Another month of running in the books. I hit 268 miles for June. That's the second highest mileage month I have ever completed.
Just to put that in perspective, my highest monthly mileage ever was this past March when I logged 317 in training for the Jersey Marathon. I ran between 212 and 238 in all the other months from December through April and 189 in May the month after the marathon. The highest mileage month I hit in training for my first marathon in 2006 was 267 and the highest mileage month I hit training for my second marathon in 2008 (bouncing back from injury) was 200. When I realize that my other highest mileage months have all included at least 2 20 milers and have come while in marathon training and that I never surpassed more than 14 miles in a run this past month I definitely have to say I'm a step ahead of where I have ever been in my training in the past, at least mileage wise---I don't know that my shorter race times are quite where I think they should be right now based on what I was doing this past winter/spring. And while I really only did one or two speed workouts this month, it's not like I've just been slogging through slow miles, I race two 5 milers, a 5K and a 1500/3000 double in June plus a half marathon on May 30. Hope this all leads me to where I want to be this fall and beyond...
Also I'm at 1,448 miles at the halfway point of 2009. 3,000 sure sounds tempting but it might be hard if I plan on taking some down time after the fall marathoning.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Another Race....
Quick report this past Saturday's 5 Mile race in Central Park:
I wasn't necessarily planning on racing again this weekend but after doing the 5 miler last weekend I felt like I had left something out on the table, in terms of race strategy and my overall feelings about the race. So I went out this weekend with the goal of doing the race as a hard tempo, but frankly the differences between my race and "tempo race" efforts aren't that significant, it's more of just a difference in training the week leading up to the race and mentality once it starts. For "tempo races" I don't curtail my mileage at all the week of the race, and in fact might end up running a lot of mileage because my biggest speed work session comes at the end of the week in the form of the race, and I'm just a lot more relaxed about things on race day. In any case that is what Saturday was. I was reasonably happy with finishing in 30:25, which was only 15 seconds off of last week's race. I felt a lot stronger out there though this time and really felt in control as I kept telling myself during the race, it's ok to save up for the last mile or mile and a half to really work on a good kick and getting a strong feeling about the race. It was also a good bit hotter than last week and without cloud cover as the temps hit the upper 70s. Anyway I finished the race feeling pretty good (except for this darn hip stiffness after I finished again) and was able to outkick five or six people in the last quarter mile to move into the top 50 in the race.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
The Summer Racing Doldrums
I don't have a whole lot to say (by my standards) about today's 5 mile race. I don't feel like I ran badly and I don't feel like I ran well either. I've just felt a bit out of shape recently---I added 5-7 pounds or so over the last year and I ran really well this winter in spite of that but as it gets hotter outside it just makes me feel kind of crappy when I run and like I could make my running so much easier by just being a little lighter. My times are still a still step up compared to where I was year ago, but my cardio fitness is much better and I'm running a lot more than a year ago so I don't really want to compare myself to then because I know there is so much more out there for me to improve and I just don't feel race fit if that makes sense. The fact also is that I'm not in the shape I was in April and I just feel like I'm slogging through some of these shorter races right now, even some of the fast running I've been doing just doesn't feel very fast and I just don't have the sense of my muscles being full of energy and propelling a fine-tuned body over the ground (LOL).
On that note I ran a 30:11 today in my 5 mile race. Only 15 seconds off the PR I set in January, but basically the same pace I ran for 10 miles and a 15K in March and April. I went out too fast in the first mile trying to hang with someone who I used to be at the same fitness as in the winter and went through mile 1 in 5:48, then I hit 5:58, 6:19 in the hills, 6:06, and 6:00.
I think I need to start doing my core workouts and leg weights in the gym again so that I feel strong and explosive like I did at the beginning of the winter season. Maybe the problem is the summer weather and that I didn't really take much time after the marathon to recover and regroup, or that I've been racing a lot lately including track races midweek, but as I run through this summer heat particularly it is obvious that getting a little lighter would probably go a long way to making me feel sharp again. I sort of feel like I'm getting by in shorter races while feeling out of shape but if I were to run another long race I would really struggle. In spite of all that the plan is to just keep running more, try to lose a little of that added weight, get my core muscles back into shape, and do a lot of shorter races. I'd like my times to drop in the summer and fall but that's not really my goal right now, I just want to get that sense of being a well-oiled fit machine back that I've had at other times in my running life. My best racing and improvements have usually come in the winter anyway so I just want to prepare myself well for then and put in myself in a position to succeed and keep running healthy. I'll do something with a fall marathon probably but I'm just going to go for it and not really let whatever the race or races are dictate or consume my training and hopefully I might be able to pick off 3 hours (which wouldn't be a fitness improvement from where I was in March and April for sure or even in May minus the week of race strep throat), but I'm not looking for anything too special until the winter of next spring, I just want to get my running mojo back right now.
On that note I ran a 30:11 today in my 5 mile race. Only 15 seconds off the PR I set in January, but basically the same pace I ran for 10 miles and a 15K in March and April. I went out too fast in the first mile trying to hang with someone who I used to be at the same fitness as in the winter and went through mile 1 in 5:48, then I hit 5:58, 6:19 in the hills, 6:06, and 6:00.
I think I need to start doing my core workouts and leg weights in the gym again so that I feel strong and explosive like I did at the beginning of the winter season. Maybe the problem is the summer weather and that I didn't really take much time after the marathon to recover and regroup, or that I've been racing a lot lately including track races midweek, but as I run through this summer heat particularly it is obvious that getting a little lighter would probably go a long way to making me feel sharp again. I sort of feel like I'm getting by in shorter races while feeling out of shape but if I were to run another long race I would really struggle. In spite of all that the plan is to just keep running more, try to lose a little of that added weight, get my core muscles back into shape, and do a lot of shorter races. I'd like my times to drop in the summer and fall but that's not really my goal right now, I just want to get that sense of being a well-oiled fit machine back that I've had at other times in my running life. My best racing and improvements have usually come in the winter anyway so I just want to prepare myself well for then and put in myself in a position to succeed and keep running healthy. I'll do something with a fall marathon probably but I'm just going to go for it and not really let whatever the race or races are dictate or consume my training and hopefully I might be able to pick off 3 hours (which wouldn't be a fitness improvement from where I was in March and April for sure or even in May minus the week of race strep throat), but I'm not looking for anything too special until the winter of next spring, I just want to get my running mojo back right now.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Giving My Almost Best: Do I Still Have What it Takes?
I've lost my running killer instinct. I'm not sure when exactly it went away and if I really care to have it back. I'm not saying I'm not still extremely competitive. I'm not saying that I don't have the motivation to run or train hard anymore. On the contrary I am more motivated to improve and work harder than ever, I've just stopped caring as much about what happens at the end of races and a few seconds or even a minute here or there.
