Just Grinding Away

Some weeks of training are boring - nothing notable, nothing exciting. This was not one of those weeks! This was pure excitement. Let’s take a look back:

Sunday I ran a marathon in 2:40:38. Not in a race or anything, just up and down one of my old workout routes from college. Two miles down one street, two miles back. Two miles down another street, two miles back. Two miles down the first street again...You get the idea. Here’s a very rough map:

First annual Contour/La Jara Marathon

So that was fun. Or at least satisfying once it was done. I blew up a bit the last couple miles when dehydration really set in - the pace climbed up from 6:05 for the first 22 miles to 6:20-6:30 for the last four, but the total comes out to 6:07 per mile.

I did some easy running on Monday, some more easy running on Tuesday, and then - after an easy ten miler in the morning, I went to the track for some fast repeats on Wednesday night. The workouts was 2x(600, 400, 300, 200) with equal jogging recovery after each, plus an extra 400 jog between sets. I got a little optimistic on the first set (1:40, 64, 46, 30), which is to say I did all of the repeats way faster than I should’ve. Consequently , I blew up awesomely in the 2nd set (1:43, 65, 49, 30). They don’t look THAT much slower, but each one featured an all-out death-grimaced final sprint just to hit those times. And the recoveries turned into awkward, painful crawls. Truth be told, it was kind of fun.

Friday morning I went out for a long tempo at a relatively relaxed pace - the goal was 14 miles at 5:50/mile. My legs were tired from the track workout Wednesday, but the pace was pretty easy to hit, and I got through it with nothing more than some mild boredom and the annoyance that comes from running almost 30 miles on a 2 mile stretch of Contour Road in a single week. Final result: 14 miles at 5:46/mile.

I rounded out the week with some more easy running on Saturday, and hit my new highest mileage ever: 135. Woo.

I took it really easy yesterday - less than 14 miles in two runs - and today I did the SARR Labor Day 5 Mile Whine Run. I’ve done it the last two years, with times of 26:17 and 26:30, respectively. There were some solid local guys at the race today (something that wasn’t true in the past), but I was able to run away with the win by a pretty good margin, with a new course record of 25:38. The course is very hilly, including a first mile that is basically 100% uphill, so I’m really pleased with the time. It’s nice to be able to run the same course in multiple years and compare times. Last year did have some nasty winds that slowed times down a good amount, but this year featured much more usual Texas September weather, and regardless the wind wasn’t so bad that I would expect to run 52 seconds faster without being in MUCH better shape. Which is encouraging. 

 

During the first mile of the race

Right after the finish. Jeremy tired.

 Now back to training! Happy running everyone.

Race Recap: Grandma’s Marathon

So, another season is finished. This has, without question, been my most successful stretch of training and racing ever. A year ago I had PRs of 15:16, 32:01, and 2:33:44 for the 5k, 10k, and marathon respectively. Now I’m down to 15:02, 31:15, and 2:27:38. First thing’s first: a quick recap of how Grandma’s Marathon played out.

Before I get into the details, it needs to be said that the organization and volunteers up in Duluth were simply awesome - it was very low stress getting to the starting line and taking care of all the little things that go into having a successful race. I’m really grateful for the fact that I was able to get some of the elite treatment with only a 2:30 PR. It may not seem like much, but being able to get a couple of my own water bottles on the course (mainly so I could tape my gels to them) was a small but significant perk. Most of the other cool aspects of the weekend - cracking jokes with Abdi, free dinner and drinks on Friday and Saturday, etc - were more a product of Em doing the US Half Championships, but it was still really cool being a part of that environment.

But on to the race itself. I got up really early to go with Em to the bus pickup for the US Half, which gave me plenty of time to relax and have a bagel and coffee. Afterwards I took my own bus up to Two Harbors, MN for the start. The only part of the course I saw was the first half mile, which was a steady uphill, but the weather felt cool and dry so I was a happy camper. After my warmup, however, I could tell it wasn’t that cool. I started to cook a little bit sitting in the crowd waiting for the gun to go off.

But when we got moving, it was downright chilly again. The Africans seemed content to jog the first mile, so I tucked myself right into the back of the lead pack, and momentarily fantasized about taking off and getting some good pictures. By the mile that ship had sailed, however, as the contenders took off from us pretenders and started hitting closer to 5 minute pace. I came through the mile in 5:35, and failed to entirely resist the uptick in pace on mile 2, which I hit in 5:25.

