind Zilker Park is going to be shut down during the Rolling Stones concert next Sunday evening, which I suppose is a normal security precaution, but that might cause some arguments next weekend. We'll see.
I finished really strong today, and ended up with a terrific long run. Yes, it was cooler today, maybe 69 or 70 degrees, but it wasn't a nice and brisk 50, either. It looks like things are coming together for me, and that's very encouraging.
The splits: 9:56, 8:55, 8:49, 0.78 miles at 8:58/mile pace, 1:48 water/GU stop, 8:56, 0.36 miles at 8:59 pace, 1:03 water/powerade stop, 9:02, 9:00, 0.89 miles at 8:51 pace, 1:15 water stop, 9:02, 0.78 miles at 8:51 pace, 2:03 water/Powerade/GU stop, then fast finish at 7:35, 7:36, 7:30, and 0.2 miles at 6:45 pace. 13.01 miles at 9:08/mile pace including all water stop time. Actual running pace a swift 8:40/mile.
My fast finish was pretty close to the same pace as my tempo run on Thursday. That probably says a lot more about the tempo race being well within my capabilities (read: "Should have run faster on Thursday") than about today's run, but it's a good sign nonetheless.
Gilbert prescribed 8 x 100m striders today, and they weren't too bad, really. The whole pace gang did very well today, so it was a successful workout for all concerned. The stretching was entertaining, and then the day was done.
I hung out for a while and chatted with Frank, Alex, Brad, Jan, Marcy and Brian about Chicago next week, but it's obvious that they are getting into that serious focus zone, and since my marathon is quite a ways away, it's sort of strange for me now. It will be nice after they finish at Chicago and rejoin the herd so we can all be together again. I am hopeful that a long list of race goals will be achieved in the Windy City next Sunday. At least the weather looks to be very nice as a long-range forecast...
For the week, almost 37 miles and 5 runs, so I'm in that decent mileage zone. It will pick up as a function of the increasing long runs, and I'll ease the recovery runs to 7 miles every time over the next week or so, so that's a few more miles there, too. Gradual does the trick.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Tempo Racing
For the first time in a long time, I joined the herd for a tempo race. Due to a variety of circumstances, it seems that I haven't run one of these with the group since June. That's a little disconcerting. But, on a humid but relatively cool morning, I met up with the Thursday group for the tempo. Just a one mile warmup and then drills, and it was time to get going. It was fun to chat with Mason and Rob as we warmed up. I had no real expectations for the result today, but wanted to run within myself and see where I was to start the marathon training season. My PR for this workout is 28:57, but I hoped to be somewhere around 30:00 today.
In the dark, we were sent off after Gilbert gave us the usual "negative split" advice. The Thursday group is loaded with fast people, so I wasn't shocked to be left in the dust by a very large group of folks at the start. Within the first half mile, I had passed the only Gazelle in sight, and was running alone. It would remain that way for the rest of the run. I saw Chad well ahead, but that remained a mirage for the whole run. So, I settled into a pace, and rolled along. I was a little quicker than I had expected at the one mile mark, which rattled me a little. As a result, I stopped checking the watch after that. Better to run by feel so as to eliminate the self-sabotage that can come with staring down your watch.
I was a little closer to the lead pack than I remembered in the past, and was a little closer to Chad than I had expected at the turnaround. Still, I just kept running my race. For the most part, this whole workout was an exercise in mental toughness. I was not worrying about my legs or conditioning as much as I was fighting the negative impulses that my psyche kept throwing at me. "Slow down!" "This isn't fun!" "Don't press so hard!" For the most part, I was able to fight those off. It was nice to start counting down the 1/4 mile markers, for sure. As always, it was a bit surreal running in the dark on the trail at speed. I had to dodge a bunch of walkers and dog walkers, but nothing that was too bad.
