The good times keep rolling

I'll keep this one quick.  I decided to switch my racing schedule for the two weekends after the All Comers 5k.  I wanted to go camping on the 10th-12th so that ruled out the Fairhaven Waterfront 15k.  In its place, I decided to do the Lake Padden Relays.  The Relays are pretty cool.  Its not often that a distance runner gets to do some fast team relays.  Its not quite the DMR, but its way different from races like Ragnar Relay.  4 runners.  One lap around Padden, 2.6 miles.  Ready set go.

For all of you non Bellingham residents, the Lake Padden Loop is almost as recognizable a time as a 5k pr.  There are so many races out there, and even if you've never raced there, you've probably ran around it.  So at least in the racing world, a Lake Padden time means something.  And since my Padden PR was from a couple years ago on the second day of back to back races after a night of drinking, it was definitely time to run a fast one.

Originally, Jake H and I were going to race and I tried to get RB Wick to run on the team.  Sam hooked me up with former Sehome runner and current UW student, Tyler Van Dooren.  But RB didn't want to race hard twice in two weeks.  Jake got sick.  And then it was just Tyler and I.  I've never met Tyler.  We emailed a couple days before the race, determined to still run even if we did a two person relay.  We set up a meeting time before the race and left it at that.

Saturday morning rolls around and I head over to the lake.  Tyler strolls up and we introduce ourselves.  Then we went to register.  What do you name a 4 man relay team with only two team members?  You use your first names.  Team Charlie and Tyler.  Bonus points for creativity.  So we did a lake loop for warm up.  As we were about done, we ran into Peter Oviatt who asked us who was on our team.  After explaining that it was just the two of us, we had a volunteer and a third runner.  Which left me to run 1st and 4th with Tyler and Peter in the middle.  I was ok with that since it would make it easier to get full miles in.  But our plans were changed again.  As I was switching gear and shedding clothes, Tyler jogs up and tells me that we have a fourth runner.  Tom Bradley, a junior from Blaine HS.  Tom didn't have a full team and had only planned on running one leg so he was perfect for our team.

So were ended up with a HS junior, Tom , a college junior Tyler, myself, 30 years old, former college runner, and Peter Oviatt, 41 years old with the fastest pr's of all of us, but not in tip top shape.  A pretty solid team all in all, but no world beaters considering there are a ton of WWU runners and a fair amount of good high school runners.  I knew we should be in the top few teams but other than that, I had no expectations.  I knew that I had to run faster than my pr of 13:58.

The gun goes off and Tom is off. One quick loop around the lake and 13:30 later Tom hands off to Tyler.  We were probably in about 5th place, in a tight cluster of teams but behind the top two teams who had a significant lead of about 30 seconds.  Tyler rips off a 13:20, while one of the teams in the top two is a coed team, so he ended up handing off tied for 2nd, but still a good 15-25 seconds out of the lead.  I knew Peter wasn't going to be as fast as the first two runners, but I know he's tough and experienced and he'd hang on better than anybody out there.  Sure enough, the top two teams come out of the woods and into the clearing together, and about 15 seconds later, Peter rolls out of the woods with a full head of steam.  14:05 for his leg.

Peter and I touch hands (no batons in this race) and I'm off.  I'm within sight distance of the top two teams, running together, both from Western Washington University.  I didn't recognize either of the runners since most of the ones I know graduated last year.  I knew they already ran some of their faster runners early so I wanted to close the gap quickly before the hills.  The first mile is generally flat.  A hard left after a slight uphill just past the mile finishes the flat section for most of the rest of the lap.  At about 1.5 miles in you climb a substantial hill and then the loop just rolls pretty good along the whole back side of the loop.  At about 2 miles you start dropping down until you hit that last little bit of flat around the 180 degree turn and the flat 400 to the finish.

Surprisingly, I caught both runners about 3/4 of a mile into the race.  I was trying to decide whether to recover behind them for a bit, or push hard and be aggressive by them.  When I closed the last 10 meters rather quickly, I decided my best bet was to continue to push.  It turned out to work for me.  I caught, passed, and pretty much dropped them by the mile mark, which I hit in 4:58.  Man, it felt faster than that.  But I finally settled in a bit and ran comfortably after that, gaining a lot of rhythm on the back stretch despite the hills.  I continued to gap the field.  With the win in the bag, it was just a matter of my lap time.  I didn't think I would really threaten the 13 minute barrier, but its hard to do math on a non traditional race while running 5 minute mile pace.  I crossed the line at 53:59 for the team, my split being about 13:05.  Definitely a PR for me.  Probably only the third or fourth fastest split, but I didn't have anybody to really race.

It was really great to win the race with the whole team.  I didn't even meet Tom until after the race when we were talking to the local reporter.  (Read the article here)  Everybody on the team was pretty happy with the win and their times.  And it was a banner day as far as weather was concerned.  Sunny, dry, and about 65 at race start.  Glorious.  Thanks again to my teammates planned and unplanned.  It was a great day!  So cool to chase down teams for the win.

Sunday, I had my first 20 miler since the marathon planned.  Most of it would be on the trails in preparation for the trail ultra at Baker Lake.  I have to figure out the hydration stuff.  I tested out a two bottle belt, which might have been the most annoying thing ever.  I set my countdown timer to repeat so that I'd actually remember to drink.  All in all, things went pretty well.  I actually felt good.  There might actually be something to the whole hydration thing.  Its not that I never thought I needed it, it just wasn't necessary for my training runs.  But after the run, and the next day when I felt just as good, I'm feeling much more confident for my 50k.  As long as I don't make a big mistake, and run a little conservative early, I shouldn't have problems.  I'll just have to accept whatever the clock says at the finish.

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.

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.