Spring Race Training: Week 11

Posted on April 5, 2009 by threlkeld

09spr-training-11

The mileage drop in Week 10 helped me quite a bit this week. I felt great all week despite the problem of March winds, which asserted themselves on Tuesday morning and again, overstaying their welcome, today for my Sunday race.

With the exception of one slower treadmill session, all of my recovery runs were on the quicker side. I may be getting fitter and faster, or it may just have been a spell of temporary freshness from the relatively low-demand days of the previous week.

In any case, all of the hard workouts went exceptionally well. Tuesday’s midlength easy+tempo effort was a surprise. With bad wind, I figured I’d be lucky to get below 7:00 pace on the last four miles. But I was able to run pretty close to goal pace for two of the four miles, then had to slow down for the other two headwindy ones. Still, eight seconds off pace per was fine with me.

Considering how difficult these longish easy+tempo runs have been for me so far, I felt as if I’ve made a real leap in endurance. That will be put to test next Sunday, when I run a 22 miler with the last three at 6:50 pace.

Thursday’s track session featured delightful weather: 50 degrees and a wind of merely 4mph. The goal was 4 x 1000m in 4:05 each (6:34 pace) Splits were a little uneven, but they averaged out to 4:06: 4:10, 4:03, 4:06, 4:06.

On Thursday afternoon I finally got in to see our orthopedist/sports med guy. After an unnecessary x-ray (performed without even having looked at my foot; no wonder our health care costs are so high) he diagnosed a cyst or “thickening of the sheath” of a ligament. One painful cortisone shot later, I was on my way. The foot feels great now.

On Friday I ran a 10 mile recovery run in a steady downpour and was soaked by mile two. But it was actually enjoyable, with temperatures around 50 — once I accepted that I was going to be wet (and very badly chafed, as I soon discovered), it was sort of fun running straight through six inch deep puddles. I felt great and ended up running 9:07 pace for that one. I did seven strides too, but they were a joke in those conditions.

Once again, I loaded up on carbohydrates on Friday and Saturday to prepare for today’s big sandwich run/race out on Long Island. That went very well — historically well, even!

Week 12 is another 100 mile effort, with a plain vanilla 15 miler on Tuesday and a monster track session on Friday (or maybe Thursday, depending on weather): 16 x 400 in 1:37 with 45-50 second rests. Eep!

And yet…and yet…I find myself looking forward to it. I want to see what’s possible. Or, rather, see if what I think is possible is actually doable. I’ve also got that 22 miler on Sunday, but (and maybe this is a mistake) I’m almost treating it as an afterthought to that beeyotch of a track workout.

What remains to be done between now and May 30th is a great mystery. I’m eagerly awaiting the final eight week schedule from Coach Kevin. If it weren’t my birthday, I’d say I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Filed under: coaching, injury, recovery, training | 3 Comments »

Race Report: Jack Dowling 10 Mile Long Island Half Marathon Tuneup

Posted on April 5, 2009 by threlkeld

I won’t bury the lead: I won the women’s race by three and a half minutes. And, boy, was that fun! They even had a little tape for me to run through.

So now that you’re impressed, I’ll instantly deflate things by including some crucial information: There were only 20 women in the race, and lots of them were walkers. So it wasn’t exactly a NYRR race. But, a win is a win, so I’m taking it, little plastic trophy and all.

I ran this race as yet another sandwich run: four miles at aerobic pace, then the race, then another five at aerobic pace. I ran the four early miles too fast, mostly because my legs felt great and I was excited (having seen the winning women’s time from last year).

It was insanely windy, actually windier than forecast. I’m guesstimating the wind at around 15-20mph steady, with gusts near 25-30. For the majority of the course, we were battling headwinds or sidewinds (which were almost as bad; I managed to kick myself in the calf during one gust, as my foot was blown into my other leg on a turn). For one glorious three-quarter-mile stretch, the wind was at our backs. It’s pretty obvious when you look at my splits what the wind was doing.

The wind explains my finishing time of 1:13:09. I was hoping to run something between 1:10 and 1:11, but it was not to be. Still, I was in the lead within the first 50 yards and upon hitting mile four, where I could see runners coming from the opposite direction, it was pretty clear that unless I fell apart, I’d stay in the lead. So I spent six miles feeling the little thrill of my impending victory, however modest.

The race was organized by the Long Island Road Runners Club in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. It was surprisingly quick to travel to and is a great park for running: lots of paved paths, grass to run on, and mostly flat. It was a well-marked race (and it started on time), and everyone was very friendly and welcoming. The LIRRC has races nearly every weekend, so I’m sure I’ll be back.

Like the 15K a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t race this one all out. But I did apply myself throughout and my pace was again very even. Heart rate average was 89%. My watch read 10.08 — it’s amazing what you can do when you can actually hit all the tangents — which equals a 7:16 pace. If only it hadn’t been so windy…

One final note on that wind. When I was doing my final five miles, I ran along the course. There was one unmanned water table and I noticed that there were no cups of water left. Since there were still people on the course, I thought I’d make myself useful (and give myself an excuse to stop for a moment) by filling up some cups. I filled five cups and what happened next was comical: A sudden gust of wind blew all five cups right off the table! I gave up and kept running.

