Lee Foster Memorial 5 Miler

As I mentioned in my previous post, this race was to serve two purposes. To check out a half marathon pace and to determine my threshold heart rate. I arrived in St Marys an hour before the start so that gave me plenty of time to check-in, warm up and talk to a few other racers. I probably had too much time.

I warmed up with Ean King and it felt like the race had started already. We did a two mile warmup in about 14 minutes. At one point I looked at my watch and we were close to 6:30 pace! He was pushing it pretty good and even started dropping me. It was nice to chat with him and hear what he's been up to over the last 15 years. We were District IX rivals in cross and track while in high school. I don't think I ever lost to him in HS, but he always talked a good game.

Ean and another local high school rival, Andy Micheltree, were both at the race and posed a big threat in my age division. They both had beat me in May 2010 at a local 5k quite handily. I was back to running for just a few short months at the time.

The race was small (50-60) and started as expected with a few taking the lead from the gun, including Ean. Micheltree eventually passed me 1/2 mile into the race and stayed about 30 seconds ahead the whole way. I caught one guy (fellow 30-39er) at 1.5 and ran with him close to the turnaround. He wanted to run sub-31 so I thought we could work together. My splits on the way out were 6:11 and 6:16 en route to a 15:33 at the halfway point. Pretty much right where I wanted to be on this 'tempo run.'

After making the turn, I dropped my pace (and the guy I was with) to sub-6. I held a nice pace around 6 minutes per mile and I negative split the race going 15 flat for the final 2.5. I ended up 4 OA and 3rd AG. Most years my final time of 30:33 would have challenged for the win but not this year. I grabbed my 3rd place trophy early and headed for home.

While this course was fairly flat and the half mary course has some hills, I feel confident in my mile pace goal for the HM. I've got a few more weeks to keep logging the miles and adding some intervals and tempo runs. I'm happy with my progression back as well. I'm confident that I can continue to drop time on my pace and overall splits as I increase my mileage and intensity each year.

I'll save talk about my heart rate test and training zones for my next post.

Train through race

"Racing" a 5 miler tomorrow in St. Marys. It will serve two purposes. 1.) To see how I handle an aggressive half marathon pace and 2.) to do a threshold test for heart rate training.

After considering my fitness gains this year, I have mentally figured on a 6:20/mi pace for my half marathon coming up next month. That pace equates to a :30 second per mile increase from my PR (and only) half marathon last October and would drop my overall time 6 1/2 minutes. My plan is to run 6:20 pace tomorrow for the first 4 miles (or try to!) and then do what I can in the last mile. This will be a great chance to physically test the pace to see if it's reasonable to sustain over 13.1. I then can adjust the goal pace accordingly if need be.

In order to determine one's threshold, a test of some sort needs to be done. One very popular test is to do a 30 minute hard run and use the average heart rate for the final 20 minutes. Tomorrow's race should take 31-32 minutes so this will be near perfect. Once your threshold HR is determined, the appropriate training zones can then be figured.

Weather will be iffy with a 50% chance of rain. Course is flat. Look for a follow-up next week.

Chocolate Milk

Mouth-watering chocolate milk!

You've just finished a long workout. You're tired, thirsty, your bones are brittle, and your muscles feel more like mashed potatoes than lean, mean killing machines. What do you eat or drink to recover? Drop that anti-freeze-colored liquid in a bottle, chuck your powerbars and water to the side, and pick up a refreshing and cool glass of chocolate milk!

Why?

1.Research by Karp et. alia (2006) shows that chocolate milk is a Gatorade. They showed that when carbohydrate content of chocolate milk and a recovery drink were equivalent, individuals could cycle 49% to 54% longer if they drank chocolate milk than if they drank a carbohydrate replacement drink like PowerAde.
2. Chocolate milk is full of carbohydrates and protein, and these two components together improve endurance performance.
3. Chocolate milk has been shown to have a greater effect on post-workout recovery than water alone.
4. Chocolate milk is super delicious.

So, the next time you finish up a long run, a race, or that hard workout at the gym, drink a chocolate milk within 30-45 minutes.

Me vs Myself

As I was reflecting on my last triathlon of the season, I found myself to be somewhat despondent. Upset that I hadn't achieved a goal time that I believed to be reasonable, and probably more upset with being beat by a local competitor by :26 seconds. As I scoured the results to pinpoint my mistakes and the other's advantages over me, I began to question yet again why they don't let us all race one another - together. After all, if that triathlete was in my wave I would have been able to run him down and beat him to the finish. Nevermind the 3-4 other racers within a minute of my final time - one who finished 1st in my age group - who were in other waves.

Triathlon is one of the most demanding physical events that you could ever compete in. A "sprint" is about as short as they get and that includes roughly a 750m swim, a 13-15 mile bike and a 5k run. Mention these distances to most people and they squirm. Ironman distances soar to a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a full marathon of 26.2 miles. That's just downright crazy. Training your body to complete such an event takes 5-20 hours per week of swim, bike and run. Oh, and don't forget to do some core type work and stretch. And eat right. And sleep 8 hours a night. It's no wonder marriages and families become strained by the demands of tri'ing.

Despite all of the physical stress we inflict on our bodies, nothing compares to the stress that needs to be placed somewhere else. I've completed 4 tri's thus far and it finally hit me. Our minds are our greatest and most important weapon when it comes to competing in triathlon. When you run a race everyone toes the line together and they're off in ready, set, go! In cycling, the peloton weaves along the roadways with bikes all around you as you work with one another until a final sprint to the line.

In triathlon, it is Me vs Myself. From start to finish. Sure it's chaos at the start, but you swim by yourself and then you bike by yourself and then you run by yourself. There may be a few people to catch and pass, but big deal. The good guys are in the "other heat." You don't know how you compare to them because they're not there. They started 5 minutes ahead of you or 8 minutes behind you in another wave. If only we had a way to create an apparition of the other racers, just to give us a glimpse of our true standing. But alas, we don't and we can't.

So there I am. Alone. I hear my hard breaths on the bike and I focus on my pedal stroke. My feet slap the road beneath me while I try to keep a rhythm on the run. I've chased all those that I can chase. There are no more in sight - at least in my sight. This is when triathlon gets tough. When your own mind battles against itself. There's no one else to compete against anyway.

You've got to dig deep at this moment and start to realize that every second counts. It may not seem like it at the moment, but you'll realize their importance once the final results are posted and you've lost by :26 seconds. That's 6:22 pace instead of 6:30 over that 5k run. That's two seconds per mile on the bike or 4 seconds per 100y in the swim. And don't underestimate the importance of good transitions.

The mind is a powerful weapon in triathlon and needs to be trained in practice. Solo tempo runs, hill repeats on the bike, intervals in the pool. Pushing yourself to go harder and faster. It's just you and how bad you want it. Mind over body.