Getting back after it

Well, my transition to "off-season" running didn't go as well as I had hoped. What I meant by that is that I didn't keep my running up as much as I would have liked. My intention was to stick to 2-3 times out a week, but I wound up doing more like 1 time a week, due to a combination of factors - climate, softball playoffs (I HATE the way our league schedules them), other scheduling matters, and most recently this past week, illness, as I caught a rare August cold. Other than the week of softball playoffs, the weather was probably the biggest driving factor. It continued to be such a crazily warm summer, and it seemed like no matter how much I tried to plan my schedule to fit in on the decent days, virtually every day I scheduled a run wound up being one of those mornings where when I woke up, it was already 75 and really humid out. Had I been in a rhythm, I think I could probably have fought through a few of those days, but it was just too easy to wait for the next opportunity.

But now, the time has come to begin thinking about training again, as I am but 2 months away from my next planned race, the Falcon Fun Run at Messiah's homecoming on October 16. Back when I started all of this, the plan was for this race to be towards the end of a running season that would run from spring until late fall - now it's to be the beginning of my "second" season, which will run from fall through early summer.

I'm switching my training plan to methods prescribed by Jeff Galloway. Galloway is well-known for his training methods, particularly at the longer distances, and most notably the "walk/run" method, which utilizes walk breaks, even while racing. This also applies to his methods at the 5k/10k level, though the paces I've already run at the 5k level are getting close to the end of where I would be walking during a race. His training plan was attractive to me over my prior plan for a few reasons:

#1 - In general, his approach favors dialing back the intensity slightly and increasing the length of the workout, relative to what I was doing with my old setup. I've already done some of the workouts he details, and I find I enjoy the long runs much more - and the speed work is more managable as well.

#2 - This plan includes workouts designed as "race rehearsals", where I will actually run at shorter, building distances at/near my intended race pace.

#3 - This plan only does 4 day a week running - the other did 5, though one day was very light, and I was just never able to fully make that work. 4 running days also leaves me a desired 3 days a week for strength training, without mixing the 2.

Starting tomorrow, I'll spend the next 2 weeks easing back into a more regular running schedule, and then start "real" training on August 30th. I had hoped to maintain more of my form through the summer, but at this point, I'm guessing that getting ready for this first race will be more about recovering the conditioning I've lost (and shedding the few extra pounds I've put back on) than really advancing my speed significantly. Training for this race will also meet the schedule challenge of a week's vacation in California (including several days camping at altitude) during the 2nd week, and an extended weekend in South Bend, Indiana the weekend before the race - but I shall press on!

Galloway has a 5k training plan for breaking 20 minutes and one for breaking 25 minutes - neither of which fits my immediate needs. He makes the methodlogies for determining the pacing of workouts in the plans pretty clear, so I'll be using the workout schedule for the 20 minute goal, but with workout paces designed more for a 22:30-23:00 time. As I get ready to get back at it, my only firm goal for the October race is to better my PR of 24:27 from the Armed Forced Day 5k back in May - as training begins and progresses, I may set more lofty goals.

Well, that was a kick in the head (for reals)

I've had my share of injuries playing softball through the years. There are ones you expect, that just come with the territory. Examples of these would be a bruise from having a ball hit part of your body, and scraping up your legs from sliding or diving for a ball. Pretty commonplace, nothing to be concerned about. You might even get banged up from colliding with another player.

You do not, however, expect to get kicked in the head playing softball, and you especially do not expect said kick to come from a player on your own team, but alas, that is what happened. Let me allieviate any concern right away - this happened almost 2 hours ago now, and I'm pretty certain that I'm no worse for the wear except for a sore neck, that will likely be be more sore tomorrow.

So, here's how it happened. We were playing our playoff game, I was playing third base, as is my custom. There was a hit to the outfield. I don't remember the specifics, but the bottom line was that a runner was coming to third, and a throw come in from the outfield, rather wildly, to try and throw him out. I had to scamper off the base and make a pretty good stab to keep the ball in front of me. Because the runner saw how bad the throw was, he didn't stop right on the base but kept going around. As he saw I caught the ball, he stopped and went to dive back to the base, and I dove back into the bag to try and tag him. I was too late, and just as my glove hit the ground, I felt a "thud" on the back of my head, and I dropped down to the base.

As it turned out, our shortstop had come running in towards third. I'm not sure if he had been coming that way thinking he would get the ball if I missed it, or if he was trying to get to the bag to give a throw. Regardless, when he saw the runner diving into the base, he evidently tried to jump over him, and succeeded, but he did not succeed in jumping over me. Thus, I received a "nice" kick to the head.

I laid there, head on the base, pretty sure I was okay, but not wanting to get up until I was pretty certain of it. I never lost concisousness, though I gave our shortstop quite a scare, because while I laid there, I apparently had my eyes closed, and since I didn't move, he thought I was out. But I wasn't, I was completely awake, aware of what had just happened, what was going on in the game, etc, and after a few minutes of recovery, I returned to my position and the game continued.

I felt about cloudy for a while - after all, I had just been kicked in the head. However, by game's end (there was only another inning plus), that had all pretty much cleared out. I had my teammate check my eyes, nothing was dialated, and so I was without any of the symptons that I'm aware of for a concussion. Actually, given the nature of the hit, and how I felt immediately afterward, I think my neck took more of the pressure than my, which is why I expect to be sore in the morning.

All in all, a rather different softball experience, and now I can use the phrase "That's a kick in the head" as someone with experience! If only we had won the game...

Charting a new course

So, I've come to a "new" realization in the last few weeks: It gets really, really hot in the summer.

Okay, so, not exactly groundbreaking, I realize. In fact, it's something I already knew very well - it's just taken on a different meaning for me this year. You see, for the past several years, dealing with the summer heat basically meant dealing with a warm commute to work and toughing out the occasional softball game during a scorcher. Not the most fun in the world, but not really a big deal. Something changed for this year, and that, of course, was the fact that I took up running, which, as you know, generally takes place outdoors.