For the next 6-8 miles, I was treated to a non-stop parade of people passing me. First it was fast looking men. Then it was not so fast looking men. Then the lead women blew by me like I was standing still. All the while, I just kept checking my watch in disbelief: 5:34 for mile 3, 5:40 for mile 4, 5:36 for mile 5, etc. I thought to myself, can there really be this many people that are THAT fast? I’m averaging 5:36 per mile, which is high 2:26 pace...Surely not.

And just like that, I started to see the first implosions from the folks who blew by me earlier. The lead women started to come back to me. A 5:29 for mile 10 caught me a few of the not so speedy looking men. By the time I hit the half marathon mark, in 1:13:23, I was feeling pretty good about catching people the rest of the way. I was still feeling good, and by dumping water on myself at each water stop, I was staying relatively cool despite temps climbing into the 70s and not a lot of shade on the course.

Around mile 17 I got a little over-eager, with a 5:26 mile, and after slowing a bit the next mile (5:44), I overcompensated and hit 5:30 for mile 19. I lost a little momentum stopping briefly to grab my water bottle (ran right past it, and I didn’t want to miss the gel), but I was still feeling good at mile 20, which I hit with a total time of 1:51:52.

But then, the creeping sensation of hitting the wall started to come over me. I got water at one of the stops and could barely swallow it. A slow ache started to spread from my glutes to my hamstrings to my calves. I could feel my stride getting noticeably shorter. I prepared myself mentally for the worst, and told myself that if I could just maintain 6 minute miles I would still be under 2:30, which is not a bad day.

But mile 21, despite feeling terrible, was 5:41. Huh. And mile 22, which featured the supposedly worst hill on the course, was 5:43. And on the long downhill following that hill, I started to feel life coming back into my legs. 5:44 for mile 23. Right through the middle of town now, eyes ahead on the guys who had been slowed to a crawl by their own dead legs. 5:40 for mile 24. Really back on track now. People are screaming, I’m feeling good, and to make matters even better, it’s gotten much cooler all of a sudden. Cold even. 5:45 for mile 25. At this point a guy blows past me at low 5:20s pace, which was weird, but there wasn’t a chance I could pick it up and go with him.

Mile 26 was a winding trip past the convention center, during which my brain was not functioning properly. Having failed to split my watch on the previous 2 miles, I was looking at a running total of the last 3.2 miles. Around 15 minutes (so realistically, still over half a mile to go), I decided that the race must be almost over, so I should pick it up for the last 2 minutes. I have no idea why I thought that was true. After a minute of “picking it up”, I realized I could see the finish and it was FAR away, so I slowed back down. In the final straightaway, I saw one more guy struggling home, so I did my best track impression and kicked past him. It was probably a “kick” of about 5:35 pace, but whatever. In the end my last 1.2 miles was just barely sub 6 pace, but I crossed the finish line happy and tired in 2:27:38.

I'll do another post about what happens next, but for now here are many pictures of me thinking I'm finishing much faster than I really am.  Cheers!

Viva la Fiesta Fandango!

This past weekend I ran the Fiesta Fandango 2.6 mile race con mis amigos Caitlin and Rob. Jer sat this one out because he did a pretty long workout earlier in the day. It was a totally different racing experience than what I’m used to. The San Antonio Road Runners put on this amazing event. Picture thousands of people lined up on both sides of the street cheering for you from start to finish! This race takes place literally minutes before the Fiesta Flambeau Parade that runs through downtown San Antonio. It was quite the experience!

Here's a picture of Rob early on that'll help give an example of what the crowd was like

We started off right in front of all the floats and bands that were getting ready to entertain what seemed like half of the San Antonio population. I couldn’t help but smile the entire time because at no point did the noise stop. I was just amazed to see sooooo many people out. The one thing I wasn’t expecting was all the bubbles! Tons of kids had bubbles and blew them towards the racers. At the start roughly 20 high schoolers dashed out in the lead, ahead of Rob (who ended up winning), and I gradually caught each and every one of them to come in third overall.

 

A couple meters from the finish! Yes, that's a boy in a dress behind me : )

The race was at 6:40PM, so it was a little toasty out, but luckily the clouds protected us from the sun. My time was a personal best, because shockingly I’ve never raced that distance before, with a 13:57. I really had no idea what pace that was, I leave the math for Jer, but when I found out I was pretty stoked. I was on low 16:40’s 5k pace, and with a personal best road 5k time of 17:15 set a couple years ago, I was pretty happy. Of course I mapped it out and it came really close to the 2.6 that was advertised...2.588.  Below is a little video from the race!

