I feel more satisfied with this race, pretty much exclusively because I was able to hold myself back from going out too fast. A group of maybe 5-7 or so guys were about 50 yards ahead of a group of 4-5 I was in with 2 guys in the middle ground. I wanted to go with the 2 guys in the middle but I knew that they would post times that I simply am not capable of yet so I held back and maintained a steady effort through the first mile. Around mile 1.5 or so there was a short but steep climb and everyone in my group was suddenly gone. I know I didn't hit the hill hard but jeez. So I ended up having to run by myself for the second half of the race, which really sucked. I'm pretty positive I could have gone 10-15 seconds faster just by having people around me or close in front of me. The 2 guys that were ahead of my group were about 30-45 seconds ahead so that wasn't nearly close enough to really egg me on, unfortunately. I never looked behind me because I knew it would piss me off or make me sad, depending on how close or far away the people behind me were. Nobody did actually pass me though and when I got to the mile 3 marker I laid down a pretty hard kick that was the only time during the race where I think I was just completely out of breath. I did the last .1 miles very fast, which was pretty sweet but I know I left something out there on the course. Oh well, next time.
Splits: 1-5:40, 2-11:15, 3- 17:08, 17:45 chip time for 10th place overall.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Race tomorrow
Race tomorrow!
Both excited and nervous, because I've been feeling pretty slow lately. I know that technically I should be faster, if not a good bit faster than I was both at Shamrock (4 miler) and in Athens (5k).
The 5k in Athens was an anomaly I think and I'm not taking my time there seriously because of the odd conditions in which I ran it (got 'lost,' slow start, hilly, etc).
So hopefully tomorrow I will prove to myself that I am, in fact, making improvements. We'll see how it goes.
It's hot here finally (80 today). As much as it can suck at times, I love warm weather. We've had some gorgeous days here in Charlotte this past week.
Both excited and nervous, because I've been feeling pretty slow lately. I know that technically I should be faster, if not a good bit faster than I was both at Shamrock (4 miler) and in Athens (5k).
The 5k in Athens was an anomaly I think and I'm not taking my time there seriously because of the odd conditions in which I ran it (got 'lost,' slow start, hilly, etc).
So hopefully tomorrow I will prove to myself that I am, in fact, making improvements. We'll see how it goes.
It's hot here finally (80 today). As much as it can suck at times, I love warm weather. We've had some gorgeous days here in Charlotte this past week.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Boston Marathon
Following today's Boston Marathon has made me insanely jealous. I NEED to do a marathon at some point this year. The bug has completely bit. Right now I'm obviously not in the right shape to start actually training for a marathon that would likely come later this fall but hopefully in the next couple of months I can maintain the decent base I've built these past 3.5 months. The longest run I've done is still just 16 miles (one on the roads and one on trails) so that will certainly need to be increased.
My pipe dream time for a relatively flat marathon would be sub 3; preferably closer to around 2:55ish. That's just under 7min/mi pace.
Running has been going well; I've been alternating higher mileage weeks with 2 lower mileage weeks to make sure that I don't overtrain or injure myself. As I start to get more and more used to running 40+ miles a week I think I'll begin upping my mileage. Right now there are only 5ks and 4 milers on the horizon so 60-70 mile weeks are kind of pointless. I feel pretty fast right now, even when compared to just a month or so ago.
I'm running the CPCC Skyline 5k run this Saturday with the goal of going under 18. I had the same goal before the last 5k in Athens but it was both uncompetitive and hilly. This one will be neither of those, I think. So we'll see how it goes.
My pipe dream time for a relatively flat marathon would be sub 3; preferably closer to around 2:55ish. That's just under 7min/mi pace.
Running has been going well; I've been alternating higher mileage weeks with 2 lower mileage weeks to make sure that I don't overtrain or injure myself. As I start to get more and more used to running 40+ miles a week I think I'll begin upping my mileage. Right now there are only 5ks and 4 milers on the horizon so 60-70 mile weeks are kind of pointless. I feel pretty fast right now, even when compared to just a month or so ago.
I'm running the CPCC Skyline 5k run this Saturday with the goal of going under 18. I had the same goal before the last 5k in Athens but it was both uncompetitive and hilly. This one will be neither of those, I think. So we'll see how it goes.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Fatigue
Latroy Hawkins sucks.
