16-laps-to-the-mile

December 28--

Went to the Y, did a mile in 7:15, lifted (arms and legs), then finished with another mile in 6:35. Felt good and refreshing. For some odd reason I don't mind the 16-laps-to-the-mile donut the Y calls a track. Saw Dave Hinchberger. Nice conversation.

I will have to figure our whether I'll go the distance tomorrow in town or take an opportunity to get in an interval workout.

Armory races: motivate me to do some more speedwork

December 27--
3.2M recovery run. 25:50.

December 26--Holiday Classic at the Armory--NYC

I decided to go to the Armory after all. I drove to Craig Strimel's house (NJ) from Bethlehem, as my family and I were visiting the charming Moravian Book Store, a family tradition. I arrived at his house at about 3:15, and we departed for NYC at 3:35. After a tentative drive during which Craig and I shot the breeze about everything from track to parenthood and education, we arrived at the venue at about 6:20. The meet was to have started at 6:00, but lo and behold the youth meet was still in progress. The open/masters meet wouldn't begin until 7:00 or so, and we wouldn't run the 400 until close to 8:30 or so. I got a pretty good warm-up in, using the second floor hall, which was like a sauna. I stretched down there a bot and tried to stay loose. As it turned out, open and masters athletes were separated, although masters athletes could decide to compete with the younger and faster open athletes if they so desired. I stayed with my own kind. I was seeded fourth and was assigned lane 2 (no one was assigned lane 1) in the faster masters heat. The top seed was 51.9, the second seed was 53., and the third seed, Ray Parker, shared my time of 55.5. I did virtually no striders track side, only one or two starts since I had planned to start down. When the gun went off, I popped up pretty immediately (bad), but I ran the curve reasonably well. By the 100m mark I had caught Ray and found myself right within striking distance of the leaders at the cone break (150m). I tried to relax, hearing 25. for the leaders. I figured I was 26 and change since I was not that far behind. Coming down the homestretch I surged a little and came within a couple of meters of the second runner, who finished in 55.05. I ran 55.35. Ray ran 56.

I felt okay afterwards and was able to jog pretty immediately. I readied myself for the 200, figuring I would run it since Craig mentioned that he had planned to do it. I would be at the Armory anyway, so why not get a run in? I tried to stay loose but could sense that my muscles were stiffening. A little more Icy Hot and stretching helped. I was assigned lane 3 in the fastest of three heats of the 200 with a seed time of 25.0. From the start, the race didn't feel right. I stepped out of my lane in the first 10 meters, causing me to adjust. After this, I could feel my hamstrings tighten and throb, beginning on the backstretch. Despite this, I felt myself closing in on my fellow teammate, whom I was catching, perhaps the result of high knee lift. With less than 75m to go I pulled even with him. Coming down the homestretch he surged and I felt my leg tighten, so I back off. The win wasn't worth what would have been an injury. 25.85.

Perhaps these Armory races will motivate me to do some more speed work. It's hard though, not just because it's difficult to reach the intensity level I need to reach alone, but because my feet and big toe kill when I do any kind of speed work. We'll see.

On another note, I think we might be able to run sub-3:40 in the 40-49 masters 4x400 if Nick runs. Who are the 40-49 guys: Nick, Scott, Craig and me??

I was having problems

December 25, 2011: Christmas Day

Ran 3.2 over the Rustin XC course. 25:30.

I now have to decide whether I will try my luck at the 400 at the Holiday Classic at the Armory tomorrow.

December 24, 2011: Christmas Eve

As much as Thursday was a confidence booster, Saturday was a confidence killer. I set out to do some 300s: 5 sets of 2 300s (or even 3 sets of 3 300s) with a 1 minute/100m break between repeats and 800m run between sets. Goal pace was :50. I ran the first 300 well enough, but the second one didn't feel right. I stopped at the 200 mark, covering it in a pedestrian :35. I was having problems. I then regrouped and decided that perhaps something shorter would undo my flatness. So, I took to some 150s, 8 in all: 24,23,22,22,22,22,22,22. I then revisited the 300s, 5 additional in all, this time taking them with a bit more confidence. I did them in the spirit of the pick-up reps I've done for 400s (8x400, with 2,5,and 8 in 63 and 1,3,4,6,7 in 70). So, my pace for the slower ones was 51 and my pace for the faster ones was 47. I ran 52,47,51,51,47. Since I felt like I wimped out on the planned workout, I decided to run a couple of 100s afterwards for good measure. They were 15 and 14 seconds, My right big toe was bothering me by this point, having tried to wear my old flourescent green and white spikes for my last couple of 100s. Bad move.

Today was a confidence booster.

Thursday, 12/22/11

I decided to bag the usual 7.9M run in favor of some 200s in the 45 degree weather. Given previous experience with early AM 200s, I decided to do 10, with a 100m walk + 100m jog in-between...2 minutes. My runs were: 32,34,32,32,31,31,31,30,30,30. This time two years ago (12/14/09), I ran on average 1-3 seconds slower per repeat.

Today was a confidence booster.

unspeakably slow, too slow in fact

Tuesday, 12/20

For our last Tuesday morning track workout @ Henderson for 2011, we did an easy 800, jogged a 400, hard mile, jogged a 400, and then 4 200s (with 200 jog-rest), progressing from easier to harder.

