All Comers Meet 5k - A race recap.

Several months ago, after I had gotten over my injury and I was back to running, I had Coach Alexander write me a training plan for the fall.  The first "real" race on the schedule was the All Comers 5k, the final race of the summer.  This isn't what you would call a high profile race.  The rest of the meet consists of children of all ages competing in track and field events.  And its absolutely great.  2 and 3 year old kids running 50 or 100 meters.  7 year olds long jumping.  And you should have seen the excitement surrounding the bubble machine.  It was a workout all to itself.  I've never seen so many kids try to EAT bubbles.  I'm pretty sure I never tried that.
But the final meet of the season always draws some pretty good in-town talent and Sam and I figured this one would be a good starting point for my season.  Besides, the 5k is a good race to judge fitness and all that good stuff.  Better than some crazy track time trial anyway.

Before the start of the race, I had done exactly two 5k paced workouts, neither of which I would consider incredibly impressive.  Both were run at just over 15 flat pace, and they both consisted of 800 meter or shorter segments.  Not exactly confidence inspiring, but still quality workouts.  I have done plenty of mile paced (or mile effort) hill repeats, which is every bit or more important to running a fast 5k.  But it is a little bit mentally tough translating mile paced efforts up a slight incline on a gravel trail, to the track.  And then there are my cruise miles.  My fall back and typically favorite workout, haven't been great this season.  And that includes my Thursday morning attempt at 2x3200 and 4x200.  I didn't even make it through half of the workout.  Disappointing.

So going into this meet, I wasn't feeling particularly fit, fast, confident, or inspired.  It's not that I thought I would run poorly, but training had been average at best and after a long layoff, running fast over a shorter distance seems daunting.  But the meet was on the schedule and I needed to do it.  It would set the tone to my entire fall training.  If things went well, I'd really push for a fast Seattle Half Marathon time.  If not, I'd muddle through the rest of the year, run a 50k and drink more beer than I otherwise would.  So at least in my mind, this race was a big deal.  It might be a small time, no pressure type race, but I knew it was very important to my mental frame of mind.

So for this little 5k I went through the full range of emotions.  About four nights before, I was about asleep and my awake dreams were starting to to wander and turn into night dreams, I had an adrenaline dump.  My whole body went tense for a split second and my heart started racing.  Over the weekend my feelings about the race went from excited to anxious to nervous to "lets get this over with."  Monday at work was mostly the get it over with feeling.  What happens, happens.

I left work at 6:15 and enjoyed my nice easy pedal over to Civic.  It was a cooler day.  I don't think it ever topped 70, so I had that going for me.  I parked my bike and signed up for the 5k.  I had well over an hour to kill before I had to race so I just parked myself in the grass, er, turf and relaxed.  The wind seemed to be picking up little by little and I added a couple of layers up top.  That had me a little worried, since I was fairly certain I'd be out front the whole way.  I was forced to move to the other end of the field because of the bubble machine and all the crazy kids.  Cute, but the bubbles were leaving soap marks on my glasses.

I walked to the other side of the field, near the finish line and hung out with Ken Koenig for a while.  The whole time it seemed like we were getting more and more wind.   Eventually it was time to warm up.  I headed out of the stadium and across the street to the small trails.  I jumped on to the elevated walkway on Fraser and over and around Grizzly and onto the creek trail.  After dumping out by Deihl Ford i just ran back to the track including a two minute T paced acceleration.  I felt surprisingly good on the warm up but not great on the acceleration part.  But by now I know to ignore all of that because it rarely indicates how I will feel during the race.

I will throw in some product review and shameless promotion of my sponsor.  My Saucony gear is awesome.  I love the Vizi-Pro orange.  It stands out.  You can't miss me.  And while some runners want to blend in with the crowd and not draw attention to themselves, I'm sure Saucony likes having their athletes stand out.  Their half tight is great.  Super comfortable and fits perfectly.  The singlet runs a little big, but I'm also pretty damn thin so maybe that's the problem.  But it never felt baggy or billowy.  I apologize to all you bikers out there, but I love the arm warmers, and, as a certified runner dork, I endorse them 100%.  And then there is just something about looking fast that helps you  feel fast before you start the race.  And the A4's performed beautifully.  After my sore calf incident with track spikes, I knew I didn't have enough  time to get ready to race in them.  But one workout and one race in a brand new pair of flats, and no blisters, rubs, irritation at all.  And they felt great!


