Jefferson Memorial Forest Siltstone Trail kicked my butt this morning. I finished the run because I reached the 2-hour limit imposed by Daniels, and it only took me to 12 miles. I'll have to run on Tuesday to get to 60 this week.

Interval training today, and I made a few mistakes. First, I wanted to run to the track as warmup, but I on the way I realized that I looked at the wrong week for training, so I had to run home to figure out what to run. Then I drove to the track, finished the warmup. Then I miscounted the 200s after the cruise intervals, and I ran an extra. I didn't even realize that until I downloaded my splits.

4 x 200 w/200 jg + 4 x 1 mile w/1 min + 5 x 200 w/200 jg

200s average: 39.8 (perfect, I was aiming for 40)

Mile average: 6:18 (just a bit fast, I was aiming for 6:20)

It was a hard workout, but not painful at any moment. Quite happy with it, especially at the end of a 60-mile week.

Week 2 of Phase II. Total of 60 miles.

Sun: 12 L trail
Mon: 8.5 E + 10 ST
Tue: 4 E
Wed: 8.5 E + 8 ST
Thu: 5K time trial; add second E to get to 8.5 miles
Fri: 8 E + 8 ST
Sat: 2 E + 5 x 1 T w/ 1 min rests + 6 x 200 R w/ 200 jg + 2 E = 10.5 miles

I ran repetitions today at Iroquois High School track. It was a long workout with 4 x 200 + 6 x 400 + 4 x 200, so with warmup and cooldown, I ran a total of 40 laps, or 16 kilometers.

The 200s were an average of 38.5 sec, the 400s were 80.1 sec. It should have been 40 and 81, and I'm not happy that I ran too fast. I'm worried that it may have taken too much out of me. But I did try to slow down! In fact as the workout progressed, it felt easier to run my times. So every time I decided to take it easier, it was still too fast. I hope this won't hurt my training.

In any case, this was easier than I expected. I wasn't any more tired at the end than at the end of any 10 mile run. It was never painful, hardly any discomfort. I clearly ran in my anaerobic zone, but always short enough that I never struggled.

After the "rest" week after the piggyback 5K, it's time to resume real training. I decided to try something different this time. I finally bought Daniels' Running Formula, so I'll try to use that one. I picked the specific 5K plan for 60-70 miles/week; at the beginning I'll be probably at 60 for at least few weeks. I'm also not entirely sure I want to move up from there given the 3 (!) workouts per week. I do have some base, so I'm starting on Phase II. Plus I want to be ready by early spring.

Paces for VDOT=55:
E: 7:21-8:18 min/mile
200 R: 40 sec
400 R: 81 sec
T: 6:20 min/mile

60-70 mpw 5K plan, Phase II, Week 1:

Sun: 15 L
Mon: 9 E + 10 ST
Tue: Rest
Wed: 2 E + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 6 x 400 R w/400 jg + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 3 E = 10 miles
Thu: 9 E + 8 ST
Fri: 7 E + 8 ST
Sat: 2 E + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 4 x 1 T w/1 min rest + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 2 E = 10 miles

I've just read about the Morris Island Lighthouse again, and I realized that my first race was the "Save the Light" 5K in 2009. I went back and read my race report. I ran the race in 22:03, about which I was satisfied, and I wrote: "One day, I may be able to run a sub-20 5K." Isn't that funny that running sub-20 is now very easy for me, and I'm working on sub-18? Even though I'm more than 5 years older.

Run with our Heroes 5K Race Report

Goal: sub-19:00 and winning my age group

I signed up for this 5K because I decided to go into 5K mode over the winter, and three weeks out of my half marathon I wanted to gauge my 5K shape. I chose this one, because this was the weekend when I had time on Saturday morning (isn't that crazy?), and especially because the location was the UofL campus, and UofL participated in organizing the race. The race course actually went by the building I work in, twice!

The course was looping around campus with *lots* of turns, but the final version of the course had no u-turns. It was mostly flat, but there were two somewhat significant inclines: we went over an overpass right after the start, and then under one in the last mile.

It was uncharacteristically cold in the morning: temperature was 22F, which went up to about 25 by start time. Still too cold to race. I also had problems with my training the week leading up to the race, because I was too busy with work. I didn't run on Tuesday and Thursday, and I only ran after 8:00pm on Friday: a brisk 4 miles at 7:20/mile, which might have been a bit too fast considering that I was about to race within 12 hours. So given the cold, the turns, the training, and my not so great last track workout (November 9, see my notes there), I decided to aim for a sub-19 minute finish time. However, driving to the place in the morning, I decided to give myself a chance to PR and not to be afraid to run a sub-6 minute first mile if I would feel up to it.

I arrived around 7:30 for the 8:00 start, and ran 1.5-2 miles easy in my coat and sweatpants (over tights). Got back to my car at 7:45, shed the coat and the pants, so now I was in long sleeves (over a shirt), tights, and shorts over them, gloves, my warm hat, and my trusted Virratas. Meanwhile my family had arrived, and watched me run a few strides. After the opening ceremony (it was a Veteran's Day event), we lined up at 8:05. It was a small event with probably less than 100 runners, so I lined up in the front. At 8:07 we were off.

