You must be swift as the coursing river (as long as it's the Lazy River) - comments welcome

[WillRunForPizza]

April 24 - 30, 2023
Spring training week 13 of 16 | 21 days until Capitol Hill Classic
In which the busy-ness begins...

Monday
Planned: 5 miles easy
Completed: 5.08 miles @ 10:44 (10:31 GAP)
Total: 54:34, 145 bpm
Plus: core

My legs were a bit tired from Sunday's 11-mile 10K workout, but overall I felt pretty good. I made a few minor substitutions in the core workout because I am trying to do less crunching as Stacy Sims advises. (She says we spend enough time hunched over [computers, phones, etc.] as it is so focus should be more on planks and things, and this seemed logical.)

Tuesday
Planned: 6 miles easy + strides
Completed: 6.09 miles @ 10:19 (10:07 GAP) w/ strides
Total: 1:02:55, 148 bpm
Plus: Pilates

Also a pretty good run, although my legs felt kind of heavy on the strides. Not sure why. I did the Pilates as a warmup.

Wednesday
Planned: 15 min easy + 15 min steady + 20 min faster + 5 min fast + 15 min easy (blind)
Completed: 14:53 @ 10:22 + 15 min @ 8:37 (8:23 GAP) + 20 min @ 7:49 (7:44 GAP) + 5 min @ 7:27 (7:24 GAP) + 13:17 @ 9:55
Total: 1:10:26, 7.76 miles
Plus: lower body and mini upper body strength


ID: Strava workout analysis chart

I was really dragging my feet this morning despite fairly pleasant weather. I think I just didn't want to do another blind run. It was still not very enjoyable but it went well. So remember how a month ago I was wondering if I could manage a sub-24 5K? Well, according to Strava, I ran a 23:56 5K during this workout

Thursday
Planned: rest 5 miles easy
Completed: 5.25 miles @ 10:44 (10:12 GAP)
Total: 56:28

Thursday is normally my rest day, but I looked at the forecast for all-day rain on Friday and all-day rain on Sunday and figured I'd rather skip at least one of those. My legs were a bit sore after the workout and strength on Wednesday but I didn't have any problems running.

Friday
Planned: rest
Completed: upper body strength

It did rain the entire day on Friday. I ended up doing my upper body strength on my rest day - not ideal but I didn't think I would have time to fit it in on Saturday which was probably accurate.

Saturday
Planned: 8 miles easy + strides
Completed: 8.07 miles @ 10:38 w strides
Total: 1:25:51, 155 bpm

It's exciting times when your basic easy run is 8 miles. My HR randomly got stuck at 167 for a few minutes, and I was thinking, "I don't feel like I'm working that hard." Eventually it went back to normal. Still not sure what happened - too low for a cadence lock.

Then I went up to Baltimore for brunch with a friend who was in town for the day, so there was also a bit of biking to and from train stations.

Sunday
Planned: 9 miles @ LR + 3 miles @ MP (8:38)
Completed: 9.31 miles @ 9:58 (9:46 GAP) + 3.11 miles @ 8:47 (8:38 GAP)
Total: 2:00:10, 159 bpm
Plus: very short lower body strength

I managed to run part of the 10K course during this run. I got down East Capitol and then couldn't figure out how to loop around RFK. There was a bunch of fencing up for some kind of event, so maybe that blocked off wherever I was supposed to go. Anyway, the part of the course that I did run was fairly flat with just a bit of a downward slope on the way out (so upward on the way back ).

It was a bit misty for the first half or so, and then the rain stopped and it felt humid. M pace made my legs feel heavy at first but I settled in pretty comfortably for a couple of miles. Then the last mile is mostly uphill and I kind of gave up on actually sticking to the pace. At least the GAP was right? Oh well.

I did the run mid-afternoon hoping to avoid the rain as much as possible, and by the time I got home the dog had to go out and then it was dinnertime. But I did force myself to do a very brief strength routine after dinner: 1 set each of deadlifts, squats, lunges, ski squats, and single-leg deadlifts. (That's also why I'm just now doing my training journal on Monday.) Then I ate a big piece of the carrot cake I made while it was raining.


ID: carrot cake

Total
Distance: 44.8 miles
Running time: 7h 30m
Strength time: 1h 16m
Core/Pilates time: 19m
Total time: 9h 7m

My highest mileage week since marathon training! It was hard, but I felt pretty good for most of it (if pretty tired today).

