Speed Work

Today I had a day off work. So the plan was to get up early and go to the track for some speed work. Besides some speed play here and there, I have never really done organized speed work. So today was the day.

When the alarm went off, I was cold and tired and achy. So I turned the alarm off and went back to sleep. My kids woke me up about an hour and a half later and after a little moving around I knew that I needed to get out and run as soon as possible or else it would not happen at all.

I have been wanting to find my mile time, so the plan was to do a time trial and find that. Then I wanted to do three or four Yasso 800's just to see where my fitness is and have something to measure improvement as I get closer to the marathon.

I did not feel like driving to the track so I ran in the neighborhood. I still planned to do the mile but instead of 800's I would do three half mile intervals.

I warmed up as I was making my way to a good street to run on. I got to the corner and I was off. I ran hard and made an effort not to look at my Garmin at all. I just focused on the run and tried to keep my form good. It seemed to take a long time to finish this mile. When my watch finally beeped I was all too happy to slow down.

My mile time was 8:12.

Not incredibly fast, but I remember the very first time I tried to "run" a mile it took me about fifteen minutes and I could not even run the whole thing. In fact I think I walked more than half of it at the time.

So time for intervals. I decided to change it up and do four quarter mile intervals with quarter mile recoveries. I realized after the fact that I would do better with shorter recoveries, but live and learn.

Here are the interval times for those:

2:16
2:10
2:15
2:08

For some reason, I think I could have done them a little harder. I do not want to push myself into an injury, so I do not plan on doing speed work every week until I actually start my marathon training program.

But I do enjoy speed work... at least I do as of right now. That will probably change when I am pushing myself even more. I did a total of four miles this morning and mentally is was so much easier than running four miles at an easy pace because it was mixed up so much.

It feels good!

What Next

It has been a week and a half since finishing the Broad Street Run. Since the beginning of the year my sights have been set on running that 10 miles through the city of brotherly love, and while I had abandoned the structured training plan, I was still running with a specific purpose.

Now it is over.

My next big race will be the Philadelphia Distance Run, but I will not be training specifically for that one. It falls into my training for the Philadelphia Marathon, the race I have been looking forward to since last year.

It is never too early to begin preparation for a marathon, but it is too far out to start a training program. So what to do?

Outline my mileage for the next three months.

I want to gradually increase my mileage and improve my fitness so that I can train hard for the marathon. I have outline the number of miles I will be running each week, and even broke them down into individual runs. I will gradually increase the weekly mileage, with a cutback week every month.

This outline brings me up to the first full week in August, which will begin my training program for the marathon. By that time I will be running 20-30 miles per week, and hopefully doing so comfortably.

A week or two before I come up with a training program, I will find a 5k or hopefully a 10k race that I can use to gauge my running fitness. This will help me develop a 16-week training plan that I will be following.

I want my first marathon to be a strong one, and I think this plan will help a lot with that. I may waver from it a bit, but that is fine. If I follow the overall outline I should be able to improve and train hard for the marathon.

I am still excited to run.

Broad Street Run Race Report

Well, today's run did not go exactly as planned. I had trouble keeping my pace where I wanted and went out too fast to start. It is hard to not get caught up in the crowd and just run at their pace.

It took me twenty minutes to get across the start line. Once there, people were still packed pretty tight, but they all seemed to be trying to weave in and out to get further ahead. With so many people passing me at the start, I could not help but keep my pace fast.

I was feeling good for all of the first half. I knew I was running a little too fast, but nothing really hurt, and I felt good. At mile five I was still on pace to finish under 1:45, but when we got to City Hall I needed to talk a short walk break. Thirty seconds of fast walking and then I was back into it.

I walked through each water stop after that. My legs started screaming at me and with 5k to go I really had to dig down to keep moving forward.

Seeing the stadiums gave me a little added boost, but it was hard to speed up. My legs wouldn't really go, and the street was still crowded. Those last two miles seemed to crawl by.

With a mile to go I wanted to push the pace and try to do a nine minute mile, but my legs were like lead. To add to that, I had moved all the way to the left, in hopes of seeing my son on the sidelines, and I had run up behind an ambulance slowly creeping down the road. I tried to get around it, but everyone was just so cramped together. It took a quarter mile to finally get in front of the thing.

I ended up seeing my son and yelled for him. He was pretty close to the finish line, and if it was not raining so hard I would have probably lifted him over the fence and had him run with me. He may have been a little scared of the crowd though... maybe next year.

I crossed the finish line and raised my hands... partly in victory, but mainly in praise. It is a blessing to be able to do something like this. People take it for granted. Praise the Lord!

After the finish line, I saw volunteers handing out the medals. For the few short seconds, as I stared at the medal and walked closer to get mine, there was a sense of satisfaction that swept over me. A sense of accomplishment and another true sense of praise.

My body was really feeling it, but I finished!

Here were my splits from my Garmin:
10:33
09:57
10:00
10:14
10:28
10:44
11:07
11:18
10:55
11:00

My official chip time was 1:46:45. Just a minute forty five over my goal. I was so close and at the halfway point was still on pace to do it, but I am happy with my finish.

