I don't really know how fit I am.
It's been months of lonely base work with a couple more to go. I've been putting in the miles and occasional workout and can feel myself getting stronger, but I don't really know exactly how much stronger. I haven't raced since the 4th of July.
On Saturday, I'm hopping in a local 5k, and on Thanksgiving I've got a very competitive 8k lined up. The 5k is more of a reintroduction to racing after nearly half a year without it, which will make the 8k a better metric a couple weeks later.
The thing is - I have no idea how fast I'm prepared to run.
Oh, I have a general sense. I've split 16:0x through 5k for 8k, so I assume I can run faster than that. I've been running 72/73s for 1k repeats fairly easily when I do it with other people, but 72/73 for a 5k is right around 15flat for a 5k. Am I that fit? The last (& only) time I ran that fast was when I ran a downhill rip off of a 5k.
What about 8k? How close can I get to 25:10? 25:00? 24:50? I honestly don't know.
And it's pretty exciting.
For someone who is constantly measuring themselves with test efforts year round, having a dry spell of this length is like having a fresh start.
And what could be better than that?
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The Value of Rest
I woke up on Saturday morning and my legs were throbbing.
I had put in an average of 11 miles a day for the last 10 days and I had to take a day off. I went out and shuffle jogged around for 20min before coming back inside and spending most of the day doing recovery stuff.
I woke up on Sunday extremely hungover from Halloween parties the night before but physically feeling alright. I trotted out the door in the crisp fall air and just enjoyed the monotony. The thing is, I could tell I was moving faster than usual but I didn't care, it felt easy. Really really easy.
The miles peeled away without any over 6:50, and eventually I found myself done with the full 15 at 6:38 pace. I've run this sort of time before, but it's always because I'm running with faster people and am being pulled along relentlessly.
No so today, it just felt easy. So easy.
Skip to Monday night, an I'm headed out the door for my typical 10 mile base run. Again, I'm simply bouncing along, running at what I know is a solid base effort and I find the pace is pretty fast.
I'm at 2 miles in 11:51. Doesnt hurt, but then again it's only 2 miles. Understandable.
I'm at 5 miles in 29:50. Doesn't hurt at all. Okay now it's weird.
At 6 I'm still fine, and at 7 I start laughing, realizing that I'm going to run under 6min pace with no real hard effort at all.
59:38. Like walking.
Fuck I love running.
I had put in an average of 11 miles a day for the last 10 days and I had to take a day off. I went out and shuffle jogged around for 20min before coming back inside and spending most of the day doing recovery stuff.
I woke up on Sunday extremely hungover from Halloween parties the night before but physically feeling alright. I trotted out the door in the crisp fall air and just enjoyed the monotony. The thing is, I could tell I was moving faster than usual but I didn't care, it felt easy. Really really easy.
The miles peeled away without any over 6:50, and eventually I found myself done with the full 15 at 6:38 pace. I've run this sort of time before, but it's always because I'm running with faster people and am being pulled along relentlessly.
No so today, it just felt easy. So easy.
Skip to Monday night, an I'm headed out the door for my typical 10 mile base run. Again, I'm simply bouncing along, running at what I know is a solid base effort and I find the pace is pretty fast.
I'm at 2 miles in 11:51. Doesnt hurt, but then again it's only 2 miles. Understandable.
I'm at 5 miles in 29:50. Doesn't hurt at all. Okay now it's weird.
At 6 I'm still fine, and at 7 I start laughing, realizing that I'm going to run under 6min pace with no real hard effort at all.
59:38. Like walking.
Fuck I love running.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Night Wink
On Sunday, I was pushing up one of the only two big hills, 12 miles into my weekly 14 mile long run. I was feeling pretty good and light, but a hill always reminds you how long you have been running.
I started my run as the sun was setting, and by now darkness was virtually hugging the buildings.
I glance upwards in a grimace. It's a bad habit, like I am looking at the sky with annoyance for God giving me the ability to feel pain. The moment I look up, a bright green star streaks across the sky, stretching from Georgetown to Hyattsville
Now I'm not really a superstitious person, but damn that has to mean SOMEthing, right?
Well, even if it doesn't, I'll pretend it will. Placebos are almost as important as real medicine, anyway.
I started my run as the sun was setting, and by now darkness was virtually hugging the buildings.
I glance upwards in a grimace. It's a bad habit, like I am looking at the sky with annoyance for God giving me the ability to feel pain. The moment I look up, a bright green star streaks across the sky, stretching from Georgetown to Hyattsville
Now I'm not really a superstitious person, but damn that has to mean SOMEthing, right?