Things this spring has been a complete 180 compared to last year and I couldn’t be happier. I was dealing with getting my ferritin levels up as well as recovering from a butt injury caused by my clumsy body (tripping myself by getting one foot stuck through the shoelace of the other foot while running).

As Jer mentioned in a previous post I’m getting ready for the US Half Marathon Championships in June, mainly so Jer will have something else to focus on besides his big marathon : ) It’s a little misleading because as far as I know you don’t need a specific qualifying time to participate, but I’m pretty excited to race against some legit women on a gorgeous course. So in the meantime I’ve been getting my mileage back up into the mid 80’s-90’s. But no worries. I’ve decided to continue the clumsy streak and literally did a front flip over my dog last week causing me to lose a day of training because I hurt my bOOty a little too much. Luckily I was still able to get in 84 miles that week so I consider myself pretty fortunate. This week’s training will consist of getting up to about 95 miles, which includes a 13 mile progressive run in which I averaged 6:23 pace (started off at 7:00 and brought it home with a 5:41 last mile) and the infamous alternating 1ks workout. I’ll be doing 11 of those bad boys tomorrow at Incarnate Word since Trinity’s track is getting a HUGE makeover. Here are some photos to show the process thus far..

The old track will be missed..but the cement hard rubber, self draining water pit, and two inch high puddles, that accumulated in multiple spots on the track when it rains, will not.

Race Recap: Fiesta Mission 10k

Jer: I went into this race looking to get a good hard effort in before marathon training totally sapped my legs - as of race day, I have exactly 8 weeks until Grandma’s marathon on June 16th. I knew going into the race that because of the course, any thoughts of hitting a PR were out, but I wanted to run a decent time and see if I’ve lost any fitness since the Rice meet three weeks ago. The course may have been hillier than anything I’ve run in the last year, but on the other hand, the weather on race day was absolutely PERFECT. I figured I’d just try to run smart on the uphills, make up the time on the downhills, and hope that it all added up to good time.

 

As the gun went off, it quickly separated out into a three man race: me, Rob, and a local guy named Dan Welsh. Dan hung on for a while, but by a mile or so it was Rob and me running side by side. I got a little bit of distance on Rob at around two miles, then lost it when I almost took a wrong turn. Soon after, I recaptured the lead, and although Rob was never too far back, I held it the rest of the way to the finish. My final time was 32:12, closely followed by Rob in 32:48. Given that we covered pretty much every major hill in the Alamo Heights area, I’m really happy with the time, and I think it’s not too much worse a performance than my 10k PR at Rice. 

I followed Saturday’s race up with a 20+ mile run Sunday morning, which felt absolutely terrible. I wanted to stop, lay down on the side of the road, and take a nap by about an hour. Unfortunately, that may have more to do with staying up late drinking margaritas and less to do with actual running, so I’m going to try being a little better about the non-running factors (staying hydrated, getting plenty of sleep, etc) going forward.

Em: Well Emily looks really tired right now, so I’m going to recap this thing on her behalf. Em went into this race just hoping to run an okay time. I think 36:00 to 36:30 would have been perfectly acceptable, given that she hasn’t been doing much specific work in the last couple weeks.

Fortunately, Em doesn’t really pay attention to splits during races, so she ended up running entirely by feel, moving up pretty much continuously throughout the race. She started out in maybe 7th-8th place overall, but got up to 5th place by mile 4. She would end up finishing at that spot, and unfortunately she ran so fast that I thought I would have another minute to get some water before I needed to go cheer for her. 

 

About a half mile in

A little after 5k

Lots of smiles, even when she's going uphill 

On this exact same course, in August, Emily ran 36:30 or so, but Saturday she ran 35:22, which actually makes this a 10k personal best for her. As her coach, I think this just goes to show that sometimes all of the little nitpicky decisions that I make, things like which workout she runs on this Tuesday or that Sunday, sometimes don’t mean as much as the big picture. The big picture is that Em has averaged very close to 80 miles per week for the last year, and has been averaging over 10 miles per day for 2-3 years. That type of consistency, over time, means that you are going to be good at running, regardless of how much you taper, what kind of course you’re on, or the exact workouts you do. The long and short of it though, is that Emily ran faster Saturday than she ever has for a 10k race, and I’m pretty impressed. Heck, she even looked good doing it...

