Derby City 10K Race Report

Goal: sub-45.

Maybe this goal sounds soft, but given my current form, this is all I was hoping for. Still at peak mileage, I've had lots of cumulative fatigue, and somehow I can't seem to run fast nowadays.

I got up early, as usual, ate a good amount, and was out of the house by 6:00. The race was scheduled to start at 7:30. I parked the car at 6:15, and I departed for my 2-mile warmup. Very soon, I met with Craig (one of my running club bodies), who also did a warmup, although his was really a long run before the race. So I jogged with him a little. Then jogged around in the dark Waterfront Park to get to 2 miles. Just before I finished, I met Jessica (another teammate), who told me that due to impending thunderstorms, the start was delayed, and now it's scheduled for 8:00.

Around 7:15 we had a group photo, and then around 7:20, and I decided it's time to jog a little more to avoid cooling down entirely. But only a few minutes in, the thunderstorm hit, and I hurried back into the building of Slugger Field to watch the storm in desperation.

We got another delay notice: this time for 8:15. At 7:53, near the start line, I did my third warmup by jogging up and down a single block, next to the Angel's Envy distillery.

When I finished, I hurried into my corral. I lined up a little too close to the start, and I went out with the people doing sub-7 pace. I wanted to start at 7:15-ish, but got carried away, and my pace information was quite unreliable in the first few hundred yards, so I ran a first mile that was too fast, even though I let dozens of people pass me.

Mile 1: 6:58

I mean, I felt fine, but I knew I had no stamina, and my cumulative fatigue is real. So I tried to slow down, while managing the pace. Tried to focus on *comfortably* hard. We ran through downtown, with many 90 degree turns around the blocks. People still regularly passed me. I reminded myself just how much is left!

Mile 2: 7:01

Well, that's not much slower! I though I might try to hang on to that place, but again--it wouldn't have worked. So just relax, and be "comfortable".

During these miles many teammates passed me. All the more embarrassing.

Mile 3: 7:10

Finally, this sounds reasonable. We were back on Main St, a place I've seen a thousand times, but somehow nothing registered. In fact, I only noticed runners and myself. I sometimes tried to use other runners to pace me, but nobody had the right pace. Only one time I tried more seriously to tuck myself behind another guy, when we had some stronger headwind.

I noticed that one teammate, Alec, who passed me a was pulling away, didn't seem to pull away any more. I figured that I could try to get paced by him, if I can catch him. I slowly reeling him in, but by that time, he was definitely too slow for me, so I just passed him. He didn't end up having a good race.

Mile 4: 7:08

This split was assisted by a little downhill, so it's not actually faster. About the same as Mile 3. We hit the hard part of the course: a hilly out-and-back. I managed my effort, especially uphill. This was on Adams St, and the hills are very familiar to me. I saw the leaders, and then several fast teammates coming back.

Mile 5: 7:20

We turned around, and did the hills backwards. They felt easier this way, but maybe only because the finish line was closer. I was still running in a group of people, with spectators on the sidelines, and I was content in knowing that I'm pretty much guaranteed to be under 45 minutes.

Mile 6: 7:15

Left turn to the uphill finish line. Not long, but always a favorite!

Last 0.22: 1:40

Official chip time saved me 3 seconds at 44:29. That's a very satisfying result, and although going out fast wasn't ideal, I was able to moderate my pace quickly enough, and my heart rate was amazingly consistent during the race. This is probably not the fastest way to run a 10K, but it's still good training.

I had to go back to the car and then again to the finish line to change, and pick up my phone and stuff. It was OK. Also absolutely necessary, because I was soaked through completely. We tailgated a bit in the parking lot with the crew. That was great fun!

And I had a 17-miler coming up the following day!

The 600s were fine at 2:20, 2:21, 2:23, 2:23, 2:22 with 2 minute jog intervals. Surprisingly consistent, averaging 2:22, which is 95 s/400 m, a 49 VDOT. Funny that I can't perform my long runs and general aerobic to speeds consistent to that, but not my threshold and marathon paced runs. Patience, I guess.

So this week (-6) looks like this (including the run from yesterday):

M: Rest

T: 8 w/ 5 x 600 VO2max

W: 12 MLR

T: Rest

F: 5 R

S: 10 K tune-up, total ~10 miles

S: 17 L

Total: 52 miles

So I'm guessing I have to report on the last two weeks.

Week -8 was OK. The general aerobic and medium long runs were fine. The street 1/2-mile interval splits were 3:18, 3:15, 3:20, 3:20, 3:17 for an average of 3:18. Yes, that's slow. 98 sec 400 m, 47 VDOT. Excuses? Not much. Weather was nice, perhaps just that it was after a full day of teaching. I'll just train by 47 VDOT for now. Everything else is a bonus.

