As of today, there are 16 days separating me from the 2012 San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon. The competition: unknown. The weather: unknown. My goal time: unknown. But before the next two weeks and two days elapse, all of these will have an answer.
On Sunday I did a 20 mile race in a little under 1:55, or 5:44/mile. It was hot and humid, and I suffered accordingly, but thankfully still got some solid work done. My last really hard workout was Thursday. It went about as well as I could expect - not great at first, but in the end I covered 14 miles at 5:31/mile, with the last 4 miles at 5:18 pace. The weather has changed a lot since then (it's currently 50 degrees outside, compared to a low of 70 when I did the workout) which has me hoping for a beautiful wintery day on November 11th.
But we shall see. In the meantime, I'm wrapping up my training and trying not to get too nervous too soon. Race day will be here soon enough, and I know I'll have more nerves than I know what to do with by then.
Happy Running,
Jeremy
Friday, October 26, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Races as Workouts (20 Miler Tomorrow!)
Where I work, there's a common saying when someone is being honest about something unpleasant: they'll precede whatever they're about to tell you with the term "full disclosure." For example: "Full disclosure, I was out drinking until 2am last night so I haven't been listening to a word you've been saying". Or something like that - you get the idea.
So here's my full disclosure: I am in general opposed to the idea of racing with anything other than the intent to give your honest best effort to win. There is nothing lamer in this world than the guy you beat in a race who then goes on to describe how this was "really just a tempo run for him". It's demeaning to the actual winner of the race, and it's demeaning to the concept of racing in general. One of the things I've been pleasantly surprised by post-college is how the nerves before a race never really go away. Whether it's a major marathon or a local turkey trot, when I'm on that line, the butterflies come back like I'm still a 15 year old high school freshman.
BUT. I have, on many occasions, made the decision to do a race in place of a planned workout. And I'm doing it again tomorrow. When I originally laid out my training schedule a few months ago, I was planning on doing 3x5 miles at roughly 5:30 pace, with 1 mile recoveries at ~6 minute pace, for my workout tomorrow. It was supposed to be one of my last hard efforts in the last true full week of training. But instead of trucking around by myself for an hour and a half in crappy weather, I've decided to do a local 20 mile race. Now I get the thrill of racing, the nice perk of water stops, and a good way to simulate the particulars of the marathon 3 weeks from tomorrow in terms of clothing, warmup routine, etc.
So if you happen to be out on the Leon Creek trail on the Northwest side of San Antonio, be sure to say "hi" to me.
I should hopefully be winning by quite a bit, but if I'm not, I will be sure to not feed the actual winner any bullshit about this being a workout. Because at the end of the day, the point of a race is to win the race, and if you lose sight of that, well I don't know what to tell you.
http://www.scallywompus.com/site/index.php/events/167-alamo4battleofleonfeatured.
Cheers!
So here's my full disclosure: I am in general opposed to the idea of racing with anything other than the intent to give your honest best effort to win. There is nothing lamer in this world than the guy you beat in a race who then goes on to describe how this was "really just a tempo run for him". It's demeaning to the actual winner of the race, and it's demeaning to the concept of racing in general. One of the things I've been pleasantly surprised by post-college is how the nerves before a race never really go away. Whether it's a major marathon or a local turkey trot, when I'm on that line, the butterflies come back like I'm still a 15 year old high school freshman.
BUT. I have, on many occasions, made the decision to do a race in place of a planned workout. And I'm doing it again tomorrow. When I originally laid out my training schedule a few months ago, I was planning on doing 3x5 miles at roughly 5:30 pace, with 1 mile recoveries at ~6 minute pace, for my workout tomorrow. It was supposed to be one of my last hard efforts in the last true full week of training. But instead of trucking around by myself for an hour and a half in crappy weather, I've decided to do a local 20 mile race. Now I get the thrill of racing, the nice perk of water stops, and a good way to simulate the particulars of the marathon 3 weeks from tomorrow in terms of clothing, warmup routine, etc.