Coming up
A lighter week with no blind runs, happily. On the downside, 400m repeats Also my parents are in town starting tomorrow, so we'll see how much I actually manage to get done...

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Building a training plan, part 3: Principles
In which there is only one dog picture?

Part 1: What am I thinking??
Part 2: Sources

To build a training plan, you need to know what it's based on. I've talked about where I got my ideas, but not about what those ideas are. So the next step is to outline some of the principles behind my training plan. (No, I still haven't written it.)

80/20 running. I think most people here know this one already: you should do about 80% of your running at an easy pace, and the rest - about 20% - can be hard if you want. It's not going to break down perfectly each week, but I think you don't want significantly more than 20% of training at hard paces in any given week, and that's probably about what you should average.

Keep your easy runs easy. This is kind of the same as the 80/20 principle, but if you do your easy runs too fast, you won't be able to execute your workouts as well as you should. Plus you're more likely to get injured because you're overly fatigued. My easy runs are generally in the 10-11 min/mile range, which I feel like is quite reasonable for my current fitness level. Since most of my marathon training will be during the summer, my easy paces might get slower, and that's fine.

Cumulative fatigue. You'll notice I said you're more likely to get injured if you're "overly" fatigued above. But during a serious training block, your legs will be tired, and that's part of the process. First, you know at mile 18 of a marathon you are not going to be feeling fresh as a daisy. It's helpful to practice a little bit of that feeling in advance. Second, you're not going to be running marathon distances in training, but you will on race day. So how do you prepare for a distance your training doesn't cover? By starting "farther in", or making your legs feel like mile 1 of your 16-mile long run is actually mile 6, or 8, or 10. It's a delicate balance, though, between cumulative fatigue and overtraining, which is why sticking to an 80/20 breakdown and running as easy as you need to on easy days are such important strategies.

Pace variation. You probably want to train at more than just your easy pace and your race pace. At the very least, you should hit both a little faster and a little slower than race pace. If race pace is the fastest you go in training, then it's never going to feel easier than anything. (That's one reason why, despite having success with one, I wouldn't recommend Higdon's novice 2 plans - the only hard training is at race pace, so it just keeps feeling hard.) If you train at paces that are a little faster than your race pace, then race pace will start to feel easier. Happily I will have plenty of options here, as there are lots of things faster than marathon pace!

Periodization. Here's where I found a lot of different approaches from different experts. There does seem to be general agreement that some periodization - focusing different segments on your training on different running skills, in the sense of paces - is helpful. But the way they go about that varies. The impression I get is that the original approach was linear periodization - so you have one block of your training cycle focused on speed, one focused on endurance, etc. Then it seems like people started to mix paces a little more, throwing in different paces throughout the training cycle while still putting the main emphasis on one type of training for a few weeks at a time. Actually, my last marathon training plan didn't seem to have any kind of periodization at all, with all kinds of paces throughout the whole schedule, which I didn't recognize at the time but have picked up on as I learn more.

Anyway, I think my approach for this training plan will be somewhere in that middle ground, with blocks focused mainly on particular aspects of running but mixing some other paces in throughout. I think there's a limit to how long you can build fitness by working at any one pace, so it's good to shift the focus a little every handful of weeks to continue improving. But this is where I feel the least knowledgeable, so if you have other insights, let me know!


ID: My 100-pound dog curled into a very smol bagel on the couch.

I think those are the main ideas, though I could certainly have missed some. Anyone have something I should include?

ETA okay yup, I forgot one!

Three-week cycles. I don't think the specific number matters so much - I've seen two, three, four, even five-week cycles in different training philosophies - but it's good to cut back your mileage every few weeks to give your body a chance to adapt and recover. I did three-week cycles training for my last marathon and it seemed to work for me, so I'm sticking with that, with a little bit of variation for races/travel/whatever.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Building a training plan, part 4: Elements of training
In which I forget the description

Part 1: What am I thinking??
Part 2: Sources
Part 3: Principles

Two posts in one day, what? Mostly I realized I have lots more ground to cover and only a few weeks left before I want to start marathon training, and I'm going to be on vacation for some of that time so I have to get to the actual plan at some point soon. Anyway, I wrote most of the principles post yesterday, so from my perspective it's two days. I'm not weird. (This is a lie.)

