Thrown to the Lions

June 18th will kick off the season for me in Los Gatos, CA.  They run an All Comers Meet every week from the 18th up through August 6th.  I certainly won't be racing there every week, but I hope to get a good 4-6 races in over that span.  They have three age groups for each event - HS, Open, and Masters.  

Coach and I were looking for a race a few weeks prior to June 18th just to get a time and for me to get my feet wet running this distance (as I have never actually raced an 800m before)  What I found was an Open Meet (Pacific Association T&F Championships) this Sunday, May 24th.  It's not a Masters meet, but I looked at the entry list the past two years and saw that although last year's top seed time was 1:53, there were several guys in the 2:05 - 2:12 range and a few guys in the low 2:20s.  Back in '07 the top guy was 1:50, but again there were several 2:05 - 2:12 guys and the last guy was 2:15.  I felt comfortable that I'd have some guys to race with, so we targeted the race this weekend for my "pre-season" debut.

Well, looking at the entry list for this year there are only 7 guys signed up so far and only one other guy is SLOWER than 1:53.  Here are the top 4 seeds:

1.  1:46.0

2.  1:46.5

3.  1:48.8

4.  1:48.9

Essentially this is turning into the US Olympic Trials . . . . and me.  

Needless to say w/o me ever having raced this distance before, I'm going to be very nervous anyway, but to run this race for the very first time w/ guys like this - let's just say this is not the experience I was looking for.  Is it possible to get lapped in a 2 lap race?

I'll update the entry list if/when more guys enter (although tomorrow is the last day to enter unless you want to pay double on the day of the race)  Who knows, maybe Wilson Kipketer will come out of retirement and throw a 1:42 up there!  I'd like to have an up close view of this race, but it's sad to say that even though I'm going to be in the race I will be further away from the finish than 90% of the spectators!

On to today's workout - a bit of a race prep.  The plan:

3 x 200m:  31-30-29 (60-sec rests)

7-min break

500m:  Simulation of first 400m of 800m race w/ 100m kick.  

Target splits:  29.5 - 30 @ 200, 61 @ 400.

The 200s went:  32.0, 30.4, 29.1 - On target except for rep #1.  (all done in lane-1)

I didn't run the proper splits in the 500m so it didn't quite go as planned.  Also, I was going to set the watch to take splits at 200m and 400m, but 100m into the run I realized I forgot to set it up so I'd have to look down at each split myself - which is a pain when you're trying to concentrate on the task at hand.

200m split:  about 28-flat (too fast)

400m split:  about 58.8 (meaning the 2nd 200m was about on pace)

However, the total time of sub-59 scared the hell out of me.  When I saw that time I figured I was done for - this caused me to inadvertently slow down for the next 30-40m.  At that point I re-focused and surprised myself a bit when I was able to pick up the pace again and go faster.  Unfortunately, the damage was done during the slow 40m and the last 100m came in about 16.7 (that's just too slow) giving me a total time of 75.6

I'm not sure how this translates to an 800m race, but I guess I'll find out in a few days.  Tough to imagine running 300m more today w/ how I was feeling after 500m, but #1 I went out a little too fast, #2 no race day adrenaline, and #3 I obviously won't be running 3 x 200m before the race.  

I really hope I have at least 1 or 2 guys in my pace range to race with on Sunday.  I can't say as I'm looking forward to still being on the far turn when the rest of the guys are finished and congratulating each other - that's just plain ugly.  

Training:

Mon, 5/18:  AM:  4-miles @ 6:46 pace, then 50-minutes on elliptical

PM:  CMT appt - focus on calf

Tues, 5/19:  30-minutes @ 6:44 pace (probably a bit too fast w/ a workout the next day)

Wed, 5/20:  Race Prep:  3 x 200m (32-30-29), 500m (75.6)

No Race this Weekend

Well, I had made it a long long way w/o any legitimate injury, but today (the last workout before the race) I broke the streak.  Right hamstring.  I don't think it's that serious, but serious enough to keep me out of action on Saturday.

Workout:  3 x 200 @ about 31 pace, followed by 2 x 300m @ 46 pace - then 2 x 200m hard.

It started out well enough, the initial 200s came in on pace as I was imagining them as the opening 200m of the race.