Week -7 was supposed to be at peak mileage. I couldn't get myself to do my Wednesday run though. Dark, cold, late, tired - and a 11-miler with an LT portion. No...

So on Thursday, which was supposed to be a rest day, I showed up at Thirsty Thursday, and in lieu of the Wednesday workout (which is not supposed to be made up), I decided to go with the fastest group I can follow. A new friend, Sam Meredith showed up, and he is a 1:10 half-marathoner. So I did my best to make it somewhat interesting for him, and we ran some fast miles. Not very long, not very structured, but I did run some low 7 paces.

And yes, I finished up the week. 12 + 5 + 20 miles, running 48 miles in 4 days. It nearly broke me... but I'm here, ready to do a workout after a single day of rest. I'm going to the Middletown Christian Church parking lot to do it with some friends. Plan and report later tonight.

Quick plan update:

M: Rest

T: 7 R w/ 6 x 100 strides

W: 11 w/ 7 @ LT

T: Rest

F: 12 MLR

S: 5 R

S: 20 L

Wednesday won't happen. Maybe 40 minutes at the lowest LT I can imagine... Things are not that good.

 

Week -9 is done; less then perfect, but it will do.

After the very easy Monday recovery (25 F), Tuesday was brutal: going out at 6:22pm for 14 miles in 22 degrees. My last water bottle froze shut by the end. so I ran the last 5 miles without water. Big snot and sub-20 temperature on Wednesday forced me on the treadmill, then two easy days with 0 and 6 miles (29 F).

Saturday was 16 with 12 at marathon pace, but it wasn't happening. Too cold (38 degrees), too hilly, too tired somehow. Still pushed it a bit, and I ran miles 5-10 pretty hard (essentially marathon pace or close), and the rest also decently fast. So I ended up averaging 8:05/mile (moving). Not sure why, but by the last mile, my legs didn't want to move.

OK, I'm slow as fuck, but at least I got the miles in. Last cycle I never exceeded 95 miles in consecutive weeks, and I've just cleared 106 these last two. Maybe that's why I'm slow.

Next week is recovery. Week -8:

S: Rest

M: 8 GA

T: 8 w/ 5 x 800 at 5K pace, 50-90% jog 

W: 5 R

T: Rest

F: 8 GA w/ 6 x 10 s hills + 8 x 100 strides

S: 14 MLR

This is not hard, though I'm not sure how fast I should do the 800s. Doing them by feel is not stupid.

I've finished week -11 reasonably well. I did all my miles. I cut the LT run to 5.5 miles, because I don;t want to go over 40 minutes, and because it sucked big time, and I was much slower than I expected.

My splits on that run were 6:58, 7:13, 7:19, 7:15, 7:15, 3:32 for the last 1/2 mile. After the first sub-7 mile, I knew it wasn't going to happen, so I slowed and ran the rest by feel. Well, that was my threshold on that day, in that temperature (29 F), in that part of the training. This comes out to be 7:11/mile on average. It looks like I'm not any faster than I was in October. This, and the MP run points to 47 VDOT, as opposed to my 48 VDOT in October. In fact, reading back my blog, I don't look any faster than in the last cycle. The only saving grace here is that I am much farther out.

Week -9:

S: Rest

M: 6 R

T: 14 MLR

W: 6 R

T: Rest

F: 6 R w/ 6 x 100 

S: 16 w/ 12 @ MP

Total: 48 miles

The only hard one is Saturday, but that's  plenty hard. I'll go out at 7:30's, and I'll see how long I can maintain it.

Also, the weather forecast is brutal. Wednesday will be snowing and temps are in the 10s, so that's a treadmill run for sure. Even Tuesday will be quite cold (low 20s), but I'll try that outside. The problem is that the snow won't melt until next week. So I may need to do my Saturday run indoors as well.

From my last post: "Last cycle this time I was was trouble. I skipped so many runs that I had to change to the 12 week cycle. At least I seem to be in better shape now."

Well, I jinxed it... I had a very busy Monday, and I just couldn't get myself to get out the door in the evening, in the dark and cold to do a 5-mile LT run. So I didn't. And as it happens sometimes, I just didn't run until Friday.

On Friday, I finally broke the spell, and I ran 7 miles. And on Saturday, I ran 17, the longest until now.

Why these mileages? I have no idea. Somehow I managed to totally misread the plan, because the Saturday run was supposed to be 18. Too late... The frosting on a bad week.

Let's try to correct it next week. It will be large.

