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This leads me to believe you might not like the near-constant curves, twists, and turns of Downs Park.
But Cherry Pit (10mi), Metric, and Dawsons (10K) all have huge long straightaways, for the season when you decide to come run against some Annapolis competition.
The Howard Co RRCA 10-miler is twisty and hilly, but I think it doesn't have many sharp turns. And, of course, it features plenty of competition under 60 - in 2012, there were 40 runners under 60.
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
Oh, and congratulations on winning CAASA three years straight.
There's a stirring passage in Again To Carthage, sequel to Once A Runner, in which Quenton Cassidy and Bruce Denton discuss that to be a truly competitive runner is to be in a state of constant ascension. Triumph briefly in your new PRs, yes --- the joy is well earned --- but then soon put them behind you as you strive to progress ever upward. What has all that hard training been worth if you end up merely taking a step backward at the next race? Going 18:44 at the 2007 Step By Step 5k was a big deal, as it was my first sub-19:00 time in the modern era. But then running 18:02 in 2010 was actually a disappointment since sub-18:00 was my great aspiration --- but now even 17:02 would've been frustrating, as a sub-17:00 precedent has been established.
This is the time of the year in which I eschew rigorous training plans and rather determine workouts on the fly. In fact, the nature of the workout might be customized specifically to address the primary weaknesses of my most recent 5k. I might just mimic what I did last year and run 5 X 1200 before Thanksgiving and 4 X 1600 before Jingle Bell.
I've run two races outside So. MD this year --- one right outside of DC and one i n the greater Annapolis area --- and I wasn't impressed with the competition at either. Apparently the best the DC area could muster up was some Karsten guy who finished nigh 3 minutes after me!
You picked races that were not terribly popular. I can gladly come up with a list of races for you where you will find competition if you wish.
I would recommend something like this for your last couple of weeks before Jingle Bell (do easy doubles on many days to keep your overall volume respectable), but don't overdo warm ups and cool downs at a workout):
Something like:
Tuesday - 8x800m
Thursday - 2x20 minute tempo -- race pace plus 20-30 seconds per mile, so 5:50s for you (last threshold run of any type you'll need to do before the race)
Saturday - 12x400m
Sunday - Super easy long run like 15 miles at leisurely pace
You could even lower the quantity of repetitions. The point is I think you might benefit from doing multiple speed sessions per week where the paces are fast enough to improve your speed, but not so high in volume that you don't feel recovered after a good night's sleep. I think to really break through barriers into the 16s and 15s for a 5k you need to:
a) Have high enough base mileage that three relevant workouts per week don't really add up to a big part of your total mileage (the weekly plan I gave above is only reasonable on a person who can handle 70+ per week, which is why you may want to lower the reps by a few).
b) Fundamentally address the fact that your future goal 5k times require more raw speed than you even have for your current mile PR.
I'd recommend even shorter intervals (50-200m) to train pure speed, but it's too complicated to discuss working those in safely right now.
In 2012, the winners of the RRCA club challenge were 52:56 (M) and 61:37 (F).
Cherry Blossom laughs at those paltry times - they'd only have achieved 27th in each gender.
CB winners were 45:15 (M) and 54:02 (F)
Wobble Before You Gobble 5k
9 November 2013
Meanwhile I ran 3.2 miles at a slower pace than DR and won a trophy and $50 gift card to the Tiki Bar for my effort.
Why? Due to schedule conflicts I was unable to run on Thursday. Then on Friday evening we were mostly doing a leisurely run at St. Mary's College. I realized that taking Thursday off and taking Friday easy is a lot like how I prepare for a weekend race, so I was in an okay position to do a race the next morning even though I had not planned to do one.
How? I did manage to get to bed by 11pm and I awoke in enough time to get to the race around 7:15am. That's a bit late for me. I like to get there an hour early. I noticed on their web site, though, that they asked runners to get there at 7:30am. That's really not enough time to register and get warmed up. As I was registering I could tell they would not be able to handle all the people before it was time to start the race. I figured they might have to postpone the 8:00am start.
