Marathon Tune-up

Calf healed just in time for me run the Marathon Tune-up as a last long run before Hudson-Mohawk.  I ran a mile before the race, and then joined M who was leading the 4 hour marathon pace group as an official pacer.  His assigned goal was 9:09 miles.  I ran with the group for 12, then took off and finished at an 8:59 pace.  I felt good, finished strong, and was happy with it. I've been way faster at this distance, but whatever.  The odd thing was that my Garmin and the race had almost nothing to do with each other.  The Garmin measured the course as .5 miles shorter than the markers, and my pace as therefore considerably slower. I'm not sure what to do with that information.  I am going to go out on a limb, and assume that NYRR has a fair amount of experience placing mile markers in Central Park . . .

Flash Back Friday -- Barefoot shoes

On Tuesday I got inspired to dig to the bottom of my closet for my now vintage 5-finger shoes from 2012.  I've been working on reestablishing my quick cadence short stride form, and I used to find that a few miles in the Vibrams was a good form drill.  

I thoroughly enjoyed the run.  I kept my cadence above 180, my vertical displacement came down as did my ground contact time.  I worked on a relaxed smooth flow through.  I had planned to do a few laps of Cadman Plaza for a mile or 2.   I felt so good, and it was such a nice morning that I decided to run the Brooklyn Bridge.  When I was done with a three mile jaunt I felt loose and comfortable.  Big success.

Until, and, of course, this was to be expected, the next morning, when my left calf tightened up like gangbusters.  Oh yeah, that's what happened the first day I ran barefoot on Christmas morning 2011.  Oy!  I took yesterday off, and did a short run today, and it seemed to loosen up, but there's still a "spot."  Someday I'll learn not to make the same mistake twice . .. 

Why Runners Inexorably Slow with age

Interesting article in NYT Science Times today.  Spoiler alert, shorter strides due to changing muscle use.  antidote may  be specific form of strength training.

Pickletrophy!!

Thursday was the annual Superfund Super Run, sponsored by my friends at the South Brooklyn Running Club.

The race falls into the "goofy things runners do" category.  It starts at 10:00 pm and runs a 10K from one polluted industrial canal (Newtown Creek) to another (Gowanus Canal), finishing at one of our favorite bars (Lavender Lake).   There's no real course.  The challenge is to get from point to point as fast as you can.  There's a division of opinion as to whether the fastest route is the shortest, or the flattest, or just the one where you're least likely to get lost . . . 

The race sold out, but the field was slightly depleted due to, um, rain.  Still, about 50 folks showed up to run.  My training has been long and slow, so a 10K made some sense.  What the heck.  My goal was to try to run 8s, or as close as I could muster.  Three of us (Arvi, Caroline and I) agreed on that goal.  We did not, however, agree on route.  Caroline and Arvi planned to make a key turn at Gold (slightly longer, more complicated, but flat), and I had planned to turn at Washington (hill, but won't get lost).  We set out.  Caroline took off way too fast.  I know this because I went out way too fast and she went out faster.  I assured Arvi that we'd come back together, and we did, but we still ran the first mile in 7:45.  Yikes.  Then I got inspired, and kept going, blowing past the two of them, running the second mile in 7:50.  The field split pretty badly, and I found myself running by myself along deserted Brooklyn streets.  I slowed to 8 and change, and then Arvi and Caroline came back (or so I thought).  We ran together under the BQE, and then we came to the route decision point and Caroline (or at least I thought it was Caroline) turned toward Washington and Arvi continued toward Gold.  Rather than follow Arvi, I followed the person I thought was Caroline, but she got a few steps on me and picked it up.  I hung in behind her, keeping her in sight, but about 50 yards behind.  Our pace slowed pretty badly, down to 8:30 plus, and then, disaster struck.  At Atlantic Avenue Caroline (who might or might not actually be Caroline) caught the light and I got stuck -- for about 45 seconds.  Argh!! Then I took off and finished the last mile at 8:30.  As I was coming down Third Avenue a clutch of runners came up from behind, and I kicked it out with them, finishing in a pretty tight group.  I averaged 8:20 (I stopped my Garmin at the light), which is a little bit slower than I'd hoped, but it was dark, rainy and dark.  

The coolest part was that due to some good luck and a statistical anomaly or two, I achieved what may be a first for the blog:  Age Group Honors!!  I came in third for my age group and won a jar of pickles.  The race didn't have classic age groups, as there were only 50 runners, so they divided the field in thirds.  I was in the 38 and over age group.  Actually, I was the oldest guy in the race at 53.  Luckily for me, the next oldest guy, Joe, celebrated his 52d birthday by winning the race, so he didn't count.


