April 2017 Running Challenge

April Running Totals (miles)
4/1 – 18.19 paced run
4/2 – 3.90 easy 30 minutes
4/3 – rest day
4/4 – 10.75 tempo intervals
4/5 – 6.85 group run
4/6 – 8.18 tempo intervals
4/7 – rest day
4/8 – 12.07 paced run
4/9 – 7.83 almost easy 60 minutes
4/10 – 4.51 easy 30 minutes + 4 strides
4/11 – 7.81 warm up, speed work, cool down
4/12 – 3.81 easy 30 minutes
4/13 – 5.45 easy/MP workout
4/14 – travel day
4/15 – 4.12 easy run along the Charles River
4/16 – 2.61 20 minutes on last part of course
4/17 – 26.43 Boston Marathon
4/18 – travel day
4/19 – rest day
4/20 – 2.12 recovery run
4/21 – 4.20 easy/MP
4/22 – 4.18 paced run
4/23 – 5.00 easy
4/24 – 5.10 easy
4/25 – 7.09 warm up, speed work, cool down
4/26 – 7.22 group run
4/27 – 6.69 warm up, speed work, cool down
4/28 – rest day
4/29 – 3.00 slow course preview
4/30 – 8.28 warm up + race

April total – 175.39

Nominal Challenge Goal – 150 miles
Real Goals: Run Boston. Finish healthy. Recover well.

Today's notes – Traveled to Dedham, MA without my computer, so I had a lot of back posts to read this morning. Had the text alerts for @Stoshew71, so I knew when I was on the road (in the passenger seat) that something happened to hurt his pace in the last half of his marathon. Had to wait till this morning to read the posts and find out what went on.

Saturday was hot when we got to Dedham. Got checked in, and the desk clerk tells us check out time is 11 AM. Gun time is 11 AM. Can we get a late check out? No, the hotel was all sold out with an event the next day, Maybe they could give us 11:30, but no later. Yeah, right. Run a world class 10K, teleport back to the hotel, and *still* don't have time for a shower before check out. But there was plenty of time to think about what to do about that. We ended up packing a bag of dry clothes to change into after the race, so at least we wouldn't be driving in wet, sweaty clothing.

Got to packet pick up, met up with some other team members, went out for Coach's recommended 3 mile mini-preview of the course. Ran out 1.5 miles, and back. Well, kind of ran. The Garmin tells me I covered 3 miles in 30 minutes, for a 10 minute mile average; but my heart rate was in Zone Zero for over 20 minutes. Lots of stop lights, had to repeatedly wait for someone to tell me where the course went. But at least I saw the out and back portion of the out, loop, and back course. The out is downhill, the back is uphill, and there were reportedly some interesting rolling hills on the part of the loop that I didn't preview.

So, race day came. IIRC, I was supposed to tag @7lenny7 on the race report. LONG wait for time to leave for the race. Ate too much at the hotel breakfast. Checked out in plenty of time. Got to the site, ran a 2 mile warm up. Felt a bloated from eating too much, but he warm up shook the worst of the bloat loose. Ran the out and back, downhill out and uphill back. Ran it harder than I'm supposed to, with both the downhill mile and the uphill mile coming in at a 7:38 pace. But it felt pretty good. I took that as a sign that I could have a pretty good race.

Talked with my team mate Bill about strategy. He was going to try to run a 6:40 first mile with as little effort as possible, then hang on to target a 42 minute finish. I recalled Coach telling us that his best result in Dedham was a 6:43 average pace, with an incredibly fast first mile and hanging on for a slower finish. I planned to run the first mile like a bat out of hell, then moderate to a sustainable pace and run the rest of the race by feel. Temperature was in the mid-50s, wind wasn't a factor, there was sunshine but it wasn't a problem at that temperature. All I really had to worry about was tangents, terrain, and running my race.

Bang. I set out chasing some very good rabbits. Passed Bill early, as he typically lines up better than I do. As I passed him, I said, "6:40." He later told me it was helpful to get a reminder of his race plan. On the early downhill stretch, I was having fun:



Saw a clock at mile 1 click over to 1:00. That was for the open part of the James Joyce Ramble, which started 5 minutes after the USATF Masters 10K. So I ran the first mile in 6:00 flat. Right on plan. Then I added 5 minutes in my head for later clocks, until I started seeing them with the USATF Masters time. Mile 2, 12:18. Mile 3, 18:48. Mile 4, 25:28. Then I didn't see any more race clocks till the finish line. The harder rolling hills were in Mile 4, and that was pretty much everyone's slowest mile.

