May 27, 2020: 400 meter time trial, in lieu of the All-Comers Track Meet

The Atlanta Track Club had originally scheduled the All-Comers Track Meet, including two runnings of the 400-meter dash on May 12 and May 26.  These events were cancelled a couple of months ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I told Coach Carl that I still wanted to run a 400-meter time trial on one of these two dates.  

I even asked Carl about a training plan for 400-meter races, because I knew nothing more than "haul ass, stay in your lane, try not to die" which was my strategy in a 400-meter race in 2015, completing the distance in 1:23.38.  Carl recommended against training for this distance.  To quote, "It's a lot of really high-intensity, hating-life type work ... The 400m is definitely in the discussion for most painful track race (with other contenders being the 800m, steeplechase, and 400 hurdles)." 

To prepare, I watched a few YouTube videos in the preceding week.  The most helpful was narrated by Fallon Heddings because of the relative simplicity of her advice, per 100 meter segment:   

 

PUSH    PACE    POWER    PRAY

I could remember those stages in the midst of running.  The funniest video was from Latif Thomas, who managed to talk for 18 minutes about not vomiting in the 400 meter race, a distance that I hoped to complete in less than 90 seconds without spewing.  He had several more segments, breaking the race into the first 5 steps, the remainder of the first 50 meters, floating through the 50 - 200 meter stage, and re-investing in the race from 200 - 310 meters.  His advice for the last 90 meters was essentially the same as Fallon Heddings:  

"PRAY.  If you don't believe in God, make something up!"     

For inspiration, I watched a few videos of Michael Johnson running 400 meters, in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and a world record-breaking run in 1999.  

Remember Michael Johnson's golden racing flats?!

I ran the time trial on the track at Tucker Middle School.  The track is an old asphalt surface with six lanes, but most of the marks are badly faded.  The goalposts haven't been painted in years, and the goalpost on the east end of the field is sagging a few degrees to the right.  The net on the tennis court presents only a minor barrier to the ball.  A large branch of a mimosa tree hangs over the track just past 50 meters.  It reminds me of the mimosa tree that I enjoyed climbing in the front yard of my childhood home, incidentally the site of my first kiss.  But that's another story ....   

On the track, there aren't any divots in lane 1, other than a little muddy spot just past 200 meters.  Early on Monday morning, I ran 4 miles at an easy pace, mentally practicing the stages of PUSH - PACE - POWER - PRAY but not actually racing anything.  I finished the run with four 15-second strides for the only speedwork on the day.  I hadn't felt alert or energized until the end of the workout, when the first stride literally "turned on the lights", mentally waking me up.  Note to self: before I run the time trial, finish my warmup with a couple of strides! 

I had planned to run the time trial on Tuesday evening, close to the time of day that the All-Comers Meet was originally scheduled.  But when I arrived at Tucker Middle School around 7 pm, a couple of dozen people were walking the track, and a group of kids were playing soccer on the infield.  Having spent the day writing up a detailed plan for re-opening my research laboratory while adhering to physical distancing protocols, I quickly abandoned the idea of running the time trial around so many people.  I checked the weather report for Wednesday morning, saw a 40% chance of rain starting at 6 am, and decided to set an early alarm and try an early morning run, when I was pretty sure that I would have the track to myself, even if I had to run in the rain.  

Bonnie cut my hair last week,
to decrease air resistance while running. 

5:15 am, a mid-week "ass o'clock" alarm sounded.  Bonnie gently poked me, I turned off the alarm, and within a few minutes was out of bed, getting dressed, and eating a light breakfast.  Around 6 am, I drove 3 miles from home to Tucker Middle School, stepping onto the track a few minutes before sunrise.  No rain yet!  I warmed up with a couple of easy miles, finishing the workout with two 15-second strides.  Today I was already awake before doing the strides, but it felt good to run fast even briefly. 

Toeing the line

After taking a couple of sips of water, and a few rounds of dynamic leg swings, it was time to start.  I stepped up to the line marking the start-finish area, made sure that my watch was synched and ready, took a deep breath, and, and ...

The first steps make or break the race

PUSH!!  Remembering the "alactic" stage, I started running as fast as possible.  The 50 meter point came up quickly, past the mimosa tree, and nearing the end of the bend.  I felt a good rhythm, felt like I was running really fast, but certainly under control.  I thought about the principle of "whiplash" as I came off the bend, into the ...

