A Little Labor for Labor Day Weekend

Based upon my long run from last week, I wanted to go out for about 2:45 this week. I estimated that would get me about 18 or so miles, maybe a little more. What I ended up doing was joining a large group run over on the Road Runner Akron Marathon course. One of the guys from the club posted it in the forum on the website. Fortunately I found it and changed my plans. It didn't take much for me to decide to run with others versus running by myself.

The plan was to run 20 miles of the course, cutting out about 6 miles on the south side of Akron. 20 miles is a little bit more than I was intending to do this weekend. But only a little bit. I felt like I could have gone 20 last week, so knowing that, I was confident I wouldn't have any problems doing the distance this week. What I didn't expect was to maintain a decent pace throughout the run. The finish time, by my watch, was 2:54:55, averaging 8:40-ish miles. We certainly started out faster than that and finished slower. But that's to be expected. If I can maintain that kind of pace in Columbus, I'm going to shatter my PR of 4:15. I'm extremely excited at the prospect, but I have to keep the emotions in check and just let the run happen on it's own.

The Akron course is unique for a marathon. It's fairly flat for the first half, then it drops down into the Cuyahoga River valley, climbing slowly out a few miles later. Much of the course is shaded, which wasn't an issue this morning because we were blessed with fog. Just enough to obscure the sun for most of the run. Plus we started at 6:30 AM, getting out ahead of the heat. Even with the hills, I like the course. It's scenic and changing, giving you different things to notice while running. The loads of spectators weren't out this morning, but they will be on race day. Some of the best of any race I've done. I'd rank them right up there with the spectators along the Columbus Marathon route. I look forward to next year when I plan on participating in the full Akron Marathon again. It's only the half for me this year. But I'm glad I've got one 20 miler under my belt before Columbus. Now only one more to go.

I would like to thank Frank for posting the notice about the group run. Otherwise I would never have known about it. I would also like to thank Ladd and Chuck for keeping the pace up and for the good conversation during the run. And thanks to Vertical Runner in Hudson for organizing the whole thing. Even though I haven't been up to their store since the Second Sole opened here in Medina, I appreciate their involvement in the running community.

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone.

Mr. P

"Where did everybody go?"

Do you remember the part in the Foghorn Leghorn cartoon where the Baby Ostrich, after Foghorn and the Barnyard Dog knock each other into the ground during the boxing match, finally pulls it's head out of the ground, gulps, and asks "Where did everybody go?" Well that was me last night at the track (sans sticking my head in the ground). Nobody was there for the usual Tuesday night speed work. I knew there was a speaker scheduled last night for the running club, but not everyone who shows up is a club member. Maybe there was a memo I missed or something...

So I ran by myself. I did an extended warm-up, waiting to see if anyone else was going to be there. I ran a reverse ladder from 1600m to 200m. I ran a cool-down. That was about the extent of it. Here are my splits:

Warm-up - 2.5 miles with .5 miles of striders on the straights.

1600m - 6:23

400m rest

1200m - 4:56

400m rest

800m - 3:06

400m rest

400m - 1:26

400m rest

200m - 37.86

Cool-down - 1.25 mile

I felt alright, just a little tight in the beginning from my long run on Saturday. The extended warm-up had me feeling good to go for the 1600m. The yellow jackets were out in force, buzzing around my Gatorade bottle. I ended up having to drape my towel over it to keep them away. Other than that, a good workout. Weather permitting, we are planning on starting a Thursday night Pythagoras family training night tomorrow. It will allow Mrs. P to get some training in as she needs to work up to running without walking. It will allow Jr. P to develop some endurance for his soccer matches. And it will allow me to log a few extra miles during the week. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the Fay remnants work their way through before tomorrow night.

Mr. P

The Long and Winding Road...

Apparently leads all around Medina. Because "all around Medina" is exactly where I was getting to this morning. It was Long Run time today! Long Run with capitals L and R! I'm slowly building my distance every week to prepare for the Columbus Marathon in October. My last Long Run was 12 miles and two weeks ago. Today I planned for around 14 miles. I had no specific course in mind, just went out meandering for a couple hours. My 12 mile time two weeks ago was just under 2 hours, so I wanted to be somewhere between 2:15 and 2:30 today. Based upon the relatively flat terrain, that should have been sufficient to get me to my desired distance.

Or beyond! In fact, I ended up running 16.5 miles today. Wow! I wasn't supposed to hit that mark for another couple weeks. The best part is that I still had gas in the tank when I finished. I probably could have gone for 20 today. Granted, I would have needed to stop for a Gatorade refill, but even so, I was NOT expecting to be that far along yet. Today my course took me south across Route 18 and down a major residential street. I eventually made my way to the high school where at mile 11.2, I ran a mile on the track. My split was 8:37. Right on track. I can comfortably keep up an 8:30 pace for a while. That should be my goal pace for the marathon.

