The Running Geek

End of Season – Fitness Loss – Time Off

The final race of the season was this past Sunday. Coming off a HUGE PB from 3 weeks back I wasn’t too worried about running another personal best in this race, especially since I had ran about a half dozen times the previous 3 weeks and done no real ‘training’ other then easy runs.

My wife and I were in the Canadian Rockies for a week and a bit touring around and needless to say we ate and drank a fair bit. I don’t have exact facts on how our fitness degrades over time but I knew I had lost some of what I had in mid September, so I decided to not put any huge expectations on myself.

I ran this exact race last year, came in 2nd (kind of, the 1st place runner went out very quick and supposedly got lost on the course), and ran a new PB. This was my first sub-40 10K.

This year I had a goal an ultimate goal to run around 37:30 and possibly try to win the race. There were 500 entrants so I figured there would definitely be some competition from somewhere.

The race went out at a fast pace (for me at least) at around 3:20 a K. The person who started right beside me took the lead and built on it right from the very first stride. I ended up in a pack with 3 other people. We stuck together for the first KM or two and then I made a move and pulled away. I continued to gain on them for the remainder of the race.

This was good and bad for me. The bad is that it’s tough to maintain a quick pace on your own that’s much above your comfort fitness level which for me is around 3:53-3:50 per K. My previous race I had another fellow with me for the majority of the race so I was pushing far harder then I do when it’s just me trying to maintain pace.

I’m not disappointed with the result. I came in 2nd and ran a 38:12. Like I said earlier I have no idea what sort of fitness loss I may have had over a 3 week off training period, so I won’t criticize the time, but I’ll surely take the 2nd place finish.

Time Off

So as I did this time last year, I’m going to move to an off training period for a couple of weeks and then into my Build-up which will get my cardio going again before moving onwards to more training sessions.

My next race isn’t until February, my first Half Marathon, but it’ll be in the snow so more of a distance test then anything.

I didn’t post much through the winter last year, so I’ll try to be more consistent with that this season.

Navy 10K Results

I unfortunately didn’t reach my target time yesterday, but I’m not going to dwell on that. I ran a 38:35 and considering everything I was happy with it. I wasn’t “anal retentive” with my race week routine and we went out to dinner at a friends place the night before and got home around half past midnight. I enjoyed the night out with friends, so all-in-all if I can run a sub 39 on 5 hours sleep and after a couple of beers the night before, I’m happy with it.

However in saying that, I have two races left this season (10 K’s that is) and I’m going to buckle down for the next 7 weeks or so to do what I can to improve all aspects.

The race wasn’t too tough, but it was a humid morning.

I followed my plan to go out a bit slower and my 1st KM split was about 3:43. Not too bad, although I still had a time feeling a bit dained part way through the race so am not sure that going out any slower makes a HUGE difference for me.

My splits for the 5K’s were:
First: 18:55
Second: 19:29

It was a 5K loop which was run twice so it’s a fair comparison of the first and second split.

Reflecting on These Results

When I look at my 2K training times this result makes sense. I am training my 2K’s at a 38:30 pace. To get to the next level I need to push those 2K’s to a point where I’m doing 37:30 pace or so. What does this mean in terms of time?

Well if I’ve been doing them around 7:40 – 7:45 I need to drop that to 7:30 – 7:35 or so. I have not done them this quick, and I know it will be challenging, but to get to the next level I think is going to be a big part of it.

I’m considering changing up a bit of my training routine and am going to re-read the training material from McMillian Running. I use his calculator often to look at paces I should be doing my training sessions at and also to play around with what my equivalent performances are based on past race results. You can get to his calculator from the Blogroll link in my side bar.

I’ll post my thoughts on my training plan changes, if they come about, later this week.

Still no new shoes, but I think I’ve decided to pick up a pair of Saucony Ride 3′s or 4′s for now. I’m going to pass on the lightweight minimalist trainers. Also I’m going to go back to wearing my trainers for my speed sessions as well to ensure I get more longevity out of my light weight Saucony Mirgae.

Time For New Shoes and a Training Update

This week has been a bit of a blur. It’s Thursday already and I have a 10K race this Sunday. I was out this morning for an easy 40 min run, did about 8.6KM at a 4:35 per KM or so pace. It felt pretty good, but I missed my 6 x 600 M workout yesterday due to other commitments.