Em and me helping to lead the kiddos in their 1 mile race

**Thanks to David Guzman of Soler's Sports and Tom Lake of San Antonio Road Runners on the AMAZING pictures they took at the Fiesta Missions 10k!

Race Recap: Rice University Track Meet

Emily first. My hope for Emily was that she could at least knock a couple of seconds off her 5k PR. One problem: her PR was already really, really good. It’s the nature of sports that you’re going to have days where, for no obvious reason, you are just lights out awesome. The only problem is that it’s hard to replicate that magic, and that’s the story of Em’s 5k. She ran 16:33 two years ago at this very same meet, getting dragged through the first 3k behind 3 very talented runners, then hanging on for dear life. It is easily her best time at any distance. A lot of runners, once they’ve had a magical race like that, struggle for years to improve on the mark.

Women's 5000m...waiting to start the race

So that’s the background on the race. Emily’s workouts have been going great, faster than two years ago, but you still have to get it done on race day. Once we got the heat sheets, it was pretty clear there were only two competitors who were fast enough to be running 16:30 pace. One was Betzy Jimenez (a UT alum with PRs of 4:21, 9:18, and 16:14), and the other was Megan Jenkins, who beat Em in a road race in January, and was only a second or so behind her in her indoor 3k in 9:41 or 9:42. Here are my thoughts as the race played out:

Lap 1: Good, she’s in perfect position. Right behind Jimenez, 400 in 79. This is going to be just like two years ago!
Lap 2: Holy shit, either Jimenez is picking it up a TON, or Em is dying really, really early. Yep, 800 in 2:34 for Betzy, 2:36 for Em. Great, now she’s dropped and she’s not gonna be able to draft off of anyone.
Laps 3-5: Well, she’s not drafting off of anyone, but hey she’s clicking off 78s to 80s, and actually, Betzy seems to be coming back a little...
Lap 6: Damnit Emily, why are you leading the stupid race! They’re just going to sit behind you and let you do all the work!
Laps 7-12: Ok, I take it back...I guess she’s going to win?

So long story short, Emily won the race in 16:38, 5 seconds off of her PR but still, in my humble estimation, a great run in a situation that was very different than a rabbited race like she had last time. And at the end of the day, the goal every time you line up should be to win the race, and that she did.

You can check out her race video HERE

Me time. I ran the 10k, even though I knew the 5k is more consistently competitive, because I wanted a good 10k PR. I’ve used the past 3 months as a time to work on my “speed”, which relative to the marathon means 5k to 10k. I already got what I consider a decent 5k PR this year (15:02), so now it was time to take care of the 10k. Plus it’s closer to the marathon, so it makes a good transition into the next stage of training. My best time going into the race was 31:52, two weeks ago at Bayou City. Now that was a race in the middle of a storm, so I knew I could go faster without 18-20mph winds, but the question was how much faster?

   

I was incredibly happy when the race started that I was able to tuck into the back of a large group of guys running 75s, or 5:00 mile pace. Unfortunately the group started thinning out pretty rapidly after 4-5 laps, and by the 2 mile mark I was in 3rd place. 1st was a Rice guy who had gone out much harder than us, and 2nd was an A&M Corpus guy that I was following. At lap 10 I moved ahead of him and into 2nd, and from then on out it was a balancing act between running even 5 minute pace on the one hand, and trying to catch the Rice guy on the other hand. Emily gave me an update on how far ahead he was (around 18 seconds at the halfway mark) each lap. 

Rob giving Jer splits at the finish

Over the next couple miles I slowly, slowly clawed my way back up to within 3 seconds of the leader, but by then I was so gassed that I wouldn’t have known what to do if I caught him. So that was frustrating, but on the plus side I got a hell of a kick each time I hit a new mile mark. Under 10 minutes for 3200m is much, much faster than I ever ran in high school. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve run faster than my 5k splits, 15:33. 4 miles in 19:57, awesome. I was really hoping to see sub 25 on the clock at 8k, but 25:01 was still really cool. My final time of 31:15 comes out to exactly 75 seconds per lap, exactly what I set out to do, so I’m extremely happy with the result. I’ll do another blog post on where we’re going from here, but this blog post is definitely long enough already.