Upon leaving the high school, I made my down the street to the middle school where we have our Tuesday night speed sessions. I ran 2 miles on the track there. The first one coming at mile 13 in my Long Run had a split of 8:44. A little on the slow side. So for my second mile on the track I picked up the pace a bit and banged out a 7:58. Nice! And I still felt great after that. But I had been out for over 2 hours and decided it was time to just head straight home. I had gone through two bottles of Gatorade Endurance on my Fuel Belt as well as two bottles of water that I drank with two packets of PowerBar PowerGel. I refilled one bottle from the water fountain with some nasty tasting warm water and headed for home. I finished my run in 2:20 for 16.5 miles. I am very pleased!

As for my report from Tuesday, I won't go into the full details, but it was a little short due to Meet the Teacher Night for Jr. P. 1 mile warm-up followed by a mile of striders. Then a reverse ladder consisting of 1 mile, 1200m, 800m, 400m x 2, 200m x 2, and a lap to cool down. All my times where right on where they have been. I banged out a 6:19 mile and a 3:00 half mile which are on the fast side for me. I also had a decent 200m at 33.78. Not much when compared to the times they're pulling over in Beijing, but not bad for me.

I need to go. I somehow found myself entered into a contest on WKNR, the winner of which gets to choose between tickets to the OSU, USC game or Browns, Steelers. The winner needs to be present to win, so in a little bit I'll be heading up to a bar in Lakewood to see what happens.

I'll also be replacing my spent calories on some succulent malted barley beverages.

Mr. P  

2008 Vermillion Harbor Sprint Duathlon

I don't think the weather could have been any better for racing than what we had today. We began the morning in the 60s and by the time I finished, it was probably still in the mid 70s. Not a cloud in the sky. We were racing in Vermilion, OH, home of Dick Goddard's Woolly Bear Festival every fall. I had never been there before. Nice little town. I would like to go back again, aside from more racing.

And speaking of racing, I'll just get right to it. I finished 3rd in my age group, just about one minute behind the 2nd place finisher, and 15th overall. I had him on the run, but it wasn't enough to make up the time he put on me during the bike. My shin was bothering me a little during Run 1, and I thought I was pushing harder than I actually was. My time was 22:40 for the first 5K, averaging out to 7:19 minute miles. I know I can do much better than that so I need to figure out what happened. The bike was a little bumpy and tight at times, but overall I'm pleased with my final time. They call it a 20K but my computer read 11.3 or so. Either way they're giving me 35:34 at 20.9 mph. I know I wasn't averaging that kind of speed so I think my computer is right. I'm improved over last year, but not that much. I completed Run 2 in 24:01 averaging 7:45 minute miles. Again, I felt I was going faster, but I guess I wasn't.

Now I'm left with the season finale for the Duathlon series. It's next month at Portage Lakes State Park in Akron. And that's all folks for this year's multi-sport season. I'm planning some changes for next year. They should prove to be interesting if nothing else. Now I think I'm going to go down stairs and eat some 4-layer chocolate and peanut butter fudge bars that Mrs. P made yesterday. I won't say how good they are because I don't want to share!

Mr. P

I Lied

Remember that tiny little part about me adding a Thursday run, but not this week because I have a race Sunday and I didn't want to anything that might hamper my performance? I lied. I ran this morning on the treadmill. Only 2 miles though. But my shin hurt bad and now I'm hoping it will go away with 2 1/2 days rest. It feels fine to walk on now, but it was twinging pretty bad this morning. I may take my shoes into Second Sole to have them inspected for wear. Maybe the miles are finally starting to affect them. I would prefer to think it's an equipment issue rather than a conditioning issue.

In other news, since I still haven't replaced my bad back tire on the bike yet, I decided to hook it up to the trainer last night and have a spin. I was able to do 10 miles before I had to stop due to sheer boredom. Indoor cycling is the absolute most boring exercise known to man. But you might ask, "Mr. Pythagoras, what about Spinning classes?" Spinning classes are a whole different ballgame compared to riding a bike by yourself in the basement. There's only so much cinder block and spider web landscape I can take. I'd much rather be out on the road. I just don't trust drivers the way I did when I was younger. Experience, I guess.

