Got it!

I was in New England on the 4th of July and ran the L.L. Bean 10k in Freeport, Maine.

Result: 39:54

I did it!

It was a beautiful sunny day, and temperatures were around 55-60 at the start. The course looped through scenic Freeport, home of L.L. Bean and a ton of other outlet stores. The first mile dropped steeply downhill, but we gained it all back (and then some) for a total of around 300 feet of climbing.

The funny thing about this is that, unlike the Bolder Boulder, I didn't think I was ready for a sub-40 race yesterday. In the last month, I haven't done any long runs (my longest run was 7.1 miles), and I've averaged only 20 miles per week of running. I did exactly one tempo run, and no track workouts. I was on vacation during the past week, and ate like a pig, gaining a couple of pounds before the race. On the plus side, I did do a couple of multi-sport races (the Teva Mountain Games and the Buffalo Creek Xterra Triathlon). The L.L. Bean 10k was also at sea level, and I was better rested going into it.

Anyway, it's starting to seem like training doesn't pay, but I know that can't be true!

The race itself felt easy for the first three miles. Not coincidentally, those first three miles were mostly downhill. I couldn't believe it when my watch said 5:49 for the first mile split! That's the fastest mile I've ever run. I knew that a fast start could spell trouble later in the race, but forced myself to focus on other things instead. I decided to continue taking splits at every mile, but told myself I wouldn't look at my watch until late in the race.

The big hills started at mile 3, and that's when I really started working. It was encouraging to slowly pass a steady stream of runners, so I knew I was doing well. On mile 5, the biggest hill of the course, a large diesel truck was just ahead of me, spewing noxious fumes. The truck was traveling the same speed as the runners, so I got to breathe a few minutes' worth of diesel fumes before it turned off on a side road. Nice.

With less than two miles to go, I tried to pick up the pace even more. Runners were fading right and left. I was still focused enough to run the tangents on each curve of the course. After a short and steep downhill, the climbing continued.

We hit Main Street and the mile 5 marker, the home stretch! I'm glad I didn't check my watch, because my mile 5 split was 6:51. Despite working so hard, the hills kept my pace slow. Thankfully, the last mile had only 20 feet of climbing. I heard footsteps behind me. It was one of the top-10 women, and I held her off.

I checked my watch somewhere in the middle of mile 6, and it said 35 minutes. There was no way I could do the math to figure out my chances of a sub-40 race, since I didn't know how far I had left to the finish. All I knew was that I needed to push with everything I had. My watch said 38:39 at the mile 6 marker, and I dug deep. I believe this is the hardest I've ever run. My lungs were making a strange wheezing sound with every breath. My whole body was made of pain.

When the clock came into view, it said 39:30. I thought I could make it, but knew it would be close. A few steps from the finish line, I knew I would do it. The joy of finally reaching my goal started to kick in before I even finished. I had done it. 39:54. It wasn't to be at the Bolder Boulder this year, but at least I'd proven to myself that I could run a 10k under 40 minutes. It felt wonderful!

My splits...

1. 5:49
2. 6:29
3. 6:39
4. 6:30
5. 6:51
6. 6:21
7. 1:15 (Last 0.21, 5:50 mile pace)

Race Photos

Here are my Brightroom.com photos from the race. I definitely had a look of pain on my face at the end!

I competed in the "Ultimate Mountain Challenge" at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail over the weekend. It's a multi-sport event that combines four races over two days: a downriver kayak race, a mountain bike race, a 10k trail running race, and a road bike hill climb up Vail Pass. It was an awesome experience and I completely thrashed my body, but I loved it.

As a bonus, I got to race against Tour de France winner Floyd Landis! He was doing the Mountain Challenge as part of a team, and Floyd competed in the two biking events. [results]

Selected photos...

What went wrong?

I've been putting off writing this race report long enough. At first I had the excuse that official results weren't out until Wednesday evening, but now that it's Friday that's obviously not the real reason I've been procrastinating. Honestly, I'm disappointed with my race and it's been easier just not to deal with it.

Official time: 40:39

That happens to be the exact time that I ran in 2005. Since my watch read 40:40, I was actually a little relieved to have at least officially matched my PR. Funny how one or two seconds in either direction could affect how I feel!

The race started fine. I felt relaxed in the first kilometer and even wondered if I was running too slowly. My 1k split of 3:51 told me I was exactly where I wanted to be. I crossed the 1-mile banner in 6:24. Again, I thought I was in fine shape, slightly under my 6:26 per mile goal pace. But my 2k split was 4:08. I had slowed down without even realizing it!

