Track 10K

Yesterday, in honor of the Olympic Trials 10,000 meter final, which was held in Eugene, Oregon last night (the top three going to London are LR: Galen Rupp, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Matt Tegenkamp), I decided to do a track workout that totals 10K on the nose. An old classic: 20 x 400 w/100 meter jog recoveries. I tried to keep the 400s at 10K race effort or just a notch slower as it was in the low 80s and I didn't want to bonk in the heat. The workout went smoothly as I gradually ran faster and faster over the course of the workout. My overall average was right around 6:00 pace for the reps and my recovery jogs were all in the 35-40 second range, so hardly any recovery at all, which is the point of this workout. If you're ever looking for a good 8K or 10K race simulation workout, try this! Next up for me is the Bay Days 5 miler on July 4 and as it's an 8:00am start (I think), I'm hoping the temps will be at worst low 70s (maybe wishful thinking?). This week has been good. I feel recovered from last weekend's 5K race and should be in good shape for July 4. Easy mileage and a lighter threshold workout on Thursday is the plan for this week.

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Ohio City Run & Crawl 5K Report and a rant about non-runners who think they're runners

First race in 10 weeks or so if I don't count the 10K in Michigan I dropped out of 2 months ago with achilles and calf issues, which caused me to miss two weeks of running. Really happy with how this went considering it was mid-80s and very humid when the gun went off at 7pm. I love racing in the evening but it's always more fun to do so in the Spring or Fall. Anyway, I ran 18:24 (5:55 pace) and finished 8th overall (3rd in my AG which was 40-49 - this race does 10 year blocks). I ran a smart and conservative race, hitting the 2 mile split in 11:55 before finishing my last 1.2 at just under 5:50 pace. A lot of young gym rats did this race for some reason, so the start was a bit crazy with a bunch of beefy guys sprinting out fast only to get reeled in by the ectomorphs after their two to three minutes of fame wore off. There seems to be a new breed of younger guy that seemingly does nothing except the bench press for workouts - I keep seeing all these guys with ridiculous upper bodies but skinny legs. I have nothing against guys lifting but I hate it when big guys think they can do well at my sport or any endurance sport for that matter! US Olympian Abdi Abdirahman is my height but somehow weighs 10 pounds less than me! That's the reality of this sport where even one pound over ideal racing weight can translate into a loss of 2 seconds per mile.

Next up for me is the Bay Days 5 miler on July 4, probably my favorite race every year. Hopefully I should be able to run the same pace I did yesterday at the longer distance, which would translate to something in the 29:30-29:40 range.

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Automatic

"Blues From A Gun" is of course one of the stellar singles from the Jesus and Mary Chain's underrated third album Automatic. For the first time since I was injured, my training has been feeling 'automatic'. All my workouts are clicking and my recovery rate is back to normal -- by normal I mean old guy normal. I could handle a lot more when I was a kid. This week ended with a really good 16 x 400 session on Thursday and a 90 minute trail run on Saturday. Next Saturday I race for the first time in two months, more than that if you don't count the mid-April 10K that I had to drop out of with achilles/calf issues. 

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16 x 400: getting my groove back

16 x 400 w/ 100 jogs at Rocky River HS today. The workout went much better than two weeks ago. This time I averaged 86/87 like clockwork and felt much stronger. I always try to run this workout at what feels like 5 mile race effort. Not as much of a redline as a 5K effort but definitely more aggressive than tempo pace. Feeling better about my race on June 16.

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Feeling Nostalgic

Steve Prefontaine would have turned 61 last week if he hadn't been tragically killed in a car wreck in 1975 at age 24. Pre had already finished fourth in the 1972 Olympic 5,000 and was one of the favorites for Montreal 1976. Running culture has changed a lot since then, and in my eyes, not really for the better. Running used to be more of a rebel sport like surfing where guys and gals would push themselves hard to test their limits. It used to take a 2:50 marathon for men under 40 to qualify for Boston, now the standard is like 20 minutes slower! Now the gap between elite runners and recreational runners is staggering. I'm not trying to be a snob but I don't like running being a bucket list sport where finishing becomes more important than pushing your body to its physical limits. What I really hate is how expensive things have become, mainly because participants expect so many goodies from a race. Here's a list of things I could do without entirely just to cut race entry fees a bit.

1) Race t-shirts: most of these are ugly with corporate logos all over the place. I've pretty much donated every race t-shirt I've ever been given to Goodwill.

2) Finishers medals. I'd much rather be given a beer after a race. Give the medals to the kids.

3) Age Group Awards. Again, give the trophies and the medals to kids and for awards, give some prize money to the top male and female runners. Support the youngsters who may be chasing their dream of running in a national championship race or even the Olympic trials. I'm grateful that I was born with the talent to have done quite well with running but I really don't like getting trophies and medals. The ones I've won are in boxes in my closet. If anyone knows of a charity that will take them to give to kids, let me know.

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