The race must have started at about 8:45 as scheduled.  We had a pretty big group.  Peter Oviatt had about 20 of his kids from the Whatcom Tesseract group at the race.  There were kids of all ages at the starting line and also adults of all ages.  I knew it would be a cluster, but  that's just the way it works at an all comers meet.  After a brief chat at the start line, it seemed like nobody had plans to go out any faster than 75's except me.  I threw that right out the window when I went through the first 200 in 35 with a couple guys in tow.  I hit the first lap in about 70.  Yikes, too fast.  But it was easy.  It was a good feeling.  I quickly settled into what ended up being 73 second pace for the quarters.  I was pretty much dead on for laps 2-9.  I started lapping the youngsters before the 800 meter mark (that's the start of the race, not the finish).  I kept breaking the race into segments.  Lap 1.  Mile 1.  First 800 of mile two.  Second 800 of mile 2.  Only a mile to go.  Subtract the extra 200.  4 to go.  3 to go.  2 to go.  1 to go.  Laps 10 and 11 I hit the pudding and slowed up a bit.  Consecutive 75's through heavy traffic and a slight pick up in the wind.  I was struggling a little but still controlled.  Sam kept calling out splits on the opposite end.  With 600 to go he got on me about the finish.  Good last 400.  My last three 200 splits were 37, 35, 34 to finish in 15:14.  No official timer.  Just the finish clock and my watch, which I didn't split correctly.

To my surprise, one of the local high school kids finished 6 seconds behind and one of WWU's runners at about 15:30.  Pretty good results for an all comers meet.  Shout out to RB Wick for setting a huge PR and running 15:59 and more importantly weighing in at a scant 171 lbs.  And special thanks to Carolyn Watson for taking the amazing pictures I'm posting.  And thanks to Holly, Nanc, Gulleys, Grichels, and  all the spectators who came to cheer everybody on, including the ones who called me orange guy!  It was a great night.  I remembered and reaffirmed that I am indeed still a decent runner, and that I hadn't forgotten how to go fast, and that I am not far from the fastest version of myself.  That should make things easier for the upcoming races.

Follow up to the food rant. Meal planning with Evernote.

      Since I just went on a semi-rant about the state of our food, I thought I'd share this.  I've done this 2 of the last three weeks for my meals.  I've been using Evernote, which is great to organize my thoughts.  I clipped the contents from our Dandelion Organic Delivery to Evernote, and then searched my recipe book for some tasty sounding meals I could make using what I'd be receiving in our bin.  I'd say its a success.  I can access Evernote on my phone, check off the ingredient boxes as I put them into my cart, and I'm good to go. No forgetting items (hopefully, but I can still make it happen).

     Also, when we went to the farmers market, we talked to the guy who sells spinach and other greens to the Market on Lakeway.  Definitely a "Deep Economy-esque" moment.  And the tomatoes there are phenomenal now!  And guys, go get flowers for the girl in your life from the market.  Beautiful and priced right.

Check out my link to see the food planning from Evernote.
Evernote Meal Planning

August 19th, A Quick Training Update

     I just finished my third consecutive week at 70 miles.  This week was on 6 days though.  I decided to take Monday off because of three straight days of tight calves.  Let this be a warning, spikes, although incredibly cool, can also be incredibly cruel.  It's my own fault.  A full workout on spikes was never a good idea.  I fully intended on running the first 2 sets in my Kinvara's but I just wanted to run spikes.  That's what happens when you don't get your quota of fast track work throughout the year.  So after sluggish Friday, Saturday, and Sunday runs, I wanted to give my calves a day to recover.
     I consider 70 my sweet spot right now. I'm tempted to keep creeping the miles up, and with an impending 50k on the way, it would seem to make sense.  But, I'm going the cautious route.  I just missed a year of running.  18 months if you count the haphazard training I did this spring.  I'm finally healthy and running normal and there is no need to push it.  Besides, I know that I've still got more work to do on my strength imbalances, and my gait.  I'm pretty excited to work with Carolyn Watson on that stuff.  It will be great to put the treadmill and video equipment at the store to good use and try to make some of the subtle changes that will only help my running.  Its always the little things that get you.
     I'm about one week away from my first real race.  I've already got the nervousness and anxiety when I think about it while running.  A fast 5k just seems so hard.  They always hurt, no matter what the fitness level is.  The real issue is the unknown.  I have an idea of my fitness, but this will give us a real measure.  Minutes and seconds, to be compared to 14:57.  This will set the tone for the rest of my fall, both racing and training.
     I've got a ton of Saucony gear arriving at the store tomorrow.  That's super cool.  And its always great for motivation.  I'll be rocking the blaze orange, ViziPro gear all over.  You can't miss me, and I won't get mistaken for an animal, and shot while out on the trail.  Perfect.  But in all seriousness, Brooks Nightlife has nothing on ViziPro.  I'll take the orange no matter what!  And after my spike debacle, I'm definitely racing in the Saucony A4's for the 5k.  We'll see who shows up for the final All Comers meet of the season next Monday.  I'll probably end up front loading the upcoming week so I can hit my miles, and get in a relatively easy Sunday run prior to the race.  Monday races are strange.  They just don't fit into training.
     And that reminds me.  Sam Alexander and I were talking about this on our run today.  I think we need to have a 1k loop course in downtown Bellingham to race a blazing 5k.  Prize money and all.  It would be cool to pan in conjunction with some other event, so that there are unsuspecting crowds that will already be gathered (like the people at the Bite of Bellingham) who will turn into a raging crowd as the race goes by right in front of them.  Who knows, it could happen.  I'll leave you all with that thought.

