Phase 2 Resumes after "Break"

I had to take a 5-day break from training due to illness followed by a business trip, but resumed last Thursday. This weekend saw a great rebound in training with a 5-miler Friday evening at 8:20 pace, 7.27 miles Saturday at 8:47/mile, and a brisk 4.65 miler today at a nice clip of 8:01 per mile, and feeling good.

This Saturday, there is actually a 1-mile certified road race in town, so if all goes well, I may enter and make another mile attempt, this time with approximately 30 to 50 other runners. Should be a bit different atmosphere than going to the track by myself, saying "Boom!" out loud, and running 4 laps (plus 9 meters) by myself.

Stay tuned!

Not so ultimate frisbee...

I've been making good progress coming back from being clobbered by a car in March. The doctor released me to bike again in July, and I've been building up slowly since then. I did my first few rides solo, and I thought that I was doing well. That was until I did a 36 mile ride with my wife, Kim, and she dusted me on all the hills.

The first week of August, Kim had a week long business meeting in the tourist magnet of upstate New York, Syracuse. So, of course I joined her and played while she went to meetings. I did some fairly long rides in the hills south of the city, and got my longest post accident ride up to 49.7 miles.

This past Friday I ran out of excuses not to bike commute to work, so I suited up and rode in on Friday morning. I intentionally rode the route I was riding when hit in March. With the exception of one adrenaline rush when it looked like a car was going to try and zip out from a stop sign in front of me, it went well, and I felt good.

Coincidentally Friday was the group picnic for my new group at work. After some pizza, frisbees were broken out, and I tried my hand at tossing them around. Throwing a frisbee is like riding a bicycle, and the skills gained playing Ultimate Frisbee at Binghamton were right there. Regular throws, back hand, and underhand. Yes I was wowing the crowd, and demonstrating the benefits of a liberal arts education. That was until another guy and I, going after the same high thrown frisbee collided in mid-air. I came down hard, and hurt my knee. Aaaaaaaarrrrrrghh! A trip to the medical office: sprained knee. Ice, ibuprofen, and six weeks to get back.

I'm ready for 2009 to be over....

Speedo

Tennis Ranking Re-instated

Raybuck lost a tough match to his usual 4.0-ranked playing partner Tuesday night under the lights at the Buffalo Racquet Club. After leading the 1st set 5-2, Raybuck's opponent cranked up the heat, and battled to 6-6, then took the 7-point tie breaker 7-4 to claim the set. The second set was much of the same, with Raybuck coming out on top this time, 7-5. However, Raybuck lost steam in the 3rd set, losing 6-0. However, it was getting late, and he started thinking that he could get home earlier if the 3rd set, which didn't start until 9:45 pm, was over more quickly.

Although this is his 3rd straight loss to a 4.0 player, 2 of the three were 3 setters (note that in the 1st match they opted for a tie-breaker instead of a full 3rd set), so the USATF has reluctanctly allowed Raybuck to retain his 4.0 ranking. However, officials warned him that one more loss, no matter the score, woud again threaten a potential downgrade to 3.5.

At the end of the match, Raybuck's opponent stated "You're a worthy opponent. You're like a backboard....I was giving you my best shots, but they kept coming back!" Raybuck is most known for his running ability, having run a 4:19.9 mile in college, and more recently, a 5:28.39 at Age 51. On the courts, this translates into significant running, diving and dinking to stay in the point long after the average player would have given up the ghost.

First Phase 2 Mile Attempt!

With the World Track and Field Championships just around the corner, Mark Raybuck got into the spirit of the season by running his first mile time trial of the Phase 2 program. "It was ok..........not great, but ok" said Raybuck to reporters and camera crews following his first "Phase 2" mile run attempt on a cool, pleasant Friday night at the Casey Middle School track.

Raybuck decided just prior to his training run to abort the training and conduct another mile attempt. "It's been 5 weeks since the last attempt, and I need to stay sharp!" he said. "For whaaaaaat?" Asked the reporters. "For Phase 2" Raybuck replied.

The good news: the time was 5:28.39, the fastest this season, the fastest since Raybuck has turned 50, and the fastest mile since his last serious sub-5 assault in late 2001. The bad news: He only shaved 0.1 seconds off the last attempt. The good news: this was a last minute decision, and I did not feel up to it. I counted this more as a mental exercise than anything else.

Stay tuned for more Phase 2 action!

Is Tennis Valuable Cross Training?

