In advance of Saturday’s upcoming 10k I looked back at my training diary around the time I last ran this race in 2006 (my first full year in the US) so that I could get some perspective for this year’s race. I came 5th in 33:41. Based on my 33:01 that I ran on a flat and fast course with competition a couple of weeks ago and the fact that I am ‘training through’ this race, that time would seem to be a pretty reasonable reflection of what I should be able to run this year considering the relative difficulty of Saturday’s course.
However, reading my training leading up to the 2006 race brought it home to me how much my training has changed over the years! The week before the race I commented after my ‘long run’ of 11 miles “good 40 mile week!” Yes that’s right folks, 40 miles was pushing the envelope for me back in the day!
The year I was probably my fastest and fittest ever was 2005, just before I moved over to the US. As you can see in the side bar on the left, most of my‘shorter’ PRs were set at this time. A brief glance at my training during that time reveals an average weekly mileage of around 30, with 9 miles considered a long run. I was running 6 days a week but literally every other day was a hard workout! On top of this my ‘easy’ days in between were usually 6 minute miling.
This, of course, was in the days when I had just given up playing soccer competitively and I was new to all this running lark but still I think it makes interesting reading. I wonder what I would have been capable of running then if I was doing the same training as I do now. Would I have been faster then and faster now? Who knows? All I do know is that I spend a lot more darn time running now than I did then and I’m basically running the same times! Oh the joys of ageing.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Post Ukrops recovery week
Last week was a fairly low key recovery week. From Monday to Friday I managed to hit my four fave CRC group runs all in one week (Case of the Mondays, Miners I, Thursday Dowd, Miners II) covering about 40 miles in all. Saturday I was ready to stretch the legs again, so I decided that I would combine my long run and workout in one go. (Note that Coach has left me to my own devices for the next few weeks so he won’t have to associate himself with anything I decide to do workout/racing wise for a while!!)
I headed to the Race Fest 10k course in Southpark (in anticipation of racing there next weekend) and proceeded to run the somewhat hilly course twice with a 1 mile jog back to the start line in between. What I had originally anticipated being a ‘steady state’ run actually turned into more of a tempo effort as I covered the first loop in 36:30 and the second in 36:34 (5:53 pace). I was pretty happy with how this turned out as I was wearing trainers not flats and didn’t look at the watch at all during the second loop. The only downside of the run was that it reminded me what a brute of a course this will actually be to race on next week, miles 2,3 and 6 in particular! I’ll have no expectations for this race other than to race competitively. There are rumors of cash prizes for the top three but I already know of two faster guys than me that will be toeing the line so I may be fighting for the scraps. Whatever, it should be a good race and it will be nice to be racing in Charlotte again.
That left me on 55 miles for the week and I had earmarked an arbitrary total of 60 as my goal for the week. I ended up doing the requisite 5 as a recovery run later in the day which meant that I could keep Sunday completely free for Easter fun with the fam and large slices of sports watching (UK soccer and US Masters).
The next few weeks will be very busy on the racing front and I’ll try and put the fitness I have gained training for Myrtle and Richmond into good use and have some fun taking on some lower key races. After Race Fest I’ll be doing my annual philanthropic visit to Gastonia for the Run For The Money 5k and the week after that the Skyline 5k. I’m targeting a fast race at Skyline as last year’s race provided me with easily my best road 5k performance of the year and it should be a highly competitive race with cash prizes this year for the first time and it being the first race of the Grand Prix series. With that race in mind I am going to try and hone some speed over the next three weeks, planning the same workout each week leading up so I can get a gauge of where I am leading into the race. Fun times…
I headed to the Race Fest 10k course in Southpark (in anticipation of racing there next weekend) and proceeded to run the somewhat hilly course twice with a 1 mile jog back to the start line in between. What I had originally anticipated being a ‘steady state’ run actually turned into more of a tempo effort as I covered the first loop in 36:30 and the second in 36:34 (5:53 pace). I was pretty happy with how this turned out as I was wearing trainers not flats and didn’t look at the watch at all during the second loop. The only downside of the run was that it reminded me what a brute of a course this will actually be to race on next week, miles 2,3 and 6 in particular! I’ll have no expectations for this race other than to race competitively. There are rumors of cash prizes for the top three but I already know of two faster guys than me that will be toeing the line so I may be fighting for the scraps. Whatever, it should be a good race and it will be nice to be racing in Charlotte again.
