Jun 25 2012

Another day, more wind, shorter run

I really had no plans on running tonight. I kind of wanted to, but Active.com said it was a rest day and who am I to argue with a rest day? Well, I really wanted to get out of the funk from my long run on Saturday and what better way to think about your issues than to do it on a nice 5k run, right? That and I am traveling tomorrow for work, so likely not going to get a run in…two birds, right?

I thought about doing 45 minutes and then I remembered I just ran 9 miles two days ago. I settled on the 5k mainly to get some faster run in and because it was after 8 pm when I started, and the sun was not in my favor.

The weather was decent, around 68 degrees but with about a 10-15 mph breeze (yes its a breeze in Wyoming until around 30 mph) which was a head wind around 0.7 – 1.6 miles and a tail wind pretty much all the way back. As always, the wind slowed a bit towards the end (calm happens at night, early morning here).

This my standard route, but I threw myself a curve ball with the play list. Instead of my normal Running list, I tried to shuffle that, only instead of shuffle my entire library. This had me hitting next a lot during the run but was different running to new music. Out of the 28 minutes, only one song came in from my standard running playlist.

My pace chart doesn’t look that bad and you can really tell the wind impact (in my opinion) as the pace dropped a full 30 plus seconds and I know my effort was the same. Windy sure does suck when you are a bit over 6’2″, we are like a fridge going down the road.

My splits were pretty decent, given I was coming off a long ass run (farthest run of my life) and lack of any real motivation, plus being late in the day. Having the 3rd mile be only 2 seconds off the 2nd tells me that my legs are strong, just not 9+ miles strong.

LEARNING

I think what I take away from this is that the training program is working, I am getting stronger, just maybe not as strong as I would want to be and not at the right levels. So I am not going to scrap the concept of my current plan, just maybe back off the long Saturday runs a notch or two as there is no real reason to get to nearly 2 hours this week, given I am months away from my half.

I will have to play it by ear, as I will be traveling for Family this week, heading home to Iowa (less than 1,000 feet, Oxygen Baby!!!!) so when I do set off on Sunday morning for my long run (traveling Saturday), I won’t really have a time in mind, more of a hope. Plus that is the day of my Family Reunion, and will need the energy to run away if necessary.

Almost two weeks upcoming at near sea level, what is this high altitude runner to do…but suck up some O2!!!

About these ads

Jun 25 2012

Debating, planning, doubting

As I laid out on my floor after my run on Saturday, I seriously was asking myself why?

Why was I running a half marathon? That one is easy, because I can and feel it is a great and worthy challenge for me.

Why did my legs feel like rubber? That too easy, I had just finished a 9 plus mile run.

Why was I running so far, so soon? This I couldn’t answer, so I went to the web…more on that later.

Saturday Run

I hadn’t run in about 4 days, so I was a bit nervous going into the run, however given how I felt the previous week, just felt I could cruise some miles in and make it without really breaking a sweat…HA! Note to self, follow the program, even if you don’t agree…more on that later.

From my active.com calendar

Beginner 1/2 Marathon Program – Day 20

Your long runs are meant to be conversational, unless a specific workout is prescribed. The effort is the same as on an easy day.

Instructions

On a hilly course perform a 1 hour 35 minute easy run.

This was an increase of 20 minutes from the week prior. I didn’t really pay much attention to the time of the increase, merely that it was a LONG TIME.

The weather was ideal taking off, around 55 degrees, not a breath of air. I tried to go slower out the gate this time and decided to use all of the feedback on my iPhone Nike + running app, which had received a new update…more on that later. I also wore my Nike + GPS Watch, so I could actually see what my pace was as well, given that I can see anything closer than my finger tips without my glasses.

The run out was uneventful, minus the grommet holding my earbud in falling off. The wind was picking up around mile 3, to about a 10 MPH headwind, but I knew I was about 10-15 minutes from this turning around in my favor.

GU TIME

For the first time, I actually packed a GU. I have dreaded the thought of eating one of these, having only ever tried one once on a 50 mile bike ride over 10 years ago. The texture was the same, but the flavor was much better than long ago, plus it had caffeine. BONUS!

