Tempo

Today's tempo workout.

Out the door at 6:15am

4 x 2-mile, 2 minute rests

1. 6:02, 5:47

2. 5:47, 5:47

3. 5:49, 5:49

4. 5:47, 5:45

The four days a week training plan is really working for me. I don't have a goal for the marathon, but right now I'm looking at 6:09 for marathon pace workouts. I think that's where I'm at. We'll see. I have contemplated signing up for the Get in Gear half marathon at the end of April. It coincides with a marathon pace workout.

In other news, I heard this on The Current today.

Rock 'n Roll McDonalds

Lots of Running. Lots of Eating.

Jude, I too have a harder time figuring out what pace to run on longer tempo runs. JD of course says tempo is to run "comfortably hard." I try to push myself, but to still feel decent after each segment, with the goal of feeling fairly fatigued by the end of the last tempo due to the sum of all the segments... I don't look too much at pace; I just go for a feel. Others may have more helpful advice.

I think next weekend's marathon pace 12 miler should be run at 6:45 to 6:50 pace? 1 mile easy warmup (8 min pace) and 1 mile easy cooldown (8 min pace). Thoughts on that?

Today, in order to reach my goal of 70 miles this week, I went for 2 runs. I started with 8.6 miles this morning, which was longer than planned due to a dog following me, and whereby I had to run through a cemetery, out a gate, then in the opposite direction of home and through a farm field in order to keep the dog from following me onto busy roads where it could have lost its life. Then I ate at the Northland cafeteria for lunch. Think Kagan, $5, all you can eat, and a stack of 7 plates from 70 minutes of grazing.

I finished the late afternoon with a 5 1/4 mile easy run, during which a fellow runner caught up to me, and we proceeded to run together. He also is running Grandma's; we exchanged numbers and we may run together in future.

Then I went to the brewery in town and was pleasantly surprised to find an all you can eat pizza buffet. I ate salad, wings, a meatball, 7 slices of pizza, a quarter of a burger, and 4 waffle fries.

Lots of running. Lots of eating.

Questions Regarding Pace

Having not raced in several years, I often find it difficult to decide how fast a particular workout should be. Yesterday, for example, I was tasked with deciding how fast my threshold pace should be while running 4 x 10-12 minutes w/2 minute rests (+ warm-up & cool down). As it turned out, I ran the first interval at 6:20 pace, the second at 6:13 pace, the third at 6:03 pace, and the fourth at 6:12 pace. Of course some of these intervals were wind-aided, while others were wind-adled, but I always tried to expend the same amount of energy throughout.

So here are my questions. How fast have your threshold runs been? Do I need to dramatically speed up? Slow down? I know, I know. We're all at different fitness levels, but some idea of where y'all are at would be helpful to me. Last question, how fast are we aiming to run our marathon-pace workout over the Easter weekend?

How I Got My Groove Back

By the sounds of it, I haven't been the only one working on his best Stella impersonation. Paul, nice work on the 18-miler. Those are impressive splits, especially late in the run! Tim, you may not realize it, but your turnover while running intervals has always been sweet. Ben, well, you're just a machine that apparently doesn't even require fuel anymore. How sweet is that!

Last Saturday I finished my first feel-good long run. So good, in fact, that I had to repeatedly talk myself into slowing down in the early going and then, later, to accept company on miles 12 - 16 when my sister-in-law's boyfriend pulled a switch-a-roo on me and convinced Maggie to run with me instead. In the end, it was probably a good thing as I ended up running 14 the next day over several hills and have been feeling burned out since. Here are the mile splits from my Saturday long run.

Oh, one more thing: Miles 1-4 were slightly uphill while miles 4-6 were downhill, miles 6-18 were flat, and miles 18-20.5 were sharply uphill.

Mile Split
1 7:32
2 7:25
3 7:19
4 7:22
5 6:58
6 7:03
7 7:03
8 6:57
9 7:14
10 7:09
11 7:04
12 7:00
13 8:01
14 8:08
15 8:13
16 8:06
17 7:04
18 7:13
19 7:25
20 7:40
20.5 7:29

Proper Running Form is Important

C and O Canal

Mary dropped me off at the foot of the Key Bridge in Georgetown this morning. From there I followed the C and O Canal towpath for 18 miles past Great Falls to the Pennyfield Lock. The towpath follows the Potomac River, is pancake flat, and has mile markers - ideal for Grandma's training. It was cool and overcast, and even though the water fountains along the path weren't working, I felt good. In fact, a little too good out of the gate. I had to force myself to slow down after quick miles 6 and 7. I started feeling the pace and the fluid loss during the last half hour (foggy brain and dead legs), so I was really glad to come around the final bend and see Mary sitting outside the lock house. Now I have no plans to leave the couch for the rest of the afternoon. March madness was created for this very purpose.

Mile	Split
1	7:49
2	7:26
3	7:04
4	7:15
5	7:16
6	7:00
7	7:01
8	7:29
9	7:17
10	7:14
11	7:04
12	7:08
13	7:08
14	7:15
15	7:00
16	6:59
17	7:16
18	6:39
Average	7:11
Total	2:09

Ah, snoring roommates. Reminds me of college.

