I finished my partial week (got parked for a few days by Achilles tendon injury) with one hard workout: a 6 x 1000 meters on Friday. I ran on the track in perfect running weather, so the only negative factor was that I started it at 7pm, which means it was already dark
It went OK: the splits were 3:36, 3:36, 3:38, 3:35, 3:43, 3:39. My goal was to keep the average below 3:40, which I succeeded in, but the workout became pretty hard by the end. I ran the first 3-4 repeats in the usual way: digging a bit deep in the straights, coasting in the curves, pushing the last 100 meters. When I realized that I'm a but faster than what I wanted, I cut back for the 4th repeat by keeping myself deliberately out of any oxygen debt, even for the last 100 meters. Then I pushed the last one, maybe even harder than the first 3, but by that time, I was exhausted, so I only managed 3:39. I deduced that my VDOT is a bit under 55, which is not too surprising given that I did limited mileage and not many workouts since early November. I also need to improve my LT max next, because the relative ease of the first few repeats, and the difficulty of the last one suggests deficiency in that department.
I'll try to get a full good week in next week, and then do whatever is necessary to win the PBGP master division. Even though I realized that final standings are not based on time, but on positions in age groups. Then, hopefully, off to marathon training.
Saturday, January 27
Wednesday, January 24
As I wrote in the previous posts, I pulled my Achilles tendon last week on a snowy run. Then I raced on it, and although it didn't affect my race performance, it aggravated the injury. So when I tried to run on it on Sunday (planned to do a 15-mile long run), I decided to quit after 3.5 miles, because it hurt, and it didn't get any better as the run progressed.
I skipped Monday and Tuesday, and my Achilles appreciated it: today I still felt it a bit in the morning, but after that, I couldn't tell by walking that I had any injury. So I tried a 9-miler, and it went fine. I felt a minor discomfort at some point, but I think (hope) I'm over it.
So I just jump back to training. I planned to do week 2, 4, and 6 of Phase IV, so I'll just jump back to the middle of week 2. Fortunately both today and tomorrow are easy days for an easy comeback. So here is the plan:
Th: 9 E
Fr: 2 E + 6 x 4 min H w/ 3 min jg + 1 E
Sa: 9 E
Next week:
Su: 15 L
Mo: 9 E + 6 ST
Tu: 3 E + 3 T + 2 min rest + 2 T + 1 E
We: 9 E
Th: Rest
Fr: 2 E + 8 x 3 min H w/ 2 min jg + 2 E
Sa: Whatever is needed to round out 60 miles for the week. Shouldn't be more than 9 miles.
I skipped Monday and Tuesday, and my Achilles appreciated it: today I still felt it a bit in the morning, but after that, I couldn't tell by walking that I had any injury. So I tried a 9-miler, and it went fine. I felt a minor discomfort at some point, but I think (hope) I'm over it.
So I just jump back to training. I planned to do week 2, 4, and 6 of Phase IV, so I'll just jump back to the middle of week 2. Fortunately both today and tomorrow are easy days for an easy comeback. So here is the plan:
Th: 9 E
Fr: 2 E + 6 x 4 min H w/ 3 min jg + 1 E
Sa: 9 E
Next week:
Su: 15 L
Mo: 9 E + 6 ST
Tu: 3 E + 3 T + 2 min rest + 2 T + 1 E
We: 9 E
Th: Rest
Fr: 2 E + 8 x 3 min H w/ 2 min jg + 2 E
Sa: Whatever is needed to round out 60 miles for the week. Shouldn't be more than 9 miles.
Saturday, January 20
Frostbite 5k Race Report
Goal: Run by feel. Preserve or increase overall lead in age group and/or master category.
The preparation for this was the usual, less than perfect, winter training, in which I got sick for about a week, and the usual busy schedule derailed my training a few times. The race got postponed by week, because last Friday night it started to snow, and very cold temperatures (~15 F) were expected for Saturday morning. This time, it was not too cold: just a few degrees above freezing, but this Friday was the first time in a week that the temperature rose above freezing, so the ice and snow didn't completely melt. Even worse: some parts of the race course was in a cold depression, and the melted ice froze back on the road during the night, and didn't melt again by the morning, so we had a half a mile of very slippery road.