This ramifications of this realization began to take shape two Saturdays past, when I ran a 5k in my hometown of Shippensburg. This was to be an "experience" race anyhow, in that I wasn't going to be gunning at a particular time goal - and that was really for the best, because as the race approached it was clear it was going to be a really hot day, like around 90 for the high hot (though not as bad as this week). 2 things about the race exasperated the problem. First of all, the race was scheduled for 10 am. Now, I've not been racing very long, but it seems to me that waiting until mid-morning for a race start in the summer is just not a good idea. My first race started at 8:00 am, and had this one been the same, we could have had it about 10 degrees cooler than the 80 degrees we got. As a reference, the book I'm reading on a new training approach I'm looking to transition to considers anything above 60 to be adverse conditions, in terms of your ability to run your best time.

Secondly, apparently these race organizers don't know what distance a 5k is actually supposed to cover. 5 kilometers is roughly 3.1 miles. The night before the race, I drove what I roughly understood the course to be, without knowledge of where the exact start and finish would be. What I drove measured out somewhere over 3.3 miles, so I figured the start and finish would fall somewhere that would cut off the extra .2. When I got there Saturday morning, the start/finish line was actually positioned to make the course at least a tenth of a mile longer than what I had driven, so the race was going to be more like 3.5 miles than 5k.

I went out pretty slow, but the heat was just brutal (there was zero cloud cover and minimal shade on the course to offer any relief), and by about 2 miles I was feeling pretty spent. It was just an experience race, like I said, and I decided that what I wanted to experience was having a decent finish, so I walked for about a half a mile and then put on a very strong finish - came across in about 31 minutes, which translates to more like 28 for an actual 5k. Not exactly stellar, but I accomplished my only real goal of not having a completely miserable day that made me never want to run another 5k :-)

Anyhow, as you know if you live in the area, the week after the race we caught a stretch of spring-like weather, and I resumed my training with new vigor. And then, the heat wave hit. I'd already switched my workouts back to the mornings to deal with the rising temperatures, but lately we've consistently had overnight "lows" in excess of 70 degrees, so even if I get out before 5:30 am like usual, it's still already very warm, and you get the added humidity of the morning to go with it. Now, I see people running all the time anyhow, and if I was just doing easy running/long running, I could probably continue without issue, and just slow the pace down, but I find speed work in this mess to be absolutely brutal - and it's not the most fun thing to begin with. It also doesn't help that I play softball, and the last thing I want to do after playing 2 softball games on a 90+ degree night is go to bed and then get right up and run in more warm, humid weather the following morning.

So I've made a decision - full-scale training in mid-summer may work for some, but it is just not for me, and continuing to push at it is only likely to discourage me altogether. I also would like to remain active in softball and other recreational summer activities going forward, which are at odds with training as well - both from a perspective of taking energy away from training, and from posing extra injury risk. I've been through a winter already, and while there were some issues, I much preferred training in the cold to training the in the heat. There's just so much more you can do to combat the cold as opposed to what you can do when dealing with heat - and the activity of running itself is your ally in cold weather. There was actually only 1 day this winter where I skipped a planned run because I thought it was too cold, and I wasn't really even training for anything at that point, so it was easier to make those kinds of concessions because there was less motivation. February was kind of a rough month due to the 3 massive snow storms, but this wasn't a typical winter for our area in that regard.

All of that being said, at this point, I'm officially declaring myself to be in my running "off-sesaon." The race I was planning on running on August 14th in Mechanicsburg has been downgraded from a goal race to an experience race, with the potential for forgoing it entirely if it's a brutally hot day. Instead of full training (4 days a week, with 2 days dedicated to some form of speed work, 1 long run and one easy run, with each week getting progressively more difficult) aimed at improvement, I will simply look to maintain as much of my current level of conditioning as possible with a lighter schedule that will stay consistent rather than building week to week, with more cross-training as well. Come the end of August, I'll plan to begin full-scale training for the Falcon Fun Run at Messiah's homecoming on October 16, and then look to continue training and racing through the late fall and winter, into late spring/early summer, before hitting the "off-season" again next summer.

So, you live and learn, and you make adjustments. I had a plan, the plan is now changing, and may change again in the future.

What have I become?

Okay, so the simple fact of that matter is that if you'd have told me any time up to about a year ago that I'd be doing any kind of running on a regular basis, let alone training for and running 5k races, I'd probably have laughed at you. I've gone through most of my life believing that I hated running, and that short of some sort of health issue that left me with little other choice, it would never be something I would get into.

That being said, on Sunday I had what is probably the biggest "who is this person?" moment that I've run across to date in my running life.

First, some background - as you know if you keep up with this blog (which, let's be honest, isn't a dreadfully time consuming task these days), a few weeks ago I began round 2 of my training schedule, prepping for the "Run for Reading" 5k in Mechanicsburg on August 14th. What you may not realize is that there was a rather noteworthy climate shift between the time I completed my serious training and started to taper for my first 5k and when I went to pick up training again - good old southcentral PA summer weather had crept around, which meant I was encountering 85 degree heat with accompanying high humidity, when previously I had been predominantly dealing with maybe 65-70 degree, relatively dry weather as the worst case scenario.

Anyhow, I was able to get through the main part of training that week - I was running in the evenings at/around sundown, so that blunted some of the heat issues, though I was certainly feeling it. When the weekend came and it was time for my 5 mile run, however, it was a different matter. I tried to run on Saturday morning - got out at maybe 9, thinking that would be good enough to beat the serious heat of the day - and it was. However, it was already 75 degrees, with humdity probably up in the 80% range, and the sun was out and just beating down. A 5 mile run at the pace I was planning to run ordinarily wouldn't have been much of anything to me at this point, but about a mile and a half in, I knew I was in trouble. It didn't help matters that I went out slightly faster than I had planned, but I don't think that was really the issue - I was just not prepared for the conditions. I toughed it out, but ultimately I was bonking with pretty much nothing at my disposal to remedy the situation, so I pack it in after a disappointing 3.5 miles.

