Untamed Runner

I was toying with the idea of entering a race this past Sunday and there were three distance possibilities: 10-mile, 10K, or 5K. Without going into too much detail, I initially considered the 10K then veered to the 5K. The week before the race I didn’t feel like I was prepared for any of the distances and decided to bag the whole thing. Last Friday, I signed up for the 10-mile.

Oddly, it was my lack of preparation that led me to choose the 10-mile. While I’ve run ten miles in recent months, I hadn’t done so in a way where I was fine-tuning for a race. However, I realized I hadn’t raced anything longer than a 10K since 2005 yet I’m signed up for a marathon this fall. This was an opportunity to do a longer race in “live” conditions.

Once I was signed up, I set my time expectations in a range from the low seventies, since that’s what I’d hit on a recent run, to high sixties. The course was net uphill on the way out and downhill on the way back. I mentally figured 36 minutes for the first five and just under 34 for the second half. It was a bit aggressive for miles six through ten but I also didn’t want to fall apart by going too fast on the first half.

I got to the turnaround at mile five in 35:54 and was on pace. However, based on how I was feeling at mile six, I sensed I wasn’t going to make it to the finish in under seventy. I relaxed to preserve energy figuring I’d likely be in the 72-minute range. Then I reached mile nine at 63:18, realized I was within striking distance of sub-seventy, and knew I had to go for it. I’ve written in prior posts that sometimes you reach a point in a race or a training run when you’re right on the edge of a time goal and where everything around you is blotted out and you’re only focused on the clock, where you distinctly feel a singular part of your body as you’re moving towards the finish. This fell squarely in that category.

69:45 was the final time and there were a couple of other lessons remembered and learned, as well. I mentioned in a prior post that I’d slightly backed off on small, short rises in a 5K time trial I did this past spring, as opposed to charging up them. I felt better at the end of that 5K and had a decent time, and I used this same strategy during the ten-miler. Though I don’t have another ten-mile race to compare this one with, I have to believe that this strategy does allow me to have a stronger finish.

When I thought sub-seventy was out the window and focused on relaxing my posture, while I’ve done this in training it’s difficult to make that a priority in a race. I wonder whether I could have run as relaxed if I’d stayed focused on sub-seventy during those three miles. Whether relaxing helped is hard to say but it clearly didn’t set me back, and I’ll continue to work on that as it may be a way to still run well but not lose energy due to tension.

It’s fourteen weeks until the marathon and a long way to go. How I would have felt at the end if I’d tried to go with my current target pace of 7:15 is impossible to say, but for now I’m keeping that goal there.

Over the past couple of months, running has been working its way back into a settled competition schedule. As usual, there is vigorous debate around the results and performances. Numerous world and other records have fallen over the past several years. These time drops have coincided with Nike’s release of its carbon plate-modified Vaporfly series; these plates are now also included in some of their racing spikes.

There have been too many superior performances to pretend that the shoes don’t have an impact. They have been ruled legal in terms of running and setting records, but new limits have been imposed on footwear, both in their construction and in their availability. In short, there’s a height limit which effectively limits the number of carbon plates that can be stacked inside the soles (though I think at some point shoes would get too tall to be practical) and prototypes cannot be used for races, which means they have to be available to the general public to allow for fairer and broader access.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a Nike person but I’ve been reluctant to offer criticism of this shoe technology. Nike has an overwhelming number of resources and the mantra to win. Somehow, they came up with this foam and carbon plate technology to enhance a benefit of shoes that was already there. Running shoes have returned energy for years and the Nike shoes simply do it a little (or maybe a lot) better than others. While it would be unfair and justifiably illegal for shoes to give athletes more energy than they put into each step, the whole point of running shoes is to make you more comfortable and to allow you to run longer than you would if you were barefoot, or running on small strips of leather or rubber. (Compression socks are supposed to provide a similar benefit via a different mechanism but that’s a different topic.) Had a different shoe brand developed this technology first, they likely would have been the target of ire.

It does seem fair to allow equal access to a racing product among the competitors. However, prototypes aren’t guaranteed to work. In the 2015 Berlin Marathon, Kipchoge’s insoles in his prototype Nikes weren’t properly fastened and they worked their way out over 26.2 miles, gradually blistering and bloodying his feet. This is an unusual occurrence so disallowing the use of prototypes is a good step and one could argue it protects the athletes. But, there’s another point here. Kipchoge still won. While it would be accurate to say that among twenty of the top world’s marathoners, those that wear Nike’s latest product might have a slight advantage, some of those folks are going to win no matter what’s on their feet.