However, it is still not time for a plan. First we have to talk about the ingredients, i.e. the pieces that make up a training plan. As usual, I have thoughts.

Things I am writing into the plan

Various types of running

Long runs. Basically the keystone of any distance running plan and all the more essential for a marathon. There are a lot of different definitions out there, but I consider a long run to be anything where I'm carrying fuel, so more than 90 minutes. I'm capping my long runs at about 2.5-3 hours as Daniels and Hansons recommend. I'm also trying something I've heard more recently which is to get to your peak long run distance fairly early in the plan and come back to it a few times. I feel like most generic plans build up to a peak of 16-20 miles pretty late in the plan, which makes a certain amount of sense because a lot of people will be training for their first marathon, have never run that far before, and shouldn't just jump into it without some slower ramping up. However, now that I have run a marathon and I'm consistently doing double-digit long runs, I should be able to do a 16-mile long run, for example, in the first month or so of training and then come back to those 16-18 mile long runs every few weeks so that I get a lot of practice at longer distances. Like many plans, mine will have long runs on Sundays.

Easy runs. With 80% easy running, these will be the majority of runs with 3-4 per week. Probably 4-7 miles most days? Depending on where I am in the plan. We already talked about easy running above, so I'm not going to go into much detail here.

Workouts. I have seen these called Something of Substance, key workouts, probably other things, but I prefer just workouts because it's simple. So by "workout" I mean a run that includes a substantial harder effort (more than just strides). I am including M pace as a harder effort, even though it can be borderline easy over relatively short distances, because it's marathon training. I'll be doing mostly two workouts per week. Sometimes one of those will be part of a long run but more often they'll be regular weekday runs - I'm thinking Tuesdays and Fridays.

Medium long runs. This is an option I've heard about more recently. Apparently there are some adaptations that only happen when you get beyond a certain duration of running - I've heard both 60 and 90 minutes. So I'll be aiming to have some easy runs that extend beyond an hour to an hour and a half. Tentatively, these may not be every week but instead will be Fridays when I'm doing a long run workout and therefore don't have a second weekday workout. Or maybe I do them more frequently on Saturdays to make the long run feel more marathon-like. We'll see how it looks in the actual plan.

Strides. Probably you already know that strides are short bursts of speed during a run. Depending on who you ask, they are 10-20 seconds of building up to 80-95% of a full sprint and then gradually slowing back down, with only a few seconds in the middle of that maximum speed and complete recovery between strides. I'll add 4-6ish strides to easy runs a couple of times a week.

Hills. I'm listing hills separately from workouts because although some workouts might focus on hills (maybe), I'm also thinking I'll specify a few easy runs over a particularly hilly route.

Races. I've heard everything from "race a lot" to "don't do any races besides your goal race" so I'd say there's not exactly a consensus here. I'm already signed up for a couple of races during marathon training, and for me I think there's some benefit to just practicing for the logistics of race day if nothing else. The one that I'm currently planning on actually racing is a HM that's six weeks before the marathon. I may also race a small 5K earlier in training. Other races could be more like training runs with a crowd.


ID: A Rottweiler looking quite desperate for food. He has never eaten in his life ever. Truly his continued existence is a miracle.

Various things that are not running

Strength training. Yes, I will include strength training in my plan, 2-3 days per week. I think strength training is essential for healthy running and for health in general, and it continues to frustrate me that most of these experts will devote a chapter or two in their books to how important strength is but not actually put it into their plans. So I am fixing it.

Having read a bunch of strength training recommendations for runners that basically boil down to "do 3 sets of these 5-8 exercises, 3 times a week" I can see why people don't want to do strength work. It sounds unbelievably repetitive and tedious. So I'll be sticking with Fitness Blender, thanks. I haven't decided yet whether I'll put specific routines in the calendar, but I generally try to do one 20-30 minute routine and one 10-minute routine for lower body per week and the same for upper body. Sometimes the routines might include some Pilates and/or plyometrics in addition to pure strength. In the vein of keeping easy days easy, my strength training days typically overlap with workout/long run days.

Core. I've found that including 10-20 minutes of core work per week has helped my running form, so I'll keep doing that. I've typically used Fitness Blender for that as well, but recently I've been making more substitutions to minimize the crunching as I learned from ROAR.

