Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

Morning:  5 easy miles on the treadmill

Afternoon:  Coach J exercises, core, and lifts

Decided my body needed a break today and so I skipped my evening run.  I probably would have run, but Jen didn't get home until late, which left me a small window to get a solid run and then get to bed early enough to get my 8 hours of sleep.  I've become afraid to push the stroller w/Jameson now that he weighs 40 lbs!  The stroller really messes with the stride.  I can't afford to mess with my stride due to all the nick knack sore spots I have right now.   

Afternoon:  Core

Evening:  6 miles easy running through 3-5" of snow

Afternoon:  22 miles on country roads battling a 15 mph N wind and rolling hills.  Ran the last 8 at an up tempo pace (not quite mp pace, but not easy pace either).  The last 8 were all into the wind or fighting with a cross wind & lots of hills: 6:25, 6:53, 6:45, 6:50, 6:34, 6:35, 6:36, 6:37.  Avg. Run pace 7:07

I'm praying don't get the 24 hr. flu my wife just went through.  Trying to keep my hands away from my eyes and I'm washing 24/7.

Night:  4.5 on the treadmill

Afternoon:  7.5 miles Star School to Glacial River Trail

AM:  6.44 miles very very easy

Afternoon:  Lifts

PM:  8.2 miles easy + 3 hill sprints 

Afternoon:  Coach J Exercises

Evening:  14 miles (7:53 avg) w/ 8x200m /200m float recovery {40.0, 40.7, 40.0, 38.4, 39.1, 37.9, 37.5, 37.1} Temps 65!

AM:  7.15 miles (8:31 pace), Temps @ 5:30 51!

Afternoon:  Strength Training

PM:  6.73 miles w/last 4 pushing the stroller (7:51 pace) Temps 58 - the past 2 days have been record highs

Afternoon:  3.1 miles no watch

Evening:  2 miles then  4x10 sec. hill sprints, grabbed the stroller and ran out to Jameson's daycare then ran another couple of miles to finish with 7.24 miles (7:45 pace)

I decided to take this week easy in terms of intensity since I'm up around my current danger zone of volume leading to injury.  I also have had a lot of sore spots that don't seem to be getting better.  Hopefully, the strides and hill sprints will be enough to maintain the neuromuscular coordination. 

Morning:  4.96 miles pushing Jameson out to day care and back to school w/out the stroller - cold North wind today!

Afternoon:  Coach J Exercises + leg lifts + core exercises

Evening:  9.09 miles around Fort (7:41 pace)

Morning:  23.5 miles - 8.5 miles w/ Chris on Blue trail to Ice Age Trail out and back.  Took some water and went out for another 9 miles on the rest of the blue trail alone.   After 16 miles of single and double track trail running the quads were beat up for my tempo on the road.  Started the tempo into the wind with a 6:36 at the 1/2 way point I made the turn at the bike shop and got a nice boost running with the wind to split a 6:06.  I was feeling great so, I put the pedal down for a 5:36 last mile all with the wind on slightly rolling roads.  Finished up with a coolddown on the purple nordic trail + 4 hard striders.  The trails were just starting to get muddy toward the end of the run, otherwise just some ice in shaded areas that I was able to navigate around.

It was really nice to have a running partner and I really enjoyed the trails. Last time I ran those trails was with Andrea from the blog.

Evening:  2.70 customary long run day shakeout  

Evening:  9.38 miles East River Rd loop (7:24) pace on a nice 60 degree evening.  I'm looking forward to more weather like tonight!  Feeling really good today considering how many miles I ran yesterday at the end of the a 100 mile week.  The low intensity week did a lot of good for my body and mind.

AM:  6 miles (7:57) on a nice 53 degree morning.

Afternoon:  Lifts

Evening:  8 miles + 5 10 sec. hill sprints

Afternoon:  Coach J Exercises

Evening:  13.96 miles w/6x400 cut downs 1:25,1:24,1:22,1:21,1:21,1:18.  These felt easy, but the legs were really flat today. 

AM:  5.2 miles out to Jameson's daycare and back to school

Afternoon:  Lifts & Core

Evening:  9.7 miles out to pickup Jameson at daycare and back home - temps hit 79 today!  Unbelievable - normal high is 40 this time of the year, most of the time it's in the 30's with snow.  It's going to be in the 70's through next week!  I picked the perfect year to train for Boston.