That left me on 55 miles for the week and I had earmarked an arbitrary total of 60 as my goal for the week. I ended up doing the requisite 5 as a recovery run later in the day which meant that I could keep Sunday completely free for Easter fun with the fam and large slices of sports watching (UK soccer and US Masters).
The next few weeks will be very busy on the racing front and I’ll try and put the fitness I have gained training for Myrtle and Richmond into good use and have some fun taking on some lower key races. After Race Fest I’ll be doing my annual philanthropic visit to Gastonia for the Run For The Money 5k and the week after that the Skyline 5k. I’m targeting a fast race at Skyline as last year’s race provided me with easily my best road 5k performance of the year and it should be a highly competitive race with cash prizes this year for the first time and it being the first race of the Grand Prix series. With that race in mind I am going to try and hone some speed over the next three weeks, planning the same workout each week leading up so I can get a gauge of where I am leading into the race. Fun times…
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Well at least I ran faster than last year....
I like cutting things close. You may recall that in my last goal race I scraped a new PR by 1 second. Well, in my second big race of the year I beat my time from the same race last year by, yes you guessed it, one whole second! Despite initial disappointment that I hadn't quite dipped under 33 minutes, never mind got anywhere close to my initial target of 32:30, my feelings coming out of this race are definitely positive.
I raced well and enjoyed the race much more this year and had fun running alongside the two leading elite women for much of the race (beating both in the end). My 5k splits were not too disproportionate (16:26/16:35) and I placed 19th out of 40 plus thousand, first in my age group. I've raced three major races in Richmond and won my age group each time which is a record I'm pretty proud of actually!
BUT, the fact is I should have run faster. Mile one was close to 5:10, miles four and five were 5:25/5:24. Again I was a little aggressive out of the gate and paid the price later. I know I'm frustrating my Coach with this approach as the training I am doing is being compromised by my inability to get my pacing strategy right on race day. Always learning.....
That being said, the plan initially had been to shut it down after this race and chill out for a while. Well, having come out of the race feeling pretty decent, I've decided to prolong this cycle for just a few more weeks in order to try and take advantage of my current fitness and run fast at the Skyline 5k at the end of April. So an 'easy' recovery week this week before hitting it hard again next week. Excited.
I raced well and enjoyed the race much more this year and had fun running alongside the two leading elite women for much of the race (beating both in the end). My 5k splits were not too disproportionate (16:26/16:35) and I placed 19th out of 40 plus thousand, first in my age group. I've raced three major races in Richmond and won my age group each time which is a record I'm pretty proud of actually!
BUT, the fact is I should have run faster. Mile one was close to 5:10, miles four and five were 5:25/5:24. Again I was a little aggressive out of the gate and paid the price later. I know I'm frustrating my Coach with this approach as the training I am doing is being compromised by my inability to get my pacing strategy right on race day. Always learning.....
That being said, the plan initially had been to shut it down after this race and chill out for a while. Well, having come out of the race feeling pretty decent, I've decided to prolong this cycle for just a few more weeks in order to try and take advantage of my current fitness and run fast at the Skyline 5k at the end of April. So an 'easy' recovery week this week before hitting it hard again next week. Excited.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Ready to run up and down
Tomorrow I'll be toeing the line at the Monument Avenue 10k, 3 miles out, 3 and a bit miles back. I hope to run faster than last year's slightly disappointing effort and the training block leading into this has been solid. Last few days have gone thus...
M- 6 easy after work
T- 10 including 3*1600 in 5:14/10/11 and 4 400s in 71
W- 7 easy
Th- 6 easy
Drove up to VA yesterday and will run a few miles and strides at some point today before chilling out in advance of the race. Let's do this....
M- 6 easy after work
T- 10 including 3*1600 in 5:14/10/11 and 4 400s in 71
W- 7 easy
Th- 6 easy
Drove up to VA yesterday and will run a few miles and strides at some point today before chilling out in advance of the race. Let's do this....
Sunday, March 25, 2012
3/19-3/25
Monday- off
Tuesday- Miners am (8)/8*1000 on trails pm (12)
Wednesday- Recovery run (4)
Thursday- 13 Long with Dowd crew and a surprise guest in Tim!