M: 7 R w/ 6 x 100

T: 12 MLR

W: Rest

T: 10 w/ 6 @ LT (probably make that 40 minutes instead).

F: 5 R

S: 20 L

Total: 54 miles. LT should be under 7 min/mile, but who knows. It may be too hard. Medium and long runs should be a bit slower, because of the brutal mileage and effort.

The Thursday workout sucks, because if I do it at Thirsty Thursday, it will have to be solo. Maybe I'll do it in the morning.

Edit: I just realized an additional complication that Saturday is the MSF meeting. I think there is still no other way to do this week than running that day. But it won't be much fun!

Little hiccups in Week -13.

First, Monday LT run was still indoors. It was single digit cold outside. But I couldn't do it. I set the treadmill to slightly below 7 min/mile, and I was good for only 2.5 miles at that pace. My stride started to fall apart, and I had to slow down. I finished the rest at about 8:35 pace.

Then, for the marathon paced run on Saturday, I didn't feel particularly good to start with. Upset stomach, breathing issues, bathroom, inhaler, then go. Still cold outside: just above freezing. By the end of the run, the road was slick (which did slow me down). Still, the fast miles were slower than should have been: 7:21, 7:26, 7:29, 7:25, 7:34, 7:28, 7:34, 7:45, 7:53, 7:36.

Clearly I was done after mile 7. Still finished it as fast as I could without going into some crazy race effort. By that time it was dark, cold, and I was tired. the average is 7:33, which is not the end of the World, but that 7:53 mile there looks really bad (though that part was quite icy). Anyway, I'm not dwelling on it. It's still a fine training run. It's said though that there was a time when I could do 7:15 miles without noticing them much.

I'm definitely overweight (for a runner - at least 10 lbs too heavy), even heavier than a year ago. I eat like crap and I drink too much. So there is definitely space for improvements.

Week -12 is here. This is cutback week.

M: 8 w/ 10 x 100

T:  5 R

W: 8 GA

T: Rest

F: 4 R

S: 12 MLR

Total: 37 miles. No workouts. Looks easy. The 4 R on Friday could be shifted for Thursday for the group run. Finally the absurd cold will change into reasonably cold.

Last cycle this time I was was trouble. I skipped so many runs that I had to change to the 12 week cycle. At least I seem to be in better shape now.

Week -14 was fine. I had a program on Wednesday, so I shifted my 10-miler for Thursday, which went fine. I had a good 15-miler on Saturday. The weather is terrible, but this is spring training so it is expected.

Week -13 is like this:

M: 9 w/ 5 @ LT

T: 5 R

W: 10 GA

T: Rest

F: 5 R

S: 16 w/ 10 @ MP

Total: 45 miles.

I tried to run 5 at LT on Monday on the treadmill (because it was like 10 degrees outside), but I couldn't do it. Fast running on the TM is still harder for me than running outside. So I had to give up after 2.5 miles. That's OK. This part of the cycle is mostly for endurance anyway.

I ran the 10 GA outside (in 23 F) and it was OK. I preemptively used the inhaler.

Saturday the weather will be nicer. We will get above 40 degrees. I'll try to do that MP run, but no guarantees.

Week -15 is done. It was a sad one, because we have a foot of snow on the ground, so all my runs, except for Thirsty Thursday, was on the treadmill. But I did manage to do everything, so I've finished the week. The hard workout, the 4-mile LT run was alright: 6:57 pace for 4 miles on a treadmill. I still feel TM is harder than outside, but it's getting slightly easier as I get used to it.

It's Monday, so my first run is in the books. Week -14:

S: Rest

M: 8 GA with all kinds of crap, like strides and hills sprints, which won't happen on the treadmill. (And it didn't happen.)

T: 5 R

W: 10 GA

T: Rest

F: 4 R

S: 15 MLR

Shift the 4-mile recovery to Thursday, if I make it. Everything is most likely treadmill until Saturday. Saturday, we might get lucky. We'll see.

Total: 42 miles. It doesn't look too hard actually. Just miles.

Week -16 is done. The only challenging run was the marathon-paced: 8 out of 13 was to be run at marathon pace. The goal was sub-7:30, and that was accomplished. Indeed, the splits were 7:02, 7:19, 7:31, 7:19, 7:23, 7:31, 7:24, 7:17. This is a 7:21 average. A bit too fast, but not terribly: it puts me at around 49 VDOT, which is not entirely unreasonable.

Week -15:

S: Rest

M: 10 GA

T: 4 R

W: 8 w/ 4 @ LT

T: Rest

F: 4 R

S: 14 MLR

Total : 40 miles. Friday recovery is better to be done at Thirsty Thursday. LT pace is sub-7.