A Daniels-style "Mix" Workout

What a beautiful day to be outside. That is, if you were outside at seven in the morning, like me. It's pretty hot out there now. 82 degrees (28 C, for those who prefer), and it's only mid-May!

I ran with Clint and John again this morning. Since I normally run alone, I tend to forget how much fun it is to run with friends. We met at the Fairview High School track, my first time there. It's one of the nicest tracks I've ever seen, judging by the views alone. The Flatirons are right there.

I think the views may have distracted me, as I kept relaxing my pace on the first three tempo intervals. Today's workout was a mix of Tempo, VO2 Max, and Rep paces. The plan was:

• 3x1200 in 5:04 (T-pace)
• 2x1200 in 4:41 (I-pace)
• 4x200 in 0:42 (R-pace)

Here's how we did:

Distance	Type	Time	Mile pace
1200	Tempo	5:06.1	6:51
1200	Tempo	5:05.4	6:50
1200	Tempo	5:07.3	6:52
1200	VO2 Max	4:46.6	6:24
1200	VO2 Max	4:40.7	6:17
200	Rep	40.0	5:22
200	Rep	40.0	5:22
200	Rep	40.8	5:28
200	Rep	40.8	5:28

Actually, those were my times. Clint was way off the front, as he should be. John hung back with me for most of them, just to be social, I suspected. But then on the third 200 he took off like a shot and ran past Clint like he was standing still, finishing in 29 seconds. Clint was ready for him on the last one, and when John made his move, Clint matched his pace and then accelerated, beating John to the line. I was happy to watch all this unfold from 10 seconds back!

Today's totals: 7.3 miles in 1:10:23.

Why I still think I can do it

I'm obviously happy about Tuesday's race, but here's the deal. My 19:47 5k result predicts a 41-minute 10k. That's still a long ways away from a sub-40. Some would say a really long ways.

Why am I still optimistic? Good question. Here are my reasons (to steal from something I already posted on the Coolrunning forums):

• I wasn't tapered for Tuesday's race. I will be tapered at the Bolder Boulder.
• Temperatures will almost certainly be cooler (and thus faster) at the Bolder Boulder, which has a 7 AM start.
• I paced poorly at Tuesday's race. With better pacing I could hope to run a 19:30(?) on my current fitness.
• I still have almost three weeks before my goal race. By then, the workouts I'm doing right now will be transformed into better fitness. That's the idea, at least!
• I've always suspected the course from Tuesday's 5k is slow, due to the dirt/gravel surface. In 2005 I raced three times on this course, finishing in 21:15, 20:55, and 20:44. That would have predicted a 43-minute 10k, but in fact I ran 40:39 at the Bolder Boulder two weeks later. My 5k splits in the race were 20:19 and 20:20, both faster than any of my 5k races on the dirt course.

Instead of giving up after consulting various race predictors on the internet, I'm just gonna ignore them. After all, those charts don't run the race FOR you!

Today's Run

Another quality workout today. 5000 meters at tempo pace on the track (6:47 per mile). Funny, the schedule called for a 20-minute tempo run, so I was going to do 4800 meters. But why not just go an extra 200 for the full 5k, I thought? I came in at 21:03, running pretty even splits the whole way, and never feeling stressed. Nice. That beat my 5k result from last month, and this time I was running at tempo, not race pace. To be honest, conditions were much worse at the race in April, so it's probably not a good comparison.

I followed that by 4x200 at R-pace. My rep pace is supposed to be 42-43 seconds per 200. Somehow I have trouble hitting that. I'm always afraid I'll be too slow, so I keep the pace high and come in too fast. I finished the 200s at 40.0, 41.1, 41.0, and 41.1. At least I stayed pretty consistent.

Today's totals: 7.2 miles in 1:02:47, including 5km at T-pace and 4x200 at R-pace.

Interesting thing -- on my way to the track, I found the creek path blocked off with police tape. They had shut down the entire high school due to suspected terrorist activities. It turns out a cafeteria worker had seen two guys dressed in camo and ski masks this morning, so police were being very cautious and checking things out thoroughly. I had to run way around to finally get to the track, and all the students got the day off of school, but so far it looks like that's the extent of the incident. Sign of the times, I guess.

New 5k PR!

Last night I had my third attempt of the year at the 5k distance. All three have been at the Dash and Dine race series at the Boulder Reservoir. It's a great little race series -- for $15 you get a race, gear prizes for the top 3 or 4 in each category, and a nice BBQ dinner.

The weather cooperated (finally), and it was 66 degrees, sunny, and calm. No whitecaps on the lake; only the occasional riffle from a light breeze. I knew tonight was going to be the night for me to break 20 minutes for the first time.

As I started my warmup, I noticed a pair of osprey cruising at treetop level along the shoreline. Such beautiful birds. I took it as a good sign.

