It's a start

I know taking a week in between blogs must have been really hard for everyone (all 2 people). But no worries, I'll make up for it in this post.

Part of the reason I didn't post right after last Saturday's race (the Pacers Mile in the middle of the Draper Invitational) was, I had managed to PR in the mile by 10 seconds but I felt like I didn't lay it out there. I was in shape to run faster and it just didn't happen and I think it was more mental than physical. After being pretty terrible for four years at GW, it became more of a mental barrier to have the confidence to run fast rather than being in the physical shape to do so. I think more people were impressed with that mile than I was, I knew I could break 4:20, I just didn't take any chances which was the bigger problem.

Five days later I planned on running the 1500m at the Maryland Twilight meet. In the past I definitely would have freaked, knowing I had done a lot of hard work in the last 2 weeks without any taper. But the one thing that I've started to notice working with Coach is; even when my legs feel like absolute shit before a workout, or even between intervals, I can still run hard. All Coach had my do on Tuesday was 8 by 200 all around 30 (a few were 28-29). So I felt fairly sharp for Thursday's race.

However, the morning of the race, while I was on my shakeout I felt like my hip was really out of place. All the time I was at work it just felt wrong and my back started to bother me. Julie finally convinced me to try to get Dr. Beck to see me(I guess every now and then its a good idea to listen to her). I honestly thought he wouldn't be able to squeeze me in, but luckily he saw me and popped everything back into place. Drove up with Lindsey (big thank you to her for constantly putting up with driving me to practice and this meet). Drive up was a little hectic but it all worked out and we got up there with plenty of time for Lindsey to relax and then warm up before her race. It was just an 800m race to bust some of the rust off her legs, and she definitely did that. She sat back in the pack until about 500m to go and then started moving up. With 250m to go she blasted by everyone and then lead it all the way to the tape. She looked really smooth and ran even splits for a 2:07. It was really cool to see her race even though it wasn't a big one for her or anything.

I knew one of the other guys in my race, Ryan Murphy, he runs for George Mason now and he also works part time in Pacers Fairfax. Ryan is a real chill guy but also a very good runner. Four months ago there is no way I would have been able to hang with him or probably even be seeded in the same heat. But this time we were in the same heat and he told me that he was going to have some guys rabbit him through to try and go sub 3:50. I got a little nervous at this point but it was a little different from how I've felt in the past couple years before a race. It wasn't so much "Holy $H!T, I'm going to get burned", more just a feeling of excitement. Anyway, I go on the warm up, don't feel great but that's nothing new at this point. While I'm doing strides my hip still feels tight but I put it out of my mind and just think that its going to loosen up as the race goes on. We line up and the starter lets us know that we're going to have two rabbits, one will go through 800 at 2:01 and the 2nd will try to get through 1200 at 3:03. I get out the first 100m but settle in somewhere mid pack through the first 400m. I move up a couple spots going into 800m and probably come through around 2:05. I'm in about 5th or 6th coming into 1200m, with 300m to go I start trying to move on people. I close the gap on the guy in third (one of the guys I train with incidentally) and with a 100m to go I almost doubt I can catch him. Somehow I find a way to surge and come third. I ended up running 3:55.11. It was a good 10 second PR, and definitely something that had to happen. So while I'm psyched to break 4 minutes, I've still got a lot of work to do. I've got to work even harder now, because I've got at least another 10 seconds to drop.

I didn't call Coach after the race because I didn't think it was a big deal. I think he knew I could do that and he might even think I can go a good bit faster than that. He called me tonight and gave out to me a little bit for not calling. The big things he pointed out to me was I need to start doing everything I can to make my life less stressful. The cool thing is it seems like he thinks I could be a 3:45 guy, but I know that's going to take a ton of work. Until I do it, it's nothing. But I'm going to do everything I can to run that fast.

*sidenote...it felt really cool to have people there that I knew, it had been a longtime since I'd raced in front of people who weren't just my teammates.