Congratulations to everyone that ran!

Time For Broad Street

It has been a while since I last blogged. I am going to have to blame Facebook for that. It is addicting, and I welcome anyone to request me as a friend.

It is now less than 12 and a half hours until the Broad Street Run. It seems like yesterday I was signing up and now it is upon us! My first major race and the excitement has been building all day.

I went to the expo this morning with my son and brother. We arrived at Lincoln Financial Field a little after 10 and the line was incredibly long to get in. It moved quickly though.

The expo was pretty cramped, and whoever planned the layout was pretty sneaky. When you got upstairs you had to go all the way to the right to the end and get your BIB. Then you had to turn around and go all the way to the other end to get your shirt and bag. In the meantime you had to pass every single vendor that was set up for the expo.

The only thing I bought was a t-shirt for each of my kids, and a case of GU. The GU was a great deal, only $22 and I was able to mix and match flavors. I got a few I like and some I have not tried yet.

So here is my plan for tomorrow... My goal is an incredibly slow 1:45. I will run the first two miles at 11:00 pace, then the next three miles at 10:30 pace, and the last five miles at 10:00 pace. That will give me a finish time of 1:43:30 and a 90 second margin of error to reach my goal!

I posted that plan on my Facebook page for all the world to see. I risk failing in front of all the Internet world, but if I pull it off I can look like a running scholar. lol

So, I am not as prepared as I thought I would be at this point, but I am very confident that I will have a good run.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Bad Run Turned Good, Easy Run Turned Hard

So, on Sunday my plan was to do a long slow run of about 9 miles. I wanted to keep the pace around 11:30-12:00 per mile and just get the distance in preperation for Broad Street. I went up to Cooper River to do about two and a half loops.

The first mile was okay, but I felt really bad. I could not loosen up and my pace was up and down. Same with the second mile, but now I couldn't keep my pace slow enough. I just felt all out of whack and could not get into a groove.

I finished one loop of the river and was thinking that I should just give it up. I stopped at my car and got some water. I paced a bit and talked myself into doing another loop. This time I would take it extremely slow. I sucked down a GU and went off as slow as I could.

This lap felt better, but I was still going too fast. I decided just to go with it and keep my pace steady. I could definitely feel the effects of the GU because I was feeling much more energized than my first loop. I felt very loose and relaxed. I finished that second loop feeling good and decided to stop there. Shorter and faster than I was intending, but feeling really good.

A couple days later I went out for an easy recovery run. I was planning to keep it around 11:00 miles for 3 miles, but it just seemed so slow. Mile first mile was 10:32 and I felt incredibly good. I kept going, and noticed that I was easily going faster.

I was in a zone, and mentally I was flying. I do not think I was even really aware of anything more than five feet away from me.

My second mile split was 9:15. The fastest mile split I have ever ran. I stopped at a water fountain for about thirty seconds and quickly got back into the run.

By the time I reached the 2.5 mile mark I was feeling worn out. I told myself I would run to the next traffic light and then I could quit. I got there and my Garmin read 2.88 miles. Only .12 left to make it an even three so why not.

I dug deep and pushed it out. Third mile split was 9:43

Total run was 3 miles in 29:31. My hardest workout yet, and my best avg pace at 9:51 minutes per mile. I walked for about twenty minutes so that I would stay loose and cool down properly. I felt very good for the rest of the night.

I compared this workout to the first one I ever did with a heart rate monitor. This was back in January and was also three miles. I did an average pace of 11:04 and had an average HR of 172. I also tried to run one full mile at sub 10:00 pace and could only hold that for .6 miles, and it was extremely hard to do that.

I think this is great improvement in such a short time! Watching these improvements and comparing workouts really keeps me motivated to run.

DNS

Well, today was my first DNS, but for good reason.

A few posts ago I talked about a 5k that I signed up for with the intent of a new PR and possibly going sub 30 minutes for the first time. A few days after that I realized something was significant about the date.

My son's first t-ball game.

So it was obvious which I would go to.

It was fun watching the kids play t-ball. They all had these great bog looks of excitement on their faces and were having such a great time.

And I saw a runner in my son this week. At his t-ball practice the kids got in line and ran around the bases. My son, being the shy one, ended up being the last one in line. He loves to run and I could see it in him. He wanted to sprint ahead of everyone. He had to hold himself back not to pass the others and he had a look of determination on his face.

I can see in him, that primal desire to run. There is an animal in him that just wants to run free.

I need to feed that animal.

Ryan Hall - Boston - Ole'

I have watched this video three times in the last hour. I love watching Ryan Hall run, and hope he does well in Boston.

Improved Heart Rate

I get very excited at each improvement I see as I continue my journey into running.

This morning I woke early to go for a quick run, but it was down pouring pretty hard. Usually I do not mind running in the rain, but the forecast called for it to clear up so I decided to stay dry this time. Not a waste though.

I put on my heart rate monitor and sat in my recliner for about twenty minutes. I wanted to gauge my resting heart rate. Last time I did it was a couple months ago and it was around 60 beats per minute.

The first time I did it was when I first began running... I took my pulse and watched the second hand on my watch. During that time it ranged anywhere from 70 to 85 beats per minute.