Pilates. I think these kinds of exercises are good for maintaining mobility and preventing injury as well. I try to do a short 10-15 minute video each week, although I don't manage it all the time. I'm going to try putting it into the plan once a week and see if I can fit that in.

Drills. Kind of running? I started doing running form drills because they were part of the marathon plan, and I think they're helpful. I usually do A and B skips, grapevines, high knees, butt kickers, straight leg runs, and sometimes one or two others. If you're curious, @running.yana on IG has lots of good demonstration videos. I've been doing these before runs where I include strides, so I'm going to continue that.


ID: The dog claiming the new quilt by laying on it.

Things that are not in the training plan that I am still doing

Dynamic warm-up. I always do 5-10 minutes of light movement before I run, or lift if I'm not doing that shortly after a run. I don't have a set routine, but I usually include bodyweight strength, Pilates, and things like ankle circles and leg swings to warm up the joints and muscles.

Stretching. I guess the jury's sort of out on stretching, but I always feel stiff later on if I forget to stretch, so I'll do 5-10 minutes of that after I work out.

Foam rolling. I usually do some foam rolling of various muscle groups, and roll a lacrosse ball under my feet, before bed. (Don't foam roll your IT band; it's not a muscle.) I also have a massage gun that can do hot and cold that I use sometimes.

Push-ups. I do one set of currently 15 push-ups every day. Unless I forget.

Walking the dog. My dog gets four walks every day, rain or shine. (We don't have a yard.) In total it's about two hours, but it's a lot of ambling along and stopping to sniff things and then pee on them (him, not me), so it's not exactly exercise.


ID: Evidence of the fact that once, he fell asleep while scratching his ear.

 

[Naomeri]

I think training plans would be more interesting if they all included pictures of adorable animals

 

[WillRunForPizza]

May 1 - 7, 2023
Spring training week 14 of 16 | 14 days until Capitol Hill Classic
In which my watch has a meltdown, my motivation is limited, and yet I still have some great running

Monday
Planned: 5 miles easy
Completed: 4.87 miles @ 11:18 (10:40 GAP)
Total: 55:03
Plus: core

Running Monday morning after a Sunday afternoon long run is always a bit of a recovery run. The sidewalk was closed just before the point where I normally turn around so I had to go back early. I took a small detour towards the end to make up some of it, but I decided it wasn't worth it to loop around the block to get that last 0.13 miles. Mostly because I had to pee. #priorities

I did a very brief core workout in the evening, and I don't remember why or why I didn't do a video. Maybe I just didn't feel like picking one.

Tuesday
Planned: 5 miles easy + strides
Completed: 5.15 miles @ 10:16 w/ strides
Total: 52:52

At this point I was getting very tired of chilly mornings and I did not want to go out. But it was not so bad. Someone on a podcast I listened to recently shared one of their mantras, "Relaxed running is fast running," and that actually helped my legs not feel heavy during my strides.

Not included: running to the dentist's office because otherwise I was going to be late. According to Google this was about 0.6 miles.

Wednesday
Planned: 2 mile WU + 16 x 400m @ 10KP/15s RI + 1 mile CD
Completed: 2 mile WU + ?? x ~2 min @ ?? / 15-20s RI + 1 mile? CD
Recorded split paces: 8:28 (uphill), 7:37, 7:58, 7:44, 7:56, 7:41
Total: ~1:07:00, ~7.75 miles
Plus: lower body strength

At the beginning of this workout, my biggest concern was whether my fingers would ever warm up since I decided that I didn't need gloves. They eventually did, but that was far from my mind when I got through almost half of the run and my watch decided to have a meltdown and die. Not user error this time - it was fully charged Tuesday night and should have had more than enough battery for a significantly longer run.

Since I was just before where I would have turned around, it wasn't like I could just pop back home and charge it for a bit before heading back out. So I ended up counting to 120 for the 10K intervals and to 15 for the rest intervals, over and over. I have no idea how many intervals I did that way because that was too many things to keep track of. And sometimes I actually counted to 20 instead of 15 for recovery. At least it was pretty much exactly the same route as last Wednesday so I knew the distance, and I had my start and finish times so I knew pretty much how long it took. But other than that I really have no idea how this workout went.

