Gaining Speed and Half Marathon Goal

After several months of hit-or-miss speed work this spring and summer, I made more of an effort to get to the track this fall.

400s:
June 11: 
Two sets of 5x400m with 400m recovery and 400m between sets.
First set ranged from 1:46-1:53/average 1:51
Second set ranged from 1:43-1:53/average 1:47

October 29: 10x400m with a 200m recovery
Ranged from 1:38-1:45/average 1:42

December 3: 6x400m with 200m recovery
Ranged from 1:37-1:40/average 1:38

800s:
Last September:
7x800m, 90 sec recovery
Ranged from 3:39-3:42/average 3:41

October 15:
8x800m, 2 min recovery
Ranged from 3:22-3:39/average 3:30

November 19:
6x800m, 90 second recovery
Ranged from 3:24-3:29/average 3:26

1000s:
October 1:
5x1000m, 200m recovery
Ranged from 4:34-4:43/average 4:38

October 22:
5x1000m, 200m recovery
Ranged from 4:33-4:37/average 4:35

November 26:
5x1000m, 200m recovery
Ranged from 4:23-4:27/average 4:24

Basically I am listing all of this out to boost my confidence in my ability to run a solid half marathon this Sunday.  My current PR from last year is 1:54:48 (8:45 pace). I beat that on my 12 mile run two weekends ago, averaging 8:35 with a 7:50 final mile and talking most of the run- except for the last mile. 

I have noted that I again avoided long tempo runs.  I did a few mid-distance runs involving 3-4 miles in the middle around a 5k pace, many solid long runs, consistent speed work, plenty of hills, some trail runs, and cross-training in the form of cycling.

Let’s put up some goals.

A Goal: Sub-1:50 (<8:23 pace)
B Goal:  Better than my second to last long run (<8:35 pace, <1:52:30)

For easy math-on-the-run purposes,  an 8:20 pace would be nice. Each 3 miles would be 25 minutes and it would mean a 1:49 and change.

Weather will be fantastic for running but borderline cold for standing around before the 8am start. It’s a point-to-point course, so I may have to actually plan out throwaway clothes or a drop bag for the first time ever.

Now the trick is to turn off my brain which has a tendency to tell me my goal paces are too fast.

More Running Stats & Gratuitous Trail Pics

Week of 6/10
Monday: 1.5 mile “easy” run on hills. By easy I mean 341’ of elevation gain and slow as hell pace.

Tuesday: 2 sets [5x400m, 400m Rest]. Total 6.61 miles.
First set: 1:51, 1:53, 1:50, 1:46, 1:46
Second set: 1:53, 1:49, 1:46, 1:45, 1:43

Wednesday: 7 mi bike ride, easy 13.2mph

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 2.86 mi, avg pace of 8:53, +158’.

Saturday: 13.91 miles on trails. Freaking tough trails.  Yes, it took 2 hours and 52 minutes, but I also climbed 3,056’. Around mile 7 we came to a critical decision point: go back up the way we came down (steep) or go up the shorter yet steeper way. You can see which way we chose. Basically if we were already going to have to hands-on-our-quads-hike up anyway, might as well get it over with sooner.

If I remember how to do math right (Rise over run! See, middle school math IS important), 6.97 mi/1357’ –--> 8.18 mi/2508’ works out to be an 18% grade.

  

  

  

  

Sunday: Rest. I replenished my depleted muscles with In-N-Out.

Week of 6/17
Monday: 2.28 easy miles on the flattish bike path. Avg pace 9:27. My quads were hungover from Saturday’s trail run.

Tuesday:
AM: 2.26 easy miles on the flattish bike path. Avg pace 9:06.
PM: 2x(1200m, 800m, 400m) w/400m recovery, and a few minutes between sets. Total: 5.12 miles.
1200s in 5:50, 5:49.  800s in 3:28, 3:33.  400s in 1:43, 1:48.