Today my heart rate was 55 beats per minute. It makes me feel good and more motivated to improve my health and my life.

I love telling people about it, because I think it can motivate others to get in shape as well. If I can do it anyone can. You just have to get out of your comfort zone, work a little bit, and in doing so create a new comfort zone.

I also went down a pant size. I needed a couple new pairs for work, and instead of getting 42 waist, and fit a 40 waist... just a matter of time before I look more like a runner.

eewww... Who Fartleked?

Sorry. I can never resist a fart(lek) joke.

So today was the first time I ever really did fartleks. I turned the auto lap off on my Garmin and split the laps after each recovery and interval. I am pretty impressed with how fast I was running and I hope that doing this every once in a while will help with my speed.

One thing I will do next time is not have so many splits... maybe just sprinkle in a few bursts of speed rather than have so many intervals. Just look at them all...


note: I tried formatting this so it would be easier to read, but it is not going right. You can check out my log over at runnersworld for the full workout if you want.

................Distance............Time.................Pace.............avg HR
Recovery.........0.64 Mi ...........6:58.96..........10:55.........154 warm up
Interval ..........103 Yd .............0:27.25............7:46........... 172
Recovery ........0.12 Mi............ 1:14.83............10:24 ..........170
Interval ...........89 Yd.............. 0:25.23............8:19............ 170
Recovery .........0.12 Mi........... 1:18.02............10:51 ..........173
Interval ...........102 Yd ............0:28.58 ............8:14........... 171
Recovery .........111 Yd .............0:41.4 ..............10:57..........171
Interval ............123 Yd ...........0:35.81 .............8:33 ...........173
Recovery ..........155 Yd ...........0:56.29 ...........10:40...........174
Interval .............134 Yd ..........0:33.42 .............7:19 ............174
Recovery .........141 Yd ...........1:07.83 ............14:07.........168 walk break
Interval .............101 Yd ............0:26.75 ............7:47............168
Recovery ...........0.13 Mi ...........1:32.97 .............11:56.........169
Interval ...............109 Yd ...........0:32.13 ............8:39 ..........169
Recovery .............125 Yd ...........0:47.52 ...........11:10 ..........170
Interval ...............103 Yd ............0:31.8 ..............9:04 ..........174
Recovery ..............143 Yd ...........0:53.98 ...........11:05 .........172
Interval ................108 Yd ...........0:31.61 ............8:36 ...........173
Recovery ..............0.33 Mi ...........3:53.26 ...........11:47 .........168

One thing I noticed is that my heart rate is pretty steady. I am not an expert but I think that can be good. I also think the workout might be better if I get my heart rate higher during the faster intervals. Perhaps I did not go hard enough?

This was fun, and I felt really good afterward. My goal is really distance and endurance over speed, but I would like to get faster than the crawl I am at right now. I am sure this will help.

Whoa -- This Can't Be Right

Okay... so I am doing an easy three on Tuesday afternoon and it is going real nice and easy. I feel that I am running a good pace between 10:30 and 11:00. To confirm this I look at my watch...

9:45???

This can not be right. I keep my pace as steady as possible and the pace only slows by about 5 seconds. I turn my attention back to my run. It felt too easy, there was no way I was running under 10 minutes per mile.

The day was clear and sunny. As I was coming up to a park I decided to stop at one of it's water fountains and get a sip. I also thought it might be a good idea to check my Forerunner. According to the navigation it had clear view of a number of satellites and good reception from those satellites as well.

Am I really getting faster?

I finished my three mile run at an avg 10:19 pace. This is not incredibly fast, but it is the fastest avg pace I have ran in a long time.... actually I think the fastest ever. hmmm.

So here comes Friday morning. I run before work, but this time is a little different than my other pre-work runs. Since I do not have to be in until late, I decide to take my time and actually jog a half mile as a warm up before I start my run.

The warm up felt nice and I got to the spot where I wanted to start my run. Hit the start button on my Forerunner and get going at a nice easy pace.

It was raining, so my jacket was covering my watch. I barely heard the beep when I reached my first mile split. Whenever I hear that beep I can not help but look at my split time, so I did...

9:52???

My mile split was actually less than 10 minutes? I can not believe this, it is my fastest mile time ever. So I decide to finish this short run fast. I was only doing two miles so I continued strong, and decided not to look at my watch at all the rest of the run.

I finished hard and out of breath, but not exhausted. I ended 2.02 miles in 20:08. A 9:59 pace. The fastest avg pace I have ever done during any run ever.

I am getting faster!?

For the rest of the day I felt like I was on top of the world. What does one do when they have such a huge milestone and breakthrough in performance? Find a race.

There is a 5k outside the Philadelphia Art Museum on April 18th. I have decided to sign up and go for a new PR. My current one is 32:14. Not really that fast by some standards, but that race was a milestone for me and gave me a huge boost in my confidence.

So if all things fall into place I will have a new PR in a couple of weeks. But if all things fall into place, and the stars and planets align correctly, and I warm up properly (something I do not always do), I think I will break 30 minutes.

If that happens, I will have a runners high for the entire weekend.