Then I stuck my watch on its charger and did a quick round of lower body strength (with weights even though it says bodyweight).

Thursday
Planned: rest
Completed: rest

I realized I had forgotten to do a mini upper body strength workout with the chaos on Wednesday. I thought about doing it today, but I was barely motivated enough to go to the chocolate store to buy a mother's day present, so I didn't.

Friday
Planned: 5 miles easy
Completed: 5.48 miles @ 9:41
Total: 53:08, 144 bpm

I was a little nervous about my watch, but it worked fine and the run felt amazing. Great weather, not too crowded since I waited until 9:30 (although some people are still terrible at sharing public spaces, sigh), and everything felt light and super easy. Just one of those fantastic runs that reminds you why you put yourself through all of this

Saturday
Planned: 5 miles easy + strides
Completed: 5.23 miles @ 9:53
Total: 52:02
Plus: upper body strength

This run was a little chillier and not as glorious as Friday's, but it was still pretty good.

Sunday
Planned: 8 miles @ LR
Completed: 8.47 miles @ 9:48
Total: 1:23:01, 157 bpm

I think I got too used to running a bit faster and feeling great, because there were a few points during this run where I should have dialed it back a bit but didn't. Oh well, it's only 8 miles And I could theoretically still do a bit of strength training...but I don't feel like it.

Total
Distance: 36.99 miles
Running time: 6h 3m
Strength time: 41m
Core time: 8m
Total time: 6h 53m

I just now looked at this, and...0.01 miles short of a whole number, really??? Ahhhhh

Having my parents in town since Tuesday and staying with me this weekend really sapped my motivation to do more than the bare minimum. But that's okay. This afternoon we're not doing much of anything, so I have a little time to relax.

Coming up
One massive Wednesday workout (the Michigan), and then a very early Friday to head out to California! Is the weekend before your race the best time to go to wine country? Almost definitely not! But I'm not missing it. Currently planning to do a training journal post on Thursday before I forget everything that happened, because then I'm not going to be online much until after I get back the following Wednesday Cheers!

 

[azrivest]

One massive Wednesday workout (the Michigan)

Just casually dropping that in eh? Good job, that workout seems intense

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Just casually dropping that in eh? Good job, that workout seems intense

Blame @DopeyBadger

 

[WillRunForPizza]

May 8 - 14, 2023
Spring training week 15 of 16 | 10 days until Capitol Hill Classic
In which I take a vacation

Monday
Planned: 5 miles easy
Completed: 5.18 miles @ 10:06
Total: 52:21, 149 bpm
Plus: core

Run was pretty good. It felt significantly more humid than usual, but I checked afterwards and the dew point was only 61º, so either I'm imagining things or I've already forgotten what real humidity feels like.

Core I did ~1 min each of forearm plank, supine plank, side plank dips, dead bugs, butterfly bridges, side stars, scissor kicks, push-ups, kneeling lean backs...I think that's it.

Tuesday
Planned: 6 miles easy + strides
Completed: 6.64 miles @ 9:51 w/ strides
Total: 1:05:22, 146 bpm
Plus: Pilates

Another pleasant run. Went a little long because I forgot where I was supposed to turn and ended up looping around a bit. But I didn't mind.

Pilates was side leg lifts*, clamshells*, inside thigh lifts, flutter kicks, rear leg raises, hamstring curls, fire hydrants*, bird dogs...? I forget if there was anything else.

*with resistance band

Wednesday
Planned: 2 miles easy + 1 mile @ 10KP (7:55) + 1 mile @ HMP (8:17) + 0.75 miles @ 10KP + 1 mile @ HMP + 0.5 miles @ 5KP (7:36) + 1 mile @ HMP + 0.25 miles @ 5KP w/ 2.5 min recovery between sets + 2 miles easy
Completed: 2 miles @ 10:28 + 1 mile @ 7:49 (7:39 GAP) + 1 mile @ 8:08 (8:04) + 0.75 miles @ 7:49 (7:40) + 1 mile @ 8:09 (8:12) + 0.5 miles @ 7:16 (7:12) + 1 mile @ 8:13 (8:05) + 0.25 miles @ 6:14 (6:13) w/ 2.5 min recovery between sets + 2.17 miles @ 9:58
Total: 1:41:29, 11.19 miles
Plus: lower body strength

This was fun! Is it weird that I kind of love long workouts? I especially love the part where you switch to music just before the first 5K interval and run at a pace 20s/mile faster than you were supposed to...did someone do that? And the part where you decide to completely ignore the pace guidelines for the last quarter-mile interval and just run it nearly flat-out. Not that I would do that or anything either. I feel like I've had a happy workout when my cooldown is faster than my warmup, so success there. The only issue is that I'm pretty sure my HR was cadence locked for most of the run, which is annoying.

