alternate title: "you're welcome, rec.running insomniacs"
And sorry, I myself am way too sleepy to edit this, or I might try to
tighten it up. Long-ass film from 9-11:30
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058625/) after a long-ass day.
- - -
I went back and forth on how to treat this race: whether to do a substantial
mini-taper to try and get the best possible time, or train through it. Then
when my training was curtailed by a pretty bad and persistent cold two weeks
ago, that resolved for me that I didn't want to sacrifice training milage
this week, so I'd run easy a couple days beforehand and hope for the best.
It's a good race, and it's surely the fastest course of the 6 or 7 half
marathons NYRR puts on, with only one hill worth mentioning, few turns, and
cool weather. OTOH it comes at a time of year when about the only people in
top form are those who diligently trained all winter for a spring marathon.
Me? I didn't. I averaged something like 35 MPW in Nov/Dec/Jan, nearly all
of it slow and relaxed. Although blowing away my (very soft, certainly) 4
mile PR, twice, leads me to believe these easy miles must've been enough to
keep me in touch with most of my 2005 aerobic base. That, and surely the
strides a couple times a week have helped.
Last two weeks, aside from spending half of it with the virus, I've done a
couple sessions of 200m/400m reps and one of unstructured short interval
type running. I hope these sorts of workouts will help tremendously in
weeks and months ahead but for now I figure they're likely to have done more
to wipe me out than to speed me up, especially in something as long as 21
km. And I'm not feeling endurance trained at all, slowly jogging piddly
little 13 milers on Sunday of late. Essentially no tempo type work, that'll
come later. And I've been getting an hour less sleep than I'd prefer at
least a week running, maybe two.
So not sure exactly where I stand coming in, I bring more goals with me than
usual, four in all:
[a] avoiding total humiliation: course PR (1:39:12 - see point above about
coming off a relatively idle winter)
[b] challenging but plausible: distance PR (1:31:57)
[c] more challenge: McMillan's calculator's equivalent to recent 4M PR
(1:30:53)
[d] unlikely: 1:30
More on the course. First ~3 miles are on the Coney Island (yes, that one)
boardwalk. Terrific forgiving running surface.
Then six miles straight up Ocean Parkway (http://tinyurl.com/htbxv), a broad
boulevard with a smaller side street on each side, grassy medians with
pedestrian paths and benches between each parallel roadway. The Parkway was
designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the same dynamic duo
behind Central and Prospect Parks. Big fairly handsome apartment buildings
line most of it, and most residents along its length are jewish, running a
gamut from liberal to orthodox and Hasidic. Just a few blocks over running
parallel is Coney Island Avenue, with a sizable muslim presence, and one of
NY's top ten great ethnic food streets, especially great Pakistani, Turkish,
Israeli, and Afghan restaurants.
Then a loop of Prospect Park, my regular stomping ground. There's a hill, a
little over a hundred feet gain in about half a mile - no it ain't
Peekamoose or Griffith Park, but it'll get your attention in a race.
So it's 33F and windy. I wait an unreasonable span for a subway and arrive
with too little time for a leisurely warmup, or for waiting in the enormous
porta-potty lines - we're talking 4000 runners, typical for a NYRR gig. I
jog half a mile with a few strides and make alternate bathroom arrangements.
I also bang my left knee pretty good dropping off my bag on the baggage bus,
when a young woman behind me refuses to acknowledge that she and I must both
occupy distinct physical space, and insists on entering while I'm trying to
exit. Don't think it became a factor in the race but a few hours afterward
it was more sore than any other part of my legs.
Finally, the race.
So I figure, even if 1:30 is unlikely I'm gonna aim for it, tell myself it's
possible, and if I can't hold 6:52 pace for 13 miles then, by golly, I'll
just have to hope I merely slow down rather than, say, explode.
Eat a gel and wash it down at 7:50, 10 minutes before the start, and line up
closer to the front than my usual. Maybe 20 rows back? By the 6'/mile
banner. I'm wearing my Saucony Fastwitch, whose upper has been slowly
separating from the sole. They've still got a few races/runs left in 'em
though. Filthy dirty from running dirt trails in Prospect Park.