Mr. P

Wednesday Morning Surprise

Not a groundbreaking, earth shattering, life changing kind of surprise, but a pleasant one, none the less. (For me any way) Last night the running club had it's weekly speed workout at the track. As I got out of bed this morning around 5:15 to do some recovery walking on the treadmill (please see all the posts about how I can't run everyday) a funny thing occurred to me: I wasn't sore. I wasn't even tight. My shin, which has been bothering me slightly the past couple weeks, was fine. It wasn't that I didn't run hard last night. I'd consider 6 X 800 meter repeats to be running pretty hard. But I just felt good this morning. This makes me start thinking about adding another day of running to the week. I could fit something in on Thursdays. Maybe some tempo work. Maybe just on the treadmill to keep the impact down. Not this week, with a race on Sunday. But maybe next week.

As for the track workout, we ended up running at the high school instead of the middle school due to a soccer game. The only time I've been on that track is to finish a 5K which is held in the spring. We began with a 1.5 mile warm-up as everyone slowly found their way to the high school. Then it was a set of Yasso 800's. Which is a fancy name for 800 meter repeats, the times for which are determined by your desired marathon finish time. Here's an example: Mr. Pythagoras would like to finish the Columbus Marathon in a time of 3 hours and 45 minutes. He would then go to a track and run 800 meter repeats at a time of 3 minutes and 45 seconds per 800. Here's how that all worked out:

800 m - 3:10
400 m rest
800 m - 3:10
400 m rest
800 m 3:19
400 m rest
800 m - 3:18
400 m rest
800 m - 3:18
400 m rest
800 m - 3:15

As you can see, I wasn't very good at staying on my goal pace. Just by averaging the times out in my head, they are predicting a finish time somewhere around 3 hours and 15 minutes. That would be precisely 1 hour faster than my current PR. Not that that's unrealistic. It's just not a realistic expectation for this year. I think I'm very capable of cutting off at least 15 minutes, if not a little more. There are many variables in the marathon: training, tapering, health on the day of the race, weather, diet, etc... I have two months to do as much as I can to prepare the things I have control over. So far, I think I'm doing fairly well.

Mr. P
(Pain free as of 1:00PM 8/13/08)

Running in Hinckley

If you're not familiar with the Hinckley Reservation in the Cleveland Metroparks, let me just say that it is the opposite of flat. It's hilly. It's really hilly. It's also where I went Saturday to log some training miles. I enjoy going over there from time to time to get some good hill work in, but this week I went to log miles. 12 miles to be exact. And boy did the effort wear me out.

The Hinckley Reservation has a lovely 3 mile paved trail loop that runs around the lake which is the center-point of the park. All ups and downs. I've done a few 9 mile runs there before, but this was the longest run I have attempted there so far. 4 laps. 12 miles. The temperature was right around 80, with a mix of sun and clouds, and a decent breeze that would kick up every once in a while. Lap one felt really good. I charged up the hills and caught my breath at the top. Lap one was also the fastest lap of the quartet at 25:03.

I finished lap two in 26:25 as I was not attacking the hills as hard. I was also taking longer to recover from the uphill efforts. I was also starting to notice the heat more. Which is to say, I was sweating like a pig.

Lap three had a time of 27:58. While running the third lap, I kept thinking about how tired I was starting to get and that I still had one lap to go once I finished it. My left shin was bothering me from time to time and my left knee was acting up to, preventing me from going downhill as hard as I would have liked to. At one point I had to walk while drinking to prevent myself from choking on my Gatorade.

Lap four ended up being a bit faster than lap three at 27:26. Considering that I was hurting a bit and was drenched in sweat and was starting to see fuzzy little halos around everything, lap four wasn't that bad once I was into it. I've run longer and hurt much worse, so it didn't take too much to keep going. All in all a good distance training run for October.

As for the rest of this week, I have speed work tomorrow night and my second last duathlon of the year Sunday. That means no long run this week. I'm planning a 13 miler in two weeks. I just need to keep adding mileage until October. I think that if I can keep this up, I'll have a very good chance to shatter my goal of a sub 4 hour marathon in Columbus. As for my shin, it felt much better today. Maybe my body is learning how to cope with a little less down time than last year. I'm hoping to maintain two runs per week. Last year, I think I ran once a week for my marathon training. Any more and it just hurt too much. I'll just take things one week at a time.

Till next time,

Mr. P

Speed Work Update

As promised, I'm here to report my most recent evening of speed work on the track. Have I ever mentioned how hard and painful speed work is? Well, it is.

I began with a mile and a half warm-up followed by another mile of striders on the straights and jogging the curves. Then the fun began with 200 m relays:

200 m - 38.95
rest 37.45
200 m - 39.79
rest 42.36
200 m - 39.53
rest 42.47
200 m - 41.20

Which were followed by 800 m repeats:

800 m - 3:16
rest 2:42
800 m - 3:18
rest 2:46
800 m - 3:16
rest 3:04
800 m - 3:18
rest 4:02

Consistent, huh? We finished with a mile cool-down. A cool-down in training terms. It was hot and muggy again, so I didn't technically "cool-down" until I had the AC cranked in the car. We had a breeze this week though. That's more than we've had previously, and felt great for half a lap each time around.

