Goals for the NJ Half Marathon

Posted on April 16, 2009 by threlkeld

I have two big races on the horizon: the New Jersey Half Marathon on May 3 and the Newport Marathon on May 30. The first is a tuneup race, the second is the event I’ve been preparing for since November.

I don’t have a goal time yet for the marathon, as that will largely rest on two things: how I do in the half in a few weeks as well as how I do in my remaining key workouts between now and mid-May.

However, I am ready to declare my time goals for the New Jersey race, along with what their respective minute per mile (mpm) paces:

  • Dream goal: 1:28:30 (6:46 mpm)
  • Reasonable goal: 1:30:00 (6:52 mpm)
  • “I can live with it” goal: 1:32:00 (7:02 mpm)

Declaring race goals publicly always makes me nervous. But in a strange way, I’ve often felt that the act of externalizing one’s judgments about what’s possible plays an important part in also being able to internalize those expectations. I say, “I will perform X on May 3” to the world and in turn my brain says, “Well, I guess I’d better get ready to perform X in a few weeks.”

Filed under: racing | 10 Comments »

Race Report: Paris Marathon

Posted on April 14, 2009 by threlkeld

(Not mine.) Completely breathtaking. Allez Pascal!

Filed under: inspiration, racing | 3 Comments »

Spring Race Training: Week 12

Posted on April 12, 2009 by threlkeld

09spr-training-12

Two months out from race day and things are still going well. This was another high mileage week with three hard workouts as usual, one of them a big, scary track session that loomed large over the past few weeks.

One update before I get to the blow by blow: The foot problem is gone. No pain and no more unsightly bump. Cortisone is an amazing substance indeed. One of my favorite comedians, Patton Oswalt, has referred to alcohol as “pain go bye bye juice,” but I’ve begun to think that term is more aptly applied to cortisone.

Last Sunday was a huge effort and it took its toll on Monday. I felt fine in the morning but as the day wore on I felt progressively tired, culminating in total sleepiness at 5PM, which necessitated a two hour nap.

Tuesday was sort of a crappy day. I had terrible insomnia on Monday due to an upset stomach. The run was slower than I’d wanted and my stomach was still iffy during the run. I wonder if it had anything to do with all the crap I ate on my birthday on Sunday. Ya think?

Even though Wednesday and Thursday were recovery days, they nevertheless featured a lot of miles. I walked a lot in the city on Wednesday (and cut short one run by two miles as a result). I was completely fried by Thursday afternoon, which featured a terribly windy PM run.

Friday was a day of reckoning, featuring a speed workout that I’ve mentioned in at least one previous post. Fortunately, the weather was near perfect — almost no wind, with cool temps and somewhat overcast. I hit the track early in the morning to beat the crowds (and schoolchildren) and had what I can only describe as a dream session.

The first few intervals were slightly slow (1:38-1:40), as I didn’t want to run them too fast. By the fifth, I’d hit my groove and was running most of them at 1:37 or within a second either way. The last four were 2-3 seconds faster each than goal time, something I’d planned to try. I felt so good that I was tempted to do four more (to make it 20), but decided that I’d been assigned 16 for a good reason and not to push things. Heart rate topped out at 90%, which was lower than I’d expected. They didn’t feel easy, but they didn’t feel particularly hard either.

Saturday’s recovery effort was another ass-dragging run, when I had to remind myself that I usually snap back in time for the big run on Sunday. I’d also taken care to eat a lot of carbs during Friday and Saturday and hydrate properly so I’d be fueled up.

This morning I headed out for another big run — a 22 mile long run with three fast miles at the end. It was, as usual, horrendously windy. The wind was primarily coming from the N-NW, at a steady clip of 15-20mph. I drove to the halfway point and ran the first six south, so I’d at least have the wind at my back for the early miles. Then I turned around and spent the next 11 miles running straight into a headwind. At Valhalla Dam I turned around and found that the wind had turned to a swirling, shifting wind. It was at my back for much of the time, a side- or headwind at others.

I managed just over 7:00 pace for three miles. My watch goes completely wacky in the wind (explain that one to me — it’s a GPS watch, not a windsock), so I had no idea how fast I was running. Sometimes it would say 8:20, others 5:40. And everything inbetween.

I did my best, doing my three miles in 21:04 (34 seconds off pace). I ran a half mile easy and then decided to tack on another fast half mile to justify the beer I’d planned to have later on. I managed that in 3:30. In all, I’m pretty happy with the run today, even if it wasn’t quite the pace I wanted. 22 miles at any pace is only going to help. I averaged 8:21, which is not bad in windy conditions. As a side note, I  hit the 22 mile mark in 3:04. According to Pete Pfitzinger, this is a pretty good indicator of one’s achievable marathon time.

I’ve received the remaining weeks (plus taper) of my training plan for the Newport race. There are four more weeks of quality running to go, followed by a fairly radical cutdown in both mileage and intensity during the taper weeks. Next week, a recovery week, features another cut at longish run plus 3 miles in 20:30 at the end (Tuesday), some fast 800s on the track, and a mere 16 miles on Sunday with nothing special.

Filed under: coaching, humor, injury, recovery, training | 6 Comments »

Kara sighting last night!

Posted on April 10, 2009 by threlkeld

Fooled ya! I didn’t actually see Kara Goucher. Instead, I had yet another in my ongoing series of Kara Goucher dreams. The worst came several months ago, when I dreamt that I was lined up on a track, getting ready to race, and Kara Goucher was crouching to my right, so close that I could see her forehead vein palpitating.

Last night’s encounter had a totally different setting. I was on the set of one of those vapid morning talk programs, and they were featuring as guests some 2008 Olympians doing little demonstrations: Jenn Stuczynski was pole-vaulting awkwardly in the cramped studio space. Kara was forced to run in place.

Then it was time for the pitch. Jenn and Kara were led over to a table on which sat a plate of ghastly looking processed meat products. Kara surreptitiously flipped one of them over to hide the label. But that didn’t get past our blonde, helmet-headed host. She made an exaggerated frowny face, chided Kara for not being a sport, and flipped the package back over for a proper product placement. Kara looked both angry and despairing. Jenn fiddled with her shorts and looked away.

Then, in a fit of petulance, Kara sent the entire contents of the table crashing to the floor and stomped away.

It was awesome.

Filed under: elites, humor, olympics | 5 Comments »

Rinus Runs Rotterdam!

Posted on April 6, 2009 by threlkeld

Rinus is a Dutch blogger who is a regular reader and commenter of this blog. He is also a prodigious marathoner, having completed 19 (with a PB just a shade over 3:30). He races other distances frequently too. I’ve begun to think of him as the Dutch Frank Colella. Not just because he races so often, but also because he’s a serial documenter of his races, which all have an important social component as well. In any race post, I can usually count on seeing lots of pictures of Rinus and Frank and friends.

Rinus has a Google translation tool on his blog, which enables me to understand about 25% percent of each post. In a way, reading his posts is like some sort of weird sensory deprivation experience. I get pieces of the story through words, along with more visceral elements through pictures and video, and a rough (yet still somewhat mysterious) narrative emerges.

His videos — some of them taken while actually running the race — are great fun to watch. I just wish I knew what the hell he was saying in them.

In this latest chronicling of his exploits, Rinus helps a few fellow runners attempt a 4:15 race at Rotterdam. They almost made it — it looks like the sun and heat may have caught them by surprise, though.

Filed under: everyday life, inspiration, racing, reading | 10 Comments »

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 »

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