Monument Ave 10K Race Report

Another Monument Avenue 10K is in the books. This year was my sixth race and I was hoping it would be my fastest yet. Last year I ran 43 minutes on the dot and I thought perhaps this year, I could beat that time. While I have not been running as much this year as last year, I have been doing some intense cycling workouts at RCC two times a week since November as well as more consistent swimming workouts. I thought that all that training plus the Saturday rides, Sunday long runs, and Tuesday evening track workouts could lead me to another PR.

As the race day approached, my coach thought I could easily beat my 43. At least that is the impression I got from her. She set a goal pace of 6:40 per mile for me. I decided that I would do my best to not go out too fast. Running the first mile at 7 minute pace seemed like something to strive for. That way, I would not tax my system too much and I could gradually pick up the pace as the race unfolded.

The Monument Ave 10K has 40+ waves that help minimize congestion. I started in wave B. When I was making my way in to wave B corral I saw my coworker's daughter and friend who run high school cross country and track. I knew that Erin's goal, as dictated by her coach, was to run the first mile at a 7 minute pace and then to pick it up and finish sub 42 minutes. When I saw her in the corral, she said hello and I wished her luck and then made my way closer to the front of our corral. More on her later.

Usually at this point in my race report, I would say something like, "when the gun went off" to designate the beginning of the race. But at this race, it was simply a man who said, "GO!" And we were off. I was able to hold back more so then in previous years and ended up with a 6:47 minute per mile for the first mile. This is faster than I had intended but not too crazy fast.

The next mile I ran a 6:47 followed by a 6:46. From there, I faded. I am not sure why exactly. My legs felt good and my knees were only slightly gimpy. But I just could not kick it up a notch. The gears were just not there. My next mile pace was 6:58 followed by a 7:04. My next mile was the slowest at 7:20. I did manage to pick it up a little for a 7:06 pace followed by the final .2 miles which I did at a 6:46 pace. My paces as reported her are from my Garmin so they are as accurate as they are going to get. My final time for the race according to both my Garmin and the text message I received from the race was 43:38. As you may recall, this time is 38 seconds slower than last year's 10K time.

Before reflecting on my race, I have to mention Erin. During the first part of the race, Erin and her teammate caught me. I guess I was already fading pretty fast at that point. Erin pointed at me and laughed as she ran by. I told her they were looking good but on the inside I was a little miffed by her laughter. This picture is what it reminded me of.


Looking back at my performance, I was a little bummed but at the same time, I think this is a great learning experience. Last year at this time, I was doing significantly more track work. That is to say the volume was a lot higher. At one point I did 13X400 repeats with a 400 recovery in between in each repeat. I was also doing more 800s followed by 400s and other combinations of 1200s, 800s, and 400s. It seems like this lead me to faster times in the 10K but I have to wonder how such a training regimen affected my early season triathlon times. This year, I focused more on the bike and the swim-my two weaknesses. My run at the 10K seems to have suffered slightly because of that. But I can only imagine and hope that my new training regimen will be more conducive to better triathlon times. Triathlon is my focus right now although I enjoy running 10Ks and other races especially trail races.

After my 3rd race of the season, I think I have tuned into my body and its abilities pretty well. If I want to focus on a 5K or 10K, I know what I need to do-more running. We will see how the triathlon season unfolds. In two weeks, I will race my first tri of the season, the Rumpus in Bumpass International (1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, 10K run). I think my work on the bike at the RCC and my swimming workouts will help me go a little faster throughout the race. I am looking forward to it. Although those few minutes before the crazy open water swim start are always nerve racking.

Thanks for reading.

Rainy Saturday

What are you favorite things to do on a rainy Saturday? Do you sleep in and listen to the rain? Drink coffee and read the morning paper? Play games with your kids and post silly pictures of them on Facebook. Read a book or magazine while lying around in your pajamas. Or maybe you like to run on the treadmill or maybe do some strength training. Running out in the rain is always an option too. I have to admit, all of these things sound like a pretty good way to spend a rainy Saturday, but for me, I could not think of too much that is better than what I did this morning.

This morning, I participated in a Pro K Racing team workout. The general plan was to meet at a nearby church and then bike 30 miles to Lake Anna and then swim 1+ miles in the lake to practice open water swimming. As Saturday approached, it seemed like rain could be in the forecast. Karen, our coach, said that if it was raining, we would still meet at the church but then drive to Lake Anna and swim in the rain.

When I awoke on Saturday, it was not raining. But one glance of the radar showed it was on its way. I was not sure what to do. I inspected various weather websites and tried to calculate the speed of the storm. In the end, I decided I could beat the rain to the meeting point. From there, if we drove to the lake, at least I would have gotten in some riding.

