Given that one of my goals for 2012 is to run a 19:XX 5K I decided to run the Run for Young 5K this past weekend to see what my starting point was before I start actually training!
I ran the Run for Young in 2010 and finished in 23:02 on a freezing cold day, so I knew what the course looked like and was prepared for the rolling hills of Hillsborough Street. The weather this year was much nicer (50F) and I managed to get downtown early enough to warm up for a couple of miles and do some stretching (something I very rarely manage to do before a race).
I set the Virtual Partner on my watch to 6:45 pace (which would be a finishing time of 20:58) just to help me track my pace as I really didn't think I was in good enough shape to break 21 minutes on the back of a couple of tempo runs @ 7:10 pace and one track workout. I also wore my foot pod so I could track my cadence as I was curious how well I would be able to maintain my form as I got tired towards the end of the race.
I didn't manage to weave my way to the front of the corral before the race started, so I was a little slow away from the start when the race started and had to navigate around some slower runners who just had to start at the front! The first mile seemed to take forever as we went down the hill on Edenton and then up the hill on to Hillsborough Street where we continued the slow climb to the turn around. I went through the first mile in 6:45 and felt pretty good. The second mile included a course change from 2010 where we now went around two roundabouts before heading back down Hillsborough Street. By the time we made it to the roundabouts, I was already beginning to feel the pace catching up with me and was spending more and more time focusing on my form.
My watch beeped for a 6:53 mile for mile 2 which I was really happy with as I had been working hard and would have been disheartened to see a 7:XX pop up. By this point I was part of a little group of about 5-7 runners that all appeared to be running around the same pace. Running in a group helped me through the next three quarters of a mile as I was struggling to maintain the pace and staying in or around the group became my focus. As we got to the downhill/uphill intersection of Hillsborough/Edenton, I relaxed as much as I could going up the hill and was surprised at how I wasn't left behind my the other runners who attacked the hill and just as the hill crested I kicked for the finish line with about 200 meters to go and managed to pass all of the other runners in the group to finish in 21:07. I had run mile 3 in 6:50 and the last .11 in 38 seconds.
I finished in my 5th age group and 46th overall.
The race seemed well organized with a good Police presence at the major intersections and plenty of High School students at the finish line to hand out refreshments. Precision Race Timing provided the timing and used their "disposable bib-chip timing" system (the same system that was used at the City of Oaks Marathon) and again came up short. The "check your time" system again wasn't working and when someone typed my bib number in for me, I was given a time of 20:37 which was 30 seconds off. I checked with some friends that were also running and they had received text messages with incorrect times as well. For some weird reason, only age group winners were given awards (not the usual top three in each age group) and the final results that were posted on line showed only the gun time and not the chip time.
I took a look at my cadence data and can see that my cadence gradually
dropped throughout the race from a starting point of 100-101/minute in
the first mile to 95-97/minute in the second mile and 94-96/minute in
the third mile (I finished with 101-102/minute in the final kick for the
finish line). This backs up my feeling that my form began to break down
early in mile #2 and continued throughout the race as I struggled to
maintain the pace. Regardless, running at 6:48/mile pace puts me at a
great starting point for 2012 and my goal of 6:26/mile and a 19:XX
finishing time.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Marathon Recovery - Ouch!
I am sure my one reader wondered where I went after I finished the City of Oaks Marathon on November 6th. Well, the majority of the aches and pains went away two days after the Marathon. In fact, all of the aches and pains that I had been feeling after the Marathon were gone by Wednesday morning. However, that was when I started to feel pain in my left foot.
I initially ignored the pain as I thought it was the result of adjusting the way I was walking due to the aches and pains I had been feeling. The pain was on the top of my foot and was more of a dull ache whenever I put my weight on that foot and a sharper pain when I flexed my toes. I ignored it until Friday morning when it hadn't got any better and I decided to go for a run to see whether it was something that would work itself out. It wasn't.
I turned to my trusted friend Google and went through the symptoms for a stress fracture. I didn't have any noticeable swelling or bruising and I couldn't find a particular spot along any of the metatarsals but I certainly had a continual dull ache and pain whenever I applied weight or flexed my toes. I tried ice, I tried heat, I tried elevation and I even tried cotton balls between my toes but the pain just moved around and never really went away.
After 3 weeks, I went to see Dr Boehm at Raleigh Foot and Ankle and got some X-Rays. Dr Boehm was very knowledgeable and quickly diagnosed me with a 'Stress Reaction' and not a Stress Fracture. He said that I could return to running on soft surfaces and as long as I kept my mileage low, I wouldn't adversely effect my recovery time which he put at 6 weeks from the Marathon. He said that it is very common for first time Marathoners to experience a Stress Reaction which is something that occurs along the way to a Stress Fracture and that if I had continued to run in the first couple of weeks after the Marathon, I would have most likely ended up with a full blown Stress Fracture and a long road to recovery.