There's more to life than running

While a good majority of this blog tends to deal with running, I'm the first to recognize that there is life outside of running (or at least not entirely related to running). The other purpose of this blog was to track the exploits of that infamous Chris Farley character.

Well this past weekend at the GW Parkway Classic, Chris took a big step...He asked Kathy to marry him in front of everyone at the race. I couldn't be happier for the two of them and I only hope I get the invite to the wedding haha.

blazinnnnnn...

Evidently the recent weather in the DC metro area has decided to give us a preview of what working out in the middle of July is going to be like. On Saturday a few us did a 1200 time trial at the AU track. It was definitely in the 80's during the workout which is considerably warmer than it has been. The plan was to hit 3:07-3:09 (basically 62.5 for the quarters). We came through the first 400 at 60, Slicko then took the lead to try and calm it down but relaxed a little too much and we hit 66 (still through the 800 in 2:06 so not too bad), we closed in 59 high for a 3:06. Felt pretty smooth the whole way even though the pace was a little erratic. We did 6 by 200 in 30 afterwards and called it a day.

Slicko and I came back Sunday to make sure Pacers got represented in the GW Parkway 5k. Weather was in the upper 80's. I actually felt pretty decent considered we had time trialed the day before and I had only got 3 hours of sleep that night (thanks Jimmy). I planned on treating it like a cut down because I didn't expect much competition. Slicko and I sat on some guys for the first 400-800m (hard to tell in a road race), and then I decided to break from the pack because we were crawlllling. First mile in 5:25, 2nd in 5:13, last one was sub 5, Slicko put a little push in there and came across the line first. Ran quite a bit afterwards and then worked the store for the rest of the day.

Today (Tuesday), showed up to the track and it was about 90 degrees. Didn't know what I was going to do (shocker I know) but heard from the AU guys that the plan was 2 by 400 followed by 4 by 200. I figured we would be doing something like that because the AU guys have conference this weekend. Coach must have been in a good mood today because he looked at the guys I was working out with and said, "Mark, this looks like a good group for you to be leading the whole thing." So, we set off and hit 62.5 for the first and 63.5 for the second. Everyone else goes off to do 200's but Coach just tells me to keep doing 400's. At this point I know better than to ask how many. I then proceed to pick it up a little bit and hit 60 point and then 59 point. After five of them coach asks me what I'm hitting and tells me to slow down. I hit the next one in 64, a little too slow. I finally hit the last one in 62 right on pace. I then do 3 laps jog and come back for 200's. I hit the first one a little fast in 28. I calm down and hit the following 4 in anywhere from 30.3 to 29.2. After five Coach asks me if they feel easy. This is sort of dangerous ground because you never really know what you should say, I ended up saying I felt comfortable. Coach then says that he wants to see me do a 300 at the same sort of pace. I take off into the wind a little bit and just try to stay smooth. Come through the line at 42.5. Coach seemed really happy with the workout.

Three good efforts in four days. I'm definitely getting better but it was funny today, I never got that excited that I was doing well. I could have some of the greatest workouts ever, but until I do something in a race it doesn't really mean all that much. The good thing that the workouts are giving me is some confidence to get out there and race all out. I swear I've been on a roller coaster this last month, one minute I'm up and the next I'm freakin' out or bummed about something. The one thing I'm trying to keep constant is my training. I figure if I can at least control that then I have a shot at figuring everything else out.

The song below is what was going through my head during the workout....

C Farley runs 4:51...next stop sub 4:30

The end of week time trials kicked off today (4/23) with the infamous Chris Farley going after the sub 5 minute mile. Chris is planning on going after the sub 4:30 mile in August so today was going to be used as a bench mark to determine how far off he was at this point. At this point in his training Chris hasn't done any speed work at all and has been running a ridiculous amount of "junk" mileage (check out Chris' Blog Running My Life for the definition of junk miles).