Overall, I was really discouraged by the workout, and with the weather forecast not looking much different for the next several days (except for when it would rain), I wound up not going out at all for the next week. By the end of the week, my resolve was back and I prepared to get started up again in the week to come - with one notable change - I would move my workouts to the early morning, which is how I had started out, until the middle of winter when it was just to cold. So, I had come full circle, as I was now finding it too hot to run after work. Running in the morning is also helpful now that softball season is in full swing, because I can't really run in the evening on game nights.

The schedule change worked quite well through the week, which brought me to the weekend and my next attempt at a longer run. I was resolved to do a few thing differently this time, which I expected would help. First was to increase the frequency with which I took in water, to compensate for the extra I was losing due to conditions. Second was to bring some sports drink along, to replace some of the things I was sweating out besides just water. Lastly was to be absolutely sure to keep my early pace under control.

However, there was still the matter of conditions - and Sunday was looking an awfully lot like the Saturday of my ill-fated last attempt. All of which leads me to the "who is this person?" moment - I decided to set my alarm for 5:15 on a Sunday morning so I could get out before the sun was all the way up. When I took off, it was only 68 degrees, but weather.com actually said it was 100% humidity. It was actually rather cloudy, so the sun wouldn't have been a major issue anyhow, but I'm still glad I got out really early. The run went markedly better than my prior attempt, and I completed a full 5 miles at a pace I was pleased with, though I did run the last 2 miles on flatter terrain than I usually would because I was starting to feel it and I wanted to make sure I covered the distance.

Really, I think the "who is this person?" moment came after the run, when I had showered, replenished fluids, and had something to eat - at which point I laid down to take a nap before church. That kind of blew my mind. (Don't worry though, I didn't let that interfere with my more standard post-church nap... )

The gameplan, round 2

Well, the LOST finale has started, but I don't want to watch commercials, so I'm killing time for a few minutes before starting it off the DVR, and so I thought it was probably time to get my training goals for round 2 set down. Lucky you, my special handful of readers :-)

Anyhow, this week was designated as an easy week, and it turned out to be much easier than initially planned. I followed through with running a mile time-trial on Tuesday on the course that has more inclines to it, as I mentioned in a previous post, and came up with a 6:35 that I was very pleased with. My intent was then to run a two-mile trial on Friday night, and then go 4-5 miles today. However, I wound up doing some fasting this weekend, and I figured serious exercise isn't probably the best idea when you're not eating much, so I put those plans on hold.

Anyhow, this coming week will bring the resumption of training. I have previously mentioned the major tweaks to my approach this time out, and there's another one or two I will mention in the details here.

Speed Intervals
Starting objective: 4 intervals, all run in 1:25 or less
Final objective: 7 intervals, all run in 1:25 or less

This is one of my minor tweaks. The training plan itself calls to start at 3 and go to 6 intervals by the end of the schedule. I could do that, with a goal to get much faster this time out. However, I'm already intervaling at or just above the pace I've read I need to look at if I want to get to my long term goal, so it's more important to be able to add intervals rather than speed them up. I don't need more top-end speed, I need more ability to sustain it. I'd like to be able to get to 8 intervals by the end of the 3rd cycle, so I'm planning on going from 4 to 7 with a slight time drop this time, and then just look to go from 5 to 8 with a similar time in the 3rd cycle. You'll note, as opposed to last time, I'm not looking to drop my times over the course of training - I discovered last time that's just not that realistic. I'm adding an interval at least once every two weeks, so that's all I can really ask - trying to go faster at the same time isn't helpful.

Midweek 2/3 mile runs
Starting objective: 2 miles at 8:20/mile pace
Ending objective: 3 miles at 8:10/mile pace

Again, I could do these faster if I wanted, but it would wind up creating problems with my more important workouts, mainly the tempo runs. I proved that point to myself last cycle, when about week 5 I was feeling really good and wound up going 8:05 pace over 3 miles, which was a good 25 seconds better than I was supposed to run - it led to a couple of subpar workouts in a row until I took some extra rest. 8:20 is about what I was able to do very comfortably at the end of the last training cycle, and I'm really not looking to go much faster with these.

Tempo runs
Starting objective: 30 minutes total, 15 minutes fast (7:25/mile pace)
Finishing objective: 40 minutes total, 20 minutes fast (7:15/mile pace)

At first glance, if you saw my first cycle objectives, it looks like I'm taking a step back. I met my goals and was tempoing at/under 7:10/mile by the end of the first cycle. However, there are a couple mitigating factors here - mainly the change of venue. I'm moving from my half-mile loop, which is pretty flat and may be a bit short, to my mile loop, which has more hills to it, and is definitely at least the length I'm counting it as. Also, I think I was previously tempoing too fast. Given my mile time of 6:35 on the same course, 7:25 is an appropriate tempo pace. We'll see how it goes. Regardless, the change of terrain should make these runs much more indicative of what I would be able to do comfortably on a moderate 5k course.

Long runs
Starting objective: 5 miles, 8:45/mile pace
Finishing objective: 7 miles, 8:30/mile pace

Nothing too fancy here - my last long run of cycle 1 was 7 miles at an 8:37 pace. If I can take these runs a bit faster comfortably, I will, but I'm not looking for crazy improvement here, because pushing these runs will, again, negatively impact my speed/stamina workouts.