Tomorrow brings my 6 x 1 Min Fartlek session and then a day off on Saturday before race day on Sunday.

Race Goals

My ultimate goal for Sunday’s race is to run 37:30. This will put me on good pace to break 37 minutes later this season, but if it doesn’t happen life will go one.

To run 37:30 I must run some where around 3:45 min / KM splits.

So that brings me to my second goal which is to start out slow.

The past few races I’ve run I’ve gone out far too quickly and it’s left me feeling BLAH to say the least at the mid point of the race. I almost always finish strong, so this time I want to go out at my goal pace and recognize that I’m not looking to win or anything, I just need to keep a steady pace through out and then finish hard.

The race is 2 x 5K loops, and I’m pretty familiar with the course as I spent a lot of last year running the same route for training purposes as it used to be close to my office.

I’ve spoken with a couple of other runners that have said that the route is quite a bit shorter then 10KM, I’ll know I guess once I”m done and see what my Garmin 305 says.

For my watch I’m going to have it run without calculating 1KM intervals. Instead I’ll allow it to track my pace cumulatively. This way when I glance down what I’ll see is my average lap pace and since the entire race will be calculated as one lap the average pace will be what my average moving pace has been for the race to that point.

New Shoes

So I’m on the hunt now for new shoes. I’ve been running the past year and a half or more in Saucony Guide 3′s. I’ve gone through 3 pairs and I think I’m ready for a change. I’m considering the Saucony Ride’s as they are a similar shoe but lack the supportive post that runs under the arch. I have a pretty normal Gait so don’t really need the support. I discovered this earlier this year in Physio when I found out I had an anteverted hip and it’s not that I under or over pronate. This isn’t something I did to myself recently, it’s unfortunately how my body developed because I did what was called W-sitting as a child.

So anyways, back to the shoes. I’ve been interested in this minimalist shoe development and have begun doing my fast training sessions and my races in the Saucony Grid Mirage. This shoe is sort of the first step to a minimalist shoe before you take the full plunge into something like the Saucony Kinvara. I’m tempted by the Kinvara, however two things turn me off.

1.) I’m not a fan of the short lifespan I think this shoe will have, and while I don’t do huge mileage (35-50K or 22 – 32 Miles per week) I like to run shoes for about 400-500 miles if I can. The estimates I’ve been reading online suggest you might get 200 miles out of a pair of these which makes it a pricey shoe.
2.) I’m afraid that the total lack of support will cause me more injury issues.

I’m till undecided but will make up my mind in the coming weeks.

For any of you fellow Canadian runners out there I’ve been shopping on a great website that has a huge selection Running Free. It’s out of Ontario and pricing is solid. Check em out.

Tired Legs and a Training Twist

Took this weekend off as we had all kinds of social events going on. Going for a run just wasn’t in the cards. This past Friday I did my 6 x 1K workout at 5K pace, but I did it with a twist this time.

I usually do my interval workouts at the track, but the track closest to my house has been closed for some sort of maintenance for more then a week.

Last week I drove a bit further to another track in town to do my 5 x 2K session, however on Friday I decided to mix it up a bit.

I see the value in the 2K and 1K interval sessions, but I’ve always had a question about doing it on the track. After all I don’t race on the track, I race on roads that vary in incline and decline etc. There’s a small pond in the downtown area about a 7-10 minute jog from my house. It’s a loop, although I wasn’t exactly sure how long it was. I figured I could use my Garmin 305 Forerunner to track my distance through that loop, knowing that it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be a more “true to race” type landscape.

The session turned out great. I’m not going to place complete faith in the numbers since it was a combo of up and down hill for each interval, and no two intervals covered the exact same ground since the full loop was more then 1K. I would jog/walk the 1 minute rest between intervals and then just start from where ever the 1 minute rest ended and do the next interval. I have to say I enjoyed it as much, actually more, then running on the track. I’m going to try my 2K intervals there next time as well.

Here’s the Splits from the 5 x 1K session

1 – 3:49
2 – 3:32
3 – 3:36
4 – 3:33
5 – 3:34
6 – 3:40

Like I mentioned I can’t rely 100% on the distance but I’m pretty confident it is + or – only a slight amount if not right on.

Today I had a 60 minute easy run slotted but my right shin wasn’t feeling well and over all I felt tired. I turned it into a 40 or so minute easy run that as about 8.5KM.

