"Yes Brian, there is a Bart Yasso. He exists surely as running and shoes and sweating exist."
As I trained for the Shamrock Marathon last winter, I did well with my base miles, but my long runs were insufficient. When I trained for Philly this summer and and fall, I nailed my long runs but didn't put in the base mileage I needed during the most important month of my training. I'm trying to excel in both this time around, but one other thing was missing both times: speedwork.
I don't really care about running a fast marathon. Sure, I'd like to get down to 4:45 or into the 4:30s, which would be a pretty significant PR, and I'd be thrilled with less than that, but overall, I just care about finishing the marathon with as little walking as possible. I'd love to not die at mile 18 or 21.5. I'm also pretty sure that if I can over come (or at least push back) the wall, I'd naturally finish the marathon a little faster even if my actual running pace doesn't increase.
But, I've been advised by several of my readers, and even by my Shamrock training program coach that speedwork was helpful for building endurance, not just getting faster. I just didn't make enough of an effort to get to the speedwork sessions in January because they were in Maryland and I was crushing everything else, and then after I got hurt I was afraid to put my knee through that pounding. (I'd gone to one of them prior to my knee injury and was really sore the next day.) For Philly, I happily chose a training program with no track workouts.
So as I train for my second assault on Virginia Beach, I want to make speedwork a part of my training. I've decided to do a Yasso 800 program, which I first read about in Bart Yasso's My Life on the Run, because your minute & second lap pace has been shown to predict your marathon pace.
(I really enjoyed this book. I owe it a longer review in another post.)
To run Yasso 800s, you run 800 meters (as the name implies) with a rest (slow running) break equal in time to your 800 meter time. You (a beginner like me, anyway) are supposed to start with four sets when beginning the program, adding a set each week until you get to 10. So the program will get progressively more challenging, but hopefully I'll get a little stronger each week, too.
I ran my first Yasso 800s last night -- sort of. Since the local high school locks its track, and I didn't have time to go down to Springettsbury, which has a quarter-mile oval path where I've previously trained, I used the "interval training" function on the Garmin to approximate Yasso 800s. I ran a one-mile warm up, and set Garmin for half-mile (a few hundredths of a mile over 800 meters) intervals with two-minute rest breaks and did four "laps" through the suburban development that is my main running course these days.
Wow. That hurt. But it was also fun. It definitely broke up the monotony of another night run in my usual spot. Since it was the first time and I was definitely fudging things a bit, I didn't rigorously keep time, but I came in at 4:02 for my fourth lap. I'd be ecstatic with a 4:02 marathon time. In caution though, I will admit that I felt like I was sprinting these and each one got progressively harder. I only did four, so when I'm doing the full 10 I'll start to have a better feel for what I'm in for. I also feel that it shows I've gotten slower since the summer, when I ran a 6:20-something mile, since my two-miles worth "laps" not counting the rest was timed at 16:22. (8:11 pace).
I didn't speed train over the spring and summer, but I did race a lot of 5Ks so I had that extra gear I just don't feel like I've got right now. But that's ok -- If speedwork helps my endurance for the marathon, then it's accomplished my primary goal for it, but I also really think it will help me go after my 5K and mile PRs, which are going to be two of my main running goals for 2012.
LSD=Long, Slow, Distance. It's pretty much what I do.
19 miles on Saturday, probably could have gone further if I'd eaten something before my run. I ran (most of a) a marathon in the spring. Give me a cool, dry day, sufficient water and delicious orange Gatorade, and I feel like I could probably grind out a marathon now if I had to. (I'm glad I still have a month to go, though!)
One thing I can't seem to do right now is go fast, or at least what passes for fast in my world. Like I said, give me a cool, dry day and I can run a long time. But this evening was misty and warmish, and so I didn't want to be out there that long, even though as discussed endlessly here I knew I needed to get more midweek miles in.
I decided I was going to run a 5K at race pace. The problem? I haven't raced since May, when I scored a 23:55, my second-best time ever, at HACC Dash. My PR is 23:43, from December's Jingle Bell 5K. Tonight: 27:10. Ouch.
