Spring 2014 Run Training

Summary of my run training is pasted below.

I have managed to maintain quite high mileage (for me) over the past 7 months at 60 or more kilometers per week.  It remains to be seen whether I maintain the run volume in the weeks ahead with triathlon events, hot weather, and travel plans making running less enticing.

The training advice I have received in recent years has generally stressed quality over quantity -- focusing on several key workouts per week that should in my case be relatively short and fast.  However this advice has come with the additional note that these shorter key workouts should only be 10% or 20% of weekly training volume -- implying that I would still need to do at least this 60 kilometer level with lots of recovery runs.

2014 Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon -- 1:19:42

I am so pleased to break 1:20 in the half-marathon.  

And it is so satisfying to run negative splits.  

Two years ago I ran this same half-marathon in 1:21:30.  

Just like two years I run the first half of the race with a  pack, relying on the "metronome pace" of two elite female runners - this year the elite females being CNW's Lana and Kimber.   The pace felt so comfortable and we are such a supportive and friendly little band - encouraging one another, yelling out various splits, and promising to buy Lana a beer for pacing us.

I hate to leave them.  But when I saw my split  at the 7 mile mark was 43:15 I knew that Lana's pace was definitely not going to allow me to realize my dream of running 1:20.   And that this moment was probably my last chance in this race to make a move and get back under pace.  So I surged to catch up with some guy in a blue singlet (Pedro I learned later), who had passed our merry band several minutes earlier.   This surge left me breathing hard, and I was thinking that it would be painful and embarrassing if I ultimately fall off the pace and Lana, Kimber and Jordan overtake me again.  

But I just stayed with Pedro.  Thank goodness for Pedro.  I owe Pedro a beer too if I ever see him again, though I would surely not recognize him since I pretty much only saw him from the back (he did the real work, I just ran behind him). 

It felt like we were flying.  Picking up the pace from 6:10 per mile to 6:02 felt like a screaming fast increase in speed at that point in the run.  My splits (40:32 for the first 50% of half-marathon, and 39:10 for the second half may not seems like a big drop, but it felt huge.  

I finish 8th overall.  Cinco de Mayo is fairly competitive for a smallish event (but part of its attraction was having runners like Lana and Pedro to run with).  

The race (especially in retrospect) was an "A race" for me this year - I was kind-of, sort-of training for it -- to the extent that I really train for any particular thing, as I complain about in my previous blog post on my undisciplined spring training.  I was not sure that I would even make it to Seattle in time for Cinco de Mayo and did not actually register until the morning of the race.  I am glad I made and was able to clock a time under 80 minutes.  I still have hopes of getting my half-marathon back under 1:18, but for now I can focus on triathlons, aquathons, climbing, and shorter run distances.