I ran at an easy pace past the one mile mark on the course, then turned around at about the 1.25 mile point. On the way back I picked up the pace slightly and then added five 20-second strides. Total warmup: 2.5 miles in 21:46 (8:42 pace).

Just before the race starting time I saw someone I'd met briefly from my climbing days, a guy named Tony.

"I need someone to pace me," he declared.

"How fast are you running?"

"I'm shooting for 19:50," he said. It turns out he had already run two sub-20 5ks that week, but both were between 19:50 and 20 minutes, and he wanted to break 19:50 in order to qualify for the 2nd wave at the Bolder Boulder. It sounded perfect, except I was thinking I should use him as my pacer!

The only problem was that he had already run that morning and then played ultimate for an hour at lunch. That's in addition to the two sub-20 5k races he'd run that week. He mentioned his legs felt like wood.

The race started, and as usual, I tried to go fast but not too fast. Tony loped past me and called out, "You've got to go faster, Mark."

Well, I've never broken 20 minutes, and he's already done it twice in one week, I thought. So he must know what he's doing! I sped up and kept the gap between us at about twenty meters. I was feeling quite good, breathing relatively hard, but not in pain. As we approached the one mile mark I noticed that the gap was closing gradually. I passed the cone just a few steps behind him and glanced at my watch. 6:08.

That was fast, but I still felt pretty good. Since this is an out-and-back course, the 2-mile cone is only a tenth of a mile past the one mile cone. I caught Tony a little after that.

"You're going to have to run a huge negative split," he yelled, disappointedly. "We're way off the pace."

It took me a second to register what had happened. He thought the 2-mile cone (for the return trip) was our 1-mile marker. Thus, he thought we were way slow for the first mile.

"No, you missed the first cone. We hit the mile in 6:08," I said. "Stay with me!"

But I could tell Tony was fading. I forged on ahead. Nearing the turn-around, I saw the leaders running toward me. Actually, there was only one leader, Will Kelsay, a fellow Xterra triathlete. He's a great guy, and turned pro a couple years ago. He doesn't usually win these 5k's, but he was gunning for it today. I gave him a thumbs-up as he blazed by me.

I hit the turn-around and headed for home. I was still feeling ok, but could tell I wouldn't for much longer. At this point I told myself I had time in the bank. All I had to do was finish strong. Soon my breathing rate increased even more and I really started to hurt. Still, I was reeling in a straggler here and there. I kept telling myself it would all be over in just a few more minutes.

Climbing the 2nd (and last hill), I glanced at my watch. I had less than three minutes left. I was still a long way from the 3-mile marker. I heard footsteps, and soon I was passed by a tall guy. I tried to stay with him, but couldn't. Thankfully, I reached the downhill that led to the 3-mile cone. I needed all the help I could get, and gravity was helping right then.

I remembered to take a 3-mile split, but I didn't even look at my watch. I was focused on the finish line, and more importantly...the clock. It came into view and I was relieved to see 19:30. Actually, I let the relief take over too much, because I think I relaxed knowing I had my first sub-20 in the bag. Despite a minor slowdown near the end, I crossed in 19:47. Tony held it together for a very respectable 20:22.

Success! A new PR always feels good, especially if it comes at the same time you break one of the arbitrary time "barriers," in this case twenty minutes.

Later, looking at my splits, I realized that I paced this race quite horribly. I went out way too fast, and slowed dramatically until the last tenth of a mile, when I managed a feeble kick. Here are the details:

Split	Time	Mile pace
Mile 1	6:08.1	6:08.1
Mile 2	6:23.0	6:23.0
Mile 3	6:34.6	6:34.6
Last 0.1	0:40.2	6:16.2
1st Half	9:38.4	6:12.3
2nd Half	10:07.5	6:31.1
Finish	19:47	6:22.1

My second half was nearly 30 seconds slower than my first. I think I'm done with the "Go out 6% faster than goal pace" strategy. I would much rather run even pacing or negative splits and finish strong. And I'm pretty sure I'll be faster that way, too.

Final results: 19th place out of 147.

5k progress report for 2007:

Date	Race	Time	Pace
4/10/2007	Dash & Dine #1 (results)	21:08	6:48
5/1/2007	Dash & Dine #4 (results)	20:11	6:30
5/8/2007	Dash & Dine #5 (results)	19:47	6:22

Running in Frisco

It was a most excellent night watching my friends Ray and Nicole get hitched. Not only that, but the band was phenomenal. Something Underground is a Denver-based band, and happen to be friends of the groom. Lucky for us, because they don't usually do weddings. They play funk, soul, hip-hop, rock & roll, ska, you name it. I heard bits and pieces of the Chili Peppers, Sublime, Tool, Zeppelin, and even Chris Cross (remember those two backwards-pants-wearing mac daddies from the early 90s). All I can say is, it worked, and they kept playing until the place kicked them out.