Afternoon:  Coach J Exercises, Lifts, Core

Evening: 2 mile warm-up run over to middle school track, then ran 6x200m cut downs going [37.1, 37.6, 34.6, 33.8, 31.5, 29.8].  I felt like I could have run these quite a bit faster, but that wasn't the idea.  Just working on neuromuscular coordination and trying not to over do it for my 5K/10K double this weekend.  Ran 2 miles home dropped off the flats and grabbed a drink of water.  Then off to Jameson's daycare and back for 10.76 miles.

Morning:  5.2 out to daycare and back to school - very nice morning

Afternoon:  Med ball work, Coach J

Evening:  6.01 out to daycare and back home - nice 75 degree day :-)

Big day tomorrow 5K/10K race double - hopefully my body will hold up to the abuse!

5K Report

This was my 1^st ever attempt at a 5K/10K double and I must say it was actually a lot of fun!  Temps were in the mid 60’s, absolutely unbelievable for March in WI.  So conditions were what I would consider perfect for this time of the year.

 The course was very hilly and we had a tough wind to run against up the hills, which made both races challenging.  The 5K is a loop course that climbs a large long hill into the wind 1 time and the 10K does the 5K loop twice.  The rest of this course is slight ups and downs.  We either had the wind with us or against us in both races.  The hill really wasn’t much of a factor because we ran down it an equal amount of times as we went up it with the loop format of this race.  I really like the loop format, it gives you a lot of crowd support, it’s good for spectators, and it psychologically feels easier to me.  I’m not sure why?  The course on the 5K and 10K both had an inner shorter loop and a longer outer loop.

5K Course profile: 

10K Course profile:

The 5K started at 9 am and the 10K was suppose to start at 9:30, but the race director planned the 5K to loop through the 10K start and so of course not all the 5K runners finished in less than 30 minutes.  We actually started the race at 9:50 as we all waited for all the 5K runners to cross through the start.  I didn’t mind the extra rest timeJ. 

My day started off a little hectic because I woke up late.  I packed last night so, I wouldn’t have to worry about finding everything in the morning.  Good thing I did or I probably would have missed the start of the 5K.  In the process I forgot to grab my Garmin off the charger, so this race report won’t include splits.  I’m kind of glad I didn’t have a watch because it allowed me to run by feel, it was a very free feeling and probably kept me more relaxed through all the hills and wind.  I managed to get in a .5 mile warm-up with the short amound of time. 

My goal was top 5 in both races and at least a PR in the 5K and a strong effort in the 10K with whatever I had left in the tank. 

The 5K started off with a group of 5.  I was feeling very relaxed sitting in 5^th running off everyone’s energy.  I was trying to conserve every ounce of my own energy in this 1^st race.  The 1^st mile does a small loop and then heads back through the start/finish area and past it for another loop in the opposite direction against the wind.  The 1^st mile was equal wind against/with and about equally up and down.  It was the fastest split I’ve run in any race in my post collegiate running.  In fact I’ve never even run a 5:10 mile in a workout post collegiately. 

The 2^nd mile our pack began to break up and I moved into 3^rd place about a second back from the leader.  The 2^nd mile goes with the wind down a big hill that takes us past the turnaround of the inner loop.  Down the hill with the wind felt great ;-) !!  I have no idea what this split was, but if I had to guess it was faster than the 1^st mile.  The course has a short section of flat at the bottom of the big hill then turns back into the wind to climb the big hill.  Into the wind up the big hill was quite a workout.  I focused on staying strong, but relaxed as I climbed what seemed forever…  At the top of the hill I was in 3^rd right on 2^nd place.  I felt pretty gassed in the lungs, but found my legs were really strong (got to love that marathon strength).  The 1^st place runner gapped us on the hill by about 8-10 seconds.

The 3^rd mile was slightly up hill into the wind and 2^nd place put a strong surge in with .75 miles to go.  I responded, but couldn’t shift into that next gear to stay with him.  I finished with what I would consider a 6 out of 10 kick in 16:22 – a 30 second post collegiate PR!  It was the 1^st 5K I’ve officially raced since I started running again in 2010.  The only thing I could base it off of was my split from the Literacy Network 10K last fall.  Hard to believe I hadn’t run any other 5K’s.  I need to run more of these; it was a lot of fun to run fast!!

