Tuesday morning, I went to Piedmont Park to do some speed work on the Active Oval, a 0.52 mile gravel track dating back to the late 19th century. I normally do speed work on Monday mornings, but couldn't drag myself out of bed early enough. Actually I think that my legs appreciated the unscheduled rest day. My goal was to run 4 x 1200 meter repeats, at an 8 minute per mile pace, as part of my half-marathon training. But even though I had arrived at sunrise, around 6:30 am, the temperature was warm and the air was humid. My legs felt really heavy, and later in the workout I felt weak even though I had eaten a proper breakfast 60 - 90 minutes earlier. I really struggled to finish the workout. In short my best interval was around 8:30 minutes per mile, and the last one I couldn't manage better than a 9:30 pace. In short the only speed work that I managed on Tuesday morning was 65 mph on Interstate 85 driving to Piedmont Park before sunrise. Upon completing the workout, I was very discouraged, but decided that whatever hadn't killed me this morning will make me stronger when temperatures drop in the fall. At least I got in the miles, 7 miles total including warmup and cooldown. As the Hansons' half-marathon training guide says, "Something is always better than nothing."
The one bright spot of the morning workout was meeting Daniel, aka Kurokitty or The Running Cat. He stopped to introduce himself to me during one of my walk breaks, as he was completing his own workout. His blog was the first running blog that I regularly followed, and really inspired me to begin blogging on my own. He has run at least 1 mile every day for the past 8-1/2 years, and I encourage you to check out his blog posts.
I wasn't sure if I would run in the All Comers meet this evening, but I had brought to work fresh running clothes and another pair of shoes just in case. A strong thunderstorm around 5:15 delayed the start of the meet, and resulted in cancellation of the field events. But around 7 pm, I could see from my office window that people were on the track for the early running events, and so I changed into running clothes and went to the track. My plan was to run the 400 meter race, to see if I could improve on my earlier time of 1:23, and then to run the last race of the evening, at 3000 meters.
The field was quite wet and I couldn't really warm up on the grass, but enjoyed watching the 50 meter dash for the kids, and 100 meters for adults. Then it was time for the 400 meter race. I held back from lining up to let the fastest runners go first, and got into one of the last heats for the adults, in lane 5. The gun sounded, I made a quick start, yet as I came around the first curve, all of the other runners were out in front of me. When I checked my Garmin times afterwards, I was amazed to learn that I had reached 12.2 mph in that section, even though everyone else was running faster! I passed the 200 meter point at 39 seconds, but couldn't maintain speed, crossing the finish line at 1:31 (91 seconds). On the backstretch I closed on the 7th place runner in lane 2 or 3, but I'm not sure if I passed her in the final steps. Even though I thought I was speeding up, that final straightaway appeared to be the slowest part of my race, but I was still moving at 9.8 mph, which is pretty fast for me.
20 minutes later, on a whim, I decided to run the 1500 meter race, instead of the 3000 meters. My heart rate had nearly recovered but I didn't think that I was up to doing the longer race. The 1500 meter race was 3-1/2 laps around the track. In the first full lap I found that I was boxed in between several other runners and was unable to speed up for awhile. And in the third lap, I was lapped by several runners gunning for the finish who were moving quite quickly. But when it was all done, I had finished the race in 6:59, and ran a pretty consistent pace throughout, slowest speed at 7.8 mph, and reaching 8.7 mph a couple of times including at the finish line.
After the 1500 meter race, I introduced myself to Tes Sobomehin, who has founded and leads the runningnerds group. I had passed her in the second lap of the race, but later she passed me with about 1-1/2 laps to go, and she finished strongly. It was nice to meet her in person after seeing for months her posts, announcements, and encouragements on the runningnerds website and Facebook pages. I definitely recommend checking out her links, for a lot of fun running-related activities. Maybe you will even join the runningnerdsnation! (I did so in January, and wore the runningnerds racing team (rrt) shirt at the Publix Georgia Half Marathon as well as the ATC Singleton 10K.)
When it was time to line up for the 3000 meter race, I decided, why not? I had felt great running the 1500 meter race in 7 minutes, considering that I couldn't run 1200 meters in less than 8:30 earlier in the day. I lined up in the second of the two heats, aiming to finish in 15 minutes, and began the race at a perfect and sustainable pace. After finishing the first 200 meters in 59 seconds, I realized that I would see the clock at the finish line precisely every 2 minutes if I stayed on the 5 minute per kilometer pace, so I aimed to beat 3 minutes on the clock, then 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 9 minutes, and so on. By the middle of the race, my pulse had reached 170 bpm, but then stayed steady at that level, safely below the 185 bpm maximum pulse rate for my age. I found that I was speeding up a bit on each stretch leading up to the lap marker to clear the line before the clock ticked over to the next minute, but managed to finish every lap with 58 or 59 seconds on the clock, except for the next-to-last lap when I momentarily saw 13:00 before I passed. Even though I recorded consistent 2 minute laps, my Garmin revealed a rather amazing range of speed within each lap, from 6.7 mph to 8.1 mph and every speed in between.
On the last lap I resolved to speed up as much as I could. The Garmin showed that I was never slower than 7.3 mph on the last lap, and sped up to 8.7 mph at the finish line. As I made the final turn, I sensed that the Norcross Elementary girls' track team was trying to catch me, at least that's what I heard their coach shouting, and I could hear their footsteps closing on me as we entered the straightaway, with less than 100 meters to go. I rallied every last bit of stretch to speed up. I was determined to prove that I was faster than a fifth-grader, sort of like an athletic version of Jeff Foxworthy's show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?"! I didn't see any blue Norcross Elementary shirts pass me at the end of the race, so I think that I succeeded in holding off the pack of 10-year old girls, but it was a very close call. I escaped by crossing the finish line at 14:58, so I was quite pleased with that race.