50 meters in the time trial

Coming off of the first turn

PACE zone.  The idea was to conserve energy, "floating" down the straightaway, maintaining the pace that I had established through the bend.  I felt good, and resisted the temptation to glance at my watch.  I was running fast enough.  It didn't take long to approach the 200 meter area.  After running past the muddy spot, it was time to ...

Just past 200 meters

POWER!  The phrase "re-invest in the race" fit perfectly.  I went through the motion of acceleration, although I didn't feel like I had been moving that slowly to this stage.  But it was liberating to know that I was more than halfway through the time trial, and nothing hurt, not yet.  Coming off the last turn, I began to ...

The final straightaway.
The finish line is past the second trailer. 

PRAY!!  But I was so prepared for the last 100 meters that it didn't seem too bad.  I just kept pushing myself, driving myself forward.  I knew exactly where the finish line was located, even though I could not see the faded white line until I was a few meters away.  I fought the temptation to back off knowing that I was nearly done, until I had crossed the line and reached across my body to stop the watch, oops hit the wrong button, got it right on the second try.  

1:31.9, 0.40 km

If I was a little disappointed that I hadn't run a little faster, I was very happy with my technical execution of the race.  I didn't feel exhausted at 200 or 300 meters, so perhaps that is where I can improve.  I also realized that the 1:23 time that I had run in 2015 was recorded by another person acting as the timer, not by myself, so I probably ran closer to 1:30.  I walked a lap to let my heart rate settle down, then ran one mile at an easy pace to cooldown.  

I really did stay in lane 1 from start to finish.
I guess my left arm and the watch were hanging out over the infield.  

I seriously considered trying a second time trial this morning, but realized that might risk injury, and probably also disappointment, if I ran fast again without taking the time to recover.  Nonetheless I left today's time trial thinking that I want to try this again soon, perhaps working it into weekly speed work, to get closer to my edge.  

So let's see how I did: 

Pace is the blue line, the heart rate is red. 

I don't know the accuracy of my watch, based on the map above.  But it looks like I didn't start out very fast.  I reached the desired pace as I came off the first bend, then slowed as I floated down the backstretch.  My pace increased on the second turn as I re-invested in the race, and held steady through the finish line, if the graphic can be trusted. 

May 9, 2020: The Tucker Road Race 5K

Tucker Road Race 5K 2018: 28:36
Tucker Road Race 5K 2019: 25:43, 3rd place male 50 - 59 age group

January 31, 2020: Last day for early registration (above)
April 8, 2020: Announcement of virtual race (below)

April 30, 2020: Announcing the opening of the virtual race window

For my virtual race route, I decided to run the same route that I had taken on the previous week in the R.A.T. Race 5K, but in the opposite direction.  I should say that I planned the direction of last week's race route, so that I would run up the hill on Smithsonia Drive in the same direction of the race route.  I decided not to tackle the actual route, as there was too much distance without sidewalks on Old Norcross Road.

One of these days, I should come out here with a sponge and a bucket of soapy water.
Perhaps after I clean off the pollen and bird poop off of the mailbox in front of my house.... 

On race day morning, I awoke early, had a light breakfast, and warmed up with an easy 2-mile run to my starting position on Lake Ivanhoe Drive.  Conditions were perfect, about 45 degrees F but sunny.  Unfortunately, my attitude about running this race was negative.  Perhaps it was the mental exhaustion of having spent much of the past week grading on-line final exams, or a general malaise arising from bad news on several fronts, but my mind was not in the right place for a good performance this morning.  

Lake Ivanhoe Drive is the right fork at this intersection. 

Nevertheless, the 8 o'clock hour was approaching.  I had set up the race app on itsyourrace.com  and set my watch to synchronize, and started out without fanfare.  How I missed hearing the band play at the start of this race!

A symbolic place to begin my race? 

I started off pretty quickly, easily setting a 5 min / km pace heading downhill toward Lake Ivanhoe.  Turning right onto Templar Knight, I blasted through the first kilometer in 4:54. But that was not a pace that I could maintain.  Turning on Rothenwood Drive, then heading north meant that I was climbing a hill steeper than the one that I had just run down.  Fortunately the hill was not too long, and I was able to get back to a decent pace.  Turning left on to Webb Road was another steep uphill, but I managed to power my way through that challenge.  