An American high schooler, Hobbs Kessler, recently ran a 3:34 1500M which puts him under the Olympic qualifying standard. It’s an absurdly good time for someone his age and the initial reactions boasted that his performance was better than Alan Webb’s high school mile record run from twenty years ago, and comparable to Jim Ryun’s 1500 in 1966. It’s probably fair to include the shoes in this conversation as Kessler was wearing the latest and greatest carbon-plated Nikes. That offers some context as to which of the three, Kessler, Webb, or Ryun, had a better performance. However, there’s no doubt that Kessler is better than all the other current high schoolers out there and is destined for a highly decorated college career, unless he opts to go professional right away. A straight-to-the-pros route might have been less likely without the carbon plates, but he would be considered one of America’s top future running products in any racing shoe.

Sports have rules and for good many reasons. Even if we are questioning the philosophical nature of the rules or pointing out some absurdities, athletes are expected to follow them or face respective consequences. Yet, we also expect equipment to evolve and get better within those rules. I hear and empathize with the arguments by some runners that the new Nikes are unfair. When you’ve put years of training into your event and are routinely pushing your body to its outer limits, it would be frustrating to show up at the starting line knowing you’re already a few seconds back in a competition by virtue of the shoe. However, running shoe companies have been and will be constantly developing new products to make running easier and faster for all of us. One way to look at it is that the current shoes are within the reasonable scope of development that we expect, even if we’ve shoved a little further forward than we anticipated. It may be that we have to evaluate a product more closely or change the language of the rules to make sure we’re still within the spirit of the sport, but hopefully we’ll continue to use our expertise and experience to make the good products we enjoy even better, and to see what we’re capable of achieving.

I started this blog a little over three years ago. For the first anniversary, I did a long run using birthday cake flavored Gu (which tastes just like a good sheet cake, by the way) and last year’s anniversary occurred (obviously) in 2020. The number of notable world running events has been impressive over the past few years: the men’s world marathon record was lowered in 2018, the two-hour barrier was broken in the marathon in 2019, the women’s world marathon record was decimated that same weekend, and the 5000M and 10000M records were broken in 2020.

During this I managed to win a small 5K in Laramie, Wyoming, to get back under nineteen minutes for a 5K in Medina, Ohio, and to run a night race in Phoenix, Arizona. Of course, the majority of my miles have been in Colorado, many as a member of the Runners Roost Race Team, another new experience since this blog was launched.

It’s difficult to say how the running landscape will change over a period of time. With the postponement of the 2020 Olympics, some athletes who would have had their peak performance at that moment may not be able to replicate it, yet others who were either injured or not quite ready for 2020 may excel. The U.S. held their Olympic marathon trials before the pandemic and will honor those results. Other countries have held them more recently. It’s hard to say how this will affect their performances and much of it likely comes down to the individual athlete and how they focus and prepare.

Though my 2020 running plans were thrown off track, it provided the opportunity to do some other speed events in the form of time trials with friends. In a normal year, I’m not sure I would have done a 5K or 2-mile on the track, or a downhill mile preceded by an uphill mile, all of which were enjoyable (aside from the standard race pain that accompanies them). Instead of my usual local training routes, I used the pandemic as an opportunity to discover other quiet neighborhood roads where I can run. Now my total number of routes has expanded, which allows me a little more creativity with the training.

I’m signed up for two races so far this coming year. While some recent time off and an attempt to ward off some persistent soreness means I probably won’t be in top form for my first race, the broader goal is to prepare for the virtual marathon this coming October. In the meantime, running and race events are fun and I’ll look forward to them, even if I’m a little uncertain of what to expect.

As far as this blog, I have yet to post the short history of the 5K, and I also have a couple of other ideas I’m considering. In the meantime, I appreciate that you’re reading it and I look forward to writing more in the coming weeks and months.

On my next-to-last run prior to the time off I referenced a couple of blog posts ago, I did a test on part of my marathon course for this coming fall. Because I was dealing with a couple of sore spots in my legs, I did ten miles instead of the planned fourteen to sixteen.

