Wednesday, February 13, 2013

On running fast

(I originally wrote this over 1 week ago, but didn't have time to finish it.  In light of yesterday's column, I'm putting it in today.)

I think I used to run fairly fast.  I'm not sure how to define "fairly fast, though."  But it sure isn't what I do now.  And compared to how I ran in high school, at least for short distances, even when I was fairly fast, I was slow.  Let's think about this:

In high school 200 repeats in :28 were easy.  I remember doing a pre-race workout of  8 x 200's in :28 with jogs across the grass to recover and it was like a day off.  Now, I don't think I could run a :28 all out.  2:40 800 repeats were also fairly easy. 

When I was in college I remember running an 800 in 2:26.  I was working hard but this was during a workout.  Years later, I ran a 2:2x during a meet.  I also ran a 4:4x 1500 during that meet.  And somewhere in there were a few 5:02 miles.  I don't think I ever broke 5:00 in a mile though.

When I moved up in distance, I remember running a 16:30 5K during a duathlon, and several open 16:5x's.  Even as recently as 1998, I think, I ran a 17:00 5K at a race in Auburn.  My PR for a 10K was 34:30 at the Super Bowl 10K in Tucson in early 1993 (I think).  I remember running it in a brand new pair of racing flats, which I took out of the box that morning.  I also remember tripping over a traffic cone and falling about halfway through the run.  My PR for 8K/5 miles was set during the 1994 Army Ten-Miler when I went through in 27:30.  I finished the race in 56:40 and was 101st out of around 10,000 (couldn't crack the top 100!).  And my half-marathon PR is 1:20:xx.  All of those were set in 1993-1994.  And then I started running marathons...

I always said that I wouldn't run a marathon unless I could run 2:50.  I figured that anything slower than that was just a slog.  How naive I was!  When I ran my first marathon, I was in 2:50 shape.  I went through the first 18 miles at 2:50 pace and was comfortable.  Unfortunately, I then got tired.  Having never raced that far before, I faded badly, finishing in 3:05:59.  And it has been all downhill since then.

Today, I ran 2 x 1 mile at 6:47 and 6:41.  It's not fast, but I wasn't going all out, so I'm satisfied with how it went.  It's still a far cry from my past, but since it's February, I'm hoping that things will get better (faster) by and by.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Operator error

We have wonderful high-tech gadgets that improve our abilities to train smarter and more efficiently.  Of course, all of that is dependent on whether we actually use them correctly.  Sometimes that's the most difficult thing.

Last Thursday, I was supposed to swim a set of 5 x 200 with each 200 a bit different from the previous:  #1 was IM drill; #2 was breast 100 fast, 100 easy; #3 was free DPS; #4 was back focusing on kick; and #5 was 200 IM fast.  For the last one, Ashley said that she was going to time me.  Since she didn't have an hour-glass, I assumed that she would be using her stopwatch.  She even mentioned that she would start her watch when my feet left the wall.  So, off I went, going as fast as I could.  When I finally touched the wall for the final time and looked up, Ashley was talking to some of the kids.  I had a sinking feeling about this.  She then wandered over to me and apologized that she never started her watch.  Oh well.  I know slow... and my 200 IM was just that.

On Sunday, I was supposed to run 3 x 1 mile at Z4, which for me is currently 7:12.  The first thing I realized when I figured out my paces was that my current threshold pace is slower than I used to do my JRA runs back when I was in college.  Of course, that was many moons and miles ago.  Anyway, when I got through with my warm-up, I pushed the "Start" button on my watch.  Now, if you have a Garmin 310, you know that the "Start/Stop" button is different from the "Lap" button.  And since I had already started my watch for my warm up, I should have pushed the "Lap" button.  I had looked down at my watch just before I started the interval, and it was at 1.65 miles; after a time and distance that I thought was a lot longer than 0.35 miles (when the watch should have beeped and vibrated), I realized that I had stopped my watch rather than started the 2nd lap.  The wind was out of my sails, and I slowed to a jog, knowing that I had not run a mile, but figured I should just regroup and press onward.  My next two intervals were 6:58 and 6:54 if you believe Garmin Connect.  If you believe WKO+/TP, they were 7:13 and 7:24.  Since my RPE was closer to the 6:5x pace, I'm using those numbers. 

Also on Sunday, I tried out the Saucony Kinvaras for the first time.  While they didn't feel bad and were definitely light, they still don't feel as responsive as the Newtons.  Try as I might to find shoes that feel as responsive as the Newtons, I have not been able to do so.  It's interesting.  I was ready to have a bouncy run on Sunday in new shoes, and it didn't happen.  I am now convinced more than ever that Newtons just feel different from other shoes... in a good way.