The 300s provided a great confidence boost:  the first 300m was used as a simulation of the last 300 of the opening 400m of the race - just trying to maintain an even and relaxed rhythm.  (time was 45.8) 

The second 300m (now w/ the fatigue from the first as I just had a 1-minute break between them) was used to simulate the last 100m of the opening 400m, and then the first 200m of the second lap.  (i.e. keeping that nice even pace, and then upon hitting 100m (the 400m mark during the race) picking up the effort level to maintain pace through the next 200)  This went very well - first 100m of 15-flat, then I increased my effort, but still very much in control for a 30.8 last 200m giving me another 45.8.

Last up - 2 x 200m hard.  This is where I had the issue.  Up until now, the 200s were always run quickly, but not actually cranking up the turnover to get into a "sprint mode".  The idea was to hit these 200s hard, but I really hammered the first turn.  I felt some sudden tightness on the outside of my right hamstring about halfway through the turn - then it disappeared.  About 2-seconds later it zapped me again.  At this point I decided to pull the plug about 100m in.  The 100m was 12.x seconds even w/ the flare ups, so this was a drastic departure from what I had been doing on other 200s.  Perhaps I just went a little too hard, but the temps here were over 65-degrees today so certainly it wasn't like I was doing this in the cold.  

I stretched out some and tried to test out the damage before heading home.  I don't think it's pulled and it's certainly not torn.  It's just tight, almost like a cramp deep within the muscle.  I can feel it when walking, but even at light pace it doesn't hurt.  There's no bruising which would clearly be the case if it were torn or pulled.  

I ran yesterday (usually my off day) as I had planned to push the off day out until tomorrow.  I'll obviously stick w/ that plan now, and I guess I'll just ice and ibuprofen for a couple days and see how it feels Thursday morning.  I also scheduled an appointment w/ my CMT for Thursday to have her go over it to see if she can figure out how bad it is.  My guess at this point is that it's just tight and sore and hopefully within a few days I'll be able to get in some light running.  

Kind of a drag to have this happen right before the first race.  But on the bright side, today's workout leads me to believe that 62-63 pace per 400m is something that's sustainable for me for a good portion of an 800m race.  I figured I was going to face some adversity at some point and I'm not going to let it get me down.  It certainly could be a lot worse - now I just need to do what I can to heal up and get back out there.

Training:

Sun, 1/18:  8-miles @ 7:19 pace (148-HR)

Finally - I forced myself to slow down.

Mon, 1/19:  5-miles @ 7:03 pace

Tues, 1/20:  Reps:  3 x 200m (31.4, 31.2, 31.4), 2 x 300m (45.8, 45.8)  2 x 200m (tweaked right hamstring on first rep)

The Need for Some Rest

Strange thing happened on Tuesday - I cut my 5-miler short about 0.4-miles because it didn't feel as easy as it should have.  I haven't done that in quite a while and I knew it wasn't a good omen for today's workout.

First sign of trouble today came when my first warm-up 200m came in at 29.3  I've been routinely hitting these in 28.4 - 28.7 w/o thinking about it and then having to purposely throttle back the second one (which usually ends up about 29.5)  Today I concentrated a bit on #2 to log a 28.6 - of course I didn't need to run a 28.x, but I felt like I just wasn't right today and I was looking for something to keep my confidence up.

I felt tired, but more than that, simply drained.  Last Wednesday I felt so strong right from the get go - both 200s came in under 29 and were very easy - and then I had to hold myself back on the first 400m just to keep it at 64 when I was trying to run a 67.  I felt none of that strength today.

The workout was supposed to be as follows:

warm up + 2 x 200m

400m:  62

7-minute break

600m : (first quarter 62, try to hold that pace for the last 200m)

7-minute break

200m:  sub-28

5-minute break

200m:  sub-28

Making matters worse, the 400m which is supposed to be nothing more than a "fatigue generator" for the 600m came in way too fast - and I have no idea how it happened.  I was running the first 200 w/ the wind and the 2nd 200 into the wind.  The plan was to start out about 29-30 w/ the wind at my back figuring I'd finish up about 32 into the wind.  Well, the first 200 came in at 29.x as planned, but somehow w/o me elevating the effort the second 200 came in around 30-flat giving me a 59.8 for the quarter.  This was way too fast.  I was fairly certain I had just blown the workout as I knew I wasn't feeling that great to begin with and the additional fatigue from the 59.8 would surely be another nail in the coffin.  

