Plan for 2011

Planned Training Plan

1. 12 weeks or so Aerobic Base Building through February. Trying to go longer. Maybe up to 14+ for long run. 40+ for week. Tuesday/Friday Steady State "workout" runs.

2. 6 weeks Hills. Tuesday/Friday hill workouts. 2 weeks each of High Knees, Bounding, then Springing.

3. 11 weeks 5k training based on the Younger Legs 5k plan.

4. 10 weeks 1-mile training leading into 5th Ave Mile in September.

Planned Races (Goal)

Apr Lost Brook 10-mile Trail Race, Tenafly Nature Center (Good Hard Effort - No Bonk!)
Apr Muddy Half Marathon (Avoid the DNF!)
Apr-Sep 5k Wednesday Cross Country Series (Mostly Tempo - Sometimes Racing)
Jun Tenafly 5k (6:00-pace)
Jun Bloomfield Sunset Classic 5-mile Road Race (Course PR: 31:20)
Aug Mahlon Mayhem 25k Trail Race (Start & Finish)
Sep Closter 5k (18:0?)
Sep 5th Avenue Mile (5:00 or better)
Oct Mountain Madness 25k (Start & Finish)

We'll see how it goes!

Fall 5Ks

Ran a couple 5ks this fall. 19:31 in Norwood on a flat course. 19:22 in Montclair on a tough course. Was following the 11 week 5k plan pretty closely with a goal of running a final one in early December. But I got sick and just seemed like I needed a break after the Montclair race in mid-November. So just starting up again and will spend the winter base building.

5th Avenue Mile 2010

Last year: 80, 91, 86, 85 for 5:42.

This year: 73, 81, 80, 79 for 5:14 (fractions rounded it up).

Was hoping to break 5:20 so very happy with this.

After the 5k 3 weeks ago did several 400m repeat workouts and one 800m repeat workout.

I guess they helped.

Doesn't look like I'll get to 5:00 before my 50th but the prospects are looking better for a post-50th 5:00 mile.

Closter 5k

Well that 10-week 5k plan took more like 20 weeks and I probably only got in about 6 weeks worth of the workouts. On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend I ran the Closter 5k in 19:08. That is my fastest 5k time since just getting under 19 minutes at the 1986 Ridgewood 5k. Yes -- 1986.

5k Plan - Week 2

The 6 x 3 minutes intervals were actually easier this week then the 8 x 2 minutes last week. Much more comfortable at the pace. Did the full form drill workout on Friday. None of the weird tiredness of last week.

Carlsbad 5k 10-week Program, Week 1

I started the 10-week 5k program from the (now defunct, unfortunately) Younger Legs blog this week. I'm looking to run the Teterboro 5k on July 17th. It's run on the airport runway so you can't get much flatter than that. Though it's the middle of July so even at 8:00 a.m. it's likely to be somewhat hot. I got started a week later than I had planned so I will likely have to cut out one of the weeks (already breaking the rules, oh well) as there doesn't seem to be a convenient 5k on the weekend of the 24th.

The plan has 2 workouts each week -- Tuesday and Friday -- with the rest of the days being your usual recovery/distance/long run stuff.

The first week's workouts were of the "dipping your toe in the water" variety. Tuesday was intervals: 8 x 2 minutes @ 5k pace with 3 minutes jog recovery. The interval workouts work up towards a total of 15 minutes @5k pace. But there's a catch: the first 2 minutes of each interval don't count towards that total, as it takes 2 minutes to get up to VO2 max effort. So this first week counted for zero minutes. The marsh trail where I would normally do this type of workout is still closed for repairs following the big wind storm in the spring so I did this on the treadmill. I used 6:15 pace as my 5k pace based on my 5:39 mile earlier this spring. The first interval felt really, really fast at this pace on the treadmill. The intervals got easier up to about number 6, then 7 was about the same as 6, and 8 was tougher, and then it was over.

The Friday workout was 6 x 30 seconds up a hill at around mile race pace with 2.5 minutes jog/walk recovery. Again the first one was the toughest and by the 5th and 6th they started getting tougher.

