Day Forty - Na Na Na Gonna Have A Good Time
Last night was our first test. A timed mile. We've known about this test for a couple weeks now, pretty much since Ramon and the other coaches started teaching us about effort levels. Going into the test I was actually sort of excited about it. I mean, we've been doing around 5 miles on our Wednesday sessions, so I was looking forward to running one single, little, baby timed mile as sort of a night off. How rudely I was awakened yesterday when I got the email about what we were actually going to be doing at practice.
The Intermediate runners (moi) were going to run a warm up mile, then turn around and run their first timed mile back to where we started. Then we were going to run a few minutes of recovery, then another timed mile. After that we were to recover again, and run a third timed mile. Shit.
On the way to practice I stopped off and bought something that I've actually needed for a couple of weeks now - a running watch. I checked out the fancy Nike ones, but rather than spend 80 bucks I decided to go with a much less sexy Timex number with a velcro strap. 25 bucks later I'm on my way to being able to time my splits. What a dork.
Dropped off the bag and headed over to the park. After our Mission Moment, which was really touching this week, we headed out on our warm up jog up the east side of the park. As has become the norm I sort of found my own running space somewhere in the middle of the pack. It's weird, I see groups running in front of me and groups running behind me, but for some reason I seem to be given a wide berth. Maybe I do look like Will Farrell streaking, I dunno. Or maybe it's just hard for me to hide the fact that I'm a genuinely unlikeable person. Regardless, it's kind of nice to be out there sort of on my own and doing my own thing at my own pace. It's really the only chance I've had lately to be alone, which is something that I tend to enjoy.
Anyway got up to the starting point and I found myself in the second group of about 30 or so runners. We got up to the line and I was a little worried. I tend to get competitive and mixing myself in with the Advanced and Intermediate folks tends to make me one of the slower runners in the group. I'm not...fast. I just tried to tell myself to ignore the fact that I was going to get smoked by most of the people in my group and to compete against myself. I thought that I might be able to run a mile in about 7:30. We started running and I set what I thought was a decent pace. Not sprinting but also definitely pushing myself. We were supposed to be running at an effort level of about 3.5, which I think I settled into pretty well. I was worried about starting too fast and gassing towards the end, but as I got about half way I felt really strong and actually picked it up. I would say I was definitely in the latter half of my group, but after the first 15 seconds or so I didn't get passed and I was actually catching up to some of the faster runners. Just so you know, we were all sort of running against the natural flow of traffic and there was quite a bit of it last night. At one point I got caught behind a group of slower runners and after checking my blind spot I decided to make a move to pass them. I didn't see the guy running full on towards me until a couple steps before we would have collided and while I was able to duck out of his way the guy behind me almost didn't see him coming because I was in the way. My bad. Gotta brush up on that etiquette, I guess. I pushed it towards the end and crossed the line at 7:41. About 10 seconds slower than I would have liked to have run a mile, but all in all, I was happy with the time.
And now it was time to recover. As I was catching my breath and jogging slowly I started to get a little nervous about mile #2. I was worried that maybe I had, for lack of a better term, shot my load on the first one and that I would suffer for it. I wanted to keep the three miles somewhere in the same vicinity time wise and I didn't know if I could match the pace I had set. I got to the turnaround and headed back to the start line. I passed a couple of mentors on my way who were chatting about strategy for their next mile. When I passed them I got really paranoid that I was doing my recovery lap too quickly. I got to the start and took off again. Within a minute or so one of the mentors just cruised past me. Seriously, it was like I was going backwards. For a second my competitive streak told me to try and keep his pace and I'm glad I didn't listen because I would have been dead meat after about a minute. He just kept getting smaller and smaller way ahead of me and I just had to concentrate on keeping my pace and not giving myself a cramp. Got to the turn at the 3/4 of a mile mark and used it as a place to start my kick - no similar landmark going the other way. I got to the finish and was mildly surprised to see that I had improved on my first mile. My time was 7:37. Not bad.
Started my recovery lap on the west side and realized that one more of these was about all I had left in me - if that. My calves tightened up and I was really felling the strain in my knees. I was watching other runners trying to figure out what they do to make it look so much easier but I couldn't put my finger on it. I just tend to run "heavy" in the sense that my feet and knees take a lot of abuse. I have tried to alter my stride so that the impact is less, but it still feels like I am just slamming my feet down as I go while other people seem to have a much better glide going for them. My lack of speed, I suppose, is only secondary to my lack of grace. I hit the turnaround and headed back, pretty much giving up all hope of a sub 8:00 mile on my third try. Got to the start and just went as hard as I could. Again, not a sprint, but as hard as I estimated I could go for a mile. Hit the quarter mile marker and thought to myself that there is no way I'm gonna finish this one on pace. I saw a couple guys about 100 yards in front of me really start to pull away and felt like I was going in slow motion. I had passed a few people on the second part of my recovery who were headed in the other direction and I was getting scared that I would see them pass me despite my ridiculous head start. As I got towards the final stretch I went into an all out sprint, hoping to save my time from being too far off the first two miles. I crossed and looked down at my watch expecting the worst and saw that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. 7:47. I would have loved for my third mile to be my fastest, or to even have been within a second or two of my first mile, but keeping it under 8:00 made me happy and I wasn't too upset by the whole thing. Something to work on improving...
...speaking of which - we'll be tested again in November. After 6 weeks of hill training. Wish us luck.
Fundrasing thanks today go out to Howard. Much appreciation for bringing me within spitting distance of the 50% mark.
