Summer Heat Wave Over? Training Resumes!

With the end of the record 1-week long summer heat wave in the northeast, that saw temperatures over 90 and high humidity on multiple days, I have resumed training, after a 6-day hiatus.  I ran 5.5 miles on Saturday, 7.2 on Sunday, then 5 miles last night.  Last night's run was surprisingly fast, 8:11/mile pace, possibly due to the "cool" conditions, with temperature around upper 70s, nice breeze, and humidity dropping during the run.

Tennis tonight, then hope to be back running tomorrow.  On the tennis side, I had my racquet re-strung and bought new tennis shoes, so we'll see if I can improve on my 0 and 9 match record for the season tonight.

8K Race Results!

Hi, everyone!  I ran in a hilly 8K road race this morning, under warm, but not unbearable conditions, with race time temperatures in the mid to upper 70s, and sunny.  This may sound laughably cool to southern readers of this blog, but it's a pretty hot race for us here in Buffalo, NY.  Regardless, this was the 3rd year I've run this particular race (ran in 2008, 2009, and again this year).  In 2009, conditions were much cooler and more comfortable, and I ran 32:43.  This year, I ran 32:26 (about 6:31/mile average), so an overall improvement, especially considering the race conditions.  I was 12th overall this year compared to 14th in 2009, and there about 10 more runners this year, totaling 153.  This race tends to be a bit more competitive than others in the area, with cash prizes of $100, $75, and $50 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd overall male and female, respectively.

I was a distant second in my age group (50 to 54) to a guy who ran 29:09!!!  That is just unbelievable, and makes him close to a national caliber age group runner.  He is certainly one of the top, if not the top in our age group in Metro Buffalo.

Next steps:  keep training hard this summer (and playing tennis), and hope this work pays off in the fall.  Typically, I really don't like to race in summer conditions.  Give me 20 degrees, snow and wind over this weather for racing!

There is a one mile road race late in August, so I'll probably get in another time trial or two on the track before then, and then give that a shot.  It's a pretty good race, certified course, and very competitive.

Mark

Click on title for link to results, or click here.

Training and Racing Update (not retired)

Training update:  last week, finished with 23.8 miles total, and two tough sessions of singles tennis.  I need to mention tennis, because I work really hard during these singles matches, which sometimes take a total elapsed time of up to 2 hours.  I suspect there is some cardio benefit, as after long rallies, I even feel the need to bend over, much as I would after a quarter-mile interval or race.  Also, I finished last week's training with a 6.8 mile hilly run in the woods of Houghton, NY, includig a run up the infamous "Devil's Back."

Training update:  ran an evening speed workout on the track Monday night to avoid the heat, but unfortunately, it was less than 2 hours after eating a full dinner.  I didn't feel sick, but times were slow.  I have been doing 8 quarters in about the 81 to 81.5 range.  My first quarter Monday night was 88.5!!!  The subsequent 7 quarters ranged from 83 to 85, with most of them in the 84 to 85 range.  I finished with 2 200s, in 36 and 37 respectively.

Training update:  tonight, I plan to drive to a park that has rolling hills, do some warmup running, then 8 repeat hills of about 250 meters each, jogging back down the hill for the rest interval, then a mile or so warmdown.  Tomorrow night I have tennis planned again (played last night also instead of runing), then maybe an easy 3 miles Friday to rest up for Saturday's race.

Racing:  8K hilly road race planned for Saturday morning.  I've done this race twice in the past, once in over 34 minutes, and then 2 years ago in 32:40.  The 32:40 was under perfect, cool conditions.  This year, it will likely be over 70 at race time (9 am), so we'll see.  I think I'm in decent shape, and I've been doing speed workouts on the track almost weekly.

As you can see, I took your comments under advisement and have not yet retired!

Mark

Should I Retire?

After a 7 miler in the heat Saturday, I did 8 quarters and 2 200s this morning.  The whole time I was thinking I should retire from competitive running....it hurt bad and I was running slower than last week.....possibly it was a combination of running 7 miles the day before, and then running this morning instead of this afternoon.  Anyway, on the way home, I decided not to quit..........yet.................

You've Got To Love Track in Europe

Right after checking in to my hotel in Tromso, Norway I turned on the TV and stumbled onto what looked to be a high-quality track meet. A few minutes later I saw a 5,000 meters being run at what looked to be a very quick pace. After watching for about 400 meters early in the race I told my daughter that I thought they had a shot at breaking 13:00. Sure enough the winning time was 12:59. The last 400 was a great battle betweeen three--I think it was a 59.

This meet was held in Lausanne, Switzerland and was part of the Samsung Diamond league. The 12:59 was a meet record and not too far off the world best time of the year of 12:54. The world record is 12:37 and it is hard to understand how anybody can run that fast. In the race I watched today seven of the top eleven were from Kenya and the other four of the top eleven were from Ethiopia.

Cowart Takes 6th in USATF Steeplechase

Don Cowart of Ragged Mountain Racing took 6th in the 3,000 meter steeplechase USATF 2011 USA championships in Eugene, Oregon this past weekend.  Eric met Cowart and his coach at the Charlottesville High School track a few weeks ago, while Don was doing 3 one-mile repeats at a 4:40/mile pace!  Although Don did not qualify for the world championships, his time of 8:39 and 6th place finish in the USA finals was very impressive.

The Sub-5 Mile Blues Video

Without further ado, here it is!!!  Please make sure to post your comments, if you aren't laughing so hard you can't get up off the floor!

Thoughts on Lukas Verzbicas

Hi Guys!

Yes, it's been a while since I've been on the blog. Just got lazy and busy.

I wanted to take a minute to raise a point about the comparison between Verzbicas' sub 4 high mile and Alan Webb. Not to take anything away from an 18 year old kid who can break 4 minutes but my son Greg pointed me to several posts on Running2win.com. I did not know that Verzbicas was home schooled and was personally coached for years. He never actually ran for a high school team and only ran in hand picked high level championship caliber events. By contrast, Webb went to a public high school, ran on a team and also ran multiple events per meet including relays. The same cannot be said for Verzbicas. So to me this raises an interesting question; who is the better runner and whose performances can best be judged against other high school runners given the schedules, team participation and events run? Again, I don't wish to demean anything Verzbicas has accomplished but given these parameters, my money is on Webb.

Training Update

It's been a mixture of tennis and running the last couple of weeks (about 4 runs each week, and 2 to 3 sessions of tennis).  Although I run slower the day after playing any tough tennis matches, I'm hoping the cross training is beneficial.  Last week I ran 22.5 miles in 4 runs, then played tennis the other 3 days.  This week I may end up with 5 or even 6 runs because of the rain (tennis courts closed), and one day of tennis.  As of Wednesday (yesterday), I had 14.5 miles running in 3 sessions, and one session of tennis.  Sunday's run was the mile time trial, and yesterday I did a tempo run on the roads (2 miles at 8:30/mile pace, 1.5 miles at 6:38 pace, and the last 1.5 miles at 8:18 pace.  I'm traveling to Houghton later today to visit one of the other famous Dr. K Strider members (Michael Raybuck), and hope to run in the hills of Houghton tomorrow.

July 4th weekend I would like to either do another mile time trial or a 5 or 10K road race.  For a mile time trial, I really need to invite someone to run with me.  These solo runs are getting very difficult mentally.