Well, even if it doesn't, I'll pretend it will. Placebos are almost as important as real medicine, anyway.
Objectivism
I am, for all intents and purposes, a Poli Sci major. My degree will have all sorts of bells and whistles and qualifiers to my area of study, but in the Spring of 2013 I will have spent the last 4 years of my life immersed in Politics, whether it be domestically or abroad.
Politics is, at its core, a real-time game that plays out clashes in political philosophy. While successes can often be weighed and measured, many solutions and decisions are hard to quantify because we don't have a parallel universe where we know what would have happened if we had not implemented some policy and instead went with another.
Since my Junior year of high school I have known that I will work in the public sector, and with that decision has come studying and mastering the subjective. Internalizing arguments firsthand and creating those of my own.
I have, by choice, gone down a path that will be full of clashes of idealism, often with answers that are inherently circumspect.
And that, I suppose, is one of the main reasons I love running.
In a life of subjectivity and philosophy underlying every decision being made around me, running is one of the only saving graces that I can look at purely objectively.
It is, at ITS base, a measurement of distance and how fast you can traverse it. If you do it one second faster, one half of one percent quicker, you are better. Period.
A workout we do often is a 10 mile hard run.
The first time I broke 1 hour was the week after conference last year, when I ran 58:10ish. Since then, I had only broken an hour once more, running 59:20 during track season.
I ran 57:48 a couple weeks back, totally alone.
Running here, training 70 mile weeks with no real race in sight, totally alone, plays tricks on your training mentality. I FEEL stronger, but I don't have the luxury of constantly testing myself to see if that's true.
But, at its core, running is simply a measurement of distance and how fast you can traverse it.
And this time, I ran 5:48/mile for 10 miles, dipping under 5:50 pace for the first time.
Objectively speaking, I am faster today than I was yesterday.
And that's really calming in the face of a subjective life.
Politics is, at its core, a real-time game that plays out clashes in political philosophy. While successes can often be weighed and measured, many solutions and decisions are hard to quantify because we don't have a parallel universe where we know what would have happened if we had not implemented some policy and instead went with another.
Since my Junior year of high school I have known that I will work in the public sector, and with that decision has come studying and mastering the subjective. Internalizing arguments firsthand and creating those of my own.
I have, by choice, gone down a path that will be full of clashes of idealism, often with answers that are inherently circumspect.
And that, I suppose, is one of the main reasons I love running.
In a life of subjectivity and philosophy underlying every decision being made around me, running is one of the only saving graces that I can look at purely objectively.
It is, at ITS base, a measurement of distance and how fast you can traverse it. If you do it one second faster, one half of one percent quicker, you are better. Period.
A workout we do often is a 10 mile hard run.
The first time I broke 1 hour was the week after conference last year, when I ran 58:10ish. Since then, I had only broken an hour once more, running 59:20 during track season.
I ran 57:48 a couple weeks back, totally alone.
Running here, training 70 mile weeks with no real race in sight, totally alone, plays tricks on your training mentality. I FEEL stronger, but I don't have the luxury of constantly testing myself to see if that's true.
But, at its core, running is simply a measurement of distance and how fast you can traverse it.
And this time, I ran 5:48/mile for 10 miles, dipping under 5:50 pace for the first time.
Objectively speaking, I am faster today than I was yesterday.
And that's really calming in the face of a subjective life.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Ah, Nostalgia.
As I stepped out of the door to get rolling on my long run yesterday afternoon, I started up my Pandora as is tradition.
The song that came up first was 'Ghostwriter' by RJD2, and damn did that take me instantly back.
Flash to summer of 2005. I'm heading into freshman year of high school, and all I want to do is make the varsity team. I'm barely hanging on to the top guys on runs if at all (our #1 runner at the time was a 16:40 5k guy, so you get the picture of the 'top guys').
We run as a team 3 times a week, but the other 4 days are on our own. I have a simple concept - run as hard as I can during those non-team days and I'll beat everyone. I had JUST gotten an Ipod. A big fat 2nd generation thing with a click wheel. To me, it was god of all music. I find a nice 5 mile loop from my house with rolling hills, and just kill it to my hearts content. I find another 5.5 loop and I literally spend every day running one of those two as fast as my little 14 year old legs can carry me.
Why do I think of this now? Because the first song on that Ipod playlist that carried me through each run that summer was Ghostwriter, by RJD2.