I didn’t know if I could run and eat, so I paused, ate, washed down and took off again at the 47 minute point in the run.

RETURN

At this point in the run I realized two things.

I didn’t have enough water
That 4.5 miles back home was a long way

The water was really a concern, as it was much hotter by this time and the sun on my front with no head wind to cool me, which was a tail wind, but just noticeable over the pace I was running. Did I need to call my wife for more water, or just pace myself? I figured I would get as close as possible and figure all of that out up ahead. I simply tried to keep my pace at a point so I could finish my run.

I don’t know what happened on the big dip in the middle there, but I know I paused while eating, so I am thinking it was a GPS issue. The two dips are actually where I simply had to walk.

I always notice two things when my pace slows below 10’00″ and that is my hips and calves both disagree with that speed. Call it stride length or just 225 pounds hitting joints, but my body doesn’t like running that slowly for that long.

The walks were my attempt to get the legs to calm down a bit and to cool off. I was wearing my dry fit hat and it felt good to take off a few times to get some air on the head.

When I got the 5 minutes to go notice in the iPhone, it stated I was at 8.66 miles. My brain wanted 9 miles, but my body was not really helping with that plan, however I pushed the last 5 minutes and tried to get to that point.

When I got done I was tired, thirsty and definitely out of energy. I learned two key things.

More water on longer runs
225 pound people need more energy

I had gauged my GU consumption from other people’s running experiences, however I forgot to consider their size compared to mine. I now plan on consuming one GU per 30-40 minutes versus 45-60 minutes.

Water has always been something I can’t figure out. On some runs, I drink half of my bottle, which is 16 oz. Others I drink it all and wonder why. Since this was my second run at a distance over 60 minutes, I should have figured I needed more, but don’t really have a way to accommodate that.

These are the new split views from the iPhone app. I like that you can actually see these on the phone now and what I was shocked by was that with my brief walks in my 7 and mile 8, my pace really didn’t drop all that much.

This is also the new screen shot from the iPhone application and I love that it is laid out much cleaner and more data at the touch. It even now tracks your shoes’ mileages, which is handy for those who can actually get 400 plus miles on a pair.

SUMMARY

When I sat down yesterday evening to recap my run and where I am at in the whole scheme of things, I realized I was pushing a bit too hard for my capabilities and recommendations of others.

at marathontraining.com, the writer has one rule for mileage buildup, easily referred to as the 10 percent rule.

The Ten Percent Rule

Do not increase either your (1) weekly mileage and/or (2) long run mileage by more than 10 percent a week. Doing so greatly increases the chances of incurring an injury, thereby delaying or stopping your training all together. Refer to How to Avoid Injury section for additional information

So why had my training program just shot me from 60 minutes 6.4 miles, 75 minutes at 7.4 miles and 95 minutes at 9.07 miles? While the miles are of my own doing, I was increasing at over 20% in time, which was in direct contradiction to what the other training stated. Per its mileage buildup, at the end of week three I should be running 5 miles, not 9. That wasn’t to happen until week 14, almost three months from now.

So I am going to be ratcheting down a bit on the miles as I am many weeks away from my currently planned race anyway and don’t want to burn out or worse get injured. How I do this is still up in the air today, but I know I won’t be doing the 1 hr 50 min run planned for this weekend.

My only goal then will be to get at least 6 miles in and to find a larger water supply that I can haul around.

Jun 19 2012

long runs and windy days

So the last week since I posted last has been a busy one. My little baby boy turned 4 and we had a fun little party and work has been crazy busy, trying to build out 4g networks across the Rocky Mountains. Running has been progressing as well, which I am both excited about and terrified of what I got myself into, trying to run a half marathon.

So last Saturday was my long run, which I put off the week prior. Not knowing, but I guess I am stacking these two together week after week, so this past week it was 75 minutes, this upcoming week 95 minutes. I guess I was supposed to do these every other week, but my fault…I took a week off to recover from traveling, therefore I must be punished…Ha!

Saturday

So the run of 75 minutes was the morning of my sons birthday party. My wife called me crazy due to all of the other work I had to do around the yard for the party, but a training regimen is a training regimen, right?