I wanted to go for a long run, but the weather had crapped out in Steamboat, so I hit the road. It seemed to clear up by the time I neared I-70, so I stopped in Frisco to sample the bike paths that lead to Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, and around Lake Dillon.

Sidenote: I was once derided by a forum know-it-all for using the term, "Frisco" to describe where I'd been over the weekend. Only tourists call it that, he said. Californians call it San Francisco, or maybe San Fran.

Frisco is a town in Colorado, I said. Got the last laugh on that one!

I ran an hour and 35 minutes, mostly on the path toward Breck and on the one around the reservoir. The weather that had seemed nice turned suddenly, and I found myself in a big snowstorm. Twenty minutes later, the sun was breaking through again. This cycle would repeat throughout my run.

Monday I'll take the day off from running, and Tuesday I'll have another try at the Dash & Dine 5k race. Only three more weeks to the Bolder Boulder!

Weekly Run Totals

I'm in Steamboat Springs this weekend for a wedding. After the 4-hour drive I decided to go for a short recovery run just to loosen up the legs a bit.

There's a nice path along the Yampa River that goes straight through town for five miles or so. I only had 25 minutes to run before getting ready for the wedding, but it's a nice area and I'd love to come back and run the whole path sometime.

Here is a summary of my running this week:

Sunday - 11.4 miles easy
Monday - off
Tuesday - 6.9 miles, including a 5k race in 20:11, plus warmup/cooldown
Wednesday - 6.8 miles, with 3x1600 at T-pace, plus 4x100 strides
Thursday - off
Friday - 6.7 miles, with 5x1000 in 3:55 with 3-min recoveries
Saturday - 2.7 miles at recovery pace
TOTAL - 34.5 miles

It was a good, hard week, and with today's run it's the most I've run in a week all year. In fact, it's the most I've run since my marathon a year ago. Also, my race on Tuesday was only 11 seconds off my all-time PR at the 5k distance. So far (knock on wood) I'm injury-free and feeling pretty good.

Signed up for the BB

Yesterday I finally registered for the Bolder Boulder and picked up my race packet. It included a shirt, calendar, race number, snack bag ticket, beer ticket, and (new this year) an IPICO Sports timing tag.

The timing tag is different from the Champion Chips we're all used to seeing at races these days. Ipico Sports claims it is, "more accurate, more reliable, less expensive and easier to use than other systems currently used to collect data during active sports events." It's certainly smaller. Instead of velcroing around your ankle, you use small zip-ties to attach it to your shoe. The Bolder Boulder has never used a timing chip system before, so it will be interesting to see how this works on 47,000 runners. It will be nice to have mile splits, which they will be providing, as well.

Another cool addition this year is the option to buy a so-called "technical" shirt instead of the usual cotton t-shirt. It was only a $10 upgrade, and the shirts are quite nice Pearl Izumi numbers, so I went for it. Props to my friend Bob at Pearl...you guys make great stuff!

The beer ticket is kind of funny, considering I'm usually picking up my beer around 7:45 in the morning. I always drink it, though. It's a BB tradition!

The official BB calendar, chock full of coupons to places like the Boulder Running Company, race dates, and training tips, already hangs on my wall.

Running

Enough about race packets. Here's how the running has been going the last few days...pretty darn well! On Wednesday I ran tempo intervals: 3x1600 at 6:51 mile pace with 200m jog recoveries, followed by 4x100m strides in about 20 seconds each. My legs felt a little fatigued after my race, but still capable.

Today I did another interval workout with my friends Clint and John. Clint has run a 37-minute 10k in a triathlon, and John has already run three marathons this year. I was just hoping they'd go easy on me. Actually, I was planning to do my own workout regardless, but in fact they both amiably ran with me, at my pace, the whole time. Pretty cool!

We did 5x1000 on 3:55 with 3-minute recoveries. I did nearly this same workout two years ago on May 24, only six days before the Bolder Boulder, but I used 1:30 recoveries, which made it tougher, of course. That day I came in at 3:53.5, 3:55.0, 3:56.3, 3:53.6, and 3:56.5. I remember struggling a bit towards the end.

Today, I had these results:

interval	time	mile pace
1	3:56.0	6:19
2	3:54.9	6:18
3	3:54.3	6:17
4	3:52.4	6:14
5	3:52.9	6:14

It was a successful workout, especially since I never felt particularly stressed. On the final 1000, John sprinted to the finish, then promptly emptied the contents of his stomach at the side of the track.

"It's not a proper track workout unless someone pukes," he said wryly.

Thanks, John, for taking one for the team!

5k Race Report

I raced my second 5k of the year tonight, the Dash & Dine series at the Boulder Reservoir. My last race was April 10. I finished that day in 21:08 under extremely windy conditions.