I remember not liking running. I remember running because I was good at it, and wanted to prove to everyone that I could get a Varsity letter as a freshman (which, of course, was the MOST important thing at the time), and hating the solo runs.
I vomited at least 4 times a week that summer. My weakness has always been my aerobic capacity, and running 5 or 5.5 miles was honestly the absolute brink of what I could handle on a daily basis.
A week before our first meet, I ran the 5.5 mile loop at 6:59 pace, feeling fantastic. I could not believe it, you would've thought I had set a world record by my expression.
I made varsity the next week at our first race.
Flash back to Sunday, and all of the thoughts bounce around my head as I cruise along the tidal basin memorials in the DC sunset.
If you told me 6 years (and change) ago that I would be here, in DC, working full time and running 14+ mile runs as a typical Sunday, I would have thought you were crazy.
I don't know where I will be in 6 years. I don't know where my life will take me or who will and won't be in my life.
But I know I'll still be running. I know I'll still be finding those perfect sunset long run routes. I know I'll constantly be looking for ways to improve, to tweak my form, to absorb everything I can about this sport that I love.
As I finally finish up in the dark, humid, DC night I check my watch. 6:57 pace.
I wonder if my 6:15-6:25 pace base runs now will be my long run pace in 6 years.
I guess we'll see.
The song that came up first was 'Ghostwriter' by RJD2, and damn did that take me instantly back.
Flash to summer of 2005. I'm heading into freshman year of high school, and all I want to do is make the varsity team. I'm barely hanging on to the top guys on runs if at all (our #1 runner at the time was a 16:40 5k guy, so you get the picture of the 'top guys').
We run as a team 3 times a week, but the other 4 days are on our own. I have a simple concept - run as hard as I can during those non-team days and I'll beat everyone. I had JUST gotten an Ipod. A big fat 2nd generation thing with a click wheel. To me, it was god of all music. I find a nice 5 mile loop from my house with rolling hills, and just kill it to my hearts content. I find another 5.5 loop and I literally spend every day running one of those two as fast as my little 14 year old legs can carry me.
Why do I think of this now? Because the first song on that Ipod playlist that carried me through each run that summer was Ghostwriter, by RJD2.
I remember not liking running. I remember running because I was good at it, and wanted to prove to everyone that I could get a Varsity letter as a freshman (which, of course, was the MOST important thing at the time), and hating the solo runs.
I vomited at least 4 times a week that summer. My weakness has always been my aerobic capacity, and running 5 or 5.5 miles was honestly the absolute brink of what I could handle on a daily basis.
A week before our first meet, I ran the 5.5 mile loop at 6:59 pace, feeling fantastic. I could not believe it, you would've thought I had set a world record by my expression.
I made varsity the next week at our first race.
Flash back to Sunday, and all of the thoughts bounce around my head as I cruise along the tidal basin memorials in the DC sunset.
If you told me 6 years (and change) ago that I would be here, in DC, working full time and running 14+ mile runs as a typical Sunday, I would have thought you were crazy.
I don't know where I will be in 6 years. I don't know where my life will take me or who will and won't be in my life.
But I know I'll still be running. I know I'll still be finding those perfect sunset long run routes. I know I'll constantly be looking for ways to improve, to tweak my form, to absorb everything I can about this sport that I love.
As I finally finish up in the dark, humid, DC night I check my watch. 6:57 pace.
I wonder if my 6:15-6:25 pace base runs now will be my long run pace in 6 years.
I guess we'll see.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The Lasse Viren 5k & Slow Growth
Every runner has their staple workout.
It may not be the workout you enjoy the most, or the workout you are best at, but is an accurate metric for your form at the moment. For me, it's what I call the 'Lasse Viren 5k' because to my knowledge he invented the workout. Basically, its in-&-out alternating 100m sprints for 5k on the track. I read about it when I was in high school, but never got around to doing it until the summer after my senior year.
The first time I did it, I had a 4:26 mile and a 16:17 to my name.
6/1/2010 - 18:30.
I remember it hurting a lot, the discomfort of changing gears every handful of seconds throwing me into oxygen debt quicker than I would like to admit, and struggled to make it through the whole distance.
6/18/2010 - 17:36
A couple weeks later and a couple weeks stronger. I wore flats this time and was mentally ready for The Pain.
Flash to a year later, starting to climb my mileage:
7/7/2011 - 17:19
My log:
Was 5:33 - 11:06 (5:33) - 16:40 (5:34), so damn consistent. Could've gone for another mile, but I didn't want to push it too hard. Still need to run miles this week. Felt smooth, pretty nice until last 8/1200m or so.
edit: Upon review the last time I did this was 2 weeks ago last year and I did it about 20sec slower, and I remember it hurting a lot more. Good sign.