I kept a 7:15/mile pace for the ten and while that’s well short of carrying that pace for 26.2, it doesn’t seem like an unreasonable time goal at this point. Less ideally, while I knew that the first six miles would be mostly uphill, I hadn’t fully realized how much that can sap you on the opening stretch. I found a different starting point that is traffic-free and will likely use it. However, there are a couple of drawbacks. The main one is it means not using my driveway as the starting line. Also, it would mean that the course has a net elevation loss of 400 feet. This isn’t a bad thing in terms of speed, but I had hoped to start and end at the same elevation. The Boston Marathon has a net loss of 320 feet so a plan B is to match that. While Boston is not world-record eligible partly due to that drop, it is one of the six world majors so equaling that drop seems reasonable.

In the meantime, formal training starts in several more weeks so for now, I’ll keep a solid mileage base while throwing in some longer runs. I’ve not fully decided on a training plan but I’m keeping in mind that I’m forty-two with nearly twenty-eight years of running on my legs. I’ll want to find that right balance of doing appropriate mileage for the distance, not beating my legs into smithereens, and trusting that having running experience can help you grind through some things.

On a random note, when I went out running today, something felt off. It took me a little while to figure it out, and after about a quarter mile, it hit me: humidity. My formative running years were in the thick humidity of Virginia and though this was nowhere close to that, it was still an unwelcome guest. Running at elevation is tough because of the lack of oxygen but humidity can also be a tough opponent. In theory the humidity shouldn’t seem too bad given my background but it’s not pleasant. I’m not a scientist and thus have no idea whether the extra humidity injects more oxygen into the air, but from my non-scientist perception, when the air is wetter in Colorado, it feels like I’m fighting both it and altitude.

There are a number of reasons people sign up for a race. It may be to have a family outing on or near a holiday. It may be motivation to train and get in shape for a certain distance. It may be that a friend has signed up for something and wants you to join them. If people are aiming for a personal best time for a distance, like a 10K, they will likely run several 10Ks in the few months leading up to it to prepare themselves.

Professionals pick certain races for time or place goals and train around those. Though they’ll still be pushing hard in these advance races the taper for them, if it exists at all, won’t be as significant as it is for the main event.

Though the vast majority of us are not professional, we also can benefit from tune-up races. Like so many things in life, mimicking a high-adrenaline, stressful event in practice is difficult. With running, typically the more you race the better you’ll be at it. This isn’t just a case of the physical exertion. It’s also learning how to handle race-day nerves and the atmosphere, and the stress those can place on brain and body.

If you’re aiming for a specific time and/or distance, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. If your goal is a certain time in a 5K or 10K, it’s good to run other races at that distance in the weeks leading up to your circled event. With the rule of thumb that you need one day of recovery for every mile of a race, in theory you could do a 10K the week before a race. That being said, giving yourself a two-week buffer also works. If you’re going for a longer distance, you won’t want to match that distance too close to your main race, but you can still go for shorter races to at least get or regain the feel for race day atmosphere.

I’ve signed up for a 10K in July; this is well before my marathon in October. In addition to this, I’ll find a few other races before then. Though I’ve done many races over the years and a number of time trials over the past year, getting back into, or staying, in race mode is key to having a successful goal event.

I mentioned some time ago that I signed up for the virtual London Marathon in early October. I have some moments of “what I was thinking” and others of excitement. I’m not keeping a scorecard of which feeling is in the lead.

I’m sure it’s a “duh” statement that preparing for a marathon can take a long time. When I signed up for a few in my late teens and early twenties, I knew what the training blueprint was in terms of numbers of weeks and miles and I knew my goal time. Beyond that, I was kind of winging it and though I finished them in decent times, it wasn’t until I ran one when I was twenty-six that I actually achieved a goal time. This was because I mapped out my mile-by-mile pace based on the course instead of adhering to the training plan and then running with a basic idea of what I needed to do. Nearly sixteen years later, I’ll make another attempt with additional thought put into it this time.

My weekly mileage has been at 30-35 for the past year or so. I’ll need to run more miles per week but given how hard I’ve been running recently, I’ll also need to learn to occasionally back off on pace. Training for shorter races can be intense on your legs because you’re running at higher speeds more frequently. While I am comfortable at a 7:15-7:30/mile pace, when I ran ten miles in the snow a few weeks ago and had to run slower, my pace was around 8:00/mile but my legs didn’t feel as thrashed when I was done. Again, maybe a “duh” statement but it was a good reminder that going a little easier may allow for the extra miles I’ll need. As I get closer to the formal start of training in early June, I’ll be working on different pacing so that it’s not quite as jarring of a transition.