I determined to get back into it and buckled down, running the next (uphill) kilometer in 3:59. Perhaps it was a mistake to push that hard, as the course continued climbing. Kilometer 4 went in 4:12. Now I was a little concerned. I had told myself it was ok to run as slow as 4:05 on the uphills, and now I'd gone over that twice. I was on the verge of oxygen debt, and tried to keep myself just below that threshold.

As I approached the halfway point, I saw the banner up ahead and quickly glanced at my watch. It looked like I was back on schedule. Then I realized I was looking at the 3-mile banner, not the 5k mark. I passed 3 miles in 19:42 and 5k in 20:17.

I knew I'd really have to work for it now. To run a sub-40 I would need to run the second half in 19:43. There was a net loss of elevation on this half, but there were still two tough hills.

Before the race I told myself over and over: kilometers 4 and 6 are the tough ones. If you can minimize your losses there, you'll be in good shape. Even with that mental preparation, I couldn't get my legs to turn over fast enough.

Number 6 went by in 4:17, way slower than goal pace.

I knew my goal was probably out of reach, and it was a horrible feeling. Running for a PR was the only thing to keep me motivated now. At least I had a nice downhill after Casey Hill at mile 4. I was happy to see my legs speeding up with the gravity assistance, and I ran K-7 in 4:02. K-8 followed in 3:56, which felt encouraging. I was hurting for real now, and trying not to give away any spare seconds.

I turned onto Folsom for the homestretch, and turned it on as best I could. The final hill to the stadium felt slow, but I consciously took shorter, faster steps and pumped my arms hard. In the stadium now, I gave it everything. Just 200 meters to go. I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch. The announcer was saying, "Keep moving through the chutes, there are thousands of runners behind you." But I barely had enough left to put one foot in front of the other.

Now that it's over, I feel ambivalent about the race. On one hand, I'm proud of myself for putting in the base miles, researching and creating a full-fledged training program, and for sticking to it. I'm also happy that I took 30 seconds off my all-time 5k PR. But of course I'm disappointed that I didn't make my sub-40 goal at the Bolder Boulder. And I feel that I've somehow let down those who may have been rooting for me. I wanted it, I went for it, but I didn't get it.

Not yet, anyway.

I will keep trying for the sub-40, but unlike previous years, I won't wait until the next Bolder Boulder. I'm going to look for another race in a month or so and try again.

Meanwhile, the question remains: after nearly doubling my running volume and following a carefully-researched training plan for the first time ever, why could I only manage to match my PR? The truth is, I averaged 14.7 miles per week in the ten weeks leading up to my 40:39 Bolder Boulder result in 2005. This year, I averaged 27.9 miles per week over the last ten weeks. The differences are even larger when you look at weeks 20 to 11 leading up to each race. In 2005, I averaged only 8.9 miles per week. This year, 24.9. As for quality workouts, this year exceeded 2005's efforts in every way. In 2005, my "long run" was 6.6 miles. This year, I ran at least an hour and a half long run every week. In 2005, I did one hard workout (5k race or intervals on the track) each week for the last 7 weeks. This year, I completed at least 2-3 tough track workouts or races each week.

Maybe there is something to that last point. Perhaps I was doing too much speed work? I don't know. It certainly made me faster at the 5k distance than I've ever been. Or maybe it had nothing to do with my training. Perhaps the fact that 2005 was a cold, rainy day made me that much faster relative to my fitness on that day. This year's race was not exactly hot, but it was sunny and warmer. I might never know the answer, but I think as long as I keep running, I'll keep learning.

Now, on to the stats for this race...

Kilometer splits (from my watch):

1. 3:50.8
2. 4:08.2
3. 3:59.4
4. 4:11.8
5. 4:06.5
6. 4:16.8
7. 4:02.2
8. 3:56.1
9. 4:02.3
10. 4:06.2

And mile splits (from the chip timing):

1. 6:24
2. 6:29
3. 6:49
4. 6:44
5. 6:18
6. 6:39

Even though I didn't negative split, I was at least happy to see mile 5 (not mile 1) was my fastest. And I ran the final two-tenths of a mile to the finish in 1:16, which is 5:56 pace. My overall place was 629th out of 50,816. Incidentally, over 500 runners broke 40 minutes at this year's Bolder Boulder!

40:40

Just a quick post of my unofficial time. My watch said 40:40. I will post a full report later.