So, there's the plan. There is a minor catch this time around. My training plan runs 8 weeks, including the taper week before the race, but the next race I'm officially training for is 12 weeks ago. My plan will be to taper mid-plan for the race in Shippensburg on 6/26, give myself another relatively easy week the week after, and then resume by repeating the last week I had done on the schedule. That will eat up 3 of my 4 extra weeks, so I'll still have a week to play with, and how that gets used will depend on how the rest of the cycle goes.

A better way (I think)

So, as you might know, this Sunday is the finale of ABC's LOST, one of the more anticipated events in recent TV history. The show has been quite popular and has kept it's fans guessing for the better part of the last 6 years, and they will all be watching as the answers (well, at least most of them, I'm sure there will be some mystery left) are revealed. And I will join them, though my journey has been a bit different.

You see, prior to the first of this year, I had never seen a single episode of LOST. I really am not one to be drawn to new TV shows by the previews, so I rarely catch a new show from the very beginning, and by the time I'd heard enough good things about LOST to be intrigued by it, it was several episodes in, and I knew it was the kind of show that I'd want to see from the beginning. Catching up on a show was not as easy back in 2004 as it is today, with the prevalence of things like iTunes, video on-demand service, networks posting back episodes on their website, etc, so I figured some day, at least after the first season DVDs came out, I'd give the show a try and catch up if I liked it. Some day turned out to be earlier this year, and it wasn't by some serious compulsion - I got a Blu-ray player for Christmas, had my Netflix account ready to go, and was looking for some adds to the queue. LOST was one of the more intriguing options to come to mind, so I added the first season and was ready to see if I liked it. After the first disc or so in the first season, I was into the show and decided that I would continue.

This immediately presented me with a bit of a deadline. I knew the season that was upcoming was to be the last for the show. As popular and talked about as LOST was, I also knew that, were I not caught up and able to watch the finale when it aired, there was no way I was going to be go any length of time without hearing some major spoilers - so I had to caught up by the finale. I added seasons 2-5 to my queue and got to work. When the beginning of February rolled around, I set my DVR to record all of this season's episodes so they would be ready for me when I needed them. I initially wound up going almost too fast, and in March and April had to "ration" my watching, because I decided I couldn't go from being able to watch a new episode pretty much on demand to getting caught early in the final season and having to wait week to week. It worked out pretty well, and tonight I just watched last week's episode and last night's episode, so I'm all caught up and ready for the finale.

Inadvertantly, I may have stumbled onto a vastly superior way to watch TV - or at least serial dramas. I see a number of very positive aspects of going this way:

1. No fear of "failure" - Like I said, I don't often get in on the ground floor of shows very often, so this isn't something I've run into too often, but very often serial dramas don't grab enough of an audience and get dumped before they can wrap up their storylines - which really sucks for the loyal fans the show did have. My most recent similar experience to this has been with Friday Night Lights, which started out on NBC, was very nearly axed after its first season, and then was moved so that its first run epsiodes would air exclusively on DirecTV, before re-runing on NBC. It's made it through 4 seasons now (the last two have been shortened), but the 4th season was the first one that ended with any certainty about whether the show was coming back (the last renewal was for seasons 4 + 5, with 5 widely expected to be the last), and yet season finales constantly left plenty of unresolved questions. Heroes also just got axed after 4 seasons having left a lot open in its season (now series) finale, but that show has been consistently going in the tank for the last couple seasons and I wasn't likely to come back anyhow. Regardless, going the "wait and catch-up" route eliminates this concern - you can start watching knowing the plots will be brought to conclusion, or you can at least make an educated decision to watch a show that got the early axe, knowing what you'll be getting into.

2. No waiting - Watching a show as it unfolds always necessitates waiting at least a week between episodes, and in the case of serial dramas, you're usually signing up for months between seasons with some sort of cliffhanger to be resolved. The shorter seasons LOST has run from 4-6 have resulted in almost 9 months between season finale and season premiere, and for shows that run through a full traditional season, these days you're almost invariably looking at some form of hiatus at multiple times to keep the episodes lined up with sweeps and the like. The longest I went between LOST episodes was a week (driven by blizzard related mail delays and a disc that was broken on delivery), and it just so happened that occurred between the 2nd season finale and 3rd season premiere, so I was still months ahead of everyone else on that wait. This also feeds into...

3. No commercials - There are no commercials on Blu-rays, and I can skip them on the DVR'd episodes. Nothing more needs to be said.

4. Ease of recall - Most shows aren't as involved as LOST, but in general, serial dramas are building on something, which makes it helpful if you remember what happened in previous episodes and seasons. I could be wrong, but I'm assuming it's much easier to remember what happened in Season 1 if you watched it a few months ago as opposed to several years ago.

5. Muting of a potential final letdown - Let's face it, a number of these kind of shows have had finales that were quite disappointing. I feel like such a letdown would be much less brutal if you've only been watching for a few months before getting to them as opposed to 5+ years.

Now, there are also some potential pitfalls with this method, the primary one being the obvious issue of spoilers. By catching up before the finale, I've eliminated the possibility the "big" spoiler, but as popular as LOST is, it was inevitable that I was going to pick up somethings, some of which I had picked up before I even started watching. It got particularly difficult once season 6 started up, but overall, I didn't have anything major spoiled. And of course, there's the fact that if everyone tried to employ this method, there would never be a serial drama made again, because they wouldn't get ratings. This is also an easier method for me, because I don't watch a ton of non-sports TV to begin with, so I have time to devote to such an effort, in short bursts.

Regardless of all of that, I've really enjoyed watching LOST in this manner, and will likely try do something similar in the future. I'm probably not patient enough to take this approach with every show that piques my curiosity :-)

Some course corrections

So, if you read the comments in my race report, you might have noticed that my initial disappointment in my performance in my first ever 5k had begun to fade as the day continued on, and that trend continued. Not to say that I'm totally pleased today, but I'm content with it for a number of reasons.