My goal setting out was to get something close to 7 plus miles. I had no idea of how far I could go, given that my last long run was at sea level and two weeks prior. I set out pretty easy and the weather was perfect. It was sunny, clear and about 65 degrees with not a hint of a breeze. At around 1 mile, a puddle had formed at the base of a field and it was like glass.

To make sure I didn’t focus too much on pace, speed or times, I shut off the feedback on my iPhone Nike+ app. This would make me guess how my time was going as it related to distance, since all I cared about was minutes, not miles. I had no ambitions to beat my time in D.C. as I had 15 more minutes to run and I was 6,500 feet higher.

As you can see from the pace, it dropped off pretty evenly, even up and down the hills. It wasn’t until I got to mile 4 did it cross the 10’00” pace and I really don’t care. Again, I was doing a time based run and while I wanted to break 7 miles, if I didn’t and still got to 75 minutes, C’est la vie.

When I look at my splits, I was pretty impressed that the times from 5-7 didn’t really fall off that much. While they are the barn burning pace that I see other people logging, lets see them haul 225 pounds around at this pace.

So the run was pretty much a success in my mind. Once I got home and saw that I had run almost a full mile farther than my 60 minute run, I was pretty damn excited. Thrilled. Pumped. 7.41 miles at an average pace of 10’07”, not too shabby.

Then the yard work happened and I had to move picnic tables and mow and set up the bounce house. Sigh. I was done by the end of the day.

Tuesday

Tonight was an easy 45 minute run, with some extra effort for 800 yards 3 times…yet Wyoming was not on my side. When I got home the winds were averaging 34 mph, but I was resolved to run. So what, I might have a head wind heading out, but think of that tail wind, right?

So when I took off, I was in the neighborhood and the wind was blocked by the houses for the most part. I turned down the main drag and poof, wind. We are talking about 20-30 mph that pulls the air from your lungs faster than you can breath in…sigh. Well, I was committed and undeterred, or just committable. Either way, I was running my damn 45 minutes.

I actually forgot to turn back on the feedback tools, which I was a bit bummed about, but with this wind, I was hoping to just finish, let alone worry about time. The first 2 miles had the head wind, and then the oddest thing happened. It was like someone hit the level and turned off the wind for the last 0.5ish miles. Damn. No tail wind for me. I didn’t have a breath of anything coming back which didn’t really upset as much as confuse.

My pace chart looks nearly identical to my long run from Saturday. It sort of shows my dips in pace where I took it easy, however my faster paces barely register. I blame the scale, because I know I was pushing myself on those occasions. Maybe not hard enough, but I was still trying to figure out what happened to the wind.

When I got home and looked at the pace and distance, I was a little disappointed that my times dipped below 10’00” so early, yet mile one and two against the wind were pretty decent. I think I pushed too hard given the elements, which showed up later in my speed, but again, minutes…not miles. 4.65 miles with an average pace of 9’40”. I will take that given the wind and being so late in the day.

Where I am at..in my head

Every once and a while, I tend to get critical of myself or simply do a sanity check. This is sort of a perspective about where I see myself compared to my goals and try to be truly critical, but not too harsh. I did that a lot during this past few days.

I must say that our new Bob Harper Skinny Rules diet is working, yet I am less than thrilled about the meals. I simply cannot stand most veggies and this is nearly all about eating veggies. My wife joked that I have probably eaten more in a week than my previous 43 years and she isn’t lying.

Results so far…10 pounds lost in one week.

Do I feel any better? A little. I have also cut back to 1 diet soda a day, compared to 5-10 previously. The lack of caffeine I think is affecting my energy, but slowly it is returning. I don’t think I can ever get rid of that one, no sense in really trying. Why I think someone needs to come out with caffeinated beer…then no problem’o.

As for my running, I think I am improving my capacity and mental toughness needed to run these distances. This upcoming 95 minute run might be a stretch, but hell, who would have though in 3 weeks I would have gone from 40 minutes to 75 minutes at roughly the same pace.

I just hope my body keeps up with my head. We will see.