I must say that by the time I got to week 5, I was becoming skeptical as I still hadn't seen much improvement and was beginning to get frustrated at being unable to flex my toes without pain. However, by the end of week 5 things had started to improve and I went out for my first run. I felt some discomfort, but certainly not much at all and after stretching and icing at the end of my run I woke up the next day feeling better than I did before the run. By the end of week 6, I was completely pain free... maybe these doctors do know what they are talking about after all!
I have been gradually increasing my mileage and changed the way that I lace my shoes to reduce the pressure on the top of my foot and today I am pain free and ready to start training for something again!
I initially ignored the pain as I thought it was the result of adjusting the way I was walking due to the aches and pains I had been feeling. The pain was on the top of my foot and was more of a dull ache whenever I put my weight on that foot and a sharper pain when I flexed my toes. I ignored it until Friday morning when it hadn't got any better and I decided to go for a run to see whether it was something that would work itself out. It wasn't.
I turned to my trusted friend Google and went through the symptoms for a stress fracture. I didn't have any noticeable swelling or bruising and I couldn't find a particular spot along any of the metatarsals but I certainly had a continual dull ache and pain whenever I applied weight or flexed my toes. I tried ice, I tried heat, I tried elevation and I even tried cotton balls between my toes but the pain just moved around and never really went away.
After 3 weeks, I went to see Dr Boehm at Raleigh Foot and Ankle and got some X-Rays. Dr Boehm was very knowledgeable and quickly diagnosed me with a 'Stress Reaction' and not a Stress Fracture. He said that I could return to running on soft surfaces and as long as I kept my mileage low, I wouldn't adversely effect my recovery time which he put at 6 weeks from the Marathon. He said that it is very common for first time Marathoners to experience a Stress Reaction which is something that occurs along the way to a Stress Fracture and that if I had continued to run in the first couple of weeks after the Marathon, I would have most likely ended up with a full blown Stress Fracture and a long road to recovery.
I must say that by the time I got to week 5, I was becoming skeptical as I still hadn't seen much improvement and was beginning to get frustrated at being unable to flex my toes without pain. However, by the end of week 5 things had started to improve and I went out for my first run. I felt some discomfort, but certainly not much at all and after stretching and icing at the end of my run I woke up the next day feeling better than I did before the run. By the end of week 6, I was completely pain free... maybe these doctors do know what they are talking about after all!
I have been gradually increasing my mileage and changed the way that I lace my shoes to reduce the pressure on the top of my foot and today I am pain free and ready to start training for something again!
2012 Goals
I struggled for a while to decide on my goals for 2012, mainly because I had been fixated on running a Marathon for such a long time that I hadn't really looked past it.
Before I had even got to the start line of the Marathon, I knew it would be a long time before I trained for and ran another one. It just takes too much time out of my limited time with my family (long runs on Sunday could take 5 hours without adding time for a shower and then an afternoon nap).
With that in mind, I will be sticking to the shorter distances in 2012 and turning my focus to running faster. I feel that I can improve on all of my PR's with some training that is focused on improving my speed (and form). Add in losing 5 lbs and we have the following:
1. Run a 19:XX (or better) 5K. Given that my 5K PR is currently 20:42, this might be too much of an improvement to hope for in one year, but there isn't much point setting a goal that I can achieve easily! There are lots of 5K's in the area so I probably won't train with a particular one in mind (at least in the first half of the year) and will just pick one when I think I am ready.
2. Run a 1:09:XX (or better) 10 miler. I ran a Half Marathon @7:22/mile, so running 10 miles @6:59/mile is certainly achievable on the American Tobacco Trail course. 10 mile races are few and far between, so this attempt will have to be at the ATT 10-miler in October.
3. Run a 1:33:XX (or better) Half Marathon. This would be an improvement of 12 seconds per mile so is probably the most achievable of my running pace goals for 2012. My long term goal for the Half Marathon is to run at sub 7:00/mile, but I think a 22 second per mile improvement in one year is too much to ask for. I am toying with the idea of running a April Half Marathon and am already signed up to run in Richmond, VA in November (which is mostly flat with a downhill finish).
4. Get my weight down to 150lbs and keep it there!
Before I had even got to the start line of the Marathon, I knew it would be a long time before I trained for and ran another one. It just takes too much time out of my limited time with my family (long runs on Sunday could take 5 hours without adding time for a shower and then an afternoon nap).