I did my warm up and paused partway through to use the bathroom. I had a tough time [incoming details] working out a loose flow of fruit and nuts I had eaten the night before for dinner. I ate this fibrous food slowly over a 3+ hour period and so it made its grand exit as many tiny pieces that took several minutes to get out. I then jogged back to my car to take off my external layers in preparation for the race. While at my car doing this I changed my watch to the actual time to check on how I was doing. My watch said 7:58! NOOO! I threw my clothes off and headed over to the start line.
People were still milling about. Sure enough somebody on a loudspeaker announced there would be a 10 minute delay. So now rather than being late to the start line I was early to the start line on this slightly cold morning. Then they did the national anthem and the singer really took her time to draw out every syllable and make the most of her moment (don't know if it was a person or recording, wasn't close enough to see). This was the longest anthem I've ever heard and it really didn't help that I was in shorts and a sleeveless shirt on a cold morning waiting for it to finish. I sucked it up like any reverent American, though.
Off to the races! A young girl took off at the start. Her leg turnover was amazing and fast. Her arm swing looked atrocious. I thought she would lead for 100m. Then I thought okay maybe 200m. Then I thought maybe 400m. Well, I didn't catch her until 1.5 miles into the race. And she picked up the pace to try and hold me off! Then with about .5 miles to go I checked behind me once expecting to see nobody and she was maybe 50m behind me. I finished 1st overall and she 2nd. During the award ceremony I heard her last name read as "Rono." I had to wonder if she had any famous relations.
The fact that this race was hosted by Maximum Health and Fitness played into my decision to enter the race. Staying consistent to my desire to feel like a runner among runners I had some desire to show up to this race and at least put all the lifters and cardio enthusiasts in their place.
The race reinforced the fact that I will need to do real speedwork if I expect to improve any between now and Jingle Bell. Even though I am not 100% fresh this weekend, I still found it too easy to fall back into a less aggressive stance during the race. I am very uncomfortable with any attempt to go sub-6 pace for any duration, whether 800m or 5k.
Damn! You're winning races at a 50% rate. Remarkable that, around here these days, one can casually show up at a random race on almost any weekend --- and have a very solid shot at winning it as long as they're a respectable runner (i.e., someone for whom running is their primary means of fitness and who does at least some semblance of race-specific training). It's sincerely satisfying to hear that you put all the gym rats and bunnies in their place (I'm hoping that there were a few of the crossfit-obsessed types who fancied that they could rock the race solely by the power of their obnoxious "WOD" Facebook posts and sassy "Eat Clean, Train Dirty" T-shirts). What sort of logic did the course follow? You hinted that it was a bit overlong, so did you still make it in under 20:00? And you though Rono looked like she might be of Kenyan descent?
The Rono girl looked and acted the part. She was dark skinned and spoke with a native accent. I'll have to remember to try and find out her first name and then search for her results in Athlinks.
The race started at the Tiki Bar and then headed in reverse of the typical direction, so toward the little traffic circle and around the back part of the island before coming through the hilly road with the ducks (they were quacking and crossing; I nearly caught the lead vehicle on the return trip when the ducks were there crossing). The course then went up to OLSS and turned onto Alexander, Calvert, and Langley (if I'm remembering correctly). Except at the end of Langley we made a U-turn and then ran the course in reverse direction. So back down Calvert, down Alexander, straight down the main street, back through the ducks alluded to earlier, around the tip, and finishing at the Tiki Bar. We did not go around the circle on the out, but did on the back. Weird. Anyway, my watch measured the course at 3.2 miles and I finished in 19:37. I believe that is a 6:08 pace. I think 19:03 for 5k is also a 6:08 pace. I think it's safe to say my 5k pace is 6:08. I felt faster when I ran it a week ago, as in I felt a little tired today in my legs and never really felt like I was able to give it 100%, yet still ran that pace. I think that's actually a good sign, because it means I may be a better runner, but just not tapered to show it.
We did not go around the circle on the out, but did on the back.
That is how it works for cars.
I'll recap my Richmond Marathon .I met my friend Mike and his wife at 5:30 and we drove up to Richmond together. Perhaps due to the fatigue and tiredness I promptly forgot my watch in my car (we drove up in Mikes car) so I had no watch.