I tried to pick it up a bit for the last mile, and I think I was successful with that. Gathering up all I had left, I pushed all the way to the tape for a very satisfying final time. This was my second best tempo race ever, so that was a huge relief to me. This has been a great week of training lately. I had my best long run in quite a while on Saturday, a "PR" set of 2000m repeats on Monday, and this very strong tempo race today. That makes me very happy.
The numbers: 7:26, 7:25, 7:31, 7:11. 29:33. Avg. pace was 7:23/mile. Slight negative split of just 10 seconds, but it was a negative split.
We did 4 striders afterwards, and then did balance drills and some hopping around with Gilbert. It was a nice workout day. Tomorrow is a cycle/gym day, so that will be a nice break. I did the full stretching with Colleen, and that was that.
I made my way to Gold's after the running, and just did a quick visit for "Essential Exercises" for the legs. I wanted to do the leg series to finish off that work and to help recovery. They felt pretty good.
Total mileage for the day, a modest 6.7 miles, including warmups and drills.
In the dark, we were sent off after Gilbert gave us the usual "negative split" advice. The Thursday group is loaded with fast people, so I wasn't shocked to be left in the dust by a very large group of folks at the start. Within the first half mile, I had passed the only Gazelle in sight, and was running alone. It would remain that way for the rest of the run. I saw Chad well ahead, but that remained a mirage for the whole run. So, I settled into a pace, and rolled along. I was a little quicker than I had expected at the one mile mark, which rattled me a little. As a result, I stopped checking the watch after that. Better to run by feel so as to eliminate the self-sabotage that can come with staring down your watch.
I was a little closer to the lead pack than I remembered in the past, and was a little closer to Chad than I had expected at the turnaround. Still, I just kept running my race. For the most part, this whole workout was an exercise in mental toughness. I was not worrying about my legs or conditioning as much as I was fighting the negative impulses that my psyche kept throwing at me. "Slow down!" "This isn't fun!" "Don't press so hard!" For the most part, I was able to fight those off. It was nice to start counting down the 1/4 mile markers, for sure. As always, it was a bit surreal running in the dark on the trail at speed. I had to dodge a bunch of walkers and dog walkers, but nothing that was too bad.
I tried to pick it up a bit for the last mile, and I think I was successful with that. Gathering up all I had left, I pushed all the way to the tape for a very satisfying final time. This was my second best tempo race ever, so that was a huge relief to me. This has been a great week of training lately. I had my best long run in quite a while on Saturday, a "PR" set of 2000m repeats on Monday, and this very strong tempo race today. That makes me very happy.
The numbers: 7:26, 7:25, 7:31, 7:11. 29:33. Avg. pace was 7:23/mile. Slight negative split of just 10 seconds, but it was a negative split.
We did 4 striders afterwards, and then did balance drills and some hopping around with Gilbert. It was a nice workout day. Tomorrow is a cycle/gym day, so that will be a nice break. I did the full stretching with Colleen, and that was that.
I made my way to Gold's after the running, and just did a quick visit for "Essential Exercises" for the legs. I wanted to do the leg series to finish off that work and to help recovery. They felt pretty good.
Total mileage for the day, a modest 6.7 miles, including warmups and drills.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
More EZ Running
I didn't get to the gym today as planned, but I can go tomorrow for "Essential Exercises." However, I did go out this evening in the 'Hood for another nice and easy recovery effort. Tonight, it was even easier than last night. I did exactly 5 miles, 46:24, 9:16/mile pace. HR numbers were good.
My legs felt fine, and I even did some striders after I was finished. A good bit of stretching after I got inside the house, and I was done.
Tomorrow is a Tempo Race, so it'll be interesting to see where I am on that.
My legs felt fine, and I even did some striders after I was finished. A good bit of stretching after I got inside the house, and I was done.