As I stated yesterday - based on last week's session I was confident I could go 1:31.5 - 1:32 on this 600m, but that was definitely out the window now.  Still, the fact that I somehow threw a sub-60 up there made me think I at least needed to put in a good effort.  

I started out OK, but after just 350m an overall sense of fatigue started to creep in.  As I came through the quarter I saw that my time was about 60.5, but I was fading pretty quickly at this point.  A 16+ second 100m followed, putting me at 1:17 through 500m.  It just got worse from there and I finished up in 1:34.2 - which I immediately classified as a total disaster.  Being that the 600m was the focus of the entire workout, and the fact that I knew something was amiss at the start, I saw no point in running the last two 200s.

In hindsight, this performance wasn't as bad as I thought - my first solid 400s came only last week where I was going 63 - 66 up until the final one at 58.  Today I hit 59.8 and came right back w/ a 60.5 to start the 600m.  Clearly, coming in way too fast on the first 400 contributed mightily to the issues on the 6, and it's probably a bit unrealistic for me to expect that because I ran a 58 last week w/ heavy fatigue that now just a week later I can start throwing up multiple 59-60s like it's no big deal.  That's a fast pace for me right now, and I'll consider this a bit of a wake-up call - "Mike, you need to respect that pace a little bit!"

However, there's no denying that I wasn't right today, and I only have to go back to pulling the plug on my 5-miler yesterday to see an issue.  A quick check of the logbook clearly completes the picture - last Wednesday: balls to the wall rep session, Friday:  8-miler @ 6:39 pace, Sunday: long interval session (where I 'inexplicably' struggled on the last rep).  Then throwing in today's session . . . . . that's a tall order in only 8-days.  

Taking it a step further - over the past 30-days, the total number of runs averaging over 7-minute pace: TWO.  One at 7:02, and one at 7:06.  Now, I'm not complaining one bit - these 6:45-6:55 pace runs have felt pretty easy, and the combo of the short intervals, long intervals, and aggressive long runs has led to incredible gains over the past month and a half, and if I had lightened up on just one of those previous three runs I probably have no problems today, but as the saying goes, "you can't train hard and race hard at the same time".  Today I was trying to throw a race pace 600m effort in the midst of a month and a half long "training boot camp".  

So - it's time to take a step back.  I've got 10-days before the first race.  The hamstrings feel OK, no aches or pains - physically I'm fine.  The next couple of days are going to be VERY easy, and on Saturday it's going to be a 3-5 x 1000m threshold effort followed by an EASY long run on Sunday.  I've pushed a little too hard before, a good down week typically does me wonders - I'll expect that to be the case again.  

The thing I can't do is get down on myself for having a bad day that really wasn't so bad.  If I add two seconds to the 400m and take two seconds off the 600m, it's on target - and that's even w/ the difficult week preceding the workout.  Of course this is much easier for me to say than it is for me to do.  No matter how I rationalize it, I'm still pretty pissed off!

Training:

Tue, 1/13:  4.6 miles @ 6:50 pace  (should have been 5-miles,  wasn't as easy as it should have been)

Wed, 1/14:  Reps:  2 x 200m (29.3, 28.6),  400m (59.8), 600m (1:34.2)

Final Preparations Before the Winter Season

Fortunately, the hamstrings came through Sunday's workout just fine.  In fact, as of now they feel better than they did yesterday. 

With this news, I should be OK to go through my final preparations heading into the season.

The tentative racing schedule is as follows:

Sat, Jan 24 - 800m

Sat, Feb 7 - 800m (and possibly a Mile)

Sat, Feb 14 800m (and possibly a Mile)

Sat, Feb 28 - 800m (and possibly a 1500m)

If we do decide to double, it certainly won't be all three weeks - two at the most.  All of my training recently has been geared towards the 800m, so these additional races will be more of a workout than anything else.  This schedule gives me two weeks between the first and second race, giving me a little time to adjust my training pending the first results.  And then, after back-to-back races, I once again get two weeks to make any final adjustments heading into the last race.  As I mentioned before, I won't be heading to any of the big meets in March.  Once February ends, it's back to a mini-build mode to get ready for the spring/summer season, which is far and away the more important of the two.