There was a time when I would kick into the finish line of almost every race as hard as I could, particularly if it was going head to head with another runner, as if one or two seconds or one place would significantly change the outcome of my race. I just can't make myself do that anymore. This mentality definitely started at some point after my return to consistent racing after an injury riddled year of limited running and almost no racing. In order to return to racing shape without continually re-injuring myself I had to come to accept that it was not worth running every race as hard as I could and that I would have to run in races when not totally fit or at my old levels to get back to where I had been. I know most people who run and race do this---some races are goal races but others are just workouts or tune-ups---but I had always raced every race trying to set a PR and to accomplish the best time I could on that day.
What started out as a mechanism to avoid injury during my comeback has gradually evolved into my thought process in all races. I still have goal races, which I will taper for and push myself both mentally and physically harder and become disappointed if I don't do well in them and races which don't mean as much which I will train through. For awhile I thought I had an on-off switch and that when it really mattered for some purpose I would turn on that switch and really push myself to my absolute limits for a few extra seconds at the end of a race. But I've come to realize that that may not be the case any longer. In all the race reports I have written over the last year or so I cannot find more than one or two instances when I said I stopped pushing at such and such point because a few seconds or a minute didn't matter to me as much not being injured, or recovering for my next race, etc. Even in my goal race this spring, the New Jersey Marathon, this became the case as I didn't care in the closing mile or two whether I finished in 3:01, 3:02, or 3:03. The funny thing is I don't really have regrets about this after my races when I'm able to hit the road and get back into workouts injury-free and a day or two or a week or two earlier than I think I might have been able to otherwise.
And just to clarify here, we're not talking necessarily about the last 400 meters of a race but often the last several miles of a longer race or the last mile of a shorter one. At some point I worry that this lack of mental toughness or willingness to rationalize saving a little something up at the end of most races will start costing me more and more time than I realize. Let's say that the mentality started to creep in somewhere around mile 20 or 21 in the New Jersey Marathon and as a result by mile 23 or mile 24 there really was no chance of breaking 3 hours and thus no reason to really kill myself for an extra minute or handful of seconds here or there at that point. But maybe if I had been a different mindset at mile 20 about how I would fight like heck in the last couple of miles then I would have pushed harder and given myself at least a shot at sub 3 in the closing mile or two. I don't think that was necessarily the case but I am worried I am headed down a bit of a slippery slope.
But then there's the other side to the story. I have just had one of the most successful stretches of running in my life and PR'ed at every distance I have attempted within the last six months and I appreciate and enjoy running more than ever. I'm willing to spend more time in training running more miles and doing more cross training and feel out right exhausted some of the time to get better and make more leaps and bounds, I just don't have the desire any more to ever put absolutely everything out there on the line in one day and I honestly believe it has kept me training more consistently and better off than in the past in terms of my injury situation.
It's almost come to a point where it is a training philosophy. After my injury layoff after my first marathon I had a lot of time to reflect on my running and I really questioned the purpose of training for a marathon in the traditional sense with a big build-up, a two to three week taper, and then totally beating my body up on an off day for a time I wasn't proud of and then weeks of recovery (which in this particular case turned into months). The more I thought about it in those terms I came to the belief that if I ran at 98 or 99 percent effort in my races and didn't try to fixate quite so much on tapering and preparing myself for just one important day that the recovery time between races or cycles would be shorter and that there would be a better overall consistency in my training by avoiding injuries but also by limiting the taper and recovery period which was out of sync with my normal training and running. In other words, I considered that in the long run I would become a better runner and improve more by not losing up two months of good training every time I ran a marathon or losing a week every time I ran a half marathon, or three to four days after a 10K. What if I were able to accomplish 98 or 99 percent of my potential ability from a training cycle in a race and only lose a month of peak training instead of two or three days instead of a week or a day or two instead of three or four? If that were really true (and the 98 or 99 percent figures were really accurate, something which I could never fully know or prove) then in the long run it would undoubtedly be worthwhile because I still have so many ways in which I can improve and I still have time where that should come as long as I can avoid injuries or some sort of burnout or life distraction. What's the point of running a marathon one minute faster if with the right training and approach you think you can run one ten minutes faster in a year?
I realize that sometimes you have to take and seize an opportunity when it is available to you because there are many unanticipated factors that can hinder it from ever coming again but there are just very few opportunities or instances now that seem to merit that ultimate effort to me for the purpose of a two seconds or even two minutes. If in my next marathon I hit the last mile struggling but needing just to put together one last sub 7 minute mile to break three hours, do I hope that I would give almost everything I had to accomplish it, yes I do, because breaking 3 hours has become such a meaningful and sometimes perhaps too consuming goal for me that it would be worth seizing that opportunity right then and there and knowing that I had given my best.
But in most instances I think I am becoming more and more satisfied with giving my almost very best when it comes to races. If I were an elite on the top of my game that would be the wrong attitude but with so much room still to improve my training methods and overall running ability and the fact that I'm not racing for a gold medal or a big paycheck but just for me I'm starting to believe that it might be the right approach. It's just a difficult thing for me to admit to because I don't want what I'm saying to myself to be misconstrued or lumped along with people who just run for fun and don't care much about their times or people who don't train hard or breeze through races and don't suffer much through pain or put forth any mental determination and then wonder why they didn't run faster or why they have hit a plateau. I think I'm still competitive and tough and committed to fast running and working my butt off but I just view things a little bit differently than I used to and have a new approach of how to reach my ultimate goals and enjoy them a bit more along the way. Or maybe I'm just getting soft and I have to turn this around? I hope that's not the case at least. At least I've had the chance to be a bit philosophical about running for the day now.
There was a time when I would kick into the finish line of almost every race as hard as I could, particularly if it was going head to head with another runner, as if one or two seconds or one place would significantly change the outcome of my race. I just can't make myself do that anymore. This mentality definitely started at some point after my return to consistent racing after an injury riddled year of limited running and almost no racing. In order to return to racing shape without continually re-injuring myself I had to come to accept that it was not worth running every race as hard as I could and that I would have to run in races when not totally fit or at my old levels to get back to where I had been. I know most people who run and race do this---some races are goal races but others are just workouts or tune-ups---but I had always raced every race trying to set a PR and to accomplish the best time I could on that day.