Tomorrow is a Tempo Race, so it'll be interesting to see where I am on that.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Easy Running in the Hood
It's Tuesday, so that means it's time to do an easy recovery run. I messed around today and didn't go out in the rain early, but I did go out this evening at dusk for a nice little run. Almost exactly 6 miles, about 8:55/mile pace. I was trying to keep the pace easy, and for the most part I was successful. It felt good to get out there to finish off the day, and I'm happier now that I've completed the running assignment. I'm exploring my music collection via the iPod, and heard a bunch of songs I had not enjoyed in quite a while. Amazing device, that iPod.
Tomorrow, it's yet another nice and even easier run, followed by a gym visit. One day at a time, one day at a time...
Tomorrow, it's yet another nice and even easier run, followed by a gym visit. One day at a time, one day at a time...
New Feature - Lifetime PR's
To the right, you'll see my modest list of lifetime PR's at the most common race distances. You will also notice an invisible line in the "Date" column...I've gotten better at the longer distances in my relatively advanced age, but those shorter distance PR's still stand for that much younger Jay. I'm close to some of those old PR's, and hopefully will knock off some of them in the next 12 months. It's kind of cool to be racing a 20-something, even if it is a virtual race. :-)
I have used my actual watch time for last year's Freescale Marathon. I received a too-generous time from RunFar once they went through all their calculations after the problem with the chip mat at the start of the race, and don't want to claim a time that I did not earn. Now, if their generosity had enabled me to qualify for Boston, I think I may have used it just to get an entry to the Mecca of Recreational Runners, but in this case, that's not an issue.
I have used my actual watch time for last year's Freescale Marathon. I received a too-generous time from RunFar once they went through all their calculations after the problem with the chip mat at the start of the race, and don't want to claim a time that I did not earn. Now, if their generosity had enabled me to qualify for Boston, I think I may have used it just to get an entry to the Mecca of Recreational Runners, but in this case, that's not an issue.
Monday, October 09, 2006
2000's for Real!
Ah, yes. A truly crisp morning, 61 degrees. Nice. Nice enough to make even the most sleep-deprived Gazelle happy to be outdoors at 5:45am. Ahhhhhh...
Sorry, I was dropping off into dreamland there for a second. Anyway, I was surprised to find out that we had 2000m repeats at Zilker this morning. I thought we had our first AT&T pace run, but we were soon disabused of that notion. Gilbert sent out the Chicago folks for a 7 mile pace run (easy 2, half marathon paced 5), the NYC/Dallas people for a 10 mile pace run (EZ 2, harder 8), and the AT&T'ers were sent out to Zilker for 2000's. Yee haw.
I'd guess we had maybe 15 people making their way over on the trail, in the deep darkness, but it was a good warmup. I wasn't as talkative as usual (I know, you're stunned!), but I needed to focus on letting my body relax and warm into the day's efforts. I was still a bit stiff and sore from the nice 15 miler on Saturday, and it just takes longer to get rolling nowadays. Drills drilled, we went back to the top of the Zilker 2000m loop and found Bernard and Kenny waiting on us to administer our run. We got the usual chatter about running the 2000's at "10K race pace," and they prescribed 3 x 2000m for today. The first one is supposed to be easier, and the idea is to have your last one your fastest. I like to try and make each successive lap a bit quicker, so we'd see how that went. My "PR" for this workout is a 3x2000 lap average of 8:26/lap.
There were a lot of new folks there today, and most of them didn't know what sort of pace or group to run with. In the confusion, I just took off with a few folks, and got started. Turns out, we were the fastest group all morning long. Now, I'm an okay runner, nothing spectacular, so it is very strange for me to be in the lead group for any workout. Weird, but sort of fun. I started out with Emily, Javier, Nelson, Colleen and Christina. By the end of the first lap, which I led for the most part, it was pretty much Nelson, Christina and me leading the way. Shortly after, the others came across, but my little tri-pod (that's a little too twee, I think) ran together for the rest of the workout. Nelson and Christina pushed the last two laps, and I hung in there well enough. Just 2:00 rest between laps, and we were really cruising along today. I was happy to see that I had narrowly met all my workout goals today.