You can watch the last 10 minutes of my race HERE

Race Recap: Bayou City Classic 10k

Jer and I have been on a racing frenzy the past couple weeks. It’s been a lot of fun, especially because we get a chance to see a little pay off for all the training we’ve been doing. Like I’ve said in the past…we don’t train to stay in shape, we train to reap the benefits of it in our races. We live for the race, it is our motivation…always aiming for faster times while our bodies will allow us to.

We did our first road 10k of the season this past weekend in Houston, the Bayou City Classic 10k. It’s a USATF certified course which keeps us from having to guess whether the course was accurate or not. We’ve done it for the past three years straight and it’s a great event. My first time, in 2010, I came in second overall with a 36:04. It was a HUGE 10k personal best for me, mainly because the last time I raced one was a hot and humid day at the conference meet, on the track, from my sophomore year of college (2006). It was near perfect weather conditions in 2010 and a couple weeks later I ended up taking 36 seconds off my 5k personal best at the Rice meet. Last year was pretty disappointing. I ran over a minute slower at Bayou City, 37:08, and that’s when Jer and I knew something was obviously wrong. We finally figured out it’s because I was training with a dangerously low ferritin level of 8. I went into a little more detail about that HERE, but needless to say the spring of 2011 was a crap show of races for me. Finally we got things sorted out and here we are, a year later.

I ran 35:45 this past weekend, a 19 second PR from two years ago, in much worse conditions. It was 52 degrees and raining, but that wasn’t really the bad part, because I can deal with some cool weather and rain. The most difficult to deal with was the wind…the god awful wind that I didn’t even realize existed until the turnaround! It was a trifecta of not so great weather. My first 5k was 17:33 and I felt absolutely amazing. I have never felt so strong and so certain that I could maintain that pace for another 5k, but upon turning around on the mostly out and back course, I realized it was because we had 20mph winds aiding us on the out portion. The entire way back we were completely exposed to non-stop wind, and let’s not forget about the rain. It was brutal, but this is the very thing that separates the strong from the weak. Two years ago, even a year ago, I would’ve just eased up on the gas and put on the brakes, but not this past weekend. I fought through that awful wind the entire way back. I told myself that I was going to get a PR, no matter what, even though I knew the chances of me running a low 35 were slowly slipping away with each passing mile. I was even able to crank out 5:46 for the sixth mile after having a losing battle with the wind over the previous two miles.

The DETERMINATION

I was pretty pleased, but it obviously left me hungry to find out what my true potential is for the race distance. later I was thinking how I much rather would’ve run that 10k on the track in the same conditions as you can at least get some relief every 200m instead of being blasted by the wind for nearly the entire second half of the race. The one thing this race assures me of is that my fitness has never been better and that my mental strength has never been stronger. I even found myself chatting with Jer about the possibility of running a 10k on the track this season.

I wasn’t the only one who was left a little hungry after this 10k. Jer made his debut into payday placing for this race and also ran a personal best time. He cracked 32 with a 31:52, and bested his old time (set at the same course last year) by nine seconds. Luckily, he had the benefit of having company while fighting through the wind with Ben Zywicki, the guy who ended up winning, and our good friend Chass Armstrong, who got second. The three guys ended up separating themselves from the other competitors by mile two and ran together until the last half mile. Six seconds separated the top three men, which is most likely the closest finish the Bayou City Classic has seen in a very long time.

The top three during the second half of the race

Jer and I are taking this coming weekend off from racing and will be competing at the highly competitive Rice Meet on the 23rd. It’ll be Jer’s last go at a track race this season before he starts preparing for his June marathon. Training wise I’m starting to sharpen up a little while also trying to maintain some aerobic fitness. This past week I reached 90 miles with 3 hard efforts: a ten mile steady run at 6:46 pace on Sunday, 7x1000m with 400m recovery averaging 3:21 on Wednesday, and of course the race was on Saturday. I’ve spent the past few days recovering from that before getting back to the workouts! Jer got up to a little over 100 miles last week and spent more time on the aerobic stuff: a 22 mile long run on Sunday, and a workout of 8x1600 with 400m quick jog recovery. He averaged 5:13 or so on the repeats, but did the recoveries fast enough that the whole 10 miles averaged 5:32 pace.

Race Recap: Double 1500 Trouble

From February 25th to March 2nd, Emily raced two 1500s in a 6 day span. Not that that’s a ton of racing or anything, but since they both played out similarly, I thought I could recap both of them in one fell swoop, while highlighting some of the differences.

