Training on Green Mountain

4 weeks till the marathon and I am consistently putting in around 50 miles a week. I have been running lots of speed work with the high school kids which might actually hurt my time but I am having a lot of fun coaching. Today I ran an awesome new trail which might become my favorite in the future. There are so many different paths that it’s going to take a while to explore the whole place.

Elevation Profile, 2 climbs of about 700’ each, my really tough trail does 1700’ in one 3 mile climb. This trail is nicer because I can run 80% of the time and if it wasn’t hot I probably could have run all the way to the top without stopping.


Here is the trail on my second climb near mile 7. Gorgeous blue sky today!


Here is the top of both climbs I went out over the mountain and down to the bottom on the opposite side and then ran back the same path.

Heart rate data over the years

A lot of people have commented on my low my heart rate while running. I was telling Gregg that my heart rate used to be much higher and I thought I would create a report to see exactly how much it has changed. 2006, 2007, 2008 had a combined 97 runs with a HRM while 2011 had 212 days with a HRM data.

5K race report
3.1 miles - 41:30

So last night my sister calls me as says her friend couldn’t go run the race. The race was at 6:30 pm which was in about 2hrs. I had no intention of running fast because I had plans for a lot of miles over this weekend but I decided it would be a good chance to run with my sister for the first time. She is a new runner and she is around here but never posts anything.

Her PR is around 39:00 but it was 95 F out and the starting line so she settled on the goal of running 42:00. I figured out that we needed to run a 13:30 pace to make it to the finish in this time. We went out way to fast running the first half mile at 10:30 pace which was probably my fault. After that we settled into a more comfortable walk/run routine. Our first mile was still too fast at 12:28.

With the heat and the fast first mile we lost pace in the second and third mile running 14:07 & 14:18. Luckily for us they didn’t tell the race origination that they were going to be watering the grass. The last 0.1 mile section of the park was run through the sprinklers. I felt like a kid again for that short section. I don’t know what was in that water but we hauled ass that last 0.1 mile, my watch said we did it at 7:48 pace!

We finished the race under our goal in 41:30 which I think is Laura’s second fastest 5K. Good job sis.

Mt Falcon

Yesterday was my return to the mountain running I haven’t been up in about 2 months. So I went to my favorite trail (mt falcon) where I spend most of my time running when I do get up to the mountains. The course is tough with about 1700’ of climbing in the first 4 miles (see profile below). These 4 miles feel like a tempo run in slow motion. During this climb I typically average 13:00 pace and a HR of around 160. On flat ground 160 HR would put me at about 7 min miles. Altogether I ran 10.3 mile in just under 2hrs.

Here is the profile of MT Falcon Park. I run a lollipop route so the last few miles are the same as the first few miles. Although my legs are so trashed by then the best I can run down is at 8:30-9:00 pace.


 

2012 RMRR Club 2 mi Race

Our running club has a handicap system were the faster runners start farther in the back. The first person across the line wins regardless of start time. For this 2 mile race my handicap was +7:49 and my proposed finish time was 12:49.

Mile 1 – 6:09 Avg HR 176
I started with one other person, I think about 10 or 15 were still waiting to run after us. This guy looked to only be about 16 and he took off at a crazy pace which I followed. We immediately were catching groups of people in front of us. I passed in at about 0.5 miles and never saw him again. But we had run the first half mile in about 2:55 (where is Olu with his match analogy) I was toast with 75% of the race left to run.

Mile 2 – 6:28 Avg HR 187
I ran the course for my warm up and I knew that the second mile was very muddy. It had been raining for the last few days which was great because half the state was on fire. I expected to run a slower second mile but not this much slower. Basically for me the race was over and I was just coasting into the finish line. Even though I was dying I was still passing tons of people and ended up finishing 14th with a time of 12:37, I beat my proposed handicap time of 12:49 so that was good. Every race your handicap level is adjusted so next time I will have to run faster. Still this small race was a lot of fun.

Post race
After the race I had some snacks and drinks and then I went for a 6 mile run. All I could think about was my future of running and what I wanted to accomplish. For the same effort (training wise) I think I could take a few seconds off my 5K time (or not even get close) or with that same few month train for another marathon farther which sounds like a lot more fun to me. Nearing the end of the run I feel like I came to the conclusion that I have accomplished what I want in distances shorter than 10K. These shorter races just don’t appeal to me like they did before. I am still planning on running the next Club race which is a 5k but treat it more like a hard run from my marathon training.

I am in the blue shorts about to jump that puddle

Back Injury Update

So I think my back is finally recovered at least for running purposes.  Doing daily chores my back still gets tired quickly.  Today was my first run in 9 days since I hurt my back.  I was using the memory of the original injury as my guide.  If I got anywhere near that pain level I would stop and get a ride home.  The first few blocks were tough and my back hurt a lot but not as much as yesterday when I did the dishes.  After the first mile I said to myself if this gets any worse I am going to call it a day.  But I got better as the run went on and I the rest of the day I felt better than I had since the injury.

 While we’re on the subject of injury… 

 My worst injury:  One day at the end of practice in college I was running my sprints just like every other day.  I heard a loud pop from my knee and I thought let’s just call it a day.  I realized in the next few steps walking back to the school that something wasn’t right.  My knee popped loudly with every single step.  The next day I went for a run popping with every step but the overcompensation cased my other knee to hurt really bad and I never ran at the college level again.  The Dr. thought I tore my meniscus but I wasn’t in all that much pain so I think it was my IT band snapping.  I didn’t run for 3 months (mainly because I was sick of it from the 70+ miles a week) anyways it was fine after some time off.   My knee continued to pop while walking around campus for the next 2 weeks.

Injury

Saturday I ran 7 miles without any problem.  Sunday I went out for a 14 mile run and was feeling fine in the early miles.  I ran the first 8 in about 1:06 when suddenly my lower back started to feel funny.  I thought to myself better slow down (mi 9 – 9:30) but my lower back kept getting worse.  I thought to myself better start taking walk breaks (mi 10 – 15:00).  I stopped my watch at 10 miles and then walked very slowly 4 miles back to my house.  I spent the rest of Sunday lying down but it didn’t help and I wasn’t able to sleep very well over night because I woke up every time I turned over.  This morning I hurt so bad that I went to go see the Dr. He said that I have some strained muscles and sent me on my way with Vicodin that hasn’t seemed to help.

On the upside the Dr. said that I should be able to run (short distances) in a couple of days.  He said “Your back will let you know what you can do” which I thought was cool because most of the time the Dr. says no more running for X weeks regardless of how you feel.