Headed to the gym today to knock out about 5 miles which I'll then come back and tell you all about in great detail. I'm sure you're waiting breathlessly. Until then...
DAY 40
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 5.7
TOTAL MILEAGE: 91.2
The Intermediate runners (moi) were going to run a warm up mile, then turn around and run their first timed mile back to where we started. Then we were going to run a few minutes of recovery, then another timed mile. After that we were to recover again, and run a third timed mile. Shit.
On the way to practice I stopped off and bought something that I've actually needed for a couple of weeks now - a running watch. I checked out the fancy Nike ones, but rather than spend 80 bucks I decided to go with a much less sexy Timex number with a velcro strap. 25 bucks later I'm on my way to being able to time my splits. What a dork.
Dropped off the bag and headed over to the park. After our Mission Moment, which was really touching this week, we headed out on our warm up jog up the east side of the park. As has become the norm I sort of found my own running space somewhere in the middle of the pack. It's weird, I see groups running in front of me and groups running behind me, but for some reason I seem to be given a wide berth. Maybe I do look like Will Farrell streaking, I dunno. Or maybe it's just hard for me to hide the fact that I'm a genuinely unlikeable person. Regardless, it's kind of nice to be out there sort of on my own and doing my own thing at my own pace. It's really the only chance I've had lately to be alone, which is something that I tend to enjoy.
Anyway got up to the starting point and I found myself in the second group of about 30 or so runners. We got up to the line and I was a little worried. I tend to get competitive and mixing myself in with the Advanced and Intermediate folks tends to make me one of the slower runners in the group. I'm not...fast. I just tried to tell myself to ignore the fact that I was going to get smoked by most of the people in my group and to compete against myself. I thought that I might be able to run a mile in about 7:30. We started running and I set what I thought was a decent pace. Not sprinting but also definitely pushing myself. We were supposed to be running at an effort level of about 3.5, which I think I settled into pretty well. I was worried about starting too fast and gassing towards the end, but as I got about half way I felt really strong and actually picked it up. I would say I was definitely in the latter half of my group, but after the first 15 seconds or so I didn't get passed and I was actually catching up to some of the faster runners. Just so you know, we were all sort of running against the natural flow of traffic and there was quite a bit of it last night. At one point I got caught behind a group of slower runners and after checking my blind spot I decided to make a move to pass them. I didn't see the guy running full on towards me until a couple steps before we would have collided and while I was able to duck out of his way the guy behind me almost didn't see him coming because I was in the way. My bad. Gotta brush up on that etiquette, I guess. I pushed it towards the end and crossed the line at 7:41. About 10 seconds slower than I would have liked to have run a mile, but all in all, I was happy with the time.
And now it was time to recover. As I was catching my breath and jogging slowly I started to get a little nervous about mile #2. I was worried that maybe I had, for lack of a better term, shot my load on the first one and that I would suffer for it. I wanted to keep the three miles somewhere in the same vicinity time wise and I didn't know if I could match the pace I had set. I got to the turnaround and headed back to the start line. I passed a couple of mentors on my way who were chatting about strategy for their next mile. When I passed them I got really paranoid that I was doing my recovery lap too quickly. I got to the start and took off again. Within a minute or so one of the mentors just cruised past me. Seriously, it was like I was going backwards. For a second my competitive streak told me to try and keep his pace and I'm glad I didn't listen because I would have been dead meat after about a minute. He just kept getting smaller and smaller way ahead of me and I just had to concentrate on keeping my pace and not giving myself a cramp. Got to the turn at the 3/4 of a mile mark and used it as a place to start my kick - no similar landmark going the other way. I got to the finish and was mildly surprised to see that I had improved on my first mile. My time was 7:37. Not bad.
Started my recovery lap on the west side and realized that one more of these was about all I had left in me - if that. My calves tightened up and I was really felling the strain in my knees. I was watching other runners trying to figure out what they do to make it look so much easier but I couldn't put my finger on it. I just tend to run "heavy" in the sense that my feet and knees take a lot of abuse. I have tried to alter my stride so that the impact is less, but it still feels like I am just slamming my feet down as I go while other people seem to have a much better glide going for them. My lack of speed, I suppose, is only secondary to my lack of grace. I hit the turnaround and headed back, pretty much giving up all hope of a sub 8:00 mile on my third try. Got to the start and just went as hard as I could. Again, not a sprint, but as hard as I estimated I could go for a mile. Hit the quarter mile marker and thought to myself that there is no way I'm gonna finish this one on pace. I saw a couple guys about 100 yards in front of me really start to pull away and felt like I was going in slow motion. I had passed a few people on the second part of my recovery who were headed in the other direction and I was getting scared that I would see them pass me despite my ridiculous head start. As I got towards the final stretch I went into an all out sprint, hoping to save my time from being too far off the first two miles. I crossed and looked down at my watch expecting the worst and saw that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. 7:47. I would have loved for my third mile to be my fastest, or to even have been within a second or two of my first mile, but keeping it under 8:00 made me happy and I wasn't too upset by the whole thing. Something to work on improving...
...speaking of which - we'll be tested again in November. After 6 weeks of hill training. Wish us luck.
Fundrasing thanks today go out to Howard. Much appreciation for bringing me within spitting distance of the 50% mark.
Headed to the gym today to knock out about 5 miles which I'll then come back and tell you all about in great detail. I'm sure you're waiting breathlessly. Until then...
DAY 40
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 5.7
TOTAL MILEAGE: 91.2
posted by Demps at 7:35 AM
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