I rate this race as 8 out of 10.  I simply lacked the strength to shift into that finishing gear I know I’m capable of.  I think it’s more of a mental thing than physical thing, which is better than the other way around in my opinion.  My avg. pace was 5:17 according to the final results.  To run that fast on marathon legs on that course is a BIG jump in fitness for me.  Best of goal #1 accomplished!

I went inside to change bibs, grab a water and chow on some snacks.  Lucky for me they had my favorite candy – Snickers!  I had two mini Snickers and went back outside to cheer on the other finishers.  I did a little stretching, but mainly just kept walking and doing some light jogging along the course.  My legs felt fully recovered after about 10 minutes and the extra rest time wasn’t really needed, but it probably did help a little with the water and food intake I was able to gulp down between races a little more slowly than I would otherwise had without time delay. 

On to the 10K for more punishing fun! 

 10K report below

They managed to squeeze the 10K start between some of the finishers in the 5K and the leader took the pace out fast leaving me leading a chase pack of 2 others.  Again going with the wind was nice ;-)  The 10K inner loop was a little longer than the 5K loop, which through me for a little surprise.  We actually ran ½ way down the big hill and had to do a 180 degree knee knocking turn.  Back into the wind we climbed.  With no watch I just kept my eyes on the leader.  He had about a 10-15 sec. lead through mile 1.

After looping through the start/finish to lots of nice cheers we did another 180 degree turn about a ½ mile in the opposite direction of where we came from (rest of the course was just like the 5K x 2).  Before the Big hill there is a medium size hill that gets the legs burning and on that hill the two guys behind me pulled in front of me, but I was able to respond with their increase of pace.

When we hit the Big downhill I let the legs open up and gapped the two other runners a good 5-10 seconds based on cheers from the crowd.  I actually pulled up about 5 seconds behind the leader who looked to be struggling. 

I made another 180 degree turn back into the wind.  When we made the turn I think the leader was really surprised to see me right there!  He made a significant surge on the flat leading up to the big hill climb.  I should have gone with him, but I starting to feel dizzy I hurled up my Snickers.  My concentration was clearly broken for a good ½ mile.  I stayed strong on the long hill climb into the wind.  My thoughts were #1 I’m never eating Snickers before or during a race again and #2 this hill is no fun the 3^rd time around.

As came to the top of the hill (which is about the mile 3 marker), I was still disoriented.  I think it was motion sickness, but I’m no doctor.  My pace must have slowed down quite a bit because the 2 guys caught me as we came through the start/finish area and the leader now had a good solid lead of 20-30 seconds. 

Mile 4 I grabbed a cup of water thinking I maybe I was dizzy due to dehydration, although in the back of my mind I knew that wasn’t the case.  It did serve good for washing out my vomit mouth – ick!  As we made the 180 degree turn to do 1 more outer loop one of the two behind me pulled up behind me.  We were now running with the wind and for whatever reason I started to feel better.

I continued to lead through mile 4 up the medium hill and down the Big Hill.  I actually opened another small gap on the Big Hill, but it was short lived as my competition (Kyle) surged to catch me at the last 180 degree turn.  I took a quick peak to see where what would be 4^th place was and he was a good 15 seconds back.  I knew I was strong enough to finish in 3^rd place with a little over a mile to go, but I had the challenging Big Hill into the wind to contend with for one last time for the day. 

Kyle and I ran neck to neck up the hill and I could tell he was struggling.  I felt very controlled up the hill and I was breathing less hard than Kyle, but I was really feeling it in my legs this time around!  When we hit the top of the hill we both made a move.  We had about ¾ of a mile with the medium downhill and then slightly up hill into the staging area.  We flew down the medium hill at a fast clip and I knew when we hit the bottom of the hill Kyle was going to make a move.

Kyle made the move I predicted and I went with him for about a .25 mile, but I just couldn’t hang with his close as he got me by about 7 seconds with the leader finishing about 40 seconds ahead, Kyle 2^nd, and myself in at 3^rd for a 35:12 – a 10 second PR. 