Chris enlisted me to pace him through a 5 minute mile. I decided that in order for this to really go down we needed to turn it into a little bit more of an event than just Chris going around the track four times in under 5 minutes. So, I told Slicko aka Scott Anderson (Pacers Racing team guy, man has gone under 3:40 for the 1500) about the attempt. He was all for it and decided to help out with the pacing duties as well.

Of course, I couldn't just leave it at that, we had to get some more people involved. Seeing as this whole sub 4:30 mile thing started with the idea of Chris training with Julie (Culley), she had to be there. She showed up, camera and all, just to get some great pics with even better captions (such as the Pacers...got to love double entendre) . The fun didn't stop there though, we did the time trial at Chris' old high school and who should be there but his high school coach. To round it out we had his big bro Brian "Billy" Farley, out there as the official timer.

Slicko and I decided to trade off leads, I would take the 1st and 3rd quarters and Slicko would get the 2nd and 4th, leading Chris out to kick it in. Slicko and I had just done a workout an hour or two before so we were already pretty loose. I take the first 200m's through in 35 secs, a little fast but nothing that is going to kill the attempt. We come through the 400m at 73-74, Slicko takes the lead and we come through 800m at 2:28-2:29. With a big negative split in the second half Chris comes through at 4:51. Not bad for a guy who was talking like he wasn't going to break 5:10.

It was great seeing Chris get that excited about the run. Today was one of those days were I felt kind of lucky to be a part of Pacers. I mean I get to train with some great guys, and an awesome Coach. And I get to work with some pretty cool people too. Its not always the "easy" life but its definitely a lot better than hating every single day of work. Anyway, congrats to Chris and I guess we'll see that sub 4:30 mile at the Supernova Classic in August.

The Pros and Cons of Breathing...

Saturday I went up to Morgan State to run my first 1500 in over a year. I'd been feeling like crap the whole week mostly due to the lack of sleep I'd been getting. I let myself have way too many things on my mind that week and wasn't focusing on the small things (like getting enough sleep) to be really ready for the race. The workout on Tuesday went ok, but I felt like shit from the start. Thursday was fine but it was just 200's so if it had gone badly I would have had ample reason to be concerned about how Saturday would go.

Anyway, I go up to AU the morning of the race to take one of the guys on the team up there with me. I figure its the least I can do to help out whenever I can with the team. Ride up with Ryan was fine, didn't get lost which was the major concern seeing as the school is in some random part of Baltimore. We beat the team up there so we just check in and hang out for a little while. I get to see the heat sheets when we arrive and I'm in the first of two heats. The fact that me and only two of the AU kids are in that heat lets me know I just missed the cut off for the "fast" heat. I only have myself to be pissed with though because I chose to seed myself at 3:58, I should have seeded myself at 3:55 to make sure I was in the fast heat. While looking over the heat sheets I also notice that there are two heats of the Women's 1500 which is the event before mine so I factor that into my warm up.

All of us running the 1500 go for the warm up together, but by the time we come back we're seeing the end of the Women's 1500, which normally would be fine but they had combined both heats into one. This meant that they intended to start the Men's 1500 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Luckily, Bridget convinced them to wait (she had significant pull too seeing as the majority of the runners there for the 1500 were AU kids). As we line up for the first heat I realize that the one guy who was seeded ahead of me has scratched from the race. So I'm lined up on the inside, as the gun goes off I make sure to get out a little bit so I'm not trapped in the back but I expect one of the other guys in the heat to take the lead. To my surprise I'm in the lead from the gun without much work at all. As I come through 300m I have a bad flashback to a race my sophmore year at Duke where I took out the first two laps of a 5k because I thought I was that much better than everyone in my heat...I ended up dying horribly. I come through the 400 at 64 feeling really smooth though. I don't look back but at 600m's in I can tell I'm entirely alone (later all the AU guys told me I had a 20 to 30m lead on the rest of the field from the 400m mark on). I tried to turn it into a time trial, but for some reason it was hard as hell to breath, I had cotton mouth the whole way. Legs felt fine but breathing was horrible, I managed to run 4:05 by myself. It wasn't a great race and I know I let sub 4 get away from me. The things I took away from the race were, I always have to be prepared to lead from the gun, I need to work on staying mentally sharp when I do run on my own, and 4:05 (a 3 sec PR) felt comfortable.