Sometime before June, I’ll take a week off just to let my body have a rest. I’m due to get my second COVID vaccine shot in early May and since many people report symptoms afterwards, that seems like a logical time to stop running for a few days. If I have no symptoms, then I’m planning to rest anyway but if I don’t feel well, I’ve not lost any planned training time. In the meantime, I’ll start to wind my mileage down to the 25-30 range to ease up as I approach a more intense schedule.

Race pace preparation. This is the most difficult one. Because I’m comfortable in a 7:15-7:30/mile range, I would see that as a reasonable goal for 26.2 which would put me at 3:10-3:15 time. That being said, it’s been a very long time since I’ve done a full marathon and though I remember the pain, I’m sure that time has erased some of the vividness. At some point in the next couple of weeks, I’ll tackle 14-16 and see how my pace plays out. Whatever I can do there, I can probably (with training) replicate over 26.2, and maybe aim just a few seconds faster per mile.

In the meantime, I’ll start to ease into the preparation and training in the next couple of months, with a few time trials or maybe races sprinkled in to keep sharp.

I was going to do a brief (maybe two-part) history of the 5000M/5K race but following a couple of experiences this week, I’m detouring to a different subject. It may sound similar to a blog post this past fall but given that it revolves around the importance of consistency in racing, repetition seems okay.

I did another time trial this past weekend, a 3200M with an additional 18M marked off past the finish line to make a full two-mile. Based on my training, I figured that if I could match my times from last summer (11:54 for the 3200 and 11:59 for the 2-mile) I would be pleased. This would mean running just under 90 seconds per lap.

Mentally, I like to have a time cushion at the end of the race. Being stuck between a goal time and a pace you’re not sure you can hold isn’t much fun. Yet, my best times have usually occurred when I run a consistent pace. Where does the instinct come from to charge out too fast, even knowing it doesn’t work that well? It could be hope that the cushion comes early and we’ll feel good enough to hold the regular pace for the last stages. Or, maybe we’re hoping we’ll end up with the race of our lives and blow away our goal time. These are not wise ways of approaching the race and despite any desire to have extra seconds to work with in the last part of the race, consistency tends to work best.

As I’ve mentioned previously, the challenge of running the exact same pace throughout a race is that you start off feeling good, as you’re not going all-out, and you need need to stay patient. Following that, you then need to push harder and harder as you get further into it. Your body is getting tired and wants to slow down, so you counteract that. On Saturday, this was no different. The first lap seemed like a breeze but by lap three I didn’t think my pace was going to hold. I think I’m so used to the 5000M that when I cross 1600M, what saves me is that I fully realize I’m halfway done, not less than one-third. Past the halfway point, while I wouldn’t say I felt strong the thought of pushing was somewhat palatable and I charged on. My splits were 87/90/90/90/90/91/90/86 for an 11:54 3200M. I then crossed the two-mile at 11:59.

On Tuesday, I felt good and for my six mile run, I was cooking along at a 6:45 pace for the first two miles. Yet, though I felt I could hold the pace for a while, if not really start blasting down the trail, I held back just a little. My ego said I could run the pace all day; my brain knew better. At the turnaround, wear was starting to creep in. The last mile and a half was grueling and the final mile was 6:50, but the overall pace stayed at 6:47 and being patient at the beginning had paid off.

Two consistency lessons in four days and in both cases, consistency won. Again.

One enjoyable aspect of running is the constant tinkering with training methods and racing strategy. Even after years of running, there are still plenty of small changes to consider. While there are certain constants and while it’s important to find an overall plan that suits you, it’s also important to evaluate and adjust based on results and your style of running and preferences. I’ll use the 5K as an example.

For training plans, up to a certain race distance you’ll want to do a long run that’s triple your competition distance. For the 5K, that would mean a 9 to 10 mile run a couple of weeks before your race. There are also the middle distance runs to do and there’s speed work. This is where you can start working with the methods and training.

Some people may do a high number of 400 repeats, others may do 800s, and others may do medleys of those distances and longer ones. A couple of years ago, I went with 400s and 200s for my primary speed work yet I wasn’t getting as fast as I thought I should have. This surprised me since those had always formed the core of my speed training. I reflected on recent experiences of spots in races where I was struggling and also remembered that I had done more all-out longer runs in the past. These were either full 5Ks or I would spend the last segment of a longer run going hard. I switched to using these for speed work in training to better acclimate myself to racing. My times improved and yet, I’ll still be exploring different training strategies.