Jun 13 2012

Gone and done it…

So my quest this summer was to train for and run a half-marathon. Quite a silly undertaking my opinion, however I do love a challenge and need that date on the wall to motivate me. I have been looking for a race to run in for a while, looking at my travels to various areas around the country to run at sea level (or at least closer) and then contemplating running closer in Salt Lake City, which is still nearly 3,000 feet lower than where I live and below high altitude levels of 4,500 feet.

So I saw an email from Active.com, which is where I am tracking my training and they sent me a discount code for an inaugural run this fall call the Utah Marathon (and fittest State Festival).

The 20% off was a decent motivation, saving me $15 to which I will apply towards the purchase of a Road ID. I already have $15 coupon from my stellar finish of my fist 5k of the year (3rd out of 42).

This gives me 122 more days of training time, a few more races at shorter distances leading up to my half crazy effort this fall. I think I can handle the build up over the next 4 months and as long as I stage some other runs in the middle, I should be able to focus my attention on preparing properly, both physically and mentally.

The only down side is I already had a 5k scheduled for the following weekend where I was to see if I could do better at my Clydesdale class win and PR run of 26:09 at the SoJo Marathon. I hope my feet/legs are ok, as I still want to do that run as it has Chick-Fil-A at the finish line and who doesn’t love a breakfast sammy from there??? Plus with my win I got a free entry to run again.

Other goal

Ever do something you think was the right idea, then realize you are going to suffer? Well, that is what I did last week when I bought my wife the new book from Bob Harper (Biggest Loser) called “The Skinny Rules: The Simple, Nonnegotiable Principles for Getting to Thin”. Now we quickly found out we do 80% of these rules, which include not eating fried foods, eating at home, don’t drink your calories and about 16 others. It’s the 20% that will kill me, including Eat Your Veggies…

The only thing that is helping me is that I read a while back that “The loss of a single pound doesn’t mean much for a single mile, but the effect multiplies nicely. Ten pounds equals 20 seconds per mile, which grows to a minute-plus in a 5K, more than two minutes in a 10K, nearly 4.5 minutes in a half-marathon”

So if I can cut down 20 pounds in the next 4 months while training for this, we are looking at nearly 10 minutes less on my half time. If I can get a way to shorten my runs by 10 minutes, I am all for it. Veggies for me, however I would not want to be around me on the Meatless Days…I know I am not going to be a happy camper on those.

Jun 12 2012

Return to elevation

My past week is history, enjoying the thrills of running where oxygen is plenty, there is humidity in the air and terrain seems optional. Alas, I returned home and simply feared the idea of hitting the road and dealing with the feeling of having a collapsed lung…or two.

I was even watching as others took on the Garden of the God’s race in Colorado and a few of my team who ran in the Utah Valley Marathon. It is always interesting to see how others react to either heading up or down in elevation for running. My team member who ran her first ever 10k said it made the run bearable. Yet I was reading on Sweaty Emily’s blog that she ran about 10 minutes slower (some wind too) than her PR at 10 miles. This is actually what I see heading down is about 30-60 seconds per mile better, depending on how far down I go. Makes sense that other slow down an equal amount.

Goal for the run.

I took Saturday and Sunday off, dreading the thought of the run and basically to decompress after a week of travel. I also took in two movies to get my sci-fi on while my bride was out of town, as she cannot stand those movies.

This skipped two training days, so basically I started the previous week over as if that week never existed. This puts my long run out a few days for me to get my lungs back. I really didn’t want do just a 5k, nor did I have enough time outside to run 45 minutes, so I compromised at 4 miles, thinking worst case, 40 minutes and hopefully something better.

To change things up a little bit, since the sun was already in the last hour of the day, i decided to run without a hat nor any sunglasses. I had also bought a nice bright neon yellow Nike running shirt, which matched the black shorts with neon yellow stripe. Yellow equals fast for corvettes so maybe it would help me.

Results.