The first "Race Prep" session will be on Wednesday - it's short and fast w/ a good deal of rest in between each repeat:

warm up + 2 x 200m

400m:  62

7-minute break

600m : (first quarter 62, try to hold that pace for the last 200m)

7-minute break

200m:  sub-28

5-minute break

200m:  sub-28

The key here is the 600m as it's the rep to help give me an idea as to what my target 800m pace should be.  The first 400m of that rep should simulate the first 400 of the 800m race, and the last 200m should sim the last 200 of the race.  (the 3rd and slowest 200m is the one that's theoretically omitted)  So it's a quick, but relaxed first 400m followed by the hard effort required to hold that pace for 200 more meters (sort of like the final kick in the race)  Target pace here is 62-seconds/quarter which would give me a 1:33-flat 600m if it goes according to plan.  To be honest, I'm going to be looking to shave 1 to 1.5 seconds off of that estimate and come in at about 1:31.5 to 1:32-flat, but that's going to be extremely difficult.  I'll just do the best I can.

Training:

Mon, 1/12:  Off (scheduled)

Another Day at the Office . . . NOT!

OK, I've done a few 300m sessions over the past several weeks, but nothing like this - this was hard, really really hard.  After emailing the results to JT her response was, "welcome to 800m training" as if everything I had been doing up until now was just a warm up.  If this is indeed the case, I'm going to be in a little bit of trouble.

Yesterday's session was a two set affair, where the 6 x 300m for set-1 was meant to generate a high amount of fatigue for set-2, which was the real meat of the workout.  However, instead of running the reps in set-1 at 50 or so, which is what most of my 300s have been to date, I was to be shooting for 48.5 . . . . and this was the easy set.  

Complicating matters, I haven't found a way for my Garmin to display tenths and hundredths of a second when using "lap mode" until you go back and check it out AFTER the workout is over.  (if there is a way to do this, please let me know)  So I would have no way of knowing whether seeing a 48 on the display was a 48.03 or a 48.97, making it impossible for me to make slight adjustments rep to rep to really dial in the pace.  

The first rep of set one showed a 47.  What did that mean, I didn't know - was that a 47.9 in which case I was just a little bit fast, or was it a 47.1 meaning I was WAY too fast.  Had I known, I could have made the proper adjustment.  Number-2 came in at 48, great - but now I can't slow up anymore on #3 because the 48 might be a 48.9.  So I try to run the same pace again . . . and it displays a 47.  Damn, I guess that means the first 47 was a low 47 and the 48 was a low 48 - now I had run half of this set way too fast.  (This was confirmed later when I saw that the times for the first 3-reps were:  47.1, 48.1, 47.9)  

By being able to "triangulate" the first 3-reps into knowing what the proper pace should be I ran the next two properly in 48.7 and 48.9, but on the 6th one I was flat out gassed and could only manage a 49.2 w/o taking too much out of me for the tough second set.

Set-1 totals (47.1, 48.1, 47.9, 48.7, 48.9, 49.2)  for an average of 48.3 - this wound up being only slightly faster than target, but that's only because the last two weren't so good due to running the first three too fast.  (average of the first 4 was 47.9)  Not really the way I wanted this set to go, and I knew I was certainly heavily fatigued heading into the second set - maybe too fatigued.

I then took my 5-minute break and got ready for set-2 by changing into my brand new spikes - Saucony, Endorphin-MD.  (I needed spikes for the season, and I want to start breaking them in little by little)

Set-2 was only going to be 3-reps, but these were to require much more effort as they were meant to simulate running the 2nd lap of a tough 800m race (i.e. going close to all out w/ a lot of lactic acid already in the legs)  Target pace was going to be quite variable as the fatigue would continue to build (46-flat to 47.8)

The first one felt absolutely great for the first 200m.  The spikes felt nice and light and I cruised through 100m in 13.x, and 200m in 28.x.  Fatigue started to set in after that and I slowed up some, but still came across the line in 44.9  (again, all I saw was 44 on the damn watch, I only figured out later what the actual time was)

On the second one, the high level of fatigue started to hit after just 100m.  With 80m to go it felt as though someone had poured cement into my thighs.  I struggled mightily to finish, but I guess the first 100m was fast enough for me to finish w/ a time of 46.6 - about on target.

