Peak Week(end)

After finishing up a well-run double today, I now have a little under 37 for the week. Everything has been running pretty smoothly these past few weeks as my weekly total continue to climb. With the Sugarloaf Marathon a little over 2 weeks away, it's time to get the last bit of training in and glide in to T-0.

Tomorrow is my day off, only my second in 3 weeks. That small bit of rest - roughly 36 hours - should give me the restoration of energy I need for Saturday morning's race...

Orrington 10K
Saturday @ 9AM
Center Drive School, Orrington, ME




In 2008, this was the first 10K I had ever run. This distance is ideal for a handful of reasons, which is why I'm a bit disappointed that there are so few 10K's around these days. The lack of 10K races means that I have had only a few to record a personal best on. The last 10K I ran was in November of 2008, and at that race I set my PR which still stands (42:44). Provided everything goes smoothly up to race morning, I should have little trouble smashing that PR. This will also give me an opportunity to run with/against RK, something that hasn't been easy since I moved away from Bangor.


Sunday - 20-mile long run
This will not be a race, but just a conditioning exercise to give my legs that final prep for Sugarloaf. The goal is to get roughly 20 miles, more or less depending on where I'm running and how my legs feel to that point. I don't recall doing an extra long run the day after a road race but my only concern is that this will put my 7-day running total at roughly 64 miles. This will be the most that I've ever run in a single week, and will be a good gauge of how I'll handle it in the summer months as I try to push my weekly miles beyond anything I've done before.

Return to Two Years Ago

Between upping the intensity of speed workouts, increasing run mileage, restructuring my food intake, and prepping for the inevitable Sugarloaf run, the next 4-5 weeks are going to feel like hitting the acelerator of my running regimen.  With what I'm doing for training and the races that I'm picking up along the way, it's feeling like 2008 again - the year I had some of my best times in road races. There's going to be a lot going on, and I'll fill you in on the details.


Unity and Portland:  Two-Race Weekend
The Unity Spring 5K on Saturday and the Patriot's Day 5-miler on Sunday will be a good test of how well I'm running in the shorter distances.  I ran them both in 2008 (the 5-miler was on Monday that year) but skipped them in 2009 due to a conflict with dancing rehearsals. 





Unity starts with a long downhill for at least the first half mile.  There is a big temptation in this stretch to ride your adrenaline and let go of the brakes completely.  I did just that in 2008, landing my best mile I've run to that point (5:56) but faltering the rest of the way, missing my PR (20:52) at the time by 4 seconds.  Even though the rest of it is flat and open, the lesson I learned was that downhills can steal your energy just as fast (if not faster) than uphills.  My goal this time is to manage that downhill efficiently - letting up on the brake but not overstriding.  If anything it'll be a practice for what I'll encounter on mile 11/12 at Sugarloaf.





The Patriot's Day 5-miler was a little trickier than I first expected.  Not knowing the geography of Portland as well as I do now, I completely forgot that the stretch of Washington Street included in the route is all uphill.  Considering that this part is around mile 4 of the race, you can probably guess that it dragged me down quite a bit.  What makes it worse is that part of that stretch is run on the sidewalk of the Back Cove Trail and Washington Street exit of I-295, making that part of the course very congested if there's a lot of people around.  In other words, don't expect to pass people at that point.  Once back on Cumberland Avenue, though, the idea is to put everything down.  The half mile is slightly uphill but straight and open.  I got 37:36 the last time I ran it; I should have no issue getting past that and possibly getting close to my 5-mile PR (32:20).


Orrington 10K (May 1):  Return to Form





 
This wasn't my first run, but it was my first 10K and it was on this route where I started my very first speed workouts with RK.  Like the previous two races, I missed the 2009 edition but plan to run it this year.  This course has small rolling hills on miles 2 and 5 but it's mostly flat and very quiet.  I should have no problem breaking the 46:35 time I have on this course and should even break my PR (42:44).
 
 
In between these races will be my long runs - 16-18 on the weekend in between these races and 20 the day after the 10K.  Then it's 2 weeks until the big race.

The Master of Wind - (belated) Eastern States 20-mile Results

Overall time: 2:25:56

Overall Finish:  53rd (Out of 703 finishers)
Age Group Finish (39 and under, male):  46th
Splits:
7:55, 7:08, 7:11, 6:51, 7:12 (36:17)
7:12, 7:08, 7:14, 7:22, 7:27 (36:23, 1:12:40)
7:17, 7:36, 7:22, 7:13, 7:24 (36:52, 1:49:32)
7:26, 7:27, 7:16, 7:18, 6:57 (36:24, 2:25:56)

Yeah, it's kinda like that.

Though the temperatures were on the rebound from the dismal 30-degree days that suddenly popped up on us, the wind was far from forgiving, especially when it came to race time on the Maine and New Hampshire coastline.  The strangest part was that it was a south wind, which is usually warmer than its northern counterpart.  It wasn't.  The early spring weather in New England is unpredictable at best, and today was no exception.

It was chilly when the race started by the Naval Shipyard in Kittery, but that sensation always goes away once warmed up.  The first mile was slow as I employed my usual running at the middle of the pack and find pockets to pick up speed and break through.  By the time I passed the Memorial Bridge into Portsmouth, I could stretch out and find that ideal pace.

The next several miles were actually pleasant, and I found myself at times going faster than I expected.  Part of me wanted to turn it up but another part knew that this feeling wouldn't last for long.  Once I was within sight of the Atlantic Ocean on mile 7, the wind went to overdrive and blasted me in the face.   This is what I would experience for almost two-thirds of the race.

For the next 10 miles I would struggle to keep myself around 7:15, only managing to do so for a few of those miles.  The inland stretch between miles 13 to 18 gave me relief from the wind but my energy was already spent and I focused on conserving what I had left.  No matter what was flying in my face in the last two miles I would put as much effort as I could into it.

As I turned the corner to get back on Route 1A and passed the 18-mile mark, I stepped it up.  The wind once again pushed hard.  Sand, debris, dehydration, and breathing problems all hit on that final stretch but I let my adrenaline take over and fought the weather as much as I could.  I did notice, however, that many runners were also struggling and falling off their mark too.  This was killing everyone, but I was determind not to let it kill me.

I pushed myself over the finish line under 2 hours, 26 minutes.  While I didn't hit the sub-2:25:00 that I wished for, it was better than I was expecting when I started the race.  Mother Nature threw a lot at me today, and I still ran my best time for a 20-mile run - almost a full minute over last year's time.  It's another good mark on my path toward the 3:10:59 marathon goal.