Monument Avenue 10K - Race Report

Spring has sprung and race season is in full swing. My first race of the season was the highly popular Monument Avenue 10K, a Sports Backers event whose participants include newbies to the elite and everything in between. The race is quite the spectacle with bands all along the course, costumed runners, cheer team competition, and lots of spectators shouting, some from root tops, shouting silly names. And along with the first race of the season comes the first race report of the season which I will try to keep brief.

This race would be the first big test of my fitness. And while I swim 4 times a week, bike 3 times a week, and run 4 or 5 times a week for triathlon training which is my primary focus, I was prepared to PR at this road race. I had put in a lot of quality workouts on the track building speed and fitness. My coach had done an excellent job preparing me and on race day I knew I could easily achieve a personal record (PR). 

Rather than being content with beating my previous personal record, my coach thought I should shoot for 40 minutes. I had run a 19:12 5K on the track which is a controlled environment where pacing is pretty easy. And I had run a 20 minute road 5k at the hilly Gobble Wobble 5K. But running a 40 minute 10K would mean maintaining 6:26 minute miles for 40 minutes which would be a challenge and would likely put me in the pain cave. I thought I could do it based on a 2 mile time trial I had done a few weeks before the 10K but my pacing would have to be spot on. 

On race day, I ran the 2.3 miles from my house to the start. It was a good warm up although in hindsight, I think I could have got my engine a little more revved up to match what I typically do on the track on Saturday mornings. It is always hard for me to get totally warmed up at these races. I get a little nervous and there is some slight performance anxiety that occasionally holds me back a bit. But running down to the start was pretty nice. Thankfully, Melissa would be driving down and I gave her my back to check at the bag check with dry clothes and my phone, keys, etc. It was quite nice of her to allow me this luxury. Thank you Melissa. 

My biggest goal besides running as fast as possible for 6.2 miles was to not go out too fast in the first mile. It was going to be hard and require concentration and discipline. But if I could reign things in on that first mile, I thought I would have a good chance of meeting my time goal. 

When the race started, I took off relaxed as possible and let some of the speed demons pull away from me. I did my first Monument Ave 10K 10 years ago. I have run it about 7 or 8 times since then. After all those races, this was the first time I actually did not go out too fast. I managed to run the first mile in about 6:36. I was off the pace but I did not cook myself in the first 200 meters like I usually do. I was happy with that. 

As the race progressed, I knew I would easily beat my previous best of 42:18. But I was not sure about the 40 minute goal. As I continued to run, I ticked off the miles relatively easily. I was slightly off the pace but I felt relaxed and in control. It was a really good feeling. I was enjoying my pace and while there were a few times when I tried to pick it up, I never got the motivation to drive myself into the pain cave. In hindsight, I should have tried to run with one of my teammates who I saw later at the finish. I think we would have both run a great deal faster if we had run together like we had done on the track during training. But I never saw him and did not think about it until after the race. 

In some ways the race was uneventful. I ran a 40:37 which is a 6:33 per mile pace. Don't get me wrong,  I was very happy with this new PR and not upset about not meeting the 40 minute goal. But after the race, I was not wrecked like usual. I had stayed comfortable but it was my new comfortable. For whatever reason, I did not seem motivated to put myself in overdrive. I was not compelled. But I learned I can run a sub 41 minute 10k fairly easily with the right training. At 47 years old, I am pretty happy with that. And I am so happy with my coaching. David Luscan has the right formula for me and I continue to improve and maybe more importantly, I continue to learn about my body, how to tune in to it, and I continue to learn about the sport of road racing and triathlon. It brings be great joy to be able work so effortlessly with someone to achieve my fitness goals and I feel like Dave understands my drive and understands how training and racing has become a passion for me. And as a bonus, he really knows what he is doing. 

Sunset: Reflections on 2015

This past year was a hard one. In April my brother died which was quite devastating to my family. John was a special person and will be sorely missed. I have written much about our loss and will likely be talking more about it in 2016.

My race year turned out pretty well considering the level of grief I experienced. I had a good time training and racing and was pleased with most of my results. However, as some of you know, I crashed out of Ironman Louisville and spent 6 weeks doing nothing while I healed. I am still not 100 percent recovered but I am making very good progress on my healing and on my fitness. 

And now, rather than dwell too much on 2015, I am looking forward towards 2016. I will be racing what some might say is a whole lot. For now, this is what my schedule looks like (see below). No doubt I will add a few more shorter races here and there. 

Special thanks to Melissa for always being there for me. 

Saturday, April 9th - Monument Ave 10K

Saturday, April 23rd - White Lake Half Triathlon

Saturday, April 24th - White Lake Sprint Triathlon

Sunday, June 5th - Naylor's Beach International Triathlon

Sunday, June 26th - Robious Sprint Triathlon

Sunday, July 10th - Rev3 Williamsburg Half Triathlon

Sunday, July 31st - Culpeper International Triathlon

Saturday, October 1st - Ironman Maryland

Saturday, November 12th - Richmond Marathon

Is that a lot of races? 

Race Season Planning

It's that time of year again. At the end of the year, Melissa and I sit down to plan our race schedule for the upcoming race season. Most of the races have price bumps at the end of the year and we like to take advantage of the lower prices. This year, by registering before the January 1 price increases, we saved a total of $70.

And now we are committed. Our calendars for 2013 have started to fill up. It is nice to be organized so that when other events come up, we know if we are free or not. To stay on top of things, we have a white board for general notes and for a workspace for planning. Then we have 3 months displayed with all of our events listed as well as any other significant things that might pop up. Finally, we have the whole year's calendar printed up that also includes holidays. This is what it all looks like although the middle set of calendars has not been filled in yet. However, the yearly calendar has all our events listed. I must give credit to Melissa for her excellent organizational skills.