Honestly, I was a bit floored with the results. I really took off “slow” in my mind and didn’t look at my Nike GPS watch at all until I hit the first mile. I was a bit shocked to hear in my ear a 8:37 time. I wasn’t thinking I would hit anything close to a sub 9’00″ pace, as I was focused more on my breathing and less on my stride/turnover. Maybe that is a plan moving forward, just breath stupid.

My next mile was against a bit of a headwind but not too bad for Wyoming and again I was really just trying to ensure I was getting air in. Compared to last week at sea level, I figured my breathing was actually on a in-in-in/out-out pace as I try to establish in my head. I know last week it was more of an in-in/out. The way this works was more from military running than anything else, as my brain tries to break my running into a cadence now. This helps me get a rhythm and to not think too much about everything else. Sort of my zen state of running.

As you can see from my pace, I slowed down around 30 seconds per mile. I know when I turned around at 2.1 miles, I felt pretty good about my lungs and my legs and was happy to be under 18 minutes. At three miles, I started to feel things changing. Lord, where was the air?

I recently read that a runner not acclimated to altitude loses 10-12% VO2 Max at 6,500 feet and 12-15% at 7,500 feet. The problem for me is that I am at the literal cusp of where the amount of Oxyhemoglobin begins to plummet, which is 7,000 feet. Rare air.

My only redeeming grace is that while your body does start to lose some of the red blood cells created to help out with living in altitude, the time of loss is slower than a week. I can’t say for sure how much I did lose in a week, but waiting a couple of days I think helped me to rebuild my stock. I truly feel for those who don’t have the time to acclimate before taking on something like a 10 mile or worse, marathon.

My pace overall stayed pretty consistent and never dipped below that Mendoza line of 10’00″ pace that I have in my head.

At three miles my legs just started getting sluggish and my breath was getting more and more labored.I was at least getting a tail wind, so all hope was not lost.

My last half mile is always, always up hill. When I got to this point, I was spent physically, but was actually enjoying the run. I knew was going to come in around 37 minutes, so I was actually pretty stoked about the run overall, just really suffering in the air/legs department.

Summary.

When I finished, I didn’t even bother to hear my time, I was just happy to start my cool down and get some water in me. That is the other part of running at high altitude, is that the air is extremely dry, so one always has to drink so much water.

Having later looked at the time of 37:11 with a 9’17″ pace, I went back to check out what my 6.45 mile run time was from last weekend at sea level. That run had a 9’18″ pace. I was a bit shocked and while 2 miles is quite a bit more, reality was that the pace I had then for those last two miles was almost exactly what I had for this last mile, a 9’52″ then versus a 9’56″ here.

What this means to my over analytic mind is that I am in pretty decent shape and now it is more of the mental aspect of dealing with the aches and pains, but my pace is generally right there between an 8’30″ and 9’50″, it is just now a matter of putting in the miles to get more of the 8’30″.

Hopefully that is simply what this summer will bring and I can focus now on where and when versus whether or not I can finish.

In my dreams that is at sea level, but this run tells me no matter what, I can handle it…so far at least.

Jun 8 2012

Tread, trails and rains, my week in D.C.

I was pretty happy after my epic (for me) Sunday run around the National Mall. I celebrated with a beer, brat and ballgame with the Nats and Braves. Monday and Tuesday were wall to wall meetings, from 8 am to getting back to the hotel around 11 pm both nights, so running was truly not an option. I wasn’t really that bummed, as I wanted to rest my legs a bit as well as my wonderful new blister.

Wednesday just happened to be National Running day and I was ready all of these wonderful posts of how people got out and ran all day while I was sitting there listening to Committee Chairs for the House Commerce related to the wireless industry (yawn). Having been required to be there at 7 am, leaving my hotel at 6 am, the morning run was just not in the cards. I got back to the other meetings around 1 pm, to which I had to co-chair, so once again, I was stuck looking at other blogs enjoying a nice run.

Finally, around 3:30 pm, I was able to break free and get geared up. I only had around 30-45 minutes, so I headed down to the treadmills in the hotel. I was still a bit sore from Sunday, especially my blister, so I put on a Dr Scholls Blister Treatment, which is a nice product, covering the blister and being extremely sticky. I wore these most of the week to prevent infection and further damage.