I was really happy with the two 3rd place race finishes and ecstatic about the 2 PR’s off of virtually no taper in mileage this week!   Plus I accomplished goal #2 and met a new runner that I’ll see in Boston.  I rate this race a 8 out of 10.  I'm just lacking that it factor at the end, but I'm making leaps in fitness as I climb out of my 9 year hibernation from running. 

Kyle ran for the Badgers about 10 years ago, which would put him close to my age.  He was a 5-6 man for the Badgers CC team back in his best years.  He’s run Boston 6 times with his best last year in 2:37 on that monster tail wind.  He says it took him 6 years to figure out to run Boston with is worst a 3:12 and numerous others in the 2:40’s even running a 2:47 on an injured foot from training.  His strategy is to jog the 1^st mile – it’s his slowest mile (about 5-10 seconds off of normal pace, but with the downhill he says it feels like a jog).  He says the rest of the race is marathon pace or a little slower always error on the slow side to conserve energy for the hills.  He says it also helps to keep the quads from getting beat up.  I would imagine he and I will be about the same pace, so I might employ a similar type of strategy.

The race was well organized.  Other than the debacle of having the 5K loop through the 10K start.  My hardware for the effort is two matching dinner plates as trophies. 

Finished with what I think was a 7 mile cool down based on the clock I saw in the lobby?

Evening:  4.5 miles w/Jameson in town route - perfect temps and calm winds.

Evening:  9.7 miles on the single track Ice Age Trail with Chris.  It was hot and sticky outside, but I managed to do well over the twisty hills.  Lots of ups and downs.  I can tell the quads and upper hamstrings are sore from the racing yesterday.  I imagine they'll be in rough shape tomorrow too.

AM:  7.06 miles on Glacial River Trail.  I wanted to run on some flat stuff, the hills these past couple of days have really taken a toll on my quads.  Hopefully, they'll be tough enough for Boston.  This week will be focused on easy recovery running with some fast strides.  I'll try to keep the volume up though.  I'm hopeful I'll bounce back from this double to run a really fast 8K and earn a 3rd PR for the week.

Afternoon:  Core & Lifts

Morning:  7 miles in Seabring Florida, beautiful weather Temp 65 mild humidity (7:49 pace)

Afternoon:  18 holes of golf riding a cart with Dad

Evening:  8 miles nice temps mild humidity (7:32 pace) + Core

AM:  14.13 miles progression run.  Last 2 6:37, 6:15 (Avg 7:37).  Hot and humid this morning.

Afternoon:  Fishing for bass - caught nothing, but had a great time with Dad.

Evening:  More golfing :-)

Morning:  4 miles by the orange orchards.

Afternoon: 18 holes golf riding a cart with Dad. 

Evening: 9.5 mile progression run (8:36, 7:53, 7:34, 7:24, 7:12, 7:06, 6:56, 6:41, 6:30 last .5 6:48) One thing about Florida is it's flat as a pancake and that makes these progression runs considerably easier. There are also a lot of dirt roads around the orange orchards so it's a lot easier on the legs.  Heading home tomorrow and then off to Chicago with the family for the race.  Should be a fun weekend.

Morning:  6 miles on dirt roads around the orange orchards.  Nice temps.   

Morning:  6 miles w/4x200 (36, 36, 33, 33)

Morning:  4.2 slow miles - ate too much for breakfast.  I was really worried about the state of my gut.  However, I woke up early enough where the food didn't have an effect on the race. 

We drove into Chicago just barely making the expo to pick up my packet at Navy Pier.  It was a very nice expo, lots of vendors, and lots of free stuff (like free training singles).  After the expo we drove over to the Congress Hotel which is right across from Grant Park where the race starts and finishes.  The Congress set us up with reservations at Chicago's premier Italian Steakhouse.  Jen and I both rated Italian Village a 10 out 10 for service and taste!

I woke up to perfect temps of 58-62 degrees with little to no wind and sunny skies.  I figured the winner would be running low 23's today.  The field was stacked.  Abdi Abdaramm was present along with many other fine elites.  Plus the BoA does a Club Elite race where the winning team takes home 20 grand, so the field was very stacked.  The Club Elites had their own tent and bathrooms.  I unfortunately, had to use a tree in the open like the other 150 elite runners.  It's very odd to see a bunch of grown men defecating on almost every tree in sight. 