It is about 9+ miles from my house to the meeting spot. When I left out of my driveway at about 7:40 AM, it was dry. It was a peaceful morning and there were not many people out and about yet. I started out slow so I could warm up and not tax my system right out of the gate. After about 10 minutes, I started to pick up the pace. It felt good to be out on the bike early in the morning. Riding solo can be kind of peaceful especially when there is not much traffic. And there was not.

I arrived at the meeting spot about 8:15 and to my surprise, everyone was arriving and getting their bikes ready. Some had rain gear so I knew that we were going to give it a go. It was determined and explicitly stated that, YES, we were going to get wet. It was warm enough that the rain would not be too big a deal. It would require extra caution on the road and we would have to me especially mindful of each other. But at least we would not be cold. To me, cold rain is never fun.

When we took off out of the parking lot there were about 6 to 8 of us towards the front of the pack. After a few minutes of riding, I noticed that coach Karen and one other Pro K rider were riding off the front. There was a small gap that had developed between them and the pack I was in. I decided to kick it up a notch and close the gap. It was fun. I had not rode with a group of people that I knew in so long. I could tell the day was going to be fun.

As the rain started to fall, there was a shout from the back of our pack. We were going a little too fast and there were one or two people falling off the back. To me, "falling of the back" is a cycling term that seems slightly nicer than the other term you often here. It was this other term that was uttered. "Someone is getting dropped." We stopped to regroup and once we had everyone together again, we started out on the road again. The rain started picking up and it was at this point in the ride when Karen said that she was going to fall to the back of the pack to ride with the slower people and she asked me to lead.

This was not exactly what I had in mind. The pack I was riding with included several very strong men and women. We are talking about multiple Ironman finishers. I felt like there was pressure on my rear wheel so I did all I could to put the hammer down. Looking at my heart rate data afterwards, I can see exactly when I was given the task of leading the ride. My HR climbed into zone 5 at about 160 beats per minute. I was able to hold on for a while. I attribute being able to hold on for as long as I did to the good people at Richmond Cycling Corporation who have elevated my cycling ability to a new high. At one point during the ride, I heard one woman say, "Here's a hill, let's see what you got Rosen." Of course that put the pressure on even more. I was giving it my all, breathing hard, heart racing, and doing my best.

After a while, someone came up and took the lead and I was able to slide back into the draft. While riding in the draft, I felt like I could ride all day. It felt so good to be riding with a team. There is something special about it and it is hard to explain. I would never have been able to go as fast I did when riding behind the men and women who I rode with today. Not only did I get the physical draft, I got the mental and emotional lift from riding with these exceptional people. Plus it was raining, so there was that added level of adventure.

As we continued to ride, we increased the gab between the lead pack and the slightly slower group behind us. In fact, for me, this was a hammerfest. I was able to hang but I was definitely pushing it. For the rest of the riders, I think they felt pretty darn comfortable while I was slightly out of my comfort zone. But then again, that is what made the ride so great. It was like when I was kid and always played soccer with my older brothers and their friends. The immersion automatically makes one improve. At least in my book.

At some point, one of our guys got a flat and we all stopped while he fixed his flat. Some people took the opportunity to use the facility that is the great outdoors. I took the opportunity to suck down some Hammer Gel and water. After about 10 minutes or so, the other riders caught up to us. We had put a pretty good gap on them but now they had caught up. They decided to keep going while we waited for our guy to finish fixing his flat.

When we got mobile again, my legs felt like they had stiffened up a bit. It would have been nice to ease back into the ride but my fellow teammates had other ideas. Hammer Down! And we were off. My legs complained a little but my heart rate did not spike quite as high. Before you knew it, we had caught up to the other group and passed them. We were in the lead again. And while it was not a race, it was fun to chase, close the gap, draft, fall of the back and climb back to the front, etc, etc.

After about 30 miles of fairly hard riding (for me), we arrived at the lake. Melissa was driving our car as a team support car and followed the riders to the lake. She also had the wetsuits and our other gear. We changed into our wetsuits, donned our swim caps and goggles and waded into the lake. The water was great. It was still raining but the water temperature was actually higher than it is at the pool where we swim.

After a brief float in the water, I started the swim. The water was calm and we all went out at our own pace. There were several kayakers out on the water to support us which was really nice. Swimming in open water is probably my biggest weakness at this point. There are no lane lines and more importantly for me, there is no wall every 25 meters. In the pool, I get the one second break at the 25 meter turn around and the kick off the wall. No walls in the lake. I find that after a while, I am very out of breath and have to take a little break. I continue to kick like a frog and crawl my way forward a bit when I take these breathers so I am making forward progress but it is pretty slow progress and other swimmers pull away from me at this point. I had several breaks along the swim. It was quite peaceful and quiet out there. When I did stop swimming and my breathing slowed down a bit, it seemed so calm and relaxing. Just floating in the lake with the light rain coming down all around me, it was nice.