The main thing I noticed from both of this was that I was quite exhausted the following day. Wednesday I did a usual 50-minute or so recovery run. Similar on Thursday. Saturday I was planning my long run. I never got to it because of ferrying the kids around but that was probably a good thing as I was pretty exhausted. Felt much better Sunday morning. Looking forward to week 2.

Cross Country 5k Series

[Updated with more XC and 5k results.]

Have done a couple XC 5Ks with my son the past few weeks and he's looking to do one every other week or so throughout the summer. So far (and his complete 5k career)....

Closter Labor Day 5k (9) -- 25:56
Tenalfy 5k (8) -- 26:24
Week 9 XC Series 2010 (8) -- 26:56
Week 6 XC Series 2010 (8) -- 27:18
Week 3 XC Series 2010 (8) -- 28:08
Week 1 XC Series 2010 (8) -- 28:58

Sept 2008 (7) -- DNF, side stitch
July 2008 (6) -- DNF, blisters
June 2008 (6) -- 30:42

Muddy (Half) Marathon

This thing was advertised as a trail race. There was no trail and it wasn't a race -- it was a survival test. The course was a 6.55 mile loop. The half version started along with the quarter marathon relay teams (everyone on the relay started at the same time and times were added). There were quite a lot of people.

The course turned out to be something like this...

Mile 1 -- From the start slightly downhill through the park and then steep downhill through grass and into the woods. Though not exactly -- it was really into the stream bed. Ankle deep water. Knee deep water. Ankle deep mud. Mid-calf deep mud. For a good distance. Then back onto a "trail" (all of the "trail" sections turn out to be very steep -- either steep up or steep down) and back towards the start where you climb up the back of a decades-old 40-foot high compost heap.

Mile 2 -- Back into the woods. Various terrain. Lots of rocks. Some stream beds. Second half is almost all up to the first aid station (in a sane event this is called a water stop).

Mile 3 -- Along a high trail then down through the woods and some boulder fields. The highlight of this mile is the rock climb. 80-feet (or so -- hard to judge, really) up a rock wall. When you get to the top you see that there is another section to go. Nice. Up until this point the trail was a big single file parade for the most part. The wall climb spreads everybody out. Most aren't in that much of a hurry any more.

Miles 4 & 5 -- Lot's of downhill scrambling through boulder strewn woods and uphill slogging (walking, really) up steep trails. Oh -- and some muddy stream beds, of course. This ends back at the aid station.

Mile 6 -- Starts off with a long downhill section on an actual trail. But then heads into a stream bed -- for a long time. Half a mile? Seems like it. And then it gets really interesting. A grassy. muddy bog with nearly knee-deep shoe-sucking mud. Seems like another half-mile of this. Must have been only a couple hundred yards though.

Last 0.55 Mile of 6.55 Mile Loop -- The end of the mud field and then back up the steep grassy hill we came down at the start. Walking, of course. Then jogging wen it flattens out back to the start/finish area.

First loop for me -- 1:48. Which beat the two hour time limit per loop. If you took more than 2 hours for any loop you got an official DNF. So now the question was: call it a day because am pretty exhausted and that first loop was actually fun or do the second one for no other reason than I was foolish enough to sign up for the half instead of the quarter. I see a guy who looks like every step is shooting giant needles of pain through his whole body. You doing another, I ask him, rhetorically. Sure, he says, let's go. So off we go.