Onto Chamblee Tucker Road, fortunately with sidewalks.  Second kilometer finished in 5:27, 10:21 elapsed.  I remembered tripping and falling several years ago on a sidewalk crack, so I kept a close eye on the path ahead, avoiding catastrophe.  A few minutes later, it was time to turn right onto Smithsonia Drive, now following the exact route of the Tucker Road Race.  Running downhill to Lucky Shoals creeklet, I tried to pick up a little speed, knowing that the big hill was coming up ahead.  Third kilometer finished in 5:19, 15:40.  Time to pick up the pace if I was going to finish in less than 26 minutes!

I was not ready to climb Smithsonia Mountain in this direction. 

Grinding up the big hill, I slowed dramatically.  I tried to push myself for another moment, but before I had reached the top, I mentally shattered on the hill.  

%*$@#*%$!!!!   I said out loud, as I slowed to .... a walk.  

My race was over.  My engine was blown.  Failure. 

Nothing to do but walk to the top of that big hill, and then start running again, more slowly than before.  Turning onto Goodfellows Road, I regained a little of my former pace, finishing the terrible fourth kilometer in 6:02, 21:42 elapsed.  Turning left onto Locksley Road, then right on Templar Knight to retrace my steps to finish near where I began, I picked up the pace just a bit in the final minute on Lake Ivanhoe Drive, with a respectable 5:17 for the last kilometer, stopping my watch at 27:03.  

Then I checked my phone and the itsyourrace.com app.  The app had recorded only a little more than a mile of my run.  Perhaps when my phone went to "sleep", the location stopped recording.  Well, I'm not running that race again.  In fact I plan to avoid any more virtual racing for the next few weeks, to give my legs a rest.  

After the race

In the 2-mile cooldown run home, I thought about what had gone wrong.  I had planned a route, but I totally failed to plan a race strategy.  The Smithsonia Hill was at the beginning of mile 1 in the official race route in 2018 and 2019, but in my own creation of a race route, the massive hill did not come until the very end of mile 1.  I should have prepared myself for that, perhaps with an easy practice run earlier in the week, so I would have gotten over the mental challenge in a no-stakes run.  

"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!"

  

Someone cleaned the road sign!  (and the mailbox)

May 2, 2020: The R.A.T. Race 5K

2020 is the Year of the Rat.  And what a ratty year it's been.  

January:  That was a good month.  We returned from a nice trip to the Philippines centered on the 100th anniversary of Bonnie's school where she grew up in Manila, capped off with a nice day walking around New York City before returning to Atlanta, in time for her 50th birthday party.  At the end of the month, Bonnie received the Han C. Choi Mentor Award for her service to the Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar Association (GAPABA) at the Lunar New Year Banquet.  She spoke about some of the "positive" qualities of the rat, including "immune, resilient" "and how many billions of lab rats have been sacrified to discover miraculous cures." and went on to suggest the negative connotations of "I smell a rat!  Snitches!!" could be turned to a more positive word: "Whistleblower!!"  "A whistleblower is a person who brings justice, uncovering evil, someone who has the courage to stand up to bullies, and shine a light on darkness.  

So this is really the year of the whistleblower!" 

February:  Despite Bonnie's attempt to start the Lunar New Year on a bright note, the year soon took a terrible turn.  On February 13, our family suffered the tragic death of Bonnie's cousin, Mina Chung.  We gathered at Mina's parents' hometown in Westchester County, New York for a small family funeral on February 29.  Fortunately none of us in attendance were infected with COVID-19, otherwise that could have been a super-spreader event, given how much we cried on each other that day.  It's all the more frightening because Westchester County was becoming one of the epicenters for the COVID-19 outbreak around that time, only we didn't know that until a couple of weeks later.  At that time, I was still in denial about the potential seriousness of this disease. 

March:  My highlight accomplishment of setting a personal record in the marathon on March 1 was largely overshadowed by the increasingly dire news of the spread of COVID-19.  I shut down my research laboratory on March 16, moving the essential materials for my teaching and writing activities to my home office for the remainder of the spring semester.  March was a scary month.  

The year of April:  Tragedy spread across the country.  The virus seemed so distant as we watched what China and then Italy were suffering, but struck the United States with a vengeance.  The number of cases and deaths rocketed exponentially upwards, to exceed 60,000 lost in the United States by the end of April.  As much as I had hated to shut down the lab in mid-March, it was soon apparent that Emory had acted in the nick of time, limiting the continued transmission of this deadly disease as we sheltered at home.  On the last day of April, the Atlanta Track Club announced that the Peachtree Road Race would be delayed until Thanksgiving day, November 26.  There was a lot of anger expressed about that move on Facebook.  But to be realistic, the Atlanta Track Club had no good options.  This won't be over by July 4.  I am skeptical that it will be safe to run a large race in November, but I'm willing to wait and see how things turn out in the fall.  

