2009 Annapolis Ten Miler

Back again at this classic race today (my 4th time, I think?) with 5,499 of my closest friends. Usually it's insufferably hot and humid but we were fortunate to have temperatures and humidities both in the low 70s today.

Watch time: 1:58:32/Garmin time: 1:58:40
Official chip time: 1:58:24 (11:50 min/mile pace)
Previous best on this challenging course: 2:01:24 (2005)

So exactly a 3-minute course PR. I'll take it! The entire 3 minutes can be accounted for by not walking up ANY hills this time (for the first time on this course), and indeed, there are several tough ones. I did walk for a short while several times at water stops, just to gulp down some water, but limited it to just as long as necessary to drink-and-go.

Still a long way off my ten mile PR (different course, cold weather, 2007): 1:48:52

On the final hill on the Severn River bridge, there was an overweight teenage boy really struggling and I started badgering him to get up the hill: "C'mon! We're going to run up this hill! Count to twenty and we'll be there! Lift up your chin and you can breathe easier! Use your arms! Look, just run to that flag and we're done!"

Mostly it helped take my mind off myself, of course, but it kept me going!

He did great. I passed him later but found him after the finish line and shook his hand and congratulated him.

I felt strong the whole race, very positive mentally, and got a great technical long-sleeved running shirt at the finish line that I'll wear often. Also nice to see some old friends at the start and on course!

A good day for running, and a solid training run in the bank!

10k for Bari

Today I ran my local Oxford Day 10k for my Israeli triathlete friend Bari, who was unable to run hers due to the death of her mother-in-law. So Bari, credit yourself with another 10k in your race log.

Unfortunately the humidity really knocked Bari for a loop today and she was only able to slog around the course in a sweaty dripping 1:05:15 (10:31 min/mile pace). Those desert-dwellers just can't take it, can they? They're so evaporation-dependent. Here on the Eastern Shore we laugh at evaporation.

More miles

Planned a long run today, but I ran out of time so I just went to the track for 3 quick 1-mile repeats:

• 10:28
• 10:36
• 10:53

That's actually a bit faster than I expected, since I've been feeling slow and sluggish lately. Lots going on with the new house acquisition and other stuff in our lives, but the increasingly warm weather always helps my motivation and interest in getting outside and working out.

Last 5k of the year?

I ran 12.5 laps of the track today, which I usually count as 5k. I'm always slower there than on the roads with my Garmin or in races, but it is what it is. First lap was a warmup and then I picked up the pace from there. Finish time for the approximate 5k was 35:43.

Quiet Waters Anniversary 15k Race Report

I ran my HILLY HILLY 15k race today on NARROW WINDY PATHS in an Annapolis, Maryland park in 1:40:22, or a 10:47 min/mile pace.

I'm very pleased with that result! It's 11 1/2 minutes off my EXTREMELY soft 15k PR from the Gasparilla Distance Classic in 2005. I don't think I've run any other 15km races - my attempt at this race last year ended up in an ignominious DNF due to a severe cramp.

I ran faster at the distance ONCE - for my half marathon PR on a perfect-weather day on a perfect-weather course with no walking at all. This pace is faster than my best 10 miler pace (10:59), though.

AND this was a very hilly course that required quite a number of walk breaks from me - at least 3 for water and 4-5 to get up steep hills and catch my breath!

I really struggled through those last couple of miles - glad I had my training buddy Pace-Guy Dave to keep me moving!! (We missed Janice out there, who was silly enough to choose to run the Honolulu Marathon instead.) But doing well on a hilly course today means that my fitness levels aren't quite as bad as I thought. All this bronchitis this year had me thinking I was going to be much slower!

It's my last race for the year and the last race in the Annapolis Striders Championship 8-race series for the year. It's possible that I moved up a notch or so from my 8th place in the AG standings, but I'm happy with just finishing the series!

Back on track

Every time I have a bout of bronchitis I seem to get slower. I'm still coughing now and then but I'm about 95% recovered this round. So I went over to the track to get a little slightly faster jogging done today.

But I just didn't have it today. (It was unseasonably warm, too: 63*F and windy). Mile repeats were:

• 12:33
• 10:44
• 10:40
• 12:59

The "fast" two in the center were about the times of my slow two in September. Oh well. It's all good. I just have to stay healthy and keep laying down the miles and they'll come around.

Whew, I have a 15k race on Sunday - I haven't run that long in ages. Last year I cramped up so badly on this course that I had to stop - I'll take the first couple of miles pretty slowly this time out there. Slow finish times are better than DNFs.

Back running

Finally got back out on the roads today after 12 days off running completely. Fortunately, I think my no-running strategy was successful this time for getting rid of bronchitis and not having it stick around indefinitely and turn into pneumonia.

