| Location: London,UK Member Since: Jan 02, 2006 Gender: Female Goal Type: Age Division Winner Running Accomplishments: Collegiate: 100m - 13.2 (1985) 200m - 27.0 (indoors, 1989) 400m - 62.3 (indoors, 1989) Post-Collegiate: 5K - 21:37 (1998) 5mi - 35:15 (1998) 10K - 45:04 (1998) 15K - 1:11:36 (2006) 20K - 1:35:34 (2006) Half - 1:42:03 (2007) Marathon - 3:37:04 (Cal International, 2000) Short-Term Running Goals: Get my weekly mileage in the 35-40 range.
Long-Term Running Goals: I guess at this point I just want to keep running for fitness and weight control. Personal: I was born in Moscow, Russia in '68, where I started running sprint events in '83. I moved to the US (NYC area) in '91 and didn't run again till '96 when I discovered road racing scene. I was hooked after my first 5K race. I had another break in running from '01-'04 and decided to seriously get back into it in August of '05. I'm married and have 16 year old daughter. I have moved to London in August '06, will probably stay here for a few years. |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Trainer 1 Miles | Trainer 2 Miles | Racer Miles | Total Distance | | 33.00 | 16.30 | 2.40 | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 54.70 |
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Marrow Fun Run 8K (5.18 Miles) 00:38:07 | | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Trainer 1 Miles | Trainer 2 Miles | Racer Miles | Total Distance | | 7.30 | 0.00 | 2.40 | 2.80 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 12.50 |
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In a few words, I'm very disappointed. I thought that the last 6 or so weeks of consistent marathon training and higher mileage raised my fitness across the board, and I should be able to have a good race. But it was not to be. I didn't take any days off this week, because I wanted to keep consistent mileage. Maybe it was a mistake and I should have taken Friday off. Most runs were easy, but I didn't really feel fresh and didn't have a spring in my step. Maybe I haven't fully recovered from my 8x800m workout. On top of that, yesterday, after I ran easy 4 miles, we decided to go explore south London and promptly got lost. We then ended up walking a good 2 hours through not so nice parts of London until we got to some civilization again. My feet were pretty tired, but I have no idea if it played any role today. It's most likely an excuse I'm trying to use to explain my lousy performance today.
So, here is how it played out today. I got to the race, ran my warmup and noticed I was pretty slow, around 9:30 pace on the warmup. Then, I felt better doing strides. The race was extremely low key, no race clock even! They started 18 minutes later than announced, so I kept jogging and doing light strides to keep warm (it wasn't too cold, but pretty windy, and I wished I wore gloves). After some standing around on the start line, they finally let us go. The first kilometer was up a slight incline and into some wind, but I was still unhappy to see Garmin showing around 7:25-7:29 pace. It didn't feel easy, so I wasn't pushing it any more. At 1 km mark I hit the lap button and got 4:23. Here comes another twist with this race - all the markers were off. So, the accurate split is this:
1km - 0.58mi - 4:23 (7:30 pace).
After that, it's gotten totally flat or even a bit downhill sometimes, and I seemed to have settled into a nice rhythm. Garmin read 7:11-7:15 on this stretch. I thought this is a true pace I should be able to sustain with all the training I'm doing now. So I went for it. No further markers till 4km.
4km - 1.80mi - 13:01 (7:14 pace).
At this point it became painfully (literally) clear that maintaining 7:15 pace was wishful thinking. I went anaerobic and had to slow down a lot, feeling pretty disgusted with myself. Also, running at a slight incline now which is not helping. The next marker was 5km, again it was short:
5km - 0.51mi - 3:51 (7:33 pace).
The next 2 km's or so, I was just suffering in survival mode. Next marker was 7km, this time it was too long.
7km - 1.36mi - 10:12 (7:31 pace).
At this point, I guess I recovered somewhat, and figuring it was the last km, I started pushing the pace again. There was also some slight downhill which helped. But this km was very long, it was in fact almost a mile!! I don't know how they measured the course (but it's not a certified course, so can't really complain). I finally saw the finish line about 200m away and put some kick in - I actually had something left in the tank, after all this!
8km - 0.93mi - 6:38 (7:11 pace).
