Motivation

 

It's really amazing what little things help bump up the motivation. Recently, Abbott World Marathon Majors put together a virtual challenge where starting in a couple weeks, each week has two challenges (2.62mi and 26.2mi -- that can be completed across multiple runs) that will correspond with a different one of the six Majors. They also have a couple of other challenges, related to running a marathon distance in one event. Not sure what there will be on the other end beyond some semblance of online badges. (They do have medals for purchase for completing any given challenge, but I'm not about to pay $15 for each of those medals.)

Even more motivational is finally getting access to the Boston Marathon's Virtual Experience website where I finally got to see the bib number I would have gotten had the race happened in April 

OMG! I suspected that I would have gotten into Wave 1, but I didn't know until now that that really would have been the case. Wave 1 Corral 8. But, still, a red bib! Runners with the red bibs are practically royalty among the runners that morning. (Especially those who are in Wave 1 Corral 1 -- bibs under #1000.) For everyone, the lower the number, the better your ranking -- everyone is placed in order of their qualifying times.

I'm all set to run a Boston-certified marathon in October. And so far, my training is on pace for my breaking 3 hours. (!) To think that my bib number may drop a few hundred more. Now THAT is some great motivation for a Boston runner -- to get the lowest bib number possible.

And I will also be pacing the 3:55 group in a marathon in a few weeks. Included in the virtual toolbox included by BAA are printable signs re: entering the eight towns that the Boston Marathon runs through. I plan to print those out and display them at the appropriate points along the course for my runners. It's something minor, but suprisingly meaningful for this Boston Marathon runner.

Sore, and mini-rant re: masks while running

Wow, these last several days since the 10k time trial have definitely been kicking my butt. Fast (though not tempo pace) both Wednesday and Friday to get mileage in, tempo run on Thursday (oy!). And this morning, 6 miles "as you feel" -- no set pace, just run to comfort. Even so, running each mile in the 8:00 - 8:30 pace, just about everything was sore: my glutes, to some extent my quads, and even my calves were a litle tight (though not too bad). I'm looking forward to having my rest day, but that won't be until Monday, after doing 16 miles at a reasonably fast clip tomorrow.

I ran the streets by my gym. And, since the gym requires everyone entering/exiting the gym to wear a mask, I brought the "surgical" mask with me on my run. No, I didn't run while wearing it -- I don't plan to ever do that sort of thing, and this was additional reason as to why. During the run, I was holding the mask by the ear loops in one hand. Once I got back to the gym, and after wiping down my face (to the extent possible with a sweaty shirt), I dutifully put on my mask to enter the gym and get to the locker room, where I promptly removed the mask -- and it was soaking wet. This after only walking a couple of hundred feet. I can only imagine how nasty it would be to be running any appreciable distance while wearing a mask, and all the chafing that sould likely result from doing so. Never mind the nuisance of moving it enough to be able to drink water or eat gels on a frequent basis. No thanks -- never going to happen here.

More mental than physical?

Tonight was thoroughly exhausting. I had yet another 10k time trial to undertake, with the goal of breaking 40 minutes. Boy, howdy, was that hard. 9.5 mph the entire time -- 39:40 final time.

The first mile wasn't so bad -- a little tiring but still feeling good. After that, the level of effort quickly climbed to about an 8 out of 10, and was pretty much a 9 out of 10 soon thereafter. It was a continual effort to "run the mile [I was] in" (thanks, Ryan Hall). The television wasn't sufficiently distracting (and the closed captioning was poorly placed to make it easy to read while running at that pace), so breaking everything into smaller chunks helped immeasurably. Break it down to the mile worked early, and then .1 miles to have a 5k split. Then rounding out that 4th mile. The hardest section was the last 2 full miles because of not being able to break each of those down to anything more meaningful than the mile itself -- and given how much my legs were not happy with it, that was arduous. Then the last .2 miles, while difficult, were brief enough that it was energizing approaching that virtual finish line.

I still don't know how my Garmin Forerunner 235 determines what it predicts for times, because I don't find any of them as plausible:

5k: 17:01 (my best 5k was the 1st half of today's 10k, at 19:50)

10k: 35:20 (How, given what I did for today's run? And my Garmin actually though it was only 5.8mi to boot, since the faster I run on the treadmill, the less accurate Garmin's mileage is.)

