Racing to a Sub 90 15K

My race to a sub 90 minute 15K

As I posted early on, I have a goal of running the NYRR 15k on December 1 in under 90 minutes. This is pretty aggressive. It will take a 9:35 pace and my best 10K pace right now is a 10:15. There are a few things that I hope will come together in the next eight weeks.

First, I’m working on dropping another 8 pounds. My weight has been coming off SUPER SLOW. I’m eating well; making healthy choices and managing my calories well. While I’ve dropped one whole pants size and can see a noticeable difference in the mirror, the scale is creeping along slower than me going uphill. In total since August 20th, I’ve only dropped 5 pounds. At this rate it will take me until the start of training next year to get down where I want to be. I’m just going to keep plugging away at this. I can’t obsess over it (too much). Even a drop of 5 pounds before the race will make a noticeable difference in my ability to run well.

Second, I’ve embarked on a speed program. I’ve looked at a variety of speed programs aimed at 5k’s and 10k’s. I couldn’t find one for a 15K so I improvised a bit. The core of the plan involves 2 speed workouts a week, one long run, and one mid distance tempo effort. I did my first speed workout on Tuesday it included the following: 800m warm up, 2x1200, 2x800, 4x400, and 6x100, 800 cool down. I ran all repeats at my goal pace of 9:35/mile with 2 minutes of recovery between and the 100’s I ran at my speed interval pace of 9:00/mile with 100m recovery in between. I liked the workout a lot. It was my first real track workout ever and it felt good to go fast. I still had some kick in me after. I knew I could have gone faster, but I stuck to my plan. What took work was not getting distracted off my pace. A few times I found that when my mind wandered, I slowed down. Not because I needed to, but because I wasn’t paying attention to my leg turnover. Besides the fast twitch benefit of speed work, this focus work will help me a great deal. After all, I started this business of running as a marathoner. I never spent much time at all working on short distances. When I run long, it has become natural to disassociate from my body. 2 or 3 hours into a run, it was impossible for me to sustain focus on my footsteps. I think the track workout (sans the ipod) will help me with this. To really perform, I need to stay in touch with what my body is doing and focus how it is feeling.

I did my second speed workout on Friday. First I biked 60 minutes of hill repeats around my house (the 5 Sisters Loop), came home, ate and went to the gym for a treadmill run. Did a half mile warm up, 2x800, 4x400, 4x200, 4x100 all at 30 seconds faster than my goal pace. It was a solid effort and I got through it without too much struggle. I think I’m on my way!

Lastly, to compensate for the fact that I am gunning for a 15K PR on a 10K speed program, I will continue to run over-distance long runs, similar to what I would do for a half marathon. 15k is just long enough to need a good pacing strategy. I will run my long runs in the Race With Purpose fashion of a commute, warm-up, race pacing. I figure that running long runs of 10-13 miles with a good progressive pacing strategy will help me race the 15K distance well.

I have 2 tune up races between now and then, a 5 miler on October 28th and a 4 miler on November 18th . We’ll have to see what I can do at those.

722 days to go.

Losing to go fast

My stats today

155 pounds
29.5% body fat
Long Run to date: 9 miles @ 11:35, average HR 156, Max HR 166
Long Bike to date: 25 miles @ 15.5 MPH, Average HR 138, Max 150
Long Swim to date: 1000m @ 2:05/100, 20:50minutes, RPE: Hard

This past week was a recovery week, but a good one. I had some really good workouts. Tomorrow is a 30-mile bike ride and Sunday is a 10-mile run. I’ll post those results on Monday. I’ve re-posted my training calendar, you can scroll down and click open the link. I have decided to participate in the Mini Mightman sprint triathlon in Montauk next weekend. I’m doing it because it will make me feel good. I don’t really care where I finish I just really want to race.

As you can see, my weight is starting to drop. That’s a relief! I was starting to get depressed. I’d like to get to 18% body fat, which I’m estimating will put me around 135 pounds. I’ve never been lower than 146 pounds in my entire adult life, so I haven’t a clue what 135 will feel like. I do know that several studies have linked weight loss and running pace. It is generally accepted that a 2 pound weight loss will result in a 5 sec per mile gain in speed. So while I’m busy lugging an extra 17 pounds around and building leg strength, I can expect to be about 45 seconds per mile faster (at least). Then there is the bike.

I’ve promised myself a new bike for next season. I love Clyde (my current bike), because I credit Clyde with getting me into triathlon. I rode him now through 5 tri’s and he is still my only bike, but he is a steel frame Raliegh Sport. Complete with a triple chain ring on front and an eight speed cog set on the back, the shimano sora group set is a shifting nightmare. I love Clyde, but at 31.5 pounds he’s also a little portly. Even a modest tri-bike won’t tip the scale at more than 21 pounds (probably a little less) and with an additional 17 pounds off my frame, that a whopping 27 pounds less to lug up the hills of Tupper Lake NY! I’ll have to remember this if I’m tempted to fall of the wagon again.

750 days to go!

Hello there....

Well, here I go. I'm not sure what this blog is going to turn out to be, but if nothing else it is a way for me to announce to the whole world that I intend to find out what I truly capable of. I've got dreams, big ones and I am the only one who can make them happen. It is up to me. Let's begin with the end in mind.
There is 780 days until The 2009 Ironman World Championship in Kona Hawaii and I want to be there. There, I've said it! I don't just want to be an ironman, I want to go to Kona. The crown jewel of ironman. To put this dream in perspective, I will need to complete Ironman Lake Placid in 11:00 hours to even be close. As far as I can calculate, that's a 2.4 mile swim at a 1:47 minute per 100yds, a 112 mile bike at 19 miles per hour, and a 26.2 marathon at a 9:00 per mile pace. Cake walk, right? There are people who train for years and never get close. So, why even try? I want to know what I'm truly capable of. If I don't set my sights high, the end result might not answer my question. I guess some people will say that setting your goals too high will just lead to disappointment. I don't know about that.
Disappointment is what I felt when I crossed the finish line of the 2005 NYC marathon. I crossed the finish in a very slow and painful 5 hours and 47 minutes. I wouldn't have been disappointed if I knew that I had given 100% in training and just had a bad day on the course. That happens. I was disappointed because I gave my training only a 50% effort. I let myself down way before race day. I missed that boat. I had all of the opportunity I needed to succeed. I had a great coach, a huge team, all of the family support I could have wanted, but I didn't have me. That was almost 2 years ago. Since that time I completed a few triathlons and fell in love with the sport. I fluctuate between being really committed to being a competitive athlete and a weekend warrior; sometime on a daily basis. I began this year strong and determined to finish the Tupper Lake 1/2 ironman race in June. I began training consistently and started seeing progress. I had a great team, a great coach and this time my head was in the game 100%. March 22, that changed. Doctors found a mass in my partners chest. Tons of tests and one major chest surgery later, she was diagnosed with Non-hodgkins lymphoma. I needed to be with my family, so I let go of Tupper Lake.
Watching Carolynn, endure chemotherapy and move through her cancer has made me very aware that health is a gift. We aren't entitled to be well and we don't "deserve" to get sick, it just happens. I also have observed that just when you think you can't possibly do more, you do. I feel a sense of urgency to get on living my dreams. And why not live the big ones?
So that's it in a nutshell. I have 780 days to do more that I think is possible and discover what I am really capable of. Check in with me every now and then and I'll keep you up to date on my progress. The experiment of one begins here.

779 days to go.