Treadmill

So this does not come close to what I actually did, hence I think there was issues with my nike pod. My run started out miserable. My legs felt like I was running through a marsh at first. I was scheduled to run a 20 minute easy run and that just was going to be painful. I would have thought that by taking a couple of days rest that my legs would be fresher.

So I ran the 10 minutes at 6.7 mph and after an accidental pause of the treadmill, I ran the second 10 minutes at 6.5 mph. After my run on Sunday, I was getting rather bummed. This made me come to a stupid conclusion: I needed some strides. What the hell right? My legs were sore and my blister was even worse, why not punish myself, right?

So I did the next 10 minutes as a

1 minute 4 mph – 2 minutes at 8 mph
1 minute 4 mph – 2 minutes at 8 mph
1 minute 4 mph – 3 minutes at 8 mph

This actually seemed to get the kinks out of the muscles. As I walked around the waterfront of Alexandria for dinner, neither my legs or my foot was bothering me.

Trails

So the next day I wanted to run outside, but had no clue on where. I had reached out to the few people I actually knew who lived in the D.C, but got no real lead. I looked instead on my iPad and saw on the map nearby what looked like a trail along a small creek. My training called for 30 minutes of hills, so I concluded that where there was a creek, there was bound to be a hill. Damn, got that one right.

About 075 miles in, there was a serious downhill segment to the creek. On the maps it shows that it was a drop of 302 feet to 75 feet in about 0.5 miles. Glad I ran hills late last week at elevation. At the bottom of the hill at a little over a mile I had to stop for a traffic light and realized I wasn’t even breathing heavy. Love sea level!!!

At the bottom I found the entrance to the trail. It was quite wooded, which was nice as the wind was picking up a bit. Seems a summer storm was heading my way and I realized I needed to hurry a bit. I was seriously trying to take it easy though, as my plan was to actually go past 30 minutes to allow to see if I could get to 30 before I had to get back up that silly hill I just ran down.

The path was quite serene actually, with this slow flow, sort of like the rivers in Wyoming. The path was empty and with my music going, i was really enjoying my choice of taking the run outside.

I then came up to a tunnel, which definitely was a first. Not too many paths I have run have a tunnel. Some a bridge, but never running under an interstate with a tube like tunnel.

I had a question on the 5000. I hoped that wasn’t how long the tunnel was, however I could see the end in the distance, so that was not likely the situation. It was a bit eerie and I had to avoid a guy walking his bicycle, but I made it out unscathed.

I continued down the trail and it turned to cross the river and then back on the other side. It was rather flat, which was not according to the plan, but hey, storm clouds were brewing, so I was focused more on the clouds than the slope.

I made it around another half a mile and then turned around at a little 21 minutes. Then the clouds opened up for my first run in the rain in about 20 years. I don’t know why it has never happened in the past 18 months, but just never been out in the rain. It was quite refreshing actually and did a great job of getting me energy for my run up that damn hill.

Then I hit that hill. Wow. My legs were just not ready for the hill by any means. About half way up they basically said stop and I obliged. I walked about 100 yards or so and took up the jog again and did so once more near the top. This half a mile was a bear and it was kicking my ass.

I finally made it up to the top and put a bit of a kick in on the flat part, hoping my strides the day before could help me finish this run. I didn’t really have a goal in mind, however I did want to keep it around the 9’30″ pace that my goal is for a 10k.

Well the pace was a bit slower, however I was impressed that with a few moments of walking I was still able to keep it right around my goal pace.

I also like the new layout of the new Nike+ mapping, which shows you a lot more data and gives you solid ways of moving day to day.

So my week in D.C. was a pretty good running week. I got in about 14-15 miles and lived through my blister, so getting to sea level was a great boost to my ego. I was able to tour the National Mall, get in a couple of baseball games, met with a Senator and 4 Representatives and had a great week of meetings.

We now get to see if all of the built up red blood cells have left my body and I suffer from altitude.

Jun 4 2012

Oxygen = speed

I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Running Blogs.

