Eagle Run 5 Mile and a Motivational Link

Summer is definitely here in Ohio. It was well above 70 and humid as I toed the line at the Eagle Run in Avon. I was feeling pretty revved up to go, but knowing that it was hot, my strategy was to be a little conservative early on and really push the last half of the race. The plan worked well as even after only a few minutes I was picking off people who sprinted out hard at the beginning. I got into a really good rhythm and hit each of my first four miles no faster than 5:50 and no slower than 6:00. There were some twists and turns in the residential neighborhoods where the race took place, but it was flat as a pancake. Absolutely zero shade though. The heat was pretty relentless. I almost never grab cups of water in races, but I did like 3 times today. Not that I stopped or anything, I just grabbed it on the run, tried to get down a sip or two and then would dump the rest on my head. After the first few miles I was pretty much in no man's land as the top finishers were too far ahead of me other than one guy I reeled in just before the four mile mark. After hitting the 4-mile mark in 23:39, I knew I wasn't going to destruct, so I dropped the hammer and finished in 29:13, running my last mile in 5:34. Pretty similar to the way I finished in the Northcoast Challenge last fall (also in hot and humid conditions). I ended up 10th overall and 1st in my age group by quite a bit, so I'll take it. The old course record for 45-49 was 30:48, so it was nice to take it down.

I still have a way to go to get where I want to be this year, but I feel like I've crossed a hurdle. Those stomach issues I had for about a month are pretty non-existent and I feel really good heading into the Diemer 5K on June 12. I don't know if I'm fit enough to beat my 16:58 at Diemer in 2008, but I'd like to top the 17:12 I did last year.

As for the motivational link, Running Times magazine compiles an extensive masters national road race ranking database and the 2010 standards have been published. To be included in the database, one must have to hit the following times. For my age group (45-49), I need to hit 16:55 for 5K, 28:00 for 5-miles and 35:15 for 10K. I think all of those are doable though it's going to take some solid, consistent training. Right now my best times for 2010 are 17:24, 29:13 and 36:14, so that's my motivation as I head out the door each morning.

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Stooges Raw Power Box Set

I'll get around to writing a review of this, but for the time being here's a photo of the Raw Power box set! 3 CDs, a documentary DVD, a Japanese 7" single, postcards and a 50-page book with tons of great photos.

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Training Update

The workouts have been going well lately and I'm looking forward to having a good race on Saturday. I'll be doing the Eagle Run 5-miler in Avon. It's supposed to be a fast, flat course and the weather forecast is looking good. After 80s all week it will only be a high of around 73 on Saturday. My two key workouts last week were 5 x mile with 400 meter recoveries on Tuesday @ 10K/15K effort and the Friday session of 8 x 400 in 80 seconds (5:20 pace) with quick 200 meter recoveries that I mentioned in the post below. This Spring has kind of flown by but I think I've set myself up for some good summer racing.

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Outback Quarters

Yesterday I talked a little bit about the training of Rob DeCastella and Steve Moneghetti, but didn't go into detail about their 'complex training' philosophy. Basically, while influenced by the legendary coach Arthur Lydiard, a later generation of Australian runners took his approach and devised a program that incorporated all of the Lydiard elements, i.e. hill reps, intervals, lots of mileage into a weekly schedule that they would repeat all year round (hence, complex training). One of the famous workouts from their program was a session of 8 x 400 w/ 200 recoveries. OK on paper this sounds ridiculously easy, but here's the catch. The rest breaks aren't really rests. Deke would do his quarters in the 62-64 range with the 'recoveries' at around 40-45 seconds (5:20 - 6:00 pace). Yesterday I laced up my racing flats and did this workout at Rocky River High School. I felt really on and hit every single 400 in 80 on the nose and all of my 200 floats were in the 55-57 range (about 7:30 pace). Adding up the 8 400s and the 8 200s I hit a 3 mile time of 18:11. Not bad for what was pretty much a hard fartlek workout.

Another similar workout that Moneghetti devised, which has been coined the Mona Fartlek, is a session of 2 x 90 seconds, 4 x 60 seconds, 4 x 30 seconds, and 4 x 15 seconds with equal time float recoveries. I have done this a few times in the past in the winter and this one definitely kicks your butt if you do it right.

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KISS

Villanova coaching legend Jumbo Elliott, mentor of numerous sub 4:00 milers, had a training philosophy, which he coined KISS, an acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid. Athletes, such as Olympian Marty Liquori (pictured on the left) ran the same workouts week after week. Nothing fancy, just a steady diet of 400s and 200s with a lot of steady distance running on the non-interval days. Famous Australian marathoners, Robert DeCastella and Steve Moneghetti, also adopted a similar philosophy. While they obviously trained somewhat differently to the middle distance specialist Liquori, they too trained similarly week after week, in what has been coined complex training.

I've been trying to simplify things myself. One can find a staggering amount of training information on the internet these days, including a  million and one different training programs for all events. Most road racers are full time workers with a lot of life responsibilities. It's not always practical to have a fancy training program with multiple phases when you're just training for a dozen local races every year. What seems to work for me is a weekly mix of three key workouts: a long easy to moderately paced run; a threshold workout in the 10K-10 mile race pace zone; and something faster like hill repeats or shorter intervals.

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Creation Records Documentary Forthcoming!

Can't wait for this! Seriously, Creation Records is my favorite record label of all time and was one of the main inspirations for me when I started Elephant Stone Records. Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, House of Love, Swervedriver, Primal Scream, Oasis, Boo Radleys, Adorable, and so many more ...

