Madness and Methods

Jul 21, 2013 by Greg Fowler

If you wake up and don’t want to smile,
If it takes just a little while,
Open your eyes and look at the day,
You’ll see things in a different way.

Don’t stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here,
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.

–Don’t Stop, Fleetwood Mac

It wasn’t long after my disappointing second half collapse in the 2013 Columbia Marathon, that I told my friend and training partner, Craig, that I was going to shoot for a Boston Marathon qualifying time (BQ) in my next marathon.  “You mean you haven’t been?” he replied.  Ha, ha.  Amateur night is Thursday down at the comedy club, my friend.

He was right, though.  I hadn’t been holding anything back in my marathon efforts.  However, my best wasn’t good enough.  As a matter of fact, it was not even been close.

If you don’t know, to run the  Boston marathon, you must qualify in your age group by beating a certain time in a certified marathon.  This year, I moved up an age group, shaving 10 minutes off my time needed just by getting older.  Still, the time to beat for my 45-49 age group is 3:25:00.  That’s three hours twenty-five minutes, a 7:49/mile pace.

How far away am I?  My best marathon so far was 3:47:40 at Myrtle Beach in 2011.  So, my best is twenty-two minutes short of where I need to be, about 40 seconds per mile too slow.  That may not sound like much, but over the course of 26.2 miles, it is.

How do I plan to do this? I am returning to the “method” or training plan/philosophy I used in that best time at Myrtle Beach in 2011.  For the next 16 weeks, I will be following the Run Less Run Faster (RLRF) plan for beating 3:25:00.  The authors of RLRF say 3:25:00 is realistic if your 5K time is 21:06 or better.  My best recently was 21:26. That puts me a bit short but I’m just dumb enough to try.

During the week, I will do three quality runs.  The first will be a speed work session at the track.  The second will be a tempo run, slightly slower and usually longer than the speed work.  The final will be a long run, ranging from 13-20 miles. The workouts are a bit more intense than I have done in a while.  I will have a tough time meeting the run workouts, especially in the summer heat.  That’s part of the plan, too, though.  Suffer in the heat, and hope a November race is nice and cool.  That is much better than training in the cold and having an unusually warm race.

How does one run less and yet run faster?   By substituting “junk” mile recovery runs with cross training that works the aerobic system while resting the legs.  My cross training will consist of swim and cycling workouts, and I will do these between run days, not running two days in a row.  When I first attempted to follow this plan in 2011, I did no swimming, and my cycling was done on a low end exercise bike I bought for the house.  This time, I have access to a gym pool, and I plan on doing mostly swim cross training.  I also have a road bicycle now, so I may add an additional sixth workout on days after my long run, an easy recovery bike ride.

So, can I accomplish 3:24:59 or better?  We’ll see. Another source, The Runner’s World race predictor calculator, says I can do 3:25:34 with a 5K time of 21:26.  Should be interesting.

Final Puzzle Piece

In addition to following a more structured plan again, I have one other strategy for this race.   Since my last three road marathons were fairly hilly courses, I plan to return to the coast for this effort.   I have signed up for the Outer Banks Marathon in North Carolina on November 10, 2013.  Apparently there is only one hill, a bridge about the 23 mile mark.

That’s it for now.  Each week leading up to the marathon, I will post my scorecard for the week.  In the scorecard, I will list what the workouts were and how close I came to completing them in the appropriate time.

POFIFOTO!

 

 

 

read more

Motivation: Past and Present

Jul 16, 2013 by Greg Fowler

But it’s alright with me now
I’ll get back up somehow
And with a little luck, I’m bound to win
I’ll fall in love, I’ll fall in love again

–I’ll Fall in Love Again, Sammy Hagar

In summer 1983, a young man moved to my town.  Let’s call him Jack.  Like most kids moving to a new town, Jack made new friends.  Being tall, blonde, and athletic, this wasn’t hard for Jack.

Problem was, unbeknownst to me,  Jack became really good “friends” with my girlfriend.   I was soon history.  Word traveled much slower back then in the prehistoric land line phone days, but eventually word got back to me there was a new kid in town that contributed to my demise.