Part One:
Race number one was at our alma mater, Trinity University, on Saturday, February 25th. The goal for the day was simple: to run fast, and if possible, to PR. Emily’s PR was set two years ago at this very same meet, although back then it was held a week later. This time, just like then, she hadn’t done much in the way of specific 1500 preparation - repeats at roughly race pace, for example. Most of Emily’s workouts have been focused on 5k-10k fitness, not mid-distance.

As the gun went off, Em got out pretty hard, as planned. The goal was to hammer from the start and try to solo a 4:34 (Em’s PR is 4:34.9). The first lap was a little too fast - 71 seconds - but nothing too extreme. Unfortunately when you’re not prepared for that kind of pace, it’s going to REALLY hurt. So she slowed down quite a bit on the 2nd lap, which she ran in 76 seconds.

 

 

At that point I was able to let her know she’d slowed down too much, so she picked it up, but not much - 75 on the 3rd lap. On the last 300 she rallied quite well, and hit 53 seconds, meaning her last 400 was run in 71-72 seconds. The final time of 4:35.3 was only a third of a second off of her PR, which was a little disappointing, but in the end nothing to get too down about.

Trinity Open 1500m video HERE  

Part Two:
For the meet at University of the Incarnate Word, we knew that Emily would again be 15-20 seconds faster than anyone else in the field, so we came up with a different strategy: Em would go out slower, and try to get someone else to take the lead for the first lap. From there she would play it by ear and try to crank down the last 800 to a fast time. But the best laid plans...

As you can see if you watch the video below, she was unable to get anyone else to take the lead. So much for that. But the rest of it played out as planned, as the 400 splits got progressively faster. In fact, the last lap of 69 seconds is the fastest I can recall her running in any race, ever.

Incarnate Word 1500m video HERE  

It is an unfortunate fact that women’s running is, on average, less competitive than men’s running. It is very unfortunate that she has to do these races completely by herself from start to finish, while the men’s races at the same meets are comparatively deep. All that means in the end is that we have to take advantage of the few races where she can come across top notch competition, like the University of Houston indoor 3k or the Rice outdoor 5k. But on the plus side, scenarios like the two 1500s above are a good opportunity to practice different tactics, different strategies, and different facets of fitness.

Team Watebear at the UIW meet

Race Recap: University of the Incarnate Word 5k

My goal leading into the race was to get a new 5k PR. Workouts have been going pretty well, and I set my previous PR last year at the same meet while doing a 10k road race in the morning, so I was confident I could at least take a couple seconds off. This also marked the first time Chass, Rob and I have all run the same race, so it was nice to warm up with both of them.

After the gun went off, I was really happy that the pace felt easy - sometimes you get into a race and it feels like a sprint the first lap. I figured out why when we hit the 200 meter mark: I was going really, really slow. I picked it up and tucked in behind Chass and the leading UIW runner for a little while, until I sensed the pace was going too fast for me. I came through 800 meters in about 2:24, at which point two Trinity runners passed me, and I tucked in behind them.

Winning races is easy if you’re significantly faster than your competition, but this is very rarely the case for me, other than in super low key road races. So when I’m outmatched, or at least evenly matched, I try to race as smart as possible. In this case, that meant latching on to anyone going the same pace as me and avoiding the wind that was kicking up (not hard, just enough to hurt a bit) around the track. From 800m to 3500m, I was content to run whatever pace necessary to stay tucked in and wait for the racing to really begin during the last mile of the race. Many of these laps varied by a couple seconds as the pace slowed and sped back up, but it’s better to stay attached and competitive than to get obsessed with hitting a certain lap split.

By 3k I had moved up from 5th place to 2nd, and I knew I just had to wait for the pace to slow slightly to make a move. I’ve never had much in the way of closing speed, so for me the only solution is a long, grinding drive to the finish. The only trick when you make a move like that is that if anyone manages to latch onto you, then the tactic is pretty much useless - they’ll just draft and wait until the final 200 and blow by you. But when it’s a little windy, and you can get separation from your competitors, then everybody’s in the same boat - they have to face the wind just as much as you do.

So with 1500 meters to go, I moved into the lead and tried to separate myself. I knew the pace had slowed a little bit, so it’s not like everyone else was feeling great anyway. Within a few strides I could see I’d gotten a couple steps of space, so I just tried to maintain as best I could, and save a little bit of energy in case anyone caught back up and I needed a desperate last lap kick. No one ever came back, so I waited until the last 400, ran as fast as I could (67 is about as quick as I’ve ever closed a longer race), and got the win and a new PR of 15:02. It’s not an incredible time by any stretch, but it makes me really excited about the marathon in a few months.