I tend to beat myself up over these sort of changes, but I recognized this morning that it’s better for me to have fresh legs and be in good condition for this coming Sunday’s race then to force more then I should do this week.

I’m hoping for a good finish this weekend. I’ve been told by one other runner that this is a very fast course, and it also measures a bit shorter then 10K. I’ll find out I guess when I race it. I may go and run the loop that we have to do twice on Thursday of this week for my 40 min easy. That will give me an idea of what I’m dealing with and also a plan on how to attack the start.

In past races I’ve recognized I’ve one out FAR too fast. This time I’m going to make an effort to go out at my own pace and not allow the other runners at the start to affect me.

A safe start for me I feel is between 3:47 and 3:52 per KM pace since my goal pace for the race is 3:47 / KM which would lead me to a 37:50 and a new PB.

One other thought that popped into my mind this morning is I may consider doing a 1/2 marathon at the end of this season. I’ve toyed with the idea a lot, and I’d really like to know how my fitness level can perform over that distance. I had two more 10 K’s slotted for this season, but the final one I could do a 1/2 marathon at rather then a 10K. I’ll see how my performance is at this coming race and the following one in September and then make that choice.

Long Run Day and a Pain In My Calf

Was using ‘The Stick’ this morning to give myself a bit of a self massage. I was working on my right calf and holy smokes is it tender on the upper inside under my knee. I think it’s a bit of a knot. Going to relax this afternoon but then heat it this evening with my Wife’s magic back and then try using ‘The Stick’ on it again.

That didn’t stop me from heading out for my long run today. Goal was to do 18+ KM in 90 mins. I was able to achieve this without trouble. I assumed I would as my last long run 3 weeks ago was right around 18K as well.

Details:
Time: 1:28:44
Distance: 18 KM
Avg Pace: 4:55
Avg HR: 154 BPM

After the run I stretched and showered and after about 2 hours I gotta say I can really feel the pain in my calf. Hoping it’s just a knot that I can workout in the next day or so. Tomorrow is a light 30 min easy run which I’ll do at a pace just under 5 min per KM. Hoping it won’t be anything long term as I’ve been pretty good with injuries this season.

Two more sessions this week with a 10K easy on Thursday and then 6 x 1K on Friday. I may delay that 1K session until Saturday depending on how the weather and my calf feel.

5 x 2K workout Today

It was a nice cloudy day, but the humidity was CRAZY high. However I’ll still take the clouds over sun beating down on my any day.

I headed to the track around 1 PM or so. I tend to do this workout in the morning when it’s on a weekday, but with the cloud cover I took my time this morning around the house.

As per my previous post I’ve set a new goal pace for these intervals at 7:40. That is 3:50 per K pace, a bit slower then what my goal race pace is for the next couple of races (hoping for a 3:47-3:48 pace). However I don’t have any history of doing all 5 of these reps at this pace so better to start with baby steps rather then saying I’m going to hammer these all out in 7:35 and then disappoint myself.

This was a hard session. I pushed myself harder then I have probably all year in training. Some say don’t go to hard, but for me I know I’ve been going a bit easy and need that extra push to break through the sub 38 barrier if I want to reach my sub 37 goal for the end of this season.

Here’s the results for today’s session.

Time AVG / Max / Lowest Rest
7:41 / 170 / 179 / 92
7:39 / 172 / 182 / 114
7:42 / 176 / 185 / 132
7:45 / 179 / 188 / 141
7:44 / 183 / 190 / 139

Here’s the results from my Previous 2000′s Workout about 3 weeks ago

Time AVG / Max / Lowest Rest
7:54 / 164 / 176 / 109
7:36 / 165 / 178 / 134
7:49 / 171 / 178 / 118
7:47 / 172 / 181 / 116
7:47 / 173 / 182 / 122

I can see that my HR is quite a bit higher today. This is 2 fold I believe. One it’s a heck of a lot warmer out today then it was 3 weeks ago when I did this session, and two I was faster on every rep then I was 3 weeks ago.

I hope to see similar or a bit quicker results 3 weeks from now when I do this session again, but with a bit lower HR.

