Week 9 Training Update

3 Nov

My training went well last week. I managed to put in 37 miles, and that's with two days of complete rest and one day of only three miles. Tuesday was a track workout with Coach Bill and the training group. There's this guy named Martine who comes to the workouts, a Mexican born 42 year old who runs a 70 minute half marathon. Twenty years ago he also ran 14:40 for the 5000. He pretty much smoked me on Tuesday. We did a bizarre workout that Bill borrowed from one of the local university coaches: hard segments of 15, 30, 45, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 1:30, 45, 30, and 15 with equal rest. We did two of these pyramids. I didn't feel great during the workout, but it was good for my body to get in some much needed leg speed. I haven't done anything that ballistic in a long, long time. The next day, I did a 57 minute run at around 6:15 pace and felt great. I can't remember ever feeling that good on a long run. I've discovered this dirt square of around 1200 meters near my apartment. I'll definitely be doing lots of my long runs on that, and once I get it measured (I'm about to order a measuring wheel) I'll be able to do 1200-2000 meter repeats. The day after that (Thursday), I intended to do some 1200s on this square (let's just call it the Square), but my legs were so exhausted that I swiftly realized it wouldn't be a good idea. I therefore rested until Saturday, when I did my usual morning run along the canal with Coach Bill's group. I did 10.5 miles at a 6:12 average pace, one of my best long runs ever. I was able to gauge pace and distance because I ran the first half with Martine, and he knows the distances. I did the latter half in around 6:08 pace. I felt kind of bad in the first half because on several occasions Martine tried to talk to me, but I could only respond with short phrases in between breaths. He was running effortlessly at our 6:15 clip. That's what 20 plus years of experience will get you, I suppose. My legs were pretty dead at the end, and it was definitely a moderate struggle to sustain my pace. Still, this was an encouraging run. My stamina is building. Even at the height of my abilities as a freshman in college, I never did 10 milers at that kind of pace.
On Sunday I intended to do a 3200 meter time trial as a gauge of fitness. However, the local high school track was closed for repair so I had to settle for a two mile easy run instead. So this afternoon, I went to the track on base after work (I'm an Air Force officer at Luke AFB, Phoenix) and gutted through the 3200 in my road racing flats. I felt very fresh during the warm-up, so I felt fairly confident that I could crack 10:30. I tore through the first 400 in 73, then 1600 in 5:06. I didn't feel good at the halfway point. I went out too fast. Inevitably, I slowed down. My 1.5 mile split was around 7:47. I finished in 10:25, with a 75 second last lap. I'm pleased with the result. My PR as a junior in high school was 10:19. With spikes, competition, and even pacing, I'm pretty sure I could run 10:10-10:15 right now. So at the conclusion of nine weeks of moderately intense training, I'm back to the sub 10:30 2-mile range. That's a lot of progress in a fairly short amount of time. It wasn't that long ago that I could barely run 9:00 for 1.5 miles. I'm confident I can run 16:45 at the Phoenix 5K on Sunday, or 5:25 mile pace. A sub 16:40 might even be possible, provided I run smart and I don't blast through the first mile in sub 5:15, which I have a historic tendency to do.
I still have 5 more weeks of training until my final road race of the season, the Fiesta Bowl 5K on 14 Dec. 16:10 is a feasible goal. I'm going to ramp up my mileage and intensity in the run-up to this race. In four weeks I should be fit enough to run a 10:05 3200 meter time trial. If I can do that, that would mean being pretty damn close to my 9:52 fitness from high school. I can't wait to see what I can do in April, after I put in a strong winter base. I definitely feel confident about running 4:02 by early June. The only thing that can stop me is injury. I've been doing push-ups and core work 2-3 times a week, along with some Yoga poses. After the 5K this Sunday, I'll start adding in drills and lower-body exercises 2-3 times a week.
The phoenix is on the rise!