What started out as a mechanism to avoid injury during my comeback has gradually evolved into my thought process in all races. I still have goal races, which I will taper for and push myself both mentally and physically harder and become disappointed if I don't do well in them and races which don't mean as much which I will train through. For awhile I thought I had an on-off switch and that when it really mattered for some purpose I would turn on that switch and really push myself to my absolute limits for a few extra seconds at the end of a race. But I've come to realize that that may not be the case any longer. In all the race reports I have written over the last year or so I cannot find more than one or two instances when I said I stopped pushing at such and such point because a few seconds or a minute didn't matter to me as much not being injured, or recovering for my next race, etc. Even in my goal race this spring, the New Jersey Marathon, this became the case as I didn't care in the closing mile or two whether I finished in 3:01, 3:02, or 3:03. The funny thing is I don't really have regrets about this after my races when I'm able to hit the road and get back into workouts injury-free and a day or two or a week or two earlier than I think I might have been able to otherwise.
And just to clarify here, we're not talking necessarily about the last 400 meters of a race but often the last several miles of a longer race or the last mile of a shorter one. At some point I worry that this lack of mental toughness or willingness to rationalize saving a little something up at the end of most races will start costing me more and more time than I realize. Let's say that the mentality started to creep in somewhere around mile 20 or 21 in the New Jersey Marathon and as a result by mile 23 or mile 24 there really was no chance of breaking 3 hours and thus no reason to really kill myself for an extra minute or handful of seconds here or there at that point. But maybe if I had been a different mindset at mile 20 about how I would fight like heck in the last couple of miles then I would have pushed harder and given myself at least a shot at sub 3 in the closing mile or two. I don't think that was necessarily the case but I am worried I am headed down a bit of a slippery slope.
But then there's the other side to the story. I have just had one of the most successful stretches of running in my life and PR'ed at every distance I have attempted within the last six months and I appreciate and enjoy running more than ever. I'm willing to spend more time in training running more miles and doing more cross training and feel out right exhausted some of the time to get better and make more leaps and bounds, I just don't have the desire any more to ever put absolutely everything out there on the line in one day and I honestly believe it has kept me training more consistently and better off than in the past in terms of my injury situation.
It's almost come to a point where it is a training philosophy. After my injury layoff after my first marathon I had a lot of time to reflect on my running and I really questioned the purpose of training for a marathon in the traditional sense with a big build-up, a two to three week taper, and then totally beating my body up on an off day for a time I wasn't proud of and then weeks of recovery (which in this particular case turned into months). The more I thought about it in those terms I came to the belief that if I ran at 98 or 99 percent effort in my races and didn't try to fixate quite so much on tapering and preparing myself for just one important day that the recovery time between races or cycles would be shorter and that there would be a better overall consistency in my training by avoiding injuries but also by limiting the taper and recovery period which was out of sync with my normal training and running. In other words, I considered that in the long run I would become a better runner and improve more by not losing up two months of good training every time I ran a marathon or losing a week every time I ran a half marathon, or three to four days after a 10K. What if I were able to accomplish 98 or 99 percent of my potential ability from a training cycle in a race and only lose a month of peak training instead of two or three days instead of a week or a day or two instead of three or four? If that were really true (and the 98 or 99 percent figures were really accurate, something which I could never fully know or prove) then in the long run it would undoubtedly be worthwhile because I still have so many ways in which I can improve and I still have time where that should come as long as I can avoid injuries or some sort of burnout or life distraction. What's the point of running a marathon one minute faster if with the right training and approach you think you can run one ten minutes faster in a year?
I realize that sometimes you have to take and seize an opportunity when it is available to you because there are many unanticipated factors that can hinder it from ever coming again but there are just very few opportunities or instances now that seem to merit that ultimate effort to me for the purpose of a two seconds or even two minutes. If in my next marathon I hit the last mile struggling but needing just to put together one last sub 7 minute mile to break three hours, do I hope that I would give almost everything I had to accomplish it, yes I do, because breaking 3 hours has become such a meaningful and sometimes perhaps too consuming goal for me that it would be worth seizing that opportunity right then and there and knowing that I had given my best.
But in most instances I think I am becoming more and more satisfied with giving my almost very best when it comes to races. If I were an elite on the top of my game that would be the wrong attitude but with so much room still to improve my training methods and overall running ability and the fact that I'm not racing for a gold medal or a big paycheck but just for me I'm starting to believe that it might be the right approach. It's just a difficult thing for me to admit to because I don't want what I'm saying to myself to be misconstrued or lumped along with people who just run for fun and don't care much about their times or people who don't train hard or breeze through races and don't suffer much through pain or put forth any mental determination and then wonder why they didn't run faster or why they have hit a plateau. I think I'm still competitive and tough and committed to fast running and working my butt off but I just view things a little bit differently than I used to and have a new approach of how to reach my ultimate goals and enjoy them a bit more along the way. Or maybe I'm just getting soft and I have to turn this around? I hope that's not the case at least. At least I've had the chance to be a bit philosophical about running for the day now.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Back to the Track
In keeping with my current mode of trying new running things, I headed to the Icahn Stadium Track on Randalls Island last night for the final installment of New York Roadrunners Tuesday night summer race series. My running life began with two years of high school track, culminating with a 2:20 in the 800 meters, a 5:20 or so in the mile, and a 11:30 or so in the 2 mile---I came to running only late in high school and was quite out of shape when I started so I never had the chance to realize my track potential. My last trip to a track was for the Icahn Stadium series in the summer of 2005, when I ran in three separate meets there, competing twice in the 1500 and once in the 3000. My 1500 PR was 4:56 and my 3000 PR was 11:04. That of course was back before I had ever run a half-marathon or marathon, much less primarily focussed on them, so the 1500 and 3000 didn't seem like the sprint events that they do now.
So I headed to the track meet last night not really knowing what to expect. My only recent reference point was a 5K several weekends ago in 18:08 along with all of the other longer races I have run this year. I went back and looked at my running log from 2005 (yes, I've already conveyed my tendency to study the past before I race) for some clues about what to expect. My mile PR of 5:10 was set late that summer, but of greater relevance was looking at my 5K and 5 mile times from that summer, which were around 19 and 31 and a half minutes respectively. Seeing that I figured even though now I would be much more uncomfortable on the track and running short distances that I should be able to best my 1500 PR from 2005 since my most recent 5K time was now a minute faster and I had dropped my 5 mile time by a minute and half. Still I knew this was going to be a bit of a foreign experience so anything was possible, but I kind of fixated my mind around the 4:45-4:50 range.
I got in a three or four mile warmup running from Manhattan along the running path adjacent to the FDR and then across the pedestrian footbridge at 102nd to the island and then once on Randalls Island, along the run/bike path that runs along the river. I don't think I've ever run on Randalls Island (aside from on the track) before and as I ran along the path there I was thinking that it might be a pretty nice, quiet place to run. Unlike the path on the Manhattan side of the river there was no highway, car noises, and grime to contend with. So I made it to the track about twenty to twenty-five minutes before the meet was to start and paid my 10 dollars for all the events I could handle and got two or three entry stickers for the events I might run---at this point with a 5 mile race coming up on Sunday I was planning on probably just running the 1500, which was the first event, but left it up in the air to maybe run the 800 and/or the 3000 depending on how things were going.