Some Scatterbrained thoughts about Food

Food is an important and often overlooked part of the whole training and racing equation.  It is utterly complex, and extremely difficult to figure out, or at least it can be.  And the last thing I want to do after a hard run or a high mileage week, is to spend the rest of my night cooking.  Laziness.  And that is the main reason that half our country is fat.  Maybe its not half, but it is a lot.  And yes, I said fat.  No need to candy coat it.  So here are my random thoughts.  I'd be happy to elaborate for the four of you following my blog.  Here are some pictures that are becoming all to common in your day to day life: http://www.google.com/search?q=fat+people&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=683

We ship too much food too many miles.  I get the dollars and cents of the massive production plants for any foods.  But things like fresh meat, milk, eggs, veggies, etc, the further we ship them, the more problems arise.  Namely, preservatives.  We end up filling our foods with more chemically processed stuff, just so we can ship them halfway around the world.  Food waste becomes and issue.  Foods go bad in transit.  Not to mention, the environmental side of the extra shipping.

Industrial agriculture blows?  What's that you say?  What are you talking about?  American farms are largely subsidized by the government.  Which means, farmers can't make a living without handouts from Uncle Sam.  And its almost gotten to a point where it is go big, or go home.  The small private farm is a hard way to make a living.  So of the essential needs of living, water, food, and shelter, those providing the food don't get paid.  Those that do make a living usually spray so much chemical shit on their crops, or feed their animals so many hormones to produce production just to survive.  

Too many regulatory groups without clearly defined roles means no consistency with ensuring the safety of our foods.  Consumerism, marketing, and advertising reign supreme and so the foods with the best marketers get bought.  Kids want Lucky Charms, an absolute crap food, because they saw it on a commercial.  What the hell does "All Natural" mean anyway?  And just what are those un-pronounceable ingredients in my organic bread.  It sure as heck isn't salt, yeast, water, wheat, or honey/sugar.  And if its vitamin fortified, it must be good.  And its got minerals?  Sweet, give me two of the marshmallow puffs with minerals then.  Tell me if you think any of the cereals in the picture below are actually healthy?  But somehow they have tricked American into thinking Cookie Crisp is a healthy breakfast choice for your kids.  How the fuck does that happen?

Don't even get me started on the single serving disposable beverage container.  Stupidest thing ever.  Especially water.

No food education.  We can barely get kids to learn to read between the hours of tv, video games, and other general laziness on the couch.  Kids have no idea where their food comes from.  They think honey comes from bears, and noodles come from cheese.  I shit you not, I saw it on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  They have no idea about the work that goes into producing the food they eat on a day to day basis.  They also don't know that ground beef can be 20% pink slime, the inedible junk parts that should go into dog food but instead are washed in an ammonia bath, ground up, and stuck into your beef.  The same goes for chicken patties and nuggets.  They get a chemical bath to kill the germs because its the waste product from the chickens.

On top of that, nobody learns to cook anymore.  What is an oven?  Is that like an old fashioned microwave?  All I have to do is unwrap my food and hit no more than 5 buttons, wait 1-10 minutes, and I'm done.  Right?

I heard that in the south, its not uncommon to see a toddler with mountain dew in their sippy cup,or even in bottles.  It reminds me of Idiocracy, yeah, go check that movie out.  They are watering the crops with the sports drink.  And more people drink soda because its so easy and convenient and its found everywhere.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is in everything because that's what the midwest raises, because that's what they can make money on because that's what the government pays for.  I once accidentally had honey that had corn syrup as an ingredient.  How does that happen.  Honey is the ingredient.  Its made of honey.  It comes out of a bee by some miracle of nature.  You don't make it with corn product.  WTF?  How does that happen.