My work had me traveling once again, this time a bit farther to our Nations Capital. I had arrived a day early due to travel logistics, so I planned on taking advantage to do my long run around the National Mall, one of my favorite places. The Active.com training plan had me at 60 minutes, so my hope was to see how close I could get to a 10k and see what running at sea level was like.

The last time I ran below 4,000 feet was last November and I ran my fastest 5k at a little over 26:30, so my thoughts were that I might be able to make some time and some distance. I remember the last words out of my wife’s mouth before I ran. “Take it easy on the first couple of miles and you will have no problem.” ooops.

Since I was staying out in Alexandria, I had to figure out how to first, get to the mall, second, what to do with all of my stuff. I remembered using the YMCA three day pass in Austin, Tx last summer, so I went online to see what they might offer. Sure enough, they had a similar program. This is an awesome thing to use while traveling, as you get access to awesome facilities and this would give me a locker and shower to use. Score one for the home team.

I found online that there was a route around the mall, including the Jefferson Memorial, was around 6 miles. Since I was starting about 0.75 miles north of the mall, I figured a lap around would put me close. Plan in mind, I found my way via the metro to the “Y”.

Starting out

The nice part of starting at the “Y” was that heading to the mall was downhill for the most part. It had been a long time since I have run in an Urban setting, so I had fears of hitting the lights bad, breaking up my pace, however I actually sailed right on down to the White House. More on that later.

When I rounded the West Wing, my iPhone announced my first mile pace: 8’06″. Wow, I was flying compared to what I had hoped. What I wasn’t was winded, sore or even thinking I was on that type of pace. As I got onto the mall itself near the Washington Monument, I tried to ease up and just cruise some.

Mile 2 pace: 8’40″. Geez, this was actually getting me excited and scared, because I knew I had two goals of 1) 60 minutes and 2) 6 miles. Could I really run sub 9’00″ miles and make it 6 miles? I was also thinking about my fastest 5k pace of around 26:30, which wouldn’t that be a kicker if I could do better than that WHILE running a 10k type distance?

Mile 3 pace 8’18″. I have no idea what happened here. I actually was trying to slow down and I think that since I was actually passing many other runners on the path, I started racing on accident.

So three miles, 25:08, my 5k time was right at 26:00. Serious oops in my head but still was rather psyched. Could I actually get a 10k sub 60 minutes?

Mile 4 pace: 9’23″. Here is where things started happening. First, I hit a headwind. Not a Wyoming type of wind, but enough to have people flying kites around the Washington Monument on my way back towards Lincoln Memorial. Then, my right foot started to feel a bit off. Having played basketball long enough, I knew there was a blister forming. I have no idea why, as I had already put over 10 miles on my new shoes and didn’t have any different feeling on the fit. I think it might have been the fact of the gravel trail I switched to at mile 3, so i moved back to the paved trail.

Mile 5 pace: 9’53″. As I rounded the Lincoln Memorial, my legs were getting heavy. Part of me wanted to stop, mainly due to the blister, however the little soldier in my head was thinking about the battles reminding me of our countries heroes of days past. I had run around the WWII, caught a glimpse of the Korean War and ran past the Vietnam, which all reminded me of those people who dealt with more than a blister and that damn training kicked in. What was a blister compared to the lives given for our freedom. Damn that brain washing…

Mile 6 pace: 9’53″. This was three issues combined. I wanted to make the hour for the 10k, so I kept my pace realizing I was very close to my goal and very close to the end of my run. Then the strangest thing happened. Choppers! I know from my military background that D.C. is a giant no fly zone except for one chopper: Marine One. Obama was causing me to move, well him and the secret service agent shoving me along my way. I tried to get a quick pic, but the guy with the gun wasn’t in a mood to allow me to stay where I was and I wasn’t in the mood to mess with him.

End of run.

So minus the blister on my right foot, I was amazed. Not only had I gotten below the 60 minute 10k distance I did it with a minor injury and Presidents harassing me. Having oxygen to help fuel the muscles really helps in a run.

When looking at the pace chart, i was also impressed that I maintained a reasonable pace, even if I had started a bit faster than I had planned, but I never got below a 10’00″ which also was impressive for my run. I did this on my 45 minute last week, so now this showed me that I have the legs to do this at 6 miles.