Got to the uphill, and tried to give it a bit of a kick for the last 500 meters or so. Just before the finish line, I felt like puking. Slowed a bit, because I knew that puking would slow me even more; but I saw the clock and a chance to break 40 minutes. At that point, it's really an effort:



Crossed, went off to the side, tried to puke, failed, then remembered to stop the watch. Garmin says 40:12. Gun time was 39:54. Garmin mile splits were 5:59, 6:18, 6:25, 6:37, 6:30, and 6:29 for the full miles. The tag end doesn't tell me anything because I didn't stop the watch timely. Walked around some. Congratulated Bill when he finished in 42:08 gun time, in pretty much the same shape I finished in. Both of us turned in PR 10Ks by a significant margin.

USATF Masters events draw a tough field. My result was 83rd of 232 overall, 6th of 18 in the M 60-64 age group, and behind the top 2 in the M 65-69 age group. My team was the 3rd place M 60+ team, averaging 18 seconds slower than the 2nd place team. Neither Bill nor I could possibly have done 18 seconds better. If I could have done even 3 seconds better, it would have been from running better tangents and not from running faster. FWIW, Garmin recorded my run as 6.27 miles. I think I ran decent tangents.

The team result got me a team medal, and my age grade of 82.97% got me a bronze age grade medal:




This is my second age grade medal, and I could be collecting a few of them. I've never age graded above 85% (84.88 at Virginia Beach), so perhaps a silver age grade medal is an incentive to work on getting a little faster. Or maintaining my speed while getting a few years older.

That closes out the month of April. I blew past my nominal mileage goal. I ran Boston and finished uninjured. I recovered well enough in 13 days to turn in a PR 10K on the last day of the month. I'm very happy with my performance versus goals for the month of April.

See you all on the May thread.

2017 races:
January 1, 2017 Freezeroo #2 (Resolution Run 7.5 mile) (Mendon, NY) Finished in 50:45
January 7, 2017 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY) Finished in 1:32:40
January 14, 2017 Freezeroo #3 (Pineway Ponds Park 5 mile) (Spencerport, NY) Finished in 33:42
January 28, 2017 Freezeroo #4 (Hearnish 5 mile) (Victor, NY) short course, finished 4.88 miles in 32:50
February 4, 2017 USATF Cross Country National Championship Masters 8K (Bend, OR) Finished in 35:39, team won the 60+ Men's cross country championship
February 11, 2017 Freezeroo #5 (Valentines Run "In Memory of Tom Brannon" 8 Mile) (Greece, NY) sat out due to training schedule
February 25, 2017 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY) short course, finished 4.34 miles in 27:51
March 11, 2017 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY) finished in 33:25
March 18, 2017 USATF Masters 8K Championship (Shamrock 8K, Virginia Beach, VA) finished in 30:59, PR for 8K
April 17, 2017 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA) finished in 3:49:42
April 30, 2017 USATF Masters 10K Championship (James Joyce Ramble, Dedham, MA) finished in 39:54, PR for 10K
May 21, 2017 Lilac Run 10K (Rochester, NY)
June 9, 2017 Charlie McMullen Mile (Rochester, NY)
June 18, 2017 Medved 5K to Cure ALS (Rochester, NY)

Goal - 40 miles
4/3 - 2 miles (gotta start somewhere)
4/5 - 2.5 miles
4/7 - 5 miles
4/8 - 1 mile then crosstrained
4/10 - 2 miles and strength train
4/14 - 5 miles
4/15 - 2.5 miles
4/20 - 2 miles
4/21 - 3 miles
4/22 - 5 miles tough one;calf hurt
4/24 - 2.5 miles
4/26 - 5 miles
4/28 - 3 miles
4/30 - 5 miles
Total- 45.5 I make it!!

Last p.s. for the month - did a 15K Saturday, and placed 2nd in the A/G.