May:  The state of Georgia officially reopened last week.  However, most people are still sheltering, wearing masks when running essential errands such grocery shopping, and maintaining social distance.  The businesses that have reopened have done so very cautiously, and with many measures to protect employees and customers.  I myself will wait a few more weeks to see how things go before going out for a haircut.  From certain angles, I'm beginning to look a little like Larry from the Three Stooges.   

A couple more months of this, then I can audition for the next Three Stooges movie. 

Coach Carl arranged a virtual 5K for the runners in the Tuesday evening group training.  He came up with the clever acronym, R.A.T. race for "Running Alone Together", and even produced bibs for each participant, with our lucky number.  When Bonnie saw my bib, she reminded me that this is the Year of the Rat.  

After running hard last weekend for 4 miles, I wasn't too interested in pushing myself in today's 5K.  In addition, the training plan had me down for 10 miles with easy effort.  To ensure that I finished the entire workout, I woke up early and set out shortly after 6:30 am, to run at least 10K, including the 3.11 mile route that I had selected for today's 5K race.  It was a beautiful morning to run, around 50 deg F at sunrise.  I was seranaded by the birds from the beginning to the end of my run.  I returned to the house around 7:35 am, drank a glass of water, ate a banana and orange to replenish glycogen, and headed back out to the adjacent neighborhood where I would run the race.  For the past month, I've done my Monday morning runs in this neighborhood.  There are plenty of rolling hills, but nothing as steep as the trails at Lucky Shoals Park.  Best of all, there is hardly any automobile traffic on these streets.  The only downside is that I have to run about 0.3 miles from my own neighborhood along Old Norcross Road, which has no sidewalks, and cars routinely exceed the 35 mile per hour speed limit on this road.  Fortunately there is room to jump off of the road onto the grass in both directions whenever a car is in the incoming lane.  

At 8:00 am sharp, I lined up on Lake Ivanhoe Drive.  I knew from my previous runs that I would finish before reaching the busy intersection with Old Norcross Road, as long as I didn't start too far from the main road.  Looking ahead, I nodded approvingly to myself for the downhill start.  Of course I knew that I would have to run back up that hill near the end of the 5K distance, but I was ready for that.  Both of my regular readers know my mantra, "I love hills!"  

"Ready, set, go!" and I set off down the street.  After running the first 10K just under a 10 minute / mile pace, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was running at an 8:30 minute / mile pace.  Surely I could hold onto that pace for 5K.  In fact I picked up some speed as I continued running downhill toward Lake Ivanhoe itself, at the center of this neighborhood, just south of the Heritage Golf Course.  I turned onto Templar Knight Drive, trying to maintain a steady pace.  When I checked afterwards, it looked like I was continually slowing down and then speeding up.  Either I need a better watch, or I have discovered something that I should work on in training.  

This looks like really irregular pacing, and not just in response to the elevation changes.  

It's often said that "5Ks hurt!" and that is definitely true.  But they also pass by quickly, especially if the watch is set to alert every kilometer.   Hurray for the metric system!  As I turned left on the Locksley Road, I was greeted by a steady uphill route, but also with the 1 km alert, 5:01 minutes!  I didn't expect that.  Could I keep going at this pace for a 25 minute finish?  The right turn onto Goodfellows Road immediately put that goal into doubt.  Calm down, I said, I'm not really racing this.  Just get to the top of the hill, and there, that feels better.  Cruising down Goodfellows Road, I began to regain some speed, but then a modest little uphill section brought me back to reality.  At the top of the hill, Goodfellows turned left and acquired a new name, Smithsonia Drive.  I don't know how Smithsonia fits into Walter Scott's Ivanhoe mythology, but this part of the road has a 55 foot drop to Lucky Shoals creek near its source at Cofer Lake, just a few blocks to the south.  The 2 km alert sounded as I began to pick up some speed running downhill.  5:16 for kilometer 2, 10:17 elapsed.  As I crossed the creek, I took a quick look at my watch and saw 4:xx minute / kilometer.  But that didn't last as I started heading up the other side of the hill, on a 40 foot climb.  This is where my pace was briefly slower than 10 min / mile.  To minimize my time on Chamblee-Tucker Road, I turned one block early onto Smithsonia Way, regaining a decent pace until I encountered the next little hill at the intersection with Smithsonia Court.  I used to get terribly confused by all of these streets with the same name when I had to drive through here several years ago when Old Norcross Road was closed for road repair.  