Learning’s.

The biggest thing I picked up on was that pace early helps and hurts. While I had plenty of time at the end, my legs were pretty well shot. I know that when I start going past this, as I basically am half way to the 13.1 mile distance I hope to attain for this fall, I need to manage my earlier miles to make it to my final ones. As always I should have listened to my wife.

She also kicked ass this weekend, however she is in Texas. She ran her own best 5k time of 29:08 and has a lot more in the tank (I believe) as she always starts a bit slower than she can handle. Soon she will be passing me up, that I know for sure.

Jun 1 2012

No gadgets, no music, still finished…

So a few runs ago, I ran into technical issues, where my iPod got messed up, another time I screwed up the treadmill. A fellow runner suggested I try running sometime without my music, so tonight I did just that. The only gadget I had was my GPS watch, which I ignored, where typically I am looking at my pace probably every mile.

My training routine had me on a 30 minute run, easy with some hills. I decided to take a new route and to not worry about anything but running. Honestly it has been a long time since I have run with no music, so I had no idea what to expect.

I took off up a hill immediately. I typically run downhill for the first 3/4 of a mile, so going the other way was going to be different. I had no clue on how far my run would be, not a clue on whether I would actually get over 30 minutes or not, I just knew where I was going to run, and that was the big ass hill I had always dreaded the thought of running. If I am going to do something new, such as go out with no gadget and do an easy run with hills, I wanted it to be a situation where i had no idea on what my pace would/should be or my distance at a particular time.

The first thing I noticed was that my allergies were back a bit and man, I wheeze. Loud. The asthma wasn’t too bad, in that I felt fine, however at first I sounded like a broken valve on a bike pump. I chuckled and figured that it was good I typically run in the boonies, so no one thought I was dying.

I got around the school area, about 1/2 a mile down the road and I just started feeling better for the hill from hell. This is one I always figured I should run for training on hills, just never really cared to take it on. The hill actually has a name: Burnt HIll. Why? Not really sure, and I only know the name because we have one of our cellular towers on the top.It is one of those steady up for around a quarter of a mile. Yuck.

My pace slowed way down going up the hill, but I wasn’t going to check to what speed. I was simply focusing on my breathing, keeping a steady pace and realizing that I could hear other things. I could hear the traffic on the interstate near by. I could hear the cars coming up from behind me and could actually hear the birds. More important was that I could really put my breathing in sync with my running.

My route when down a quick hill and then back up a steeper hill, just a little shorter this time. This is the view of the hill from google street view.

It really might not look like much, but the terrain is pretty impressive for a town run. It a little less than 1 mile, this run took me up to 6,958 feet, down to 6,865 and then back up the 6,900 again.

As you can tell, my pace was all over the place with these hills, but my times didn’t really vary that much. Mile 1 came in at 9:18, mile 2 at 10:04 and mile 3 at 10:02. From the heat map you can really see how much my pace ebbed and flowed.

So a couple things learned.

First, I can run with no music. It wasn’t quite as bad as I feared.

Second, I can run that damn hill. It wasn’t quite as bad as I feared.

Third, I can keep a solid pace when running an easy pace run.

Fear was a big deal for me, pushing me to create habits around running. This put me on the same route, the same music, hell even the same water bottle (I changed that up as well, using a handheld versus a belt). I think I succeeded in bridging a gap I created on my own and now look forward to doing more various types of runs with this training program.

Also, sometimes you just need to run and enjoy the beauty of nature.It was nice to just have nature surrounding me, looking out over two states and seeing snow capped mountains and ridge lines literally 40 miles away.

I also have to give a big shout out to my bride, who seriously kicked my ass tonight in running distance, running time and Nike Fuel. I must say that she always impressed me with the fact that even after chasing our little monster, she can put in a solid run with little to no effort. She also impresses me in that she can start an easy run and then continue to add pace, ending a lot faster than she starts. Never under estimate a German Texan.

Great run honey!

Big Guy Runs!!

Follow a Big Guy in his quest to run farther, faster

Monthly Archives: June 2012