The cramps start in on the rock wall climb. Inner thighs are the first to go. At one point I'm afraid I'm going to fall over backwards off the wall. I manage to haul myself up using mostly arms. Navigating the long downhill rock scramble every step on a non-smooth rock brings on a foot/arch cramp -- though the next step usual ends it or at least moves it to a different spot. I make it to the 5-mile aid station with 24 minutes to go to make the 2-hour cutoff for the second loop. Bad news, though -- the aid station is out of aid. Specifically, they are out of water. I've been downing pretty much my whole 3-liter pack between every stop. This is a problem. By the time I get to the final stream bed every step is an adventure. Every slip on a submerged rock causes tensing and cramping. In the mud field I can barely stand. Every step requires pulling your foot out of the mud with tremendous force and, of course, causes a cramp. I'm afraid that if a fall down (which I almost do, numerous times) I'll never be able to get back up. Somehow I get through the mud. I start walking up the last long hill. I cramp. I walk backwards for a while to use different muscles. Those cramp. I walk sideways to the left fro a bit. Cramp. Sideways to the right. Forward, again. Backward. Left. Right. I'm pretty dizzy but I make it to the top. A start to "jog". It's a couple hundred yards of swinging stiff legs out and around enough that some forward motion is produced. I finally cross the finish line and stop with hands on knees and both legs totally cramp. There are a whole bunch of people there. No one says a word. No one asks if I need anything. No one offers me some water. That last mile and a half took me 24 minutes - per mile. 2:12 for the second loop. I'm an official DNF.

20:04 5k

Best 5k time in years but still somewhat disappointing. For some reason I thought I would be closer to 19 minutes. Didn't really feel that good. Probably didn't warm up enough... or spent too much time standing around after warming up. And it didn't help that the course was pretty tough... quite a bit of up and down for a suburban road 5k.

Looking Back 18 Months

About 18 months ago I went out for a tempo run on the marsh trail near work. After the 1.25 mile warm-up jog a did 2.5 miles at just above 8-minute per mile pace for a 20-minute tempo run. I probably averaged around 8:02 per mile or something and it was most definitely too fast for a tempo run -- I was gassed at the end and had to walk and then sit down for a bit before jogging back to the gym.

Today I went out for a run on the marsh trail. After a brief half-mile jog to the trail -- we have a new gym in the neighborhood and it's a bit closer to the trail head -- a did 2 full 1.5-mile loops of the trail and the half mile back to the gym for 3.5 miles total all around 7:14 per mile pace. And it was an MP (marathon pace) run -- not a tempo -- with HR averaging just about 157, and a fairly easy one at that.

I think that qualifies as progress.

Time to Strengthen the Feet

I currently wear big 'ol cushioned supportive trainers. New Balance 769s. I bought some light-weight New Balance 905 trainers to use for indoor racing. To break them in a wore them for about 15 minutes at the start of a treadmill recovery run and then switched back to my usual trainers. Oh, my... my usual trainers are really heavy and feel like crap! Now not only do I wear big 'ol cushioned shoes but I also wear them with prescription orthotics and I leave the shoe's original insole in place. Can't have too much "protection', right! I got to this point because it was the only way I could run without the pain from bunions forcing me to stop. And it's worked. But the downside is that my feet have grown progressively weaker. So... time for some foot strengthening. Here's my to do list...

1. Incorporate foot strengthening exercises into weekly routine.
2. Incorporate diagonals into weekly routine. Maybe some barefoot or in socks on turf.
3. Continue experimenting with lighter weight trainers.
4. Maybe take the original insoles out of my trainers.

Take it all slowly... my feet are in no shape to go trail running in Vibrams... at least not yet.

5:39

Got myself to the Feb 11 meeting of the NYRR's Thursday Night at the Races at the Armory in NYC. Was planning on trying an 800m but got there earlier in the program than I expected and so opted for the mile rather than hanging around for 2 hours or so. It was still 45 minutes plus of standing around and trying to stay loose without wasting energy. Back when I had planned on one of these indoor meets to be the end of a 6-month "season" I had hoped to put up a 5:30 mile or the equivalent around this time. But I was sick between Thanksgiving and Christmas and so spent January getting back on my feet and so I'm really just at the beginning of a base building phase. And I had been in all-day meetings for 3 straight days. And had just come down with a bad case of some sort of stomach virus or something. And I swear the sun got in my eyes even though it was indoors at night. And how that rock got onto the Mondo track surface I'll never know. The splits were something like 43,43,43,42,42,42,42,41+1 for each 200m lap with that 1 through in for the last 9 meters or whatever. I wasted a bit of energy trying to get into position early to run 41s but the guys in front of my would just speed up if I tried to pass so that was a waste for all of us. So all consider 5:39 wasn't too bad. Last year at this time I ran 5:42... for 1500m. So that's a pretty good year-over-year improvement. Should be able to go quite a bit faster outdoors in June at the business end of this training cycle.