I really wanted to warm-up well for this event since I expected it to feel very very fast to me so I ran four or five strides along the backstretch and a tempo-paced lap around the track to warmup some more. One thing I noticed immediately was how windy it was. Running down the backstretch was significantly easier than running on the far side of the track and around the final curve where the wind was coming off the river and blowing right at and around you. After making a stop at the batroom and water fountain, I made my way to the far side of the first curve on the track where everyone was starting to line up for the 1500. It was warm in the sun, but windy and cool in the shade, so I stood there as I waited. The women's heat of the 1500 went off first, followed by the fastest men's heat, which was comprised of people who walked up to the line when the started called times of 3:45 through 4:10---Fast, with a capital F, and not for me. So after watching that group blaze around the track I waited for the next call as a few people in the 4:20-4:30 range came up to the starting line as they got into the 4:40s and then called 4:50 almost no one else was budging but I finally did expecting that they would soon call more people with slower times as well. But alas they did not so I knew I was going to be right at the back of a pretty fast heat.
The gun went off and I felt pretty good right at the back of the pack in the first 200 to 300 meters and was wondering to myself, should this feel harder and faster? I think I had built the race up so much in my mind as a sprint that I was expecting it to feel like a 200 or 400 meter sprint the entire way. By the time I hit the finishing line for the first time, 300 meters into the race, I started to feel some tightness in the legs and realized that that was what was going to feel hard to me in this shorter race---not the breathing component, but that lactic acid would slowly build up and my legs would fatigue at this fast pace---something I was not used to. As I hit the 400 meter mark someone was calling out splits and I was at 72 or 73 seconds. It was a fast start but I thought it was about where I should be actually since I assumed that I would go out a little fast with the faster field and unlike when I used to race back in high school and listened to my coach tell me not to go out too hard, I was more afraid tonight of going out too easy like it was a 5K or something I was used to. In the second lap of racing I started to feel some of the burning in my legs, particularly in the hamstrings and most of the field had a good gap on me except for one person who I had just passed and was tailing me. I came around 800 meters in 2:31, so a little over 5 minute mile pace and expected as my legs tightened up more to fade. But throughout this whole time, it just felt so strange to me because I wasn't really huffing and puffing and struggling for air, but it was more a feeling of coasting along but just slowing down gradually as the lactic acid built. Eventually I came home in 4:46, which equates to about a 5:08 mile, as I almost closed a huge gap on one person who was tightening up and held off the guy who had tailed me the whole race in the wind to avoid last place in the heat. All in all I was relatively happy with the time given the circumstances and my expectations but I was also left with the feeling that I had hardly raced and that I could have pushed things a bit more. I'm not sure if that was the case or if I am just used to the longer drawn out struggle of road races. In any case I knew I had left at least a little something in the tank because I couldn't really rationalize the point of an all out kick that would leave me sore or injured somehow just for the purpose of shaving a second or two off my time in a pointless, fun, testing the waters, type of race.
After the 1500 I hung around the track for awhile contemplating what to do next. I really felt like I hadn't justified coming out to the meet yet and that it would be quite anti-climactic to leave so soon after I had arrived. So I hung around and watched the last heat of the 1500 (and saw no one it in beat my time so was glad I went in the heat I did even if I was at the back) and several heats of the 400 meters and jogged a bit to keep my legs loose. As the 800 meters came up about 20 minutes after I had finished I considered it but was just too uncertain of doubling back at another race and trying to run at an even faster clip than I had just run. So I let the event pass by and eventually decided I would stay for the 3000 and just see how it felt and do it as a hard workout without really pushing it in like a race at the end but try to at least be respectable and keep it at 5K pace or faster and under 11 minutes. So after getting a slightly longer breather as the women ran the 3K it got a little chilly standing around as the sun began to set and the breeze picked up. Finally we got onto the track and off we went. Similarly to the 1500 it felt weird running at the beginning like I should be going much faster and that the cardio and breathing component was way too easy, but I expected to feel the lactic acid and tiredness in my legs from the previous race as this one carried on. I more or less ended up in no-man's land in the race as there were a five or six guys who were super fast and shooting for times in the 8:30-9:15 range and then a pair of people in the 10 minute range, followed by me, and another eight to ten runners at 11 minutes or slower. Running mostly alone and catching one person who had gone out way too fast with about two laps left I finished in 10:36, a respectable time after having run the 1500 and given that I wasn't really in a race mentality and wasn't pushing it that much but more or less just trying to maintain the pace and effort that I had started out at---with a 5:40 mile pace I was at least a good ten seconds under my most recent 5K pace, which was all I was trying to accomplish. It was also very windy by this point along the far turn as the weather had really picked up later in the evening. With about 800 meters to go, as I had expected, I could really start to feel the burn/fatigue in my hamstrings presumably from the earlier race but again the cardio and breathing part seemed way easier than I expected.
So my night at the track finished and I went for a nice four mile run home, accompanied for about half the way by a fellow local road racer who I had talked to and finished around at a number of other races over the years. We had a nice conversation and got to know each other a bit better than from our brief encouters at the start and finish of previous races so it was a nice way to end the evening. I finished the night with two (expected) new PRs, a good workout, the belief that I can challenge the sub 5 minute mile mark in the Fifth Avenue Mile in September if I so choose, and hopefully something left in my legs for the 5 mile race this Sunday.
So I headed to the track meet last night not really knowing what to expect. My only recent reference point was a 5K several weekends ago in 18:08 along with all of the other longer races I have run this year. I went back and looked at my running log from 2005 (yes, I've already conveyed my tendency to study the past before I race) for some clues about what to expect. My mile PR of 5:10 was set late that summer, but of greater relevance was looking at my 5K and 5 mile times from that summer, which were around 19 and 31 and a half minutes respectively. Seeing that I figured even though now I would be much more uncomfortable on the track and running short distances that I should be able to best my 1500 PR from 2005 since my most recent 5K time was now a minute faster and I had dropped my 5 mile time by a minute and half. Still I knew this was going to be a bit of a foreign experience so anything was possible, but I kind of fixated my mind around the 4:45-4:50 range.