Esther and I arrived to the park about an hour before the start. We warmed up, by jogging to the start line from the parking place, and we jogged around a bit more. I felt good, but not great. My Achilles kept bothering me, and despite the short run on Friday, I didn't feel well recovered. The 37 degrees in the park felt warm compared to what we had to endure since Christmas, but it is still less than ideal for running. I ran in long sleeves, shorts, gloves and cap, which was fine.
The race organizers informed us that some part of race course is very icy, so they would cut the distance to about 2.3 miles (3.7 km). That's bad news for me... 4 km is already too short, and this would be even shorter. Also, the race course they posted on-line is several years old, and they hadn't used it in many years, so what we previewed was already inaccurate, even without the modifications. I used to love this organizer company (River City Races), but they have had so many screwups recently...
We started right on time. I got boxed in a bit at the start again, but I didn't sweat the lost 1-2 seconds. Especially, because the race started with a half-mile uphill, so if you don't go crazy on it, it's fine. After pushing myself hard for a quarter mile to reach my VO2 max, I maintained a good 6:40-ish pace uphill, trying teeter on my VO2 max. Then we hit the top, and we were going down for a half of a mile (though the downhill was not quite as steep as the uphill). I had to be careful in the turns not to slip, and I did slow down. A stupid mistake could cost me the overall position. I also had to fall below my VO2 max, because even 4K is too long to maintain it for the whole race.
Mile 1: 6:08
The second mile started with another hill (about 0.3 mile long), similar grade as the first. Obviously I was a bit slower here, but I tried to race pretty aggressively. It is such a short race! On the other side we reached the bottom at around mile 1.7. Here in the "valley" the road was still frozen, and I had to slow down just because of that! One guy passed me, but he looked quite young, so I didn't bother to chase him. In fact I was kind of surprised how he can run so fast on such slippery road, when I realized that he ran on the snowy side, which is less slippery than the icy side. So I also started to run on the snow, but he still pulled away a bit.
Mile 2: 6:22
I started to push the pace, but I had to slow down one more time in a turn. Then I threw down a strong kick to finish at a 5:10 pace.
Last ~0.3 mile: 1:45
Total: 14:18 (14:15 chip time). 12th place overall out of 339, 1st in AG.
A bit regretfully, there were two runners within 4 seconds in front of me; though I was actually closing on them in the finish line. I got my age group win, but not the master win this time. Fortunately the master winner didn't run the first race, so I lead the master category of the Grand Prix by over a minute. Unless I really screw up the 4-miler next month, I can win the master division of the Polar Bear Grand Prix, not just the AG.
A bit embarrassing though that the grandmaster leader, a 53 year old guy has more than two minutes on me! It makes me feel like I don't really deserve a master trophy, if somebody who has over a decade on me is so much faster!
Goal: Run by feel. Preserve or increase overall lead in age group and/or master category.
The preparation for this was the usual, less than perfect, winter training, in which I got sick for about a week, and the usual busy schedule derailed my training a few times. The race got postponed by week, because last Friday night it started to snow, and very cold temperatures (~15 F) were expected for Saturday morning. This time, it was not too cold: just a few degrees above freezing, but this Friday was the first time in a week that the temperature rose above freezing, so the ice and snow didn't completely melt. Even worse: some parts of the race course was in a cold depression, and the melted ice froze back on the road during the night, and didn't melt again by the morning, so we had a half a mile of very slippery road.
Esther and I arrived to the park about an hour before the start. We warmed up, by jogging to the start line from the parking place, and we jogged around a bit more. I felt good, but not great. My Achilles kept bothering me, and despite the short run on Friday, I didn't feel well recovered. The 37 degrees in the park felt warm compared to what we had to endure since Christmas, but it is still less than ideal for running. I ran in long sleeves, shorts, gloves and cap, which was fine.
The race organizers informed us that some part of race course is very icy, so they would cut the distance to about 2.3 miles (3.7 km). That's bad news for me... 4 km is already too short, and this would be even shorter. Also, the race course they posted on-line is several years old, and they hadn't used it in many years, so what we previewed was already inaccurate, even without the modifications. I used to love this organizer company (River City Races), but they have had so many screwups recently...