My 800 was unspeakably slow, too slow in fact, @ 3:10 or so.
My mile was 5:16. 2:31/2:45. I lost touch with Scott Burns, John Callaghan and Ed McConnell at the first 400. I hung back with Kevin, John Manion, another John and another guy whose name I don't know. I pulled ahead of the John M and the unknown guy at about the 600 and stayed behind Kevin for the next 400. I fell back from him with 600 to go but passed the other John (younger) with 450 to go. I saw 3:54/5 at the 1200 mark.

I ran the 200s in 38,36,33,31

Slow and sluggish

Monday--easy 3.75 in 29:40

Sunday --
Did 500,400,300--2 sets w/ 3:00 jog rest (300 m jog) in between repeats. 1200 jog between sets. Felt slow and sluggish.

1:29,67,49
1:29,67,49

Time to ice

Wednesday, 12/14--ran 6.6, 3 Rustin loops.
17:35 --8 min pace
16:25 (34:00)--7:27 pace
15:40 (39:40)--7:07

sore hamstring. time to ice

Tuesday, 12/13--got to Henderson after 6...yes, after 6, because I overslept. It didn't matter anyway since my hamstring was sore. I just ran about 2-2.25 miles around the track with some comrads and called it a day. The workout was 1600, followed by 6 400s with 200 jog-rest.

Ambitious, I know.

Monday, 12/12/11--ran 4.4M, a recovery run. 32:15, about 7:20 pace. Sore left hamstring.

Sunday, 12/11/11--Sunday, 12/12--first meet--Glen Mills. Got there at 9:20 or so. Did not run until about 10:20. Timing was good. Like last year,I put down 2:10 as my seed time. That was my goal. The day was rather chilly but otherwise fine. Warmed up inside. Stretched reasonably well.

"Lane 2"--second person, front line...up....There were five on the back line and four up on the front line. I got out fairly aggressively w/o much effort and took lane 1. I saw 32 on my watch at the 200. I was leading, with Brian Turdo immediately to my right. I did not hear anything at the 400, other than someone tell his buddy/athlete that he had run was right around another 33-sec lap. I wanted to hold position, so I ran a little harder to keep Brian to my outside. At the 575m mark, Brian pulled in front of me. I heard nothing at the 600. With 150m to go, I heard Kyle Lanier say, "Come one, Delvin." On the back stretch, I felt a challenge coming on. The guy came along side me. I assumed he was going to fade, but he kicked into another gear and passed me. I went to my arms as I was going into the final turn. With about 60 to go, I eased up too much; I did not run through the finish. I ran 2:12.9 ht/2:13.11 FAT. Brian ran 2:09-mid. The guy in second ran 2:11-low.

I felt pretty good afterwards. I finished the race and began cooling down before the next heat could begin.

My splits were likely: 32, 65(33), 1:39(34), 2:13(34). A fairly even race. Now, I just have to drop each 200 by 3 seconds! Ambitious, I know.

Saturday, 12/10--took off

Friday, 12/9--4.4M

Thursday, 12/8--skipped distance run in town in favor of 200s at Westtown's track. 200 jog/1:40 between repeats. 33,34,33,35,33,31,31,32,31. See identical 6AM workouts in 2008, 2009, and 2010 around same time of year for comparison.

Wednesday, 12/7--lifting at the Y.

Not bad after 20 200s.

Sunday, 12/4--7.9M in 55:50. 7:04 pace.
Mile 1-7:35
Mile-8-6:45 pace

Not bad after 20 200s.

Increasing speed/decreasing recovery reps

Saturday, 12/3-- I decided to do 200s. Ideally, it would have been the "Increasing speed/decreasing recovery reps" workout of 5x (4x200m) @ 33-32-31-30-29 w/50-45-40-35-30 sec interval by set (no additional recovery between sets!!). However, in light of my fractured toe (turf toe) from the Thanksgiving Day football game and conditioning, I did not complete the workout as designed (above). Instead, I chunked the 20 200s into 5 sets of 4, each faster than the previous, with a more generous rest between each repeat and set. This meant I jogged 100m between each repeat, taking 50 seconds' rest, and jogged 300m between each set, taking a rest time of 2:30-2:45. I confess that I took 5:00 before the last set, as I wanted to run 30s for the 200s. My runs were as follows:

Set 1 (goal pace 35): 35,36,35,35
Set 2 (goal pace 34): 34,34,34,34
Set 3 (goal pace 33): 32,33,33,33
Set 4 (goal pace 32): 32,33,32,32
Set 5 (goal pace 30): 30,30,31,30

My Body's Tired

Friday--my body's tired. Taking the day off.

Thursday--I stayed put in my neighborhood instead of making my way into town since I had to drop my son off at Henderson at 7:10 for a student leadership conference he'd attend at UPenn. My plan was to do the 5.7 route plus a 2.2 Ruston loop for a 7.9, which is the distance I normally run with the crew on Thursdays. Unfortunately, I got a late start and was sluggish to boot and managed 7.3-7.4 in 53:40, which is between 7:15 and 7:20 pace.