Surprise Ice

I've now been racing competitively for 20 years. I'm sure a lot of people might say - "maybe it's time to take up another pursuit. Most of your PR's are behind you. All you have is the long slide to being slow."

There are times where I can understand this point - but, the great thing about racing is that you can always surprise yourself. Admittedly there are many days that I run surprisingly slow. But every once in awhile I pop a good one, where even with all my years of running, I can't even quite explain or understand how it happened.

Today was such a day.

The Maryland Club Challenge 10 miler is run in Columbia, MD. The course is challenging and the field is very competitive for a race run in late February. This is my third time running this race. The first time I was fat, the second time I was sick - I decided it was my time to finally do something. The importance of this race cannot be over stated. The host, Howard Country Striders, has a lot of strong runners - and they seem to always be in shape. It's one of those things where you just start hating another group of people only because they seem to always get the better of you.

On the warm up one of my teammates said how he had heard a territorial dispute outside his window between two owls and a hawk. I asked him "so, who won?"
"Well" he said " the next day the hawk was on his perch."
He said that he takes those kinds of happenings has a sign - I agreed saying "I think it means we need to go out conservative and hawk our opponents."

I tell this story not to brag that I had any kind of fore site - but, rather because this story helped to remind me of the tactical nature of this race. It's early in the season - for most runners this is the first race they've run since the fall and it's not a PR course. So, they just go out and compete. But I knew that the runner who was most likely to win the race was in amazing shape - and he was most likely going to push the pace early - which would cause folks to run faster than they were capable of handling for 10 miles.

The first few miles I tried to pay no attention to how many people were in front of me. I simply relaxed and tried to feel what pace I should run. After about 3-4 miles I could feel the field coming back to me - and that's when I got aggressive. I focused on slowly moving up. By the 8 mile mark I was in 4th place. There was one more Howard County Strider in reach. I pushed as hard as I could, but I couldn't make up any distance. Still - focusing on him probably helped me to not get caught from behind. As I came into the finish line I was surprised to see a time approximately 50 seconds faster than I had dared hope I would run.

It shows that even for those of us on the downward slide - we can still surprise ourselves - and that's what keeps me coming back for more.

On the team front we sweeped the male, female and overall challenges. For at least one day, we were the strongest running club in Maryland.

Last Week
Monday: 9 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday Evening: 12 miles 3X 1mile (5:10;5:08;5:03) + 2X1k (3:08;3:06)
Wednesday: 10 miles
Thursday morning: 4 miles
Thursday evening: 10 miles 4X200m (36, 37.7, 37.2, 36.2) 2X400m (72.3, 74.8) 1X800m (2:27) 2X400m (73.7, 77.4) WINDY all at R pace all with jog same as last interval
Friday: 10 miles
Saturday: 6 miles
Sunday: 16 miles Club Challenge 10 miler 54:09
Total: 81 miles

This Week
Monday: 9 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday Evening: 12.5 miles 6X1mi I pace 800 rest
Wednesday: 8.5 miles
Thursday morning: 4 miles
Thursday evening: 14 miles 10 X 1 mi @ T pace 1-min rest
Friday: 8 miles
Saturday: 10 miles 5 X 1 mi @ I pace 800m rest
Sunday: 20 miles
Total: 90 miles

When yer head gets twisted and yer mind grows numb

Feeling unable to face the still clogged streets of Baltimore and with no options for trail running - I did something I don't usually need to do while running in Baltimore - I tried to find a new running route on the USATF website. I settled on an area that I haven't explored too much - Loch Raven Reservoir. The Reservoir is the main source of Baltimore's drinking water. Nestled in the hills just north of York - the area offers woods and farms less than 10 miles from downtown.
I started in the parking lot of the Hampton National Historic Park just off I-695. The park preserves a huge Georgian mansion built in the late 18th century and an estate that at one time included 25,000 acres. After leaving the park I was quickly surrounded by suburbia. The homes around here are actually pretty modest considering the beauty of the wooded hills and the close proximity to "civilization".
Whatever your feelings about the effect of damns on an ecosystem - they can create incredibly beautiful spaces. Especially on a day like today where the sun was shining on the snow covered hills and icy inlets of the irregularly shaped reservoir. I passed the huge damn - which was originally built in 1881 and made my way to busy Manor Road. The only negative part of this run was the lack of a shoulder on the roads and the aggresiveness of the locals. They didn't seem to be used to a runner suddenly appearing as they came around corners at 50 mph. A couple of times I jumped into the snow rather than risking being clipped by a car.
After climbing a hill for a mile I reached a slightly undulating plateau populated by expansive farms of every kind. Most of my life I've lived in cities, but I've always enjoyed escaping them when I can. I find it almost impossible to be in a bad mood when I'm surrounded by the beauty of the natural world.
This week marks the first time since September that I've run at least 80 miles in a week. I actually feel pretty good. Next week is the always competitive Club Challenge 10 miler in Columbia. I feel pretty good about our chances. Two years ago I was out of shape - last year I was sick - here's hoping that third time's a charm.