 Oh, and it turned out that Caroline wasn't Caroline at all.  She finished a minute or so back, and I never found out who I'd been chasing. Arvi got lost, and was a few minutes further back yet . . . 

Anyway, that was probably the most fun I've had at night in the rain . . . 

What My Watch Says I Can Do

Just before doing the NYC Tri I bought a new Garmin Tri-watch.  As I mentioned before, it has a bunch of nifty features that are new to me, like a cadence monitor and a vertical displacement monitor.  These two measures, turnover and bounce have turned out to be useful to watch while I run.  My natural cadence seems to be about 170 footfalls per minute (85 steps).  But, if I can take it up to 180, my bounce goes down, and everything gets a lot smoother.  It also usually means I speed up, but I've also tried going slowly at a quick cadence and this turns out to be a pretty good drill.  My better runs in the last few weeks have had me averaging 175 footfalls per minute. The difference is not in pace.  I'm averaging about the same speed, but I feel less beat up at the end of the run.  Perhaps because I'm "galumphing" a bit less.

More recently, I've discovered a couple of other toys buried in the new watch's programming.  An estimated VO2 Max and a race predictor.  My first instinct was to consider both of these features to be sort of BS.  How can you measure VO2 max without, well, equipment.  But here's the interesting thing.  A few years ago -- the last time I was running well -- I went on line and looked at a few race predictors and an algorithm that estimated VO2 max based on race times and body weight.

Anyway, I remember that at the time, the race predictors pretty accurately matched my 5K time to my  10K time to my 1/2 marathon time.  They also predicted a marathon of just under 3:30 (which is a white elephant of mine).  As I recall, these same measurements generated an estimated VO2 max of 45ish.  That's nothing to write home about.  World class athletes measure up in the high 80s and low 90s.

Well, when I found the measurements, the watch had decided I was at 45 for my VO2 max, and was predicting times just a hair slower than what I used to be able to do.  Hmm. that was encouraging.

A few long runs and a few days of speed work, and suddenly it is telling me that I've bumped up to 48, with predicted race times in line with my former PRs.

I will admit that I'm feeling better than I have in a couple of years, but these times still seem quite ambitious.  On the other hand, I'll take any encouragement my watch chooses to offer me.

I guess my next measurement point is a club 10K in two weeks.  I'll report back.

Back to Back -- Long

I'm getting a bit excited -- knock on wood . . .  Each of the last three weekends, I've managed to do a long workout both Saturday and Sunday.  It's making a difference.  First I ran 15 and rode 50.  Then I ran 14 and 17.  This weekend I ran 20 and then biked 40.  Suddenly it feels like I've turned a corner, from my long struggling comeback to actually feeling pretty fit.  Today I hit the track, and it was sort of fun.  I've never actually said that before.  I hate track work. It hurts . . .  But today I went with a moderate aspiration, to do 400, 3x800 and 400.  I wanted to get my 400s down to 90 seconds, which I haven't been able to do for a while, and then I wanted to run the 800s at Yasso pace of 3:40.  The good news was that I made my times on the 400s and actually went too fast on the 800s, hitting between 3:17 and 3:23, and getting my heart rate into a zone I haven't seen in a while . . .  Maybe I will actually be able to run a sub-4 hour marathon in 7 weeks . . .  

LSD

This Spring and Summer I've been doing many of my runs with the SBRC which has been great.  I enjoy the company and the challenge.  Most of the running gets done at a pace between 8:30 and 9:15 per mile.  This is a light jog for many, but for me, right now, it's closer to a tempo run.

I'm beginning to get nervous about the approach of the Hudson-Mohawk Marathon in mid-October.  I'm used to aiming at an early November Marathon, so I'm already feeling a bit behind schedule.  In particular, I'm feeling pressure to start logging those 15 mile + long runs.   That said, the club runs are leaving me feeling pretty beat up after 10-12 miles.

So, I decided to revert to my old approach of long, very slow, long runs -- chugging along at a 10 minute plus pace.  I had plans to run with M on Sunday, but no plans for Saturday.   The end result was that I set a one-weekend distance record, running 14 miles on Saturday and 17 miles on Sunday.  It was  a pleasure. On Saturday, my legs twinged a bit after 9 miles, but then were okay. Sunday was just a pleasant easy run 11 with M, and 6 on my own.

We'll see how the recovery goes . . .