The Hearnish 10K-ish: A race report-ish

This past Saturday was the fourth Freezeroo race, the Hearnish 10K (which is a certified 6.385 mile course) and possibly the toughest course of the series.  I have rough memories of this race after last year (mostly my own fault), so I was not looking forward this race very much.  Thus, I'm not really going to write a full race report but rather steal a bunch of pictures from random places.  

From the beginning of the race last year.  This was the coldest race that year (and still not as cold as many of the days this year)...Not sure what was going through my head that day.

Joe, Matt, and I hanging out before the race.  I got a little smarter this year.  Clothes are good.

Ready to go! (Kind of)

Leading the charge (half-asleep)

Thanks to Josh for this elevation graph of the course.  It's not flat.  Couple that with a stiff headwind for miles 2 and 3, and you don't have a fast course. 

Basically, I started fast, slowed drastically for miles 2 and 3, sped up a lot for mile 4, borderline walked up that hill in mile 5, and tried to mentally recover from that for a fast finish. 

Trying to finish strongly.

I came through first in a time of 36:48; it was a good workout and an improvement of over half a minute over the year before, most likely due to the extra clothing.  Next up for me is the fifth Freezeroo Race, the Valentines Run.

Thanks to Rochester Runner Pics for the photos!

Your body knows more than you do

I've learned more and more over the years that training plans should be written in pencil (or at least a spreadsheet on a computer with a working "delete" key).  The body knows how it feels better than any words written on paper do.  This week was one of those weeks that solidified this a little more for me. 

I'm starting to get into more "marathon training mode" now, as I have just over three months left.  My original plan for the week was 90 miles, build up more the next week, then back off for a fast 5K at the Brockport Golden Eagle Invitational, but due to several circumstances, I decided to instead try the 5K at the RIT Tiger Invitational this weekend. I still wanted to hit mileage, but I figured I could frontload the week, do a mile repeat workout (goal: 6-7) on Tuesday, and still be rested for the 5K on Saturday.  

Things were going well until Monday.  I got back to lab that evening after my PM run and dinner and started to work. After a half an hour or so, though, I felt really tired all of a sudden.  I got chills, felt really warm, and had an upset stomach.  My first thought was the flu. (Spoiler alert: it probably wasn't the flu.) I finished up the procedures I had to in lab, then went home, watched "How I Met Your Mother", and went to bed. 

I got up the next morning (the morning I planned the workout) later than I wanted to still feeling awful, but I decided to try to run.  I barely made it a few minutes before feeling nauseous, so I finished up a mile, went home and tried to eat before work.  I had no appetite but did the best I could.  I figured I'd run if I felt good enough after work.  Surprisingly, I did, and I completed a run without feeling awful.  I contemplated trying a shortened version of the workout the next morning.  
 The next morning came and I got to the track well enough.  However, barely halfway through my first repeat, I felt awful again.  I cut off and decided to just go easy, possibly for the rest of the week until the race.  This went well; I could still put in easy mileage, and I finally got my "full" appetite back on Thursday.  The only "hard" stuff I did was two 400 meter pickups on Friday at just faster than goal pace, more as a confidence booster going into the race.

Saturday morning came, and I was feeling surprisingly good.  Dave was also racing; the plan was to let the college kids do whatever they wanted to do (likely go out hard) but ignore them and get to the mile between 4:55 and 5:00.  Then we'd hold on from there.  Unlike last week, I wanted to succeed at sticking to the plan.  I got to RIT, did a warm up, and soon enough, it was race time.

The gun went off, and the race went off more slowly than expected.  We hung back and came through the first lap in 38-39 seconds.  We picked it up a little bit, and soon it was Dave, Chad Byler, and I out front.  We came through the 1600m in 4:57.  Perfect.  Dave soon started to surge, and I went with him but stuck close behind him.  Just after halfway through the race, I started to surge, mumbling something like "I'll start doing some of the work" but which probably sounded like "ladsfa iajdf a;asd".  Chad came back right before 3200m, and we ran through in 9:59ish, and he backed out.  Now was the time to hang tough.  A few laps later, Dave came back and we started to work again.  With 600m left, I started to go and push "hard".  I crossed the bell lap in 15:15ish and tried to kick.  With 150m left, a freshman from Geneseo got ahead of me.  I tried to get him but failed.  I crossed the line in second place in 15:48 (a new PR!), just as the freshman desecrated the track with the contents of his stomach.  Dave was close behind in a solid 15:58.