I had a stressful week of work. I barely got any sleep on Wednesday and Friday night leading up the race (about three hours each of those nights). So I went in worried about the lack of sleep and also drowsy as I was yawning in the corral and not very pumped up. Not surprisingly the first few miles The first few miles were a drowsy haze for the most part people were passing me right and left. I was running at like a 7:45 to 7:50 pace so it was not that I was that slow and I started a little bit behind the 3:15 pace group so I started in the right spot.
The Richmond Marathon is a very well organized marathon. One of the features that I really like is that they set up their water stations exactly 50 meters pass every two mile mark (miles 2, 4, 6 on onwards until mile 24.) I loved that because it made nutrition very easy. When I knew I was maybe a .1 to .2 from the water station I would take my gu and know for sure that I'd be able to get water to wash it down in less than a minute. The other thing I liked about the course was that it was very fast and it seemed to have more downhills than up hills. We had some fun downhills, not super steep but enough to stretch out the stride. Whereas none of the uphills were that devastating. Yes there were some inclines here and there because they just seemed significantly easier than LPRM or Marine Corp.
Anyways, I felt pretty good until mile 14 or 15. Then I got tired. By mile 17 I had no idea how I was going to finish the race. At mile 18 a husband and wife team flew by me and I heard the husband, who was pacing the wife (not well as you'll find out), that they had just ran a 7:19. However the way they ran by me with ease, made me think I was going a good 30 seconds slower than them and maybe more. The rest of the race was about trudging, grinding ones teeth and not stopping to walk no matter how great it seems (and when you got 9 miles to go and are dead that seems so tempting).
Amazingly I was moving up despite running probably a little bit over 8 minute mile pace between miles 20-25. It wasn't so much that nobody was passing me, a good 25 to 30 runners probably passed me in those five miles as I ran around 8 minute flat miles. However I probably passed 40 to 50 runners during that same period! Some were walking some had hit the wall and were running 9 minute miles so even though I had slowed down and was running significantly slower than my overall pace I was actually passing more people than passed me! The husband and wife who had zipped by me at mile 18 were two of the people I got by attrition. The husband was urging her with everything he had to push on, but she had nothing left in her other than 9 minute miles and then right before I passed them she stopped to stretch her calf which was probably all but the kiss of death as once you stop that late it will be hard to start running again. I think passing all these people helped my morale because I really wanted to quit (and by quit I mean take a walking break--there really is no quitting in a marathon because if you are at mile 20, you'll probably 6 miles from the finish so you'll have to get back there one way or another. Mentally the only way I managed not to quit was to make the last six miles into 6 different 1 mile segments.
Anyway, I heard from multiple sources the last two miles were downhill, so I was kind of disappointed when I had to run up some inclines in mile 25 and the first half of mile 26. Don't get me, these were inclines, not large hills, but when you are tired even inclines feel like mountains. However after about 25.5 miles its ALL downhill. Part of its a gradual decline part is a bit steeper, but I loved that ending. I have never been known for great finishes, but I managed to track down about 5 runners in the last quarter mile. It was the most awesome finish ever. For example as great as the Marine Corp Marathon ending is where you run up the hill to the Iwo Jima memorial, that still involves running up a big hill.
My final time was 3:18.
Overall the marathon went about as well as it could have. I ran relaxed, paced the race fairly well, and did not have anything go wrong. My goal is to Boston Qualify and I ran 13 minutes too slow for that, but I knew going into the race I was way too out of shape to shoot for that. By keeping my goals realistic and being mentally tough during the race when it really hurt, I think I ran the best race I could run.
I'd say that taking 14-15 minutes off your time from just a couple weeks ago is not too shabby! And that's commendable that, after conceding that a marathon PR was off the table, you resolved to fully embrace the experience and appreciate the scenery.
Meanwhile it sounds like the Rapps enjoyed 11 hours of non-stop fun on Saturday.
Are you using an alarm clock when you sleep these days?
That's a big improvement over your previous marathon. If you recover well it also sets you up for a good long run endurance base going into the next few weeks.
Link to my Stone Mill RR.
(I decided to not copy & paste it here.)
Since I am not a member of that group, I was instead brought to its homepage where I was greeted by a handsome woman. Hello.
Oh. Darn. Actually, you could just temporarily join that group, then come here & click the link again, and it would probably work?