The first two weeks of this racing season have gone well enough. My recovery is on track, and my legs are feeling better.
But my workouts are still a little slower than usual, and I can’t quite hit the paces that I was able to hit pre-marathon. I’ve got a little more work to do. But, I don’t have much more time.
I’ve got my first race coming up at the end of this week – a mile.
On the one hand, I’m happy it’s short. Get it over with.
On the other hand, I’m concerned that my legs don’t have the pop and acceleration that I’ll need to really do well in that race.
But only one way to find out. I’ll do some more light workouts this week – and then test things out on Saturday. I’m not particularly invested in the outcome of the race, as long as I survive and put in a good effort.
The Plan for the Week
This week is ending with a race – the Mile by Impact Zone. So I plan to keep keep my mileage steady (60 miles) and keep the workouts lighter and earlier in the week. Tuesday is a similar speed workout to what I’ve been doing, and Thursday is a shorter T workout.
Here’s the daily breakdown.
- Sunday: 16 mile long run
- Monday: 6 mile slow trail run
- Tuesday: 8 mile R workout, 4 mile treadmill double
- Wednesday: 5 mile treadmill AM, 5 mile treadmill PM
- Thursday: 7 mile, light T workout
- Friday: 4 miles trails
- Saturday: 6 miles total, Mile race + WU
And here’s how things went.
Sunday: Another Hot and Sunny Long Run
After suffering through the heat and humidity last week, you’d think I had learned my lesson. And that lesson is to get up early and get your long run in before the sun starts beating down.
Well, I didn’t learn that lesson. I didn’t get out super late, but it was ~8:15 before I hit the road. It in the 60’s, but not quite as humid as the day before.
I started off fine. Cruised down to Millburn, and the first couple miles clicked off. About mile five, I suddenly realized I was going too fast and the effort was a little too high, and I reigned things in. My splits were down to the low 8:00’s before I slowed down
Looped through the park at Maplewood. Passed by a local golf course and heard some guys knocking off golf balls at the driving range. There was no baseball game going on, so the park was quiet. Looped back around towards downtown Millburn. My legs were starting to get a little heavy, but my heart rate was under control. Splits were back up in the high 8:00’s – successfully reigned in.
The Millburn park was busy like usual. Little tikes running around playing soccer. Some people at the tennis courts. The sun was bright in the clear sky, and it had been beating down on my for a while. I tried to stop for water – and still, the water fountain was off. Argh! But I had enough to get me back to the Reservoir.
I hit the 10 mile split in 1:26:43. Not a bad time, but I was fading. The next few miles getting closer to 9:00, and I felt wiped. I trudged up the hill and back down. When I got to the Reservoir, I took a break to use the bathroom, refill my flask at the water fountain, and take a nice long drink of water.
My legs felt a lot better after that. Three miles to go, and at first I felt fine. But I tried to pick up the pace, and it wasn’t happening. I kept it nice and easy and jogged in the last few miles at around 9:00/mi pace.
Another slow long run. I survived 16 miles, but it wasn’t particularly strong. Even though I took a flask of water, stopped for a refill, and used two gels. Definitely need to get out earlier – and hopefully my body will start adapting to this weather, too.
Monday: Just an Easy Morning
Sunday was a long day. It was Mother’s day, so after my run, I got the house ready and cooked dinner for the family. By the time I got to bed, I was beat.
And I woke up Monday feeling beat. My legs were stiff and everything was tight. Set off for an easy trail run and jogged through the woods.
Although I loosened up a little bit on the way back, my pace was slow throughout. Finished six miles in 1:01 – quite a slow day on the trails for me.
Tuesday: Slow Start, Fast Finish
Tuesday, I planned one final speed workout at the Reservoir. Same idea as last time – a mix of shorter (~160m) and longer (~320m) intervals. It worked out to four sets of short-short-long.
I started with a lap to warm up, and then another lap with some strides. Stopped for leg swings. Everything felt good. That tightness that I’ve often felt in my right hamstring isn’t there.