So, school started back, and there they were, roaming the halls together, Jack, the football player, and my ex, the cheerleader.  They sure made a cute couple, at least to everyone but me.  One day word came that Jack was going to try out for basketball.  Word on the street was that he was pretty good. Might even vie for a starting spot. Well, guess who’s territory that was.  That’s right.  Mine.

To say I was looking forward to tryouts was an understatement. I had a new motivation and focus.  Poor guy showed up never had a chance.  There may have been more flagrant fouling than usual, but that’s could just be called aggressive defense.  I don’t remember for sure, and YouTube didn’t exist, so there’s no evidence. Jack did make the team, but he didn’t take my starting spot.  We are actually friends today, thanks to teammate bond trumping other issues.

So, that was my motivation all those years ago – girls, jealousy, pride, revenge.  Looks like there should be a sermon in there somewhere.

Has much changed since then?  I hope so.  I do get slightly motivated by girls, though, but that’s just when trying to speed up as I’m getting passed by one!  These days, I’m motivated by a few different things.

First is health.  I took up running in late 2008 because I was out of shape and the job was about to get stressful.  Running really helped me survive 2009.  I lost weight and became fit.  It was a big challenge to learn the fine line between being fit versus constantly injured, but I think I found that. I’ve not really mentioned it here before, but 2012 made 2009 look like a walk in the park.  Running helped get me through that as well.

Second is continuous improvement.  I took up running later in life.  I’m not an ex-high school cross county star coming back after twenty years.  So, I believe my best running days are still to come, and I suppose I’m on a quest to find out my limits.

So, how can you, dear reader, fall in love again (or maybe for the first time) with running?  Here are some tips:

• Find a running/workout buddy.  Call this an accountability partner.  You don’t have to do all your runs or workouts together, but it really helps to check on each other’s progress and provide encouragement.
• Go run somewhere new. Are you primarily a road runner?  Then go find a trail.  Like the trails?  Then go find a new one.
• Enter a race.  Go ahead and pay for a 5K one month from now and start training today.  If you haven’t run in a while, don’t be concerned about time, just plan on finishing.
• Don’t think racing is for you?  Volunteer to help at a race.  You may be surprised at the people out there and say “Hey, I can do that, too.”
• Finally, set a stretch goal and let others know it.  This is what I’ve done.  And here it is: Beat 3:25:00 in my next marathon, which will qualify me for the Boston Marathon.  That’s quite a step up from my previous marathons. I’ll reveal more on this goal in my next post.

Until then, POFIFOTO!

 

 

 

 

read more

Race Report: Hewitt 5K aka Blind Squirrel

Jul 2, 2013 by Greg Fowler

The Cause

Normally, my spring running seasons ends with the Jailbreak 5K over Memorial Day weekend.  After that, the warmer weather and higher humidity do a number on my already mediocre speed, and the number of events to choose from drops dramatically.  This year, I decided to make an exception.

A new race popped up, and it was for a very worthy cause.  The Hewitt 5K was held on Saturday June 29th at Chapin’s Crooked Creek Park.  The race was to help raise money for a pavilion at Chapin Baptist Church that is being built in memory of Parker and Haley Hewitt, two children who lost their lives in a car accident four years ago.  Sounded like a great reason for me to put myself through the pain of a possible hot and humid 5K.

The Race

So, on Saturday morning, I set out to Crooked Creek Park.  In an un-Greg like move, I decided not to research the course route beforehand.  I knew some high school cross country meets were held at the park, so   I suspected the course might have some off payment sections.  I arrived in plenty of time to get my packet and warm up.  The good news was the sky was overcast and it was a bit breezy.  Bad news was the typical South Carolina summer morning humidity was there. Oh, well.  This was still better than I expected.

I could see the finish line was setup in the middle of a soccer field.  So,  the off pavement suspicion was confirmed.  During my warm up, I also discovered some white arrows on the pavement and decided to follow them.  They took me down winding paved trails.  I suspected this was part of the course.  I  followed them far enough to encounter some short steep hills and turned around to head back to the start area. During my two miles of easy warm up, I didn’t have any trouble working up a sweat.  I was ready to go.