I'm a little sore from lifting last night, so I skipped my morning workout today. I need a 12 mile or so run this weekend, but I haven't decided when I'm going to do it. I don't think it's supposed to be as hot, so an afternoon run may work out just fine. I'll be sure to let you know.

Mr. P

2008 East Fork Sprint Duathlon (continued)

I'm back with some numbers for anyone interested. My finish time was 1:27:41, placing me 1st in my age group and 11th overall. My first run was 21:07 at a 6:49/mile pace. That's pretty good considering my slow start followed by the long uphill out of the parking area. But like I said, I felt good going up the hill and that continued for the rest of run 1. My bike split was 41:08 for 20K averaging 18.1 mph. That's still where I need to work the most. My bike split is really slowing me down. I've invested enough into the equipment to prevent me from attempting to upgrade, even though more specialized equipment would certainly help. No, I need to simply ride more. But that's time consuming, so I'm going to settle for increasing my leg strength workouts. Run 2 had a split of 23:21 at a pace of 7:32/mile. I'm happy with that considering that was my run 1 pace last year. Yeah, my running has improved a lot in a year's time. I'm curious to see how much more it can be improved!

I'll be back soon with a re-cap of last nights speed workout. It was another tough one.

Mr. p

2008 East Fork Sprint Duathlon

My new pre-race ritual is now to ride big roller coasters, eat powdered sugar donut holes, ice cream, and spaghetti with meat sauce from the Olive Garden, drink Starbuck's coffee, milkshakes, Sam Adams, and a Frozen Tiramisu from said Olive Garden, and spend all day walking around in the sun, getting dehydrated and dodging people who looked like they just walked out of a terribly cliched 1980's movie. (I'm quite sure that is the longest sentence I've ever written!) Seriously, it was like we hopped into the Way-Back Machine 20 years on our visit to Cincinnati. Mohawks and mullets, tank tops, halter tops, Motley Crue tee shirts, no shirts (please put a shirt on, no one wants to look at that)! But I digress. I'm not here to update the thriving cultural mecca that is the Queen City. Whatever I did Saturday, proved to be very beneficial on Sunday. Well at least it didn't hinder me too much.

The day started with some gorgeous weather. It was humid but in the 60's, so it felt fine. The day would turn out to be completely sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. Unlike last year, when we got caught in a monsoon on the bike. Believe me when I say there wasn't a dry spot on me! I mean, even the wet spots had wet spots. Not so this year. Absolutely beautiful racing conditions.

The results aren't posted yet, but I can tell you that I finished first in my age group. I'm very happy yet surprised because this is a tough course. The bike is rolling terrain while there is a great big hill on the run. We get to run it twice in the sprint duathlon and thrice in the Olympic duathlon. I started out at a comfortable pace. My left shin has been bothering me since the track workout last week. I felt I was being held back by the people I was running with, but I had no where to pass. Until we got to the hill that is. I picked up my pace going uphill and managed to pass quite a few people. Once at the top, I was able to find my rhythm right away and just pressed on. I could tell I was running a faster than normal pace. I waited for my body to tell me to slow down, but it never did. So I just kept going. I'm sure my mile 1 pace was below average, but at mile 2, my split was a little over 14 minutes. That would put my mile 2 pace in the sub-7 minute range. I guess the speed workouts are working out!

The bike went well. I was passed a lot, as usual. But my average speed was a bit higher. There were only a couple sections of uphills that gave me some trouble. My main concern was my back tire. I hadn't looked at my bike since the race in Columbus two weeks ago. The one where many people were getting flats on the course. I didn't flat out on the course. Nor did I have any debris embedded in my tire. What I did have, however, was a wear spot and a tear where I locked up my tire and skidded while trying to stop at the dismount line coming into transition 2. The right little rock or whatever in the right spot, and I was going to have trouble. I even put my flat repair kit on the bike. I never bring that in a race. But I think I will from now on. It was a nice security blanket.

Run 2 went much like run 1. I was tired coming off the bike and so started out slow. But once again, I was able to pick it up a bit going up the hill. Once at the top, I settled right back into a very good pace. I've started to take shorter but quicker strides, which really help me improve my pace. And they don't seem to take as much of a toll on my legs either. If you've never run hard after riding hard, it's hard to describe just how tired your legs are, and how easy it is to push too hard, causing cramping. Anything to lessen that chance is welcome in my book.

I'm going to turn in now. But I will return when the official results have been posted.

Mr. P