1. Prior to Saturday, I had never competed in an actual race of over 1/4 mile (I think), so just finishing was an accomplishment I became more pleased with as I reflected.
2. A significant part of my struggles were caused by poor initial pacing. Proper pacing is probably one of the hardest things to do in a 5k, and so it was probably somewhat unrealistic for me to expect to get it right in my first race.
3. My goal time of 22:30 was based on my perception of what my optimum performance should be over 5k, and upon further reflection, there was no reason I should have expected optimum performance given the course, which had 2 short but quite steep inclines, and featured full a mile of running directly into a stiff headwind. (Yes, said wind was at my back for most of the last mile, but trust me, it doesn't even out...) The winning time in last year's race was 17:51, and although they haven't posted the official results for this year's race yet, I was told by my cheering section that the first runner came across the line in well over 18 this year. These are not blazing fast 5k times, and for a race of this size (I would say approximately 300 people) to be won by them would definitely indicate that this is not a particularly fast course. In retrospect, a time of 2300-23:30 was probably what I would have been looking at with proper pacing.

So, overall, I'm in much better place with my feelings about the run. Further, I was quite encouraged by my fitness level today when I did a mile time trial in what I am going to call my personal best, of 6:35. I say I'm going to call it my best, because technically I ran a faster mile shortly before I started officially training for Saturday's rest, in 6:25. However, I ran that mile as 2 circuits of my half-mile loop, which I am now convinced is slightly shorter than a half mile. I ran today's mile on my mile loop, which is definitely a mile and if anything is slightly longer. The mile loop is also rather undulating with a couple of steady climbs, while the half mile loop is pretty flat, so even if they are the same length, I'm convinced my 6:35 time on the mile loop is a much better running performance. I'll have to get to a track at some point, because I'm convinced I could probably start to attack the 6 minute mile barrier on a flat run.

So, all of that said, upon reflection, I'm looking at the following changes to my training and race plans. Originally, I only intended to do 3 races this year, to allow time for a full training cycle in between each one. I'm now convinced I need to run a few more races to get experience, even if I'm not "fully" trained for the extra ones. So, my current plan is to next run the Travis Henry Memorial 5k in my hometown of Shippensburg on 6/26 as an "experience" race, and then the Run for Reading 5k in Mechanicsburg on 8/14 as my next race I'm formally training for. After that, I will be looking for a 5k in the mid-September time frame, while training for the Falcon Fun Run at Messiah's Homecoming on 10/16. I've also decided I'll want to stay in training through to December before taking the coldest part of the winter a bit easier, so I'll probably be looking for a race or two in the November/December time frame.

Because the 8/14 date for the Run for Reading is out a couple weeks beyond my 8 week training schedule, I may actually take the week before the 6/26 run and taper for it, but we'll see how things go. I, of course, reserve the right to change my schedule due to injury, other setback, or my whim:)

I'll be setting some training goals later this week, but I have decided to make two key changes to my training approach this time around. First of all, to help myself with being able to feel proper pace, I'm going to work to discipline myself not to check my watch at intervals smaller than half a mile on my tempo and long runs. Secondly, I am going to move my tempo runs (my longest speed workouts) from the half-mile loop to the mile loop. There are two reasons for this - the first being the distance issue I mentioned earlier - I think running the half-mile loop this time around gave me a slightly unrealistic picture of my pace, by moving to the mile loop, if anything, I'll think I'm going a bit slower than I really am, and I prefer that going into a race. Secondly, the mile loop, while not containing any severe hills, comes much closer to replicating what I could expect on a typical 5k course in terms of inclines than the flater half-mile loop.

So, at this point, I'm really feeling re-energized and ready to start prepping for the next race. Of course, that's not to say I'm not enjoying having a more relaxed schedule this week :-)

Armed Forces Day 5k - Race Report

Well, after some spotty weather all week, we were blessed with a beautiful day for the race. It was about 60 degrees and sunny, with a nice breeze moving at race time (8 am).

That, unfortunately, was the main highlight of the day, as I made the mistake I absolutely swore I couldn't make and went out too fast. My plan of attack was to be even mile splits, or even negative splits (getting fast over the course of the race), but assuming the rough mile markers I got from the online course maps (there was nothing official out on the course), I blew that possibility out of the water by running the first mile in about 6:50-6:55, which is a good 20 seconds below the 7:10-7:15 pace I was looking to have over the course of the race, and it absolutely cost me in the last half of the race.

Adding to the difficulties was that I had not totally had a good understanding of the course. We started on City Island and did almost a full lap of the island before heading across the Walnut Street walking bridge. At this point, we did a little turn and headed along the river. Looking at the map, I was thinking we were just staying up at the level of the bridge, but we actually dropped down to the lower level via a fairly steep hill. Not a big problem at that point, but it meant that we were going to have to go back up that hill right before the finish, and it also meant there was a similar hill to navigate at the turnaround point about 2 miles into the race. It also put us right down next to the river, into quite a wind tunnel that was blowing into our faces on the way out.

Between the wind in the face and having gone out too fast, my planning of having something in reserve for the last mile just didn't come together, and I was really just trying to hang on. The hill back up onto the bridge pretty much did me in, and the final run back across the bridge was far from triumphant. I did manage a final push to the finish to get in around 24:30, which was a solid 2 minutes below my goal, and I'm pretty that way too fast first mile cost me pretty much all of that time. Granted, 24:30 for a 5k is nothing to be ashamed of in the grand scheme of things, it's still under an 8 minute mile pace, and while the official results are yet to come, I know I finished ahead of significantly more people than I finished behind. That being said, I know I could have done a lot better - by the end of my training cycle I was able to run 3 miles at an 8:10-8:15/mile pace and feel very comfortable throughout, so going well under an 8 minute pace in 5k race shouldn't have been much of a problem - had I done a better job of pacing myself early in the race.