They announced the race to be the largest ever assembled field for an 8K in the world topping something like 35,000 runners. 

The course is pancake flat with a few bridge rises over some of the waterways.  Otherwise, the only factor is the winds gps confusing buildings and swirling winds.  The winds were very mild in terms of Chicago winds.  They don't call it the Windy City for nothing.  Because the buildings mess with the gps my avg. split pace was all out of whack the whole race.  I think my watch figured it all out around mile 4, but I'm not certain.  Nonetheless, I'll go by what the Garmin gave me for splits when recapping the race.

The race stated at 8:30 sharp for wave 1.  Since I was in wave one with the elites my time would be gun time, so I started right next to Abdi and the rest of the best runners in the world.  I figured so what if my first .1 is a little faster than I wanted.  Plus the start was almost 5 lanes in width, which pretty much gave plenty of room for everyone to get a clean start.

My first mile felt like I was running an all out 200 meter dash and my breathing was very labored, but I told myself KEEP THE PEDAL DOWN, DON'T LOOSE FOCUS MID RACE, YOUR ENDURANCE WILL MAINTAIN YOUR SPEED, KEEP THE WEIGHT FORWARD, KEEP THE SHOULDERS RELAXED.  I pretty much had one or all of those thoughts going throughout the race.  My goal was to finish with a super hard kick and hopefully find myself in the 26's.  The mile split on the Garmin shows 5:02 only 12 seconds off my post collegiate PR mile Pr.  I actually never looked at my 1st mile split because I decided not to look at the watch knowing it would be much faster than I really wanted.

My 2nd mile split was crazy low for me and I still don't believe is accurate, but it was slightly downhill for a 4:48.  Yet, a lot of runners were still pulling away from me.  I was really  redlining it here.

My 3rd mile is way off for a split of 4:18 - Yeah right!  It started to thin out a little in this mile, but I always had 2 or 3 other runners around me.  The 4th place female came up alongside me and she and I were battling it out for a good 1/2 mile before I finally put a strong press on her.  From about 3.75 miles in I would only be passed by 1 runner as I hunted down victims of the fast early pace.

My 4th mile was a hard mile!  I was focusing on passing as many people as I could hunt down.  It was really a lot of fun, each person I passed gave me more fuel for the fire.  Again I believe this split is off - going 4:58.  I remember my legs burned really bad through this mile.  The crowd was so loud, people were really into the race.  The spectators were awesome, except for the unfortunate event that happened in the 5th mile. 

My 5th mile came by the Congress Hotel were Jen had missed me come by because another elite runner seconds ahead of me was cut off by a spectator sending him crashing into the curb as they tangled legs.  He got up limping and had to stop apparently because his hip was either broken, out of place, or both.  Race staff quickly swarmed the area and put up barricades, but the damage was already done.  I must admit the BoA did an amazing job running this race, extremely well organized 10 out of 10 in my opinion, but even with all the barricades there is no way to control the size of the crowd.  The course was wall to wall spectators with a predicted amount of 60+ thousand watching the race.

This last mile I really focused on increasing the effort and I just let the legs fly.  My breathing was extremely heavy and the legs burned more than I've felt in 10 years.  Not since my college days have I felt such a burn.  We had to climb a bridge overpass and then turn toward the finish.  My Garmin read 5:21 - off again.  The last .36 reads 5:01.  I rate my kick an 8.75 out of 10, not quite to my standards yet.  I'm making improvements though.  I did pass 1 or 2 in that final 300 meter stretch.  My final time on the Garmin reads 26:15 and gun time was 26:18.  Nonetheless, it was my 3rd PR in 8 days and it was a MONSTER PR (2:42).  The time actually ties one of my best times from my sophomore year in college.  Last year I was running college freshman year times, this year I'm running college sophomore times.

The race effort was everything I could give.  It was my best effort and I have no doubts about it, which is a great feeling!  Now I have one big tempo workout and some smaller marathon pace workouts to fine tune the legs.

For anyone looking for an awesome race the BoA will not disappoint.  It has to be one of the best road races in the world.  