My big mileage week (for me) from March 24-30 caught up with me this past week, causing me to be tired all the time and pretty sluggish whenever I ran. It was hard to make myself get out there and run and even when I did for the most part I felt pretty sub-par (an expression I've never really understood because it doesn't make any sense given the context it's used in). My training pace was faster than usual last week as well; that I don't understand. I think it's because most of my running was solo and I have a hard time regulating my pace real well when I'm by myself. The weather, on top of all of that, sucked last week so two of my runs were on a treadmill and that always blows.
Luckily today felt fantastic and there were no issues/tweaks/hurts anywhere. This week is looking to be a pretty sweet week of running. Only 3 more weeks until the next race, which feels like forever.
My big mileage week (for me) from March 24-30 caught up with me this past week, causing me to be tired all the time and pretty sluggish whenever I ran. It was hard to make myself get out there and run and even when I did for the most part I felt pretty sub-par (an expression I've never really understood because it doesn't make any sense given the context it's used in). My training pace was faster than usual last week as well; that I don't understand. I think it's because most of my running was solo and I have a hard time regulating my pace real well when I'm by myself. The weather, on top of all of that, sucked last week so two of my runs were on a treadmill and that always blows.
Luckily today felt fantastic and there were no issues/tweaks/hurts anywhere. This week is looking to be a pretty sweet week of running. Only 3 more weeks until the next race, which feels like forever.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Kings Mountain National Military Park run
Now is when I really regret not having cable TV in my life, as the real start of opening season has dawned. I guess it's just something I'll have to get used to, alas.
Went on a long, long trail run today down on the North/South Carolina border (about 40 minutes south of Charlotte) in Kings Mountain National Military Park on their ~16 mile trail loop. The drive down was replete with music to get me pumped up for a run I thought would kill me and a plethora of cop cars in the last 2-3 miles of the drive that got my sufficiently scared to slow down. It was much colder today than it's been this past week and I ended up starting the run with a beanie (overkill), gloves, under armor, long sleeve running technical shirt (overkill), and 2 hand held water bottles (something that was so weird for me, carrying shit in my hands while running). I packed a nutri-grain bar away in between my skin and my under armor, hoping that the packaging wouldn't rub me the wrong way and still be edible in about 2 hours (I had been under the impression that the 16 mile run would take 3+ hours).
There was a group of 7 of us gathered in the Welcome Center parking lot getting ready to go for an epic trail run. We started off and it ended up being me, Todd (a local house-flipper) and Tim (an ultrarunner that organizes events like races and these runs every Sunday) followed about 5-10 minutes back by Ned (works for a non-profit in South Carolina).
We started out a pretty swift sub 7 minute pace for the first hour or so then slowed down at about mile 8-10 to a more pedestrian (and manageable) 8+ minutes per mile. The trails got much hillier in the second half of the run; walking up some of the steeper stuff proved more efficient than trying to waste energy by running up the inclines.
Finishing 16 miles in just over 2 hours (2:12) was somewhat disappointing but then I realized that it was actually pretty fast given that a) it was my longest run ever and 2) it was run on some difficult trails and 3) I never stopped my watch for the 3 breaks we took that lasted a total of about 5-7 minutes I would guess. So I'm pretty happy with that pace.
There's a 22 mile run next week that I am contemplating attending...22 is a long ass way.
Went on a long, long trail run today down on the North/South Carolina border (about 40 minutes south of Charlotte) in Kings Mountain National Military Park on their ~16 mile trail loop. The drive down was replete with music to get me pumped up for a run I thought would kill me and a plethora of cop cars in the last 2-3 miles of the drive that got my sufficiently scared to slow down. It was much colder today than it's been this past week and I ended up starting the run with a beanie (overkill), gloves, under armor, long sleeve running technical shirt (overkill), and 2 hand held water bottles (something that was so weird for me, carrying shit in my hands while running). I packed a nutri-grain bar away in between my skin and my under armor, hoping that the packaging wouldn't rub me the wrong way and still be edible in about 2 hours (I had been under the impression that the 16 mile run would take 3+ hours).
There was a group of 7 of us gathered in the Welcome Center parking lot getting ready to go for an epic trail run. We started off and it ended up being me, Todd (a local house-flipper) and Tim (an ultrarunner that organizes events like races and these runs every Sunday) followed about 5-10 minutes back by Ned (works for a non-profit in South Carolina).
We started out a pretty swift sub 7 minute pace for the first hour or so then slowed down at about mile 8-10 to a more pedestrian (and manageable) 8+ minutes per mile. The trails got much hillier in the second half of the run; walking up some of the steeper stuff proved more efficient than trying to waste energy by running up the inclines.
