1/26/12

40 min easy / 5.5mi + 200 one-leg hops

the staple run

This is my running equivalent of 'session beer': 6 miles at conversational pace. It's my staple run, which means I do it 4-5 times per week. Since time doesn't matter (these are 'recovery' runs) I usually don't wear my watch, but always assumed I was maintaining a fairly consistent pace. Apparently not. Out of curiosity I recorded my splits this morning: 7:25, 7:25, 7:03, 7:10, 6:55, 6:42
Oi... well I think one or both of these are happening to some degree: 1) I'm running a consistent effort, which is only loosely correlated to a consistent pace. 2) The observer effect. Not to be confused with the uncertainty principle. I have my watch on, and I keep checking the effing thing, and I observe slow miles, which alters my pace, and I check it again, and faster miles improve my mood, etc.
Okay no more watch during the staple run.

life without Hitchens

December 15, 2011 -- life became far less interesting. And the world became immeasurably dumber. Please save us, Sam Harris!
Yes I've been running quite a bit. To the point where I'm not that interested in blogging about it, but that will end soon. Merry xmas.

sanctioned shmanctioned

Yesterday I did the Walpole Labor Day 10K. 37:54.

what
a
disaster

I hate hilly road 10Ks. I really do. I only did this because I figured it would be good preparation for the Codfish Bowl 8K, a race that uses the Franklin Park cross country course (i.e., it has hills). But I have no feel for the 10K. I mean, the half-marathon pace makes sense; I run those at "comfortably hard". The 5K pace makes sense; I jump right into uncomfortably hard, knowing that it will end just as I'm hitting crisis mode. The 10K is an ugly hybrid, even on the track. I always feel like I'm running too fast or too slow.

The Walpole 10K course... just... sucks ass. The weather? 80 degrees and humid. And the distance? Okay well the race website has the words "USATF sanctioned". Which doesn't mean shit. "USATF sanctioned" is quite different than "USATF certified". The latter means everything and the former is utterly fucking pointless.

46 weeks later, 44 seconds faster

Last October I posted a tempo workout that took me 21:41.25 for 6K, and this morning I did the same workout (on the leet new NHS track) in 20:57.15 = 44.1 seconds faster. I'm happy with this improvement in light of what has happened since. So here is a summary:

1) lower back strain at the end of Oct 2010, useless for Nov
2) slow rebuild in Dec, ramp up in Jan 2011, prepping for Boston
3) knee tendinitis ruins Feb and half of March, now I'm screwed
4) knee heals up, solid if unremarkable Boston (2:54), then rest ...
5) another volume ramp up for the NE Relay, then I run 46+ in one day
6) general fatigue and nagging ankle pain soaks up the rest of June

And then, after all that, my training for the last eight weeks has been solid and consistent. Even with our usual mid-summer heat and humidity. This must mean that outstanding race results are on the way.

It just has to mean that. Doesn't it?

phase one complete

I have three self-imposed tests of increasing difficulty that I use to judge fitness, and I passed the first one last night: Running five miles solo at a sub-5:45 pace. Officially it was 8.4K in 29:41.6 which is slightly over 5:42 per mile. The second test is to do the same for a full 10K (so anything under 35:39) and the third is breaking 35:00 for 10K. I don't remember where I came up with these tests and it's all terribly arbitrary but they just seem to work. I feel like I'm race-ready when I can run a sub-35 without competition. Doing it outside of a race matters; the magic race day adrenaline boost is cheating. Or it would be cheating, if it happened on a flat and accurately measured course. But I'm not sure such a thing exists in eastern MA.

7/23 - 7/31/11

7/23 - 15 min + 6.4K tempo (23:07)
7/24 - 80 min easy w/striders
7/25 - 4 miles easy
7/26 - 15 min + 8 x 400 @ 70.6
7/27 - 6 miles easy
7/28 - 15 min + 7.2K tempo (25:56)
7/29 - 6 miles easy
7/30 - 15 min + 5 x 1K @ 3:18.4
7/31 - 10 miles easy

race to train to race

Most competitive runners have probably heard this warning before: "Train to race, don't race to train." To put it another way: "Don't be a workout hero." Over a given period of time, six weeks or six months or whatever, even world class runners can only deliver a relatively small number of breakout performances. Those efforts should be saved for races rather than wasted during (yet another) five mile tempo run or interval session. This is often harder than it sounds. I was never the top runner on my college cross country team but, being young and stupid, I usually tried to keep up with the top runner(s) during training. Unfortunately, that makes no sense. If you can't race with someone you shouldn't try to match that person during training. It means that you: 1) worked too hard for the potential benefit, and 2) probably won't recover well enough to race effectively.

So, yes, of course racing a workout is a bad idea. But I still believe that frequent racing is a legitimate form of training. The nice thing about the XC / IT / OT seasonal rhythm was that once per week we had an opportunity to fine tune our craft. Repetition generates success. Tempo, hills, volume, intervals, striders, long runs -- yeah yeah all that stuff matters. But maximizing potential at something like the mile or the 5K means that you do the mile or the 5K, against competition, over and over and over. And then you'll know how to race it. It's time to move past the "train to race" phase. It's time to race to train to race.

7/12 - 7/22/11

7/12 - 6 miles easy

7/13 - AM: 4 miles easy

       PM: 15 min + 5 x 1K @ 3:20.1

7/14 - 32 min + drills

7/15 - 30 min + striders

7/16 - AM: 15 min + 5K race (16:53)

       PM: 6 miles easy

7/17 - 33 min + drills

7/18 - 15 min + 3 x (200 + 200 + 800);

       34.9 - 36.6 - 2:28.8

       35.6 - 35.0 - 2:29.4

       36.0 - 34.4 - 2:28.4

       200s too fast, 800s too slow, dew point too high

7/19 - AM: 6 miles easy

       PM: 6 miles easy

7/20 - 4 miles easy

7/21 - 57 min w/hill repeats. Fuck this heat.

7/22 - off

7/1 - 7/11/11

7/1 - AM: 30 min + drills
      PM: 30 min + drills
7/2 - 6 miles easy
7/3 - 15 min + 5 x 1K @ 3:20.3
7/4 - off
7/5 - 15 min + 7 x 400 @ 71.6
7/6 - 4 miles easy
7/7 - 15 min + 20 min tempo
7/8 - AM: 4 miles easy
      PM: 30 min + drills
7/9 - 15 min + 6K tempo (21:58)
7/10 - off
7/11 - 15 min + 2 x (4 x 200 + 800);
       33.4 - 34.1 - 33.9 - 33.5 - 2:29.2
       33.9 - 34.2 - 33.4 - 33.9 - 2:28.4