So, that will be a point of emphasis for my next round of training - being able to have a better feel for my pace. The difference between training and a race is that I know my training courses, I have checkpoints all along the way, so if I'm off pace, I know about it within a quarter mile and can make the adjustment. Today, all I had was a rough idea of where each mile was, and so until I got my first reliable time check, I was already in trouble. So, I will probably try to find some less familiar paths to run this time around, and also discipline myself to not look at my watch as much while I'm on my regular paths. I do not think my 22:30 goal was unrealistic for my level of conditioning, despite the fact that I fell 2 minutes short of it - I think the time was more reflective of my lack of experience than anything else.

So, what's up next? I plan to have a slightly easier week this week, perhaps just a couple days where I do some time-trailing at some shorter distances (1 and 2 miles) and then a 4-5 mile run over the weekend, and then I'll reset my training plan with new goals for this time around. At this point, I'm eyeing a couple options for races in late July/early August to be the next one that I'm "officially" training for. There's also a 5k in my hometown on 6/26 that I'm eyeing more seriously after today. It will be squarely in the middle of my training cycle, so I would be looking at it more for getting some more experience at running the distance than for a real barometer of progress - though I would probably be hoping for at least some sort of a PR given my time today.

So, all in all, I was disappointed today, but not disheartened, and very motivated to continue training and learning so that I can improve. I finished, and for the first one, I guess that has to be the primary goal :)

Well, it's official

Today, I officially registered for the Armed Forces Day 5k in Harrisburg on Saturday, May 15th, so I suppose it is on...

Training has gone very well to date, although I am skipping my long run this weekend because I've listened to my body. I did my longest tempo run ever on Friday evening around sundown, had a long day yesterday, and just was not feeling totally right when I got up this morning. I might have taken a go at it, except for the unseasonable warmth and accompanying humidity. The bottom line is that my endurance is well built up at this point, this is the only run I've missed in the first 6 weeks so it doesn't seem likely to really mess me up, and overtraining could lead to a major setback.

Anyhow, with 2 weeks to go, and only one week of full training (the last week is an easy week to taper down and be properly rested for the race), it's time to really start thinking about goals.

Assuming the courses I train on are pretty close to the lengths I believe they are, I've been tempo running at about a 7:15-7:20 minute/mile pace, with my longest period at tempo pace being 20 minutes (I covered about 2.75 miles in that stretch). Maintaining that pace for a 5k would lead to something in the vicinity of a 22:30 for. Now, the idea of tempo running is that it's supposed to be below race pace, so in theory I should expect to run faster than that pace in the race. However, I'm going to temper my expectations for a few reasons.
#1 - I think, since I don't have a race history to know my race pace that I'm probably tempo running closer to my limit than I should be.
#2 - I'm not yet fast enough to cover 5k during my tempo runs, so I'll have some extra distance to cover once I get best the longest I've run at such a pace before.
#3 - If anything, I think the course I use for my tempo runs is a bit shorter than I count it as.
#4 - This is my first race - I'm a bit concerned the adrenaline might mess with my pacing discipline.

Of course, there are a couple things that work in my favor:
#1 - My tempo runs are often the 3rd of 3 straight daily runs, and almost always at least the 2nd of two in a row, and they always occur towards the end of the day, so I'm not necessarily on the freshest of legs. On raceday, I'll be running first thing in the morning with a couple days of rest behind me.
#2 - When I tempo run, I start out with 8 to 10 minutes of running at a long run pace, so I'm actually 28-30 minutes into a run when I finish the faster portion. In the race, I'll be starting with completely fresh legs.

All of that put together, with this being my first race, I'm taking a pretty conservative approach and looking for a time around 22:30, though I think I might be capable of better. My plan, for the time being, is to be relatively conservative over the first two miles or so, with the hope of having plenty in the tank for a very good final mile. If I make a mistake with pacing in this race, I want to do so in favor of having something left at the end, as opposed to bonking and having to struggle to the finish. One very nice aspect of the course for the race for a novice like myself is that it is very flat overall.

Another positive development regarding the race occurred today, as some friends, who were just coming off of a half-marathon yesterday, got the bug and decided to run the race with me. I think it'll make for much more fun day having a group for support at the starting line and to celebrate with afterwards, and potentially some company on the run itself depending on how they pace.

The plan, continued - Training Objectives

Okay, so the "plan" officially starts on Monday. As a reminder, I will be using this training plan. I do, however, have a couple of minor tweaks. First of all, I'm usually busy on Tuesday nights, while Mondays are most often free, so I typically make Monday my interval day and Tuesday my early week rest day, so I'm not rushing around trying to get workout in on Tuesdays. This works well, since Sunday is a very light day anyhow. In addition, as I mentioned in a previous post, I plan to do my intervals with only 200m (roughly) in between, as opposed to 400m.

So, here are my stated training goals for each type of training, based on a combination of what various running sites say I should be able to do based on my current fitness level, and my own prior experiences. Sunday recovery jogs are not included here.

Intervals
Starting objective: All intervals under 1:30
Ending objective: All intervals under 1:25

The difference between starting and ending times on this is merely an acknowledgment that I'm going in a bit out of shape - I'm not really training to make these faster, though if it happens, I won't complain. As you'll notice from the training plan, the goal over the course of the plan is to add intervals, going from 3 in week 1 to 6 in week 7. Before I fell of my training schedule, I pretty easily did 5 in under 1:25, of course, that was with 400m recovery in between. This was also before every other interval was uphill. Anyhow, I went out and did three intervals on Monday - the downhill ones were both under 1:25, the uphill was right at 1:30. This is probably the least ambitious of my training time objectives, and it's by design. I HATE intervals, and they are workout most likely to drive me off my schedule. My pacing is already good for my longer term goals, so rather than kill myself trying to go faster, the focus will simply be on adding intervals. In fact, when I start over after the first race, I will probably start at 6 intervals and look to increase to 8, rather than going back to 3 and looking for a faster time. We'll see.

