Training
After the marathon going slower than expected in March, I decided to spend the next few months focusing on running some shorter races faster. Specifically, I want to run a good time at the Hyde Park Blast in late June. But for weekly mileage, I'm running about the same amount as ever. I might even be running more miles than I have when I "trained" for marathons the past couple of years. The long runs are 12-13 miles each week. I will have a good base when I start back to marathon training. Oh, and the marathon I'll be training for is Indy Monumental in early November.Did I already write about this stuff? I forget. Anyway, I picked Indy because I could still get a hotel reservation there. Columbus was all booked up. I found out that is because it is a football weekend, and also there is some gigantic horse show in town that weekend.
Cross Training (yeah, really)
I'm playing around with some iPhone apps that guide you through strength training, core work, total body conditioning, crossfit----whatever you want to call it. I tried using a TRX device but until I can get Tommy to install a wall or ceiling mount it just isn't going to work. I don't have a door that closes in the correct direction while still allowing sufficient space for full arm and leg extension for that to work. But let me say that the Nike Training Club beginner workout really kicked my butt when I tried it last week.Kilgour 5k
Friday night, May 18, I ran the Kilgour 5k, which I do just about every year since it's in my neighborhood. As usual, it required rushing home from an agility trial, which I did not mind so much because I was not having the most successful afternoon. Also as usual, I warmed up for the race by jogging up to the start to pick up my shirt, jogging home and then back to the start again.Saw our old friend Tom Possert at the race. He's in town for the next couple of months. The neighborhood 5k is not where I'd expect to see him---would expect him more at the trail race that I did on Sunday---but there he was. He said he had not been running at all, but I noticed he still could not stop speculating on what kind of time it would take to win the thing.
The course had changed yet again. This year we ran one block up Herschel Ave. and turned onto Suncrest and did a loop back that took us out to Observatory. Then we went up Observatory, down Ault Park Ave. and up Custer (as usual) but skipped the little loop of Observatory Place. In the park, we turned right at the top of the hill instead of going left and around the back of the pavilion. And on Principio, apparently we were supposed to run on the sidewalk by the playground, but I thought that was weird so I stayed out in the street. It's unclear to me if this affected my distance or my time. I never run up that sidewalk because it is flatter to stay out in the street. OTOH, the street is slghtly longer in distance. So, it's probably a wash.
It was hot Friday night but not too humid. I was expecting something in the 25s, which I've never done before in this race. But after that 25:30-ish time at St. Joseph's home, I was sure I had it in me. So I was pretty disappointed that my finish time was 26:27. I don't think that the new start made the race any more difficult, or at least not that much. My times for the first two miles w's alere okay. It was the third mile where I ran into trouble. That one started in the middle of the uphill going into the park, which is brutal, but we finished with the nice, long downhill, which should have made up for it.
I almost threw up at the bottom of that hill. I found myself making the dry heaving noises. Some mother watching on the sideline said something to her husband like, "well, that was disconcerting." She reminded me of the skinny jogger ladies in their brand new running attire that I find myself resenting at these races...until I totally kick their butts. Yeah, lady, I care about how I do in these races and I want to run as fast as I can, even if it makes me puke.
Fortunately, all I had for lunch on Friday was a cup of Greek yogurt, so there was no risk of spillage.
Mile 1 was an 8:06, mile 2 was an 8:28, and mile 3 was a 9:08, with about a 45 second last .1---that last part is a little peppy, at least.
Possibly that little stretch where I was the only one running in the street with everybody else up on the hill by the playground is to blame. Maybe I slowed down some for that couple of tenths of a mile because I was worried about being off course. I'm also wondering if the course wasn't a little bit long. The way they keep changing it, it's hard to believe that it's totally accurate.
Anyway, I was the only one in my age group so I got that, and I was the 12th woman overall of 221 (was hoping to be in the top ten but oh well), and 63 of 437 runners, which is not too bad for an old lady. There were also 73 walkers.
As Tom P. pointed out, this race doesn't exactly attract the faster runners, which works out well for me. It's mostly kids from the school and their parents. Still, I have noticed a positive trend in the past few years of the kids being better trained. And there's also been less cheating---which was a problem with the old course, for sure.
And once again, I didn't hang around for the awards :-( I might have if I had hit my time goal. Or if there had been some food. I don't know what happened with the food. They used to grill hot dogs and had chocolate chip cookies at the finish. I didn't smell any hot dogs and I didn't see anything out except for cups of water. Not even any sports drink. So I talked to Tom for another couple of minutes, and then headed home.
At first I was kinda bummed about not hitting my goal, but eventually I realized that it was actually 52 seconds faster than last year, and my second fastest time ever at this race. So really that is not so bad. Sure, I was 7 1/2 pounds lighter this year than last, but I'm also another year older.
Mt. Airy Trail Race
On Sunday morning, I headed to Mt. Airy Forest for the next race in the Dirt Days series. I had debated between entering the 10.8 (double loop) or just the 5.4. I thought maybe the 10.8 would give me a better chance at a higher finishing spot, which I need if I want to improve my place in the series standings. But it was hot and a bit humid on Sunday, and I was still a bit tired from the agility trial, so I was happy that I had signed up for the 5.4 miler.I did a one mile warmup by jogging around the oval where they have the packet pickup and refreshments. Pre-race, I chatted with Cyndi K. I said my goal was to go under an hour, since I was a little over an hour the first year and 1:04 last year with the mud. She said she didn't remember what her times were. After chatting with her a few times now, I am beginning to believe her when she says she doesn't know.
