Faltering Confidence on the Track (but feeling great on the roads)

When Tuesday night track workouts with A Snails Pace rolled around this week I felt that I was in a good place to go out and improve on the 6 X 1200 repeats I had done the previous week. I wanted to keep things close to 4:04 as possible if not faster. Because I was coming off of a 65 mile week, I assumed that I would feel fast on the track – but this just didn’t happen. I got out to the OCC track a bit late, and didn’t have as much time as I like to complete drills/warm-up run etc. . . so that wasn’t so hot, but I still got basically everything in. I also didn’t double on Tuesday which I usually do – so I figured that that might change how I felt. When it came time to run, I felt myself struggling to push 80 second quarters the first rep and coming through the first 1200 in closer to 4:02 – but with more effort than I had wanted. I slowed down on the second, third and fourth finishing around 4:06 but feeling ragged, I ran a faster fifth without my watch and came through decently, but then ran a 4:07 final 1200. I got burned on the last one by a guy I am usually faster than (although he told me had ran all of 15 miles the week before as the 2^nd week of his recovery from a half Ironman). I felt somewhat disappointed after the last repeat, but when I went for my cool-down I felt my fitness because 6:40 miles seemed like nothing even after 8 (5 hard) of a workout. Conclusion: I am not very fast! At the same time though, I have been averaging around 75 miles a week – more than for my last marathon – and have also upped the intensity significantly, so it is only to be expected that fatigue detract from the speed at which I could be running a track workout if I was a)fully adjusted to a 75 mile week schedule or b) running less miles per week. Fortunately though, I had a very solid showing at the Ragnar So-Cal relay – which I am going to call a long run in my training schema. Here’s how it went:

Race Report Ragnar So-Cal

First Leg: 96 degree heat, 7.4 miles , +200 feet of climbing1:30 in the afternoon approximate 6:31 pace , but my Garmin was slow to get going at the start and I got in about +/- half a mile before it registered so I think closer to 6:25.

This was absolutely brutal. I was hoping for cool weather and received nothing of the sort. I wanted to run at a tempo pace closer to 6 mins but ultimately that was not an option. I was totally satisfied to get as close to a 6:20 pace in the heat and along tarmac that only increased how hot it felt. No shade either. I passed a ton of people. On the Van Leg my teammates all did well for themselves considering the brutal heat and hills, and we probably got a team pace of close to 9:30.

Food: Leftover pizza/Biscuits and Gravy and Farmer Boys mmmmmmm

Second Leg: 55 degrees 8.7 miles 1:30 AM +1000 feet of vertical 6:42 pace. I felt awesome here, I probably passed 50 people along the course of the race. I rolled out 7:40 and 7:10 mile up the 1 1000 foot vertical hill of the course and all of the rest of my miles were cruising close to a 6:20 pace under a full moon. I felt amazing here and my fitness and legs were feeling awesome. I ended up getting 2 hours of sleet under the stars and an amazing full moon, and my team also did well on this section. I was the first runner of my Van’s 6 runner cycle. We ran 6 legs and then rested while out other Van took over.

Third Leg: 55 Degrees 5.5 miles 5:30 AM +250 feet of climbing 6:39 pace (another adjustment based on a messed up Garmin start). I was not expecting to run this leg at all, but the other Van on our team failed to make it to the transition, and had a sick runner so I got elected to fill in. I kept on feeling great to my surprise, and rolled out a nice comfortable 6:40 pace to the finish of the leg at sunrise through the flower beds of northern San Diego. At this point I had to stop at my first stoplight, something that drives me absolutely crazy! I was really surprised at how fresh I felt, again managing to pass lots of fit folks.

4^th Leg: 70 degrees 9.7 miles 11:50 AM +500 feet of climbing along a beautiful route on the coast of La Jolla. I expected to feel completely brutal on this leg, expecting to run 7:30s or more and to hit a wall. Happily this did not happen, and again I felt myself cruising easily at a 6:40 pace. I ran on some awesome trails along the cliffs of La Jolla. Blisters were formed on the balls of my feet at that point though . . Here I am at the last exchange . . .

Summary- I had and awesome experience that made me feel really good about where my fitness is at the moment. I did not have to put forth a full blown race effort in order to hit a pace that would give me a close to 2:55 marathon, and at the end of 87 miles in the past 7 days I feel fantastic about where I am at in my training. Couple that with an awesome experience with 5 total strangers, and I had a tremendously rewarding 24 hours! I recommend going for this type of event (especially if you have willing/motivated runners to do it with) and I want to compete with an ultra team in the coming year. Basically I wrapped this week up a marathon confidence boosting workout. God willing with a couple of fast finish long runs and some LSD runs over the next month, I will get myself prepared to really go for it in San Diego. I finally registered last night, and feel like I have been punched in the balls by the price – Next year I will plan better and focus on a cheaper race ( I will also probably register MUCH earlier).