Friday- Miners (9)
Saturday- 2 @ 10k pace, mile jog, 5 @ AT (11)
Sunday- Easy 4
A pretty low key week with some ups and downs. Tuesday's workout was solid, helped enormously by the presence of CL. Unfortunately during the last couple of reps my knee started acting up a bit and I was very conscious of it on my warm down. Since then it seems to have stabilized again and wasn't an issue during my long run or yesterday's workout but definitely keeping my eye on it!
Yesterday was a bit of a slog on the sloppy trails and boardwalks of McMullen but I got it done. My legs didn't feel all that great to be honest so hopefully they will bounce back before the race next week!
I definitely don't feel as confident going into this race as I did before the Half but that may be a good thing as a more cautious approach may reap better benefits after my late race struggles at Myrtle! I also received news that Tim is going to be jumping in the 10k too which is awesome!
This week will all be about getting to the start line in the best possible shape. I have a last workout (mile repeats and 400s) on Tuesday, followed by a massage and easy miles the rest of the week. We travel up to Richmond on Thursday, so a nice short and hopefully stress-less work week! Wish me luck!
Tuesday- Miners am (8)/8*1000 on trails pm (12)
Wednesday- Recovery run (4)
Thursday- 13 Long with Dowd crew and a surprise guest in Tim!
Friday- Miners (9)
Saturday- 2 @ 10k pace, mile jog, 5 @ AT (11)
Sunday- Easy 4
A pretty low key week with some ups and downs. Tuesday's workout was solid, helped enormously by the presence of CL. Unfortunately during the last couple of reps my knee started acting up a bit and I was very conscious of it on my warm down. Since then it seems to have stabilized again and wasn't an issue during my long run or yesterday's workout but definitely keeping my eye on it!
Yesterday was a bit of a slog on the sloppy trails and boardwalks of McMullen but I got it done. My legs didn't feel all that great to be honest so hopefully they will bounce back before the race next week!
I definitely don't feel as confident going into this race as I did before the Half but that may be a good thing as a more cautious approach may reap better benefits after my late race struggles at Myrtle! I also received news that Tim is going to be jumping in the 10k too which is awesome!
This week will all be about getting to the start line in the best possible shape. I have a last workout (mile repeats and 400s) on Tuesday, followed by a massage and easy miles the rest of the week. We travel up to Richmond on Thursday, so a nice short and hopefully stress-less work week! Wish me luck!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Redemption Run
After the race on Saturday I was planning on doubling in the afternoon so that I only needed a few miles on Sunday to close out over 70 for the week. However, two hours of yard work (first of the year and it's only early March!) was more than enough exercise for me that afternoon so I decided I would do an easy 5/5 double the next day instead.
So I left my house at 5am on Sunday morning to make sure I had plenty of time to get back to the house before the kids woke up so that Lisa could sleep in (or 'lie in' as we call it!).
2 miles in however I had a decision to make. Either I could turn round soon and get my first 5 miler of the day in or carry on and do all 10 in one fail swoop. Before I knew it I had crossed Providence Road and was committed to knocking out all 10. This gave me a slight problem as now I would be pushing it to get back to the house in time to look after the kids when they woke up. I was feeling good however and clicked off the next mile in 6:40 and carried on rolling progressively until the end, closing with a 6:12 and a smile on my face. The miles had clicked off at a good comfortable clip and at least some sort of redemption for the previous day's efforts had materialized.
I opened the back door and there was no sign of the kids yet either- a second positive development of the day and it was only 6:10! I could feel it was going to be a good day, a feeling subsequently confirmed with news of several friend's successful races coming throughout the morning (including a remarkable 4 minute PR from last week's training partner Jay at the NYC Half) and with Man U winning 5-0 at Wolves to go 4 points clear at the top of the Premiership. Yes, Sunday was a good day....
So 70 miles for the week and a down week ahead. I'm writing this on Monday which will be a no run day and am certainly looking forward to the rest of the week and time before Richmond with more excitement and anticipation than I was at 8:20 on Saturday morning!!
So I left my house at 5am on Sunday morning to make sure I had plenty of time to get back to the house before the kids woke up so that Lisa could sleep in (or 'lie in' as we call it!).
2 miles in however I had a decision to make. Either I could turn round soon and get my first 5 miler of the day in or carry on and do all 10 in one fail swoop. Before I knew it I had crossed Providence Road and was committed to knocking out all 10. This gave me a slight problem as now I would be pushing it to get back to the house in time to look after the kids when they woke up. I was feeling good however and clicked off the next mile in 6:40 and carried on rolling progressively until the end, closing with a 6:12 and a smile on my face. The miles had clicked off at a good comfortable clip and at least some sort of redemption for the previous day's efforts had materialized.