Cool down  8.3 along Lake Michigan at a good clip for the last 5 miles all under 7 min miles down to 6:30 per mile.  It's amazing how easy 6:30 feels after running that kind of race.

Spent the rest of the day with Jen and Jameson touring the city.  We visited the Science and Industry Museum, which was absolutely awesome!

I decided to take the morning off from running today to make sure I let the legs heal up from the race yesterday. 

Afternoon:  Core + Strength Exercises

Evening:  10.19 miles around Fort with the majority of miles (after warming up the legs) around or under 7 min. pace.

Evening:  14.05 miles looping around in the country on the way out to pick up Jameson from daycare and back home.  Met up with Jen on her run leaving her to push Jameson so I could finish up my run.  7:33 average pace on a very windy day.  I was kind of dragging today, probably due to the race.  Although, I'm not sore so maybe it was the lack of sleep last night.  My graduate program is kicking my ass right now.  My blogging time has seriously been hurt by my studies - bummer.

Coach J Exercises and Core

Morning:  5.19 miles easy around Fort.  I must have running on the brain because I totally forgot about my staff meeting this morning.  My principal wasn't too pleased, but I got a free pass since I'm involved in so many after school committees and activities.

Afternoon:  Core + Lifts

Evening:  9 miles out Hwy M and back - Added 2 hard down hill surges 

Afternoon:  4.5 miles w/4 hard hill sprints

Evening:  8.21 miles w/2.81 @ marathon pace doing a mile down w/100 m easy float pace between.  [1600m -5:58, 1200m- 4:26, 800m- 2:57, 400m- 1:27, 300m- 1:05, 200m- 42].  The goal today was to get a feel for goal marathon pace.  I'm not expecting to run even splits at Boston, but I want to get a good feel for what the effort feels like.  I did this on the track to help dial in the pace, it was windy and I did it in my trainers yet the pace felt what I would consider comfortable.  I also didn't want to do anything that would tax me too much.  I'm saving BIG effort for my 20 mile w/10 mile tempo this weekend.  Avg. Run pace 6:49  Finished with coach J exercises & core.  Trying desperately to hold back my excitement about Boston!

Evening:  No am run due to conflict with daycare and no afternoon run due to staff development, so that left with me just my evening run of 8.23 miles around Fort.

Morning:  Lots of fun today!  Ran with about 10 other teachers from Fort on the Glacial Drumlin Trail in Lake Mills.  It was really nice to have the company for a change.  Something I almost never have on my runs.  I'd say about 99% of my training and easy runs are alone.   One of the teachers is a UW-Whitewater Alum whom I ran with my freshman year at Whitewater before I transfered to Hamline.  I hadn't run with him for a good 10 years, so that was fun to catch up.  I know we are all planning to do more of these group runs, so I'm really looking forward to getting to know more of the runners. 

After 8 miles with the group I quickly changed into my Saucony Fasttwitch and continued up the trail another 2 miles where it goes out onto country roads for about a mile.  I decided that I would stick to the rolling hwy roads to simulate Boston on my 10 mile MP tempo rather than connect up with the flat gravel trail again.  The hwy I ran on was as close to a simulation as I could to the middle miles at Boston, slightly rolling and open to the winds, where I'll try to lock into my MP. 

Tempo miles went 6:14.4 (little slow), 5:52.5, 5:54.8, 5:58.6, 5:56.9, 5:59.9, 5:59.3, 5:49.6, 5:47.7, 5:21.3 = Avg. 5:53.5 tempo pace Avg run pace 6:55  I had a 8-10 mph wind either in my face or across me for 9 out of 10 miles, which I planned on purpose in case I meet that kind of weather in Boston.  All of the miles felt comfortable in terms of effort.  My right achilles struggled with the Fasttwitch shoes though.  I didn't experience any pain, but it got really tight.  I didn't use the heel lift today in an effort to see how it would do, but I'm thinking I may have to use the lift for it to survive the hills and longer distance at Boston. 

I felt like I could have easily extended this another 4 miles and I finished strong, which is a very good sign.  On a side note I also crushed my 10 mile race PR of 1:02 from last April running a 58:59 today.

The last BIG workout is done, now it's just taper and pace work with maybe a low key 5K next weekend.  Can you tell I'm excited?  You'd think I just wrote a race report :-)