This week did not go as planned, and I still have a lot to learn about listening to my body.  Maybe it's stubbornness or stupidity (or a combination of both) that causes me to not want to give up miles.  Maybe I would have run even better if I had just taken a day off this week to recover.  But with a strong race and a new PR on a 90 mile week, I'd be lying if I said I was disappointed.  I know I can be a little smarter about my training, but this week gives me confidence as I go into the tougher weeks of training.

I'll pretend that course was accurate

The last two weeks have seen a good start to the new year.  I've raced twice in the last two weeks.  The last year ended with a race on New Year's Eve with my hometown Twilight Run 5K.  I had not run this race since high school, and they had changed the course since that time.  The race is run at Lakemont Park.  Each year around the holidays, the park sets up a light display within the park through which cars can drive through so passengers can get a nostalgic holiday feeling as they observe Christmas lights and listen to holiday music.  Unfortunately, that nostalgic holiday feeling works differently with a race.  The course starts outside of the park, runs about a quarter mile into it, does three loops around the park, and exits a quarter-mile to the finish.  The big challenge of the course is that there is also a 2 mile race that starts very soon after the start of the 5K, so dodging through groups of people on a fairly-narrow course made for a fun time.  There isn't a whole lot to report about this race, except that it was somewhat muddy and very cold, there was a lot of pushing and shoving, I barely won, and I got this very deceiving picture at the finish:

Finishing the Twilight Run 5K with a huge "PR"!  Credit: Hollidaysburg YMCA

The race organizers had warned that the course was fast and short, and it lived up to expectations.  If it had been a certified course, it would have been a 64 second PR (my official time was 14:47). Nevertheless, it gave me some confidence heading into the new year.

Training went well for the next two weeks up to the third Freezeroo race, the Pineway Ponds 5 Mile.  I had a few good workouts in the previous week, and I felt that I could pull out a sub-27 minute race and a PR.  Either that or I'd still not be too recovered from the workouts and blow up.

I woke up race morning feeling surprisingly rested for a week with less sleep than I'd like.  Dave, Josh, Matt, and I had decided a few days before to go out at 5:20 pace for a mile or two and see what happens after that. I was truly hoping to stick to that and run a fast race.  Unfortunately, the morning also presented some winds and rain, despite mild temperatures.  In addition, some ice was also still on the course, and we were warned multiple times about the finish being "dicey".   

Being warned about dicey conditions.  Credit: Rochester Runner Pics

I overestimated how good I felt early in the race.  I started the race feeling very confident and threw little concern to how fast I was going, and I became "that guy" who pushes the pace.  One mile and 5 minutes and 5 seconds later, Dave said something along the lines of "Out a little too fast", to which I responded "Yeah...".  About a half of a mile later, Dave started to pull away, and I tried to hold my best.  Any attempt to catch back up was quickly thwarted by the wind.  Despite slowing down greatly over the course of the race (except for a somewhat quick last mile), I came through the finish in 26:46, good enough for a 9 second PR for a 5 mile race.  Although it could have been a better PR had I employed a better race strategy, I am by no means disappointed.

Trying to finish strong.  Credit: Rochester Runner Pics

So what's next?   In addition to continuing to build my mileage in preparation for more hardcore marathon training, I plan to run at least one indoor 5K in the next 3 weeks. I missed the Holiday Classic this year, and I feel that it's time to return to the track; I have not run a track race (indoor or outdoor) in almost three years.  I have a good shot to run a fast 5K and maybe whittle my actual 5K PR down a little bit more. 

The role of burnout

It may seem contradictory that I'm writing a post on my experiences with burnout so soon after a post about pushing my limits.  No, I am not currently burnt out, neither physically nor mentally, and I'm now a much smarter runner than I was to reduce the chances of this happening again.  However, burnout has played a large role in my development as a runner, so I feel it's worth writing a post about.  To that end, we go back to 2008.