But all that is definitely not to say I wasn't tired afterwards - doing strength training after a workout that long is tough! But it was a good way to spend my morning, which I took off from work because I knew it would take a while.

Thursday
Planned: 5 6 miles easy
Completed: 6.25 miles @ 10:51
Total: 1:07:54, 146 bpm
Plus: upper body strength

Unsurprisingly, my legs were a little sore and a little tired after yesterday's workout. But it went fine, and I was actually faster than I was expecting. Today should theoretically have been a rest day, but since our Lyft is picking us up at 4:15 a.m. tomorrow, I will not be running. Then, vacation! So my schedule will be a little off until I'm back home next Thursday.

Friday
Planned: nothing

See above re: very early flight to California.

Saturday
Planned: 6-8 miles easy

Scheduled for 5, but I'm going to try to do a little more since I'm missing a run on Sunday.

Sunday
Planned: 5 miles easy nothing

I will be going on a hot air balloon! For which we have to arrive at 5:30 a.m., and even though I might wake up in time, I'm not about to run in the dark in an unfamiliar place.

Totals
Mileage: 36.76 miles
Running time: 6h 14m
Strength time: 56m
Core/Pilates time: 23m
Total time: 7h 34m

Totals through Thursday; I will update when I'm back. (Updated)

Coming up
Napa! There will be lots of wine. And a little bit of running to balance it out.

 

[NYC_MW]

Enjoy Napa!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

May 15 - 20, 2023
Spring training week 16 of 16 | 1 day until Capitol Hill Classic
In which I am discombobulated

Saturday
Planned: 6-8 miles easy
Completed: 7.49 miles
Elevation gain: 1,659 feet
Total: 1:27:17, 167 bpm

Rewinding a bit so I can talk about Saturday's run in Napa! I decided it would be fun to run up a nearby trail. "Up" being the key word. Never has a basic run felt so hard! It was physically impossible to do both running and easy, so I mostly kept running except where the rocks were all loose and broken. Had some cartoonishly beautiful views though. I stopped to take pictures when I needed a bit of a breather


ID: The trail entrance. Starting right in with the up!


ID: Sunrise over the mountains, from another mountain covered with wildflowers


ID: There were quite lovely wildflowers all over. My mom said these little gold ones are mustard flowers.


ID: A cluster of burned trees - likely a remnant of the fires a few years ago.

And just for a better sense of the crazy elevation gain, here's the split chart from Strava. I turned around at about mile 3.5, so you can see basically straight up followed by straight down - my fastest split was 7:57 and my slowest was 15:30!



Monday
Planned: 1 mile WU + 3 sets of (6 min @ HMP + 2 min @ CV + 1 min @ 5KP + 2 min easy) +1 mile CD
Completed: 1 mile WU + 3 sets of (6 min @ HMP + 2 min @ CV + 1 min @ 5KP + 2 min easy) +1.28 mile CD
Interval split paces: 8:12/7:37/8:08, 8:05/7:36/7:23, 8:06/7:38/7:38
Total: 55:21, 6.05 miles, 167 bpm

Okay, returning to actually this week. This workout felt a little sluggish, probably because of all the wine I had been drinking for the past three days. Obviously the mountain was not a good option for speedwork, but there weren't the best sidewalks near our hotel, so I found a mile-long bike path and just went back and forth on that (you'll see some slower intervals where I had to turn around). It was not as pretty as the mountain trail though.

Tuesday
Planned: 4 miles easy
Completed: 4.07 miles @ 10:43
Total: 43:42, 149 bpm

Went back to the bike trail for this one. The gnats, which had been annoying on Monday, were worse today, maybe because I got started a little later. I probably looked ridiculous trying to run while waving my hands in front of my face.

Wednesday
Planned: nothing
Completed: nothing

Headed back home. Shifting from west to east is definitely not as fun as the other way around.