Splits: 8:35, 8:19, 8:18. 8:24/lap average, a new "PR," with a mile pace for the fast stuff at 7:00/mile exactly. I measure the course as 1.2 miles, fractions short of a true 2000m.
I met Eric on the way back on the cooldown run, and Nelson, Eric and I talked about Gazelles, the training, and aches and pains. Spouting the company line, I prescribed weight training to help with the various musculo-skeletal issues. Yeah, I know I should be more diligent about practicing what I preach...
I did the stretching after donning a sweatshirt (it got chilly once we stopped), and chatted with Colleen, Alex and Lisa. It was a fun day, and again, I was pleased to see that my conditioning is coming around.
For the day, 6.9 miles. Due to scheduling issues, I've got two easy days here in the 'Hood, and then the tempo race on Thursday. With the nicer weather, it's a pleasure to run in the mornings, so hopefully, I'll be in full compliance with this week's schedule.
Sorry, I was dropping off into dreamland there for a second. Anyway, I was surprised to find out that we had 2000m repeats at Zilker this morning. I thought we had our first AT&T pace run, but we were soon disabused of that notion. Gilbert sent out the Chicago folks for a 7 mile pace run (easy 2, half marathon paced 5), the NYC/Dallas people for a 10 mile pace run (EZ 2, harder 8), and the AT&T'ers were sent out to Zilker for 2000's. Yee haw.
I'd guess we had maybe 15 people making their way over on the trail, in the deep darkness, but it was a good warmup. I wasn't as talkative as usual (I know, you're stunned!), but I needed to focus on letting my body relax and warm into the day's efforts. I was still a bit stiff and sore from the nice 15 miler on Saturday, and it just takes longer to get rolling nowadays. Drills drilled, we went back to the top of the Zilker 2000m loop and found Bernard and Kenny waiting on us to administer our run. We got the usual chatter about running the 2000's at "10K race pace," and they prescribed 3 x 2000m for today. The first one is supposed to be easier, and the idea is to have your last one your fastest. I like to try and make each successive lap a bit quicker, so we'd see how that went. My "PR" for this workout is a 3x2000 lap average of 8:26/lap.
There were a lot of new folks there today, and most of them didn't know what sort of pace or group to run with. In the confusion, I just took off with a few folks, and got started. Turns out, we were the fastest group all morning long. Now, I'm an okay runner, nothing spectacular, so it is very strange for me to be in the lead group for any workout. Weird, but sort of fun. I started out with Emily, Javier, Nelson, Colleen and Christina. By the end of the first lap, which I led for the most part, it was pretty much Nelson, Christina and me leading the way. Shortly after, the others came across, but my little tri-pod (that's a little too twee, I think) ran together for the rest of the workout. Nelson and Christina pushed the last two laps, and I hung in there well enough. Just 2:00 rest between laps, and we were really cruising along today. I was happy to see that I had narrowly met all my workout goals today.
Splits: 8:35, 8:19, 8:18. 8:24/lap average, a new "PR," with a mile pace for the fast stuff at 7:00/mile exactly. I measure the course as 1.2 miles, fractions short of a true 2000m.
I met Eric on the way back on the cooldown run, and Nelson, Eric and I talked about Gazelles, the training, and aches and pains. Spouting the company line, I prescribed weight training to help with the various musculo-skeletal issues. Yeah, I know I should be more diligent about practicing what I preach...
I did the stretching after donning a sweatshirt (it got chilly once we stopped), and chatted with Colleen, Alex and Lisa. It was a fun day, and again, I was pleased to see that my conditioning is coming around.
For the day, 6.9 miles. Due to scheduling issues, I've got two easy days here in the 'Hood, and then the tempo race on Thursday. With the nicer weather, it's a pleasure to run in the mornings, so hopefully, I'll be in full compliance with this week's schedule.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
A Good Long Run (for a change) [Entered 10/8/06]
Saturday was much nicer, weather-wise, with temps a nice 71 degrees throughout the morning. Sure, the humidity was still high, but the 10 degree temperature drop was awesome! We were scheduled for 13-15 miles on the out and back Shoal Creek route. We started out running with and around the Chicago people, who were doing more or less the same distance. Our main group of AT&T people were Sue, Emily, Rachel, Wayne, Colleen, Jennifer, Javier and me. I'm probably missing someone, but I think that's most of the folks who finished up around me.