So, there I was at the start.  A month had passed since my last race, also a 5K, and even a PR.  I’d been training hard, and really wanted to improve on that PR, but I knew that would be tough this morning.  I felt twenty-two minutes would be a victory given the humidity and course.

I’ll try not to bore you with too many details.  Here’s how it went.  I went out pretty fast with the lead pack.  After a half mile or so, we hit those paved trails I had found in warm up, and I couldn’t keep with the lead group.  I found myself in no man’s land, running by myself.  A few minutes later, my watch beeped for the first mile split and it said 7:12.  That seemed too slow based on that start.

Unfortunately, my brain cannot turn off the number crunching, and immediately I knew that I’d need to run 6:30 mile splits the remainder of the way to get a PR, if my watch was indeed correct.  About then, I hit that first short step hill.  It felt like someone put the brakes on me. Then there were some more rolling hills.  With no one close behind me, I just decided to try to keep a steady pace.

About the half way point, we looped around a couple of baseball fields.  Here, I could glimpse behind me and saw a guy less than 100 yards back.  He looked like a possible age group threat.  My number one goal now  became to not let him pass me.   I was fading, and I hoped he would, too.  Eventually, we emerged from the paved trails and headed back into entrance to the soccer field.  My watch said 19:00, and I could see the finish line.

Unfortunately, we still had to loop back to the far side of the field and back.  The guy behind me was now very close.  I was fading faster than he was.  We rounded the last corner and a spectator yelled ‘He’s gaining on you!’ I don’t know if he was lying or not, but I did my best to pick up my pace and held him off, managing a 22:13.

Turns out he wasn’t in my age group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blind Squirrel Finds an Acorn

If you aren’t aware, most races have an overall winner then  break up the field into age groups, usually in 5 year increments.  This gives us regulars a chance to compete.  Five years ago, in my first 5K, I actually won first place in the mail 40-44 year-old group.  I didn’t really know what fast was in a 5K back then, and I thought my 23:30 something was not bad, until they announced the overall winner .  He was my age, but ran the race in under 16 minutes.    Oh.

Over the past 5 years, I had not placed first in my age group again.  I did manage a third that first summer, but since summer of 2009, I’ve been shutout.  Until now.  My 22:13 was good enough for 1st place in the male 45-49 group and 12th overall.  As a bonus, they didn’t give out medals, but instead gave sugar cookies with the race logo in icing.  Much better than a medal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, Heather Hunt finished first at 18:37.  Pretty darn impressive for a 38 year old, I think. For the complete results click here: http://www.strictlyrunning.com/results/13hewitt.txt.

POFIFOTO!

 

read more

Fool In The Rain

Jun 9, 2013 by Greg Fowler

 I’ll run in the rain till I’m breathless
When I’m breathless I’ll run till I drop, hey
The thoughts of a fool’s kind of careless
I’m just a fool waiting on the wrong block, oh yeah
– Fool In The Rain, Led Zepplin

As the remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea moved through South Carolina the other day, my son and I headed out for a run in the rain.  What a difference a few years can make.

Flashback: February 2009

The day before my first race, the weatherman delivered good news and bad news.  The good news?  The late February race had a forecast of pretty warm weather for that time of year, in the fifties.  The bad news?  The warm weather was bringing an almost 100% chance of rain for the race start.   Having just started running over the previous eight weeks, I had become fairly adjusted to running in the winter cold.  However, I was totally unprepared for running in the rain. So, here it was, the day before, and I was frantically searching Google for ways to deal with rain.

The next day, the weatherman actually got it right.  It did pour down rain, and I had my first run in the pouring rain.  Not only was I now hooked on running, I was hard core.

So why should you run in the rain? 

Here are a few reasons:

1. They rarely cancel races for rain.  If you haven’t run in the rain, how do you know if you’re prepared for a race in the rain?

2. It makes you tougher mentally.  A few weeks before my last marathon, I was scheduled to run my final long run.   The only window of opportunity I had for the weekend run was 8:00-11:00 Saturday morning.   Unfortunately, it was 40 degrees and raining hard.  I went anyway.   After 3 hours and 18 miles, I was soaked and nunb from the cold, but I was ready for the marathon.