Two kids jumped out in front of me, so I had to run around them after 200 yards when they realized the race was a bit longer than that. :) A guy on my right went out even faster than the kids, but he seemed to keep a good pace; I was running behind him up on the overpass in second place. I checked my pace on the top and it was just below 6 min/mile, which is a bit scary given that we went uphill. I dialed back a bit, and the leader started to pull away.

At the half mile point we reached the end of the overpass, and it seemed like the leader was slowing drastically. What a jackrabbit! First I wanted to hang behind him a bit, but he got so slow that I worried that others will catch us, so I passed him. Then it was only the "lead car", which was an ATV in front of me. Unfortunately ATVs don't have to pass strict emission standards (I guess), and the exhaust did bother me when he let me close. But they had to use one, because we were using campus walkways where cars could not pass through. Maybe I should suggest a bicycle for next year.

Mile 1: 5:55

Good pace. I looked back and I saw the second place runners at least a hundred meters behind me. I gave him this distance in like 600 meters. So at this point I knew a few things: (1) I'm racing to win this race now, or at least to place high in the overall; (2) the original leader is probably not a factor; (3) people are probably coming behind him, who'd love if I blew up. So I changed to a somewhat more conservative pace. This was a flat portion; we went into the heart of campus, to the car free walkways; ran under the breezeway of a building. Straight visibility was more limited, so I waited for a longer straight walkway to glance back, and I saw nobody behind me. The driver of the ATV saw me glancing back, and he shouted back: "You're all alone, buddy!"

Mile 2: 6:05

We had the hardest incline still ahead. I glanced back a few times, but I never saw anyone. I did keep some reserve power in case somebody would show up. We went up the hill, where I ran pretty slowly, turned a corner, and to my surprise, the lead ATV went straight ahead toward the finish line. I remembered an extra loop from the course map (I am very familiar with the area), but the volunteers directed us clearly to the road. Later I learned that they did this on purpose: the original course was determined to be too long, so they cut out the loop. Well, this made the course too short then... After a few moments I realized that this meant that the course would be under 3 miles. So I glanced back (still nobody), started my kick; then I had to slow back down a bit, because I started too far out. :) Of course I was in pain, but then I saw the finish line, and then I didn't feel the pain any more. I scanned the crowd and saw my wife and kids, cheering, and I couldn't help but smile; raised my hands, and ran through the finish in the 1st place.

Mile 2.94: 5:30 (5:51/mile pace)

Total time: 17:30ish for 2.94 miles.

It's kind of a bummer that it was short, but I have no chance of winning any serious race anyway. It was a great experience to win my first race outright. My older daughter, who is 11, told me that she almost cried, she was so proud to see her dad being the best of a crowd of runners. That alone was worth it.

This pace projects to about 18:30 for 5 kilometers, which is right at my PR. Meaning that I'm in as good shape for the 5K as I have ever been. I received a beautiful glass (or plexiglass) trophy in a very nice award ceremony.

So the work is just starting now. The cold is not a problem, if one only has to run a few miles. I'll train hard, I'll train smart, and I'll go below 18 minutes by this spring.

PS: Official results are now posted. My time was 17:31. Curious fact that the original leader finished at 4th place with 18:38.

Week -1 is finished with 49 miles, and the quality workout on Saturday was OK. I ran 2 x 1.25 miles on a blacktop high school track. I had to try two tracks to find one that was available... I really do hate scrambling for tracks on a Saturday... And it was a busy day with the kids with me, who were just nice enough to entertain themselves for an hour at the track facility while I was running my total of 33 laps for about 1 hour.

So the fast splits were 7:19 and 7:23, and this is OK, given that the goal was 7:26 or better. But it's a bit of a scary thought that I'll need to run this pace for a PR for 3.1 miles on Saturday. I might just need to be satisfied with a sub-19 time, especially given that the course has a crazy number of turns, and at least one of them seems to be a 180 on a walking path.

Race week plan:
Mini taper, and the Pfitzinger plan really doesn't apply well. Also, Thursday will be forced rest day.

Sun: 7 miles.
Mon: 8 miles.
Tue: 4 miles.
Wed: 8 miles.
Thu: Rest.
Fri: 4 miles.
Saturday: Race.

I did a laid back recovery week after the race by only running when I felt like it. With the busy week I had, I only ran 20 miles. (I did swim 30 minutes on Wednesday.) I did a workout today at the track: 3018 meters (1.875 miles) in 10:59. Quite a weak performance. I wasn't into it at all: I went out too hard, then I couldn't get myself to push, it was too cold, etc. Goal was sub-11, so I did that, but it was hard as hell with the last two laps deep in the paincave.

Next week I'm getting back to regular running. I'll follow the last 3 weeks of Pfitzinger's Schedule C with added miles to make 70 miles = 100%.

Week -2: 49 miles

Long runs: 9 and 7 miles.

VO2 max: 2 x 2K at 5K goal pace. That is 5:57/mile (for 18:30) or 1:29/lap, 7:26/rep on imperial track, 1:28/lap, 7:22/rep on metric track. This should be doable. My 3K today was run at 5:52/mile pace. So if the first feels easy, I'll push the second a bit harder.

Easy runs: Average 8.25/day. Ideally doubles.