 

And now (drum roll). Here is my race schedule so far for the 2013 race season.

Smithfield Sprint 2013 *Melissa also doing this race

TIME: 10:00 AM
DATE: Saturday, April 06, 2013
PLACE: Smithfield, VA
DISTANCE:
300 Meter Swim
10 Mile Bike
5K Run

Richmond Tri Club Sprint Presented by 3Sports 2013

TIME: 8:00 AM
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 2013
PLACE: Greater Richmond Aquatic Partnership - Chesterfield, VA
DISTANCE:
400 Meter Swim
20K Bike
5K Run  

Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon *Melissa also doing this race-her first Olympic
Sunday, May 5, 2013

9:10am - Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon - .9mi Swim, 24mi Bike, 6.2mi Run

PLACE: Lake Monticello, VA 22963

Cap to Cap- SyCom Century (100 Mile Ride-not a race) *Melissa doing the 50 mile option

Saturday, May 11, 2013

IRONMAN 70.3 Raleigh *Melissa also doing this race-her first 70.3

June 2nd 2013 --Raleigh, North Carolina




Half Ironman - 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run


IRONMAN Lake Placid

July 28th 2013 -- Lake Placid, NY




Ironman - 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run.

Let's Race!

Now that I have a coach, I have a training plan. I have direction, structure, and focus. And, I have a race to run. The other day I logged into my Training Peaks to view my upcoming week of prescribed training. I noticed that Karen put the Bear Creek 10 Miler Trail Race on my calendar for Sunday, December 4rd. When I checked the race website, I noticed the race was full. However at track practice, another athlete offered me her spot in the race because she is recovering from an injury and cannot race. So Tuesday, I found out I would be racing on Sunday. It was quite a pleasant surprise because the race sounds challenging but fun.

The Bear Creek 10 miler is a trail race. There are apparently no flat sections on the course and the trails are rooty, covered in leaves, and there are 5 creek crossings. I have been told to be prepared to get my feet wet as there is really no way around it. The course is harder than the downtown trails I have been running on and since I don't know the course at all, it will be difficult to pick my way through the rough terrain. One thing that does favor me is there are no sustained climbs, just lots of short up and downs.

This race is a nice capstone to my week of training. Here is how my exercise week has unfolded thus far.

Monday-Morning Swim, Evening Yoga
Tuesday-Morning Cycling Class, Evening Track Practice
Wednesday- Morning Swim
Thursday-Morning Cycling Class, Evening Run
Friday-Evening Run
Saturday-Morning Cycling Class

I am pretty excited about the race and look forward to getting to know my teammates better. Of course I will blog about the race here when I find some time in between working out, eating, sleeping, working, and of course doing some shopping.

Thanks for reading. Comment below if you are so inclined.

Reboot Diet- Day 12 and 13

(Tonight's Dinner)

I ran out of time yesterday to blog about my experiences on day 12 of the diet so I will combine both days into one post tonight.

Day 12 was much better overall than day 11. My lunch on day 12 was tastier and healthier than the terrible salad I had at Carinis. I had brought leftovers in for lunch from dinner the night before. That was much better and much more nourishing. Having healthy food makes a big difference on how I feel and I am very sensitive to what I eat, now more than ever.

After work yesterday we had a nice green juice before going to the JCC to talk to someone in the membership department about joining up. They gave us 10 day passes that we will start using tomorrow. Rather than get up at 6AM and pay the nearly $2 in tolls to drive down to the southside for our morning swim, we will instead sleep until about 7:30 and then make a shorter trip to the JCC to swim. I am looking forward to trying out the new pool. New to us that is.

Today was also a pretty good day. I had a decent salad at Red Lobster. It was a co-workers last day and a bunch of us went out to lunch one last time before he departed. I had the side salad but I had them swap out the regular iceberg lettuce for romaine lettuce which made it much better. The vegetables on the salad were decent so for $2.09 I had a decent lunch. The salad was was not very big and there was lots of fried and fattening food all around me which was not really hard but also not exactly the best way to enjoy my lunch. After we got back to work, there was cake, soda, pretzels, and chips for our farewell gathering for my co-worker. I, of course, did not eat any of it. Luckily I had a banana at my desk so after all that was said and done, I had my banana and I had my coconut water.

After work, I did a P90X workout-"Shoulders and Arms and Ab Ripper X" for those of you familiar with P90X workouts. I have decided I am going to do P90X again. But I am not going to do it everyday and I am not going to do every workout. I am going to substitute different leg exercises for "Legs and Back" and just work in some extra pullups. I have leg exercises that my physical therapist prescribed for me and I am going to go back to doing those as they are not hard on my knees. I will probably also not do Kenpo X all that often and I will not do Plyometrics all that often-again because it is hard on my knees.

I will probably end up doing P90X upper body and core workouts 1 to 3 times a week once I start ramping up my biking, swimming, and running. But I will follow the program as if I was doing it every day. That is, I will do them in the order laid out in the program. But as I shift my focus to triathlon training, I won't have time to do them each day. Plus we want to continue to do yoga and stretching which will also take some time. Speaking of Yoga, the guy who won Ironman 2010 World Championship says he does Yoga 3 times a week. I try to model my workout routines around these guys who win. Why not. If it works for them, maybe it will work for me. Not that I will ever "win" anything. But if it helps me do my absolute best, I am all for it.

Finally, while writing my blog tonight, I took a break to register for my first road triathlon. First I had to register for a one year membership to USA Triathlon (USAT) and while I was at it, I took them up on the free USAT Training DVD (of course I had to pay the $6.95 shipping which is where they make their money). So now I am officially signed up for two races. Tomorrow another race opens up and I plan to sign up for that one too.