I know this session is important to 10K pace development. With that in mind I really worked the 3rd and 4th ones. The hardest part of a race for me is usually about 4-8 K or so. I feel good at the beginning, and in the end I usually have something left in the tank, so trying to work through that same barrier in my training sessions I am hoping will give me the strength both physically and mentally to break through this in my coming races,

For anyone who’s done a training session like this before you probably know how your legs feel when you start that next rep. I gotta say that my legs felt like cement almost when I started that 5th rep. It was pretty intense.

I’m going to take tomorrow off as per the planned schedule I posted yesterday, and then my long run happens on Tuesday. Target for that run will be 18+ K in 90 Mins. Pace of around 4:45 – 4:55 per KM.

Season Update

To say the very least I’ve been super lazy with updating things this season, although that doesn’t mean I haven’t been into training and racing. In fact I feel like I’m more into this summer then I was last.

So far this summer I’ve run one 5K, two 10K’s and just yesterday a 6 Miler (9.6 K).

My goal this season is to break 37 mins for the 10K, and while I still haven’t broken the 38 minute barrier I’m feeling it’s just around the corner at the next race.

I’ve been following the same workouts as last season with the 5 x 2k Intevals, 6 x 1K intervals, 6 x 600 M intervals as well as a long run and 5K paced run as quality sessions over a 3 week cycle.

Progress is coming, and I’m happy with the majority of the results I’ve had so far. I ran a new PB for the 10K about 6 weeks ago in 38:36 and hope to run close to or break 38 in my next 10K on the 21st of August.

Stuggling with Time

Something I’ve been struggling with this season is time. I tend to get fantatical about how much I’m training, times and progress. To a point where when I miss workouts and sessions I feel seriously guilt.

For instance this past week I raced on Monday but missed my first recovery session, missed my 60 minute run on Thursday and when I went to the track this morning to do my 5 x 2000 M it was closed.

This morning I’m feeling a bit down on myself and doing some negative self talk saying things like: “Geese how can you reach your racing goals if you don’t train”. I know there are a lot of runners that get down on themselves, and I have to keep reminding myself that I do this for fun. It’s a personal challenge, but I’m not heading to the Olympics anytime soon, nor or this a job. We gotta be able to cut ourselves some slack sometime right?

Anyways, that’s a short update to how things are going.

I’m going to reschedule my 2K session I missed this morning to tomorrow and then next week will look something like this:

Sunday – 5 x 2K w/ 90 Seconds Rest (target of 7:40 or less per repeat)
Monday – Off
Tuesday – Long Run of 90 Min
Wednesday – 30 Min Easy
Thursday – 10K Easy
Friday – 6 X 1000 M 2/ 60 Seconds Rest (target of 3:43 or less per repeat)
Saturday – Off

Then the next week will be leading up to a race so will be a bit of a jumbled workout compared to what I’ve done in past race weeks.

Sunday – 60 Min Easy (between 4:40 – 4:55 per K)
Monday – 30 Min Easy (between 4:40 – 4:55 per K)
Tuesday – Off
Wednesday – 6 x 600 M @ Track
Thursday – 40 Min Easy Run (between 4:40 – 4:55 per K)
Friday – 6 x 1 Min Fartlek @ Race Pace with 10 min Warm Up and 10 Min Cool Down
Saturday – Off

SUNDAY – RACE DAY

I’ll try to be flexible on this since being too stringent is what often causes me to feel like I’m letting myself down with training.

I’ll post updates for my workouts as I go through them.

Happy Running!

Current Training Update

So I haven’t posted in the better part of a month, although I have still been running. After my last race and running a new PB I took a couple of days to recover, did a couple of easy runs and then took 5 days off from running completely.

When I got back at it I took it really easy for 2 weeks for an off-training period then began an build up period which will probably end up lasting me around 6-8 weeks before I get back into my 3 week sessions again.

Being on the East Coast of Canada we’re expecting snow anytime (or rain of course) so training outdoors becomes a bit more difficult. My plan for the winter months is to go indoors to conduct my interval runs and paced runs. This will be a bit harder on my legs based on the hard interior track surface but it is the only way to run on a measured track and a safe non slippy surface.

My longer runs I’ll still be doing out doors primarily on a mix of sidewalk and city parks (crusher dust trailers that are plowed in the winter).

It’s a long time to keep focussed until next season, but I’m toying with the idea of doing a half marathon in February. This will break things up for me before the first real 5K and 10K road races start in April/May.