Midweek 2/3 mile runs
Starting objective: 8:45/mile pace
Ending objective: 8:30/mile pace

Oddly enough, despite being by far the easiest workout (aside from Sunday's easy jog), this one has the most potential to screw up my training, in my opinion. These are not speed workouts, just nice, easy mid-week runs. While I'm very good about starting slow when I'm going 5 miles and beyond, I found during my first run of training that when I'm only going 2 or 3 miles, I want to go. I could absolutely run these workouts faster right now, but I need to discipline myself to maintain pacing, because if I go too fast in these workouts, it will hurt my tempo runs the next day, where I am trying to build speed/stamina.

Tempo Runs
Starting objective: 7:30/mile pace
Ending objective: 7:15/mile pace

Tempo runs are supposed to be "comfortably hard". These workouts will give my best sense of where I'm at in terms of racing goals. By the end of the training plan, my tempo runs should include 20 minutes at the stated pace. A 7:15/mile pace is about 10 seconds/mile over what I would need to run to break 22 minutes. Last time I did a tempo run (2 weeks ago), I was roughly at a 7:30/mile pace for 15 minutes, so I'm feeling good about the starting point - we'll see where it winds up.

Long Runs:
Starting object: 9:00/mile pace
Ending objective: 8:40/mile pace

My best run before my training broke down was 6 miles at about an 8:45/mile pace. I did 4.5 this morning at right at a 9:00 mile pace. This seems pretty realistic to me.

I have... (oh God!) a plan!

*with a nod to Perfect Strangers for the title inspiration*

Well, spring may not officially be here for a couple more days, but it seems to have gotten to Central PA a little early this year. Blue skies, 60 degree temperatures, and warm breezes have characterized this week, all but eradicating memories of the winter horror that was February. And with the dawning of spring comes the disappearance of my last excuse for not fully getting back into my running training, as the weather is now a reason in favor of going outside for a run, not a strike against.

My basic thought when I took up running backing in the late fall was that if I could survive the winter, I would then really evaluate what I wanted to do going forward. Well, I mostly survived the winter, and was starting to crawl back into my routine last week, so the time had come to really evaluate whether I was just going to be a very casual runner, or whether I was going to have goals and a plan. I have decided on the latter, and so here it is...

This most recent stretch has made it clear to me if I am to maintain any kind of serious training, that I need to be training FOR something. It was just too easy for me to let things go without a stated objective or deadline. So, I've decided to plan for some races, of the 5k variety. When I was sticking to my schedule, I was using this training plan. I really liked it, both in terms of the fact that it seemed appropriate challenging, and presented a good variety so it wasn't boring. I also didn't feel like I was over-training, and I stayed injury-free, which is an obvious plus. This is the plan I intend to use for the forseeable future, and it's an 8 week plan, so that puts my first race in the mid-late May timeframe. I have my eye on a race on May 15th, but I may hold off and look for something over the Memorial Day weekend. It will depend on how my first week goes and whether I think I can step right into the plan. I'm easing back in a bit this week, and early returns are positive, so we'll see.

After I complete the first race, I'll use the results to re-evaluate my fitness level and reset my training paces for another 8 week cycle, which would result in a 2nd race in the late July, early August time frame. After that, I will rinse and repeat, with the intention of running in the Falcon Fun Run at Messiah's homecoming in mid-October. After that, I may look for something in late November/early December time frame, and then slip into a more casual running routine over the winter.

As far as time goals go, it's a little hard to gauge them yet, since I haven't actually run a race. The primary goal for the first race will obviously be to finish, but I have no doubt I can do that unless I do something crazy with my early pacing. Last week I ran a mile (roughly) time-trial in about 6:25, which, according to sites that calculate such things, suggests that with proper training, I ought to be able to run a 5k in roughly 22 minutes. That seems reasonable to me based on where I was before my layoff, but we'll see. My major longer term goal is to eventually go sub 20, but that's definitely a down the road thing.

So, there's the plan. We'll see how long it lasts ;-)

Training secrets: Lessons in what NOT to do

So, I learned a few things today, some things I thought I would share with you all - some great tips for fitness training.

#1 - Lesson #1: Do not take 10 full days off from running after a couple weeks where you were already running less than your training plan.

Okay, this one is just flat out common sense, and it wasn't my intention at all. However, the weather initially knocked me off my rhythem. The last weekend of January was bitter cold, like 15 for highs, and I know some people wouldn't be deterred by that, but I'm not going to spend almost an hour out in that to run 6 miles. So, I missed my first long run. Then, the following weekend, we got 18 inches of snow, which ruled out running for that weekend. Then, we got another 18 inches of snow from Tuesday night through Wednesday. So, I was officially knocked off of my rhythm, and over a couple weeks went from running 4 or 5 times a week, to maybe 2. So, then, the combination of more weather, schedules, etc led to a 10 day hiatus.

#2 - Lesson #2: If you fail to heed lesson #1, do not resume training with speed work the first day.

Okay, this is a little less obvious, but I probably could have figured it out. After all, my last entry over a month ago documented my hatred of speedwork - what did I really expect to be like when I had allowed my fitness level to dip? And really, I was very, very close to not doing the speedwork today. However, I had really determined that I needed to get back on my schedule this week, and Mondays are speed work. I told myself it would be okay, because due to my decline and then full layoff, I had decided to reset to the beginning of my training plan, which meant I would only run 3 intervals (1/4 mile each), as opposed to the 5 I was doing before the break. Of course, I had decided to go from 1/4 mile of jogging between intervals to 1/8 of a mile, so that was probably a wash, at best, but I convinced myself otherwise.