A couple days ago I did it again:
9/10/2011 - 16:32
I knew 800m in that I was going to break 17, I passed it in 2:33 as my legs were just starting to warm up.
My stride is coming together nicely, I've been working on my lower core as that area being weak is what I've deduced is making me over-stride. I have the luxury of keeping some quality in my miles as I build, and I haven't lost the weight that I did last summer doing less miles than I am now, but I am managing to keep the power that I had during early track season. If I can keep that, AND build strength, I should be able to click this workout off in sub16 before the end of the semester.
Regardless of what I'm doing, I'm doing something right. And that's all I really care about.
It may not be the workout you enjoy the most, or the workout you are best at, but is an accurate metric for your form at the moment. For me, it's what I call the 'Lasse Viren 5k' because to my knowledge he invented the workout. Basically, its in-&-out alternating 100m sprints for 5k on the track. I read about it when I was in high school, but never got around to doing it until the summer after my senior year.
The first time I did it, I had a 4:26 mile and a 16:17 to my name.
6/1/2010 - 18:30.
I remember it hurting a lot, the discomfort of changing gears every handful of seconds throwing me into oxygen debt quicker than I would like to admit, and struggled to make it through the whole distance.
6/18/2010 - 17:36
A couple weeks later and a couple weeks stronger. I wore flats this time and was mentally ready for The Pain.
Flash to a year later, starting to climb my mileage:
7/7/2011 - 17:19
My log:
Was 5:33 - 11:06 (5:33) - 16:40 (5:34), so damn consistent. Could've gone for another mile, but I didn't want to push it too hard. Still need to run miles this week. Felt smooth, pretty nice until last 8/1200m or so.
edit: Upon review the last time I did this was 2 weeks ago last year and I did it about 20sec slower, and I remember it hurting a lot more. Good sign.
A couple days ago I did it again:
9/10/2011 - 16:32
I knew 800m in that I was going to break 17, I passed it in 2:33 as my legs were just starting to warm up.
My stride is coming together nicely, I've been working on my lower core as that area being weak is what I've deduced is making me over-stride. I have the luxury of keeping some quality in my miles as I build, and I haven't lost the weight that I did last summer doing less miles than I am now, but I am managing to keep the power that I had during early track season. If I can keep that, AND build strength, I should be able to click this workout off in sub16 before the end of the semester.
Regardless of what I'm doing, I'm doing something right. And that's all I really care about.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Sickness & Second Home
So maybe I overreacted. Maybe.
It turns out that I was actually quite sick. I woke up the next morning and couldn't get out of bed without getting extraordinarily dizzy. Took a couple days off. My head was so full that I actually broke out in an insane nosebleed on the way over here. Second of my life, and the most I've bled in a while.
Seriously, those things suck. But I digress.
Back in DC means back in humidity. I'll be glad when it gets colder. It also means that I'm in a permanent place for a while and need to get my workouts in. I was referred to Georgetown Running Co. that has workouts on Wednesdays and that they are actually legit runners, so it looks like my week will consist of a couple runs with them, which will be nice.
Back in my second home in DC, and aside from the weather I'm really loving the city. The problem is that the weather is a total deal breaker for any long term living situation.
So I sit here, looking ahead at a schedule of 70-80 mile weeks for 5 months, trying not to think how shitty it will be in this weather. Hopefully it will cool down ASAP.
The work will get done regardless, for no other reason than it has to get done.
It turns out that I was actually quite sick. I woke up the next morning and couldn't get out of bed without getting extraordinarily dizzy. Took a couple days off. My head was so full that I actually broke out in an insane nosebleed on the way over here. Second of my life, and the most I've bled in a while.
Seriously, those things suck. But I digress.
Back in DC means back in humidity. I'll be glad when it gets colder. It also means that I'm in a permanent place for a while and need to get my workouts in. I was referred to Georgetown Running Co. that has workouts on Wednesdays and that they are actually legit runners, so it looks like my week will consist of a couple runs with them, which will be nice.
Back in my second home in DC, and aside from the weather I'm really loving the city. The problem is that the weather is a total deal breaker for any long term living situation.
So I sit here, looking ahead at a schedule of 70-80 mile weeks for 5 months, trying not to think how shitty it will be in this weather. Hopefully it will cool down ASAP.
The work will get done regardless, for no other reason than it has to get done.
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