Race Recap/past 10 days

Well, sometimes you have all your goals setup, have a good effort but still fall short.  Even with all indications pointing to success if you don’t close strong you might not meet your demands, and that is the lesson learned from the Chattahoochee Challenge 10-K.

As mentioned before I am trying to get a good qualifying time for the Peachtree Road Race this year so I can be just behind the main group of pros and seeded runners.  I am still transitioning from being a jogger to becoming a runner, and I think a sub 50 minute 10K time needs to be met before I can call myself a runner.  Not to mention that the cutoff time for the A group in the Peachtree is 49:59.  They are taking times from shorter races, but my official 5 mile time from last falls race was 39:47, and the cutoff at that distance is 39:44, so still a bit short, but mentally I really wanted that sub 50 minute 10K time.

The night before the race had a nice night out compliments of a babysitter, and got a good nights sleep.  This race has a fairly decent field, of the 890+ runners, somewhere close to 24% run under 50 minute times, and the winners came in around 32 minutes.  Race started well and I planned on negative splitting from 9 to 7 minute miles over the race to hit the magic 8 minute average needed.  Shortly after starting however I was passed by a pace setter and found out that he was running for the 49 minute mark.  I decided then to keep up with him and see how it felt.  After the first 2 miles I actually got out in front of him a bit, and by the 4 mile split I was ahead of my needed pace by almost a minute, and felt strong as well.  Closing in on the 5th mile the pacer caught up with me and I decided to bring it home with that group.  The problem popped up in the last half mile, when I realized we had only 3 minutes to go to break 50 minutes.  At that point I took off from the pacer (who I soon heard yelling “we need to pick it up!”) and went all out.  With the finish line in sight and about 2 minutes of 6 min pacing interval I was burning out and knew I would not make it.  I crossed the line ahead of the 49 minute pacer, but my time was 50:24 seconds so I just missed the cutoff time.

I was disappointed for missing the goal time, but also had to be happy with a PR time in a chip timed 10K.  I just needed 4 seconds per mile to cutoff enough to get under 50 minutes, close but that is how you learn to get better.  Somewhere in the last 2 miles my pace fell off even though my perceived effort was still the same  Overall I came in 30 of 101 in my age group (29th percentile), 176 of 472 in the men's division (37th percentile), and 222 of 890 overall (25th percentile).  I am happy with that and have one more shot in March to get to a sub 50 min time in a qualifying race.  Next time I will not eat Thai food and drink a few glasses of wine the night before!

January Summary

Another long break from updates, but training has been moving forward. I am currently in week four of the Alcatraz training, so my first recovery week is here as well as in week 5 of my half-marathon training. I am getting some breaks on the tri stuff, but still hitting the road hard on my runs. The plan I have for Alcatraz is a high level Olympic distance plan, so I am putting extra work in compared to my last ones, but with the quirky distance of Alcatraz I will have to add some distance to the run and swims in the last month. And lots of hills too.

It has been a tough month to get outside here in Atlanta, so I have only had one actual ride outdoors. The second one I attempted resulted in a flat about five minutes into the ride so I have been exclusively on the spin cycle trainer so far. The weather has been brutal as well, we had 8 of 31 days in January with heavy rain, 4 of those days were Saturday/Sunday combos, so the long work on the weekends was all done indoors. Along with the rain we had 20 total days of sub-freezing temps, and 15 of those were all in a row the first two weeks of the month. Way too cold to do the typical early morning runs, so I have become very friendly with the treadmill as well.

Over January I had 30 scheduled workouts, and was able to get to 21 of them. That is skipping a lot more than I would like, but travel for work and the awful weather has contributed a lot. Thankfully I am already running much longer distances than required for the triathlon plan; my ½ marathon training has me ahead of the curve there. However, I am a bit concerned about the biking, I really need to get outside to replicate actual riding conditions as the indoor trainer only does so much. Totals for the three weeks of training in January were 5 miles in the pool, 114 miles on the bike, and 37 miles running. Nice little base period, but the volume will be kicked up a notch in the next month.

Overall I feel good, but a little anxious about the missed days. I need to make sure to keep those to a minimum this month as I enter the build phase for the triathlon training. We shall see. Tomorrow I have a 10K race and shooting for a sub 50 min time. That will get me in the seeded group just behind the pros and real runners in the Peachtree Road Race. The weather is awful today, but tomorrow morning is expected to be 35 and dry, so conditions are good with a flat track. It will be a stretch, as most of my training runs are putting me at the 55 min mark for 10K. We will see how it goes.

Week 1 of 16

First double of the year today with a 4 miler in 35 minutes then 1400 meters in the pool.  This is week one of 16 leading to Alcatraz, and the entry fee was paid over the weekend so I am officially in.

Travelling all week so I will get most of the workouts on the plan in on an unusual schedule, but should not be a problem with the low volume.  Cobwebs are coming off.

Jan 6

Quickie, got 1400 meters in the pool today and firmed up my training plan for the first half of the year.  Definitely a bit stiff in the water.

16 week plan for Alcatraz starts next week.

