For Mercy's Sake

A couple of years ago I signed up for a couple of five kilometer runs with the goal of running them in less than 25 minutes.  The first of these was the "Stroke Awareness" run put on by Mercy medical center.  I actually broke the 25 minute barrier while training for the Stroke awareness run, and failed to "officially" break it at either of the 5k races I signed up for.

I made some training mistakes for "Stroke Awareness," and came out too fast.  It was also warm.  What I didn't mention in the initial write up here, was that when my stride tanked at the end, I got passed by two other runners making comments like - "you made a good pacer."  Grrrrrr!

Still, I like the idea of supporting local races.  I had colleagues who ran this race with me, and I was keen to see if my wife would run it with me.  She agreed, and I signed us up for it.  Sadly, none of my coworkers were able to make it.

Looking at the dates, I saw that I had 6 weeks between Hellyer and the 5k.  That gave me time for the required 2 weeks of easy running, followed by 4 weeks of training.  I found a 4 week training program here, but I forgot about it and used "Run Less, Run Faster," focusing on the last 4 weeks of the training program.  I did not run the day before the race, nuh-uh, never making that mistake again.

My initial plan was to try and break a 24 minute 5k.  I had run a 24:12 during the Hellyer training, and I thought that was a reasonable goal.  One training stipulation I made, one that I plan to attempt for all future training, was that hill-sprints come first.  That is, every time I weight lift (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), I do 6-10 hill sprints on the treadmill.  The rest of my training must fit around that.  

However, training did not seem to be going well.  I was not keeping the paces suggested by the book.  Holding a sub-8 for anything, at least initially appeared to be beyond my ability.  I did find this sort of strange pattern though with my tempo running.  I would start running a 8 to 8:10 pace, but then would go into this sort of trance for the last mile and a half and run 7:30-7:40.

One thing I'm not mentioning.  I had planned on taking a semester break from half-marathons.  This Fall, rather than run the Monterey half, I decided I would train with the purpose of running a 5k.  You know, totally commit, and see what I could really do at this shorter distance.  I thought by taking a training session and committing to speed, I might find a place where I ran an even faster half-marathon.  My target for my next half-marthon PR, breaking 1 hour and 43 minutes, would be the very flat Modesto run.  I thought I would break 24 minutes for a 5k at "Stroke Awareness," and 23 minutes for the Fall, committing to a full training session for a 5 kilometers race.

Sooooo, with the training not going so well, I reassessed, and decided to "officially" break the 25 minute mark at "Stroke Awareness," if I should be so lucky, and shoot for breaking the 24 minute mark in the Fall.

The day of the race arrives.  I don't wear my watch.  My wife and I have our morning coffee before driving to Merced.  We arrive with ample time for package pick-up, restroom breaks, taking package pick-up back to the car (me jogging back), and warm-up (me jogging there and back, plus  a bit of the race loop).  I get bit by mosquitoes, and forget to get a drink of water before the race.

It was warm.  I moseyed up to the front pack.  A former student came up to say "hi."  That was nice.  I saw a guy in my age group who is much faster than I - he runs in the 6 minute mile range.  The race was delayed for a final shuttle  from the parking lot - really? A shuttle bus to a race?  Then the horn sounded and we were off.

I remembered not to start too hard.  I went with the "breath hard, and don't give up" strategy, hoping to hold a little reserve for the end so that nobody tells me what a "great pacer" I was.  I didn't feel fast.  It felt like 8s.  I passed somebody I see running out on the canal during my training runs.  I passed, got passed.  I found a good pacing group - basically 2 people.  I tried to pass one and backed off because I could tell it was costing me too much.  The other one stopped to walk - game over.  I did not tell them how great a pacer they were.

That last bit hurt.  They had a water break (really? for a 5k?).  I was tempted, particularly because I forgot that pre-race water. Did I mention it was warm?  I pushed on, and near the end really felt like I might puke.  Then I heard the crowds.  I knew I was close.  I turned the corner and the clock on the finish line about a 50 yards away said  22 <blurry>.  I dug deep, half in shock and managed to cross the finish line in 22 minutes 55 seconds.  Nobody passed me in that final sprint.  I had held a 7:23 pace average which is better than my fricking current 1 mile best on Garmin Connect.

I took pictures of my wife finishing her first 5k, fourth in her age group.  I saw another student come in.  That was nice.

I finished fourth in my age group of 40-59!  40-59? Are you kidding me?  If it was the more typical 50-54, I would have won my age group.  As it was two guys older than me, and one in his 40s beat me.  Fortunately, the next 5k will have the usual 5 year age group splits.  It will probably have a lot more people though.

Anyway, I'm thrilled. I never expected to do so well.  I took away my Fall goal, even according to the original plan.  

I truly think hill sprints were the key.  Yes, they probably reduced my speed on the traditional intervals, and tempo runs - fooling me to think my training was going poorly.  Nevertheless, they left me in a state of fitness that allowed me to capitalize on this race.  My hill sprints start at 6% grade, go to an 8% grade, and range from 9 miles per hour to 9.8 miles per hour during my last one.  My hypotheses is that I am training my cerebellum to run ~6 minute paces, while strengthening my legs for more explosive running.  I think the cerebellum aspect is the much underappreciated part of this training, but the leg strength, and protection from injury are no less important.

I recently picked up a new running book, 80/20 by Matt Fitzgerald.  He is another big advocate for bulking up miles.  I haven't hit a 60 mile week in a long time.  He also presents a plan for a 3 week training cycle, where the 60 mile week would be maximum, and would include a 54 mile week and 45 mile recovery week.  I will prioritize this plan with hill sprints mixed in.  Several of the 80/20 plans call for twice-a-day running.  My second run will be on low mileage days, during weight lifting, and doing hill....

Dare I hope to break the 22 minute barrier in Fall?  That seems like too much of an improvement for the time frame and this distance.  Hmmm, I need to go run some hill...