So if you happen to be out on the Leon Creek trail on the Northwest side of San Antonio, be sure to say "hi" to me.
I should hopefully be winning by quite a bit, but if I'm not, I will be sure to not feed the actual winner any bullshit about this being a workout. Because at the end of the day, the point of a race is to win the race, and if you lose sight of that, well I don't know what to tell you.
http://www.scallywompus.com/site/index.php/events/167-alamo4battleofleonfeatured.
Cheers!
Friday, October 19, 2012
Training Update and Race Recap
Sunday, October 7th:
24 mile tempo run. Did this on my traditional Hill Country Village 10 mile route, done twice, with a 4 mile neighborhood add on in the middle. It’s moderately hilly, but the weather was nearly perfect, which made it easier than it should’ve been. Ended up running 5:51 pace for the whole thing, with the last 10 miles in 58:03. By way of comparison, last year I did this same workout 3 minutes slower, fading over the last few miles to over 6 minute pace.
Thursday, October 11th:
8x1600 w/ 400 recovery on the track. Averaged 5:09 for the 1600s, but just as importantly averaged 6:25 pace for the 400 recoveries, which meant the total workout was 16k at 5:26/mile. More importantly, this was done partially in the rain, which makes everything epic.
Week Summary:
Just the two workouts plus a short session of 4x200 on Wednesday. I tapered a bit on Friday and Saturday to get ready for the 10 Miler on Sunday, but still ended up running 128 miles for the week.
Sunday, October 14th:
Weather at this race is always a gamble, and this year we lost. Fortunately my last workout on Thursday had also been in humid conditions, so I was more or less used to it. Could’ve been worse, last year it was nearly as humid and also windy. My goal going into the race was to run somewhere between 5:12 and 5:15 pace, or 52:00-52:30, but anything sub 53 would’ve been ok by me. My PR going into this was 54:15 from last year.
When the gun went off, I found myself running next to Ben Zywicki, a very solid runner from the Woodlands who had won the Bayou City Classic 10k (where I was 3rd) in the Spring. The big surprise, however, was that we separated from the rest of the field almost immediately. Usually this race has at least one elite East African, but this year it was just Ben and me all by our lonesomes. I went out hard (too hard, in hindsight) and hit the first two miles in 5:03 and 5:07. After another 5:07 for mile 3, I decided to drop back a bit, since I am in no way ready to run that kind of pace for 10 miles. Sure enough, I faded over the last half of the race, but hung on to finish 2nd in 52:37, losing by 21 seconds to Ben.
This race was a good checkpoint along the way - not a dramatic leap forward, but a solid step in the right direction. I think I hit a good balance of still doing hard training and high mileage leading up to the race, but also being ready to run fast and compete. I’m slowly deciding how aggressive I want to be at San Antonio this year, and I’m leaning towards aiming high. This Thursday morning I averaged 5:32 pace for a half marathon of alternating 1ks, the fast ones averaging 5:09 pace and the slow ones averaging 5:55 pace. Is that kind of pace doable for twice as far with evened out pace and a taper? Probably not, but if the weather is decent I think I’ll roll the dice and find out.
24 mile tempo run. Did this on my traditional Hill Country Village 10 mile route, done twice, with a 4 mile neighborhood add on in the middle. It’s moderately hilly, but the weather was nearly perfect, which made it easier than it should’ve been. Ended up running 5:51 pace for the whole thing, with the last 10 miles in 58:03. By way of comparison, last year I did this same workout 3 minutes slower, fading over the last few miles to over 6 minute pace.
Thursday, October 11th:
8x1600 w/ 400 recovery on the track. Averaged 5:09 for the 1600s, but just as importantly averaged 6:25 pace for the 400 recoveries, which meant the total workout was 16k at 5:26/mile. More importantly, this was done partially in the rain, which makes everything epic.
