Posts Tagged ‘hills’

14 miles in 2:15 around Bedford. Longest training run since fall 2007. I realized this week that the last time I trained for the Richmond Marathon that I didn’t document my experiences very well. Now that I have a decent phone I can take with me and not have it get in the way, I’m going to start taking it with me on more of my runs. Down the road if I’m debating whether to train for a certain race or not, I want to remember scenes like this:

Or, better yet, this. You can never have a bad run when the Peaks of Otter are within view:

Meanwhile, my run around Bedford looked like this. The hill mapping on Daily Mile isn’t quite accurate, but it was still a crazy hilly run. I hit the biggest hill around mile 9, but pushed through it pretty well.

It took Saturday’s race to make me realize this, but my form on hills has gotten sloppy. I guess I have been taking it for granted that I get to run on hills on most of my runs. There is just no way to avoid them. So in the past couple of months, I’ve just been running them without focusing too much on my form and getting better at them.

Tonight was my first effort in a while to get out of my comfort zone with hills. I talked out loud to myself several times when I was going up the hills: knees up, head up, shoulder back, move the arms, shorten the stride. I learned all these things a few years ago in training groups, but somehow I stopped doing this. I couldn’t believe tonight how much I caught myself looking down and dragging my feet. Completely sloppy hill running, which I think has translated into sloppy running all around.

Tonight’s 6.2-mile run was tough both physically and mentally two days after my long run, but it’s what I needed to get things rolling for the whole week. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Just after I got to mile 13 today, I saw my wife and son cheering me on. I saw a big smile on his face … I looked behind me to see no one near me … and scooped him up. Finishing the last little bit of today’s Lynchburg Half Marathon with him was special — something I won’t soon forget. I can’t wait until he can do his first kids race.

As for the rest of the race, I did what I wanted to do — a sub 4-hour marathon pace. I haven’t widely broadcast what I want to do for the Richmond Marathon, but less than 4 hours is my goal right now. So I went into today’s event with the mindset of this being a solid long training run. While I would have liked to have been around 1:50, my finishing time was 1:55:38. There’s really no need for a mile-by-mile recap because everything was pretty steady. Except for one thing.

The biggest issue with getting slowed down was a HUGE hill about three-quarters of a mile long — and it wasn’t really the uphill that caused the issue. Coming back down the hill kind of just killed the whole run. After the bottom of the hill, there were a little more than 3 miles to go. I just couldn’t go. I just settled into a pace a little more than 9 minutes a mile and eased to the end.

To put this hill into perspective, I have mapped this big hill and the middle miles of the race on Daily Mile. This rest of the Lynchburg Half is mostly flat, with some gradual hills along a bike path next to the James River. (For anyone new to my blog, this course has changed drastically from three years ago when it was a mostly flat race. I had NO IDEA that this hill was this big, despite what people told me.)

From a racing standpoint, this just wasn’t that great of an experience. From a training standpoint, it was actually a really good run. I’m not going to complain about it; I’m just going to move on from it. I learned some lessons today about hills — I may run on them every day, but I need to learn to work them better and not let them work me. I think I’ve become too used to them. I smell a hill repeat workout soon.

On a side note, today was the 10th half marathon I have completed since the summer of 2006, and my third this year. The past two experiences — this one with the hill and the Blue Ridge Half in April — have really taught me to respect this distance more than I already did. My other eight half marathon experiences have been mostly flat, including six half marathons at Virginia Beach. Experiences like today and in April are eye opening and why I want to keep going. It makes training for my second marathon all the more worthwhile.

That's me in the green nearing the finish line, probably costing myself an extra second. Thanks to my friend Travis, who I usually run with, for taking this photo. He was a spectator today to watch his wife race.

I’ve left myself speechless. I did 22:41 in today’s Race for Life 5K in Lynchburg, Va. That’s a PR by 1 second - ONE SECOND - breaking my time of 22:42 in August 2007.

There’s not too much to say about this really — I did what I planned on doing. With the first mile being down hill, I just went for it. I hit the first mile in 6:48. The second mile finished going down hill and flattened out a bit: 7:15. The third mile … well, I wasn’t speechless then. I talked to myself out loud for the first time ever in a race. Heading up the hill in the last mile I told myself several times, “You can do this. Just do it.” I dug deep coming up that hill, and I did it. It was one of the toughest ends to a race I have ever done.