Filed under: racing, training | 8 Comments »

44

Posted on April 4, 2009 by threlkeld

On the eve of my 44th birthday, I’m doing what I always do: thinking about dead people. Sure it’s morbid, but it’s the position from which I am most able to experience happiness that I’m alive. Or at least not dead.

I’m not death-obsessed in the Woody Allenesque sense. I used to be a hypochondriac and anticipate eventual diagnoses of fatal diseases. Don’t ask me where that came from, as it was an affliction I had since adolescence. It went away a few years ago, along with a bunch of other neurotic symptoms — a cessation that I almost wholly credit to consistent, hard running. This stuff alters your brain chemistry, there’s no doubt about that.

I’m actually in a very good mood this evening. That and thinking about death are not necessarily incompatible.

Anyway, here, in no particular order, are some people who didn’t make it past 44. I, on the other hand, fully expect to. In fact, I have to: Next year I move up into the 45-49 age group, where I will again be the “baby” instead of the wheezing senior in the 40-44 AG that I’ll be as of tomorrow.

Raise a toast to the angels and devils among them:

  • Jackson Pollock, Artist: Drunk driving accident
  • Dana Reeve (wife of Christopher Reeve and head of the Christopher Reeve Foundation): Lung cancer
  • Steve Irwin (aka “The Crocodile Hunter”): Freak accident involving a stingray
  • Drake Sather, Comedian and Comedy Writer: Suicide
  • Tyrone Power, Actor: Heart attack
  • Felix Pappalardi, Bassist (Mountain) and Producer (Cream): Murdered by his girlfriend
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald, Author: Heart attack
  • Anton Chekhov, Playwrite and Author: Tuberculosis
  • Robert Louis Stevenson, Author: Cerebral hemorrhage
  • Henry David Thoreau, Author: Tuberculosis
  • Billie Holiday, Singer: Cirrhosis of the liver
  • Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Author, Illustrator, Pilot: Plane crash
  • Marquis de Sade, Aristocrat, Author and father of Sadism: Unknown

Filed under: everyday life | 5 Comments »

Perspective on impediments

Posted on April 4, 2009 by threlkeld

I scowled because I had no shoes on my feet, until further down the street I saw a man with no feet at all.
— Persian proverb

Last weekend’s 30K race was a bust due to weather. Checking the weather for tomorrow’s replacement effort (19 miles with a 10 mile race in the middle), I see a forecast of 20mph winds.

Upon checking the weather, I had a minor fit. Then I recalled the collection of running bloggers I follow who are struggling with various injuries. Some are shelving their races altogether, others are seeking medical help and crossing their fingers.

So I’ll go run in high winds tomorrow and I’ll be grateful.

Filed under: injury, racing, training | 7 Comments »

Poetry in motion, motion in poetry

Posted on April 3, 2009 by threlkeld

I came across this poem recently. It’s published in the The Runner’s Literary Companion.

Poetry is sort of like opera for me: I don’t get it most of the time and, as a result, it ends up making me feel bad about myself. So I avoid it. But sometimes I happen across something that clicks, at least in the poetic realm (hasn’t happened yet in the operatic one).

I thought about this poem while finishing up my last 1000m interval yesterday morning. I especially like the final verse.

This Runner
by Francis Webb

This runner on his final lap
Sucks wildly for elusive air;
Space is a vortex, time’s a gap,
Seconds are shells that hiss and flare
Between red mist and cool white day
Four hundred throttling yards away.

Each spike-shaped muscle, yelping nerve,
Worries, snaps at his stumbling weight;
He goes wide on this floating curve,
Cursing with crazy hammering hate
A rival glued to inside ground
Who flogs his heart, forces him round.

Friends, here is your holiday;
Admire your image in this force
While years, books, flesh and mind give way
To the sheer fury of the source.
Here is your vicious, central shape
That has no need of cheer or tape.

Filed under: inspiration, reading | 2 Comments »

Baby’s first cortisone shot

Posted on April 2, 2009 by threlkeld

So I guess I’m a real runner now, having received my first cortisone shot about an hour ago.

A few weeks ago, 10 miles into a fast 15 miler, the top of my left foot started complaining. I thought I’d just tied the shoe too tight and had bruised it. But when I got home, there was a large, tender bump visible on the top of the foot, just under where the lace ties.

Over the next few days, the pain (and bump) flared up and subsided repeatedly. Sometimes it was quite painful to the touch (in which case I would huff Tylenol before running), other times it was barely noticeable.

It hasn’t been bad over the past week, but I went in to see my favorite local ortho/sports med. guy anyway this morning. Diagnosis: a cyst on my anterior tibiotalar ligament. Apparently all the rage among runners and ballet dancers.

I’m awaiting the advent of “cortisone flare” — the intensifying of pain 24-36 hours after the shot — followed by the promised cessation of pain. The actual cyst will also probably go away in a few weeks. If it doesn’t, I go under the scalpel.

At least I had the sense to do my faster track workout this morning. The next two days is all recovery running. Good timing, I guess.

Filed under: injury | 6 Comments »

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