I opened the back door and there was no sign of the kids yet either- a second positive development of the day and it was only 6:10! I could feel it was going to be a good day, a feeling subsequently confirmed with news of several friend's successful races coming throughout the morning (including a remarkable 4 minute PR from last week's training partner Jay at the NYC Half) and with Man U winning 5-0 at Wolves to go 4 points clear at the top of the Premiership. Yes, Sunday was a good day....
So 70 miles for the week and a down week ahead. I'm writing this on Monday which will be a no run day and am certainly looking forward to the rest of the week and time before Richmond with more excitement and anticipation than I was at 8:20 on Saturday morning!!
Pauses for thought
There is no doubt Saturday's race was a sub par, disappointing effort. I ran 6 seconds slower than I did on a slightly different course last year. Not much difference then you may think. However, last year's race was run less than 12 hours after I had run a 15:31 PR on the track!
Immediately after the race I was trying to seek some positives from the race but was struggling to find any! I sent off a concerned email to Coach, even questioning whether we needed to reevaluate goals and change the training plan for Richmond in two weeks! The race had definitely given me pause for thought....
By the evening however I had started to look at things a little differently and sent off another, less pessimistic, email and waited for the wise words of my coach to see what he thought about everything.
The race itself went thus...I had a good warm up and was feeling good on the start line. I had spotted and chatted with Bert Rodriguez so knew a win was out of the question but at least I would have someone to chase after. Other than that the competition looked few and far between- taking this race off the Grand Prix schedule definitely had a big impact on the number of racers Saturday morning and the quality of the field.
Immediately I fell behind Bert but was fine with this as he appeared to be running way under 5 minute pace! I went through the 'easy' mostly downhill 2 mile marker in 10:25. I had been running alone the whole way. Given the nature of the course the time was probably just about right if I wanted to attack sub 21 as planned but I was already starting to tire and was just about to start the notorious long climb of mile three. I held it together pretty well on this mile (5:26) but was not able to pick up the pace any during the final mile. Bert was out of sight and I was comfortably ahead of the chasing pack myself. I came home 2nd in 21:25...
So what to read into this? I'll leave it to the rational/detached words of my coach who replied to me shortly after the second email.
1) Absolutely no need to change the schedule with two weeks to go- trust the training!
2) I had gone out at a faster pace than I have been training for. IF I start out at the right/goal pace at Richmond then I will be able to close the race more effectively!
3) I will have people to feed off at Richmond and will not be running solo the whole race!
So all in all a disappointing race but I'm not writing off my chances of a good race at Richmond yet!
Immediately after the race I was trying to seek some positives from the race but was struggling to find any! I sent off a concerned email to Coach, even questioning whether we needed to reevaluate goals and change the training plan for Richmond in two weeks! The race had definitely given me pause for thought....
By the evening however I had started to look at things a little differently and sent off another, less pessimistic, email and waited for the wise words of my coach to see what he thought about everything.
The race itself went thus...I had a good warm up and was feeling good on the start line. I had spotted and chatted with Bert Rodriguez so knew a win was out of the question but at least I would have someone to chase after. Other than that the competition looked few and far between- taking this race off the Grand Prix schedule definitely had a big impact on the number of racers Saturday morning and the quality of the field.
Immediately I fell behind Bert but was fine with this as he appeared to be running way under 5 minute pace! I went through the 'easy' mostly downhill 2 mile marker in 10:25. I had been running alone the whole way. Given the nature of the course the time was probably just about right if I wanted to attack sub 21 as planned but I was already starting to tire and was just about to start the notorious long climb of mile three. I held it together pretty well on this mile (5:26) but was not able to pick up the pace any during the final mile. Bert was out of sight and I was comfortably ahead of the chasing pack myself. I came home 2nd in 21:25...
So what to read into this? I'll leave it to the rational/detached words of my coach who replied to me shortly after the second email.
1) Absolutely no need to change the schedule with two weeks to go- trust the training!
2) I had gone out at a faster pace than I have been training for. IF I start out at the right/goal pace at Richmond then I will be able to close the race more effectively!
3) I will have people to feed off at Richmond and will not be running solo the whole race!
So all in all a disappointing race but I'm not writing off my chances of a good race at Richmond yet!
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