Wednesday: 7 miles on bike, avg 13.9 mph

Thursday: 4.46 mi. Attempted tempo run on rolling hills. 3.71 miles at the following paces: 8:42, 9:00, 8:27, 8:22 (.71 mi). Then a .75 mile walk/run uphill cool down.  +676’.

Friday-Sunday: No running or biking, but I did walk my buns off in San Francisco.  My husband had been up there all week for a conference, and I was able to join him for the weekend.  Mini post on that to follow.

Mountain Run Half Marathon Prep

This Sunday, I shall find out whether my recently adopted training method of long mountain trail runs has adequately prepared me for a faster flat half marathon.

Exhibit A:

On October 20th, I did a lovely 12 mile out-and-back run on the Pacific Crest Trail where 2540’ of elevation gain rewards you with views like these:

Exhibit B:

On the 27th I ran up a local mountain aptly nicknamed “The Beast” then continued on to a fire station at the top of a different peak before turning around, for a total of 15 miles with 2879 feet of elevation gain:

In contrast, Sunday will involve running the first half of this:

The day after my 12 mile mountain run, we did a 5 mile hike with a friend with a a mere 1100’ of elevation gain. Just to make sure I totally killed my legs.

The other runs:

Week of the 22nd

Wednesday AM: Crappy 5 miles of speed work on a hotel treadmill while out of town for work again.
Thursday PM: Running club’s Halloween run, 5.72 miles. I skipped on the costume but did wear orange and black. Pace started at a comfortable 9:47, but crept into the 8s and there was even a 7:36 mile. Avg pace: 8:39.
Saturday AM: 15 Mountain Miles (above).

Week of the 29th

Tuesday PM: Short speed work at the track. 6x[400m, 200Rest] in 1:41-1:47,  for a total of 3.65 miles.
Friday AM: It didn’t even happen yet, but I’m predicting the future… 3-4 miles at goal race pace.

And what’s goal race pace?

Well. I don’t know for sure. I haven’t run any real races in a few months but my unofficial-5k-at-the-end-of-a-5-mile-run in 23:54 and my 10 mi tempo run at a 8:30 pace from a few weeks ago point to an equivalent performance of a 1:51ish half marathon. 

That sounds kind of scary and my taper crazies lead me to strongly doubt that kind of speed.  So here’s a range, based on my beloved Run Less Run Faster book:

Equivalent 5k Performance	HM time	HM pace
23:50	1:50:33	8:26
24:00	1:51:13	8:29
24:10	1:52:05	8:33
24:20	1:52:44	8:36
24:30	1:53:37	8:40

Really, my last half marathon in June was a 1:57:13 (8:57 pace) so I will be happy to run anything faster than that.  8:30 or 8:40 make for easy math along the way (17 min/2 miles or 26 min/3 miles). But I could make another one of these pace cheat sheets like I did for Philly last November:

Thanks to Kristy for this brilliant idea. 

Last fall I used my lofty goal of 2:07, which Kristy and Kara said I was capable of (but I was skeptical); then I ran a 2:06:48.  So maybe this Sunday’s pace chart should be geared toward the faster end of my goal again.

Other items to consider:

Daylight Savings! And it’s the good one, where you get 1 extra hour of sleep tossing and turning and waking up at 1am and 2am and 2am (<—DST bonus) and 3am and 4am… in a panic worried that I overslept my alarm.

Warm. Today was comfortable with a high temperature around 70. But no worries, it will warm up again for this weekend.  And because of Daylight Savings, the start time at New-7am will be the Old-8am; so I’ll be running until Old-10am, which will probably easily get into the mid 70s.  At least there is no rain in the forecast; last year it poured.

Is there a “home field advantage” in running? I have run parts of the race course fairly regularly since moving here in February.  Previously my halfs have been new territory.  Either I’ll be able to tell myself “you’ve run this section before, you’ve got this!” or I may poke my eyes out on some of the more familiar sections.