We want to buy groceries for a couple weeks all at once.  The problem is, real food spoils.  But shopping is such a chore because we have to go the mega store out on the edge of town, or the next town over, to get the best prices on our fake food.  So we load up the urban assault vehicle and brave the Guide, or Randall Road, or whatever it is.  Then we get everything we could possibly need for the next several weeks, mostly jam packed with preservatives and other mystery ingredients, grab some Starbucks, and then head back to the suburban manor to water our lawns and watch more advertising.  In Europe, in city centers, they have small shops and you get groceries for the next couple of days.  You don't drive, you walk.  You get fresher stuff, that was grown closer to where you are buying it.  You don't have the food waste at home or at the store as much because there is less logistical jibberish between production and consumption.

We believe that being fat is a genetic pre-disposition, and we call it obese, and its our god given right as an American to eat as much as we want, no matter what we weigh.  I'd love to see health care for everybody, but not if I'm paying for all the medical problems that stem from people who are obese.

Dogs eat until they are full, and beyond.  That's why responsible pet owners don't keep the dog dish full all the time, because their dog keep eating because the food is there and then it will get fat.  Dogs are pretty stupid when compared to people.  But people will continue to eat well beyond being full also.  And they know how to open the cupboard and the refrigerator themselves.   How are we not smarter than dogs in this instance?

Random fact:  Nearly half of all food in the grocery market is wasted.  It goes bad.  With all our high tech gadgets and mathematical geniuses in the supply chain, you think we could figure out how to fix that.  Oh, but guess what, there is no money in food.  The money is in producing, distributing, and selling cheap plastic shit in unfathomable quantities, all from China.  And we have to throw most of it out instead of donate it to the hungry or homeless.  Its disgusting.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/food-retailers-must-reduce-waste

Google:  American Obesity Statistics.  See what comes up.  Alarming.

People won't pay an extra dollar or two for real food.  That's because they have to pay for all the other useless Junk they have bought, or want to buy.  But then again, millions smoke cigarettes even though they KNOW that eventually they'll get cancer.  Nicotene > common sense.  I know.  I've never been addicted and I'll never understand.  I'm not partaking in that experiment.  I just think of all the crazy things that people waste money on and then they'll buy the shit food.  Single mothers can feed their kids for $2.99 at McDonalds AND get a toy.  Plus, then they have more time to work.  I'm sure the break down of the family unit has a lot to do with this.

I present no answers to you.  Others have done a better job at it. Give "Deep Economy" a read.  Its by Bill McKibben.  And try "The Story of Stuff" by Annie Leonard.  Or read any of the hundreds of books on these topics.  "The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture" by Wendell Berry is another great one.  Yes, that means you'll have to remove yourself from direct view of the TV.  And you'll have to invest many hours in finishing the book.  Get the audio tape as read by somebody famous if you must.

Anyway, I managed to drop my weight from 157lbs when I ran the Seattle Marathon and won, down to a slim 145, and that is on a 6'2" frame.  And I'm tired of people making comments about my build when I'm out running a 10 miler on a hot summer day.  Its now normal to be overweight, and I'm not a fan.  

Back on track

Short and sweet on this post.  After Ragnar Relay beat me up and my little hamstring issue the following week, I'm back on track.  A solid 70 mile week.  Quality over quantity.  There will be a time for higher mileage, but this early in my comeback isn't it.  Thoughts for the week:

Sub 4 hours might not be a good goal for me at Baker Lake.  I'm thinking 3:45 or faster.

No more hill repeats on the hill next to Civic.  Asphalt sucks.

Is there a better track for T pace than Fairhaven Middle School?  Soft surface.  Some slight terrain variation and a slight rise.  And the view is amazing.  The bay view is amazing.

Hammer Perpetuem chewables aren't bad.  Small handheld isn't bad either, but impossible to not have sticky hands.  Still need to test more nutrition options in the next two weeks.

The Saucony Hurricanes have some studs.  Some familiar names.  Feeling the pressure to go sub 1:10 for the half, even on the Seattle course.

An Omnium made up of three mile races on Mt. Baker sounds incredibly cool.  Hopefully Charlie Heggem can put it all together.  Will make for a tough decision between Waterfront 15k and the Uphill, Loop, and Downhill miles.

Itching to race but not ready yet.

Club XC Nationals could be back in the picture.

I started a rant about food and I couldn't finish it.  It got overwhelming.  Stay tuned.  It will happen.