I will go easy on myself and try not to set a goal as per se for the half if I choose to do it but I feel I should be able to run ing the 1:25 or better range.

For next season I’m setting my sights on sub 36 Minutes for the 10 K and about 17:30 for the 5K. These are big jumps from this past season but I also really only trained effectively for 2- 2.5 months this past season. With a good base under my belt and a full season of training to come I believe I can make some big improvements.

I’ll try to continue to post weekly updates of my training to keep anyone reading in the loop.

2K’s are getting better and Training Update

Well I’m down to less then 2 weeks before my goal race (Oct. 10th). I had my final set of 5 X 2K’s last Friday in the afternoon. I again opted to do these on the Trail rather then the track to get a comparison to the same workout from 3 weeks ago.

Here’s how things chalked up:

Interval Splits (The times in parenthesis are those of 3 Weeks ago for the same workout)
1- 7:48 (8:07)
2- 7:40 (7:49)
3- 7:53 (7:57)
4- 7:52 (7:52)
5- 7:55 (7:58)

This workout felt good but I definitely went a little hard in the 1st and 2nd one, I was burning pretty hard during the last couple.

I am confident (pending my health stays good) that I’m in sub 40 shape… and maybe…. even sub 39 but race day will tell.

Besides the 2K’s last Friday I did a long run on Sunday of 18K (1.5 hours) and then a 10K yesterday afternoon.

Today is my 6 X 1K session which I am going to do at the track aiming for 3:45 per K then a couple of more easy runs and a 5K paced run aiming for sub 19:30 on Sunday.

I’ll be back with my 1K interval results in another post later this week.

Training Update and New 5 K PB

It’s been about 10 days since I posted an update at all. I don’t know if anyone is actually reading this stuff, so this is more or less a personal training log and journal about my progress.

My last update was after my 6 x 1000 M session at the track about a week and a half ago.

The training outline I had for the upcoming days after that workout here ended last night with a 4K time trial on the path behind my house.

I missed one of the workouts in that list, the 5K paced run which was supposed to be done last Sunday night I skipped. I went on hike with my wife and one of our dogs so figured why push my body and risk any more shin troubles.

Side Note: Shins have been doing pretty good. I still get a little tenderness after hard workouts but with some changes to my form and stretching things seem to be going well.

Time Trial

Yesterday was race day in my 3 week cycle so I decided to run a 5K time trial. I’ve been itching to break 19 minutes and I thought I was probably in shape to run a bit under 3:50 per KM for that distance.

I ran the time trial on the trail I do most of my easy runs around my house. I jogged the 3K to the 5K mark and was going to ran from 5K mark back to the beginning of the trial. I was aiming to keep an eye on my watch and hover around the 3:50 /K pace.

The first 1.5 K or so was on asphalt and some what of a down hill so I had no trouble keeping the pace here. In fact my first split was 3:41 and then second split even after adding a 1/2 K or more on crusher dust was 3:47. At this point the hard work started.

The trail is an old railway line so there are slight inclines that drag on for quite a while and from about half way between the 3K and 2K marker it starts to go up ever so slightly but enough to make you work harder to keep the splits.

My 3 K split was 3:52 and I continued on the incline up towards the 1K marker.

Between the 2K and 1K marker I started thinking may I’d do a 4K time trial rather then a 5K. Part of this was negative self talk, but it was justified because of feedback I got over at the TIme-to-run.com forum. He suggests using a 4K time trial to decide on your training paces. Since I had never done one of these before, and I have access to this 4K run when ever I want it was worth getting an idea of my fitness level and ability for this distance.

I picked it up hard for the last 20-30 M before I hit the 1K marker and decided to end it there.

My finishing time was 15:13 a bit slower then I probably would’ve run had I decided to do a 4K time trial up front rather then a 5K but none the less this would’ve given me a sub 19 min 5K which is a new PB by about 25-30 seconds from earlier this year… I’ll take that

So now I start a new 3 week cycle in preparation for my final race this year on Oct 10th. This is my goal race where I will run my sub 40 10K.

This weeks Training:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 30 min easy
Wednesday: 60 min easy
Thursday: 30 min easy
Friday: 5 x 2K (@ trail or track not sure yet)
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 1.5 Hour Long Run (18-19K)

Getting excited for my race coming up as I feel confident in my fitness level and my ability to run sub 40.