Gone Crazy: Week 2

My second week of super-condensed marathon training is in the books. It was another seven days of surprises but the biggest one has to be how quickly I've gotten back into the swing of training full bore. Cranking out 35 miles seemed like a long shot but 35.3 miles later I'm still going strong.

I started out the week with a slow 7 mile slog on dead legs. I happened to be working near my old home and decided to take a run on the Yough River Trail for old times sake. Apparently my body just hates flat and hot this year. I'm sure that bodes very well for Darlington (insert sarcasm here).

On Tuesday, my running partner/best friend's boyfriend and I decided to attempt two loops of our cemetery route. According to my Garmin, one loop is about 500 feet of gain and 500 feet of loss in 4.5 miles. We decided to cut the loops down to 5k even by walking to and from the cemetery. We were both miserable by the end but we finished our hilly 10k without any lasting harm.

 Elevation profile for one full loop of the cemetery

After two very slow, tough runs in a row I took the hint and rested Wednesday. It must have worked because the rest of my week only got better from there. Thursday I headed to North Park and ran the 5 mile loop around the lake. My only goal was to run it as hard as I could and see what happened. I ended up completing the loop in 43:40 for an 8:44 average pace. I was spent but thrilled!

Yeah, that happened.

Friday was pretty much a recovery run with the Electrodash 5k actually being 2.36 miles and too crowded to really run. I'm sure the forced slowdown was exactly what my legs needed so that my running partner and I could run long Saturday. We managed to cap off the second week of marathon training with a 12 mile run that was almost exactly the same pace as my 10 miler last week. 

YES!

Sunday I did a short 3 mile shakeout run to hit my goal of 35 miles for the week. I'd love to hit 40 miles for week 3 but I'm not sure it's feasible. I have to keep reminding myself that it's more important to arrive at the starting line healthy than over trained. So my A goal will be 40 and my B goal is to beat this weeks 35 miles. I guess my all-else-fails goal is to get in a 14 mile long run and a few other runs during the week.

And now I can start to panic because we are less than 5 weeks out from Darlington! 

Memorial Day 5k

Shane wanted to use the long weekend as an opportunity to race together. We haven't done one as a family since the Hustle for Heartreach 5k last month. And I haven't actually raced one since December of last year! So to say I expected a pain-fest was an understatement.

We woke up at o-dark thirty and got ready. I was sorely tempted to stay in bed after running 30 miles in the last 4 days, 22 of which were on trail and included over 3 MILES of elevation change. I really wasn't in the mood to push myself at all. I also worried about my shoes. My Torins have around 300 miles on them now and I haven't gotten around to shopping for some new Altras.

On the ride I napped and consumed large amounts of coffee. We found the Blairsville Community Center pretty easily and I registered while Shane checked in. I was freezing since we set a new record low for May 27 with 37*F. It was about 43* at race time. I looked around and saw very few women who looked fast. I'm not one to really judge by looks since I often get beaten by the ones I least expected but I lined up where I thought I belonged... behind a cross country girl and next to three women in their 30's who looked pretty lean and mean.

The RD yelled 3, 2, 1, GO! and everyone took off like it was a sprint. I couldn't believe the pace the cross country girl and the 30-somethings were setting. I thought maybe my measure was off since I haven't raced a 5k in 5 months but a quick glance at my Garmin showed a 6:32 pace. WOAH! It was a downhill though so I went with it knowing the down meant an up was coming. My Garmin data shows 500 ft of ascent and almost 600 ft of descent so definitely a rolling course.

I continued to try to cling to the girl and women ahead of me but we began to stretch into a line. The first woman was disappearing into the distance and the cross country girl and three 30-somethings were strung out over about 50 yards ahead of me. I figured 6th place wasn't that bad but I felt like there was still a good chance to improve if I could hold off a fade. I just didn't feel confident that I could sustain my former 5k race pace since I haven't done speedwork in months. There were no mile markers so I was depending on my watch beeping to keep me aware of the distance.

Mile 1: 8:00 (according to Garmin)

At this point I was wondering what the heck is wrong with me. Why did I think I could hold this pace?! I'm training for ultras for crying out loud! Speed is a thing of the past for me right?! Then a miracle happened and the woman directly in front of me slowed to a walk. I chugged ahead of her and fought the urge to slow down myself, afraid that it would motivate her to overtake me again.

