Week 6 with the Coach and Whiskey Island Race Report

Friday Night Social Time with My Long Lost Trail Girls (Who I miss very much!!!)

In general this week I have just felt a bit tired. I am sure this is just the miles piling up consistently every week. Adding quality to the mileage was bound to leaving me feeling a little less perky eventually. Making a large effort from here on out to keep my easy and recovery days easier.

My Garmin bit the dust Tuesday during my track workout so I have gone back to my old mileage calculation methods which include mooching pace from my friends garmins, and running known mileage routes. Surprisingly my pacing instincts seem pretty good without the watch, but be sure I am trying to find the receipt/warranty so I can get it in and fixed. Tracking mileage and pace is so much simpler with that dang watch.

June 15th through June 21st- 61 miles
Monday- Rest
Tuesday- 7.2 track
Wednesday- 7.4 easy 8:48 pace
Thursday- 12.5 miles ~7:53 pace
Friday- 7.5 miles ~8:29 pace
Saturday- AM 4.5 miles easy
PM 7 miles including 3 k cross country race
Sunday- 15 miles ~7:53 pace

Key Workouts:

Track:

Usual warm up one mile at 8 minute pace followed by 4*100 strides
Workout was 1600 followed by 3 minutes rest then 4*400 with one minute rest follwed by 3 minutes rest and 1600

Goal for the first mile was even pace for 6:10 or better. Pace was way off with a 1:34 followed by 1:35, picked it up to try and get back aiming for 1:30s the last two since 6:10 was the goal. Instead over compensated and ran 1:27 and 1:25 for a 6:01 total. Ooops. Not how I would have liked that to go, definitely went anaerobic the last lap making the rest of the workout harder than it should have been.

400s we were aiming for 1:25-1:27
1:25.38 (58.84)
1:25.95 (1:00.25)
1:25.52 (1:03.93)
1:24.64 (3:12.98)

Last 1600 was supposed to be faster than the first. I was pretty toasted but managed to eek out 6 flat.

Medium Long Run:

Since I was feeling run down after racing last week coach took tempo off the plate this week and instead had a medium long run aiming for around 7:50 pace. With my Garmin fried I decided to just run home from work which I know is about 12.5 miles. I mapped the route on USATF Americas Running Routes to get an idea of a few of the mileage markers to keep an eye on relative pace. I didn't feel stellar but my pacing instincts must be pretty good as I was just over 7:50 average for the run.

My legs were feeling pretty thrashed so I opted for an ice bath after the run. Never fun but I am thinking it was necessary.

Whiskey Island Sunset Relay:

Saturday morning I went to try out a treadmill I decided to purchase and then I headed over to Whiskey Island to check out the race course I was running that night. It was a cross country relay race that I was doing with Salty. Ran the course twice and figured coach's goal of 5:50 pace or better was a little aggressive given the course lay out. The first mile wasn't bad, some rough grass and one mini steep hill, a few yards of sand, and a bit of pavement. But the last 1400 was filled with 4 short steep hills and what felt like a gazillion sharp turns. Did the course in about 16-17 minutes each loop that morning and figured I could shave 3-4 minutes off that while racing it.

The race was a relay and money race. Prizes for top three female teams, coed, and male. Since Salty and I both ran sub 19s at Flag Day I figured we had a good chance of winning the female teams. I opted to go first since Salty is a much better competitor than me. We decided to match and wore my bright pink Under Armour Tanks. Pretty comfy, and despite it being incredibly hot and humid the tanks were comfortable and worked well.

The chip system here was interesting. We got stick on Velcro and the bib velcroed to our shirt then as I came in I remove the bib and hand it to Salty to Velcro onto her outfit and go back through the chute to activate the second leg.

A quick survey of the start showed that all the other fast chicks were paired up with male competitors and were running the second leg. Looks like I will be racing the boys. Sure enough by the first turn it is clear there are no women around me and a handful of super fast guys bounding ahead. One guy was right next to me and was not holding a straight line, making it difficult to fall into a rhythm. I thought oh great, but thankfully I pulled ahead of him shortly after the beach section. I reeled in one more guy who had gone out too fast as I crested the first hill. The ground here was very uneven but thankfully no problems. We headed down a steep hill and a sharp left at the bottom onto pavement, almost bit it but thankfully did not.

As I headed out the lead males were heading back on this section of pavement led by local tri stud AJB. I gave a shout as I passed, not sure he had a clue who I was. Brian S was in close pursuit and looked strong. As I made my way back it was apparent that none of the female teams would catch me. There was a water station as we headed off the pavement and I opted for a quick sip since it was so humid.

Caught up to one more male as I passed the mile marker and headed into the tougher section of the course. I did my best to keep my effort high and push up the hills, but it was apparent my pace was slowing. I just don't corner well and it has been too long since I ran cross country. I could tell the lead guys had a huge gap on me as they were coming out of the woods that I still needed to run around to get into to. No one was around me anymore so I was just running hard to the finish. Into the woods and out of them, then back in again before you head to the finish, but you aren't done quite yet you have to go past the finish, around a tree and then back through the chute. I tore off the bib a bit early, and it was good I did because my velcro came off too and I needed to peel them apart before handing off to Salty. Finished in 12:25 and was happy with the effort. I probably could have gone harder the second half, but it was a good hard run and I had left Salty with at least 2 minutes on our next female competitor. (A quick look at the watch later showed 5:51 for the first mile, so obviously the last 1400 meters were slow!!!)

Headed out to cheer on Salty. Got a little worried when I saw a female in front of her, but got confirmation she was on a coed team. It's too bad she didn't start first actually because she ran a 12:35 obviously we could have pushed each other to better times. I missed Salty's finish but we handily snagged 1st female team. The next team had splits of 15+ and 16+. A couple speedy chicks were there but were teamed up with some fast men so we were able to sneak in a win and grab $100 each for our efforts. Not bad for 12:25 minute work.

The race was run by Clevelandplaysracing. Their events are awesome and they are relatively new in Cleveland. Check them out if you haven't already.


Long Run:

Woke up exhausted Sunday. Not sure if it was still left over from partying too hard Friday night or just the mileage building up on me. Still yawning after the 30 minute drive to Solon I was grateful for the small group which in turn usually promotes an easier pace. This was indeed the case and was very much appreciated as I slept ran my way through the run. My stomach was not happy and the humidity was making me lethargic but I survived my planned 15 with company (who thankfully gave me a gel which was a nice energy boost!) in about 7:53 pace.