Reindeer Romp 4K Race Report

Goal: run it at perceived VO2 max.

The main goal of this race was to be a rust-buster after 8 months of no workouts. I ramped up my mileage to 47 miles as of last week, but still no fast running whatsoever. So I just wanted to race it for real, an honest effort.

Almost the whole family signed up! Flora was coming back from her break after the XC season, and Melinda ran her first race! Esther didn't want to race, because she is on her planned break, but she came out to support us.

We arrived at around 8:20, so we were ready for warmup. I jogged two easy miles. I was not feeling the greatest, but I was OK. It was a nice 42 degrees, and after an all night rain, we had high humidity and wet pavement (some puddles), but the rain stopped.

The race started exactly on time. I lined up in the front, Flora a bit behind, and Melinda toward the back.

The first mile was downhill. I went with one of the front groups (not the very front - they were way too fast). After stumbling over the young kids who lined up in the very front, I settled into a pace trying to focus on maximum oxygen consumption, but no oxygen debt. After the slope, a half mile flat section came. I felt the lactate burn in my muscles, but that's fine. It is expected to be over my lactate threshold.

Mile 1: 5:50

We hit the first uphill, and my pace dropped like a stone. This where I went much slower than two years ago, when I was in much better shape. I let some people pass me. I did not want to go over my VO2 max.

After the hill, I accelerated again. I started to feel the real pain. I glanced at my watch and we were at 1.8, so roughly 0.7 left. Esther was standing by course here cheering me on. There was a lady behind me; she said:

"Oh, first I thought it was your wife."
"No, she's my daughter. I'm 44."
"Well, I'm 42. Definitely older than these people around us."

Then after a pause "It is so nice that she came out to cheer you on."

I couldn't really respond. I was too out of breath. She definitely had more in tank than me. We circled the statue of Daniel Boone. Esther was there again, telling me that I only had a 1/2 mile left.

Mile 2: 6:57

But what a half mile! In includes a 1/4 mile uphill, going up the same hill as the one we ran down from at the start. It's the easier of the two on the course, but it still kills you, because it is so close to the end. It felt like I slowed way down, but looking at my paces, in fact I went a bit faster than on the other hill, and also a bit faster than two years ago, when my overall time was 44 seconds faster. Pretty much all of that was lost in mile 2 on the second hill.

The lady from behind passed me. I yelled "Go, youngster!" She did beat me by a few seconds in the the finish.

Last 0.5: 3:34 (~7:08 pace)

Total: 16:21. 11/483, 1st in AG. But only because a 40 year old male took the Masters win, and he wasn't counted. I also got beaten by a 55 year old guy. He ran 15:02.

I stayed to cheer on Flora, and then Melinda. Everyone did great! Flora won her age group, and Melinda ran much better than she expected!

I went for my cooldown lap after Melinda finished, and they started the awards while I was away. But I did arrive on time to hear the important results.

I actually took no after-race snack. 4 kilometers is still way too short for me. It doesn't really exhaust me - it just hurts a whole lot for 16-some minutes.

Now back to base building. Plan is to run long tomorrow, and then increase my mileage to 60 before the next race.

Base building is all fine: I'm up to 46.7 miles as of last week with a 13.4 mile long run. I'll do a cutback/mini taper next week before the first race of the PBGP.

Mon: Rest
Tue: 7 miles
Wed: 5 miles
Thu: 3 miles
Fri: Rest
Sat: 4K race, with a total of ~6 miles.
Sun: 10 miles

The weeks after that I jump back to base building.

Dec 16: 50 miles
Dec 23: 55 miles
Dec 30: 60 miles
Jan 6: cutback/mini taper for 5K

Jan 13: add some quality for the next two weeks, but start marathon training on February 3. The last race on the PBGP will be while on marathon training cycle.

April 25: Kentucky Derby Marathon!

A month went by and so far so good. I've been consistent and my body is holding up. I've increased my mileage to 42 miles per week as of this week. I can be close to 50 by the PBGP race 1, as I predicted.

I ran my long run of 12 miles today and it felt great. Despite the increasing mileage, I don't feel tired today.