I got in a three or four mile warmup running from Manhattan along the running path adjacent to the FDR and then across the pedestrian footbridge at 102nd to the island and then once on Randalls Island, along the run/bike path that runs along the river. I don't think I've ever run on Randalls Island (aside from on the track) before and as I ran along the path there I was thinking that it might be a pretty nice, quiet place to run. Unlike the path on the Manhattan side of the river there was no highway, car noises, and grime to contend with. So I made it to the track about twenty to twenty-five minutes before the meet was to start and paid my 10 dollars for all the events I could handle and got two or three entry stickers for the events I might run---at this point with a 5 mile race coming up on Sunday I was planning on probably just running the 1500, which was the first event, but left it up in the air to maybe run the 800 and/or the 3000 depending on how things were going.
I really wanted to warm-up well for this event since I expected it to feel very very fast to me so I ran four or five strides along the backstretch and a tempo-paced lap around the track to warmup some more. One thing I noticed immediately was how windy it was. Running down the backstretch was significantly easier than running on the far side of the track and around the final curve where the wind was coming off the river and blowing right at and around you. After making a stop at the batroom and water fountain, I made my way to the far side of the first curve on the track where everyone was starting to line up for the 1500. It was warm in the sun, but windy and cool in the shade, so I stood there as I waited. The women's heat of the 1500 went off first, followed by the fastest men's heat, which was comprised of people who walked up to the line when the started called times of 3:45 through 4:10---Fast, with a capital F, and not for me. So after watching that group blaze around the track I waited for the next call as a few people in the 4:20-4:30 range came up to the starting line as they got into the 4:40s and then called 4:50 almost no one else was budging but I finally did expecting that they would soon call more people with slower times as well. But alas they did not so I knew I was going to be right at the back of a pretty fast heat.
The gun went off and I felt pretty good right at the back of the pack in the first 200 to 300 meters and was wondering to myself, should this feel harder and faster? I think I had built the race up so much in my mind as a sprint that I was expecting it to feel like a 200 or 400 meter sprint the entire way. By the time I hit the finishing line for the first time, 300 meters into the race, I started to feel some tightness in the legs and realized that that was what was going to feel hard to me in this shorter race---not the breathing component, but that lactic acid would slowly build up and my legs would fatigue at this fast pace---something I was not used to. As I hit the 400 meter mark someone was calling out splits and I was at 72 or 73 seconds. It was a fast start but I thought it was about where I should be actually since I assumed that I would go out a little fast with the faster field and unlike when I used to race back in high school and listened to my coach tell me not to go out too hard, I was more afraid tonight of going out too easy like it was a 5K or something I was used to. In the second lap of racing I started to feel some of the burning in my legs, particularly in the hamstrings and most of the field had a good gap on me except for one person who I had just passed and was tailing me. I came around 800 meters in 2:31, so a little over 5 minute mile pace and expected as my legs tightened up more to fade. But throughout this whole time, it just felt so strange to me because I wasn't really huffing and puffing and struggling for air, but it was more a feeling of coasting along but just slowing down gradually as the lactic acid built. Eventually I came home in 4:46, which equates to about a 5:08 mile, as I almost closed a huge gap on one person who was tightening up and held off the guy who had tailed me the whole race in the wind to avoid last place in the heat. All in all I was relatively happy with the time given the circumstances and my expectations but I was also left with the feeling that I had hardly raced and that I could have pushed things a bit more. I'm not sure if that was the case or if I am just used to the longer drawn out struggle of road races. In any case I knew I had left at least a little something in the tank because I couldn't really rationalize the point of an all out kick that would leave me sore or injured somehow just for the purpose of shaving a second or two off my time in a pointless, fun, testing the waters, type of race.
After the 1500 I hung around the track for awhile contemplating what to do next. I really felt like I hadn't justified coming out to the meet yet and that it would be quite anti-climactic to leave so soon after I had arrived. So I hung around and watched the last heat of the 1500 (and saw no one it in beat my time so was glad I went in the heat I did even if I was at the back) and several heats of the 400 meters and jogged a bit to keep my legs loose. As the 800 meters came up about 20 minutes after I had finished I considered it but was just too uncertain of doubling back at another race and trying to run at an even faster clip than I had just run. So I let the event pass by and eventually decided I would stay for the 3000 and just see how it felt and do it as a hard workout without really pushing it in like a race at the end but try to at least be respectable and keep it at 5K pace or faster and under 11 minutes. So after getting a slightly longer breather as the women ran the 3K it got a little chilly standing around as the sun began to set and the breeze picked up. Finally we got onto the track and off we went. Similarly to the 1500 it felt weird running at the beginning like I should be going much faster and that the cardio and breathing component was way too easy, but I expected to feel the lactic acid and tiredness in my legs from the previous race as this one carried on. I more or less ended up in no-man's land in the race as there were a five or six guys who were super fast and shooting for times in the 8:30-9:15 range and then a pair of people in the 10 minute range, followed by me, and another eight to ten runners at 11 minutes or slower. Running mostly alone and catching one person who had gone out way too fast with about two laps left I finished in 10:36, a respectable time after having run the 1500 and given that I wasn't really in a race mentality and wasn't pushing it that much but more or less just trying to maintain the pace and effort that I had started out at---with a 5:40 mile pace I was at least a good ten seconds under my most recent 5K pace, which was all I was trying to accomplish. It was also very windy by this point along the far turn as the weather had really picked up later in the evening. With about 800 meters to go, as I had expected, I could really start to feel the burn/fatigue in my hamstrings presumably from the earlier race but again the cardio and breathing part seemed way easier than I expected.
So my night at the track finished and I went for a nice four mile run home, accompanied for about half the way by a fellow local road racer who I had talked to and finished around at a number of other races over the years. We had a nice conversation and got to know each other a bit better than from our brief encouters at the start and finish of previous races so it was a nice way to end the evening. I finished the night with two (expected) new PRs, a good workout, the belief that I can challenge the sub 5 minute mile mark in the Fifth Avenue Mile in September if I so choose, and hopefully something left in my legs for the 5 mile race this Sunday.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Testing the Waters
I think someone (or many ones) with running expertise once said that it is unwise to add too many new elements to your training at once. I don't know if it's an urge to spice things up while not in marathon training mode or beacuse I am just clueless when it comes to actually training specifically for shorter distances but I found myself doing a lot of new running things last week. I can't say I necessarily planned things that way because I'm in the "free mode" part of my running season when I kind of am just following what I want to do. While for some people this is a good thing and a time for rest and recovery, I'm not really sure being in "free mode" is necessarily the best for me because while I enjoy it to a degree, the bottom line is I like to run and I like to run a hard a good deal of the time, so whatever this phase of my running season is, it would be hard to call it a recovery period.
So what did I do new or different last week?
1. I ran every day, in fact through yesterday I had run 10 days in a row. That's not a big deal for most runners, particularly those who log as many miles as I do, but it's not something I have done or been willing to do for almost three years now since I first injured my hip and have added at least a day or two of cross training into my week to allow for better recovery and less pounding.