Week Summary:
Just the two workouts plus a short session of 4x200 on Wednesday. I tapered a bit on Friday and Saturday to get ready for the 10 Miler on Sunday, but still ended up running 128 miles for the week.
Sunday, October 14th:
Weather at this race is always a gamble, and this year we lost. Fortunately my last workout on Thursday had also been in humid conditions, so I was more or less used to it. Could’ve been worse, last year it was nearly as humid and also windy. My goal going into the race was to run somewhere between 5:12 and 5:15 pace, or 52:00-52:30, but anything sub 53 would’ve been ok by me. My PR going into this was 54:15 from last year.
When the gun went off, I found myself running next to Ben Zywicki, a very solid runner from the Woodlands who had won the Bayou City Classic 10k (where I was 3rd) in the Spring. The big surprise, however, was that we separated from the rest of the field almost immediately. Usually this race has at least one elite East African, but this year it was just Ben and me all by our lonesomes. I went out hard (too hard, in hindsight) and hit the first two miles in 5:03 and 5:07. After another 5:07 for mile 3, I decided to drop back a bit, since I am in no way ready to run that kind of pace for 10 miles. Sure enough, I faded over the last half of the race, but hung on to finish 2nd in 52:37, losing by 21 seconds to Ben.
 |
| Back in March, racing Ben Zywicki and Chass |
This race was a good checkpoint along the way - not a dramatic leap forward, but a solid step in the right direction. I think I hit a good balance of still doing hard training and high mileage leading up to the race, but also being ready to run fast and compete. I’m slowly deciding how aggressive I want to be at San Antonio this year, and I’m leaning towards aiming high. This Thursday morning I averaged 5:32 pace for a half marathon of alternating 1ks, the fast ones averaging 5:09 pace and the slow ones averaging 5:55 pace. Is that kind of pace doable for twice as far with evened out pace and a taper? Probably not, but if the weather is decent I think I’ll roll the dice and find out.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
A Week in Numbers
The minutia of training is in general pretty boring, but I thought I'd throw out a more detailed recap of my week just to give a little snapshot of the days and ways of me in "working hard" mode. Starting with Sunday, September 30th, here...we...GO!
Sunday (Workout): 20.4 miles in AM including 16 @ 5:37 pace, 4 miles in PM easy. Total 24.4 miles.
Details: Ventured over to Trinity to do a workout. The workout itself was pretty simple: 10x 5 minutes hard, 5 minutes easy. In the end I wimped out and only did 90 minutes (so 9x), but that got me to a nice even 16 miles. The workout felt great for the first half - I came through the first mile in 5:15 and thought “oh man, I’m gonna tear this thing apart!”, but here’s a pro tip: Don’t get cocky until you get past the hour mark. My last few “on” portions were probably north of 5:30 pace, which isn’t great, but the “off” parts never got much above 6 minute pace as far as I could tell. 5:37 pace for 16 miles is always a good day, so I’m chalking it up as a win.
Monday: 7.5 miles easy in AM, 6.3 miles in PM. 13.8 miles total
Tuesday: 11 miles easy in AM, 6 miles easy at lunch time. 17 miles total
Wednesday: 10.3 miles easy in AM, 6 miles easy in PM. 16.3 miles total
Thursday (Workout): 16 miles in AM including 12 miles @ 5:32 pace, 6 miles easy in PM. Total 22 miles.
Details: I did the workout on the Trinity track, meaning a total of 48 laps when all is said and done. The repeats felt tough, but not overly so - at times it was hard to tell the difference between a 75 seconds lap and an 80 second one. Those may sound close together, but believe me one will put the hurt on you a whole lot quicker. I tried to close the workout down hard, and in the end my splits were: 10:26, 10:30, 10:22, 10:28, 10:17.