With that in mind, I will be sticking to the shorter distances in 2012 and turning my focus to running faster. I feel that I can improve on all of my PR's with some training that is focused on improving my speed (and form). Add in losing 5 lbs and we have the following:
1. Run a 19:XX (or better) 5K. Given that my 5K PR is currently 20:42, this might be too much of an improvement to hope for in one year, but there isn't much point setting a goal that I can achieve easily! There are lots of 5K's in the area so I probably won't train with a particular one in mind (at least in the first half of the year) and will just pick one when I think I am ready.
2. Run a 1:09:XX (or better) 10 miler. I ran a Half Marathon @7:22/mile, so running 10 miles @6:59/mile is certainly achievable on the American Tobacco Trail course. 10 mile races are few and far between, so this attempt will have to be at the ATT 10-miler in October.
3. Run a 1:33:XX (or better) Half Marathon. This would be an improvement of 12 seconds per mile so is probably the most achievable of my running pace goals for 2012. My long term goal for the Half Marathon is to run at sub 7:00/mile, but I think a 22 second per mile improvement in one year is too much to ask for. I am toying with the idea of running a April Half Marathon and am already signed up to run in Richmond, VA in November (which is mostly flat with a downhill finish).
4. Get my weight down to 150lbs and keep it there!
1200 miles in 2011
With 6 miles at the NCRC Social Run on 12/31 I got to 1200 miles for 2011 and an average of 100 miles per month.
My Garmin Connect report for 2011 has the following stats:
My Garmin Connect report for 2011 has the following stats:
| Activities | 187 |
| Calendar Days | 365 |
| Total Distance | 1200.13 miles |
| Average Distance | 6.41 miles/activity |
| Time | 172hr 46min 39sec |
| Elevation Gain | 44528 ft |
| Calories | 135513 |
2011 Goals - Results
2012 is a couple of days old now so it is a good time to revisit my goals for 2011 and see how I did!
1. Run a Marathon. Check!
2. Run a sub 1 hour 40 minute Half Marathon. Check!
3. Not gain any weight in 2011: Starting weight 153lb (10st 13lb). I hovered around 153lb in the first half of 2011 and then around 149lb during Marathon Training. Taking 6 weeks to recover from the Marathon pushed my weight to around 155lb, so not quite a check mark for this goal.
I also had some sub-goals for the "Run a Marathon" goal:
1a. Listen to my body and rest whenever I need to, regardless of my training schedule. Check! I think I did pretty well on this one. I used my training schedule as more of a guide than a schedule once I started to hit problems and cut out sessions when I needed to.
1b. Run the easy miles slowly. I have a tendency to run the easy miles faster than 90 seconds slower than Marathon pace that I should be running them at. Check! This might be my biggest achievement in 2011. For whatever reason, once I switched to Marathon training I didn't really look at my pace anymore and was able to run slowly and it really helped on the endurance side and helped me mentally prepare for 4 hours of running. Of course, picking a marathon goal that was well within my capabilities from a pace perspective might have helped here too!
1c. Avoid running too many races. I ran too many hard miles in race conditions in 2010 which I believe contributed to my injuries. Check! I ran a very small number of races in 2011 (4 in total) and kept my injuries down.
1. Run a Marathon. Check!
2. Run a sub 1 hour 40 minute Half Marathon. Check!
3. Not gain any weight in 2011: Starting weight 153lb (10st 13lb). I hovered around 153lb in the first half of 2011 and then around 149lb during Marathon Training. Taking 6 weeks to recover from the Marathon pushed my weight to around 155lb, so not quite a check mark for this goal.
I also had some sub-goals for the "Run a Marathon" goal:
1a. Listen to my body and rest whenever I need to, regardless of my training schedule. Check! I think I did pretty well on this one. I used my training schedule as more of a guide than a schedule once I started to hit problems and cut out sessions when I needed to.
1b. Run the easy miles slowly. I have a tendency to run the easy miles faster than 90 seconds slower than Marathon pace that I should be running them at. Check! This might be my biggest achievement in 2011. For whatever reason, once I switched to Marathon training I didn't really look at my pace anymore and was able to run slowly and it really helped on the endurance side and helped me mentally prepare for 4 hours of running. Of course, picking a marathon goal that was well within my capabilities from a pace perspective might have helped here too!
1c. Avoid running too many races. I ran too many hard miles in race conditions in 2010 which I believe contributed to my injuries. Check! I ran a very small number of races in 2011 (4 in total) and kept my injuries down.
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