Last Week
Monday morning: 4 miles
Monday evening: 6 miles
Tuesday: 8 miles
Wednesday morning: 4 miles
Wednesday evening: 11 miles I pace = 9.1 mph on treadmill w/ 6.0% incline 1 min I pace 1 min easy 2 min I 1 min easy 3 min I 2 min easy 4 min I 3 min easy 3 min I 2 min easy 3 min I 2 min easy 2 min I 1 min easy 2 min I
Thursday: 10 miles
Friday: 6 miles
Saturday: 14 miles 5X ~2mi @ T pace
Sunday: 17 miles
Total: 80 miles

Next Week
Monday: 9 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday Evening: 11 miles 3X(1mile I pace with 4-min jogs) + 3X(1k I pace with 2-min jogs)
Wednesday: 10 miles
Thursday morning: 4 miles
Thursday evening: 10 miles 4X200m 2X400m 1X800m 2X400m 4X200m all at R pace all with jog same as last interval
Friday: 10 miles
Saturday: 6 miles
Sunday: 16 miles Club Challenge 10 miler
Total: 80 miles

An oval workout on a square track

We live one block away from the Downtown Athletic Club in Baltimore. It's a large cavernous place - I learned yesterday that it was a train depot connected to the old Calvert Street Station where an angry mob of secessionists waited for Abraham Lincoln on his way to DC for his first inauguration. Lincoln never showed up - as his handlers were so confident that he would be killed in mobtown that they slipped him through the night before.
Although I've belonged to the club since we came to Baltimore I had never brought myself to run on the track. The surface is pretty decent - but the turns are square and tight. At ~9 laps per mile (from the outside lane) I figured that it was ~2 1/4 laps for 400m. The plan was to do 12X400 with 400 rest. Bad weather is usually so fleeting in Baltimore that I would have just postponed this workout - but, with the amount of snow on the ground I don't think an outdoor track will be clear till about mid-march.
I'm no stranger to oddly configured tracks. In college, at Loyola Chicago, our winter training facility was a 150m banked wooden track suspended over the basketball court in Alumni Gym. Alumni Gym, built in 1923, was used for basketball as recently as 1996. Though only large enough for a few thousand fans it was home to the 1963 national championship basketball team. In 1978 the Ramblers beat Larry Bird and Indiana State there - as well as Georgetown.
When I first saw the track during my recruiting visit I thought they couldn't be serious that we actually ran workouts up there. Not only were the turns banked pretty high - but, there was only a flimsy looking guardrail keeping you from falling to the court below.
Built by some guys on the team in the late 80's because they were tired of working out on the concrete floor of an old Armory - the track was built the exact specifications of the track used for the Millrose Games in New York. Among these runners was Eddie Slowikowski, a sub 4 min miler and Marc Burns, the anchor leg of a 4X800 team that would get 3rd place at the NCAA indoor meet and current track coach at Wichita State.
I decided - if it's good enough for them it's good enough for me. So, I ended up embracing it. My coach, Gordon Thomson used to love telling open eyed recruits - "this thing is built for speed". And in a way - it was. The banked turns were at a high enough degree that you could go sub-60 400m pace and hardly feel it. A 400 m interval had us starting at the top of the bank down to the straight away. It was almost cheating because you had that little downhill at the beginning of each interval.
As I started my first 400m yesterday I thought about those countless workouts. It's good to be reminded from time to time that running is about overcoming obstacles. Conditions are almost never perfect and if you learn to stop making excuses and just do the best with what you've got you can end up being even better than if everything is given to you on a silver platter.

Last Week

Monday: 9 miles

Tuesday morning: 3 miles

Tuesday evening: 11 miles 5X5 min treadmill speed 9.2 incline 6.0

Wednesday: 8 miles

Thursday : 0 miles

Friday morning: 4 miles

Friday evening: 8 miles

Saturday: 12 miles 12X400 R pace

Sunday: 18 miles

Total: 73 miles

This Week
Monday morning: 4 miles
Monday evening: 9 miles
Tuesday: 10 miles
Wednesday morning: 4 miles
Wednesday evening: 11 miles 6X (600m I pace 1 min rest 400m I pace 30 sec rest 200m I pace 30 sec rest)
Thursday: 8 miles
Friday: 4 miles
Saturday: 17 miles 5X2mi @ T pace
Sunday: 13 miles
Total: 80 miles

Be careful what you wish for

This was kind of a glass half full - glass half empty week. On the empty end I only ran one hard workout and didn't run my 5X1 mi - which is a very important workout for 5k/10k fitness. On the full end - my mileage didn't suffer too much even though the last three days the weather has been pretty awful.
This week is more of the same - with a 5k scheduled for Sunday. I'm guessing that since the highs are supposed to be within a few degrees of freezing this entire week that I'll probably be forced to use the treadmill for my hard runs. The 5k will be the biggest test I've had in awhile. I'm guessing that I'll be somewhere in the low to mid 16's - but, I'm not really sure.

Last Week
Monday: 9 miles
Tuesday: 10 miles
Wednesday: 10 miles 3X2 mi tempo (11:01;11:10;11:07)
Thursday : 8 miles
Friday: 8 miles
Saturday: 7 miles
Sunday: 17 miles
Total: 69 miles

This Week
Monday: 9 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday evening: 10 miles 5X1 mi I pace
Wednesday: 8.5 miles
Thursday : 11 miles 7 miles T pace
Friday: 12 miles
Saturday: 4 miles
Sunday: 17 miles 5k in NOVA
Total: 75.5 miles

A Poem for the Powdery Apocalypse

Beware! O! Baltimore! Beware!

For the first flakes of the apocalypse will soon fall upon us!
Be not distracted by their blinding whiteness, nor their charming uniqueness;
For in each singular geometric shape lays the seed of thy destruction!

Stock up at thy Safeway, thy Super Fresh, even they Shoppers Club
For the first dead will be carried away due to malnurishment;
An affliction hitherto unknown in the Land of Pleasant Living

Do not tread on thy sidewalks or streets the skid demon will have doman over all;
For in all of Mary Land there exists not enough salt to combat the Great White Death!

Beware! O! Baltimore! Beware!