I am soliciting the readers' input on whether tennis (singles, not doubles) is valuable cross training for a runner. My observations indicate that playing a full match of singles tennis with an equally ranked player can be a tremendous workout. However, after a week like this one, in which I played tennis three times, and only ran three times, leaves me with questions, and a feeling like I didn't train properly. The day immediately following tennis, in particular, seems difficult, and the first mile of my run was slow and awkward. Usually by the 3rd mile my legs felt better, but I can't help thinking that the muscle use is so different from running (side to side vs. straight ahead) that tennis could actually be detrimental to running. A typical tennis match for me consists of about 1 to 1.5 hours of play, with many small sprints, which can't be more than 5 or 10 meters, maybe 20 meters when chasing a lob shot from the net to the baseline. At the end of a long rally, I am quite winded, but short rallies don't accomplish much aerobically. Overall, it seems like a good workout, including the arms, but I'm wondering it really helps with running and racing. Any thoughts?

Raybuck's Tennis Ranking Questioned

Following a second straight loss to a USATF 4.0-ranked player last night under the lights (6-3, 7-5), the USATF contacted Mark Raybuck and threatened to downgrade last year's 4.0 ranking. Raybuck was upgraded from a 3.5 after forcing some 3-setters and finally winning two matches against a 4.0-level player last summer. However, this season has not been so fortunate, with two straight losses prompting the call from the USATF. Raybuck had his chances last night, leading the second set 5-3, but then losing 4 straight games, including several double faults. He is scheduled to play against the same player next Monday night. If Raybuck wins that match, the USATF has informed him that they will re-consider the downgraded ranking. As usual, Raybuck's running ability was prominently displayed throughout the match, literally shocking his opponent by running down what would be for others impossible drop and lob shots. His final comment to the reporters after the match was "I may not be able to hit the ball, but I sure can run!" (now this post can legitimately appear under Mark and Eric's Running).

And one last mention regarding this post - I did have the only ace of the night, a solid 1st serve down the center line on the ad side of the court. Wish I had a radar gun on it, as my opponent really didn't even have a chance to move towards the ball. It surprised me as well!

Phase 2 Training Continues!

My phase 2 training was very successful this weekend, including a Phase 2 track workout Friday, 5 miles at an 8:30/mile pace on Saturday, and 7.14 miles at an 8:45/mile pace yesterday. The Phase 2 speed workout differed from Phase 1 by including one 800 meter interval at the beginning of the workout (2:58), followed by 6 400s, rather than just 8 400s. Phase 2 includes more endurance work: hence, the 800. The 400s were all between 80 and 81 seconds, with one stray 81.3, and a final 79.3. This workout was encouraging, as quite often, I am the only one at the track foolish enough to be doing speed workouts. Friday, I encountered 3 other people doing some semblance of speed. The first was an older guy with gray hair, running laps, but throwing in 200 meter intervals at a good clip. When I told him it was tough getting old, he said "yes, but we're fighting it!" Then, later, a young couple showed up and without any warmup, started doing 400 meter intervals. The interesting part is that the husband (or boyfriend), gave the woman a "head start" each lap, then started his watch and took off, but timed it perfectly so that he "won." I think he was running about 75 -second intervals, by the looks of it. Does this remind you of anything? I wonder if he lost one of the intervals to his wife, if her handicap would have been suddenly and severely slashed?

Mile Time Reaches Plateau as Phase 2 Begins

Before a vacation to Key Largo, I made one last stab at a mile, running 5:28.5, about 0.7 seconds better than the previous 5:29.2. At least it was an improvement, but the curve (see graph above) indicates that I have potentially maximized my performance in the Phase 1 Training Program. Phase 2 has now begun! Let's define Phase 1 as Sub 5:30, and Phase 2 will target sub 5:20.

8K Race Results!

As a "kickoff" to his "Phase 2" sub-5 mile training, Raybuck completed a hilly, 8K road race last Saturday, finishing in an acceptable 32:42 (6:35/mile), with a sub-6 minute final mile (although downhill). He finished 15th overall out of 141 runners and 2nd in the 50 to 54 year old codger division (see photo). Click on the title to link to the complete results (Laurel Run 8k).

"I'm still not where I want to be" said Raybuck to the clamoring reporters after the race, "but Phase 2 is definitely underway!" When asked why his current training is referred to as "Phase 2" Raybuck replied "Because Phase 1 is complete."

Note: Raybuck's Parsons colleague Eric Felter also ran in this event, and finished in a very respectable time of 34:16 (6:54 per mile), 19th overall, and 5th in a very competitive 40 to 44 year old age group. When questioned by reporters, Felter stated that he was rather pleased with his time, having lowered his time from 2 years ago, thus defying age.

(Course with mile markers shown above)