Jer Presents: Five Lessons from a Spectacular Beatdown or, Free-da’s 5k Race Recap

Today I ran a 5k, and man, did I get crushed. Here’s me at the start:

Look, I'm winning! Surely this lead will hold up...

And here’s the finish. In this picture, I am not visible, because I am 30 seconds behind:

Maybe I'm a speck back there?  Let's get the CSI people to blow this
sucker up, I'm sure I'm in there somewhere

Since nothing really went right for me today, I’ve decided to search for the mythical silver lining in the cloud that is my apparent inability to run a 5k within a minute of my PR. So here we go. Also, it should be noted that I arbitrarily decided this list would have five items before I started writing, so if it looks like I either stretched some material thin to get to five (or smashed eight different thoughts together to limit the number) I apologize. But I’m sure as hell not going back and changing the title or editing anything. Psh, that's for quitters.

1. Never being afraid to race is a good thing. But it doesn’t make you invincible.

There are some runners out there who have a deep-seated fear of putting up a sub-par performance with their name next to it. And maybe that’s not a terrible thing, but it often leads to a crippling inability to race well when things haven’t gone EXACTLY perfect. These are the people who, when asked what they’re training for, will say the 2015 Boston Marathon, or the 2020 Olympic Trials. Anything sooner would require a frightening commitment to actually racing, which inherently means exposing yourself to judgement, shame, and the pitiless numbers on the clock when you cross the finish line.

I take pride in not being one of those people. I make a conscious effort to occasionally race on a whim, to just throw down and see what happens. And I always have this voice, deep in my brain, telling me “you never know, you could do something AWESOME!” Well that’s all fine and good, but today was most definitely NOT that day. I raced like a guy who ran a marathon three weeks ago and has been doing waaaaaay more beer drinking than training since then. And honestly, that’s okay with me. I like resting and relaxing for a few weeks. If you accept that sometimes you’ll surprise yourself with an unexpectedly great performance, you also have to accept that sometimes basic logic will prevail and you’ll race crappy. Because you’re woefully unprepared. Which brings me to item #2:

2. Marathon training is excellent for your long-term development. But specificity of training is, well, kind of important.

Quick, pop quiz, when was the last time I run under 5 minute mile pace for more than a minute at a time? I genuinely don’t know, but I’m going to look it up. And the verdict is.... the Rice 10k on March 23rd, 2012. Three and a half months. And that’s fine, in that stretch I ran a couple of 10k’s in the 32-33 minute range and a 2:27 marathon. I owned 5:30-5:40 pace. But 20 mile tempos do not a good 5k runner make. Two distances that are that far apart stress entirely different energy systems, and I am now wonderful empirical evidence of this fact.

3. Maybe it’s better to start the next training cycle feeling humble and hungry.

It seems stupid considering I got my butt kicked by a whopping 23 guys at Grandma’s Marathon, but with that many people ahead of you it doesn’t really hit home as much. And I achieved my time goal, which was always the main reason to seek out a cooler weather marathon rather than gambling with San Antonio’s awesomely fickle November temps. Now I don’t think I’m a super badass by any stretch, but maybe that 2:27 did get my head a little larger than it should be. Well now it’s back down to normal size, and I know that I’m going to have to pull out all the stops to keep moving that time down.

4. It is inspiring to see people doing something really, really well. Enthusiasm is awesome.

I’ve now done two races this year put on by IAAP’s Ceci Iniguez. Both have been almost comically well thought out - hand carved wooden statues for awards, themed shirts, costumed volunteers at water stops, complicated courses that somehow manage to be easy to follow, live music, personalized race bibs, and on and on and on. Today, there was even prize money for the winners of the race (pretty cool), paid with an oversized novelty check (beyond cool). I think, in a sense well outside of the narrow scope of running, that it’s just nice to see someone in their zone, excelling at something they obviously have a talent for. Even after my crappy race, I ended up having a GREAT time hanging out at the race, watching the Frida lookalike contest, and having more than a couple free Alamo beers. I have, over the years, been to too many horribly organized races to count, so seeing it done right makes me happy.

5. Yep, ran out of things. So let’s talk beer.

I’m going to start buying some Alamo beer when I go to the grocery store. The only time I ever have it is after races, and I always think, “hey, this is pretty good”, but I never buy any. While I admit I don’t know much about the economics of putting on a race, I assume that since I almost always see Alamo beer out at local races, they’re really going out of their way to be a part of these events. And the guys they have handing out the beer are always really cool when I talk to them. So it’s time to reward them. Thanks for the roughly 10,000 free beers you’ve given me over the last 5 years Alamo beer! I will now actually give you some revenue instead of just freeloading at races.