My time put me in 45th overall out of 467 racers - a HUGE crowd for Lynchburg. It was great to see so many people taking part in this event today. The volunteers were awesome - they can’t get enough thanks. And there was plenty of food and drink to go around too. I also want to give a shout-out to Dr. David Wimmer of Wimmer Chiropractic who was there. (Full disclaimer, my wife is a patient of his.) I got a free analysis of my back to discover that I’m mostly OK.

My only complaint is that this race has gotten fairly large for a very crammed start with too many people starting toward the front that probably shouldn’t be there. That’s not a bad thing though - it’s a sign of how popular races are becoming around here. That being said, my first quarter mile was slowed a bit because I had to get off the trail to pass people. I could have been a tad faster at the beginning.

But I’m not really complaining. After all, I’ve had two races this year and I’ve had two PRs.

***

Lastly, Jess of the blog Half of Jess, was the official winner of the Shirt Off My Back contest for this race, but she doesn’t want it. I am totally fine with that - it was great to have her guess a time that was 11 seconds of my official time. So, to do the right thing in the contest, I’ll give the shirt to the second closest finisher, Steve of 265andFalling, who was 18 seconds off. If his name sounds familiar to you, it’s because just the other day he did a Q&A with me on this site.

But to all of you who guessed my time, you need to step it up a bit next time I do this. My mom guessed 22:45 last night. Mother does know best!

* The cold weather snap is over! For a few days anyway. Last night was the first time all month that I’ve run in shorts and temperatures should be in the mid-50s tomorrow, actually above normal. Things aren’t looking so good in about a week though. Even if we don’t get snow again, the cold weather will be back. Rumors are already flying around about next week though being bad. I’ll speculate later and get in the miles when I can if wintry weather does return.

* Last night I had what I think was the best short run so far this year. I ran 4 miles, with 3 of them coming in about 24 minutes. It was a good pace for a training run, but it leaves me wondering how well I can actually do for a flat race next month. Three years ago my best Shamrock Half came after training on hills … but that was three years ago. I know hills make me stronger and I hope it translates into a faster time. Speed work like I want to do is hard around here, especially when every flat area available has been snow covered for so long.

* I’ve been in countdown mode this week. There’s only four weeks to go until the Shamrock Half. That seems like such a long time, but it’s not. Despite the scale not quite doing what I want, training has gone well. I’ve stayed injury free and I’ve been consistent. That sets me up well for the whole year. Speaking of the year, it seems so long away, but the Richmond Marathon is now 266 days away.

* I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m on Daily Mile. At one point I referred to it as “Facebook for runners,” but I’m beginning to think it’s more than that. Facebook is a time waster. On Daily Mile, your real and virtual friends lift you up and help hold you accountable in a respectful way. People are nice there. People don’t complain as much. Our society spends time beating people down so much, but this site is the opposite of that. If you’re a runner or an athlete I highly recommend that you check it out. It’s very easy to use and it’s an excellent place to log your workouts. Best of all, it’s free. Click on the logo above to check out my profile and add me as a friend.

For the past few months I’ve been forced into running hills after two years of fairly flat running. It’s taken a while, but I actually like running on them again. And last night I intentionally went on a route that included more uphill than downhill. It felt great.

My overall pace last night was pretty good — right about 9 minute miles for 4.1 miles. To do that comfortably on hills gives me more confidence in my running. It makes me wonder what my race pace is these days for an average flat race. It’s been so long since I’ve even worried about that, but it’s nice to start thinking about it now.

Last night I continued my new Wednesday tradition of long runs. Earlier this month when I was planning in my head what my long runs would be to get ready for the Shamrock Half Marathon, I had hoped to be at about 8 miles this week and ideally hitting 10 miles in mid-February. But I hit 10 miles last night — my first complete double-digit run in January ever. (For the record, my 12-mile journey this past weekend will count as running miles since it was that much effort and then some, but it wasn’t 12 complete running miles. Make sense?)

It was kind of a rough run with lots of hills — around here there’s no escaping the hills unlike where I was living in Richmond. I had to dig deep the last couple of miles. My legs really didn’t want to do it, but my mind did. And last night my mind won. That usually doesn’t happen.

Then tonight I went out for a planned short and slow run with my dog. That turned into a nice 4-mile run in 35:43. Suddenly my slow pace has gotten faster, all on hills. I already wonder what I could do minus 10 pounds and on flat ground.

With tonight’s run, I passed 70 miles for the month. It’s by far the most January miles in a few years. And these have mostly been good miles on hills, in the cold, through rain, into the wind and over mountains. Quality AND quantity.