Thursday
Planned: 5 miles easy + strides
Completed: 5.25 miles @ 9:59
Total: 52:26, 154 bpm

My body couldn't figure out what time zone it was in, so I didn't wake up until 8:30 and didn't have time to run in the morning. Then my puppy came home and I didn't want to leave him right away for a lunch run, and I just kept putting it off until about 5:30, when I finally forced myself out the door, started running...and felt fine. All that procrastination and grumpiness about it was for nothing. I did forget to do the strides though.

Friday
Planned: 5.5 miles easy
Completed: 6.51 miles @ 10:05
Total: 1:05:40, 145 bpm
Plus: upper body strength

I did terrible math on this run and turned around at 2.25 miles. Then I tried to loop around before heading home and ended up adding on too much

Saturday
Planned: 4 miles easy + strides
Completed: 3.98 miles @ 10:11 w/ strides
Total: 40:34, 146 bpm
Plus: biking to and from packet pickup (about 25 min.)

I felt pretty blah for most of this run - only towards the end did I really feel comfortable. Just what you want the day before a race!

Sunday
Capitol Hill Classic 10K! Will post a recap after the race.

Totals (Mon.-Sun.)
Mileage: 33.29
Running time: 5h 17m
Strength time: 15m
Biking time: 1h
Total time: 6h 33m

I was terrible at strength/core/mobility this week. I just didn't have anywhere to do it in California. Maybe it'll help my legs be fresh for the race (probably not). Will update after the race. (Updated)

Coming up
Race day! I still haven't decided what I'm wearing, or how I'm getting there, or how fast I want to start out...so who knows what will happen!

 

[striker1064]

See you tomorrow! Maybe.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Race recap: Capitol Hill Classic 10K
May 21, 2023 | Washington, DC
In which @striker1064 and I finally meet in person

Race goals
Figuring out what I was doing for this race was unusually complicated. My training went well, but then I spent 5 days in Napa drinking wine basically all day and not getting enough sleep. Then when I came home, I obviously didn't have the drinking-all-day issue, but I was having trouble adjusting back to Eastern Time and still wasn't getting as much sleep as I'd like. (My wake-up time quickly got back to normal thanks to my furry alarm clock, but I was still going to bed about an hour later than I usually would.) So I wasn't really sure how I would feel on race day.

On the other hand, I did run a 49:26 10K DURING the Cherry Blossom 10-miler, according to Strava, so I thought I could at least do better than that. And the weather looked fairly nice - some cloud cover and 5 degrees cooler would have been preferable, but at least the humidity was low. My general conclusions were that sub-49 was likely, 48:00 was possible, and 47:00 would take a really amazing day. I threw up my hands and said, "Eh, let's go with 48."

Packet pickup
Because I only got home on Wednesday, it took me until Friday to remember that yes, I was running a race this weekend, and yes, I still had to pick up my bib. I could theoretically have done it Sunday morning, but that made me nervous. So on Saturday I trekked across town and grabbed my bib and a nice technical race tee. The space (inside a school) was a little crowded, but it went pretty smoothly.

Race day
I set my alarm for 5:15 and did not sleep particularly well. But when I woke up, my early riser went, "Finally, you're awake! Take me out now." So at least I had motivation to get up rather than rolling over and going back to sleep. We walked for almost an hour, and then he got his breakfast and I had a Pop-Tart and some coffee along with a Skratch drink before heading out. I biked over, parked by Union Station, and then walked the 5 minutes or so to the start, while eating a protein bar from Trader Joe's, rather than trying to find a dock near the race.

The race started at the same school where we picked up our packets - the proceeds benefit a local group of public schools and many of the volunteers were students or, presumably, parents. After dropping off my gear and using the port-a-potties, I set out for a short warm-up jog. I ended up doing just over a mile, figuring the bike ride over had given me a start already.

Then after exchanging a few text with @striker1064, we actually found each other! Third time (?) is the charm I guess We chatted for a bit before finding our places at the start. There was no attempt to line people up in any kind of order, so I just got kind of close and then gave up.


ID: Looking out over a whole bunch of people to the start line, which is not quite as far away as it seems.