Two Solid Weeks

Got in two solid weeks of training since the 10k trail run. Last week I did 6 out of 7 days, leaving out Tuesday's MP run. This week I've done...

• Sun 7 miles on the trails
• Mon 4.75 Recovery on TM in 46 Min with 2% incline and 6.5 mph top speed
• Tue 4 with 2.5 MP, didn't feel that great
• Wed 5.75 easy on snowy technical trails that took over an hour
• Thu 4.25 MP on TM in 35 Min top speed 8.4 (7:08)
• Fri 4.75 Recovery on TM in 44 Min with 2% incline and 6.8 mph top speed

So that's 30.5 this week with tomorrow to go. Already my biggest week ever. The plan is to get outside and do 3 or 4 easy with some 10-second leg speed accelerations but it's suppose to snow tonight so that may not be possible.

I'm going to start enforcing a 70% week every third week so this coming week will be one of those. Plan for the coming week...

• Sun 5.75 Easy on trails
• Mon 3 MP
• Tue 4 Recovery on TM
• Wed Rest
• Thu NYRR Thursday Night at the Races at the Armory, 800m + 4
• Fri 4 Recovery on TM
• Sat 3 Easy with leg speed accelerations

Goal for the 800m is 38,38,38,?. I final 36 for 2:30 would be nice. We shall see.

I'm also down to 155 lbs. Trying to get to 150 come Memorial day. Haven't been below 154 or so in many, many years.

NJ Winter Trail Series 10K

Ran the 10k at the 1st NJ Winter Trail Series event this weekend in Lewis Morris Park in Morristown. It was two loops of a 5k (really, 3-mile) course. A ran the first loop fairly hard and then waited for a friend and ran 2 miles with him and then ran the last (downhill) mile as hard as possible. Held off a 26-year old over the last 100 yards to the finish. Felt good to run hard again.

Watchung Winter (Not Quite) Ultra

A little over one year ago I came across the 1st Annual Watchung Winter Ultra (WWU) trail run while searching for trail races in New Jersey. Never having done a trail race I wanted to give it a try. The WWU came in two flavors: marathon and 50k. Both option way too long for me but they were both based on a main 10-mile loop course through the Watchung Reservation near where I grew up and that sounded like it would be within my range. When the day came, however, it had snowed a good amount the night before, was really cold and windy, and not having pre-registered or arranged to go with anybody else I opted to stay in bed.

This year I convinced a couple others to come along with me and do one loop of the course and so despite the snow and cold I got myself up around 5:00 a.m. and headed out to meet up with my group. The run had grown tremendously from the 1st year and there were something like 170 or so people registered. From the results page it looks like around 125 made it to the starting line... it was a pretty big group for 8:00 a.m. and 19 degrees on a Saturday morning in January in New Jersey.

The course started with a long downhill section over icy "steps" and other icy terrain. The first mile or so was pretty slow going. After that, though, the footing was much better, though still snowy trail going up and down quite frequently. The 10-mile loop turned out to be around 10.7. One of my friends had it at around 1,300 feet of up and down on his 705. I held things together pretty good for 8 miles running just behind one of my friends. After that, though I was good and bonked. Had to stop to stretch and recover several times in the last 2 miles and finished in 1:57 or so. I was guessing it would be between 1:50 and 2 hours. So I was pretty happy with the time given that I was sick between Thanksgiving and Xmas and didn't run at all and had just a couple of weeks of very easy running under my belt since then.

Overall it was a great experience. My fingers were quite cold for the first mile or so but then warmed up fine. At the end I took off my knit cap to find that it was encrusted with what seemed like a pound of ice -- but I hadn't even noticed that while running. I had so much fun, in fact, that yesterday I went out for 8 miles through the trails near my house. I've lived in the same place for 10 years and had never run those trails before. I guess I've got the trail bug now.

And I should mention that 10.7 miles is the furthest I've ever run. Ever. Maybe next year I'll be ready to do the whole Ultra thing. We'll see.