It wasn’t much, but for the first time this week I went for a run in Bedford today after work … and I ended up tackling a street that had two big hills that I completely forgot about. I was with my dog too, and I think he also forgot what it was like to run on hills. I actually was hoping to run last night, but some heavy rain disrupted that.

It was a nice change to hit these hills and I’m looking forward to more in the coming weeks to help me get back into the shape I want to be in this winter. I haven’t mentioned races in a while, but the 8k in a couple of weeks in Richmond is out — I just don’t have the time with my moving/living situation or money, nor am I in shape enough to do it like I would want. I’m sure I’d be able to run it fine, but I’d be slow and I can run 5 miles somewhere else for free.

My hopes now is to do a Turkey Trot when we visit Ohio at Thanksgiving and the Bedford Christmas Classic in early December, a 5k that I did when I lived around here before. Otherwise, I don’t have much focus on racing — I’d like to just run some hills, get in shape and then focus on, I hope, the Shamrock. If I can build a good base and then start putting focus on that in mid-December, I’ll be able to do what I want to do for that race … a PR.

* * *

The first couple of days in my new job have gone well. As you know, I don’t talk about work on here too much, but I really feel this is the right thing. It hasn’t felt weird to be back in the Lynchburg area at all — of course it’s only been a couple of days and I’m without my wife and son for a few days, so my main focus has actually been to get to Friday afternoon and get back to Richmond to see them. Once they’re around, it will feel “normal.”

Running hills is unavoidable around here, but it is easy to skip the harder ones. This summer I’ve pretty much been avoiding the big hills. Occasionally I have intentionally run a few, but I’ve gotten in a bad mind frame — there are no hills at the beach, so why run them? That’s such a bad way of thinking. I also haven’t been running the hills very hard when I do get to them. I know that hills are beneficial and I know that just in general my runs here will help me in the flatness of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half. But really running hills can go a long way.

Today, for the first time in seemingly forever, I did three hill repeats. In my neighborhood, there are three consecutive dead-end streets with progressively longer hills. Each one is a little longer than a tenth of a mile from the bottom to the top. I started with the easiest, then progressed to the hardest. Then I did the opposite with the hardest first. Instead of casually running them, like I have when I’ve done them before, I ran them hard. I concentrated on getting my knees up; I moved my arms faster to help me get up the hills; I kept my head up; and through it all I thought my heart was going to beat right out of my chest.

It felt great. I didn’t want to overdo it since I haven’t done repeats in so long, but I made sure the next half-mile or so of my run was steadily uphill in my neighborhood. My neighborhood is pretty interesting — I call it relatively flat, but it’s actually uphill from my house to the main road. The main streets in my neighborhood run down toward the James River, although I’m still a good distance from the river. All in all, it’s much hillier than any course at Virginia Beach will be.

Workouts since last post-
Aug. 18: Walk - 1.8; Weights
Aug. 19 - Walk - 1.1; Run - 4.4

I can’t believe that I haven’t posted in about a week - it’s been one of my longest dry spells since I created this blog. Most of the time when people don’t write it’s because things aren’t going so well. For me, though, things have been going great. I’m just taking things one small step at a time.

On Saturday I joined a training group for the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k that’s in April. I’m basically doing this group as a behind-the-scenes blogging for work, but I also like having a group to run with. Although that run was short, it was mainly down a long hill and back up the same hill. With my injury, I had stayed away from hills, so it was a good workout.

On Sunday I decided to let this week be a real starting over week. I took the day off from running and planned to get up and get on a normal schedule on Monday. Only problem is I forgot to set the alarm Sunday night and slept in. I still got a walk/jog in with my dog, only much shorter than I hoped. Tuesday was a solid 3.4-mile run, with a 4-minute half-mile burst thrown in. Today was by far the best mid-week run I’ve had all month, getting in 4.1 miles this morning.

My plan for the rest of the week is a rest day tomorrow, an easy 3 miles or so for Friday, the group run Saturday (likely 3 miles), then I hope 5 or more on Sunday. All told I should be close to 20 miles for the week. I am still keeping a close watch on my foot and will stop at any sign of pain, but things have felt great these past couple of weeks.

Despite running more and eating the same, I’m getting that mid-winter feeling of putting on a few pounds, so I’m determined to make February a very focused month on everything so I’m ready for my half marathon in March. This includes regular tempo runs, regular long runs, ab workouts, solid cross training and maybe the first race since November. It’s time …