Me, I know. I have little Excel spreadsheets with statistics on these things---things like the temperature that day, what I weighed at the time and what I wore. I do. My finish time is the least of it.
So, I had this little goal of breaking an hour, but honestly that was probably less ambitious than it needed to me, considering how much lighter I am than last year. But after recent disappointments, I didn't want to set the bar too high. And it was hot.
I do want to note that I was wearing my cute black running skirt and matching top from SkirtSports, so maybe I did resemble some of those jogger ladies that I can't stand.
What were other people wearing? Well, a lot of the women were in skirts. Probably a higher percentage than I've seen at road races. Not sure why. Also, there were a surprising number of people wearing compression socks. For a 5.4 mile trail run? I think that is silly. I'm wondering if this is just because it is a relatively small group, and a lot of them train with the crowd from the running shoe store, and they are all easily influenced, and if one person adopts something all of a sudden they're all doing it. I don't see any reason why any normal person would need to wear compression socks for such a short race. I mean, yeah, if you're Paula Radcliffe or Shalene Flannigan in the marathon, maybe it makes the difference between a world record or a win versus second place. But for the average Joe Jogger in a short race, I can't imagine it matters. It's just silly.
Also, lots of ear buds and electronic devices. Or maybe I just notice them more in trail races because I think it is so sad that people need them for those events. I can understand why somebody might need their tunes with them, or a good book, if they were out on a long run by themselves or running indoors on the treadmill. Even I need something on the treadmill. And I can sort of understand why somebody who is really dependent on their music for motivation might need it during a long race like a marathon. I don't need it, but I think that is because I started off running without it and never became dependent on it.
But I really don't understand what kind of person needs this for a short trail run. You're out in nature, and the birds are singing and the trees are rustling, and plus you're in a race where you are supposed to be concentrating on racing. What kind of idiot needs an iPod plugged in their ears for that? Plus it's dangerous if you're running on technical singletrack and people need to pass.
I could go on and on about how much this bothers me. But I'll try to let it go. I did resolve to try to pass as many of these idiots as I could.
Okay, so about the race. I set myself up in the middle of the pack. We started with a little out and back on the grass to get us spread out before we hit the trail. I thought Cyndi was already ahead of me and I decided I did not care. I was just going to run my best race and not worry about that. After the last race (where she ran shorter and I ran longer) there's no way I can move ahead of her in the standings unless she skips a race and I do really well in all of the rest of them. Not worth worrying about. Just concentrate on me.
I felt pretty good in the first mile and it seemed like I wasn't getting passed by as many people as usual in these things. I fell in line behind a group of women. We were all strung out in a line. I felt like I could go a little faster but I decided to stay in the back of the line and relax. No reason to pass them until I had to. And the worst thing is to pass people and then get passed again later. If we were all still together at the end, I figured I could outkick them on the grass.
Things were going great until suddenly there was a loud beeping noise that startled me and almost made me fall---not great when you're running on the side of a hill. Was it a phone ringing? I thought it was coming from one of the women in front of me, who were all hooked up with their iPods and iPhones and whatever. So incredibly irritating. Now I really wanted to beat these chicks.
About a third of way into the race, we came out of the woods into a clearing where there was a water stop set up. I grabbed a cup and headed back into the woods as the little pack of women who annoyed me broke up, I let one get in front of me---in addition to the earbuds, she had the compression sleeves on her legs.
A guy behind me said something about how great it was to be halfway. We were only 20 minutes into the race, so I had to let him know that halfway was probably another ten minutes off.
In the second half of the race, a woman was running just behind me. I tried to encourage her to go around me, but she said she liked having a pacer. Yeah, she said that. So I said that I liked it too. I asked her what her goal time was. She said she didn't have a goal but she just wanted to beat her friends---she was part of the group of women I had been running behind earlier.
Things were going okay until suddenly there was the loud beep again! This time I seriously almost wiped out but recovered before going down.
Okay, this is as far as I got with the report back in May, before I got distracted. Now it is July and I am going to try to finish it up:
Well, I ran the rest of the race with this fool and her beeping device. It turns out it was her watch or something, and it was beeping to tell her she had finished another mile. She insisted that it was accurate even in the woods on the trails. I don't think so but whatever. I can appreciate the desire to use such a device. After all, I have my little Nike Sportband thingy, too. But I thought the loud beeping was rude. Especially since it almost made me fall. And I told her so. I also thought about complaining to Bob Roncker after the race, but in the end, I let it go. Whatever.
I don't now remember much about the rest of the race. On the last uphill, I left the beeper woman behind, and I think I kicked past a couple other people at the end. My time was 56:29 (like 8 minutes faster than last year), well under my goal of an hour. I was 10 of 50 women, 53 of 116 runners (3rd woman age-graded, and 19th runner age-graded).
I beat Cyndi K. She must have been behind me the whole way because I didn't remember passing her. She told me after that she had fallen during the race, which did slow her down some. There were quite a few falls during this race, because the trails were very dry with not much traction. And of course, there were those beepy things. I was lucky not to fall myself. Cyndi K. agreed with me, BTW, about the people with the devices being irritating. She is a real trail runner, after all.