At this point I felt worse than I have ever felt during any previous workout, including the toughest hill sessions.  I was very light headed, my legs felt wobbly - I caught my spikes on the track a couple of times just heading back to the start line as I was having a tough time just picking up my feet.  I had to do another one and I wasn't so sure it was going to be possible.

On #3, I stumbled during the first 10 meters - spike caught the track again.  I upped my focus - on picking up my damn feet - and headed down the straightaway.  By 70-80m I was already toast.  Well, here was my 800m race simulation! I did my best around the curve and checked the watch to see a 200m split of about 31 seconds.  Damn this was too slow - I didn't want to run a 48.  I gave it everything I had and picked up the pace somehow.  The last 80m felt like they were in slow motion, and it seemed like the finish line wasn't getting any closer.  Eventually I crossed the line in a time of 47.4 in what was clearly the most difficult rep I had run, maybe ever.  

Set-2 (44.9, 46.6, 47.4) for an average of 46.3  

I will certainly need a couple of days to recover from this one - but as tough as it was and as bad as I felt, trying to get that one done was actually enjoyable on some demented level.  JT told me to back off on Saturday and run an easy threshold workout (5 x 1000m) instead of that tough long interval session - we're going to push that one out to next week. 

Also, my first race is now tentatively scheduled for Jan 24th - not much time to prepare now.

Training:

Wed, 12/31:  4-miles, including two sets of 300m repeats.  Set-1:  6 x 300m - avg: 48.3  Set-2:  3 x 300m - avg: 46.3

5k Prep

I moved my typical Mon-Tues-Wed training out to Tue-Wed-Thurs and inserted a complete off day on Monday as I'm taking a down week here.  That meant lifting on Tuesday (although I skipped the dead lift and squat) and no running.  The two off days from running back-to-back really helped to clear up a few little nagging things, so physically I felt better after Tuesday.

Wednesday was an easy running day and today was my Threshold day.  Being that I haven't done any specific 5k training, or really any race training for that matter, (i.e. - no volume speed work, no VO2Max intervals, and not even any race pace efforts) I felt I needed to run something more up-tempo just to get me used to running faster.  

I talked to my coach and what she came up w/ was a race-pace type of workout (actually a bit quicker) that wouldn't be very taxing.  The plan was 10 x 400 broken down as follows:

5 x 400 @ 85 w/ 90-second breaks

5-minute break

3 x 400 @ 83 w/ 90-second breaks

5-minute break

2 x 400 @ 80 w/ 90-second break

This would get in some 5:20 - 5:40 pace running - 2.5 miles in all w/ the breaks being long enough to not make this too difficult a workout to recover from.

It went down like this:

first set - 89, 84, 83, 83, 84.  (first one was the "wake up quarter", first time running up-tempo @ 9:00 am)

second set - 81, 81, 80

At this point, the workout was feeling quite easy, but coach didn't want me going under 80 so I decided to shorten the rests for the last two.  (instead of 5-min break and 90-seconds between reps I went with 3.5 minutes and then 60-seconds between reps)

third set - 80, 78.  

All in all, not too bad.  Only issue is that the outside of my left quad feels a little weak right now - I have no idea what caused it, but I don't think it's very serious.  I'll have to see how it feels tomorrow.  

The plan is another easy day tomorrow, a short evening run on Saturday and then the race is on Sunday.  I don't have a specific target time in mind, I figure I'll go out in about 5:40 and then make adjustments as needed.

Training:

9/6:  Off Day

9/7:  No Running  lifting (upper-A, abs) stretching, rolling

9/8:  AM  4-miles very easy - 7:44 pace

          PM 4.5 miles easy - 7:08 pace

9/9:  4-miles including 10 x 400 in 89, 84, 83, 83, 84 - 81, 81, 80 - 80, 78