Gun fires, I get to line 20 seconds later. Glad I wasn't further back. I
still have to pass a handful and don't get passed by more than a few, but
it's not so bad. Feels great, my estimated 6:52 pace feels quite relaxed.
Hit first mile marker and find I've just run 6:30. Holy [censored]! Slow down!
But also feel kinda gratified that 6:30 felt that easy. Guess I've gotten
accustomed to letting the sizable crowd in front of me keep my first mile
slower, as I work my way up.
Next five miles I'm easily able to keep a more reasonable pace in the
6:50's. I hope to maybe shelter from the wind a bit by sticking in a pack,
but packs aren't really forming and sticking together, and the wind seems to
be shifting too much to avoid effectively anyhow. Eat another gel somewhere
around mile 5 or 6. Don't know if two gels really helps with a 13 mile race
but I figure they can't hurt, as long as I can digest 'em without incident.
At about the halfway point my shoe comes untied. Damn! I had double
knotted it but I think the shoelaces have become smoother with use and lost
some knot-keeping friction, and maybe some of the dirt also acts as a
lubricant. I reckon pulling over and tying and getting back took me nearly
twenty seconds. Probably get a few of those seconds back, from the slight
rest, but not all of them.
I'm starting to tire a bit as we near the park. There's a little uphill and
it's not as easy as I'd like. Mile ten is slightly tougher still, and the
next one includes that big lump in the ground which is no longer looking so
much like a molehill. I'm willing to tackle more discomfort than I'm
feeling, I just can't move my heavy legs very fast. And the last two or
three miles it feels like my hamstrings are going to start cramping any
time, but they never quite do. They just feel kinda, I dunno, twinge-y.
Again, I don't really slow down to try and head off the cramping, I'm just
pretty much unable to get the damn things to move any faster. I guess I'm
just running out of gas, courtesy my lack of endurance training coupled with
the fast first mile.
Manage to at least not lose too much pace the last 2.1 miles. Catch some
people in the final .1. In general though I am probably about even on
passing vs. being passed for the second half. I've run this race a lot more
like the majority at my pace, rather than negative/even splitting and
passing people the whole way. I prefer the latter but am willing to accept
the former today as a not-unexpected consequence of trying to pace a little
more aggressively. I don't think I'll do this - start faster than I think
I'll be able to maintain - every time, but will come back to it now and
again, and sooner or later surprise myself with a breakthrough race.
In the meantime I'm happy with my 1:30:35 (67% WAVA, 2nd behind recent 4M
PR, though ahead of that one on McMillan's calculator). Accomplished all my
goals except the sub-1:30, and came fairly close to that one... and expect
to surpass that mark easily come fall, after some months of good volume,
more quality, more relevent training for the distance, the loss of a few
more kg, and reliable shoelaces.
Put in probably 4 miles walking between getting home and shopping and
haircut later in the day, and 3.75 mile recovery jog just because I felt
pretty good seven hours and hundreds of calories later and was curious how
that'd feel (A: fine, as long as I kept it slow) and probably wanted an
excuse for more "recovery food" (ovaltine and bagel after race, spinach &
apple & carrot & wheatgrass juice and half a fancy dark chocolate bar with a
cool picture of a bat after the recovery run).
I look forward to the 10k in two weeks. I'll aim for decent volume (~60
miles) this coming week (although a few days of easy miles before I even
think about quality workouts), then cut back a little the week before the
race. Between continuing to get fitter and the shorter distance for which
I'm hopefully better trained, maybe I can get pretty close to 40:00.
Which - having only raced that distance once, in my first year - would be
over a 7:00 PR!
splits
======
6:32
6:53
13:43 (x2, missed mile 3 marker)
6:42
6:58
7:15 (tied shoelace)
6:50
6:57
7:01
7:19 (uphill)
6:42 (downhill)
7:00
:43 (.1)