It felt good. Time to start catching up on my mileage again.

The only problem today was the cold! And not to my fingers and toes and ears. I have a dental problem right now that makes me acutely sensitive to cold - such that breathing in the cold air gives me a nice sharp ice pick to the side of the face. No fun. Hopefully my "angry nerve" (as the dentist puts it) will calm down in another few days.

Saint Michaels Sports Boosters 5k

I won!!!

Well, I was first in the eldest age group (50+) of female participants at our local tiny town 5k race (perhaps 50 runners and walkers) that started two blocks from my house out in front of the elementary school where my girls go to school. But I ran pretty hard (NO Garmin, just my watch but it didn't help with no mile markers out on the road - glad I had it because there was no finish line clock at all) and finished in 29:05, my 2nd fastest 5k. I think I was the slowest runner that didn't take walk breaks, though.

Of course I had to double-check the course distance when I got home from the satellite map and it seemed to be accurate. I hope that means I've fully bounced back from my protracted lung disorders of this year and I'm ready to start running a little faster again!

I was awarded a $50 gift certificate at one of the nicest clothing stores in town, too! Hooray, I'll go out and spend it this week on something fun!

Congratulations to Noah Wood who completed his quest to run a race in every Maryland county within 6 months - and who also won the race easily. Well done!

Back to the mile

Since a burst of speed (for me) this spring, I've been getting progressively slower in my running this spring. There's a variety of reasons, mostly to do with low running mileage and gaining a few pounds and a couple of nasty bouts of bronchitis.

But now the weather is cooling off so that it's much more comfortable to run in, and I'm back to doing mile repeats in the hopes of perking up my speed again. I headed to the track today, but the students were using it (very unusual!) so I headed out on the roads with my Garmin. I did them just like I planned on the track with quarter-mile recovery walks in between and this is what I ran today:

• 10:51
• 10:22
• 10:49

That gives us some baseline numbers heading into the fall. It's a (re)start. Onward to get back to those 9:22s, 9:02s and below!

Fun at the track

Today I went over to the track to do some speedwork, but just didn't have the requisite "oomph" to do the mile repeats which I had planned. I ran two miles and then fizzled out and turned sluglike. Could I rescue this workout from its profound oomphlessness?

Inspired by some ideas which I had read long ago from Coach Neil Cook, I decided to mix it up a bit for several walking laps.

I walked normally around the curves (so as not to tweak my touchy knees), and on the straightaways I did all sorts of 100-yard sets of stuff like:

• Giant steps
• Sideways steps (50 yards left. 50 yards right)
• Grapevine (50 yards left, 50 yards right)
• Skipping
• Knee-high marching
• Butt kicks
• Wide steps
• Backwards walking
• etc.

It ended up being quite a good workout! I woke up several long-forgotten muscles, mostly those lateral ones that don't get a lot of attention in straight-line running and cycling. It certainly elicited some strange stares from the nearby tennis players and construction workers, but I didn't care.

My butt is already incredibly sore, and I hold Neil Cook responsible.

Intervals are hard

I was going to take a nice bike ride today - only to find out my poor new tire had a blowout inside the shed. Hopefully just a pinch flat, but I didn't have time to change it and still get in much of a ride.

Decided to do some work on foot instead. Warmed up one mile. Ran half mile hard, walk one tenth, repeat for four work intervals. Finish it off with a couple shorter jogging intervals to warm down.

I hope that helps since I have nothing in the way of long runs to count toward my Steelhead half Ironman preparation. Going to have to just wing it on "muscle memory" and a few short runs.

No long run

It was too sweltering by the time I rolled my carcass out of bed to do a long run. The dew point has remained well over 71*F, making everything sticky and uncomfortable even when temperatures are moderate. When temps rise, it gets downright dangerous. So I settled for mile repeats at the track again. That was hot and slow enough!

It can always get worse. Last night a 60-year-old man collapsed and died at a local 8k race.

Be careful out there!

Race Report: John Wall Mile

Today I ran the John Wall Mile in Severna Park, Maryland. This race commemorates John Wall, an Olympian who apparently represented the United States at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games (the games at which Jesse Owens dominated the athletics events).

This was my first actual track competition of any distance, and I was dreading the pain of running hard for a mile!

They ran the race in heats of about 20-30 runners, starting from slowest (estimated finish over 10 minutes) to fastest. I seeded myself in the 8-to-9 minute heat.

I think I did not warm up enough close to the start of the race - I walked and jogged about 1.5 miles, but cooled down while watching the heat in front of me. Once I started running it took me over half a mile for my heart rate to get up to speed. It shows my maximum is still around 185 bpm, though. I maintained a good effort level while running - I don't think I could have forced myself to run any harder today.