That's all I've got. Happy trails, SA, and if you're looking for a hot June 5k next year, this is a good one.

Room for Improvement

The post-marathon period has nearly come and gone. I’ve rested, relaxed, and gained some weight, and now I’m feeling ready to embark on yet another block of training.

Since I’ve had some spare time, I’ve been pondering my future in the great sport of distance running. That sounds a little overly dramatic. And I guess it is. For me, at least, hobbies are way more fun if I take them really, really seriously. Like too seriously. Consciously I may know that my times will never qualify me for a national team, or win a major race, but I get a ton of enjoyment out of training as if they someday will. Even if they won’t.

And overall my goal is just to continue improving. I had a really rough couple of years running-wise right out of college, but now that I’ve sorted everything out, the last two years have seen steady (if unspectacular at times) drops in my bests at most distances. I’m now fast enough to win most local races as long as no one studly shows up. It’s fun.

Look! I won a 5k in 16:37! YAY!

But as I said, the most fun I have is in treating my training like it’s obnoxiously important. So while I’m sure I could continue to knock out 15ish minute 5ks and high 2:20s marathons for a few more years, I feel a deep, compelling need to come up with an aggressive, borderline crazy scheme to reach “the next level”.

What does that mean? I don’t know. The fact of the matter is, no matter how much we might wish it weren’t so, every person has a limit to their potential. And I get incredibly annoyed when I hear someone talking about how they’re “training for the Olympic Trials” when they have yet to come within 10 minutes of the qualifying time. External goals are nice, and no, I would never bite someone’s head off for having a (borderline delusional) dream that they’re working towards, but the fact of the matter is that I sincerely doubt I could EVER run a 2:19 marathon. That’s 5:18 per mile. This year marks the first time in my life that I legitimately thought I could run a half marathon at that pace. And I have yet to actually do it. And even then, that puts me about as close to the Trials as Ryan Hall is to a sub 2 hour marathon. Which is to say, roughly a bajillion miles away.

This is me running a 32:14 10k.  But guess what? That's
only 2:16 marathon pace. Yikes!

So no, I will not declare my intention to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Trials Marathon. But, I do find myself wondering, if I wanted to continue dropping 2-3 minutes from my marathon PR each time out, what would I have to do? So I made a list.

1. Supplemental work. Yep, all that stuff I always intend to do each season but then totally forget about once I start running more. There are pictures of me at Grandma’s, and while I’m running pretty fast (5:30-5:40 pace), I’ve got limbs splaying out in all different directions, and I’m just generally conveying a sense of wild inefficiency. Like someone dropped a nice fuel efficient turbo diesel into an Amish horse drawn buggy. It looks like a wheel is going to fall off. Running is primarily governed by metabolic performance, but at some point, mechanical efficiency can limit your ability to run a certain time. Which brings me to my next point...

2. More speed. I am, by nature, slow as balls. That’s a technical term, but in layman’s terms it means that my 5k pace, for example, is frighteningly close to my max speed. In order to PR in the 5k, I now have to run around 71 seconds per 400. Right now, I could maybe do a single 400 in 60-61 seconds. In spikes. If I can regain some speed, then all slower paces should require less effort. If I’m going to eventually run a marathon at under 5:30 pace, that’s going to be a necessity.

This guy looks mighty efficient.  I wonder if he
can run under 60 for 400?

3. But not as necessary as... More mileage. Longer workouts. The same stuff I’ve been doing, but MORE. And FASTER. That may seem antithetical to #2, but as a great coach once said, the key in training is always to add, never to replace. At the end of the day, my endurance is still nothing to write home about. I would likely consistently beat someone like Desiree Davila in a 5k or a 10k, but thus far she would annihilate me in a marathon. No reason that should be the case, other than me not working hard enough yet. So rather than sticking more to my comfort zone of 110-115 miles per week, I’ll make a conscious effort to maintain mileage in the 120-130 range for at least 4-5 weeks of the fall. This may be item #3, but it’s the most important one. I have to keep up the 14-16 mile long workouts, and maybe extend them farther. Anything else I do, without also doing this, would be completely pointless.

Without enough fitness, this is what 5:50 pace
looks like at mile 24.   Ouch.

So here we go. Official training kicks off on Sunday. Time to get serious. Obnoxiously serious.