Overall it was a fun evening, and I felt redeemed after the poor performance in my morning workout. More importantly, I learned more about pacing for a variety of distances. And it was great to finally meet in person Daniel in the morning and Tes in the evening!
The one bright spot of the morning workout was meeting Daniel, aka Kurokitty or The Running Cat. He stopped to introduce himself to me during one of my walk breaks, as he was completing his own workout. His blog was the first running blog that I regularly followed, and really inspired me to begin blogging on my own. He has run at least 1 mile every day for the past 8-1/2 years, and I encourage you to check out his blog posts.
I wasn't sure if I would run in the All Comers meet this evening, but I had brought to work fresh running clothes and another pair of shoes just in case. A strong thunderstorm around 5:15 delayed the start of the meet, and resulted in cancellation of the field events. But around 7 pm, I could see from my office window that people were on the track for the early running events, and so I changed into running clothes and went to the track. My plan was to run the 400 meter race, to see if I could improve on my earlier time of 1:23, and then to run the last race of the evening, at 3000 meters.
The field was quite wet and I couldn't really warm up on the grass, but enjoyed watching the 50 meter dash for the kids, and 100 meters for adults. Then it was time for the 400 meter race. I held back from lining up to let the fastest runners go first, and got into one of the last heats for the adults, in lane 5. The gun sounded, I made a quick start, yet as I came around the first curve, all of the other runners were out in front of me. When I checked my Garmin times afterwards, I was amazed to learn that I had reached 12.2 mph in that section, even though everyone else was running faster! I passed the 200 meter point at 39 seconds, but couldn't maintain speed, crossing the finish line at 1:31 (91 seconds). On the backstretch I closed on the 7th place runner in lane 2 or 3, but I'm not sure if I passed her in the final steps. Even though I thought I was speeding up, that final straightaway appeared to be the slowest part of my race, but I was still moving at 9.8 mph, which is pretty fast for me.
20 minutes later, on a whim, I decided to run the 1500 meter race, instead of the 3000 meters. My heart rate had nearly recovered but I didn't think that I was up to doing the longer race. The 1500 meter race was 3-1/2 laps around the track. In the first full lap I found that I was boxed in between several other runners and was unable to speed up for awhile. And in the third lap, I was lapped by several runners gunning for the finish who were moving quite quickly. But when it was all done, I had finished the race in 6:59, and ran a pretty consistent pace throughout, slowest speed at 7.8 mph, and reaching 8.7 mph a couple of times including at the finish line.
After the 1500 meter race, I introduced myself to Tes Sobomehin, who has founded and leads the runningnerds group. I had passed her in the second lap of the race, but later she passed me with about 1-1/2 laps to go, and she finished strongly. It was nice to meet her in person after seeing for months her posts, announcements, and encouragements on the runningnerds website and Facebook pages. I definitely recommend checking out her links, for a lot of fun running-related activities. Maybe you will even join the runningnerdsnation! (I did so in January, and wore the runningnerds racing team (rrt) shirt at the Publix Georgia Half Marathon as well as the ATC Singleton 10K.)
When it was time to line up for the 3000 meter race, I decided, why not? I had felt great running the 1500 meter race in 7 minutes, considering that I couldn't run 1200 meters in less than 8:30 earlier in the day. I lined up in the second of the two heats, aiming to finish in 15 minutes, and began the race at a perfect and sustainable pace. After finishing the first 200 meters in 59 seconds, I realized that I would see the clock at the finish line precisely every 2 minutes if I stayed on the 5 minute per kilometer pace, so I aimed to beat 3 minutes on the clock, then 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 9 minutes, and so on. By the middle of the race, my pulse had reached 170 bpm, but then stayed steady at that level, safely below the 185 bpm maximum pulse rate for my age. I found that I was speeding up a bit on each stretch leading up to the lap marker to clear the line before the clock ticked over to the next minute, but managed to finish every lap with 58 or 59 seconds on the clock, except for the next-to-last lap when I momentarily saw 13:00 before I passed. Even though I recorded consistent 2 minute laps, my Garmin revealed a rather amazing range of speed within each lap, from 6.7 mph to 8.1 mph and every speed in between.
On the last lap I resolved to speed up as much as I could. The Garmin showed that I was never slower than 7.3 mph on the last lap, and sped up to 8.7 mph at the finish line. As I made the final turn, I sensed that the Norcross Elementary girls' track team was trying to catch me, at least that's what I heard their coach shouting, and I could hear their footsteps closing on me as we entered the straightaway, with less than 100 meters to go. I rallied every last bit of stretch to speed up. I was determined to prove that I was faster than a fifth-grader, sort of like an athletic version of Jeff Foxworthy's show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?"! I didn't see any blue Norcross Elementary shirts pass me at the end of the race, so I think that I succeeded in holding off the pack of 10-year old girls, but it was a very close call. I escaped by crossing the finish line at 14:58, so I was quite pleased with that race.
Overall it was a fun evening, and I felt redeemed after the poor performance in my morning workout. More importantly, I learned more about pacing for a variety of distances. And it was great to finally meet in person Daniel in the morning and Tes in the evening!
1 comment:
Nice meeting you too! And thanks for the shoutout!
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