#3 - Should you stubbornly ignore lesson #2, do not run a time at or near your personal best on your first interval.

Okay, this was a total accident. It had been a couple weeks since I ran intervals, so my sense of pacing was off. I was obviously quite well rested, so I felt very, very good. I didn't check my time at any real midpoints, and since I don't pay that much attention to any kind of mid-splits when doing intervals, I probably wouldn't have realized what it meant anyhow. When I looked down at my watch as I was getting close to the finish, I realized I was going to run my best split ever. This is not a good plan for the first interval under ideal circumstances, but really, really bad when you've been out of the game for a bit. My plan had been to run splits a good 10 seconds above (roughly 10-15% slower than) the time I was now heading for. I coasted to the finish and still ended up just above my best. Uh oh...

#4 - Upon failing to acknowledge the wisdom of lesson #4, consider modifying your plan of attack so that the 2nd interval doesn't finish on an uphill slope.

This was just an oversight on my part. My typical plan of attack on intervals has been simple - run the 1/4 of a mile out, and then jog back in. However, to cut down to 1/8 of a mile in between intervals, the plan was 1/4 mile out, quick little 1/8 mile loop, 1/4 mile back in, 1/8 mile loop, 1/4 mile back out, jog home. With the typical plan of attack, the full out run starts out going slightly down hill for maybe 1/3 of the distance, then flattens out, and when I loop back around, I'm jogging, so I don't really notice the incline that much. Let's just say I noticed it coming back this time. Had I thought things all the way through, I would have abandoned my original plan and just stuck with 1/4 mile rest in between intervals after I ran that blistered first split, but I figured, no worries, I'll just dial this one back a little. Yeah, that didn't go so well. This incline is not severe at all, I actually use it as the finishing stretch for my laps when I'm doing longer runs, and I like how it works. However, when you're running full out and already really feeling it, any incline kills.

So, having ignored all 4 of these lessons, I was left to run an absolutely horrid 3rd interval, feel like death at the end of it, and to walk most of the way home rather than jog. But, on the bright side, I did get back out there, and I learned all these valuable lessons, which I shall heed the next time... probably.

I HATE speed work!

And of course, there's only one problem with that - I want to go faster.

Okay, I may have jumped into this one a little too quickly. As you probably know if you've read this blog a time or two, I started running about 2 months ago. I started out very simply, but quickly moved to following a more formal training plan, mainly because the only way I knew how to train to run was to pick a distance and try to run it as quickly as I could without passing out, falling over, etc. Let's just say had I stuck with such a plan, my running days would have probably been over in a week or two, because I was legitimately dreading the prospect of running most days.

Of course, most training plans you'll find out there are for a race of some length, so I had to make a decision about what kind of runner I wanted to be, at least for the forseeable future. I settled on a training plan for 5k running. The middle distances really appealed to me, because I wanted a distance that would challenge me, but also one I could really go after to try and get faster at. I just don't feel like I have the temperment (mostly the patience) for very long distances, and while I've come to enjoy my longer runs in their own way, my experience to date has confirmed that. I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I complete a run of 5 or 6 miles (prior to two months ago I think the farthest I'd ever run was maybe 3.5 miles, and that was 12 years or so ago during soccer pre-season), but what really gets me going is the idea of watching my times drop over 2 or 3 miles.

There's just one problem with that - in order to run faster, you have to, well, run faster. Were I just looking to stretch out my distances, I could settle in at comfortable paces and build up my long runs appropriately from week to week. That'll only do so much for my 5k abilities, however, and so at some point I have to push if I want to get faster. I can improve my endurance all I want, but eventually I have to train my body at higher speeds to be able to better sustain them.

The training plan I'm on calls for me to do this in 2 ways. Basically, ideally I run 5 times a week. 2 of those runs are comfortable runs for distance (currently 3 and 6 miles respectively), a 3rd is a timed run at a very easy pace, which occurs the day after my long run for the week. The other 2 days are speed work days. The first form of speed work, a tempo run, isn't so bad, in fact, I still mostly enjoy it. My tempo runs start out with 5-10 minutes at a pretty comfortable pace, followed by 15-20 minutes of running "comfortably hard" - in other words, I feel like I'm really working, but at a pace that I know I can sustain without putting myself under serious distress.

Then there's the kind of work I was doing today - speed intervals. These, I hate. This is the one day on my running calendar each week that I really do not look forward to. Intervals are pretty straight forward. You pick a distance, you run really hard for that distance, then jog/walk the same distance, then repeat the process. The objective is to be able to maintain your speed from the first interval to the last, and over time to increase the number of intervals you can do. . Since I'm training like I'm going to run a 5k, my perscribed interval distance is 400m, or roughly 1/4 mile. I started out doing 3, and now I'm up to 5. These suck. Now, admittedly, the first time I tried these, this happened, so I might still have some lingering bad associations, but I'm pretty sure that's really not it. These are, in no way, comfortable. Now, as I learned quickly, these are not to be run so hard that you need to collapse at the end, the point is to be able to repeat them, but I do put myself into considerably more distress doing these than I do with any of my other workouts. By the end of the fast portion of a run, my lungs are burning and my legs are seriously wondering what exactly they've done to merit this kind of punishment. It definitely takes every bit of the slow jog back to get ready for the next one, especially as I get further into the workout. I also do this in a nearby neighborhood, about the time of day when other people are out walking, and I'm pretty sure some of those people think I'm nuts. Luckily it's not MY neighborhood, so they don't actually know who I am...

The thing about these workouts is that, after the first couple weeks, I haven't seen a lot of visible progress within the workouts themselves, at least in terms of progress that's measured by the stopwatch. That can be a little extra frustrating at the end - and yet I know that it is these, my most hated of workouts, that drive the improvements I see in my other workouts, where suddenly my "comfortable" pace is just a bit faster than it was the week before.