Friday: 10.5 miles easy in the AM, 6 miles in the PM. 16.5 miles total
Saturday: 8 miles easy in the AM, 7.3 miles easy in the PM. 15.3 miles total
Totals
Mileage: 125.3
Runs: 14
Workouts: 2
Quality Miles: 28
Easy Miles: 97.3
Average Pace for Quality Miles: 5:34/mile
Average Pace for Easy Miles: 7:38/mile
Sunday (Workout): 20.4 miles in AM including 16 @ 5:37 pace, 4 miles in PM easy. Total 24.4 miles.
Details: Ventured over to Trinity to do a workout. The workout itself was pretty simple: 10x 5 minutes hard, 5 minutes easy. In the end I wimped out and only did 90 minutes (so 9x), but that got me to a nice even 16 miles. The workout felt great for the first half - I came through the first mile in 5:15 and thought “oh man, I’m gonna tear this thing apart!”, but here’s a pro tip: Don’t get cocky until you get past the hour mark. My last few “on” portions were probably north of 5:30 pace, which isn’t great, but the “off” parts never got much above 6 minute pace as far as I could tell. 5:37 pace for 16 miles is always a good day, so I’m chalking it up as a win.
Monday: 7.5 miles easy in AM, 6.3 miles in PM. 13.8 miles total
Tuesday: 11 miles easy in AM, 6 miles easy at lunch time. 17 miles total
Wednesday: 10.3 miles easy in AM, 6 miles easy in PM. 16.3 miles total
Thursday (Workout): 16 miles in AM including 12 miles @ 5:32 pace, 6 miles easy in PM. Total 22 miles.
Details: I did the workout on the Trinity track, meaning a total of 48 laps when all is said and done. The repeats felt tough, but not overly so - at times it was hard to tell the difference between a 75 seconds lap and an 80 second one. Those may sound close together, but believe me one will put the hurt on you a whole lot quicker. I tried to close the workout down hard, and in the end my splits were: 10:26, 10:30, 10:22, 10:28, 10:17.
Friday: 10.5 miles easy in the AM, 6 miles in the PM. 16.5 miles total
Saturday: 8 miles easy in the AM, 7.3 miles easy in the PM. 15.3 miles total
Totals
Mileage: 125.3
Runs: 14
Workouts: 2
Quality Miles: 28
Easy Miles: 97.3
Average Pace for Quality Miles: 5:34/mile
Average Pace for Easy Miles: 7:38/mile
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Training After College: The Necessities
Little known fact: I am a big fan of lists. It’s pretty much my favorite thing ever. And while I am by no means an awesome professional athlete, I do know a thing or two about training hard after college. So here’s a list of things that I can’t live without - everything an aspiring post-collegiate has to have.
1. Shoes. Lots and lots of shoes.
Here’s a chart of my weekly mileage for the last 10 weeks.
So that’s 1,213 miles (an average of 121 miles per week) in the last 2+ months. Even if you wear your shoes for 700-800 miles per pair like yours truly (not that you necessarily should), that’s quite a few pairs per year - especially when you start considering racing flats, lightweight trainers, etc. So if you can find a supportive local running store, or a willing shoe company to spot you a few pairs, that always helps. Because those things are like, really expensive on their own.
2. Foam roller.
Get it. Use it. Love it. Some people ask what book you would bring to a desert island if you could only bring one. I would bring a foam roller because my IT bands would get really tight from running in tiny circles on sand.
3. This one is important: the right job.
All of us non-professionals have to do something to pay the bills. Exactly how you pay the bills is a big determinant of whether you’ll be successful in training. I’ve worked a few different jobs now after college, some of them great, some of them not so much, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that sometimes the total hours that you work is not really the most important factor. My current job (and the one I’ll be at for the foreseeable future) is with a company that values employees who have outside interests and hobbies. So instead of hiding the fact that I’m spending 2 hours a day running, I can just tell my boss that I’m gonna go knock out 6 miles at lunch and get nothing more in response than “cool, see you in a few”.