Half: 1:18:04

Full: 2:43:12 (Ha! Pipe dream. I'm training to crack 3 hours. Garmin's algorithm must be on something to predict something this much faster.)

Happy to be back on treadmill

Yep, you read that correctly. I like the treadmill.

While the "dreadmill" has a bad reputation, I *greatly* prefer using it for my training. I find it eminently easier to do the paces that I want -- all I need to do is keep up with the machine rather than make sure I independently arrive at and keep the right pace. Outdoors my pace fluctuates FAR too much, both within any given mile (5:11 pace to start off an interval on Tuesday - really?) and between the various miles. There is no such fluctuation possible on the treadmill unless I purposely ratchet it down for some reason.

For nearly the past 2 weeks, I was self-isolating because of a co-worker who had COVID-like symptoms. (Ultimately, he tested negative, and I never had any symptoms.) During the self-isolation, my training runs were on the path that goes behind my apartment complex -- avoided the gym completely. Today was my first day back at the gym. And today's 5-mile tempo run went swimmingly. (I'm sure it would have been so much more difficult if I were outdoors.) 7:35 pace for my first two miles (and last mile), and 6:40 pace for miles 3-4. First segment felt easy. Second segment was getting slightly more difficult near then end of those two miles, but not bad at all. Very pleased with the outcome.

Going out too fast

What a day. Thankfully, the remnants of the tropical storm weren't too bad out by me and I was able to get in my hard SOS run today. I haven't yet figured out what my pace is when I first set to running; I almost always go out far too fast compared to the desired pace. Today was more of the same. 

While I may have naturally pulled back a little bit, and then pulled back a little bit more once I saw what my pace was, that doesn't lessen the fatigue that I went through needlessly in those first 15-30 seconds. My pace was supposed to be 6:05/mi for my ½-mile intervals, but I kicked off my first one at 5:11 pace. Granted, that didn't last long at all, but it's still way too much of a burst of energy. It took me about four intervals to come much closer to the right pace from the outset of the interval in question. Anyone have a good idea for how to properly get to the right pace quickly, without overexerting oneself? Treadmills make it easy, but those aren't helpful when training outdoors. :-)

Mile   Planned    Actual   

.5       3:03          3:05

1        3:03          3:02

1.5     3:03          3:00

2        3:03          3:04

2.5     3:03          3:03   

3        3:03          3:15

3.5     3:03          3:06

4        3:03          3:14

5        6:30          6:49

The other interesting thing to note about today's run is that my initial (and every other) segment was slightly downhill (about 30 feet), with the intermediate/return segments being back uphill. Despite the moderate headwind on the downhill segments, those segments (save for the first one) were always faster than the return trips. That such a mild hill has that much of an effect is rather notable. Definitely explains why there is as much of an effect as there is on my runs during the obvious uphill segments.

Adjusting for heat and humidity

I still haven't quite gotten the knack for figuring out just how much to adjust my pace when running in overly trying conditions. I know that the rule of thumb is about 9 sec/mi for every 5F over 60F, but at what point does the humidity also get factored in? I finally found a table that gives a suggestion for how to factor in the humidity (though it seems like it errs on the overly conservative side -- it certainly does for the temperature adjustment): https://images.app.goo.gl/G3DfxJg5DZ4RyzBm6

Mile    Goal    Actual

1         7:30     7:42

2         7:30     7:27

3         7:30     7:47

4         7:30     7:54

5         7:30     8:00

6         7:30     8:08

7         7:30     8:09

8         7:30     7:59

9         7:30     8:08

10       7:30     10:26 (walked for .29mi because of HR spike)

11       7:30     8:13

12       7:30     8:09

13       7:30     8:22

14       7:30     8:14

Goal Total 1:45:00 (without any adjustments)

Actual Total 1:54:29 (overall pace 8:11)

Looking at HR data from my Garmin, I was actually doing a generally good job of keeping an even HR for most of the run, which fits in with my general impression of doing an even effort across the run (save for that one HR spike). Going a little slower would likely have had my total drop by a couple of minutes, at least, without need for walking for 4.5 minutes