August 2017 Running Challenge

August Running Totals (miles)
8/1 – 9.06 warm up + speed work
8/2 – unplanned rest day
8/3 – 15.02 easy
8/4 – rest day
8/5 – 14.07 pacers' run
8/6 – 7.85 easy 60 minutes
8/7 – rest day
8/8 – 16.00 with hills
8/9 – 9.61 warmup + 10K race
8/10 – rest day

August total to date – 71.61

Nominal challenge goal: 260 miles

Real goals: Stay healthy. Train well toward the Rochester Marathon. Win my age group at Pound the Ground 10K on August 9. [Done, 41:26, 4th overall] Run a respectable sub-20 5K at Bergen on August 12. Run the USATF Masters Mile (road) in under 6 minutes on August 25.

Today'sYesterday's notes – The day went long, and bedtime won out over posting an update yesterday evening.

I've been struggling with a right Achilles niggle, which is slowly, ever so slowly, getting better as I baby it along. Lately I've developed some secondary aches in my right leg, apparently from compensating for the Achilles. So my confidence wasn't at a terribly high level. On the bright side, I knew I wouldn't have to run my best to win my age group against pretty easy competition, absent a surprise showing by someone fast registering the day of the race. I'll spare you the suspense. The Unknown Runner didn't show up.

Got to Mendon Ponds Park about 4:45. I love this place. It's pretty, and I've run several races and many training runs here. In fact, while I had never run the Pound the Ground route before, I had run every segment of it except the "back" part of an out and back. So I decided my warmup would be backwards from the finish line to the out and back. This would show me what Pond Road is like in the direction I'd never run it, as well as making the last mile and a half of the course fresh in my mind.

Before I set out, I saw the trophies. Way cool, though I wont' win one. The soldiers are for first male and female in the 5K and 10K. The Golden Boot is the Branch Team Trophy, a rotating award on display all year at the Veteran's Outreach Center. This year, Navy won the award with a horde of young-looking 5K runners.



Thought to take a picture of the finish line before my warmup:



Yes, we finish on a gravel road. The shot above shows near level to slightly rising terrain, but the interesting part is that it's a fairly steep downhill, on uncertain footing, right when you want to be putting on a finish line kick:



I walked up that little hill before my warmup, paying attention to the surface. There had been some fresh gravel laid some time back, and it was a mixture of decent footing and treacherous loose gravel, with some areas that showed the effects of washout from rains. Have to pay attention to footing near the end of this race. Not to worry, the finish line gravel road is something I've dealt with for Spring Forward 15K and Summerfest 12K several times.

Ran my warmup too fast, which is a pattern for me before races. Noted that we would have a decent amount of shade on the course, a good thing in summer weather. Got back to the finish line, went to my car, and downed 8 ounces of Nuun. I had seen one table that would be a water stop less than a mile from the finish. Threw my soaked shirt and hat into my laundry bag, toweled down, and put on my race hat and singlet. I've got the humid summer race routine down now.

Dithered about wearing a hydration belt for the race, decided not to. It was okay. I was able to grab two swallows of water from a cup at each aid station, and there were just enough of them that I could run past the last one with the expectation of water at the finish line.

Oh, yeah. The weather. 81º F (27º C) with 48% relative humidity according to Garmin. Not terribly pleasant to run in, but really familiar. I knew it was not a day or a course for a PR 10K, with rolling hills for the entire course but net uphill for the last mile and a half or so.

Start off on a downhill. We sort ourselves out in a few hundred meters, and I count 9 runners ahead of me. Thoughts of taking it easy to spare my niggles vanish, and I start to have thoughts of finishing in the top 15 males for those vanity Rochester Runner of the Year overall points. Another guy passes me on an uphill. 10 ahead. I pass him on a downhill. 9 ahead. Then 8. Then 7. Then 6. Then 5.

About the 2K flag, I pass the only woman ahead of me. At this point, I can see that there are 3 guys I won't ever catch, plus a guy who will always beat me in a 5K but that I can usually beat in a 10K. I spend the next 3K chasing him, catching him right about the 5K mark. Pass him on the downhill. He says, "Go, Kevin!" I say, "This is recovery in your hill repeats!" From then on, I simply hold my position. I gain on the 3rd guy, but I don't ever get close. Running the last full mile of mostly uphill with fake recovery areas of flat or not very far downhill, it was a good thing I'd done the preview. This is easier when I know it's coming.