2010 Begins

After the 10K on Tuesday, I was able to get in my first ride in a while of 30 miles.  It took almost 2 hours, so you can see that the fitness level drops pretty quickly.  After that had NYE down in Cedar Key, FL then a long weekend at Disney for the New Year.  Probably walked 6-7 miles on Sunday carrying a 3 year old on my shoulders most of the time, so that has to count for something.

Now is time to start the pre-base work for my races.  Today had a nice 5 mile run with 2 mile warm-up, 3 x 1min intervals, 2 x 1:30 intervals, then three more intervals that I didn’t even time.  They were probably around 2 min each.  In the end it was a 5 mile run in 45:48 so averaging 9:09 over the run, with the first two at warm-up rate of 10 min miles.  Most of the interval work was down in the 7 min mile range.  I’ll try to hit the pool and weights tomorrow.  Way too cold to ride as the lows this week here in Atlanta are in the teens.

The schedule is firming up, but definites so far are the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon on May 5, the ING Georgia Half Marathon in March, The Peachtree Road Race on July 4th.  Looking for a 10K qualifier for Peachtree in Feb or March as well.  The second half will have the always fun Sandestin Triathlon in August, probably The Tugaloo Triathlon on September 11th, and I think I will go ahead and do Ironman Augusta 70.3 on September 26th to wrap up the season.

Preseason weight as of today is 193 even, so that is 22 pounds under last January’s winter coat.  Hopefully I can get that race weight down to the low 180’s this year.

2009 almost wrapped up

Well the schedule is becoming more set as I received confirmation that I am in the May version of the Escape from Alcatraz race.  This will be my focus race for the year, but I should have plenty of time to get back and ready for one of the half-ironman races in September or October.

Got in a few runs and a couple of one milers in the pool last week leading up to Christmas, but the regular stuff is starting now.  Today ran a 10K at 55 min pace during lunch and also snuck in about 1K in the pool as well.  (needless to say it was a long lunch).  Time to get the trainer back out for some small bike work, and also need to scout out some serious hills in the area for repeat work.  The San Fran race will be by far the most vertical racing I have done as of yet.

Final schedule is due next week.  Off to Orlando for New Years and some warm weather runs.

Back at it

Back on it, I’m going to try to stay a little more regular this week.  Today had a 45 min 5 mile run with 20 minutes of easy pace then stair stepping speed for the next 15 minutes on the treadmill.  Average was a bit under 9 min/mile pace.   After the run did about 20 minutes of circuit work with abs and shoulder work.  I had a little bit of pain in my shin but felt good in the end. 

I’m looking for three speed workouts and need to try to get a 10 mile distance run in over the weekend.

2010 considerations

The list for next year is starting to come together with a few regulars and some wildcards.  Definite races include:

-ING Atlanta Marathon (March)

-Peachtree Road Race (July)

-Sandestin Sprint Triathlon (August)

-Tugaloo Olympic Triathlon (September)

Augusta 70.3 (September)

Here are the others I am trying to fit.  Looking at the Sweetwater Creek 50K trail run in May, this will be a huge challenge, but worth it for base fitness.  In the Lottery for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon which is in May as well.  I need to hear back from them before I commit to the 50K trail run.  Also looking at another off roader the Muddy Buddy race in June here in Atlanta.  There are a few more 70.3’s I am considering instead of doing Augusta, but I need to keep them semi-local.  I should have the final season mapped by mid-January, but it is time to put a plan on paper for ING coming up in March.  I need to get on a regular plan before Christmas rolls around.

Post Thanksgiving Wrap-up

Still nothing structured but have kept a few long runs to maintain over the past two weeks.  Put in a 12 miler the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving in 1:51, so that has me close where I would like to be for an easy sub 2h half marathon, also ran a homemade 10K on Thanksgiving morning along the GW Parkway from my sisters house to Mt. Vernon.  Was cold and did not feel like running but put in a 55min time, so that was enough to stock up and eat the rest of the day.

Over the next two weeks I am going to try to get back to the pool a bit so by the end of December I should be back to 2-3 swims per week of 2000 yards.

Also, entered the lottery for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon next May and will know by January if that is a go.  This would be an awesome event and the first field I can get in that would have a bunch of world class triathlon stars.  Lets keep the fingers crossed.

Still Laying Low

All right, just to check in recovery is in full effect and I have yet to get back to a schedule of workouts.  In the past month I have put a 10 miler, a few 6-7 milers and some speed work in running.  Also got on the bike two times, both around 25 miles each, and have been in the pool a few times.  Just trying to keep some minimum form.

So far my weight has held steady in the 190-195 range, so that is a good thing and should allow me to get down to about 180 by next summer for racing.  It looks like I will bite off another 70.3 next year, most likely Augusta again to get a few friends involved.  I do know that I want to do more races throughout the entire season.  At least one per month.  Next year is all about getting close to a podium in some shorter races.  I will start picking a few key races as the year closes down, then work around those.  Maybe an XTERRA thrown in?  Who knows.  I will be starting the season with the ING Atlanta Half Marathon as the run base again, but will start biking and swimming regularly as soon as the new year turns to get racing sooner. 

Off to DC for Thanksgiving.  Have a good one.