Dreaded Druid Hills 10K? Don't believe the hype. The course is flat and fast. :-)
Not really, but I scored a new 10K PR. At 57:38, this probably is due more to the fact that it's only my 2nd 10K than me being fast.
I enjoyed this race MUCH more than I thought it would. Full race report coming tomorrow or Monday.
Right now? Can't type...eating
Do not fear the hills.
The hills do not stop the wind.
Just be like the wind.
As you can see, after my pessimism earlier in the week, I'm trending a bit toward overconfidence now.
I've only run one 10K, so I don't feel like I have a good strategy for them. My plan for tomorrow's Dreaded Druid Hills 10K is to just keep a slow, steady pace, conserving energy for the hills and hopefully a final sprint. That's basically the approach I took to my only other 10K. I know this will be a tougher course, but at the time of the '09 MCVET 10K (great race, by the way!) that was the longest I'd ever run.
We've got a busy weekend ahead of us in the Earn Your Donuts household. In addition to the 10K, I'll simultaneously be running a virtual 5K, the "Sweat Your Thorns Off" (what does that even mean?) 5K, hosted by one of my favorite running blogs, www.theboringrunner.com. A couple of logistical questions: Even though they overlap, I get to count that as running 9.3 miles, right? Also, do virtual races count as PRs? (Or in this case, more likely to be a personal worst?) Back in the world of reality, my wife will return to familiar territory, her third Baltimore Women's Classic 5K. I'm sure the cats will also occasionally be running around the house as they do whatever it is that cats do.
Happy Friday. (Finish work if necessary and) Go earn donuts.
I'm probably just a little too addicted to facebook. If a race has a facebook page, I'm going to leave comments on it. So when I signed up for the Dreaded Druid Hills 10K, I posted a question on the event's facebook page, trying to learn a little more about it (by which I mean "how bad is it?"). I pulled some of the "it's really bad" quotes from a few posts ago from there.
Anyway, here's the "conversation."
I don't know why, but the last comment ("You gonna get raped. By hills.") bothered me in a way that the "beyond bad..." and "torturous" comments didn't. I readily admit that I'm probably reading way more nastiness into the comment than this than this guy intended or than most other people would read into it, but it seems more mean-spirited than the other comments did, and so I'm taking it a bit personally.
When I race, I really only consider myself to be competing against myself. But to be honest, even though I know I'm taking offense where none was likely meant, that comment makes me want to kick the guy's ass. I mean in the race, of course. If middle school taught me one thing, it's that violence almost never solves anything.
Now, I looked up his time from last year, and I think he's faster than me. I'd love to finish to ahead of him, but failing that I'll still be happy if I feel that I've run a good enough race, that I was so ready for this that I can say as I cross the finish line "I thought there were supposed to be hills."
Bring it.
Today, I ran hills.
Six miles up and down the two steepest hills of my regular route (which are normally miles 7.75-10) as a test run, however imperfect it may be, for the Dreaded Druid Hills 10K on Saturday. I think today's route as "The Half Pipe", since it starts at the top of the hill in Manchester, heads down a steep hill toward Mt. Wolf, and then up another include to its end at the corner of 5th and Main in Mt. Wolf, and then back again. I ran three loops, plus the few relatively flat blocks at the beginning and end of the run to get to and from my car.
It went surprisingly well, and if these hills are comparable to the ones at the park, then a PR may not be out of the question, despite race directors' insistence that this is not a PR course, since I got through 6.3 miles in 59:50, and was under my 10K PR at 6.2. (As I said before, my 10K PR should go down pretty easily.)
I did the elevation map on dailymile, and here's what it looked like:
I admit that I don't really know how to read these things, but seeing that there's really only about 100ft elevation change each time up and down each hill, if I'm reading this right, makes me think that this route probably isn't up to the standard of the Dreaded Druid Hills 10k. After all, these are some quotes I've seen about the race, either on its active.com site or on facebook in response to my questions about what the course is like: - "Beyond bad... surpasses sick... the ultimate 'what the hell am I doing here?' And then, there's the downside.... LOL!"
- "Torturous and totally worth it!"
- "I love running hills, but that was mean and totally uncalled for."
- "A torturous race by runners for runners through Baltimore's famed Druid Hill Park, beginning and ending at the Moorish Tower and traversing the most wicked hills to be found in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area."
Maybe people are just having some fun with the new guy or exaggerating (Baltimore's got some hilly sections, as "Earn Your Donuts" found out during the marathon relay, but it's THAT hilly?), but I have a feeling I'm going to get my ass kicked.
I ran 10 miles this morning, just like I did on Tuesday, the previous Sunday, the previous Friday, and the previous Monday. All of my times were between 1:34 and 1:37, and I'm very happy with the mileage and the consistency of pace, especially since the weather on those runs included "August" type heat, rainforest-caliber humidity, and a couple gorgeous, perfect mornings mixed in as well. The difference was that today, even more so than on some of days that were worse in terms of weather, I felt like a lumbering, somewhat bipedal dinosaur trying to awkwardly shuffle through the tar pits of the Mesozoic Era.