Wonderland Lake run

It's a beautiful day, and this morning I went out for an easy run on the trails behind my house in North Boulder. The Wonderland Lake Loop is one of my old standbies. Head south on the Foothills Trail, take the loop around the lake, and come back. It's all on well-maintained dirt trails, and it's relatively flat by Boulder standards.

I brought a camera today and stopped often for photographs. Here's a nice view of Green Mountain, Bear Peak, and the Flatirons.

P-daddy-dawg hanging out while his two baby p-dawgs play an engaging game of patty cakes behind him.

Wonderland Lake.

Mt. Sanitas from the lake.

There were tons of paragliders out today. I think they were part of a beginner's class.

Run summary: 4.0 miles in 36:19 (9:05 per mile).

Tomorrow is the big day!

Bolder Boulder pacing strategies

I looked at my Bolder Boulder splits from the last three years to see if I could come up with a good strategy for pacing this year. The problem is the elevation profile -- it's a somewhat hilly course, at least for a course where you're trying to get a new PR.

Here's the profile again...

Now here's a chart showing my kilometer splits. Note that they're converted to pace per mile. A 40-minute 10k pace would average 6:26 per mile (4 minutes per km).

Finishing times:

• 2004: 41:25
• 2005: 40:39
• 2006: 43:46

There is a definite pattern in years 2004-2005. My pace is faster on the downhill sections, and slower on the climbs, just as you would expect. 2006 follows this pattern for the first three kilometers, and then I completely blow up, falling off the pace drastically.

So, how should I pace this year's Bolder Boulder? I think I will keep it simple: go faster than goal pace on the downhills, and allow myself to slow down a bit on the uphills. Although everyone warns about going out too fast at the start of a 10k, the fact remains that this is one of the fastest kilometers in the race because it's downhill. To me, it would be a mistake to waste this opportunity for a few "free" seconds. I think 10-12 seconds under goal pace for the first kilometer should be fine. That's what I ran in 2005 and I ran almost even 5k splits (20:19 and 20:20) for the race. From there, if I can keep it to 4:05 per kilometer or faster on the climbs, I should be ok. I'll try to pick it up to goal pace or slightly faster on all the flats and downhills.

Just for kicks, I'll make a prediction for my splits:

1. 3:48
2. 4:04
3. 4:03
4. 4:05
5. 3:56
6. 4:05
7. 3:57
8. 3:55
9. 3:58
10. 4:04
11. Finish: 39:55

After the race, I'll compare my actual splits to those above.

Taper Week Update

It's been a pretty easy week for me. I ran a shorter long run on Sunday, and I've done some easier track workouts in the days since. Here's a quick summary of my most recent runs:

Sunday: Easy long run on the creek path. Total: 9.1 miles in 1:17:02 (8:27 pace).

Tuesday: 4x400 at 10k goal pace (around 96 seconds). This was an easy workout meant to keep the legs moving and solidify my goal pace. I ended up running these in 93.5, 94.2, 94.7, and 95.6 seconds. Although I got slower between the first and last intervals, this was a deliberate effort to hone in on the proper pace. Total for the day: 4.3 miles in 33:08 (average pace 7:42).

Wednesday: 4.1 miles easy, with 5x100m strides. Total time 32:55 (8:01 pace).

Friday (today): 8x100 at a quick pace. I thought I would run these in about 20 seconds, but my slowest turned out to be 18.8 seconds, and the fastest was 16.9. They felt pretty good, but that's the fastest running I've done all year. Hopefully it won't hurt my taper! Total for the day: 4.2 miles in 39:28 (average pace 9:23, although that counts some non-running time between reps).

Weekly total: 21.7 miles

Interesting thing spotted on the run

On Tuesday I saw a couple guys on the tennis court playing a new sport, a "mash-up" of soccer and tennis. It was played with a soccer ball and no hands (just like soccer). One guy would serve by dropping the ball and then kicking it over the net. The other guy had to kick it back before it bounced twice, which usually meant catching it with his feet and dribbling the ball (is that the right term?) a few times before kicking it back. They were keeping score and everything. Pretty cool!

Weekend plans

Saturday I'll be helping my friend Mark celebrate his 40th birthday. Like most Boulderites who've reached that distinctive age, you'd never know it. Earlier in the day, I'm hoping to borrow a friend's kayak and take a few runs on Boulder Creek. I'm planning to sign up for the Ultimate Mountain Challenge at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail. It's coming up next weekend and I really should do some paddling (and mountain biking, and road biking) before this 4-stage race. Sunday I'll go for an easy 3-4 mile run and probably check out the Boulder Creek Festival a little bit. And Monday...well, that's the Bolder Boulder, of course (the whole focus of this blog)!