Then we waited. And waited. And waited. It seemed a little odd to have an 8:30 start in May, but by the time they finally actually started, it was at least 8:35. Which was kind of annoying but whatever. They also just let everyone go at once, so even though this was a (relatively) smaller race, the first quarter mile or so was VERY slow before it finally opened up a bit. Fortunately it was pretty much fine after that.

I looked at my watch at the first mile marker and it had me at 8:06, which was definitely slower than I wanted. (Weirdly, while Apple does have me at 8:06, Strava puts this first mile at 7:51, pretty much on target ) The next two miles were a gradual downhill and I ran them in 7:32 and 7:21, respectively - a little fast, but again, downhill. My 5K split was 24:03, which would have been perfect if I were actually going to run a 48-minute 10K.

Unfortunately, that was also the point where I started to struggle. My guts started to go, "Hello! We are uncomfortable!" and this was not ideal. I hadn't seen any bathrooms on the course even if I wanted to stop, which I didn't unless it was an emergency. But my pace was still okay at 7:40 for mile 4.

Then it started to get really hard. We had to head back up the gradual hill we'd run down in mile 2-3, and it was a STRUGGLE. At some point I saw @striker1064 ahead of me, but it took me quite a while to catch up (I actually wasn't sure that I would, but thanks for giving me a goal for the struggle bus!) We said a quick hello and he gave me a mini-pep talk, so then I had to keep moving instead of easing off like I really really wanted to! Mile 5: 8:12. Oof.

Finally the hill eased off and running didn't feel like quite as much of a struggle anymore, so I told myself I could still get a good time. As the run got to feeling easier, my guts felt better too, happily. There was a woman just ahead of me who I'd seen on and off and seemed to be running around a 7:30-7:40 pace, so I latched onto her and did my very best to keep up. Mile 6: 7:48. Slower than I wanted but better than I feared.

After that it was just the last 0.2 (or 0.25 according to my watch) to go. I pushed myself as much as I could, which was not very much, and managed to run the last little bit at 7:14 pace. I could finally stop running! And meeting up with @striker1064 again after the race was a great way to recover!

OFFICIAL TIME: 48:47! I'll take that. It's a 48 if you don't look at the last two digits

Apple says 48:52, and Strava actually gives me 48:08 for the whole 6.25 mile run but somehow calculated my 10K PR as 48:19, which does not make sense to me at all. But anyway, I easily beat both my "official" 10K PR (this was a given because I've only run one 10K race and it was a training run) and my unofficial PR from last month, so yay!


I wanted to treat myself to a pretzel from Auntie Anne's in Union Station on the way home, but they weren't open yet So I just had the bagel they gave out at the finish. Then I walked my dog and headed to the farmer's market around noon - fortunately they still had everything I needed, plus some baby sunflowers I bought myself to celebrate. Sundays are hard! After I got home again and ate the borek and doughnut I picked up there, I took a nap. And now I feel somewhat more alive.


ID: Baby sunflowers on a black table against a turquoise wall.

Thoughts
I would consider doing this race again if it fit into my schedule. It was a little annoying to get to and the level of organization wasn't the greatest, but everything went relatively smoothly and it was overall a decent course with pretty good crowd support. I'll just have to remember how hard that uphill feels in the second half

I would have loved to have had an extra week to recover and readjust from my vacation, but schedules are what they are, and I'm pretty happy with how I did considering. Plus I finally got to meet @striker1064, who is an awesome person! I will have to check out these run club Saturdays in the not-too-distant future.

 

[azrivest]

A PR is a PR Congrats!

 

[striker1064]

So good to meet you too! And I meant what I said, I am so proud of you. I had the dumbest grin on my face when you passed me, although it turns out I can't hold very long when I'm racing and near death. Congrats on your awesome race!

I probably wouldn't do this one again either, which is exactly what I said last year after I finished. So, you know.

 

[avondale]

Congratulations on the PR!
You got such a beautiful morning for a race, although it boggles my mind that you wanted it to be warmer.

 

[GollyGadget]

Way to go! That definitely counts as 48

 

[WillRunForPizza]

You got such a beautiful morning for a race, although it boggles my mind that you wanted it to be warmer.

Cooler! I wanted it to be 5 degrees cooler!

I had to double check that my post-race brain fog didn't make me say the opposite though

 

[DopeyBadger]

Awesomeness!

 

[kps7795]

That's really great. Congratulations on your awesome new PR!

 

[NYC_MW]

yay PR!