Today the weather was typical for this time of year on the Front Range -- afternoon thunderstorms were likely. Sure enough, at 5:00 as I was preparing to leave work, the rain started. Soon it became a downpour. I heard that parts of Denver were supposed to get up to two inches of rain per minute for the worst of it. I was not happy about the conditions, since I was hoping to improve my time.

Luckily there happened to be a nice heated locker room at the park near the race start, where I could stay warm while I did my pre-run stretching. The rain had tapered off to a light drizzle by the time I started my warmup. Still, I wore long pants, two shirts, and a rain jacket, since it was fairly cool.

I'd decided to run two laps around Coot Lake for my warmup, which would be 2.5 miles. That's a bit further than I usually go for a 5k, but I wanted to try it and see if it worked for me this time. I ran the first lap slowly. The rain seemed to be stopping by the second lap, so I ditched my jacket. This time I picked up the pace slightly and ran a series of five strides, increasing the tempo with each one. My left TFL (a muscle in the hip) felt sore, but other than that I felt pretty good.

My plan for the race was to start off around 6:15 mile pace. That's fast, I know, but I wanted to try a strategy I read about in a Runner's World article recently, titled "Go Out Fast in Your Next 5k." Ed Eyestone, the author, recommended going out 6% faster than target pace for the first mile. Since I was targeting 20:30 for this race (which is 6:36 per mile average), my first mile should be run in 6:12! I wanted to be a bit more conservative than that; hence the 6:15 goal. After that, I'd just try to hold on to the finish.

Just before the start, I bumped into my friend Mark, who had just run the Boston Marathon two weeks ago. He's a good runner, and I thought he could be a good rabbit to chase.

At this point, the rain had stopped completely, and we were even seeing a bit of sun and blue sky. Nice! I stripped off my extra clothes and got ready to run in just shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.

I lined up right at the front, on the far right side of the starting line. The race director said, "Go!" and we were off. The ground was soft from all the rain, and there were some puddles to dodge. Since this course is all dirt, I figured that might slow us down some. A handful of runners passed me nearly immediately, since I was trying to keep it controlled at this point. We made the turn onto the first long reservoir dam and a couple more runners passed, including Mark. My first thought was, I'll never see him again. But then I realized that the gap wasn't really widening.

I beeped my watch at the one mile mark, and was pleased to see 6:18 for the split. Mark was still about 20 yards in front. We were now entering the toughest part of the course, the second dam. It tends to have vicious headwinds here. Three weeks ago it was absolutely brutal, with huge whitecaps on the lake. Today it was just difficult, and I could see only the occasional baby whitecap to indicate the strength of the wind.

I knew the 2nd mile is usually my slowest, so I determined not to lose concentration here. I noticed I was closing the gap on Mark, and soon I ran past him with a word of encouragement. My next target was a guy in a grey shirt up ahead. As we closed on the turn-around point I decided I would try to catch him before the 2-mile marker. As I turned at the cone, I saw Mark and the top female running together, just a few steps behind me. Mr. grey shirt had seemed to accelerate like a shot, however.

We were now running with a tailwind, and I focused on opening up my stride and keeping my turnover high. Grey Shirt was rapidly leaving me behind, but I noticed he was catching several others on the way, so I hoped my pace hadn't slowed. I was working very hard now, just praying I could maintain my pace. I hit the 2-mile marker in 6:37.

I knew I was running faster than last time, but could I hold it? My next targets seemed too far away to catch, so I'd have to do it alone. My breathing rate increased to a 1-2 pattern, breathing in for one step and out for two steps. I usually only get to this point in the finishing sprints, and I still had almost a mile to go. I was hurting.

I could hear footsteps behind me all along the final dam. I thought it must be Mark reeling me in, but it turned out to be the first place female runner. She passed me just before the 3-mile mark. My split was 6:29. All I had to do was finish, but I had no kick whatsoever. I plodded up the last small hill and took a left for the final straightaway. The clock said 19:56, 19:57...

I crossed in 20:11 (Results). This was my second-fastest 5k ever, and my fastest on this course. I was nearly a minute faster than three weeks ago, and I did beat my stated 20:30 goal. Considering the wind and the soft surface conditions, I was happy with it. Still, the 20-minute barrier was so close, but so unattainable today! But I will get there, I'm confident of that.

Mark finished about 30 seconds behind me. I'm guessing his legs aren't recovered from Boston yet. I'm still impressed he could run so well after only two weeks. Last year, my legs were still thrashed three weeks after my marathon, when I ran a miserable race at the Bolder Boulder.

After this race, I think things are looking up. I still have nearly four weeks to race day, and I expect to only get faster from here on out. Next week I start Phase IV in the training plan.