That's a lot closer to my personal worst: 29:38, where I ran a deliberately conservative race at the Orioles Advocates 5K in 2008 because I knew I was under-trained, than my PR.
Oops. That's what I get for going so long without racing and for not doing any speed training. I'm not particularly worried about it now -- the Philly and Shamrock Marathons are my running focus, but I definitely want to work on chipping away at my 5K PR and a sub-6:00 mile next year.* Still, it was 3 midweek miles that were better than no miles at all.
* It turns out that we probably won't be running Jingle Bell this year, which means I may not have another attempt at a 5K PR this year.
It's been a long week. I know it's only Tuesday (well, Wednesday morning now technically), but it's been a long week. Despite feeling like crap for most of the day and despite -- but also because of -- a very stressful two days of work, I had the great idea of trying to get my Tuesday four miler -- just like Hal Higdon wants -- in at 11:00pm. My resolve wavered as I got ready...I just didn't feel up to it. But I decided I'd feel better about myself if I at least tried. Turned out to be a great idea.
Since it was shorter than my usual distance, I set out without my hydration belt. No water, orange Gatorade, or Sports Beans. I also decided I was going to run it as fast as I could.
It turned out to be 4 miles in 35:22, an 8:50/mile pace. Not as low as I'd like to be for a 5K, but considerably better than the last time I recall going out with the goal of running 4 and keeping my pace under 9:00, which was a lunchtime run back in January, before my IT band trouble.
More importantly, though, this was fun. It was nice to have a run that was over in under 40 minutes, rather than over an hour and a half. It was enjoyable to just turn my brain off and focus on running as fast as I could, rather than worrying about pacing myself for the long haul. It was a throwback to the summer of 2008, when all I did was two laps around Cousler Park several times a week and try to break my personal records.
I've longer distances than I ever thought I'd attempt back then; I'm proud of that and have no plans stop running longer races, but I do think that summer was when running was the most purely fun.
Every week in my marathon training, I've got runs on Tuesday and Thursday that don't ever get longer than 5 miles. I admit, I really don't care that much about how fast I run the marathon. I think just by getting in more 20-milers in training I'll be better conditioned and between that and smarter pacing early in the race, I can shave off a decent amount of time. I'm not that worried about tempo runs or speedwork (Novice 2 doesn't have speedwork, anyway). But I think I'll take one of those short runs every week and just go as fast as I can.
After a pretty good-mileage week, with 34 miles of running and a 15-mile bike ride for good measure, this is going to be a very light week. I ran 14 miles on Friday; we rode 15 yesterday, and I ran a very hilly 10 today. This week, I'll be taking Monday and Tuesday off from running, and running only a single mile on Wednesday.
However, that mile will likely be the fastest mile I run all year. That's the plan, anyway. Wednesday evening is the Miller's Mutual Harrisburg Mile, which this year is part of the Michelob Race to the Ultra series, which means we're going to get athletes' favorite watered-down low-cal beer at the beer tent.
Last year I ran a 6:44. This year, my goal was to run finish in 6:00 or under. However, I'm not really sure how feasible that is. Not only did I not do any speed training (I'm sorry, I just hate it.), but I realized a 6 minute mile means that I would be running 10mph. I usually keep my Garmin set to mph rather than minutes per mile, and my speed is usually between 5.5 and 6.5, occasionally getting up into the low 7s or dropping into the 4s when I climb a hill.
6:44 is 8.9 mph, which is honestly faster than I thought it would be before I looked it up on this handy mph to minutes per mile chart. On Wednesday, I want to see if I can crank it up a little more than 1 mph faster and shave 44 seconds off my time, and I'm hoping fresh legs will help.
If I don't make it in under 6 minutes, I can't be too disappointed. After all, I didn't train at all. My backup goal is to get a new PR for the mile. Next year, I'd like to focus more on beating my 5K and mile PRs, but I'm sure I'll still dislike track work just much next year. I do have little bit of hope, though: hills. "Hills are speedwork in disguise", says Frank Shorter, the 1972 Olympic gold medalist who helped popularize distance running in the U.S. I've run up a ****load of hills this summer. Wednesday night can't come soon enough.