One of said “more familiar” sections:

Now pretend you are standing on this path and I am running toward you. 
That will be me at mile 7 or 8. I can’t tell because that stretch kinda looks the same.

Here’s hoping for something in the low to mid 1:50s…

PS, Good luck to anyone running in NYC this weekend!

Oh, hi October.

Oh, hello there.  It turns out it’s really easy for me to upload my runs on Daily Mile then be done with it, and then I forget to blog.  Or I’m lazy.  Or things just got a little busy, but in a good way.  Things at work picked up, then I got promoted at work, and I started an online class, and we went camping for a weekend.

Let’s summarize October up to this point before I blink again and the month is over. I will try to throw in some pictures to bedazzle this post.

Week of October 1:
Tuesday: 3.1 easy miles to let my quads loosen up after Leona Valley.

Wednesday: 8 mile bike ride/avg 12mph


I <3 our bike path. PS, this is apparently what a SoCal fall looks like.

Thursday: 5 miles, we can call it a progression run. First 2 miles at 10:00 pace, then an 8:00 mile, then 7:35, then 7:19. The last 3.1 mi were in 23:54, and that is an unofficial new 5K PR, friends.

Sunday: 11.5 mi long run.  I tried to plan a new route from my house so I didn’t have to drive anywhere; it turned out to be super hilly; and was therefore no where near as fast as I had hoped. Avg pace 10:18.

On the plus side, when you run up hills you also get nice views, and I saw two real-life Road Runners for the first time.  Not people running on a road, but the bird.

  

Total: 27.68 mi (19.6 Run/8.08 Bike)

Week of October 8:
Monday: 11 mile bike ride/avg 13.8 mph

Tuesday: 4.93 mi. of Speed- 4x[300m,100R], 2x[600m,200R], 4x[300m, 100R]
First 300s in 1:13, 1:17, 1:15, 1:15/600s in 2:38, 2:39/Second 300s in 1:18, 1:15, 1:16, 1:15.

Thursday: 5.37 mi. Reverse progression run? Ran the first 2.7 mi in 7:56, 8:01, 7:50. I appreciated some words of encouragement as two enthusiastic cyclists rode by me and said I was killing it. I was booking it trying to find some running friends who I knew got started about 5-10 minutes ahead of me. I found them and ran 2.5 mi back with them in 9:29, 9:31, 9:44.

Saturday: 4.3 mile unexpected trail run on the Ray Miller Trail in Point Mugu State Park while beach camping.  It was just across the road; I couldn’t resist.

          

It was so pretty and I ran it so slowly.  But there also happened to be 1155’ of elevation gain mostly in the first 2 miles.  It got pretty quiet toward the top and there were fewer and fewer people as I went. Sometimes I get jumpy running by myself when I hear rustling in the brush…And remembering this sign from the beginning of the trail, I decided 2 miles was a good time to turn around and run back down.

 
Perhaps it was just my dog playing Jedi mind tricks on me to get me to come back to our camp site.

   

   

There was an XTERRA trail race that Sunday which included the trail I ran on.  I wasn’t really looking to race, as I should be focusing my efforts at this point on my Nov 4 half marathon, but I have never felt such race-envy!  When we woke up all these cars were parked along the Pacific Coast Highway behind us and I saw everyone pinning on their bibs and I could hear the announcer on a megaphone, and eventually I could see runners making their way down the mountain.  It made me want to run real bad. 

Sunday: 8.7 mile bike ride/avg 12.2 mph. Then I get to count walking my bike up the last half mile of the hill.

Total: 34.86 mi (14.58 Run/19.82 Bike/.46 Pushing a 35lb bike up hill).

Week of October 15:
Tuesday: Call it a belated long run or a long tempo run. I met one of the super speedy runners from my running group for 10 miles in the morning.  He can probably consider it an easy run, but we ran an out and back 10 miles. The first 5 were supposed to be around a 9:00 pace and the last 5 were supposed to be closer to 8:00.  We started faster than I meant to and finished slower, but the first 5 were in 43:52 and the last 5 were in 41:28 so I’ll take those negative splits. I also think 85 minutes is the fastest I’ve run 10 miles.