4. Even more important: The Right Spouse.
Or be single. Because if you’re with someone unwilling to put up with some unusual habits, you’ll be single soon anyway. I’m not going to say that dating fellow runners is the only way, but man it sure helps. Let’s review:
Most people would have divorced me by now. If your significant other doesn’t accept the crazy ways of distance runners, it’s going to be a lot of extra stress that you just don’t need.
5. Love what you’re doing
This one is last, but it’s the most important. A lot of the things that define cross country and track in college disappear immediately once you graduate. Teammates, coaches, structure, a predetermined race schedule: all gone. So if you only ran because someone else expected you to, or if you rely on others to motivate you, it’s pretty much inevitable that at some point you’ll wake up for an early morning 10 miler and say “why am I doing this?”
My big advantage? I love getting up for that 10 miler. I love setting my own race schedule, and creating my own training, and just getting out there to see how fast I can go. So if I had one piece of advice for anyone looking to continue training, at whatever level, after college, it would be to figure out what it is you truly want to accomplish. For me it’s as simple as being better than I was; no further thought required. Once I decided I was going to take this at least somewhat seriously, the training itself became as routine a part of my life as waking up in the morning.
Happy Running!
1. Shoes. Lots and lots of shoes.
Here’s a chart of my weekly mileage for the last 10 weeks.
 |
| That dip in the week beginning Sept 2nd is actually 110 miles |
So that’s 1,213 miles (an average of 121 miles per week) in the last 2+ months. Even if you wear your shoes for 700-800 miles per pair like yours truly (not that you necessarily should), that’s quite a few pairs per year - especially when you start considering racing flats, lightweight trainers, etc. So if you can find a supportive local running store, or a willing shoe company to spot you a few pairs, that always helps. Because those things are like, really expensive on their own.
2. Foam roller.
Get it. Use it. Love it. Some people ask what book you would bring to a desert island if you could only bring one. I would bring a foam roller because my IT bands would get really tight from running in tiny circles on sand.
3. This one is important: the right job.
All of us non-professionals have to do something to pay the bills. Exactly how you pay the bills is a big determinant of whether you’ll be successful in training. I’ve worked a few different jobs now after college, some of them great, some of them not so much, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that sometimes the total hours that you work is not really the most important factor. My current job (and the one I’ll be at for the foreseeable future) is with a company that values employees who have outside interests and hobbies. So instead of hiding the fact that I’m spending 2 hours a day running, I can just tell my boss that I’m gonna go knock out 6 miles at lunch and get nothing more in response than “cool, see you in a few”.
4. Even more important: The Right Spouse.
 |
| That look? That's love, baby |
- I only stay up past 10:30pm in the winter, because I can run later in the morning and it’s still cool
- I get up 90 minutes earlier than I need to before work each day to get my run in.
- I literally spend 14 and 15 hours on average each week just running. That doesn’t include stretching, core work, extra driving to get to a track, or anything else.
Most people would have divorced me by now. If your significant other doesn’t accept the crazy ways of distance runners, it’s going to be a lot of extra stress that you just don’t need.
5. Love what you’re doing
This one is last, but it’s the most important. A lot of the things that define cross country and track in college disappear immediately once you graduate. Teammates, coaches, structure, a predetermined race schedule: all gone. So if you only ran because someone else expected you to, or if you rely on others to motivate you, it’s pretty much inevitable that at some point you’ll wake up for an early morning 10 miler and say “why am I doing this?”
My big advantage? I love getting up for that 10 miler. I love setting my own race schedule, and creating my own training, and just getting out there to see how fast I can go. So if I had one piece of advice for anyone looking to continue training, at whatever level, after college, it would be to figure out what it is you truly want to accomplish. For me it’s as simple as being better than I was; no further thought required. Once I decided I was going to take this at least somewhat seriously, the training itself became as routine a part of my life as waking up in the morning.
Happy Running!
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