Random Facts Friday: 2011 Facts

To finish off 2011, here are some not-so-random Friday facts about the year.

1. I ran five 5Ks, two 8Ks, three 10Ks, three half marathons and one marathon.

Veteran's Day 10K

2. Per the above, I ran 14 races total.

3. Believe it or not, I swam exactly 26.2 miles this year, completely unintentionally. I just looked at my swim log, and boom! Right in front of me was the 26.2!

4. I spent 88 hours pool running this year.

5. The race performance I am most proud of this year is the Veteran's Day 10K with a time of 45:19. The 10K has historically been my hardest distance to run well and I finally did it.

6. I spent all of February and March recovering from 3 stress fractures in my tibiae.

7. My biggest lesson learned this year is that higher mileage doesn't necessarily equal faster running.

8. My top three running items purchased are my Saucony PE Revival shorts, my CW-X capris, and my CEP compression sleeves.

9. My worst race performance was ironically the race I trained the hardest for-- the Milwaukee Lakefront marathon.

10. I ran 70.7 tempo miles in 2011, which was 5.4% of my overall training mileage. I ran 43.8 tempo miles in 2010, which was 2.0% of my overall training mileage.

Alexandria Half Marathon

11. My average training pace this year was 8:49. Coincidentally my PR marathon pace from over three years ago is also 8:49.

12. The hottest race I ran was the Lawyers Have Heart 5K, which was supposed to be a 10K, but got downgraded on race morning due to the heat. A close second was the Alexandria Festival Half marathon.

13. In addition to my stress fractures, I also dealt with hip bursitis, early signs of peroneal tendonitis, and a calf strain.

14. I met a ton of cool people through running this year. And I started blogging more.

15. I won three age group awards: 1st AG at the Patriot's Cup 8K, 2nd AG at the Ringing In Hope 10K, 2nd AG at the Run Geek Run 8K.

16. I think I experienced my first-ever official "overtraining" after the Turkey Trot. I recently read a description of technical overtraining symptoms, and I had most of them. It took me nearly three weeks to get my energy back.

17. I do not have any running goals for 2012 other than to run smart and stay healthy.

A Zebra Doesn't Change Its Stripes

I was so excited to know my time that I ruined my finish line photos! I specifically tried NOT to do that this year, but I guess I wasn't as far away from the finish as I thought!

Veteran's Day 10K 2009
48:54 PR

Veteran's Day 10K 2011
45:19 PR

I've been taking it pretty easy this week in terms of running. I know I will need fresh legs for my Turkey Trot 5K next week!

I took a complete rest day on the Monday after the race, and on Tuesday I went for an easy pool run and 900 yd swim. On Wednesday I was back out on the road with an easy 7-miler. Thursday was another easy 7-miler, although the pace was a bit zippier. Today I subjected myself to 5 x 3:00 pool running intervals (harder than track intervals!) and tomorrow I plan to do a long run of 14-15 miles.

In other news, I jumped on the Richmond Marathon bandwagon and registered for the 2012 race at the low introductory price of $55. (Which means no Veteran's Day 10K). It will be the five-year anniversary of my first sub-4:00 marathon, and I'd like to beat my 2007 time by 30 minutes. It's a pipe dream at the moment, but I'm going to work hard all year to try and make it happen. It's not horribly unrealistic for someone to decrease his/her marathon time by 30 minutes over a 5-year period of consistent training.

I do regret that I am missing out on the opportunity to experience a new marathon, but Richmond is one of my all-time favorites. Let's just hope I can hold off a few seconds before hitting that "stop" button on the Garmin!

Battling My 10K Demon

I've blogged about this many times before: the 10K is my weakest distance. I think I finally have a physiological explanation why. It doesn't make sense that I can run a half marathon at about the same pace as a 10K, but maybe it's starting to make sense.

I ran the Veteran's Day 10K today. It was in the low 50's and sunny and the course was flat. These are arguably perfect racing conditions, although I would have preferred more cloud cover. I had run this course twice before-- in Oct. 2008 and Dec. 2007. My PR was set on this course in Dec. 2007 at 49:23. Since then, I had run many 10Ks that were pretty much equivalent to that, despite my fitness getting remarkably better over the past two years.

I decided that no matter what, I needed to get a PR today. I have had six weeks of training since my injury so I had no idea what kind of shape I was in. But even though I am not where I was pre-injury, there is no reason why I shouldn't have been able to break that soft PR. My strategy was to start out at a pace of 7:50 and then gradually speed up if I felt that I could. I was aiming for a PR by about 45 seconds, although I knew I was capable of faster based on some recent training runs.

Mile 1: 7:46
Mile 2: 7:48

These miles felt easy. I could hardly believe I was going at this pace for how easy it felt. I was afraid to run faster, though, and I told myself I would really hammer it home on the second half if I continued to feel this good. During the first mile, my boyfriend ran ahead of me. This surprised me because his goal was to run a 7:45 pace, but he ran ahead at what must have been a 7:30 pace.

Mile 3: 7:52 (includes water station)
Mile 4: 7:48

It started to feel difficult and I kept looking down at my HR monitor wondering why my heart rate kept reading 181. It should have been reading 184-185. I knew I wasn't putting forth a true race effort based on my heart rate, but it felt really difficult and I decided that I would save it for the last mile because I didn't want to push too hard too soon.

Mile 5: 7:55
Mile 6: 7:57

I gave it everything I had during the last mile, but all I could muster was a 7:57. I just didn't have the energy to push any harder. I wanted so badly to get a 10K time that reflected my true abilities, but it just wasn't happening. I looked down at my Garmin as I saw the finish line. I had to make it there under 49:00. I dug as deep as I could and found a 7:22 pace for the last 0.2 and my heart rate finally got up to 184, which is where it should have been for the entire race.

My average heart rate for this race was 180. It should have been about 185. I ran the entire race in my "lactate threshold zone" which is considered your 15K or 10-mile pace. I got a great tempo workout in but I didn't actually "race" this 10K. It wasn't like I didn't try. . . I just didn't have the energy to get up where I needed to be. I keep asking myself if I had run the race based on HR and not on pace if I would have fared much better, but I am just not sure I could have actually maintained a 185. I wouldn't be surprised if I maintained a similar heart rate for my upcoming half marathon.

This is something I am going to ask my coach about: why can't I find the energy to get my heart rate (and speed) up to where it should physiologically be for a 10K? I can get my HR where it needs to be for all other distances-- even the 5K! But for some reason, this 10K just kills me every time.

I am happy that I set a PR, and I feel like I ran it as hard as possible. The evidence being that I faded during the last two miles. Maybe next time I go out at a pace of 7:35 and fade down to a 7:50. Establish that I am going to be at a higher heart rate early on and just stick it out. My boyfriend ran a 46:56, which is a four-minute PR.

Finish time was 48:54, a PR by 29 seconds.

I placed 19 out of 205 in my age group. This is the top 9th percentile, whereas I usually find myself in the top 5th percentile for other distances.

Up next: Turkey Trot 5K. Goal is 23:10.