I am not sure how long it took me to swim the mile. It was pretty long relatively speaking I think. What fun though. I got my first wet suit swim in before my upcoming triathlon in the same lake I will be racing in. This is going to help me immensely. I got to practice sighting and I got to swim a bit with Melissa and watch her swim. She has better form than me for sure. Both the ride and the swim were really great and I can't thank Karen enough for putting the whole training event together.

The Heat is On

The heat has arrived in Richmond just in time for the 10K. Actually while it is quite warm, it is not quite hot. But the humidity is so high that when exercising, the body has trouble regulating its temperature. Typically when a human sweats, the sweat evaporates and takes the heat away from the body. But in Richmond, the sweat just pours off the body into little puddles. No evaporation, no cooling.

Luckily this summer-like weather has come a week or two before the 10K so we can all get slightly acclimated before the big race. I have done one hard workout in the heat and one easy run in the heat. The temperature makes a big difference in performance when exercising and it was evident in my workouts. When it is very hot, the body diverts more blood to surface areas of the body to assist with cooling. That means there is less blood flow to the muscles. Less blood flow to the muscles means less fuel being delivered to the muscles. The heart has to work harder and the muscles have to work with less.

Who knows what the weather will be like on race day. Right now, they are calling for a high of around 70 with an over night low around 50. Starting the race at 50+ degrees would be perfect for me. I won't need a hat, gloves, or arm warmers. I will likely need something warm and dry to change into after the race. I typically get cold once I cool down after a hard effort. We will be hanging around the finish for quite some time as we meet up with our family and friends and I want to be comfortable. Luckily, I can either check a bag at the bag check or go back to the car real quick after the race and pick up a dry shirt.

I am very much looking forward to the race and hope to PR. Last year I ran a 43. My training has been much different this year. I have been swimming and biking more and my track work this year has been very different from last year. As long as I pace myself well, I should be able to beat 43. Of course, this year will be warmer than last year which could affect my time. Plus both knees are a little gimpy at this point.

I am hoping to write one more blog post before the race but if not, I will certainly return here to give you my race report.

Snow Day

Ah, the joy of the snow day. One of the perks of working for a school system is the occasional surprise school closing. This morning, I got up at my normal 4:45 AM for my early morning swim practice with ProK Racing. There was no snow in sight and everything was open at this point. I drove to the Y and walked in at the same time as my coach. We even got to chat a bit before practice about some of my race goals and my training progress. More on that later.

When I pulled myself out of the water at 6:30AM after an hour of nubby arm kicking (kicking with arms down at your sides and rotating the body left and right as you slowly make your way down the lane), sighting drills (swimming with your eyes closed and only opening them when you lift your head out of the water), swimming with fists, and other various drills, a teammate who was getting ready for the 6:30 class said that the school systems had all decided to go two hours late because it was snowing. I simply smiled and nodded my approval.

I was delighted to hear the news because that meant I would have about 2 and a half hours to myself before I would have to leave for work. I could relax, make a good breakfast and lunch, drink some hot water with lemon and read the news, etc.

When I got home from class, I was home for about 15 minutes when the phone rang. I recognized the number as Henrico County Public Schools. Alas, they had changed their mind and decided to call off school all together. Now, I am not going to complain about a free day off but it seemed odd since there was no snow on the roads at all. Even as I write this at 1:00PM, the snow is still falling but has yet to accumulate on the roads and has only just now started accumulating on the parked cars. In fact, I can still see the grass in my front yard.

So far, I have accomplished a few things on this free day off. I put in some time on our bathroom renovation, took a nap, and had lunch with Melissa which is something we rarely get to do. And now, I have the rest of the day to work on some other projects. My plans include writing my blog, cleaning the house, working the foam roller and doing some other PT exercises. If I get the gumption, I may even continue working on the bathroom renovation. Mostly, I am just going to dilly dally my way through the day. It is nice to have the extra day. Instead of rapidly refocusing in front of a few computers at work, I will just do what I want to do and get some extra relaxation. Like I said, the joys of a snow day.

And now a quick training update. Last week at track practice, I improved my 1 mile time by 2 seconds. I felt pretty good about that and after talking with my coach this morning, she believes that I can PR at Monument and make the Kinetic Half Triathlon my A race. She has faith in me which is reassuring. Since, I have not nailed all my pace runs, I am not sure about hitting the 40 minute 10K mark that I discussed earlier. Right now, I am going to continue to work hard and shoot for beating my last year's time at the very least. As we get closer to the race, I will have a better idea if 40 minutes is really doable.

Well, I got another item on my mental checklist completed. Now I have to work on some PT. I will never reach my race goals if I don't continue to work on my knees. With the extra time today, I should be able to make some good healing progress. That is all for now. Thanks for reading.