Weekly Summary – 37 Miles in 6 runs. The very end of the season, culminating with a 1’05 half marathon and then one final win in the DC turkey trot (rendering me undefeated in the state of Virginia!) A great end to a great season! Thanks for all of your support and stay tuned for the next big announcement about next year’s goals!

 

Lunes, 25 Noviembre, 2013 – AM: Off, travel Lima to Boston via Ft. Lauderdale.

5pm: Back in Concord! Ran from CA with some kids after the presentation. Went very well. Run felt great, pretty quick pace. Dark out and cold but nice. Total run 4M++ in 32’.

Martes, 26 Noviembre, 2013 – 8am: Easy shakeout, 4M, NT.

PM: Off. Dr. Ebb appointment. Weight 120 lbs, Iron high, Ferretin perfect, Hematocrit 47!!

Miercoles, 27 Noviembre, 2013 – 8am: Easy shakeout, 3M+.

Jueves, 28 Noviembre, 2013 – 2pm: Thanksgiving and 5 Minute Challenge Day!  Ate half bagel and black coffee before the 5min run. Warmed up 2M very easy on treadmill as it was quite cold out.

Ran a few long strides on the mill and then went into it. Just set at 5min/mile and went. Felt a bit quicker than I expected but relaxed into it. First few miles felt pretty easy. Kept the doors and windows open and it was cold enough outside that it wasn’t too warm inside.

The goal was to get to 13.1M (65’30). Started to feel like I was working around 5-6M and then at 8-9M it started to feel very hard. I kept trying to tell myself that if I could just get to 10M, then I’d be able to finish 13.1 because that seemed like a manageable distance.

Felt very hard from 10M onward. Felt like I was working way harder than at the beginning. Really pumping my arms and working even though it was obviously still the same pace. Once I got to 64 minutes, I just thought about all the 500s I’d done and just tried to count down in my head, knowing that it wasn’t too long. Finally passed 13.1M in 1’05’30 and decided to try to make it to 1’06.

Last 30 seonds were tough but actually felt easier than I expected, as there was no real kick, since the pace was the same. Still, didn’t feel like I could have gone much longer.

Overall, this was a really fun and great way to end the season. I honestly don’t know exactly what it means – it’s probably not quite worth 1’05’30 on a road course, as the treadmill has no turns, hills, nor wind, but it definitely felt a lot harder than I expected. It certainly reaffirms that 1’05 wasn’t out of the question. So, between 1’02 20km, 29’48 10km, and today’s run, I feel like that’s three strikes for the idea of any of those times being a fluke” I’ve clearly been doing something right, both in the long-term training and in the way that I tapered towards the end of the season.

Most importantly, the fundraising aspect was hugely successful. We raised over $2500 for the STRIVE Center in less than two months!! I can’t believe some of the incredible generosity shown by some people and it really makes an event like this that much more meaningful. A lot of people tell me how hard they find treadmill running because it’s so hard to stay motivated and not just “step off,” but for me, having that huge momentum from all our supporters behind me and the future of the STRIVE Center in front of me, I had all the motivation I could ever ask for!

Now, I’ve got a week or so of rest. Just seeing family, friends, and enjoying my brief time here in the Oxygen-rich United States! I’ll be heading back on December 9th, which will basically mark the beginning of my next season. I’ve got some big goals for the Spring and it’s a long, long road ahead, but I can’t see what lies ahead!

Cooled down very short about 10min outside around hood. Total run 15M+.

Splits:
1M: 5’00
2M 10’00
3M: 15’00 (5k 15’32)
4M: 20’00
5M: 25’00
6M: 30’00 (10k: 31’04)
7M: 35’00
8M: 40’00
9M: 45’00 (15k: 46’36)
10M: 50’00
11M: 55’00
12M: 60’00
13M: 65’00 (Half Marathon: 65’32)
13.2M: 66’00

Viernes, 29 Noviembre, 2013 – OFF. Travel to DC.

Sabado, 30 Noviembre, 2013 – 8:30am: Woke up around 7am for my last-minute turkey trot! Got invited to run this race upon announcing I was going to be in DC this weekend on the blog/facebook, so I figured I’d do one more and go for a relatively low-key race on a beautiful state-park course.

