Race For The Cure 5K

My third official week of training under RC wrapped up nicely. The weekend held a wonderful race and a long run that packed a punch

The Race for the Cure marks an anniversary of my running. My first 5K was the Race for the Cure in 2003. I can’t believe that it’s been 6 years since I started running. I only wish that I had known all that I know now back when I started. Knowing it now is all that matters and I’ve enjoyed it all the same.

My training week last week consisted of a few easy runs, one night of serious speed work (4 intervals of 1200 meters each! Wow...), one tempo run (That, dare I say, wasn’t very hard?), an extra quality workout being my race, and a long run of 11 miles.

As for Race Day, everything went as well as I could expect. I asked RC what to shoot for as far as pace or goal finishing time. According to my handy dandy little training chart, my “projected” 5K time would be 25:20. RC said that I could pace myself to hit that finish time OR I could go for a PR.

I’m thinking to myself… my PR for 2009 just so happens to be 25:22 at the Cantrell Center 5K. In 2008 my fastest 5K time was in the 27’s (ouch). In 2007 I hit my lifetime PR at the Race for the Cure. So, let’s see, this means I hit a peak back in 2007 that I havn’t gotten very close to in TWO WHOLE YEARS! No time to dwell on being lazy for two years, let’s do something about it… let’s get back to where I was in 2007 at move forward from there!

My plan on race morning was to run an 8:10 pace for mile 1, 8:00 pace for miles 2, and 7:50 pace for mile 3. This should at least get me to beat my Cantrell Center 5K time. I actually ended up running:
Mile 1 – 8:07
Mile 2 – 7:41
Mile 3 – 7:46
.15 – 1.05
My finishing time being 24:40

I am very very happy with my time for this race. Not a PR, but pretty darn close after only 3 weeks of serious focused training. I’m also a little happy that I didn’t PR since I didn’t pay for chip timing, my results wouldn’t have been posted anyway! But I have my garmin data as my own proof, and that works for me!

The day after the race (which I never thought I’d do) I ran my long run of 11 miles. I threw in 3 miles at marathon pace, seeing as how my next goal race is the Mus. of Aviation Half Marathon. It’s time to start getting ready for how it’s going to feel running at that speed for 13 miles! My long run yesterday went well. I ran my first 6 miles at an easy pace averaging 10:30. Then I kicked it in a higher gear for 3 miles averaging a 9:12 pace. The last two miles I really wanted to get in at a faster average pace than the first 6, which I did, with a 9:33 avg. pace. My total time for 11.4 miles was 1:50:19. I couldn’t be happier!

This upcoming week is going to be another tough… high mileage (high mileage to ME) week. I’m going to run the Jay’s Hope 5K on Saturday. I know nothing about the race course at all, so I’m still not sure what I think I’m going to do. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

Recovery Week... I tried

Monday, Monday… No, wait. It’s Tuesday. Sure feels like a Monday though, being back to work after a 4 day weekend. Regardless of how if “feels”, today is the 2nd day of my 2nd week of my more structured and goal oriented training under Sam.

Let’s recap last week:

Chuck & I were told from the get-go to “take it easy” this week due to the fact that we “ran an 1.5 hour tempo run” (Sam's words) on Saturday. But, being all excited about the new training program it was SO hard to hold back. So hard that I didn’t really listen well on Tuesday night’s track workout… although I wised up and took it easier on my tempo run Thursday.

Here’s how Week 1 Turned out-

Mon. 10/5 – Easy run on the treadmill, 4.4 miles in 45 minutes
Avg Pace 10:22 - Avg. HR 158

Tues. 10/6 - Speed work @ FPD
(100M Run & Recover, 200M Run & Recover, 800 Meter Run & Recover) x 3

Wed. 10/7 – Rest Day (Taught Body Blitz Class)

Thurs. 10/8 – Easy Run outside, 4.4 miles in 45 minutes

Fri. 10/9 - Tempo Run (1 mile warmup/1mile cooldown)
20 Min. at a little less than tempo pace – avg. 9:01

Sat. 10/10 - Long Run 9 miles @ 10:30 pace Avg. HR 164

Sun. 10/11 - REST DAY… Did NOTHING..ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

After forwarding all of my data to RC… for the most part it was a great training week. I just didn’t cool down enough after my tempo run, my heart rate was still too high. I’ve also been given the OK to start hitting my VDOT chart paces for speedwork. Woo Hoo. I am ready to start challenging myself in that area.