Anthony, Shane, and I

As we approached mile 2 I saw cross country girl take a walk break. I still wasn't caught up to her but it helped to know she was suffering too, apparently worse than myself. I poured on some speed and passed her quickly hoping to psych her out so she wouldn't come after me.

Mile 2: 8:19

After the second mile marker I focused on the third place woman but she never seemed to get any closer. I passed a cross country boy and then caught our friend, Anthony. We leap frogged for awhile and I begged my legs for more. My ears were buzzing and my sight was a little blurry and I knew I was pushing the limits of my abilities at this time. I glanced at my Garmin and saw 2.4 miles so I just hoped I could hold out until the finish line. The last little uphill completely zapped me and Anthony took the lead again. I tried to catch him but I had nothing left.

Mile 3: 8:09

I turned the last bend and could see the cones and the clock. I was so close to my PR of 24:27 but I just couldn't bolt to the line. I crossed and stopped my watch. Garmin time: 24:30. Official time: 24:29. It was bib tear timing so it really stings because I bet I could have shaved those three seconds for a new PR with chip timing.

Shirt

 

I guess I looked like death because the volunteer in the finish chute was pretty concerned. I reassured her, in gasping halting breaths, that I was okay, or would be in a minute anyway. I talked the the second and third place women while we waited for awards and I guzzled water like nobody's business. By the time the first page of results was printed I was fine.

 

The official results show Shane finished in 22:16, 8th overall, and 3rd in his age group. I finished in 24:29, 18th overall, 4th woman, and 1st in my age group (20-29). Our awards turned out to be paper certificates. Not really sure what to think about that. Do I frame it? Hang it on the wall? Stick it in a drawer? I like medals better. At least I know what to do with them.

 

awards

 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my performance today. If I can pull off a time like that on fairly dead legs on a rolling course then I should be able to PR by a large margin with a little attention to speed work and tapering.Maybe next year I can catch the 30-somethings!

Calibration Celebration

Have you ever thought, "10 minute miles on the treadmill feels so much harder than outside." Or, "Why am I huffing and puffing at recovery pace on this hamster wheel?" Or maybe even, "Wow! This feels so much easier than the same pace on the road!" If so you've probably wondered if your treadmill's calibration could be off. So here's how to find out.

Disclaimer: I didn't figure this out myself or even locate the procedure myself. However, I did decide that it would be nice to have it laid out step by step with some pictures.

Step 1: Gather the necessary supplies: Tape measure (preferably a soft one), bright colored duct tape, a notepad, a pen or pencil, a stopwatch, and a calculator. Or you can do what I did and use your iPhone/smartphone as a stopwatch, calculator, and camera.

easy peasy

Step 2: Measure your treadmill belt using the tape measure. I found that it worked best if I folded my treadmill up and then wrapped the tape measure around. Record your measurement in inches. (Mine was 112.75")

Step 3: Place a piece of brightly colored tape on the treadmill belt.

Orange worked well

Step 4: Set your treadmill to your normal running speed while you stand on the side rails or off to the side. (My treadmill takes a minute to get up to full speed so I waited to start timing until it was humming along nicely.)

10 minutes/mile according to the treadmill

Step 5: Wait for the tape to come around again and then start your timer. Start counting on the next appearance of the tape at the starting point (one rotation) and continue counting until you reach 50 rotations of the belt. Record the time it took.

Time to reach 50 rotations

Step 6: Do some math. The speed of your belt in MPH = (50 x length of your belt in inches x 0.0568) / the time you recorded.

(50 x 112.75 x 0.0568) = 320.21 

320.21 / 51.3 = 6.24 MPH

So the 6 MPH button on my treadmill actually causes the belt to spin at almost 6 1/4 MPH! I conducted the experiment again at Shane's average running speed (8.0 MPH) and found that actually runs at 8.1 MPH! 

So now I can either adjust my time/distance for what I know the actual pace is or I can remind myself that a 10 minute mile pace outside feels easier because it's ACTUALLY a 10 minute mile pace instead of 9:35 per mile. I'll probably stick with recording the treadmill's distance and time readout since I'm lazy but it's nice to know I'm not just being a baby about the hamster wheel!