Race report: - 5th Avenue Mile

It's been a while since I've composed a race report. That's because I haven't raced in a while. I had originally intended on foregoing the 9 + 1 because I thought I wouldn't be interested in doing the marathon. Now I find myself scrambling to finish minimum just in case I decide to do it. The 5th Ave Mile is a fast, furious and fun qualifier and a must for anyone doing the 9 + 1.

I didn't have any expectations going into today's race. Actually, I did. They were mostly negative. Did 800's 3 weeks ago and my best time was a 2:51. Haven't done any Tabata sets, and I was sick last week. I felt that my warm-up jog confirmed that today was going to be a mediocre performance at best.

When I got to the race start, I didn't expect to see some of my friends and colleagues since they were in the 30-34 age group. Lucky for me, they decided to hang back and run with my heat. Even luckier, one of the guys, EM, is a fast youngin' that I was hoping would play the rabbit. And thank goodness he did.

The gun went off and I remember thinking go easy, but run strong. During the 1st quarter, I made sure to stride strong but tried to stay relaxed. Time at .25mi - 1:25

The 2nd quarter was a long gentle grade. EM had pulled away by about 15 meters, but I was able to reel him in within 5 by keeping a constant effort. Still tried to maintain strong strides going up the grade. Time at .50mi - 2:51.

(Halfway point check. I should be able to do 5:45 since the second half should be faster. Tiring, but the rest is downhill and flat. EM is only 5 meters ahead.)

The 3rd quarter goal was to maintain the effort on the downgrade or even start to speed it up a little. I think I was successful at it, but EM was pulling away again. Darnit! At .75mi, EM was about 12-13 meters ahead. I needed to start picking it up.

(3/4 mile check: Tired? Yes. Behind pace? No. EM too far? Yes. Are you going to be happy not giving it your all. NO! 400 meters remaining. GO TIME!)

At the 3/4 mile marker, I looked for EM and he looked impossibly far at about 10m. Just in front of me was a guy with a funny stride. I had to get past him first. Done. Now to EM. At 1500m, I squeezed out every last bit of effort and tried to hold on for as long as I could. I caught EM's back shoulder at about 10 meters to the finish, but I couldn't quite get past him. I was one second shy of his time.

Unofficial clock finish - 5:29.

Official time: 5:24. YEAH!!! PR!! First sub 5:30!!!

Insanity - Day 2

Only day 2, and I'm already questioning my commitment. Meh. The great thing about these workouts is that they're short. Heck, 15 of 40-45 mins is warm-up and stretching, albeit a very tough warm-up. It's the last 10-15 mins that seem to take F O R E V E R. The workouts are not impossible, just intense. And I'm starting to hate every form of jump squats.

Insanity - Day 1

I now understand why some friends used to call me swimming pool. After this workout, it wasn't just a puddle on the mat.

Insanity workout 1 was a cardio/plyo circuit. Wore a heart rate monitor to stay honest and saw it go up to the high 170's repeatedly towards the end of each circuit. That's my heart rate when I'm running hard repeats. It might have gone higher, but I was too exhausted to check.

The interesting about this video is that as a runner, my cardio and physical movements know how to behave when my heart rate is that high. I've adapted to an efficiency at the 80% max HR when running, so it doesn't feel as hard. When I'm doing other activities though, be it cycling or this Insanity workout, 170's and anything higher feel much tougher. But I guess that's good so I learn how to employ the rest of me in non-running extremes.

Plunging into Insanity

I've decided on an impulsive plunge into Insanity. Not crazy, just mostly bored. Cycling is fun, but I sort of miss the structured schedule I followed when doing P90X. Cycling doesn't also promote the quick, efficient burn that I get from running, i.e. I have to bike ~30mi to get the equivalent of a 6mi run.

Anyways, I'm going to fall back into the mode of training when doing P90X, except that Insanity is only 60 days, and the workouts are about 35-50 mins. Short enough for me to continue cycling and other workouts.

Here are my initial fit test numbers. Oh by the way, the fit test was tough. Even the warmup felt like a workout. This series is going to be tough.

This Month's Goal - No Running

There. I said it. That will be my longest away from running since I started about 8 years ago. The reasoning is twofold. First, I want to completely heal a nagging heel injury. Second, I want to miss running. Until then, I intend to log a few hundred miles on the bike. If I lived near a swimmable ocean, I'd swim too, but alas, I'm not in Hawaii.

Corporate Challenge 2010

I dread this race every year, but this one wasn't too bad. In the end, I didn't hurt as much as I did last year, did not have the right side of my face or right shoulder pains at mile 3, and I did not almost slow to a walk at the finish. In fact, I was able to pick off about 12 runners at about the last 100meters with a sprint.

Garmin splits were as follows:

Mile 1: 6:19

Mile 2: 6:29

Mile 3: 6:38

Mile 3.5: 3:04

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Total: 22:30 (6:25/mi)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37240839

OFFICIAL TIME: 22:33 (6:26/mi)

If those numbers on my watch were correct, I hit my goal right on the nose. Short of my PR by 20s, but I did not expect to PR today.

Japan Day Race

Official race results: 26:29 | 35th in age group

3.3 mi easy run to start

Mile 1: 6:47 - Didn't want to go out too fast, but maybe should have
Mile 2: 6:31 - Cruised downhill along west side
Mile 3: 6:53 - Decided to take mile 3 easy with Cat Hill to prep for last mile
Mile 4: 6:17 - balls out to the finish and tried to reel in as many runners as I could. This was probably the most painful stretch.

One word to describe the race: muggy. Quads felt shot after the race. I'm still feeling the effects of last week's Murph workout.

3.3 mi run back home