As I approached Chamblee-Tucker Road, I saw my first social distancing challenge ahead: a woman power-walking through the intersection, heading north, the same direction that I was planning to run.  I thought briefly about just turning around and retracing my route, as I was surely more than halfway through the 5K distance.  But as I reached Chamblee-Tucker Road, I saw that the next car was still a couple of blocks away, and determined that I could speed past the woman while running on the side of the road.  I sped up to my fastest speed of the race, 8.3 mph according to Garmin, probably with a little downhill assist, and got back onto the sidewalk before the automobile had caught up with me.  In the midst of that drama, the 3 km alert sounded, 5:23 for kilometer 3, 15:40 elapsed.  

Gone, but not forgotten.  It's been nearly three years since Janet Pickney was killed
on Chamblee-Tucker Road during her morning run, about 1 mile south of here.  

If I remembered correctly, my route was net downhill from here to the finish, but by how much?  (20 feet, I discovered as I wrote this sentence.)   I turned right onto Webb Road, happy to get back onto a quiet street and with the additional benefit of heading downhill, toward the other side of Lake Ivanhoe.  Another right onto Rothenwood Drive, more gentle downhill running, although I was not running all that fast at this point.  Then there was a 20 foot hill that someone had put in the middle of the neighborhood.  Time for the mantra, "I love hills!"  Up and over, as the 4 km alert sounded, 5:27 for kilometer 4, 21:07 elapsed.  That came a little sooner than expected!  

Turning left to cross Lucky Shoals Creek once more, then left as Rothenwood Drive changed name to Templar Knight Drive.   Uphill.  I knew this when I set up the route, but this last kilometer was going to be tough.  Passing Locksley Road, I encountered my second social distancing obstacle.  A couple of residents walking their dogs were talking.  I was hoping that they would move to the same side of the street, but - they were obviously not residing in the same home, so instead they increased their social distance, leaving the middle of the road for me to pass through.  Fortunately the road was wide enough so that I was much more than six feet away from either person as I passed through.  And without any automobile traffic to contend with, I was perfectly safe running down the middle of the street.  Past Lady Rowena Court, looking ahead to the last turn onto Lake Ivanhoe Drive, I was faced with a 25 foot hill.  C'mon Frank, you love hills!  Channeling the strides that I did on Thursday evening, having run each one of them uphill, I went into the same motion, and started counting to 15 seconds, but couldn't maintain that speed.  My watch had ticked past 25 minutes elapsed, I still had a minute or more to run to reach the 5K mark.  At this point, I gave in to fatigue for a moment.  It didn't matter, this was just a virtual race, I had run more than 6 miles this morning before even starting the 5K.  Then I shook off the negativity as I crested the hill, put on one last burst of speed until I heard a quiet little beep marking the 5 kilometer mark, 5:18 for kilometer 5, 26:25 elapsed.  I slowed down, stopped the watch (26:29 for 5.02 km), and started walking slowly to recover my breath.  

The closest intersection to my finish line

That was an 8:30 minute / mile pace, somewhat slower than what I ran covering 4.00 miles last Saturday.  On the other hand, I would not have run 6.3 miles to warm up if I had cared about notching my best time in this 5K virtual race.  I checked Strava to see who else had finished, saw that Joey Maxwell had already congratulated me - which meant that he had finished well ahead of me - with an impressive 19:14.  Turns out that  Allan Tetley ran a 19:05, Katie Bennett 19:18, Kacy Seynders 21:54, and Robin Mitchell 23:56.  Several of these speedsters had qualified for the Boston Marathon and were well into their race preparations before the marathon was postponed until the fall.  There are a lot of fast runners in Coach Carl's training group!  

I picked up the last 0.7 miles of my 10.1 mile workout on the cooldown run home.   Unfortunately I tuned in late to the post-race Zoom call, as it was more important to me to take a quick shower and to make a protein-rich second breakfast than it was to log in precisely at 9:00 am, but I joined for the last few minutes.  

Still smiling after completing 10.1 miles total workout!