I’m planning on running 2 races in October, both being 5K’s. They are, the Race for the Cure & Jay’s Hope. I’m interested to see how those two races turn out.

I’ve got a good mental plan for the rest of October. RC has been so nice and answered all of my questions about what to do and how to do it. I feel positive and like I’m on the right track.

Oh, one other cool thing…
First off, I think I’ve already mentioned how cool I think it is that I get the opportunity to train with my Mom. Maybe due to the fact that I get to run with her a lot, I don’t think much about how cool it is. (Mom… it’s cool!)

This weekend I got the opportunity to run with my Dad. He was in town briefly this weekend. He had been a runner for a long long time… 30+ years. He had intended to run the Jax Half with us, but his knee started bothering him and he reduced his mileage too much to do that distance. Well, during my long run on Sat… Chuck & I ran past his hotel and he picked up 2 miles with us. It was great to run and chat alongside my Dad. I had not seen him in over a year. We got to catch up a way you only can while sweating out the miles!

It was also cute later on when we took off our shoes and socks and compared foot issues. We have almost the exact same problems spots on our feet. Each have a bunion on the right foot, and the 2nd toe toenails get beat up and turn black, fall off, and the tip of those toes are callused. Interesting…

I plan on another update by next week. Let’s see how training goes for Week TWO???

3 Down, 1 To Go

Quarters of the year that is.

I started the year 2009 with some pretty firm “resolutions”.

*I wanted to be more consistent with my running than I had ever been previously, and completely fill out my training log.

*I set a mileage goal for myself, which seemed steep at the time.

*I even set a few time goals for race distances I knew I’d be running this year.

Now that 3 quarters of the year have passed, I have 1 left to go to fulfill my ambitions. I decided to reflect on what’s happened so far and make sure I’m on track for the last 3 months of the year.

*As far as consistency, I give myself an A! Taking a quick look at my 2009 log book shows runs about 4 to 6 days per week. From the beginning to now, I’ve averaged 15 – 25 miles per week.

*My mileage goal was 900 miles for the year. As of today (10/7/09) I am at 820 miles. I give myself a A+ on this one.

*My time goals / PR’s for races. Well…… See, this is where I’m lacking. My fastest 5K for the year was a good 2 minutes slower that my PR 5K. I hit a 10K at 30 seconds slower than my 10K PR. And on and on and on… my race times aren’t spectacular by any means for 2009.

Although, if I were to grade myself on the fun and experience of all the races I’ve run in 2009 I would definitely go for the A range. That part of my running IS important and I have enjoyed all of it to the fullest.

That’s where I started pondering some things….

Do I want to get faster and see better race times? Yes….

Am I getting any faster on my own? Nope, it doesn’t look that way.

I’ve managed to go FURTHER, by simply adding mileage to long runs slowly week by week. That’s easy. But, how do I get any faster?

That is the weak link in my chain. The way I was plodding along was something like this: I’ll decide to run faster tomorrow during a run. Then the next week I don’t “feel” like doing anything but logging the miles. Then the next week I would forget I even wanted to get any faster. I was getting very good at logging the miles. Sure, that is hard for some people, but for me I would just write down how many miles I planned to run each day of the week and do it. Although looking back, they were mostly what I think are called “junk miles”?????

Here I am today, in the first week of October. What Now?

Chuck and I both have been talking about wanting to get better, faster, and stronger with our running and race times. Last week we did something I am so happy we decided to do. I am also grateful that the opportunity was there for us. We met with RC for the first time and were pleasantly surprised and highly impressed by his knowledge of the sport, his passion about the sport, and his willingness to help others with a mutual desire to improve as a runner.

We’ve officially been schooled:
Learning very specific information and given some pretty clear rules to follow. He gave us guidelines on creating weekly training and plans all the way down to what paces to run specific distances and HR levels. Not to mention some AMAZING spreadsheets to pour over. I love spreadsheets!

Although I have this huge resource now, I think I have even MORE questions. Luckily Sam is very helpful and so nice about giving advice. I’m sure before I know it I’ll be confident in my training and have a clear plan and direction from the big picture down to my planned mile split times.

I CANT WAIT!!!!

More to come……

I Did It!

On Saturday October 3, 2009 at 7:00AM the gun went of and I started to run my first Half Marathon.

The Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon!!!

The race weekend began on Friday morning. Chuck, my Mom, and me piled into the car and headed to Jacksonville, FL. The 4 hour trip flew by since we were all hyped up, talking and having fun. We arrived in Jax right at lunch time and went by the 1st Place Sports running store to pick up our packets, race shirts & goodies.