In a time trial recently, the course had several small dips and rises of 10-20M in length. In the past, I would charge these small rises. In this trial, I didn’t. My reasoning was that it didn’t boost my time significantly but even small uphill bursts at elevation can wear on you. My final time was about what I expected but I also felt better in the final half-mile, which is worth a lot. Even though steady pacing is ideal when going for a certain time, on a road or trail course, there will be different ways to achieve that.

In spite of my times going down over the past couple of years, I’ll still be trying out different techniques in training. If they don’t work, I’ll go back to what I was doing, or try something different. In races, I’ll try different tactics to see what may yield better times, or even a similar time but where I’m more in control of the pace. While there are many things that are steady in training, race prep, and racing, there should be constant evaluation and possible alterations to plans, even for a sport as “simple” as running.

For a third year, I’m a member of the Runners Roost Race Team. The team coordinator solicited feedback on whether current members would be interested in serving as captains. I indicated I was, wrote a small bit on my ideas for the team, and submitted it. That was last fall and I didn’t give it much thought until two weeks ago when it was announced that I would be co-captain of our local store’s team. Though I approach leadership roles with the knowledge that you really don’t know what will land in your lap, I think there are some things our team can do, internally and externally, to boost our own performance and further enhance the store’s presence in the community.

Around the time that I received this notice, I also was getting emails from the London Marathon advertising their virtual marathon on 3 October. Regular readers may recall that I entered the London lottery for the 2020 race and though I was disappointed in October of 2019 when I didn’t make it in, for obvious reasons that has turned out for the better. I’ve been a little skeptical about virtual races but once I was named as a captain, I figured this virtual marathon would be a way, albeit a difficult one, to cement my participation for the year, and perhaps have some of my teammates help out on the course. So, I signed up.

I get to choose the course and I’ve basically got one nailed down. There will be some elevation gain and given that we’re mile-high where we live, I’ll keep my time goals modest. Yet, there’s reasonable chance for a good time. My marathon personal best was set in Boulder and while that may have had something to do with more maturity and better pacing than my earlier attempts, it was one of my best races. Bonus points for this virtual race–the start line will be my driveway, which means no packing a bag for the race or having to get to the start line. In the event of inclement weather, like an early October snow or something else that’s not racing-conducive, I can run my neighborhood loop approximately 56 times. Bad for scenery, good for being able to switch out clothes and shoes if necessary.

I actually signed up for the race before giving it too much thought so I didn’t have a chance to give in to the second and third and fourth thoughts I’ve had since I clicked that payment button. And, I’m glad for that. Unless there’s a thick fog obscuring most views, what I am seeing will look nothing like London but I’m looking forward to it, especially if I’m able to have some friends join me along the course.

This coming year will still look different for the running world. Yet with a little creativity, we can keep supporting our local communities and those that are further away, try some things we haven’t done, and be ready to embrace a return to normalcy, even if some of our changes from this past year remain permanent.

My last post featured items that seem indestructible. Of course, you don’t know if you have one of these items unless it has lasted many years or been subjected to some sort of accidental trauma. Since it’s difficult to know items’ durability and assuming you want your running gear to last as long as possible there are easy, small things that can be done to extend its life. In one post I mentioned air-drying moisture-wicking technical clothing instead of putting it through the dryer.

Shoes can be a little tricky. They’re the most important item for a runner but they have the shortest life-span of the gear we use. Unlike pullovers or various hats, shoes must be used on every run regardless of temperature, condition, or distance. Most last 400-500 miles and there’s not much that can be done to extend that.

When running shoes still have life in them, they should be used exclusively for running. Additional steps and use wear them down faster. When I get a new pair of running shoes, I’ll eventually wear the prior pair for everyday use. However, before I do that I keep them to the side for several weeks. During that time, if the weather is rainy, muddy, or slushy I’ll use the last pair instead of the new ones. Running shoes are meant to get dirty and worn (and if you’re using trail shoes on trails, that’s a different story), but keeping them from getting soaked and trashed in the first few weeks may extend their life just a little. While they’re made of tough materials, subjecting them to extreme conditions from the get-go may shorten their life a little. If you can avoid that, the extra miles you gain may not be significant with one pair of shoes but over time, it can add up.