The first set goes ok. It took me a rep or two to loosen up, but eventually my legs started churning. The second set went better, and I can tell that I’m doing better at the end of the longer reps than the shorter ones. It’s just tough accelerating and getting on pace.
The next two sets unfold without issue. Again, I feel better about the longer reps than the shorter runs. But at the end, my legs feel pretty good and I feel like I’ve put in a solid morning of work. I didn’t want to overdue things with the race on Saturday, and I think I was successful in that.
Looking at the data later, most of the individual reps had an average pace under 6:00/mi. And the longer reps were, on average better. It took me a little time to get up to speed, but I was cruising at the end. The best rep was 5:43/mi (on a longer rep)
Wednesday: Treadmill Doubles
We had another busy day Wednesday – a college graduation. It wasn’t super early, but we needed to be out of the house at 8:15. So I started the day with an easy jog on the treadmill.
Did 45 minutes / 5 miles. Uneventful. Legs felt good. Took a few minutes to loosen up, but once I got up to speed everything felt good. I ended up bumping the speed every five minutes until 6.7 – higher than the 6.3 I usually stick with for easy doubles.
We sat through a rainy graduation, came back to the house, and I cooked dinner. Definitely ate too much and knocked out for a long, much deserved nap. Around 7, I felt good enough to head back downstairs for an easy double.
45 more minutes, 5 more miles. I didn’t push the pace this time, and I stopped increasing the speed at 6.3. I was worried about my stomach, with all the food we ate, but it held out. Felt pretty good at the end. Successful double.
Thursday: Threshold Is Getting Better
Time for one final, short workout on Thursday.
Last week, I did 6 x 5 minutes at around threshold effort, with 2 minute jogging recoveries. Today, I knocked that down to four reps. Same long recoveries.
It was also warm, humid, and muggy. Distinguishingly so. But it’s good practice, since that’s what the weather will be like on Saturday.
Warmed up with a lap, and then launched into the reps. I felt surprisingly good and strong. The first one felt a little harder, as I got loosened up. The next few reps flew by. Everything felt nicely under control.
Looked at the stats when I got home, and the pace for the first one was 6:36/mi. The next three were all ~6:40/mi. Not quite back to 100% (~6:20/mi, maybe 6:30/mi with this weather), but close. I’ll take this as a sign that I’m about as ready as I’ll ever be.
Recovery done. Time to get back out there and start racing again.
Friday: A Quick Jog on the Trails
With the doubles early in the week, I stacked some miles. That meant I only needed four miles Friday to hit my weekly goal.
So I woke up and did a quick four miles on the trails. Nice, quiet, slow. I had just gotten done writing this analysis of Conner Mantz’ training for Boston, and one of the things I noticed was that his easy pace was relatively slower during doubles and in the week leading up to the race.
That’s not groundbreaking – but it was a good reminder that I should ease up. My legs were feeling good, and after the turnaround point they wanted to open up a bit. I kept it reigned in, and kept the whole thing close to 10:00/mi.
Patience maintained. Mission accomplished.
Saturday: A Halfway Decent Mile
The race started late, so I was able to take my time getting there in the morning. That’s good – because we were out of town (not far) Friday night and come straight from the hotel Saturday morning.
I woke up at 6:15 and drank my coffee. Walked to the local bagel shop for a bacon egg and cheese on an everything bagel (salt pepper ketchup – yes). Picked up my car from the hotel, drove halfway to a Turnpike rest stop and charged my car up a little bit. After a stop in the rest area bathroom, I made it the rest of the way to the race – and got there around 9:15.
After I checked in, we took a group photo at 9:30. Chit chatted with the team, and then off to warm up. Two easy miles, then back to the start area.
At 10:00, the first race (open women) went off. So I watched them, and then I did finished my warm up. Did a couple short sprints out – ~150m and 200m. Felt ok when I got up to speed, but a little slow speeding up. I turned around and ran ~2 minutes at what felt like threshold. My pace improved to ~6:00/mi, and it felt pretty comfortable. This was the first time I thought today might go well after all.