My brother was nice enough to be my chofeur/photographer at the event and we left around 7:45am for the 9am start. We got there by 8:30am and it was COLD. Only in the high 20s (F) and a bit windy. I found the race director, got my number and t-shirt and then headed out for a short warmup.

I ran the last mile of the course out and back and was somewhat surprised to see that the path that would make up most of the course was actually cross country, not paved. It was a fairly narrow path with decent enough footing, but a good amount of sharp twists, turns, hills, and drops. It would be a tough course.

Warmed up (at least a bit warmer), I made my way back to the start where people were already lined up. I panicked for a second, fearing I’d miss the start, but I still had about 5 minutes since they said they’d be starting right at 9am. I didn’t have time for drills or strides, just got to the line ready to go.

We had a countdown start and then we were off. There was a front group established quickly comprised of myself and about 3-4 younger looking kids (high school or college, I guessed). That pack quickly widdled down to just me and one taller, lanky kid within the first mile.

My goal in this race was just to win and so I wanted to do as little work as possible in the first half of the race. This ended up working out all-right as the tall kid (who turned out to be a high schooler) seemed more than content to lead. He was doing a lot of surging and changing of pace, which seemed particularly ill-advised on such a tough course, so I maintained pace and let him put about a second or so on me before moving back up.

We weren’t running super fast – my garmin was reading about 5’40 pace, though it was probably a bit quicker given that it likely was reading short with all of the turns. I stayed right behind him for about two miles and then the unthinkable started to happen. I started to feel really awful. Like really, really bad. I was painfully familiar with the feeling – it had happened in Quito – but I didn’t want to admit it to myself. As I started feeling worse and worse, I couldn’t believe it, but I was losing ground on this kid. This skinny high-schooler suddenly had 3 seconds, then 4. I was not happy.

I really didn’t want to lose, but I just felt so bad. We were in pretty deep woods at this point in the race (about 2.5 miles), and so I decided to take a gamble. I pulled over and stopped, probably lost about 40 seconds.

Finally, I was moving again. And now, I actually felt good. I looked down at my garmin and it said I was running 5’0x pace. Good. I knew this kid was running 5’40-50 pace, so I did the math. If there were two miles left, I still had a chance to make up the ground and come from behind to win.

I actually felt great at this point. I was moving fast, turning over well, but I still couldn’t see the kid. It was a tough course mentally in this regard, because I could only see a few meters in front of me with the dense forest and twisty trail. Finally, around 18 minutes in (just over 3 miles), I could see him up ahead through the trees. I timed the gap and he was about 25 seconds ahead. The real good news came the next time I saw him, about a minute later. The gap was now down to 17 seconds. I was closing in on him fast.

Once he came into my field of vision again, he was only about 8 seconds up, and I knew I could catch him. My only doubt was whether I’d be able to pass and stay clear of him or if he’d be relaxing since he’d probably assumed I’d been dropped. I saved up my energy and finally as we were going up a hill right after the 4 mile mark, I made a bid and snuck up and went by him.

I made a strong surge as I went by, trying to make sure I’d put a big enough gap on him that he wouldn’t be able to catch me. I didn’t look back, but just kept pressing. The last mile is partly on pavement and a bit flatter, so I was running quite fast (the garmin said 4’50ish). I didn’t want to leave anything up to chance, so I just kept pushing.

I finally allowed myself a peek backwards with about 500m to go and I could see he was well behind me. Since this was my last race, though, I decided to just go HAM in the last quarter and picked it up and up and up. The finishing 300m or so are all uphill, so it was a bit tough, but I still felt quite good running at a high pace. I kicked it in and was glad to see Brett (and the finish line). I crossed the line in 28:0x – probably the mostly weirdly split 8k of all time.

Most importantly, though, I did get the W – another victory for my undefeated pair of Asics Piranha racing shoes (up to 12x now). It was not exactly how I thought it would go – but hey, is it ever?? It was a fun race, despite the mid-race “issues” and a really fun note to end the season on. Plus, it was great to get to run a race in front of my brother, who doesn’t usually get to see me run.

I cooled down briefly on the course and then we headed out. It was still quite cold and I was ready to get back in the warm car!

Total run 10M.

Domingo, 1 Diciembre, 2013 – OFF SEASON!