Calling Run to Win... (Read 730 times)

You had mentioned that you ran a 4:18 mile as a freshman in college. How much farther down did you get your time since that point?

I don't recall exactly; the mile wasn't my event. I was more likely to do repeats of 5 or 6 at 4:45 to 4:55 pace than to run one fast. I know I've been in the mid 4-teens, maybe low/mid? I'd have to go back and look it up. It was in that vicinity. My events were the 8k (cross country) and the 5k/10k (track) - unfortunately, there were a few times when I had to do the 5k and the 10k in the same meet. That sucked. My only real mile races were usually in indoor track when we were at a meet that didn't have longer distances or where there was no 5k and we didn't need an extra 2 miler. And then I'd do the 1500, and not an actual mile. Since graduating, I've run a 4:39 (2 years ago) - this year, I directed the only 1 mile race that I've done the past couple years, so between being busy "running" the race and being slightly injured I didn't actually run the race. I'm considering jumping into a USATF indoor track meet at the end of the month, though, just to see what I've got right now. Why do you ask?

My 5k PR is on an indoor track, and is 16:07 or 16:09 - I forget which. It was in Buffalo at the end of 1999 or beginning of 2000. On an outdoor track, my best 5k is 16:12. On the roads, my best 5k is 16:18. This year, once I have my marathons out of the way, I am going to concentrate on getting under 16 minutes. There's no reason that I haven't done it yet; I've certainly been in close enough shape for doing it. 10k, my best time is 32:30 on a track and 34:30 on the roads. This again points to why I should be able to break 16 minutes. As for training - most of my fastest times from college came my sophomore year, after I'd been averaging 85 miles per week for 2 years (including off seasons.) I topped out at 120-125 miles per week twice, with my next "top" number being around 115 miles of which I'd had quite a few weeks at. In season, I usually ran 85 to 105 miles per week until it came time to taper, when I'd run 70-85 miles per week. We usually ran twice a day on weekdays, an easy 4-7 miles in the morning and 7 to 12 in the afternoon depending upon whether we were just getting miles in, running intervals or fartleks, or doing hills, or whatever the workout was. On Saturdays, we raced. On Sundays, we ran 13 to 18 miles, usually around 6:30/mile pace. During indoor track and my last couple of years at school during other seasons, we started doubling on runs only 3 times per week. I supplemented all of that running with lap swimming, biking (when injured, not so much when not injured), and weight lifting. I'd lift 3 to 4 times per week at noon in between workouts or in the afternoon on Sundays, and I usually swam twice a week. If there was no morning run, I'd swim, if there was, then I'd swim at noon. That worked out really well for me for 2 years. Then I got tendonitis in my right knee and a stress fracture in my left leg and took a bit of time off from running. I did get equivalent workouts for everything through cross training, but it was tough as I couldn't really walk too well at that point. At the end of the season, I was racing well enough to get back on varsity when I was allowed to start running again, but I wasn't vested in the season so I decided to sit out towards the end. I then took 6 months off from school to work (co-op was part of my degree) and ran my first marathon during that time. My last couple of years at school I wasn't quite as quick and I got some minor nagging injuries that kept keeping me from performing at my best. When I graduated, I had severe strep throat (losing 15 pounds when you only weigh 140 isn't a good thing!) so I wasn't keeping in shape at all for a few months. I moved to Maine, ran once or twice per month for about 6 or 7 months, and did some heavy weight lifting 4 to 6 times per week during that phase. Then I realized that I had only 9 weeks until a marathon I'd signed up for when I first moved to Maine and that I had to get my butt in gear. I don't recommend running a marathon on only 9 weeks of training. I was in good shape, and I raced my way into running shape over that 9 weeks, but it would have been easier with another month to prepare. Over the past 6 years, I've experimented a lot with my training and seen the results with how I am able to run my marathons. I ran quite a few high quality marathons on about 40 miles per week (beating friends of mine that were still running 70-100 miles per week) but this year I'm trying to get some volume back to see how that effects things. I've had some minor issues the past few years (plantar fascitis, achilles tendonitis) but most of those problems have gone away now that I get some significant trail miles in every week. This Spring, I'm running a marathon as a training run at an easy 3 hour pace on March 30, and then will be racing another one on May 4, so I'm in much better shape than I'm used to at this point. I've been running in the 50-60 miles per week range, with 13-20 of those coming on trails every week and even what isn't on trails has often been on slush or snow or ice. I feel that even without significant speed work, I've built a lot of strength from running through the snow. Last week was a cut back week that included a nice 10 mile race that I comfortably ran at 5:48 pace. I'll probably run a half mary a couple of weeks before the March marathon and aim for about 5:40 to 5:45 pace (it's a much tougher course if I run than the 10 miler was). Once I get those marathons out of the way, I'll be concentrating on bringing my 5k time down. If I can run a sub-2:45 marathon in May, then I'll at least have met my main goal for the year, and I will hopefully be in the mid/high 2:30s. A couple of my friends and teammates are running in the marathon trials in April, and both of them managed to run 2:45:37 in Philly last year, so that's my baseline that I need to beat. Unless they run faster in the trials, in which case we'll see what I can do to run faster than them. They are both running about 100 miles per week right now (which amazes me as both women work and have children at home) and are in really good shape. They were only half a minute to 2 minutes behind me in the 10 miler last weekend. That wound up being a bit longer than I meant it to be. Hopefully you can glean something useful out of it...