3. It is fun and makes the neighbors shake their heads. It might even make you feel like a kid again.

 

Here are some tips for dealing with the rain as a runner:

1.  Use BodyGlide on your feet.  Remember that frantic search of Google I mentioned earlier?  BodyGlide was the discovery that day.  I works well in many other places, too, not just feet in the rain.

2. Experiment with socks. I feel thin are best. Injinji toe socks are my favorite. That 3 hour rain soaked run I mentioned earlier?  Injinis.  No blisters.  Amazing.

3. Try trail running in the rain.  If the trails are wooded enough and the rain is on the light side, the trees may keep a lot of the rain off.

4. Check radar, if possible, and don’t run in a thunderstorm. I hope this is self-explanatory.

5. If you choose to run with storms in the area, take a phone with you.  I misjudged radar speed last summer and was caught a few miles from home in a lightning storm and had to call in the home rescue squad to come pick me up.  (On the bright side, I had an impressive speed workout on the way to meet the car!)

6. Make a poncho. On race day, warming up in the rain is not fun.  Make a poncho out of a trash bag and toss it aside right before the start.

7.  Another race day warm up tip: If the parking logistics work for you,  warm up using a backup pair of shoes, then change socks and shoes as close to race start as possible.

I hope I have convinced you to at least try running in the rain.

POFIFOTO!

 

read more

Race Report: 2013 Jailbreak 5K

May 30, 2013 by Greg Fowler

About 7:15am, I pulled into my parking space at Jailbreak last Saturday.  I was alone, and the anticipated father vs. son battle was not going to happen.  I assume  son was scared of the old man running him down.  The reality is he’s a teenager, and I don’t understand what he thinks most of the time.  He had just decided not to run.

Anyway, since I was by myself, I had the radio on the station I wanted, and as I parked, Freebird came on the radio.  Hope that is a good sign, I thought to myself.  Since this was only a 5K, my playlist for this run did not include Freebird, so I just listened for a minute.

I stepped out of the car and walked down to some nearby soccer fields to warm up on the paths around the fields.  The weather was unusually cool for late May in the midlands of South Carolina – around 50 degrees with low humidity.  Perfect for a run, though.  If I didn’t run well today, I could not use my weather excuses.  Darn.

After warming up, I made sure I was at the starting line early enough to be toward the front, just after the big dogs.  The starter finally gave the go, and I pressed the start button on my watch as I took off.  Uh-oh.  My watch said MEMORY FULL.  This means the run will not record.  In the past I’ve had watch glitches that let me down, but this glitch was totally my fault. It will only hold 20 workouts, and I had not cleared them out lately.

Now I had a decision to make.  “Trust your feelings” came to mind for a split second.  Nope.  Can’t do that.  So, I hastily cleared the workouts from my watch as I ran and restarted the workout, but the damage was done.  My time was now at least 3o seconds off. I could tell my instant pace, though.

We passed the first mile marker, and the lady with a stop watch wasn’t yelling out split times.  No big deal, I thought.  Maybe the mile two person will be.    Just past the half way point, I approached the one water station.  The low humidity had really dried out my throat, so I grabbed a water.  At this point it is a short hill up to the mile two marker.  There was a guy with a stop watch, but he wasn’t calling out time, so I asked him.  13:35 he said.  I was a bit surprised. I was right on target at roughly a 6:47/mile pace.  Unfortunately, the hard part had arrived.

Mile three starts with a down hill, but once we turned left on Church Street, its a decent uphill stretch, and I felt so slow.  We turned left on Gibson, and the course flattened out for the final half mile or so.  I rounded the final curve, and with probably 100 yards to go, I  could finally see the clock.  21:10.   At this point,  I pushed as hard as I could and think I actually passed a couple of people.  As I crossed the finish line, I looked up and saw the clock read 21:30 – a new PR!

I had another problem to deal with now, though – trying not to puke.  I kept walking and breathing deep.  It was close, but I held it in.

Later, when the official results were posted, I saw that my time had been adjusted to 21:26.  This was because of chip time, not gun time.  I’ll take it!

Even with a PR, I finished 4th in my age group, just missing the podium by about 25 seconds.  For final results click here.

POFIFOTO!

read more