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Repeats in the Rain

Of course it's like 60 and beautiful outside today as I write this, but yesterday it was kind of like this old photo above of Craig Virgin leading Alberto Salazar in presumably a 10K track race. That said, I always feel satisfied when I brave the elements and run a good workout. You can't control the weather on race day, so why take days off or reschedule a workout if Mother Nature isn't cooperating? I hadn't done mile repeats in a while and I realized that I missed them. I think they're the best workout you can do for races 5K - marathon. Just adjust the rest breaks accordingly, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. As I'm training for 5K/10K I gave myself about 2-minutes recovery (400 meter jog on the track) when I did 5 of them yesterday. If you're trying to get closer to the 3K/5K zone, I'd recommend more like an 800 meter recovery. If you're training for a half-marathon or longer I'd slow down the effort and give yourself maybe one-minute recoveries. I like long repeats better than tempo runs because it's easier to stay in the appropriate zone and not turn the workout into a time trial. If the rest breaks are pretty minimal you get the same benefit too.

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Finding the groove

Had my best week of running in like a month, so I'll definitely take it. No real rock star workouts, but a lot of high quality consistency. Did a nice set of 6 x 1000 meters on Wednesday and came back on Friday to do 16 x 200 averaging around 36/37. First half was all 37's before getting into the 35's and 36's near the end. The effort felt reasonably relaxed, definitely not a struggle, so hopefully with a few more sessions like this, 5:20 pace for a 5K (sub 16:40) will feel attainable. Successful 5Ks aren't all speed though, so today I worked the opposite spectrum and ran a solid 10 mile progression run on a hilly 5 mile out and back segment at the Rocky River metro park. I started easy at just under 8:00 pace and worked my way to sub 7:00s for the last 6 miles, including a final mile of 6:20. Effort felt relaxed and I didn't really push it like I have done with some progression runs in the past as I've got some tough sessions planned for Tuesday and Friday this week as I get ready for a May 29 5-mile race.

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Launch Delayed

So I hit my mileage max for the pair of Brooks Launch I was raving about so much, only to find out from my friends at Second Sole that they will be out of stock until July. Looks like there will be a new color/model upgrade from what I could gather on a  few Google searches. Well, I can't wait until July to get a new pair of trainers, so I went to the store and  my friend Rick  had me try on a bunch of shoes he thought I would like and I ended up with the latest lightweight trainer from Nike, the Lunarfly. At 9 ounces it's nice and light with soft cushioning. Really good for long runs and the easy recovery runs. A little squishy for fast stuff, but I always wear racing flats for intervals and tempos. I like the limited edition Lance Armstrong Livestrong color scheme, though the normal black and red ones look really cool too. I give them the thumbs up so far -- they felt great on my 11 miler today.

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Farewell to a Friend

No, nobody died, but after about 10 years on the stuff, I've decided to stop drinking coffee. Went cold turkey last Sunday and I'm surviving. I never drank coffee when I was younger (always preferred tea), but when I moved to LA in 2000, I started drinking it a lot. I think it was the combination of working for a record label, publishing Vendetta magazine, trying to start my own record label, and DJing that left me needing a stronger kick than tea was providing. But now that I've taken up competitive running again, I've found that coffee has its pluses and, lately, too many minuses. I love the boost caffeine gives me before a hard workout or race, but on the down side, it's been messing up my stomach too much. When I was much younger, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and, while I have been mostly in remission for the last 20 years, certain stimulants like coffee and too much alcohol can trigger things. After having some up and down days since the Meteor 10K in early April, I'm starting to feel much better, and definitely looking forward to some good races this summer. For the time being, I'm keeping my training volume a little lower than usual, focusing on 2-3 optimal workouts a week and doing less than normal on recovery days, until I feel 100% again.

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Happy Birthday Four-Minute mile!

Sir Roger Bannister was the first man to break the 4:00 mile, running 3:59.4 in Oxford, England on May 6, 1954. For more about the legendary Bannister, I highly recommend The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb, an amazing account of Bannister, John Landy and Wes Santee, who were all pursuing the seemingly impossible barrier. Bannister's memoir The Four-Minute Mile is also an excellent read.

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$25 workout

Wow! My second race mishap of 2010. After barely making the start of the Meteor 10K, today I actually did miss the start of the Ambulance Chase 5K, but thankfully due to chip timing I was able to run the race, starting about 5:00 after everyone else and passing a sea of walkers and runners, finishing in a respectable chip time of 17:53 for first in my age group. Not the race I wanted to run, but if nothing else a good, albeit expensive Vo2 max workout. Here's what happened. Before I set off to due my warm up, I gave my wife my bag, which had my racing flats with chip attached to one shoe and my singlet with my race number. She, for some reason, thought I was wearing them already. I told her that I would meet her at the starting line, but since she thought I had everything I needed she was further down on the course in a spot to cheer me on. It was cloudy so I wasn't wearing my prescription shades, so my eye sight wasn't the best. When the race started and she saw I wasn't there, she ran to the starting line where I grabbed my flats, threw on my singlet and set off in mad pursuit. I didn't time it so the splits made no sense and I didn't realize they were running a different course. At one spot early on when I was just passing walkers I thought I was supposed to turn right, but everyone was going straight. I stopped for about 5 or 10 seconds and asked one of the walkers if this was the 5K run and she said she thought so, so I started running again! All and all, this was a good effort. I think if I had been in the actual race, I could have run maybe 30 seconds faster today (a friend who usually beats me by about 30 seconds was 16:59 today). I feel like I definitely started out a little too hard as if I were behind on a 4 x mile relay leg or something and I was trying to chase everyone down. Not sure what's next but I may jump into another 5K road race next Sunday in Rocky River instead of doing the XC race in Oberlin. I'd like a good road 5K benchmark one month away from Diemer. I'll chalk today down to Mercury Retrograde.

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