I also did my last intervals workout - following the Jack Daniels plan. I have enjoyed the difficulty of intervals, a completely different beast than tempo workouts. Tempos and long runs require patience and hanging on. Intervals require intensity, maybe even aggression. I find this aggravating, mostly because intervals get the best of me. I am left wanting another opportunity to avenge my loss to lactic acid. The effect on the body is quite a contrast to tempos. The bright side is that intervals make tempo pace feel leisurely. I am a man of leisure, but I was thinking it would be fun to train for a 5k. Although, it would feel a little strange to dedicate so much time to such a short race. And I am probably too old to run a mile under five minutes.

So far I am pleased with the results of my training. I am steadily getting in better shape. One way I know this is because I no longer have the hunger within. There was a time period where I was seriously ravenous. My fourth meal every night around 9 o' clock was a bowl of granola with fatty yogurt and a banana - short of banana cream pie, but less effort. In the past two weeks I have felt oddly full. This makes me think I now require less energy to run. My body has become more efficient. Running is easy. That said, the upcoming tempo runs are crazy. It will be a challenge.

Tim, any ideas where we will do our 12-mile marathon pace run in Ashland?

A Joyous Day

I blog this early morning at 3:15 am because I can't sleep, which is rare for me. The incredibly and unusually loud snoring of our housemate could be the problem---I am now downstairs in the dining room and I can still hear the racket from the upstairs opposite end of the house.

In any case, I declare this day a joyous day because yesterday was the last of the interval workouts before the marathon. According to the plan, from now on it is longer and slower tempo runs for workouts, and of course the dreaded marathon pace long runs. But these I can handle. My quick turnover and foot speed on interval workouts leave something to be desired. Long tempos will be hard, but won't require the fast rate of turnover that I lack.

So yesterday for the final interval workout, I chose to do 5 x 1200m with 4 minutes rest between. I was aiming for 4:18 each, which equates to a VDOT of 56. The first was 4:23, then the final 4 came in at 4:13-14, for a surprisingly better VDOT of 57-58. 3 of the intervals I ran on the Ashland Oredocker track, and two were completed on a 0.75 mile loop around the schoolyards on a paved bike trail.

In the end I was pleased with the effort: tired, but not exhausted. The 4 hot and humid days in the high 70s earlier in the week and last weekend had me concerned that I was breaking down. Turns out it's just that I'm not used to the hots and humids yet.

Wow. That man can snore.

What's a Billiken?

I was watching March Madness earlier today, and saw St. Louis fall to Michigan State. Naturally, I wondered 'what is that thing dancing around behind the St. Louis bench?' Turns out, the University itself doesn't really know. Or at least they don't know why the Billiken is their mascot. It looks like a pale Yoda.

Sundry Thoughts

As you probably know, there was a lot of pack running in the Twin Cities about three weeks ago. Roscoe, Tim, and I met on a Wednesday evening to do intervals. The next Wednesday we added Jude. Then on Saturday we had five people when Dimitri joined us - enough to score. It is definitely easier to do workouts with a group.

For about the last week and a half I have been bothered by a cold and subsequent sinus infection. I finally went to the doctor on Saturday. When I picked up the prescription, the pharmacist made a point of telling me not to drink alcohol with the antibiotic. Does this guy know me? He also told me the medicine would cause loose stools. Any questions. Hmmm. How loose? On Sunday we went out to brunch with Liz and company at Pizza Luce. About two hours later it was time to do a workout. It's easy to see where this is going, right. I did a tempo run along river road, which was without incident. Good. Then I started on an 8-mile run through St. Paul. Easy, for a while. At Highland and Fairview I was in trouble. Not too many opportunities in that area. Fortunately, I saw a porta-pot when I glanced down an alley as I walked down Fairview. Is there a patron saint of well-placed porta-pots?

The training continues to progress. This week will be a difficult one. Actually, this seems to be where things really start to ramp up. The weather this week is supposed to be beautiful. Maybe even a little to warm for running this time of year.

You'll Never Guess How Many Times I Fell

Running in LA

Just got back from a week-long conference in LA. I stayed downtown, where there were no good running routes. Lots of wide roads, cars, litter, and freeways. I eventually found a loop through Chinatown to Elysian Park, which offered some nice views of the city from the hilltops. But despite the scenic vistas, the park seemed underutilized and a little run down. I also found a small state park near some railroads and an underpass that had a circular dirt path -- good enough for Wednesday's 1,200 meter repeats. If I had rented a car, I could have taken advantage of some of the other area parks. (Like Griffith Park, where I hiked up the hill to the observatory on Sunday afternoon. In the observatory rotunda is one of the coolest murals I have ever seen: The March of Science Through the Ages by Hugo Ballin. ) I heard that planners are working on a scheme to make the LA river more of a welcoming public space. In general, they need more greenways to connect the core to the outlying parks. That's really hard to envision in a place that is so spread out and auto-dependent (and in a state that is flat broke).

Hostess with the Mostess

Watched a little of the MIAC track and field championships at Macalester this evening!