While scientists have debating for years about the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs and their cretaceous cohorts, I think I can solve the riddle of my dead legs a bit more easily: poor planning and overtraining. I'm running the Philadelphia Marathon in late November. I have absolutely zero interest in long runs during the hottest part of the summer, but I've been trying to build my base up by increasing the length of my regular runs to improve my overall weekly mileage.
I've succeeded; my 38 miles last week was my 2nd best ever, eclipsed only by the week in late February where I did my 18-miler as a last-ditch attempt to "catch up" as much as possible on my long runs in my ITBS-hampered Shamrock marathon training. I'd only had one other week since March where I'd been over 30 miles, a week in April where we had beautiful weather and I got 2 10-milers in (and another the following week).
Those had been my only 10-mile runs since the marathon; I have 5 in the last two weeks. And, on the last three of those I'd adjusted my route to add some steep hills at the end, in hopes of being more prepared for the supposedly very tough Dreaded Druid Hills 10k on June 25, my thoughts being that since I normally run a hilly route, but probably not as hilly as the race course, I'd run a long enough distance, and add some rougher terrain to be as ready as possible.
My plan was to do today's route again on Saturday, and then next week (probably Monday and Wednesday), run two shorter routes consisting of just running up and down the two steepest hills over and over again. (This route would be like going up and down a half-pipe for several repitions.)
Given that I feel like my legs are fossilized, I think I'll re-evaluate. I'm going to take tomorrow off, run 6ish miles on these two hills on Saturday, and then do a mini taper for the rest of next week. I've also got fairly low expectations. If this course is as tough as I've heard, I don't think I'll really be racing it. Ok, I mean, it's a race and I'll be in it, but there's no thoughts of a PR here.
My 10K PR is 59:32, and it should be my easiest PR to break. I've only run one 10K race, in which I paced myself conservatively having never run six miles, and I routinely come in 2-5 minutes under that on my regular runs, and occasionally hit the 10k mark in the 52-minute range. At Druid Hills, though, I'm just going to have fun, keep a slow and steady pace that I can maintain up the inclines, and try to not get caught by the T-Rex.
(What asteroid? Studies show that either running or cats killed the dinosaurs.)
I ran two good 5Ks this weekend, contrary to my plans. In my pursuit of a PR, I made a big strategic error in going for broke at the Preakness 5K, where the 1.5 miles on the dirt track probably made a PR unrealistic. Running on the racetrack was exhausting -- it was one of the hardest 5K courses I've ever run, and If I'd taken it easy, maybe I would have had a shot at a sub-23 at Bob Potts. On the other hand, it was also one of more unique 5Ks I'd ever heard of, so no regrets.
I'm not sure I'll run another 5K until the Tunnel Run in September, and that's definitely not a PR course, but I still have a good chance at the Harrisburg Jingle Bell Run, where I've run my two fastest 5Ks.
The big, obvious lesson that I'm not sure that I want to learn, though, is that while I gave maximum effort in both races and I might be able to gut out a 22:59 in December, my strategy of just trying to run my regular runs faster isn't the best strategy for actually getting faster. The recommended path I can take toward improving my 5K times, and probably even my long-run pace, would be to add some speedwork (track workouts, intervals, fartleks, etc.) I think I'm going to take a closer look at this in an upcoming post.
The back-to-back races were really fun, and I'm glad I did it. I know plenty of people that participate in a 5k or 8k the day before a half or full marathon, so I while I don't think racing two 5Ks back to back is amazing or super hardcore, it was something I hadn't done before. I'd do it again once or twice a year (maybe these two races again next year) but I won't race the 8k at Virginia Beach the day before the Shamrock Marathon -- that's just crazy!
Through the honor bus 5K in April and these two, I've rediscovered my love of the 5K. Running three miles isn't a challenge anymore -- but running three miles as fast as I freakin' can really is. It's exciting in a way that my regular runs just aren't.
The heat and humidity is finally starting to creep in, which makes running less enjoyable for me. Still, though, my running goal for this summer is try to get my base up to around 15 miles (or more) over the summer, since I'm running the Philly Marathon in November this year instead of the Half. Racing some 5Ks will be a fun distraction, but I probably won't race two on back-to-back days like this again this year.
For my next challenge, I've got three ideas:
The MCVET 5K & 10K -- I've never run two races in one day before. This would be 9.3 miles total, which is in my comfort zone, but I've never done two races in the same day. If I run them both, then I probably treat this as my regular long run, and take them both at my usual pace. If I decide to only run one of them, then I'll try to break my PR in that distance.
The Dreaded Druid Hills 10K -- "A torturous race by runners for runners through Baltimore's famed Druid Hill Park, beginning and ending at the Moorish Tower and traversing the most wicked hills to be found in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area." Sounds fun, doesn't it?
I heard about this race in 2009, but didn't want it to be my first 10K. (I ran the MCVET 10K, which was the next day, instead). It sounds miserable, but I like the idea of a challenge, and if it lives up to its reputation, I would think it would rate a donut or two.
Catfish Duathlon -- A sprint duathlon in Harrisburg. That would mean I have to get on the bike again, wouldn't it? I'm not adverse to the idea -- I enjoyed my first bike ride in 10 years, but it's hard enough to find time to get my running in lately.
No physical challenges today, on the other hand. A torrential downpour ruined my plans for a run between storm, so I turned to my other hobby, competitive stress-eating, instead.