For all those interested in the video of the race just click HERE

Indoor Time and Feeling Just Fine!

Last weekend I ran my first 3,000 meter race in three years. The end result surprised me (to say the least) and also was a warm welcome to the 2012 racing season. 9:41.44 was my official time, good enough for 5th place. In 2009, at the same meet, I finished 6th with a 10:04 3k. That's right, the competition has gotten tougher, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The race started slow, 79 for the first 400m, and people were stumbling all over the place. I was a little annoyed prior to the race because they had me starting behind the first line of girls instead of doing a staggered start, but I came to find out it put me in near perfect position, right in the inside lane. I stayed there until 200 meters to go : )

The starting line! Little ol' Emily is tucked away in the second row of lane 1.

The lead group started picking up the pace and soon I found myself running a 75 here, 76 there. I didn't realize the change in pace at the time, I just wanted to stay in contact with the chase pack. The three other girls I was running with changed leads periodically, but my plan was to run as fast as I could for as long as I could without using a lot of extra effort and losing my inside position. I fell off from my group for a couple of laps in the middle, but I was able to catch back up. The race went by so quickly and it's one of the reasons why I LOVE indoor and the 3,000!! I felt like a little mini race car hugging the turns and stepping on the gas when it was time to go. 2,800m into the race, I used the "Loeffler Kick" and ended up going from 8th to 5th within the last 200 meters with a saucy 35 second last lap. 5th through 8th place all finished within one and half seconds of each other. I was roughly five seconds back from 4th, and the winner, Becky Wade, came in at 9:29! Splits were also pretty saucy, 4:49 for the first 1500 meters and 4:51 for the last, or in terms of kilometers, 3:13.94, 3:14.36, 3:13.14.

A lap or two into the race

I had no idea what my time was until I looked down at my watch post race. I couldn't believe it. I had gotten a couple of splits throughout the race, but I stink at math (it's one of the reasons I married Jer, he's a walking calculator); I just knew that anything below 40 was good. The goal going into the race was simply to run close to my outdoor 3,000m personal best, 9:53. We thought on a great day high 9:40's, especially because the only speed work I got in prior to racing was an Aussie quarters workout and some hill sprints, but both were only a week or so before the race. Needless to say when I saw a 9:41 on my watch I couldn't stop smiling. It was a great race, with a great finish for me.

Jer got the race on tape, which you can view HERE.

I'm in the lime green sports bra and pig tails. It's a little blurry, mainly from technical difficulties, but also from an excited camera man.

Funny thing is I came so close to not even starting the race because of a tight IT band from some hill sprints a couple days prior. It was super tight on the morning shakeout and even tighter on the warm-up. The last thing I wanted to do was have it tighten up so bad that it'd cause more harm than good during the race, but I did a couple strides and decided to jump in.

Anyways, lots of exciting things to come this season! I finally got up to 90 miles this week with some great quality workouts. First off was a 5 mile tempo Wednesday morning, at 6:12 pace, and then 4 x 200m's in the evening, hitting 31's and 32's for some speed, and finally a 3 x 3 mile workout today, working down from 6:30 to 6:00 pace this morning. Next race up is a local 5k that is being put on by a special friend, Ceci from www.iaapweb.com, and my next track race will be at my alma mater, Trinity University, at the end of February.

PS: Photo cred goes out to Lauren Smith's mom, for grabbing some of the awesomeness that went on that day!

It's Nearly Indoor Time!

So in case you couldn't tell from the previous post, I'm pretty excited about our upcoming indoor 3,000m race this Saturday at the University of Houston. It's only going to be the fourth indoor race I've ever done (first for Jer) and the first time I've raced on an indoor track since 2009! Granted I still have yet to race on a banked track, but I'm super pumped.

They put the heat sheets up for the race last night and luckily Amy and I made into the fast heat (out of 3)! 41 girls signed up for this thing. Not bad. Half of our heat is comprised of unattached ladies, with most of them being from Rogue Elite, based out of Austin, along with the top-seeded runner, Betzy Jimenez, who used to run for UT. The collegiate athletes are primarily UT girls, who made it to DI Nationals in cross country this year, along with some Rice girls, which include recent All-American, Becky Wade. Needless to say the field will be STACKED! EEEK! I know there will be amazing times posted  just based on the number of high caliber athletes entered.