Get to the gravel downhill, and take it at speed. Now I'm running with people finishing the 5K, who came to the gravel road from the north when I came to it from the south. Cross the line, and a volunteer hands me a bottle of cold water. Garmin says 41:27, not a PR but very respectable for the weather and rolling hills. Official time turned out to be 41:26, 4th overall out of 91 finishers, 1st of 7 in the nonstandard M "61 to death" age group, and 1st of 3 in the standard M 60-64 age group that will be used for RROY scoring.

Get congratulated by the guy behind me. He said he was trying to run me down, but couldn't catch me. Turns out he finished 6 seconds behind me. He is 47 years old. If there were a 1st Masters Award, I would have won it for this race; the 3 guys ahead of me were 24, 34, and 34. RunSignUp showed age grading; at 79.7, I age graded first at Pound the Ground. Second place age grading was my team mate Tony, who was robbed of his rightful 70-74 award by the nonstandard age groups.

Age group awards only went to 1st in the age group. It was a nice looking medal with no ribbon:





My result gives me 12 RROY overall points, a vanity thing. I am in no danger of influencing the overall RROY award winning positions. I get 10 RROY age group points, for the maximum possible 60 for the series. I have now mathematically clinched at least a tie for the age group. In practice, I have the win because my team mate Bill is the only guy who could mathematically tie me, and he can't run all the remaining races.

So, I had a great race when all I needed was an okay race. I could have just run a 7 minute average and won my age group, and I knew that going in; but there are those vanity RROY overall points. So I ran a 6:41 average pace by certified race distance, 6:39 by Garmin distance. Garmin mile splits were 6:19, 6:39, 6:48, 6:33, 6:47, 6:53, and a 6:13 pace for the tag end. This makes sense for where the uphill and downhill portions of the course are. I ran pretty much by what a 10K ought to feel like to run well. This produced 80-20 HR 3% Zone 2, 29% Zone X, 61% Zone 3, 4% Zone 4/Y/5. Heh. Maybe my HR zones are okay, after all. Just takes a while to get through Zone X.

Got up this morning, and the niggles are bothering me. Right now it seems that my right hamstring and hip abductor are the worst, and the Achilles isn't all that bad. But the hammie/abductor is bad enough to affect my gait, so today will be a rest day. Hopefully things will feel better tomorrow, and this is only a recovery issue rather than a serious injury. I spent yesterday on the planet Denial, and I may spend today and tomorrow on the planet Hypochondria.

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) finished in 40:04
May 27, 2017 Canandaigua Classic Half Marathon (Canandaigua, NY) finished in 1:33:06
June 9, 2017 Charlie McMullen Mile (Fairport, NY) finished in 5:44.90, PR for mile
June 18, 2017 Medved 5K to Cure ALS (Rochester, NY) finished in 19:32
July 4, 2017 Firecracker Four Mile (Fairport, NY) finished in 25:42
July 15, 2017 Shoreline Half Marathon [1:40 pacer] (Hamlin, NY) finished in 1:39:05
July 28, 2017 Karknocker 5K (East Rochester, NY) finished in 19:28
August 9, 2017 Pound the Ground 10K (Mendon, NY) finished in 41:26
August 12, 2017 Bergen Road Race 5K (Bergen, NY)
August 25, 2017 USATF Masters Mile (Hap Crim Michigan Mile, Flint, MI)
September 3, 2017 Oak Tree Half Marathon (Geneseo, NY)
September 17, 2017 MVP Rochester Marathon (Rochester, NY)
November 23, 2017 Race with Grace 10K (Hilton, NY)

In for 125 miles in August but already 1/3rd of the way there.
Running Streak has continued nicely averaging 4 miles per day and am now on day 85 of my run streak.

Paced a beginning runner to their first sub 30 5K last night. Kind of a good feeling seeing someone else succeed.

Cheers,

Hi all! My miles for august are looking good

8/1: 6mi
8/2: 6mi
8/3: none
8/4: 6mi
8/5: 4mi
8/6: 6mi
8/7: 6mi
8/8: 4mi
8/9: none
8/10: 10mi... I did it! And at 10:38/mi too