At any rate, off at 6:00am, and we really eased into the day's miles. I had suggested that we go for the Hancock water stop as our turnaround point, which would be something just short of 15 miles. The gang seemed amenable to that goal. Our first 3.35 miles were ripped off at a scintillating 10:15/mile. Now, that's still within range of our theoretical training pace, but on the slow side. After a fairly efficient 1:49 water/Powerade/GU stop, we got the train rolling again. We had probably 10-15 people around at this point, still.
Heading up Exposition after the water stop, I took the lead, and pushed the pace a little to get us back up to our normal training pace. That seemed to get everyone jumpstarted, and the whole mob continued at that better pace all the way up Exposition, over on 35th, and to the water/Powerade stop at Shoal Creek. Much better. We were now at 6.07 miles, at an average for the running bits at 9:41/mile. We had been around 9:00/mile for that stretch of the run.
Another water/Powerade stop knocked out (1:45), we dropped a few people who wanted to do just 12 miles, and moved on up Shoal Creek. Some more people turned towards the UT campus for a shorter return trip home, and by the time we reached the water/Powerade/GU stop at Hancock, we were down to about 8 people. Recharged, we turned back for the return leg of the journey. So far, we were at 7.4 miles, and our overall pace had dropped to 9:32/mile. That refreshment stop was 1:51.
Since we had only 4 miles or so to the O. Henry water stop, we skipped the return water/Powerade stop at Shoal Creek and 35th, and continued back over to Exposition. I suppose I kept pushing the pace along with everyone else, and we were getting awfully frisky, despite the nasty hills on Exposition. I was feeling way better than on the last several long runs, which was mostly due to the improved weather, but it still made me feel much better about my running. Reaching O. Henry, we were at 11.4 miles total, and our overall running pace had dropped again to 9:12/mile. That last Powerade/water stop was 1:46.
From there, I guess we felt a "fast finish" in us, and without a spoken command, we just kept pushing it. It was very cool to see a real fast finish for a change. I just hung with the pacemakers, and for the most part, we finished together. Our larger group splintered a little under the stress of the increased pace, but still about 6 of us finished in very good fashion. The others were not far behind. It was a very strong run by everyone.
For the day, a total run of 14.63 miles, with a running pace of 8:55/mile. With the four water stops included, we were still at a fine 9:22/mile overall pace for the entire workout. Very good work by the group today!
The splits: 10:44, 10:17, 9:55, 0.36 at 9:46/mile, 1:49 water/Powerade stop, then 9:12, 8:52, and 0.71 miles at 8:50 through the Exposition hills, 1:45 Powerade/water stop, then 8:52 and 0.31 at 8:55/mile, 1:51 water stop, and then turned around for return trip. Return trip went like this: 8:37, 8:54, 8:34, 8:17, 1:46 final water/Powerade stop, and fast finish in 8:10, 7:52, 7:50, and 0.23 in a swift 6:46/mile kick. Brian came up on me during the final half mile or so, and he really pushed me to catch back up with the front runners. Thanks, Brian!
4 quick striders, and then we did the full stretching while we took time out to do various group Gazelles pictures. It was sort of "School Picture Day" I suppose.
I was very pleased with this run. I was having some serious doubts about my running fitness, given the crummy IBM 10K and most of the longer runs lately. Nice to get back where I thought I was.
For the week, almost 36 miles, but only one gym visit. Sooner or later, I'll get back with it, but this was a good week for my psyche. Now, if the new cooler temperatures will just stay with us!!
