Morning Workout - Fail

All right, I have a lot of catching up to do. I'll start with this morning's workout and work my way back.

Monday - Track workout
2 mi w/u
Goal - 8,4,2,2 x 2 @ fast
Actual - 8,4,2,2 x 2 @ slow
2 mi c/d

This was the exact same workout that I did before Rock the Parkway in early April. Anthony and I were trying to repeat this workout in order to create the same magic that was produced at Rock the Parkway for Hospital Hill this weekend. To say that this workout didn't go as well as planned is an understatement. From the first step of the warm-up to the final step of the cool down, I felt lethargic and sleepy, and my legs did not want to run fast this morning. I usually run my workouts in the evening, so I'm hoping that after a week or two, my body will adjust to morning runs. I'm in the process of adjusting my runs to morning #1 because of the summer heat and #2 my clinical that I'm starting requires me to be at "work" by 7 or 8 depending on the day. Unfortunately (maybe. . .?) I'm going to be working four 10 hour days/week for the next 9 weeks. This means I get Tuesday off (yay!) but will have to get up very early on Monday and Friday (like 4:30ish early. . . eww) to get my runs in. Fortunately in the summer I basically do pure mileage (no workouts) so the body won't be forced to sprint at absurd hours of the morning.

Back to the workout. We opened the first 200m of the 800m with a 39, and this alone told me that I was going to have to force this workout rather than feeling energetic and quick. I'll let you ponder what the first 800 was, as I'd rather keep the split to myself. We took a full lap of recovery between most repeats, giving ourselves lots of rest in order to have a quality rather than quantity workout. We did manage to run our second 800 in 2:35 and second 400 in 74. This means that my 69 second 400 that has been eluding me since early April will just have to wait until the fall training starts up >:(

Week in Review (5/21-5/27)
57 miles
2 workouts
2 weight sessions
11 mile long run

Saturday 5/26 - Mile repeats
1.5 w/u
Goal - 5 x mile @ 5k goal road pace (~5:30 pace)
Actual - 5 x mile @ 5k - 10k pace (~5:30 - 5:40 pace)
c/d to 9 mi total

This is the workout that determined that it was time to start morning runs. We arrived at the trail about 11:00 am and it was already sweltering hot and sunny. We decided to bring our water bottles to our start and run the same mile on the trail back and forth. We strategically start at Mission road and loop around the pond at Leawood Park, ending by the water fountain. This way we could splash ourselves and take a zip before each interval. Given the condition, I'm rather pleased with the way this workout went down. Only one mile was actually at goal pace, but given the hot/humid conditions, I'm positive this would have been an outstanding workout had we been disciplined enough to start earlier in the morning. It was really tempting to stop after only 4 intervals, but after an internal battle with myself, I ended up doing 5. By the end of this run, I didn't have a dry patch of clothing visible. Even after the warm-up I already had little rivers of sweat running down my arms and legs.

Tuesday 5/22- College Hill Repeats
2 mi w/u
goal - 8 x 400m hill repeats @ good pace
actual - above (working down to fast pace)
2 mi c/d

I have probably done more hill work in the last 5 weeks than I did for the entire year of 2011. All this in preparation for Hospital Hill (first weekend in June). As if hill repeats aren't hard enough, I attempted this a mere 3 days after the Joplin Memorial Run. Not that that run was anywhere near my PR, but it still takes a lot out of you run that fast, and 1:22 to me is still booking it (and a pretty respectable time!) I can't remember the specific details of how this workout played out as it was a full week ago, and I've put in many miles since then. What I do remember is that there was a lot of procrastination on my part and it wasn't very fun.

Yesterday (Monday 5/28 - (Memorial day) shout out to all those serving in the military) Anthony talked me into driving the course for Hospital Hill. You know. . . so that I could get a feel for where the hard parts are going to be. Let's just say that this drive put me into a minor panic attack. I knew Kansas City had hills, but I didn't know there were MOUNTAINS hiding downtown! What the h*** possessed me to sign up for this race? I'll just say it is going to be a very tiring and interesting race. I'm just hoping that my emphasis on hill training the past month will benefit me. I'm ready to cream this race.

Joplin Memorial Run

Joplin Memorial Run

With Anthony gone, I decided to use this as a workout/long run to prepare for Hospital Hill in two weeks.

Goal: 2 mi w/u; 4 mi @ 6:15; 1 mi easy; 2 mi @ 6:05; 1 mi easy; 1 mi @ 5:50; c/d to 13.1
Actual: 4 mi @ 5:57, 5:57, 5:57, 6:05; 2 mi @ 6:02, 6:07; 1 mi @ 6:10; easy miles @ 6:30
Overall - 1:22:07
1st place female / 4th overall

I love going back home to Joplin and running with familiar faces and people. This was the first annual Joplin Memorial Run (formerly Boomtown) that is now run at the anniversary of the Tornado that came through last year.

My alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am. I was up earlier than anyone should ever have to get up on a weekend. Why the race started at 6:30 am? I don't know. . . but turns out I'm glad it started early because we beat the Joplin wind and the summer heat.

With no luck convincing Jamie to sign up for the race, he was still willing to meet me at 6:00 am to warm-up with me. We took little loop around town, and then headed back to the start so I could use the restroom and check in my gear. As always, I like to sneak peeks and check out who I think could be my competition. One of the first people I noticed was Dan Hay, my newest arch rival. Recall that two weeks ago he beat me by 11 seconds at Bradleyville 5k (results). Unfortunately, this didn't calm my competitive nature to simply use this run as a "workout". I tried to remind myself that I have bigger fish to fry in 2 weeks. Besides, when I move to Springfield in a couple months, I'll hopefully have several more chances to hunt him down. (I know, I know. . . but I have to have these friendly rivalries, it gives me motivation to run fast. I just hope I'm as fast as him when I'm 50!! Beating up on all the youngsters ;) )

We lined up early, listened to the race director's tribute to those 164 people that lost their lives in the tornado, had a moment of silence, and then released 164 balloons into the air in their honor. This was an emotional race for several people in the crowd, and there were several shirts proclaiming that they were "running in the honor of . . . (named friend, family, neighbor, etc). I didn't personally know anyone that lost their life, so I dedicated my race bib to my mother-in-law's friend and wrote Lori and her husband Glenn's name on my race number.

Finally, we took off. Jamie tagged along for a couple miles before heading back to get his morning coffee and to wait for me to finish. I think one of the things that makes me a good distance runner is that I'm patient and know when to put the hammer down and make a move. I remained patient during the first two miles, and when we finally arrived at 2 miles, I took off for my 4 mile tempo. At this point I had no idea what place I was in overall, as several men took off right from the beginning. The first race gave me a false confidence of how easy my tempo felt. Even my "off" miles were fast. The course was probably a majority downhill with the exception of mile 6 when the climb started. The first four mile tempo went off without a hitch. I entertained the thought of just running all my "pushes" at sub 6 minute pace. During the 4 mile tempo, I passed several people, but still didn't know how many people were ahead of me. The nearest person was Dan, but I knew he was at least 60 seconds ahead, and I wouldn't be able to catch him unless I decided to just race the rest of the way, but I stuck to my plan. Unfortunately, the 2 mile tempo was almost entirely uphill. It was the long gradual ascent up Schifferdecker. I still managed to stick to my actual goal pace of 6:05. By this time I was starting to get tired. I just had to make it through my last mile push. I wouldn't call it much of a "push" as 6:10 wasn't much faster than what I was chugging along at.



Water station around mile 8

Around mile 8, a spectator mentioned that I was in 4th place overall. I was shocked! I thought more people had jumped ahead of me at the start, but it felt good to hear that I was in the top 5. The last 2 miles were flat as a pancake. Once we got back into town, I spotted Jamie on the sideline with about half mile to go. With a high-five and an amused smile, he confirmed the rumor that I was indeed in 4th overall. :) haha, he was probably surprised since when he last saw me I probably wasn't even in the top 10. I think he was proud. I got another high-five from some random geezer, and proceeded to the finish line. The last block was really run and LOUD. It was a pretty cool finish, we rounded the block. It was kind of nice because you turn the corner and all of a sudden see the finish line. Some races you can see the finish line from like a mile away, and it feels like you are never going to get there. Part of me wished I would've raced this, because it seemed like a flat and fast course.

Finish!

The Joplin Globe wrote up a really nice article about the race. That's where the picture above came from. Check it out! There was no formal awards ceremony :( So Jamie was nice enough to stay with me until we could pick up awards. Oh, a funny side moment I forgot to mention. Jeff Galloway was there, and all the award winners were told to go get our pictures taken with him. Well, this old lady comes running up to Jamie telling him she needs to get her picture taken with him. We were both so confused. HAHA. She mistook him for Jeff Galloway. I guess she just saw a skinny runner guy that looked legit and thought it must be Jeff. I had a good laugh about that the entire walk back to the car.

Week in Review
55 miles
1 workout
1 race
15 mile long run

With Anthony in St. Louis taking his board exams! He seems to be pretty confident with his performance, so we'll be hoping for good results to come in a few weeks. I was on my own for the second half of the week. I had a good ladder workout on the track earlier this week, and I've been running really strong the last couple weeks. I talked Mom and Dad into riding their bikes with me on Sunday. Good thing because three dogs came running out to the road to follow us! Ever since I was bit running (gosh, was it really almost 7 years ago?!) I've been terrified of unknown dogs. I have two weeks until hospital hill, then a couple more little races until I take some time off to recover and gear up for the fall racing season.