We started right on time. I got boxed in a bit at the start again, but I didn't sweat the lost 1-2 seconds. Especially, because the race started with a half-mile uphill, so if you don't go crazy on it, it's fine. After pushing myself hard for a quarter mile to reach my VO2 max, I maintained a good 6:40-ish pace uphill, trying teeter on my VO2 max. Then we hit the top, and we were going down for a half of a mile (though the downhill was not quite as steep as the uphill). I had to be careful in the turns not to slip, and I did slow down. A stupid mistake could cost me the overall position. I also had to fall below my VO2 max, because even 4K is too long to maintain it for the whole race.
Mile 1: 6:08
The second mile started with another hill (about 0.3 mile long), similar grade as the first. Obviously I was a bit slower here, but I tried to race pretty aggressively. It is such a short race! On the other side we reached the bottom at around mile 1.7. Here in the "valley" the road was still frozen, and I had to slow down just because of that! One guy passed me, but he looked quite young, so I didn't bother to chase him. In fact I was kind of surprised how he can run so fast on such slippery road, when I realized that he ran on the snowy side, which is less slippery than the icy side. So I also started to run on the snow, but he still pulled away a bit.
Mile 2: 6:22
I started to push the pace, but I had to slow down one more time in a turn. Then I threw down a strong kick to finish at a 5:10 pace.
Last ~0.3 mile: 1:45
Total: 14:18 (14:15 chip time). 12th place overall out of 339, 1st in AG.
A bit regretfully, there were two runners within 4 seconds in front of me; though I was actually closing on them in the finish line. I got my age group win, but not the master win this time. Fortunately the master winner didn't run the first race, so I lead the master category of the Grand Prix by over a minute. Unless I really screw up the 4-miler next month, I can win the master division of the Polar Bear Grand Prix, not just the AG.
A bit embarrassing though that the grandmaster leader, a 53 year old guy has more than two minutes on me! It makes me feel like I don't really deserve a master trophy, if somebody who has over a decade on me is so much faster!
This is the training I did after the last post:
I ran the 9-miler on Friday, I rested on Saturday, and I wanted to run my Phase 3 week starting Sunday. We had snow and icy and freezing temperatures for the whole week, so it was impossible to run outside - at least for the first half of the week.
I got so busy on Monday, that I ran out of time, so I skipped that day. Otherwise the training was not too bad: on Sunday, after an easy warmup mile, I ran 10 miles at 6:42 pace (marathon pace), all treadmill. On Tuesday, I ran 10 intervals of 2 minutes VO2 max pace (5:50 pace) with 1 minutes of recovery, treadmill again. Then two easy days of 10 miles each, running outdoors on Thursday for the first time. It was still too much ice and snow on the ground, and I pulled my Achilles a bit... I only ran an easy race course preview on Friday, which turned out not to be the course that we ran on race day. More about this, in my next post: the race report.
I ran the 9-miler on Friday, I rested on Saturday, and I wanted to run my Phase 3 week starting Sunday. We had snow and icy and freezing temperatures for the whole week, so it was impossible to run outside - at least for the first half of the week.
I got so busy on Monday, that I ran out of time, so I skipped that day. Otherwise the training was not too bad: on Sunday, after an easy warmup mile, I ran 10 miles at 6:42 pace (marathon pace), all treadmill. On Tuesday, I ran 10 intervals of 2 minutes VO2 max pace (5:50 pace) with 1 minutes of recovery, treadmill again. Then two easy days of 10 miles each, running outdoors on Thursday for the first time. It was still too much ice and snow on the ground, and I pulled my Achilles a bit... I only ran an easy race course preview on Friday, which turned out not to be the course that we ran on race day. More about this, in my next post: the race report.
Friday, January 12
So much for my plans! I got sick and I had to skip 5 days of training, which was supposed to be basically the first week of Phase II training. Then, coming back, following Daniels's advice on unplanned breaks, I just did easy running for 5 days, and since the Frostbite 5K was supposed to be this weekend, I just did easy mileage until Thursday, planning a rest day for Friday.
OK, now the race got canceled due to inclement weather. Two weeks of Phase II is gone. I think I'll try one week of Phase II and 3 weeks of Phase IV. Hopefully it'll work.
So I'll probably just run another niner today, rest on Saturday, and start my Phase II week on Sunday.
OK, now the race got canceled due to inclement weather. Two weeks of Phase II is gone. I think I'll try one week of Phase II and 3 weeks of Phase IV. Hopefully it'll work.
So I'll probably just run another niner today, rest on Saturday, and start my Phase II week on Sunday.
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