If you're thinking of running the Harrisburg Mile but haven't signed up yet, you can register online until noon tomorrow (Monday, 7/18). After that, though, you can still register in person. It's a fun race. It's hot, but at least it's over quickly and there's beer at the end.As for low-mileage week, I'll probably run on Thursday and Saturday, taking it a little easy because of soreness (Thursday) and heat (Saturday) -- after a few gorgeous running/biking days, it sounds like summer will return with a vengeance this week.
I really don't care about winning medals as much as my previous posts imply.
Not that it wasn't awesome to win a medal, but I really don't consider myself to be racing against anyone but myself. I have no expectations of awards or prizes and I don't really care about how many other runners I finish ahead of. (Though I admit that I do desperately hope that there were more than 3 people in my age group on Sunday so that my award isn't completely a sham. I do after all, have one last-place medal to my name from a very small 5K.)
I'm out there trying to run the best race I can, and if I can tell myself after crossing the finish line that I've done so, I'm happy with that. My 23:55, bronze medal-winning race on Sunday is my 2nd-fastest 5K ever, but I would rather have run a 23:41 (one second under PR) and finished out of the medals in a bigger field.
Last week, I pulled this quote out of an article about Sammy Wanjiru's victory in the 2010 Chicago marathon:
Sammy Wanjiru has run faster races, he has won more celebrated races, but never has he run a more inspiring race. He proved that even when you are not at 100 percent, you can still give 100 percent of what you have.
I do think I've done this in most of the races I've ever run. Sure, I walked more of the marathon than I wanted, but I was coming off an injury that had cost me my longest training runs. I dogged the Kelly Shamrock 5K on purpose this year because I was tapering. I took the 2008 Orioles Advocates 5K, my first race that year after a bad winter of running, really easy because I knew I was under-trained. I didn't push for my goal time in the Broad St. Run because it was 30 degrees warmer than I anticipated. I've run some 5Ks where I just didn't feel great and was several minutes slower than usual. Still, I think every time I've toed the line, I've run the best race that I could possibly run at the time. I'm satisfied that I've given 100% on race day. This spring it's paid off with three 5Ks in which I did very good or great (by my standards).
The problem, for lack of a better word, is that I know I can be faster. I've always given my best effort on race day. It's the things I haven't done on other days that are the issues. The one place I really feel like I failed in my marathon training was my complete inattention to the speedwork (track workout) portion of the training program. Even before my knee acted up and made it a risk that I didn't feel comfortable taking, I only bothered to attend one of the weekly track workouts. Though I don't really care about how fast I am on marathon day, that track work might have given me a little more endurance to run more of those last four miles. (Instead of pretty much having to alternate running and walking for a few minutes at a time). It would almost certainly lower my 5K times and is probably my only shot at my goal of a sub six-minute mile at Harrisburg.
I've ignored it. I've settled for mediocrity. On one hand, that's ok. This is a hobby. I need to keep it enjoyable (or as enjoyable as possible in the humidity, at least. Ugh!). Adding speedwork will probably take away 1 regular run, and I've had enough trouble getting those in due to a busy work schedule, let alone getting back in a good lifting routine and reacquainting myself with my old bike as I'd planned.
I don't think there's anything wrong with my current approach. I've been unscientific and maybe undisciplined, but I think it's been an honest effort. Running means different things to different people and I think the relaxation and stress relief aspect of it has been more important to me than the competition. With the exception of one summer where all I did was run a 3-mile course over and over again, finishing longer-distance races has generally been more important to me than how fast I got to the finish and my training has reflected that even if I did love to see how fast I could go on race day. This spring I've fallen back in love with the 5K and have been having a good time in my (so far unsuccessful) attempts at new PR and breaking the 23-minute barrier.
I continue with my current approach, I think I probably need to realize that I'm getting very close to the limit of how fast I'll ever be. If I really care about lowering my PRs and taking these lead legs and occasional bronze medal and turning them into gold, then change is needed.
I know I can be faster, but how badly do I want it? I'm not sure that I really know the answer to that question yet, but it's a month and a half before the Harrisburg Mile and I think that's time enough to do some long-overdue experimenting.
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.