After the masters women went, it was time for the open men to line up. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I originally signed up for this heat. After seeing the open women, I reconsidered – and the organizers said we could run any heat. Phew.
About a dozen guys lined up. Off they went. Most of them came in under 5:00. If I had been in that heat, I would have been on my own the entire time.
Finally, it was time for the men’s masters race. We all lined up – about three dozen guys, a good mix of 40’s to 70’s. I lined up on the left behind a couple younger, faster looking guys. The gun went off, and off we went.
I set my pace based off guys in front of me, and I settled in. I felt like we were going a little slow, so after the first left turn I went a little wide to go around them. The course was 1.5 loops around a giant block. We passed the 1/4 mile mark, and I lapped 85 seconds.
This was going better than expected.
At this point, everything had opened up. I didn’t want to kill myself, so I tried to cruise through the halfway mark. Slowly passed a couple of guys and moved up in the field. Two left turns, and we came up on the halfway mark. Pressed the lap button – 87 seconds. A little slower, but still not bad.
I tried to cruise here. But I let the pace slip a little bit. The field was more strung out, there were fewer people to pass, and I was just trying to grind it out. Felt ok, but this is that part of the race that always gets tough. Hit the 3/4 mark – 90 seconds. Eugh. Slowed down.
Time to pick it up. Quarter mile to go, so I pressed the pace a little and started counting down. Took a left, passed some of my teammates, and fed off the cheers. There was a sign that marked 200m to go. Hit the lap button – 44 seconds.
A little better but still slow. Pushed the pace even more. Saw a guy ahead of me, and cruised past him. Made the final left, and the finish line was there. Put the pedal to the metal and tried to chase down the last guy ahead of me. My legs were churning – Garmin had my pace for this segment at ~4:45/mi.
I came close – but finished half a second behind the other guy. 5:47 – with a 38 second final 200m.
Caught my breath, grabbed a water, and then stagged back to the finish line to cheer on the rest of my teammates. I felt better within a minute or two. Once everyone was done, I wandered back to the food and grabbed a free beer.
Then we hung around for a bit chit chatting.
It was a fun morning. The track meet vibe was cool – with people sitting around under the tent and heats going off throughout the morning.
This wasn’t a PR, and on a good day I could definitely have gone faster. Even this day, I think I could have pushed harder at times and come home with a 5:40.
But I was playing it safe, between the heat and the recency of my marathon. I’m happy with the finish and with my closing kick. There’s more speed there than I thought. I just need to spend a little time nurturing it.
I don’t know if I’ll do another mile this year. We’ll see. But if I did, and I had a better day, I think I could manage a 5:20-5:30. Long term, I’d love to get down to 5:00 … but that’s not in the cards for now.
Reflections and Looking Ahead
This was a good week, and it was a good start to the racing season.
As usual, the weather didn’t cooperate. It was ugly and muggy on Saturday, but this is a good reminder to just accept what comes with summer races.
Saturday wasn’t a great race. My time wasn’t a PR, and given a few more weeks and some sharpening, I could probably do much better. But I felt better than I expected, based on my training the last few weeks. I think it was a successful race, in that I got out there, got my legs moving fast, and finished strong with a super fast kick.
I’ve got a 10k coming up on a Memorial Day, and then a 5k on June 8 and a 5 mile on June 26. The 5k and the 5 mile are the ones that I’m more invested in. So as long as training is going well, and I improve before those races – I’m happy.
So far, I haven’t really forced myself to hit particular paces. I let my legs carry me where they will. But at this point, I think my recovery is complete, and I’ll pay a little more attention in workout to paces.
I’m also going to start hitting up the Wednesday night track workouts with my team. I realized last year that running with the faster guys helps push me to go faster, too. But I needed a couple weeks of recovery from Jersey City before I was ready for that.