Training has also been looking pretty decent. Over the course of the last 12 days I've raced a 5k in 17:24, did an 8-mile steady run at 6:25 pace, did an alternating 400/200 workout where I basically fartleked my way to an 18:25 5k, did a 10-mile progressive run averaging 6:21 pace with the first mile being at 6:58 and the last 5:42, and lastly 10xhill sprints. I've been in the low 80's for mileage too, finally getting to a normal level again despite being sick for an entire week and random little aches before that. Woot.

Fun fact: exactly three years ago to this Saturday I raced the 3000m at the same meet and came in sixth behind a swarm of Rice girls with a 10:04. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of shape I'm in for what is arguably my favorite track distance!

The start list and results can be found HERE for all those interested! Chass and Jer are in the second of three heats for the men's 3,000m.

I leave you with some pictures from my first indoor race...

Start line!

The crazy awesome Rice pack I got to latch onto for most of the race

Olympic Trials Watching and Getting Our Race On!

Last weekend was a really exciting one for us. It was filled with lots and lots of running related activities of course. Our original plan was to head down to Houston to race the indoor mile(Em)/5k(Jer) on Friday and then watch the US Olympic Marathon Trials on Saturday morning. The plans altered a little as we were still getting over our awful week long sickness that started New Year's weekend. While we were still coughing up gross mucus the week leading up to this one we figured running in a dry indoor race probably wasn't the best plan. We found out that are our teammates Rob and Caitlin were planning on running the 5k in conjunction with the Houston Half Marathon/Marathon on Sunday morning and decided to hop in that instead.

The Trials were absolutely amazing! Jer did a great job of finding the perfect spots to watch both the men's and women's race so we got to see each group roughly 7-8 times each. We had doubts about going to Houston right before we left on Friday, but I'm glad we stuck with our plan because it was sooooo much fun to watch. It was crazy knowing that girls so far back from the lead pack were still on sub 6:00min pace! In any other race they'd be much much slower, but getting to watch such a high quality race was very inspirational and of course made us look at the overall placings much differently compared to it being an ordinary race.

Hall and Keflezighi

Flanagan, Davila, and Goucher

We knew a good chunk of people racing too. A handful of D3 alums from across the nation that we had competed with in college took to the streets and did quite well. Ricky Flynn was in the South region with us and ended up finishing his FIRST marathon with a 2:13, 12th OVERALL. Lauren Philbrook, who I had the opportunity to race against quite a few times at DIII Nationals had an amazing PR and finished with a 2:39, for 39th place overall! We knew some other women racing, Wendy Terris and Melissa Rittenhouse both kicking butt and taking names!  And of course those that we've never actually met, but feel like we've known them forever since we read their running logs...the Ordway brothers.

Mr. Flynn

Josh and Jason Ordway

Lauren Philbrook

It was the perfect weather for running and watching that morning too! Afterwards Jer and I went to the convention center to sign up for the 5k. The next morning was time to race! The 5k was going off 30 minutes after the marathon, at 7:30am. We met up with Caitlin and Rob at the convention center and chilled out until it was warm-up time. The 5k ran throughout downtown. It was a super flat course, just had a bunch of turns. It was really neat getting to finish at the same line as the OT marathoners along with the Houston Marathon/Half Marathon. I was hoping to hit 17:40, but surprisingly came through in 17:24. I was happy with the time, especially with where my training was at. I didn't catch the first mile marker, but I came through 2 miles in 11:08 and mile 3 in 5:39. I ended up 2nd overall. My stomach was becoming acidic the last half mile and I ended up throwing up all of my breakfast after crossing the finish line. That was gross, but man, it felt so good to go fast again. Jer came in 3rd overall with a time of 15:40. His second fastest road 5k, just like me. Twinzies!! Rob and Caitlin also did amazing! They ran faster than where they left off the past season, so we were all pretty excited. We also ran into our collegiate coach, Lutzy, after the race, so we did a cool down and hung out around downtown Houston after that.

Post race photo with the hubs

If that wasn't enough Jer and I had enough energy to go bowling with his family after the race. It was a fun weekend. Next race up is the UH indoor 3000m on January 28th. I'm getting really excited about it too! The last and only time I raced an indoor 3000m was my senior year of college at UH in 10:03. Goal is to be under that this time around. It's also looking like there will be some really good competition!

The team post 5k!