Finish time: 8:44. PR! I've never run an official one mile race before, so any time would have been a PR. However, it was still 11 seconds faster than my fastest-ever Garmin-timed mile at the start of a 5K.

This gives me a good benchmark to work from. Let's see if I can beat it next year! Alas, I would have to be 1:14 faster in the mile in order to meet the qualifying standard for the 2009 Summer National Senior Games (about 7:30 for the mile for age 50-54 women, that is, 7:00 for 1500m).

Quarters

I have a one mile track race on Sunday. I'm dreading the Big Hurt. I wouldn't do it except it's part of the local Championship Series and I need the points to maintain my lofty 4th place in the age group standings!

Today to get my legs warmed up to the challenge I did quarter mile intervals on the track. The fastest one I managed to do was 2:12, but I truly doubt that I could do four of those in a row. Garmin says my best quarter was 2:09 for a an 8:40 min/mile pace, but I'll believe the actual track before I'll believe Garmin. Then again, you never know what's going to happen on race day with some extra adrenalin in my system!

My maximum heart rate didn't get above 174 today. I don't think I'm able to get it well up into the 180s any more - I think my maximum has dropped. But we'll see.

Mile repeats again

Back to the track. A 9:28 mile (#2) was the best that I could do today. It will take me a while yet to get back to the place I was in February before I was sick when I did three 9:02 miles in a row (on a hilly course, too)! I'm also 3-4 pounds heavier now - time to reverse that situation!


I've got a one mile race in our Championship Series in 2 1/2 weeks and I'd like to bring that speed up a bit by then, certainly.

Fathers Day 10K

Today I had a 10K on the schedule to complete in order to maintain my standings in the Annapolis Striders Championship Series. My legs weren't outright sore, fortunately, but they didn't have much zip today, which is not a big surprise. About 1:05:20 on a warm very humid morning was as fast as they wanted to go today. Average heart rate was 172, which tells me I could have picked it up maybe one notch or two, but the necessary "oomph" just wasn't there.

It was hot enough running that I saw one old guy cut the course right in front of me, which I found rather shocking! I don't know if he got a finish time, and I didn't get his number, so it's just as well.

Good to see the familiar friends at this race again, of course: Dave, Janice (3rd place AG), Mike, Jeanne, all the usual crowd was there! Fun times!

Stir crazy

I needed to run today or I was going to have to duct-tape my girls to the wall, after being indoors with them all day yesterday. Went to the Y and checked them into kiddie jail there and did 3.5 miles on the treadmill in the relatively cool fitness center. Things are better now, even though it was already 105*F heat index at noon. Whew, close call. Might be able to survive the rest of the day.

Looking forward to swimming under this bridge in Philadelphia in 12 days - should be fun! I'll be testing my lack of running with a 10K race this weekend, first. That should tell the tale of how much my running fitness I have left.

Track work

OK, today I went over to the track to try to regain some of my long-lost speed as part of my 2-week Solo Training Camp.

One of the best things I like about doing intervals with my Garmin is making nice little plots of the row of even peaks in intensity (heart rate and pace) from the intervals.

This was not one of those days.

You can't tell from the plot, but this workout consisted of:
4 laps (1 mile) warmup jog
4 laps of (100m fast, 100m slow, 100m fast, 100 m slow)
4 laps (1 mile) warmdown jog

Those paces were all over the place, weren't they?

Launching my comeback

My comeback started yesterday with an "all clear" check of my lungs at the doctor*, and then a 5K run around the neighborhood today.

14 weeks ago:
5K race (hilly) in 28:01

Today:
5K workout (flat) in 37:35
5.6 pounds heavier
No coughing while running finally for the first time in weeks and weeks (though I did have some spells last night). That's the good news.

So 14 weeks of recovery and climbing back out of the Sucking Cesspool of Bad Lungs will take me to the end of August before I'm completely right again. Hopefully.

So the Nation's Triathlon will be my Comeback Race this year. The other several triathlons and road races that I have coming up before then will be simply races to complete the distance without keeling over.

*I also got a tetanus-diptheria-pertussis vaccination, which adults can get now, so we can cross off the additional threat of whooping cough to the precarious health of my lungs. Plus a prescription for Zyrtec (which is over-the-counter now, but cheaper to me by prescription) so maybe that will improve my body's reaction to Pollen Overload Season. Which set off this whole nasty chain of events.

Standard exercise test #2

Today I went over to the track and repeated my 1x3 mile workout (with 1/4-mile walks between) to see if there was any difference.

Today:Three days ago (Thursday):


Today didn't feel like I was 100% either, but at least an 11:00 minute mile was my slowest for the day instead of faster than my fastest, at close to the same effort level.

Slightly better, that's all I can expect in only three days!!!