Tomorrow its back to work; over the next few weeks I'm going to try and race a lot (probably even throwing a road race in there....GW PARKWAY), hopefully its all going to pay off.

progress....

Today's workout: 8 by 200 at 31 with flats, then mile jog, then 800m time trial.

Coach called me right when I got up to AU, said I was going to do 4-6 200's with the guys and then do a 800 at race pace. Went on my warm up, felt ok but not great. Got in with a good group of the milers and we went through the motions of 31 second 200's. The nice thing was they felt really easy never had to push to make sure we were hitting the pace.

Jason and I were the only ones who did 8 of them, then coach had me do a mile run, put my spikes on and do a 800. He held one of the guys back to lead my through 400m and told me to follow him no matter what he did. Well, after doing the 200's I knew what 31 felt like so to be working harder than that in the first 150m meant we were well under 30 seconds for the first 200. The kid calmed down though and we came through the 400 at 62.5. Coach had wanted me to come through at about 64-65, but he just calmly told me to maintain this through the second 400. I ended up pulling a little negative split and running 2:03 for 800. Good thing was it never felt like I had to hammer to do it, I definitely pushed at 50m's to go but wasn't in my last gear at all. Coach seemed pretty pleased, and said I should race next weekend up at Morgan State. I'll have to figure out how I'm getting up there but I feel really good about the idea of racing.

not racing

After the Tuesday workout (3 sets of 800, 300: 2:20-2:12 for the 8's, 47-45 for the 3's, then mile run, then 6,4,3,2,1..62 through 400 of the 6, 59 for the 4, 42 for the 3, and 28 for the 2) I talked to Coach about racing the 1500 at Bucknell the following weekend. At the time Coach seemed to think it was a good idea. However, after the workout on Thursday (6 by 300 at 46-45...one was at 43) Coach reconsidered and told me to hold off on racing.

It hadn't been a great week already due to some other stuff going on, so when I heard this it took me a little while not to see the negative in Coach's decision. At first, I started thinking that I'd been having good workouts, I'm really itching to race why the hell is Coach telling me NOT to race? Does he think I'm not tough enough or really in good shape? Should I doubt how I feel fitness-wise? And then I thought about it a little more. Sure I've come a long way from my fitness in January when finishing 8 400's at 70 pace was a struggggle. But, if I've done that in 3 months, how much further along can I get with another month's worth of training? I shouldn't be in a rush just to race for the sake of racing. I should be getting as fit and as mentally ready to race as I possibly can, so that when I do come to the line I'm really ready to go. I'm not in a situation where I have to race myself into shape. There is a certain amount of maturity, or belief in a philosophy, that you have to bring to your running when working with Coach. Especially as a post-collegiate, Coach isn't going to be checking up on you all the time. But I have to believe that if I do what I need to do, and follow what Coach says, he'll hold up his end of the deal.

That isn't to say that if I follow exactly what Coach tells me to do that all of sudden I'm going to be a sub 4 minute miler or anything of that sort. However, I got enough faith in the training, and Coach, that my chances of doing something better than I've ever done is possible. Maybe that's what I missed up till now, just a little bit of faith.

On a side note, It was a solid Irish/Pacers one, two at the first of 5 Crystal City 5k's. Wade rocked out, taking home the win in 15:44 in considerably windy conditions. Second was Edmund Burke in 16:02; guess those track workouts with Coach have been paying off. Make sure to check out the rest of these 5k's .