At any rate, off at 6:00am, and we really eased into the day's miles. I had suggested that we go for the Hancock water stop as our turnaround point, which would be something just short of 15 miles. The gang seemed amenable to that goal. Our first 3.35 miles were ripped off at a scintillating 10:15/mile. Now, that's still within range of our theoretical training pace, but on the slow side. After a fairly efficient 1:49 water/Powerade/GU stop, we got the train rolling again. We had probably 10-15 people around at this point, still.
Heading up Exposition after the water stop, I took the lead, and pushed the pace a little to get us back up to our normal training pace. That seemed to get everyone jumpstarted, and the whole mob continued at that better pace all the way up Exposition, over on 35th, and to the water/Powerade stop at Shoal Creek. Much better. We were now at 6.07 miles, at an average for the running bits at 9:41/mile. We had been around 9:00/mile for that stretch of the run.
Another water/Powerade stop knocked out (1:45), we dropped a few people who wanted to do just 12 miles, and moved on up Shoal Creek. Some more people turned towards the UT campus for a shorter return trip home, and by the time we reached the water/Powerade/GU stop at Hancock, we were down to about 8 people. Recharged, we turned back for the return leg of the journey. So far, we were at 7.4 miles, and our overall pace had dropped to 9:32/mile. That refreshment stop was 1:51.
Since we had only 4 miles or so to the O. Henry water stop, we skipped the return water/Powerade stop at Shoal Creek and 35th, and continued back over to Exposition. I suppose I kept pushing the pace along with everyone else, and we were getting awfully frisky, despite the nasty hills on Exposition. I was feeling way better than on the last several long runs, which was mostly due to the improved weather, but it still made me feel much better about my running. Reaching O. Henry, we were at 11.4 miles total, and our overall running pace had dropped again to 9:12/mile. That last Powerade/water stop was 1:46.
From there, I guess we felt a "fast finish" in us, and without a spoken command, we just kept pushing it. It was very cool to see a real fast finish for a change. I just hung with the pacemakers, and for the most part, we finished together. Our larger group splintered a little under the stress of the increased pace, but still about 6 of us finished in very good fashion. The others were not far behind. It was a very strong run by everyone.
For the day, a total run of 14.63 miles, with a running pace of 8:55/mile. With the four water stops included, we were still at a fine 9:22/mile overall pace for the entire workout. Very good work by the group today!
The splits: 10:44, 10:17, 9:55, 0.36 at 9:46/mile, 1:49 water/Powerade stop, then 9:12, 8:52, and 0.71 miles at 8:50 through the Exposition hills, 1:45 Powerade/water stop, then 8:52 and 0.31 at 8:55/mile, 1:51 water stop, and then turned around for return trip. Return trip went like this: 8:37, 8:54, 8:34, 8:17, 1:46 final water/Powerade stop, and fast finish in 8:10, 7:52, 7:50, and 0.23 in a swift 6:46/mile kick. Brian came up on me during the final half mile or so, and he really pushed me to catch back up with the front runners. Thanks, Brian!
4 quick striders, and then we did the full stretching while we took time out to do various group Gazelles pictures. It was sort of "School Picture Day" I suppose.
I was very pleased with this run. I was having some serious doubts about my running fitness, given the crummy IBM 10K and most of the longer runs lately. Nice to get back where I thought I was.
For the week, almost 36 miles, but only one gym visit. Sooner or later, I'll get back with it, but this was a good week for my psyche. Now, if the new cooler temperatures will just stay with us!!
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Simulated 2000's [Entered 10/8/06]
Scheduling didn't permit a visit on either Wednesday or Thursday to GazellesWorld, so after a day off on Wednesday, I set out in the 'Hood to simulate a workout of 4x2000m. Festooned with the usual excessive gadgetry, I cruised through an easy 20 minute warmup, just over 2 miles. Then, I moved right into a series of fartlek type acceleration periods. I did 4 x (9:00 pace / 2:00 easy jog). I covered about 5.3 miles during the 9:00/2:00 section, for an overall 8:15/mile average pace. During the faster bits, I was right at 8:00/mile. I think it was maybe harder doing the workout this way than the way we do it at Zilker, but it's difficult to actually stand around and wait for 2:00 to run out in the 'Hood, so c'est la vie. Another 15 minutes of cooldown after that finished off the morning. It turned out to be a nice, solid workout, and for a change, I didn't skate on a day when I had to do the workout on my own.