Throwback to 2008, the first time I broke 17 minutes in the 5K!

2008 was a good year for my running. In the spring, I had joined the track team after thinking I'd not compete in college and made excellent gains. I ran my first sub-17 minute 5K (coming after I had never broken 18 in high school), and that 5K itself was the day after a 10K.  Summer running went well, and I came into cross-country season feeling fast.  I ended the season with a PR of just under 28 minutes for 8K, which I didn't beat again until after college.

Then 2009 came.  Indoor track season started well, but towards the end of February (the week before the conference meet), I developed a pain in my one Achilles' tendon.  I took a few days off, took some Aleve, and ran the 5K that weekend.  The pain subsided, and I continued to train into the start of outdoor season.  The week before the first meet, tendonitis hit my other Achilles' tendon, only much more severe than it affected the other one.  This took the better part of a month before I could start running again, and by that point, the season was pretty much shot.

I wanted to come back strongly for the fall, so I took summer training seriously. Within a month of coming back to running, I was in the 65 miles per week range (compared to what I can handle now, this doesn't sound like much, but at the time, my highest week was around 70).  But things went downhill quickly.  I had trouble falling asleep at night and would wake up frequently or long before I planned to get up.  I averaged about 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night.  I often didn't have much of an appetite.  I was tired all of the time.  Worst of all, running became awful. Any type of workout quickly got cut short and turned into an easy run.  I couldn't complete workouts that I had been able to previously.  My only 5K race of the summer ended up well over 19 minutes.  Despite these problems, I was stubborn and thought it was just a phase.  I kept running, hoping it would get better.

It didn't.  The new semester began; I had a tough course load that year, yet I was fatigued and still could not sleep much.  Workouts were awful, and weekend after weekend I suffered through one miserable race after another.  My best race of the season was a minute slower than my worst race the previous fall.  I should have cut the season off early, but I still kept running, hoping it would get better.  

It wasn't until the end of the season that I took time off.  I had one week away from running, and I could feel myself getting stronger every day.  It wasn't enough.  I wanted to get strong and have a strong track season, but by starting back too early, I was doing the opposite.  I was getting more sleep, but sleep problems still remained.  I ended indoor track with a 17:25 5K; it was a step in the right direction.  Soon after, though, I was "injured" again; I felt a twinge in my back during an easy run and had trouble running after that.  Maybe it was a sign from the universe to take a break, so I did.  I only attempted a few outdoor races that season, including the steeplechase, which ended up as the only DNF of my life (and to this day).  

Finally, I took more time off.  Two weeks of nothing.  When I stepped out for that first run, I felt both awesome and awful at the same time.  I was rested and finally ready to get better.  I had an excellent summer training season, leading into what was my best cross-country season in college.  Sure, I didn't PR that season, but I was consistently close to a PR on a wide variety of tough courses.  This season then led into my best track season in college, with PRs in every distance from 800 to 10K (excluding the steeple, which will likely never be attempted again).  I've been improving still since then.

Final cross-country season in college.  Much healthier and stronger than the previous two years!

That burnout phase was one of the toughest times in my progression as a runner, yet it was also one of the most informational, as it taught me how to not train.  It also taught me the more subtle signs of burnout (besides workouts starting to be unsuccessful and running not being fun).  Aside from the loss of appetite, insomnia, and fatigue, I also learned about listening to my body a lot more.  Although I don't train based on heart rate, I became more in tune with paying attention to my resting heart rate and how well I recover.  If it's creeping up day after day, I now know I need to take it easy.  Unfortunately, burnout affects almost everyone differently, and you could google "overtraining symptoms" or "burnout symptoms" and find a dozen more.

I haven't been burnt out since that year.  I can run many more miles than I did back then, but it took time to build up to this level.  Jumping up all at once, especially after injury, is a one-way trip to burnout or injury.  It's easy to look back and say that I should have been smarter, but the long-term goal of having a great next season clouded the ability to accomplish that goal healthily.  The burnout cost me at least a half of a year of improvements, but because of it, I came out a smarter, better runner.