Then we embarked on the adventure of finding lunch. We wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes, but I had no idea how to get there. Finally getting directions, actually GETTING our car into the parking lot of the restaurant was a different story… but we did make our way there. Sweet Tomatoes is a delicious salad bar, soup, bread, potato, pasta, and dessert buffet style place. It is sooooo yummy. Perfect for pre race carbs, but not too heavy either.

After filling up on a late lunch/early dinner we headed to the hotel to check in. We stayed at the Wyndham Riverwalk Hotel, which was the host hotel for the race so the rates were reasonable. The hotel is nice and clean too.

It was early to bed for us Friday night. We were in bed by 7:30 and asleep by 8PM. The alarm was set for 4:30 and I wanted to be sure to get plenty of rest.

4:30AM came dark and early. We got up, showered to wake up and warm up our muscles, drank some coffee and had a protein bar. We drove over the river to the start line by the Jax Jauguars stadium. We were at the starting area soon after 6AM. Picked up our champion chip timers and wandered around waiting for 7:00 to roll around. Sure enough… it did!

After very recently having an introductory lesson from my new running coach Sam… I had a very simple race plan for finishing today’s run in right at 2 hours. I wanted to start off at a 9:30 min/mile for approx. 4 miles. Then go to a 9:15 min/mile for approx 4 miles. Then run the last 5 miles at a 9 min/mile. That SHOULD have put me in right at 2 hours like I wanted. Simple, Right?

Well…. Let’s see. Starting off, I felt WONDERFUL and FANTASTIC. Downtown Jacksonville is neat and pretty and the race atmosphere was fun. So, I had to MAKE myself SLOW DOWN for the first mile. Then we ran over the Main Street Bridge, which I had to slow myself down going up, and of course running back down. Not too much further down the course we ran over the Acosta Bridge, which is quite a higher bridge (81 feet over the water). That one wasn’t easy, but not hard either. After coming down the second bridge I just set myself on “cruise control” and focused on maintaining my planned paces for each mile.

Things were looking good… really just mile after mile passing by. Until about mile 11 my pace slowed and there wasn’t much I could do to make myself speed up to my goal of the 9 min/mile. It was getting Hot. I was getting Tired. Nothing impossible, I just could feel the amount of time I had been running wearing on me. Then we had to run over a “cat walk” to cross over the river under a big bridge. It was at an incline, then we had to run down four flights of a spiral ramp which zapped some energy. At mile 12 I knew my hopes of getting the race finished in less than 2 hours was O-V-E-R…. unless I was going to push out a 6 minute mile. Uh, nope… the sun was glaring in my face, I was soaked with sweat… and just plain Tired. So I concentrated on the last mile telling myself “In 9 minutes you’ll be able to say you ran a half marathon”….. “In 8 minutes you’ll be able to say you ran a half marathon” and so on.

The finish line was hidden. Most of the last mile was down a straight street that you could see all the way down to the end of. But at the last minute the course turned and you are guided onto a grassy park area where the finish line awaited.

The finish line was neat, they had tanks set up as an archway to run under and Marines were putting the medals on our necks. We got a very nice glass with the USMC emblem on it. Let’s not talk about how I though for about 10 minutes I was gonna puke up Gatorade and a GU pack. But, the nausea passed and I ate a granola bar. Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy the free post race beer. No Way could I stomach that! I think Chuck had my share.

Our official times were: 10K Chip Gun
(Age Grp-32 out of 97) Kathy Wilkins, 31, Byron, GA 58:20 2:05:30 2:05:56
(Age Grp-16 out of 63) Cheryl Coody, 52, Byron, GA 59:08 2:08:16 2:08:43
(Age Grp-63 out o f 88) Chuck Whitaker, 43, Byron, GA 1:00:13 2:13:14 2:13:40

We didn’t stick around the post race celebration long. I was soaked with sweat and I wanted to pop a few blisters on my toes that were killing me. Back at the hotel I had the BEST hot shower and then relaxed on the bed for about 15 minutes.

Later that day we went to the Jacksonville Running Company to visit Josh Myers. After getting some new running gear, we went to Wild Wings for lunch/dinner. We ate tons of food and wings and drank some great cold beer!

Saturday night we walked from the hotel to the Jacksonville Landing across the river. It was a nice night out, they had a band playing and everyone was outside enjoying the weather and beautiful scenery.

We still managed to get to bed early again, since we were worn out from the race. Sunday morning we were up early to run a 4 mile recovery run, before checking out of the room then heading back to Byron.