Finisher's medal. The winners got a brick from the old Joplin High School as the award.

Bradleyville 5k

Week in Review
58 miles
1 workout
1 race - 1st place - 17:38
15 mile long run


Saturday, I traveled to Bradleyville, MO with my Mom and Dad to race a 5k. I can't believe it is already May and this was my first 5k of the year. Don't be fooled, I've been racing, just no 5k's yet. This was a big race for me because there was a $500 cash prize.

The race was out in the middle of nowhere and about a 90 minute drive from my parents house, but I'd say it was worth it! I looked up previous results to this race, and was surprised that the winning time was never that fast considering the large prize purse. Well, I figured it out pretty fast when we drove up the huge hill to get to the start line. We were in the heart of the Ozark mountains, and while it was very scenic, it made for a tough course.

Upon arriving, it was already over 70 degrees, sunny, and very humid. The race didn't start until 9 am (they had to give everyone time to get there because it was out in the middle of nowhere). I discovered my roommate from college, Courtney, was there and talked her into letting me tag along on her and Brett's warm-up. 2 miles later, I'd already sweat through my t-shirt and had little rivers of sweat running down my arms and legs.

The course was an out/back with the first mile being nearly all up hill. I had originally planned on opening up with a sub 5:40, but found that this would be an unrealistic expectation. I managed to power my way up the hill and split a 5:50 which I was pleased with. About 3/4 mile into the race, this older man, that looked vaguely familiar (maybe in his low-mid 40's) powers by me just a huffing and puffing, and I thought there was no way he was going to beat me. I was laboring a little, but not near as much as him. I focused on his back and tried not to let him pull any further away from me. He was only about 5-10 seconds ahead of me at the turn around, but I lost focus on the way back. The second mile was rather tough and my Garmin split a 5:57. This had me worried as to whether or not I would break 18 minutes, but I knew that the last mile would be really fast if I could just make it to the two mile mark. Sure enough, I started to close the gap on the nearest competitor (the older guy), but I wasn't even close to catching him. I closed with a strong 5:36 mile down the mountain.

Turns out the guy I was trying to catch was Parkview's coach and he remembered me from running in high school. It also turns out that he was the OVERALL masters winner at the Boston marathon this year! I'm not sure how much he actually beat me by (maybe 10 seconds?) because I can't find the results anywhere. The awards were given out by KY3's sportsman, Ned Reynolds. That was pretty cool. Before he announced my name, he said I was registered as 24 years old, but he didn't believe I could be any older than 16. Haha, I get that a lot :) He even had me say a few words into the microphone about how "unique" and challenging the course was. Thank god I didn't know I would have to talk to the crowd ahead of time. I like to think this course is a good sign for Hospital Hill! Bring on the hills.

400m success

Wednesday:
2.25 w/u
Goal - 4,4,4,2 X 2 @ sub 78 pace
Actual - above
4.5 mi c/d

Total - 10 miles

Anthony and I have got to get something worked out so that we aren't going workouts around dinner time anymore. It sure makes for fast evening when you don't get home from running until after 7:00  pm. We arrived at the Leawood track to find a small team of girls having track practice. Thankfully, by the time we got done warming up, they were almost finished. Turns out they were there for some 400 action also.

With a 20+ mph wind, we went in with a plan of running the back stretch hard, and maintain on the homestretch into the wind. This was Anthony's first speed workout since running the Rock the Parkway Half because he has been sick. It was nice to have my training partner back. He was determined to hang on and not let me break him off ;) We opened up with a 76, setting the bar high from the very beginning.

I'm pleased with the way this workout went, especially since my legs have been feeling tired since after my long run on Sunday. Just to make things interesting, we decided to run the last one fast (we had been chugging along with consistent splits). If you'll recall, the Tuesday before Rock the Parkway, we did a track workout where I attempted to run sub 70 on one of my 400's. Well, I decided to try again!
Unfortunately, I'm yet to go sub 70 (since college). I finished up the last 400 with a 70. Still not too shabby. I have to go back and look, but I'm pretty sure it was a low 70 because I originally thought we had it! Anthony was disappointed because he split a 70 on his watch, and just as I was starting to gloat that my watch said 1:09, I held my wrist out for him to look, and sadly, the Garmin split a 70    :( I really should go look at the split though, because sometimes the Garmin rounds up (okay, I'm stretching it now, we'll call it a 70 and continue to aim for that 69).