Thursday: 6.16 miles/avg pace of 8:53. Ran the first four sort of easy-ish, while I chatted with other running group members, in the 9:15-9:35 range.  Then I ran the last two miles in 8:02 and 7:39.

Saturday: Planning a 10-12 mi trail run, whether it’s the practice for the upcoming Griffith Park Half Marathon or a much closer trail run with my running group.  Both start at 6:45am, so I’m guessing I’ll end up opting for the one 15 minutes away instead of an hour away.

Running and Cupcakes

Monday  was a weird day.  I woke up at 4:30am (except since Daylight Savings had just begun, it was really 3:30am Old Time).  I had agreed to play taxi for my husband and his coworkers at 5am, was presented with a glazed donut with sprinkles that I barely remember eating, I got back home before 6am, and went back to bed for a little “nap.”  I had set up the coffee maker for 6:45, positive I’d be up by then.  And planned to go on a long run shortly after. Except I actually woke up at 8.  At least I awoke to the aroma of hazelnut coffee.

I ran 13 miles because I didn’t do a real long run this past weekend.  I didn’t have a pace in mind, but knew that Run Less Run Faster likes you to do most of your long runs at half marathon pace + :20 which for me is around 10:00-10:05.  I should note that while I love RLRF, I sort of mostly abandoned it since moving last month. 

Back to my run.

The first 12 miles were good, I ran them at an average pace of 9:47. Things got a little hairier for the last mile and change uphill.  I started off trying to run uphill for about .3 miles - even if it meant a really slow pace, but after 12 miles it wasn’t happening. I did some short run/walk intervals up the hill then resorted to walking the second half to my house.

I spent much of Monday evening in my Aspaeris Pivot compression shorts, and I even slept in them, hoping they would magically heal me and give me fresh legs for my planned track workout Tuesday night.

Either my legs are getting stronger from the abuse they are taking from the hills here or the shorts worked, but I felt I had a good first track workout.  I’ve done speed work before, but this was my first time on an actual track. Previously, speed work has consisted of programming my watch to beep at me at predetermined intervals while I run through neighborhoods and parks.

The track workout was:

4x[300m, 100m rest] 1:24, 1:24, 1:23, 1:25
4x[600m, 200 rest] (.37-.38 mi) 2:49, 2:59, 2:39, 2:50
4x[200m, 1min rest] (.12-.13 mi) :48, :45, :47, :45

I’d say it was a success as my beloved RLRF tells me I should run 600s in 3:05.

The 600s weren’t too consistent, but the others were pretty close.  I didn’t stare at my watch like I sometimes do for speed work, I just ran and hit the lap button on my watch as I crossed the line on the track.  While I am definitely in the slower half of the group that came to the track tonight, I didn’t feel badly about – I think seeing so many fast people ahead of me motivated me to run faster.

I was proud of my track success and treated myself to a cupcake. 

Actually, I had pre-planned this cupcake, regardless of how the track went.  I’ve been researching cupcake places in my new area, hoping to find something that could rival my most favorite cupcake place in NJ.  I was disappointed to see a lot of mixed reviews for the 5 or so cupcake bakeries on yelp.  Not confidence-inspiring. Maybe individual cupcake preferences vary widely. 

My favorite from Sugar + Sunshine in NJ was the mocha cupcake which was chocolate cake with a coffee buttercream frosting. I could eat that frosting by the spoonful, but luckily they didn’t sell their frosting.

When I learned one of the places here had a Mocha cupcake—but only on Tuesdays—and that it was right near the track, it was a done deal.

I will readily admit that aesthetically it does not even compare. Even before it got knocked around in the bag a bit.

 

But when I opened the bag at home I could smell delicious coffee.  The frosting to cake ratio was good.  The buttercream frosting had the right amount of coffee flavor and was not too sweet; the cake portion was still moist despite me buying it at 8:30pm.