2. I continued my plan to introduce some doubles into my training. I have to admit part of the reason for it is simply convenience because I can run home 4-5 miles from work faster and more peacefully than I can walk, or by negotiating crowded subways and buses in rush hour. Running to work would never really work for me because I would be a sweaty mess and too many other logistics to work out, but running home is quite appealing and if we get hit with crazy thundershowers as we often do this time of year I don't lose my main run for the day or have to worry about postponing it/moving it to a treadmill etc. as I would if I moved my main run from the morning to the evening. So in all this week I did a double and a half for the second straight week---on Tuesday I ran 8 miles in the morning, and 4 in the PM, and Thursday I elipitcalled for an hour in the morning and ran 4.5 in the PM. I don't know what path this is headed down but perhaps as many as 3 actual doubles per week by the end of the summer or maybe I'll just bail on them.
3. Speaking of running in the PM, this was relatively new element # 3. I almost always run in the morning regardless and I like it this way for a number of reasons---mainly because life, work, and weather rarely interfere with morning runs and also because I am a morning person and get up very early and am tired by the evening. In fact almost the only reason I will run at night is because that is when my running club meets for its workouts. (As will be explored in new element # 4) I don't run workouts all that often with other people except for a Sunday group run which I used mainly for my medium long-run during marathon training, but over the course of the winter I ran a tempo run with others about an average of once every two weeks maybe a little more often. But this week I did both a track workout on Wednesday and a tempo run on Friday with a group at night. Throw in the two days I ran home from work as part of doubles and that made for four evening runs in total.
4. As hinted at in # 3, I ran speed work twice in the same week for the first time in quite a long time. At least speed work with others as I often will just do a second tempo run or something of the sort on a weekday morning when I'm feeling good and want to push the pace a bit. The 10 x 800 meter track workout I did on Wednesday night was in fact only the second or third interval workout I've done all year and it was rough. I was definitely not on the same level as many of the people I was running with who I could hang with or beat in races but who had been running intervals all spring and over the course of the last couple of years. In all I was happy with the paces in the workout as I averaged around 2:50 for my 800s (when you include the 2:38 and 2:41 I blasted out at trying to hang with people who I thought were of similar ability) but it left me feeling pretty tired and honestly a bit perplexed at how easily everyone else was able to reel off the times they did. It also left my hip feeling a little too achy and off, which is the reason I have stayed away from too many intervals for the last couple of years---for whatever reason I can run, hard, medium, slow and all kinds of workouts without much problem as long as I am not starting and stopping over and over with hard efforts. I followed this up on Friday night with a group tempo run, something I did do every other week or so throughout the winter before I hit the peak of my marathon training and started doing all of my workouts solo in the morning, which while not a shock to the system was pretty terrible run---maybe because of the heat, maybe because of track workout on Wednesdays, or maybe because my body was just in shock from all the unusual training elements I had thrown into the mix this week.
5. All of these new training elements and workouts led to the highest mileage week I have run when not in marathon training at 70 miles and without looking through my running log I am also pretty sure it is the most mileage I have run in a week without what I would consider to be a long run ("long" run was 14 miles on Sunday).
So what is my conclusion on all these new or relatively new training elements. For one, I won't throw them all into one week again anytime soon---I was dead tired during my tempo Friday and my 14 miler (with a mile or two of tempo mixed in) on Sunday and my hip was starting to act up just a bit--- though maybe I'll try to build up to it by the end of the year. But to look at things on a case by case basis:
1. While I may stick to the run more mileage as I feel like it approach in my next training cycle, running every day on most weeks is not something I am going to aspire to. My hip just needs an off day from the pounding sometimes. Period. I think I will be fine running 7 to 10 days in a row here or there but not as a regular practice, I have already made a decent jump in the last year to get from 4-5 days back up to 6 plus a day of cross training.
2. I'm going to stick with some doubles and see where they take me, as noted before it is just convenient to run home from work once or twice a week, so if it doesn't affect my training in other ways I might as well add 8-10 easy miles per week.
3. I still don't like running at night. My body and sleep patterns could adjust to it I'm sure over time, but I definitely lost some sleep this week the two nights after I did my track workout and tempo at night since I got home later, then had to shower, eat dinner and then still felt all awake from the hard running as I was going to sleep. While I'm sure one could look to the cumulative effect of all this running as to why I felt so tired and slow on my Friday night and Sunday morning runs this week, I really think this had a lot to do with it, as more than anything else it threw me out of the daily rythym and running pattern that I followed all throughout my last marathon cycle. So I will probably still keep one of the group workouts per week or at least every other week becuase I think they will ultimately help my running---and it spices things up occasionaly and makes it more fun sometimes---but I won't be doing it twice in a week anymore.
4. The conclusion in # 3, leads into the conclusion for # 4, that I won't always run two speed workouts in a week, particularly as I adjust to some doubles and eventually start to increase my long runs again. I will continue to run faster on two days most weeks, but one day will not be organized and my traditional style of hard running on a morning when I just feel good since I find this so much less stressful and easy to recover from than when I force a workout on my body on a specific day which it may or may not feel like doing. For the most part I will probably cut out the repeats and track work since I have gotten a long way in the last year just running higher mileage and tempos. I will do some though as I focus on shorter races over the course of the summer.
5. I like the higher overall mileage I reached this week without doing a long run. If I can consistently hit 65-70 miles per week without going over 13-15 miles on any run in this phase of my training, it should make hitting 80 mile weeks come marathon training season feel doable if that's the direction I want to head in. Also, even though I felt pretty tired and sore at the end of this week I also couldn't imagine running the two hard workouts I did as well as the "1.5" doubles while dealing with the wear and tear of a 20+ mile long run and I do think that running the same total mileage that I have often done in marathon training while being able to throw more speed work on top of it might serve me well, particularly at the shorter distances this summer.
So that's all, I'm taking my overdue off day today after all that running last week, which is why I had time to reflect upon it all in this post! What am I going to do to spice things up this week since I'm dialing back some of the other elements. Well it's mostly going to be an easy week but I may head to a track meet tomorrow night to run a 1500 or 800 for the first time in a very very long time, which would promise to be quite interesting. But the focus for this week is getting a little more recovered and rested so I am prepared for Sunday's 5 mile race.
So what did I do new or different last week?
1. I ran every day, in fact through yesterday I had run 10 days in a row. That's not a big deal for most runners, particularly those who log as many miles as I do, but it's not something I have done or been willing to do for almost three years now since I first injured my hip and have added at least a day or two of cross training into my week to allow for better recovery and less pounding.
