Well, I see I'm already behind on my commitment to have something new up at least once a week! There's a good reason for that, as the piece I'm currently working on is likely going to wind up being quite long, and is also very, very important to me - so I don't want to rush it just to meet an arbitrary deadline. The point of my system is make sure I'm working on the writing, and I am. Hopefully I'll be able to start putting it up (I'm sure it will span multiple entries like the last one) next weekend.
In the meantime, I'll fascinate you with some lighter writing, the story of my race last Saturday. I ran the Saginaw 5k along with Eli (my good friend and "coach") and my former college and post-college roommate Jeff. We gathered at my place first thing Saturday morning and headed down to Saginaw, a small town along the Susquehanna River, northeast of York. We got there in plenty of time, got our race numbers (despite a moment or two where it looked like they hadn't received or properly handled my registration), warmed up (at least to the extent that was possible on a balmy 25 degree morning) and reported to the starting line.
Our previous "scouting" of the course, which was basically limited to looking at the elevation profile for the route on MapMyRun.com and seeing the posted results from the last running of the race, indicated that it was a mostly flat, relatively fast course. This proved accurate, as there was only one noteworthy hill on the course, which you went up right away after the start, and then quickly back down. Since it was an out and back course, we would reverse the process right before the finish.
As I've previously mentioned, my biggest downfall in my prior race was going out way too fast. Part of this was prompted by the fact that I started right on the line, with all the fastest runners, whom I did NOT belong with, and the temptation to try and hang with them for a time was too great. I did not want to repeat that this time. Having scouted prior times, I expected that I would probably be towards the middle of the pack in this race, and so that is where I went. Having the hill staring me right in the face probably also made it easier to keep my early pace in check. Whatever caused it, I did not go out too fast this time.
In fact, I was initially convinced I had gone out too slow, which is why I was not pleased with how quickly discomfort had set in. This mental struggle was exasperated by the fact that I was expecting the course to have mile markers, when it fact, it did not. When 7:30, 8:00, etc came and went on my watch and I still hadn't seen a mile marker, despite definitely feeling like I was pushing myself, I started to be convinced that this wasn't going to be my day. I eventually saw a sign coming up as my watch got near to 8:45, and I was thinking that was a mile marker - "Are you kidding me?" Fortunately, it wasn't a mile marker, and shortly after that, the race leaders came by me going the other way. Knowing the times I was expecting them to run, I knew that I had to be much further along than a mile, and that I really shouldn't be that far from the turnaround.
As it so happened, I got to the turnaround in under 12 minutes. I wasn't on pace with the kind of performance I was hoping to have, but I still had plenty of room to set my PR. That left me in a much better mood as I came back. The only real mistake I made on the way back was due to, once again, not being quite sure where I was at due no mile markers - I started to put on a finishing kick with probably 3/4 of a mile to go, and I really didn't have more than a 1/2 mile in me at that pace, especially with the big hill coming right before the finish. As such, I ended up slowing again before charing up the final hill. As I crested the final hill and saw the finish clock, it was just under 24 minutes, meaning I had plenty of time to get in under my PR. I thought the clock said 24:02 when I crossed, my official time was 24:05. Because I had started deep in the pack, I'm pretty sure that I crossed the start line a good 5-10 seconds after the official start of the race, so it's more likely that I actually came in just under 24 minutes. But by any measure, I bested my PR by at least 22 seconds.
My goals coming in had been as such: I absolutely wanted to set a PR. I was convinced I had a legitimate shot at taking at least a minute off my PR, and an outside shot at breaking 23 minutes. So, I had only broken my base goal, but I had done it fairly handily. That being said, my old PR came on what, in my opinion was a tougher course. The course in Harrisburg last May had 2 hills (ramps coming up from along the water front) that were longer and probably steeper than the hill at the start/finish of this race, and we ran into a stiff 15-20 MPH headwind for a mile or so. So, in terms of performance, I consider the Harrisburg one to be equivalent to the Saginaw effort. When you factor in that I ran a terrible race back in May, the results suggest that I might not yet be back to the level of fitness I had for that race.
Regardless, it's clear that I can't expect to get better at racing without... racing. It had been 7 months since I ran any kind of race, and 8 since I ran a race with intent of setting a time. In the meantime, I hadn't gone more than 2.25 miles at anything faster than long run pace, and you really just can't learn how your body works in a race without the experience.
So, I've made sure to map out a race plan to get me through to the summer. At this point, I am targeting my next race to be on March 6, most likely the "Shiver by the River" in Reading. After that, I plan to do the 5k run at the Race, Run, Ride & Ramble in Shippensburg on April 17th. On May 1, I'm doing the Broad Street 10 mile run in Philly, along with Eli and some other friends from church. I'm not really planning to "race" that one for a real time, just doing it more for the experience - my only "goal" will be to go under 90 minutes, and by that time, I should be running my long training runs at that pace anyhow. I will do another 5k in May. Ideally, I'd like to do the Armed Forces 5k again, so I can see exactly how I've progressed in a year, but I may have a conflict with that date, if they even have it - I can't find any info on it yet. Regardless, there will be plenty of options for a mid-May 5k. If the real summer heat holds off for a bit, I'll run another in mid-June before taking July and August as my offseason.
In addition to plotting a race plan to make sure I get plenty of experience, I'm also making some modifications to my training schedule. My mile times and the times I've been running in my 400 intervals suggest that I already have the speed to go much faster - which means my problem is stamina. So, I'm replacing the mile time trial workouts (in the middle of longer, easy runs) I was doing every other Monday with longer tempo runs, to go along with the shorter "race rehearsals" I was doing on the other Mondays. I'm also changing my interval workouts from 400s to mostly 1200s and 800s - at slower speeds, but still under planned race pace. Putting in these longer workouts at faster speeds should prepare me better, both mentally and physically, for racing.
So, I've got a plan - we'll just see how well I can execute it over the next 4 months or so...
9 months ago
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