The CA cupcake cost me $3 while my NJ favorite is $2.50.  The NJ one might be a little bigger, too.  But it seems all cupcakes in this area are priced at $3+.  I’ll blame it on the high taxes in this state.

Cupcakes: Yay or Nay?

What’s your favorite sweet/baked good?

Running/Hiking Week in Review

March 5-11

Tuesday: 5.74 miles of running followed by a .62 mile uphill walk "cool down."
I explored new territory and found a route along lots of horse ranches.

When you are loaded, you spend lots of money on a fancy gate for your ranch.

Wednesday: Arm weights + crunches. Specifics on Daily Mile.
5.21 miles of running followed by a .76 mile uphill walk "cool down."

I attempted speed work in a new park that I thought was flat, based on what I saw from driving past it a few times.  It turns out I was wrong and that speed work is very challenging on an incline.  But I still tried all the intervals I set out to do.
 
Goal was 6x800 in 4:08 with 90 second rest intervals. 4/6 weren't bad.

Friday: 5.7 mile tempo run.  Goal tempo pace was 9:20; my average pace was 9:07.  Flat route for a change.
Pushups+Crunches, more here.


Saturday: 8.15 mile run, Average pace was 9:42. I don't really know what this run was as it wasn't quite an official long run.  Just running.

Total running miles: 26.18

Plus a little hiking:
Sunday: 5.22 mile hike at East Canyon.

Elevation Gain: 1153', all in the first half.

 
I guess while it's maintained by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, it's technically the Santa Susana Mountains.

Snake hanging out in the middle of the path. Luckily it isn't the kind that rattles.

Also came across this crazy little lizard. Bronze body, bright blue tail.

At the top, looking West-ish

At the top, looking East-ish

On our way back down, looking North East

Magical Speed Work

I had been putting off this specific speed workout for over a week.  Mainly because it sounds hard.

spoiler alert: I completed this workout.

Not just the running fast part, but the math involved.  Math isn't generally hard for me (let's not talk about anything past calculus though, please), but it is when you have to do most of your runs outside in the dark, you don't have a track to use, and you can't set up a complex interval run on your watch. 

I think Kristy suggested this idea... I made up a little card to bring with me on my run.

It's coated in packing tape because I initially planned to do this run last week in the rain, but I later decided rain + dark + running fast + trying to stare at Garmin for distances = I'd inevitably trip and fall.  I was able to postpone this workout until today, thanks to MLK, Jr, and I was able to do it in daylight.

If I used this little card system again, I would make a little column that told me WHEN to hit the lap button.  For example: if I planned to do a 1 mile warm up, I'd hit the lap button at 1.75 after finishing the first interval, then 1.87 after the first rest interval, then 2.5 after the second speed interval, 2.62 after the second rest interval, etc. 

Instead, I used my 200m rest intervals to whip out my card and calculate when to hit the lap button next, and to try to remember the time goal for the upcoming interval.


I can't fill in a goal time for 200m because RLRF does not provide one (however there is a new revised edition coming out in April that maybe does?).  So I just tried to run the 200 faster than the 400.

Here's how it went:

I was shocked that I consistently ran all of my intervals faster than goal pace.  I didn't feel like dying on the mile cool-down after I finished this.  However, I did walk for the rest intervals.  Because of the weird decreasing-distance-intervals, each successive interval felt easier despite generally upping the pace.

Speed work is magical:
1. It changes your mood! You might be grumpy about having to do it, but after finishing it you will be happy and feel accomplished!
2. It plays mind games with you! At the beginning, it feels like it's going to take forever, and like the paces will feel too hard, but in the final intervals, I sometimes think to myself, "That wasn't so bad, where did the time go? I could probably do one more if I had to."
3. It makes you faster! I think weekly speed work deserves a fair amount of credit for improving my pace this last year.

Do you regularly do speed work?  
At the track, on the treadmill, or on your own?