2. I continued my plan to introduce some doubles into my training. I have to admit part of the reason for it is simply convenience because I can run home 4-5 miles from work faster and more peacefully than I can walk, or by negotiating crowded subways and buses in rush hour. Running to work would never really work for me because I would be a sweaty mess and too many other logistics to work out, but running home is quite appealing and if we get hit with crazy thundershowers as we often do this time of year I don't lose my main run for the day or have to worry about postponing it/moving it to a treadmill etc. as I would if I moved my main run from the morning to the evening. So in all this week I did a double and a half for the second straight week---on Tuesday I ran 8 miles in the morning, and 4 in the PM, and Thursday I elipitcalled for an hour in the morning and ran 4.5 in the PM. I don't know what path this is headed down but perhaps as many as 3 actual doubles per week by the end of the summer or maybe I'll just bail on them.
3. Speaking of running in the PM, this was relatively new element # 3. I almost always run in the morning regardless and I like it this way for a number of reasons---mainly because life, work, and weather rarely interfere with morning runs and also because I am a morning person and get up very early and am tired by the evening. In fact almost the only reason I will run at night is because that is when my running club meets for its workouts. (As will be explored in new element # 4) I don't run workouts all that often with other people except for a Sunday group run which I used mainly for my medium long-run during marathon training, but over the course of the winter I ran a tempo run with others about an average of once every two weeks maybe a little more often. But this week I did both a track workout on Wednesday and a tempo run on Friday with a group at night. Throw in the two days I ran home from work as part of doubles and that made for four evening runs in total.
4. As hinted at in # 3, I ran speed work twice in the same week for the first time in quite a long time. At least speed work with others as I often will just do a second tempo run or something of the sort on a weekday morning when I'm feeling good and want to push the pace a bit. The 10 x 800 meter track workout I did on Wednesday night was in fact only the second or third interval workout I've done all year and it was rough. I was definitely not on the same level as many of the people I was running with who I could hang with or beat in races but who had been running intervals all spring and over the course of the last couple of years. In all I was happy with the paces in the workout as I averaged around 2:50 for my 800s (when you include the 2:38 and 2:41 I blasted out at trying to hang with people who I thought were of similar ability) but it left me feeling pretty tired and honestly a bit perplexed at how easily everyone else was able to reel off the times they did. It also left my hip feeling a little too achy and off, which is the reason I have stayed away from too many intervals for the last couple of years---for whatever reason I can run, hard, medium, slow and all kinds of workouts without much problem as long as I am not starting and stopping over and over with hard efforts. I followed this up on Friday night with a group tempo run, something I did do every other week or so throughout the winter before I hit the peak of my marathon training and started doing all of my workouts solo in the morning, which while not a shock to the system was pretty terrible run---maybe because of the heat, maybe because of track workout on Wednesdays, or maybe because my body was just in shock from all the unusual training elements I had thrown into the mix this week.
5. All of these new training elements and workouts led to the highest mileage week I have run when not in marathon training at 70 miles and without looking through my running log I am also pretty sure it is the most mileage I have run in a week without what I would consider to be a long run ("long" run was 14 miles on Sunday).
So what is my conclusion on all these new or relatively new training elements. For one, I won't throw them all into one week again anytime soon---I was dead tired during my tempo Friday and my 14 miler (with a mile or two of tempo mixed in) on Sunday and my hip was starting to act up just a bit--- though maybe I'll try to build up to it by the end of the year. But to look at things on a case by case basis:
1. While I may stick to the run more mileage as I feel like it approach in my next training cycle, running every day on most weeks is not something I am going to aspire to. My hip just needs an off day from the pounding sometimes. Period. I think I will be fine running 7 to 10 days in a row here or there but not as a regular practice, I have already made a decent jump in the last year to get from 4-5 days back up to 6 plus a day of cross training.
2. I'm going to stick with some doubles and see where they take me, as noted before it is just convenient to run home from work once or twice a week, so if it doesn't affect my training in other ways I might as well add 8-10 easy miles per week.
3. I still don't like running at night. My body and sleep patterns could adjust to it I'm sure over time, but I definitely lost some sleep this week the two nights after I did my track workout and tempo at night since I got home later, then had to shower, eat dinner and then still felt all awake from the hard running as I was going to sleep. While I'm sure one could look to the cumulative effect of all this running as to why I felt so tired and slow on my Friday night and Sunday morning runs this week, I really think this had a lot to do with it, as more than anything else it threw me out of the daily rythym and running pattern that I followed all throughout my last marathon cycle. So I will probably still keep one of the group workouts per week or at least every other week becuase I think they will ultimately help my running---and it spices things up occasionaly and makes it more fun sometimes---but I won't be doing it twice in a week anymore.
4. The conclusion in # 3, leads into the conclusion for # 4, that I won't always run two speed workouts in a week, particularly as I adjust to some doubles and eventually start to increase my long runs again. I will continue to run faster on two days most weeks, but one day will not be organized and my traditional style of hard running on a morning when I just feel good since I find this so much less stressful and easy to recover from than when I force a workout on my body on a specific day which it may or may not feel like doing. For the most part I will probably cut out the repeats and track work since I have gotten a long way in the last year just running higher mileage and tempos. I will do some though as I focus on shorter races over the course of the summer.
5. I like the higher overall mileage I reached this week without doing a long run. If I can consistently hit 65-70 miles per week without going over 13-15 miles on any run in this phase of my training, it should make hitting 80 mile weeks come marathon training season feel doable if that's the direction I want to head in. Also, even though I felt pretty tired and sore at the end of this week I also couldn't imagine running the two hard workouts I did as well as the "1.5" doubles while dealing with the wear and tear of a 20+ mile long run and I do think that running the same total mileage that I have often done in marathon training while being able to throw more speed work on top of it might serve me well, particularly at the shorter distances this summer.
So that's all, I'm taking my overdue off day today after all that running last week, which is why I had time to reflect upon it all in this post! What am I going to do to spice things up this week since I'm dialing back some of the other elements. Well it's mostly going to be an easy week but I may head to a track meet tomorrow night to run a 1500 or 800 for the first time in a very very long time, which would promise to be quite interesting. But the focus for this week is getting a little more recovered and rested so I am prepared for Sunday's 5 mile race.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Racing on a Whim
In general I like to plan and schedule things in advance and I'm not really the type to do something on a whim. This is true of my running for the most part as well, or at least my racing schedule. But on Saturday morning I decided to run a 5K on a whim. I had thought about doing it briefly at the beginning of the week, thinking that I had just run the Brooklyn Half and that I didn't really want to do any speedwork during the week but an end of the week tempo might be perfect so why I not just go out and race on Saturday, since I have been talking about for awhile now how I am just going to race a lot this summer at shorter distances. As the week went on I decided against the race because my hip had been bothering me a bit and it just didn't seem right to go out and run yet another race a week after a half marathon which had been just a month after a goal marathon.