For the day, about 9 miles. Good for me. Now, maybe a gym visit on Friday?
For the day, about 9 miles. Good for me. Now, maybe a gym visit on Friday?
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
EZ Runnin' and The Gym
This morning was a rendezvous with the peeps for a casual recovery run. The Chicago people are in their long-range taper, so they were limited to 5 miles on recovery days, per orders. The rest of us decided that suited us just fine. We had Alex, Amy, Rachel and Emily this morning, and it was a very enjoyable little run. With a water stop at Mopac, we came in at just under 10:00/mile for about 5 miles, just what we needed. In particular, I needed this run to work out the residual soreness from Sunday's race and the circuit workout yesterday. Worked like a charm. We knocked out 6 striders on the trail, and still finished the whole workout well before sunrise. We really didn't need to start at 5:45am, but it worked out okay that we did. I stretched afterwards with Alex, and that was it for the day.
For a change, I managed to get to the gym this morning, too. I did upper body and legs today, and although I'm still way off my reps and weights on upper body exercises, it felt good to get back into the gym. Now, I just need to keep it up. Same old story. I'm convinced that my indifferent IBM 10K was a result, in part, of my lack of strength training and some desultory adherence to the overall training plan. So, it's time to fix that!
Another good workout day. Tomorrow, I have to manufacture a workout here in the 'Hood that mimics the 3-4 x 2000m workout that the main gang will do tomorrow. I have responsibilities here that prevent attendance at Gazelles on either Wednesday or Thursday, so I have to rely on some discipline to get those workouts done on my own. It's easier to do that when it gets cooler, but with the warm and sticky conditions still lingering, it's more of a mental challenge to get out there as a solo artist. So to speak.
For a change, I managed to get to the gym this morning, too. I did upper body and legs today, and although I'm still way off my reps and weights on upper body exercises, it felt good to get back into the gym. Now, I just need to keep it up. Same old story. I'm convinced that my indifferent IBM 10K was a result, in part, of my lack of strength training and some desultory adherence to the overall training plan. So, it's time to fix that!
Another good workout day. Tomorrow, I have to manufacture a workout here in the 'Hood that mimics the 3-4 x 2000m workout that the main gang will do tomorrow. I have responsibilities here that prevent attendance at Gazelles on either Wednesday or Thursday, so I have to rely on some discipline to get those workouts done on my own. It's easier to do that when it gets cooler, but with the warm and sticky conditions still lingering, it's more of a mental challenge to get out there as a solo artist. So to speak.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Circuits Galore
Nothing special this morning. I got to the workout early enough to do the longer warmup run over to Austin High School with Jessica and Emily, and it turns out that was a great idea. It gave my legs a little more time to get settled in. It was steamy, though, so we were already pretty drenched upon arrival. Drills drilled, we set out for circuits. I knocked out 4 circuits again (just 400m runs between circuits), and I must admit I was working pretty hard by that last set. We finished things off with 2 x 1:00 of fast feet, and it was a day.
About 6 of us did the long cooldown run, including Jessica, Colleen and Emily. We did lots of chatting on the way back, and it was a nice morning's workout. I stuck around and stretched with Lisa and Alex, and it was a wrap.
About 7 miles total, with all the various running. A nice start to the workout week again.
About 6 of us did the long cooldown run, including Jessica, Colleen and Emily. We did lots of chatting on the way back, and it was a nice morning's workout. I stuck around and stretched with Lisa and Alex, and it was a wrap.
About 7 miles total, with all the various running. A nice start to the workout week again.
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