Mile Time Drops Again!

Last Saturday I jogged to the track, put on the Lunarlite racing flats, and ran a "low-key" time trial with noone around. Tough to get psyched up for it, with no fans, especially after the May 6 "race" environment, but I don't want to let long intervals pass by without a trial.

I was targeting sub-5:30, or 82.5 seconds per lap, but the first lap was 84. I was afraid I would end up around 5:40, but told myself it was a mental exercise, and I would finish no matter what. I tried picking up the pace for lap 2, but went through in 2:48, another 84. Again, I tried pushing, and managed 82 seconds for the 3rd lap, or around 4:10. I applied a lot of pressure the final lap, especially the last 200 meters, and managed a 79.3, ro 5:29.3.

The bad news? 30 seconds to go for sub-5. The good news? I have only done one formal track speed workout so far, and am starting weekly track workouts. I hope to see the times drop a little faster once those workouts start kicking in!

Tour Journals

In our mini reunion, Eric confessed to a desire to hike the Appalachian Trail. For those of you not familiar with the concept, hiking the Appalachian Trail (or AT as it is known to its fans) involves hiking about 2200 miles over some very rugged terrain, and doing it in the course of about six months.

Now, hiking the AT is a worthy goal, but I suggested to Eric that such a goal is better suited to the young, or at least those young enough to consider running a sub-5 minute mile. Anyway, I encouraged him to consider something like my goal: riding a bike across the U.S.A. Biking across the U.S.A. only takes about three months, it can be done (if one so desires) while staying each night in comfy hotels, and is regularly accomplished by geezers such as ourselves. (The average age of Adventure Cycling Trans Am rides is something in the neighborhood of 60!) To inspire him, and increase my hit count, I pointed him to my recently completed tour journals of two bike trips that Kim and I took in the Finger Lakes region. They were week long tours that we did in 2007 and 2008. If you are interested, you can find them at:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/fingerlakes2007

and

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/FingerLakes2008

Enjoy.

Chris

Mile Quest Continues!

I ran in a mile "race" last night. My old alma mater, Fillmore High, held an open masters mile at the beginning of the Fillmore High School Invitational track meet. Thus, it had all the bells and whistles of a typical track meet, with electronic timing, officials, 1st, 2nd, 3rd call for the mile, announcements from the press box, some high schoolers and spectators cheering, etc. In fact, my name was mentioned as a former Fillmore athlete, along with my "former" 4:19 mile time.

I did not get any photos, although my wife videotaped the race. Once I have managed to digitize the tape, I'll post at least part of it here.

In summary, I ran a 5:33 (a true mile, as we backed up about 9 meters from the 1600 start line), and came in 3rd out of 6 runners, with the winning time by a Houghton College track athlete at 5:00.3, 2nd place at 5:24 (40 year old, also former Fillmore graduate, with the Fillmore 3200 meter record at 9:26). My splits were a bit erratic, with 81 for the first lap, then 2:49 at the half (88 seconds), 4:15 at the 3/4 (86 seconds), then close to 78 seconds for the final lap! I'm still awaiting the official electronic time, which I am hoping is under 5:33.

The good news is that I chopped 10 seconds off of last week's 5:43. The bad news is that I have 34 seconds to go to break 5 minutes, and that is a very long 34 seconds! But the good news is that I have not really done any track speed workouts yet, and plan to start those next week (quarters, halves, 200s, the works). I will also continue to add distance to my weekly long run, which should be about 7 miles this weekend. The bad news is that everything hurts now (knees, hips, etc.).

Mark

Dr. K. Strider mini-Reunion

Eric and I had a mini reunion at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem Massachusetts. The Hawthorne Hotel is conveniently located across the street from the Salem Witch Museum, and is near the House of Seven Gables.

Also in attendance was Eric's wife Harriet, and my wife Kim. Kim, an honorary Strider for her participation under the team name in the Kwaj Rust Man, was anxious to meet the "father" of the team.

We had a great time catching up, and I remembered to bring along the camera to document the event!