But then I woke up on Saturday morning, having skipped on doing the tempo run I considered the night before, had some Gatorade and realized I had no milk in the house to go with my cereal for breakfast. It sounds weird but I honestly think if there had been milk there I wouldn't have ended up running the race and I would have just had my normal breakfast and relaxed until doing a run later in the afternoon. Instead I took a nibble of a Clif bar which was about the only other suitable breakfast food lying around and decided what the heck, I'm already eating like I'm going to run a race why not just go out and do it. I don't want anyone to think this typical of my thought process and how I approach running because it's really so far from my normal attitude and in fact I think I have a tendency to over plan and get over anxious over the details when it comes to racing. Since the New Jersey Marathon on May 3, however, I have kind of been in a different mood about running. In Jersey, I had been sick all week prior to the race and for one of the few times in my life I actually went to the starting line telling myself just do the best you can on this day in these conditions given your fitness and how you are feeling at this moment, not based on what could have been a week ago or what you would like to accomplish. Maybe lots of people have that approach to racing, but it hadn't been mine. I like to think of races as having a purpose and most of the time that is for a PR, I really struggle with the concept of racing when in off-season mode or racing my way into shape or training through a race, as I always want to put my best foot forward and give myself a chance to succeed. That's why only race as often as I have a down week coming up in my training to make a mini-taper possible and why I won't run 5Ks really when training for a marathon. But like I said since Jersey I have kind of felt differently about that. I toed the starting line of the Brooklyn Half last weekend, knowing that I wasn't in better shape two months before and that I was still beaten up a bit from the marathon and that the race had no real purpose for my past or upcoming training---I was just going out there to race.
And that's what I did again on Saturday, only this time I literally decided to race about two hours before the race started. I knew I would race the 5K hard because I am a very competitive person but I literally had no expectations for time and didn't even really know what a particular time would tell me about my current fitness since I had just run the half marathon the weekend before and hadn't adjusted the week after to prepare for another race the following weekend. So out I went to Central Park for the YAI 5K Central Park Challenge, a race that benefits those with disabilities. I like races like this one that are much smaller than the NYRR races and have more of a mom and pop feel to them than what you normally get in New York City with these races with 5,000 or so runners. Smaller races also give me the opportunity to compete for place, which is always a nice change of pace from the constant time trialing we do. I ended up running an 18:08 for the 5K, which was actually just four seconds off my PR, and finished 7th place overall and won a plaque as first in the 20-29 age group, but the fun part of this race was that it developed so that I was close to being in contact with the lead pack for the first mile and change even though it took off after that I kept them in sight for a long time and opened with a very fast 5:35 opening mile only to fade and kind of shut things down a bit towards the end when no one was catching me and I wasn't catching them---that is the beauty of these off-season races in my opinion is that I really feel I can go out there and do whatever the hell I want. I can start them hard and not worry about fading or I can start them more conservatively and not worry about having to make up the time for a certain goal but just feeling strong and making it a good training run. Honestly, it is such a relaxing way to race that I think it really allows me the opportunity to hit some unexpected PRs and have some unexpected great days. If I race enough, on a whim or not, I feel like at least once or twice I will just hit that right day when I feel great and everything clicks, that is luxury that I can't have with marathons or longer races but it is one that I can have right now.
But then I woke up on Saturday morning, having skipped on doing the tempo run I considered the night before, had some Gatorade and realized I had no milk in the house to go with my cereal for breakfast. It sounds weird but I honestly think if there had been milk there I wouldn't have ended up running the race and I would have just had my normal breakfast and relaxed until doing a run later in the afternoon. Instead I took a nibble of a Clif bar which was about the only other suitable breakfast food lying around and decided what the heck, I'm already eating like I'm going to run a race why not just go out and do it. I don't want anyone to think this typical of my thought process and how I approach running because it's really so far from my normal attitude and in fact I think I have a tendency to over plan and get over anxious over the details when it comes to racing. Since the New Jersey Marathon on May 3, however, I have kind of been in a different mood about running. In Jersey, I had been sick all week prior to the race and for one of the few times in my life I actually went to the starting line telling myself just do the best you can on this day in these conditions given your fitness and how you are feeling at this moment, not based on what could have been a week ago or what you would like to accomplish. Maybe lots of people have that approach to racing, but it hadn't been mine. I like to think of races as having a purpose and most of the time that is for a PR, I really struggle with the concept of racing when in off-season mode or racing my way into shape or training through a race, as I always want to put my best foot forward and give myself a chance to succeed. That's why only race as often as I have a down week coming up in my training to make a mini-taper possible and why I won't run 5Ks really when training for a marathon. But like I said since Jersey I have kind of felt differently about that. I toed the starting line of the Brooklyn Half last weekend, knowing that I wasn't in better shape two months before and that I was still beaten up a bit from the marathon and that the race had no real purpose for my past or upcoming training---I was just going out there to race.
And that's what I did again on Saturday, only this time I literally decided to race about two hours before the race started. I knew I would race the 5K hard because I am a very competitive person but I literally had no expectations for time and didn't even really know what a particular time would tell me about my current fitness since I had just run the half marathon the weekend before and hadn't adjusted the week after to prepare for another race the following weekend. So out I went to Central Park for the YAI 5K Central Park Challenge, a race that benefits those with disabilities. I like races like this one that are much smaller than the NYRR races and have more of a mom and pop feel to them than what you normally get in New York City with these races with 5,000 or so runners. Smaller races also give me the opportunity to compete for place, which is always a nice change of pace from the constant time trialing we do. I ended up running an 18:08 for the 5K, which was actually just four seconds off my PR, and finished 7th place overall and won a plaque as first in the 20-29 age group, but the fun part of this race was that it developed so that I was close to being in contact with the lead pack for the first mile and change even though it took off after that I kept them in sight for a long time and opened with a very fast 5:35 opening mile only to fade and kind of shut things down a bit towards the end when no one was catching me and I wasn't catching them---that is the beauty of these off-season races in my opinion is that I really feel I can go out there and do whatever the hell I want. I can start them hard and not worry about fading or I can start them more conservatively and not worry about having to make up the time for a certain goal but just feeling strong and making it a good training run. Honestly, it is such a relaxing way to race that I think it really allows me the opportunity to hit some unexpected PRs and have some unexpected great days. If I race enough, on a whim or not, I feel like at least once or twice I will just hit that right day when I feel great and everything clicks, that is luxury that I can't have with marathons or longer races but it is one that I can have right now.
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