Finishing 16 miles in just over 2 hours (2:12) was somewhat disappointing but then I realized that it was actually pretty fast given that a) it was my longest run ever and 2) it was run on some difficult trails and 3) I never stopped my watch for the 3 breaks we took that lasted a total of about 5-7 minutes I would guess. So I'm pretty happy with that pace.
There's a 22 mile run next week that I am contemplating attending...22 is a long ass way.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Inaugural Race for the Chase 5k
The "Inaugural Race for the Chase 5k" in Athens was a little chilly but I managed to get 1st in a race that sadly only featured 150 entrants. I believe there were only 2 guys in their twenties (including myself) that came to race, which is understandable in such a college town. Who in their right minds, within the ages of 18-24 would be up at 7am on a Saturday morning?
The race started off pretty slowly, with a group of about 5 guys off the front immediately. Everyone except for the guy I was behind sounded like they were breathing quite hard. For about a mile I stayed with the guy who eventually came in second. The first big hill came up and I took the lead, making sure I kept my strides short and my breathing controlled. I kept up my 'speedy' pace for the next mile and passed the 2 mile marker at ~11:40 or thereabouts. So my pacing was exactly where I wanted it to be for a 5k: around 5:40 for the first 2 miles-ish and then cranking it up in the last mile+.
So things were going smoothly and I was just cruising along when I managed to turn right as opposed to going straight like I was supposed to. I went about 50-60 yards the wrong way before I heard the shouts of "You were supposed to go straight!" So I angrily turned around and got back on the right track, all the while cursing under my breath (hopefully...). The guy behind me, who I had managed to put about 30-40 seconds on in about a mile to a mile and a half had caught up until he was only about 30-40 yards behind me. I was pissed but still managed to hold on to the lead spot. He kicked at the end to make up some more time on me but I knew he wasn't going to catch me so I didn't speed up at all. I felt like I had a good bit of juice left in me at pretty much all times during the race; I never felt as though I was going all-out.
Kat and Jeremy were nice enough to wake up early to take pictures and cheer me on, even though as opposed to shouting that I went the wrong way they just said "What an idiot!" Typical. Not a bad race; I PR'd by a little over a minute but the hilly nature of the course and my wrong turn didn't help much. I still think that on a flat course I can go sub 18. That did not happen today, sadly. Next time...
The race started off pretty slowly, with a group of about 5 guys off the front immediately. Everyone except for the guy I was behind sounded like they were breathing quite hard. For about a mile I stayed with the guy who eventually came in second. The first big hill came up and I took the lead, making sure I kept my strides short and my breathing controlled. I kept up my 'speedy' pace for the next mile and passed the 2 mile marker at ~11:40 or thereabouts. So my pacing was exactly where I wanted it to be for a 5k: around 5:40 for the first 2 miles-ish and then cranking it up in the last mile+.
So things were going smoothly and I was just cruising along when I managed to turn right as opposed to going straight like I was supposed to. I went about 50-60 yards the wrong way before I heard the shouts of "You were supposed to go straight!" So I angrily turned around and got back on the right track, all the while cursing under my breath (hopefully...). The guy behind me, who I had managed to put about 30-40 seconds on in about a mile to a mile and a half had caught up until he was only about 30-40 yards behind me. I was pissed but still managed to hold on to the lead spot. He kicked at the end to make up some more time on me but I knew he wasn't going to catch me so I didn't speed up at all. I felt like I had a good bit of juice left in me at pretty much all times during the race; I never felt as though I was going all-out.
Kat and Jeremy were nice enough to wake up early to take pictures and cheer me on, even though as opposed to shouting that I went the wrong way they just said "What an idiot!" Typical. Not a bad race; I PR'd by a little over a minute but the hilly nature of the course and my wrong turn didn't help much. I still think that on a flat course I can go sub 18. That did not happen today, sadly. Next time...
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Red Sox
So I retract what I said previously. I now know more about the situation and have decided that the Red Sox are not a bunch of d-bags (at least from this recent event). They still are d-bags in general but managed to stand up for what is right this time.
I'm running a 5k in Athens on Saturday morning. I have no idea what the course is like, but I'm going sub 18. Depending on how I feel, maybe close to 17:30.
I'm running a 5k in Athens on Saturday morning. I have no idea what the course is like, but I'm going sub 18. Depending on how I feel, maybe close to 17:30.
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