Looked at the Garmin time (remember, no race clock!) - it read 38:07. I thought, no way I ran THIS slow. Flipped the mode to history, and sure enough, the course was 5.18mi. long. So, it means 7:22 average pace. This is bad, even worse than equivalent performance based on my 5K in November. I should have been able to at least maintain 7:19 pace, but I slipped below even that. I'm wondering, where is the fitness with all the hard work I'm putting in?? Why is my LT so low? I thought I was doing well, and training was going fine, and here is this dismal result. I heard that people don't generally run well shorter distances while marathon training, but I expected better. I hoped my fitness would be up a notch from November. This result doesn't give me much confidence for a half marathon in 2 weeks :(.
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Trainer 1 Miles | Trainer 2 Miles | Racer Miles | Total Distance | | 5.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.50 |
| easy recovery run. I felt very good and was moving at a good clip in the park, but my left achilles and inner side of the ankle were sore. I don't like this one bit, so I'll have to see what happens tomorrow. Total time: 48:23. | | Add Comment |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Trainer 1 Miles | Trainer 2 Miles | Racer Miles | Total Distance | | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Decided to take a day off and take care of my leg. I'm icing it every 3 hours or so (as much as I remember) and taking 600mg Ibuprofen every 4 hours. I'm paranoid about getting injured, especially with achilles. And especially now, when I really can't afford to get injured! Hopefully, it's just a minor problem. | | Add Comment |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Trainer 1 Miles | Trainer 2 Miles | Racer Miles | Total Distance | | 3.10 | 6.30 | 0.00 | 0.20 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.60 |
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My leg felt fine, so I decided to start running and see how it feels. If it hurts, I would turn back. Lucky for me, it didn't hurt at all! I was able to put in a good workout and I feel good about it. It was very windy, steady at 20 and gusts up to 43 mph, and the last half a mile I got soaked with a hard rain that's been on and off all day, but at least I was able to run!
I did 6.3mi marathon tempo in 50:00 (7:55 avg). It's faster than before, but I felt I worked a bit too hard. Of course, the wind is definitely to blame, I probably should have slowed down to 8:00 pace, but I was too stubborn, seeing 7:55 on my watch and not willing to back off. After the tempo, did 4x100m strides and ran home. Total time 1:17:04 (without strides).
This week may well become a cutback week, because tomorrow I have two job interviews back to back and chances are I won't run. It's ok though, my key workout is Saturday 20+ miler with 10 at marathon pace. As long as I do it, I should be fine for the week. | | Add Comment |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Trainer 1 Miles | Trainer 2 Miles | Racer Miles | Total Distance | | 6.10 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.10 |
| Felt very sluggish in the beginning and out of sorts. It happens when I take too many days off. Finally started feeling better by the end. Total time 52:02 (8:31 pace). | | Add Comment |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Trainer 1 Miles | Trainer 2 Miles | Racer Miles | Total Distance | | 11.00 | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 21.00 |
| Today was one of the hardest long runs I've had. Started with 7.7 mi. easy and the GI troubles started already from 5. So I took a bathroom break and took my first gel. Then started on MP portion. My stomach felt much better, but then Garmin lost the signal only after 0.8 miles at MP! I had no choice but to run by effort. I remembered where I started on the loop, and decided to just run 1:20 at that effort. I might have started a bit too fast, I'm not sure. The last 3 miles were tough. Energy wise I felt okay (took second gel after 6 miles at MP), but quads, calves and hip flexors were all complaining. I'd say the latter miles felt pretty close to the marathon feelings. After about 8.2 mi. Garmin caught the signal again, and I tried to time the last 1.2 mi. Well, the signal laster for less than a mile and then was in and out, so pace was not predictable. On the slight downhill it said I was running 7:40 pace, but on the uphill it went to 8:08 average. But since it was cutting in and out, I can't be sure. I think I ran 10mi. at 8:00 average, but it's an estimation. Afterwards, had to take another bathroom break. It was really hard to start running after that, that's why I never stop in the marathon, tired muscles get very stiff and I'm afraid I won't be able to start running again, if I stop. I wonder if these stops diminish training value of the run. Anyways, jogged home to make it 21 miles. Total time 3:01:35. | | Comments(3) |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Trainer 1 Miles | Trainer 2 Miles | Racer Miles | Total Distance | | 33.00 | 16.30 | 2.40 | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 54.70 |
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