June 7, 2014: In-Training for Peachtree, Week 5

Goal: to save enough energy running uphill to put on a strong burst at the end of a 5-mile run

This week, I've run more than ever before in my life, 17 miles!  On Monday, I extended the 4.8-mile loop of Stone Mountain by tacking on a pleasant detour on the PATH trail into the village of Stone Mountain before returning to the park to complete 6.8 miles, a personal distance record.  Wednesday was "National Running Day" and I showed my holiday spirit by joining the Atlanta Track Club for an early morning run on the Eastside Beltline with a loop through Piedmont Park totaling 5.4 miles.  Today our training group completed a 5 mile run in Brookhaven.  We followed the same route as last week, except Head Coaches Curt and Kathy added an extra quarter-mile along Club Drive and then back, to add a half-mile to last week's 4.5 mile run.  I've enjoyed the new Boost shoes, having broken them in on my long run in Monday, and I plan to wear them every other run for the next few weeks.

This morning's route, now covering five full miles.  Mile markers in blue

Although I went to bed relatively early for a Friday evening (11 pm), I didn't sleep well, courtesy of my cat Smokey awakening me up around 3 am.  When I couldn't get back to sleep, I got up and read for about two hours, then went back to bed and nearly overslept today's training session.  I did make it out of the house shortly before 7 am, and arrived in Brookhaven in enough time to properly stretch and warm up.  Coach Curt was eager to start at 7:30 on the dot, and after a few announcements about the upcoming Peachtree Road Race and group warm-ups, we set out on our 5-mile run.  Our group seemed smaller today, one coach for two students.  Today a new student A., presumably from another group, was in the lead group with me and Coach Rob.  We made good time down Peachtree Road, and deliberately slowed down a bit as we approached the turn to Club Drive, into the beautiful (and expensive) Brookhaven neighborhood.  We were conscious of the need to save energy as we ran downhill, mimicking the approach to Cardiac Hill.  At the lowest elevation shortly after the two-mile mark, we encountered a new hill in the route.  Curt had warned us about this middle hill, but I didn't study the elevation map well enough ahead of time to appreciate that this would be a 60-foot hill.  I was joking with Rob about what the second hill might be called, and settled on "Survivor's Folly."

Student A. and I are following Coach Rob up the hill.  Coach Curt must have taken this photo fairly early in our uphill climb, as I was still smiling.  

Shortly after the 2.5 mile alert sounded, we reached the turnaround, and headed back down "Survivor's Folly.'  At 3.0 miles exactly, we began our uphill climb, 115 feet in 0.75 mile.  The hill definitely seemed longer and steeper this week, and I slowed down much more than last week (confirmed when I checked my splits afterwards).  Since it wasn't much warmer or more humid than last week, I will blame it on Smokey-cat keeping me awake last night.  When we turned onto Peachtree Road, Rob suggested that we could pick up the pace after we had recovered from the uphill climb.  Unfortunately I never recovered enough to close the gap between me and Rob and student A, in fact I steadily slowed down even as we approached the end.  Subtracting 30 seconds for a red light at Brookhaven Drive on the return leg, I covered 5.12 miles in 52:13.

Although I was disappointed in my slow pace for the last mile of the run, it was a valuable lesson for me: it wasn't the big 115-ft hill that got me, but rather it was the earlier smaller 60-ft hill that I did not properly respect in my game plan for the morning.  I need to better prepare in the remaining three weeks before the big day on July 4.  Also it's possible that not being properly rested may have made a big difference today.

Splits per mile: 9:16, 9:44, 10:01, 10:43, and 10:58; average pace 10:12 min/mile.

Goal: to save enough energy running uphill to put on a strong burst at the end of a 5-mile run:  not achieved, but hopefully lesson learned! 

To finish on a bright note, my number for the Peachtree Road Race arrived in the mail this afternoon. As I had hoped, I've been assigned to start wave C based on my PR in the Reagan 5K back in February.