South County Trails: Indoor Mile Week: 1-20-14 to 1-26-14

This Sunday will be the day for my first indoor track race. Running 8 laps in 37 seconds each seems daunting. I'm in my third week of training on the URI indoor track and at least I can say that I've gotten used to the short 200 meter oval. My legs don't feel beat up anymore and I should be able to make a strong push for sub 5 minutes in the race. I still get queasy even thinking about it (or typing). Hopefully I will not be in the same heat as my brother Greg and Galoob. We'll see (check Mile/All Divisions/Men to see everyone who is registered and their seed time). At least with the cold and snowy weather this week I shouldn't be able to overtrain.

Monday: 12 miles - Carter Preserve trails with local roads to/from alone. After a morning family hike in Trustom NWR, I had a chance to run in the afternoon on this holiday. I ran the roads and powerline to Carter Preserve, looped around the park, and then ran back home. I kept the pace on the spicy side. I had a blast on the single track and ran into family friends out for a hike on the blue dot trail. After a quick stop and chat, I was back cruising along and ran the grassland mile in a controlled 6:57. The powerline was a muddy mess and I almost slipped and fell a half dozen times. Got to love the mile road climb at the end to get home too.

Tuesday: 9 miles - URI indoor track workout with Galoob. The winter storm was beginning early, but I still decided to head over and do a workout at the track. Mike ended up getting there at the same time (we weren't sure if our schedules would work out). He told me the Daniels workout for the day, and it sounded way harder than what I had planned for myself. I compromised by doing 8x400 @ mile pace (first I thought 4x400 and then 200's, then 6x400, then I got talked into 8x400). My warmup ended up being rather long (4+ miles) since I was almost 2 miles in when Mike showed up. The workout itself went very well. I definitely got into a groove, and was able to repeat my mile pace over and over. Results: 74/74/74/74/74/75/73/75 (400 recoveries, target 74 or 75). This was satisfying, but I'm still not sure if this will translate into 4 74's at the race on Sunday.

Wednesday: 6 miles - Rome Point snowshoe run solo. So the storm didn't drop as much snow as forecasted, but with the chilly temperatures, the roads were still mostly snow covered when I ventured into work. I snuck out later than normal in the afternoon and kept it local by going to Rome Point. I donned my Atlas Run snowshoes and headed out in the mid teens winter wonderland. The main trails were not fun to run on as there was already a lot of boot holes. The snowshoes were a better option than shoes with Yaktrax. I really enjoyed the side trails without any or very little traffic. It was cold near the water with the frigid wind, but I stayed warm enough for this 50 minute run. I forgot my watch at home and so I used the Strava app on my phone, but after 17 minutes, the phone died. When I got back to my car, it came back to life again. I guess it was a cold thing, not a battery thing. This was a pretty good snowshoe run.

Thursday: 8 miles - URI indoor track tempo workout alone. I wasn't sure if I would head down to the track (feeling lazy) or snowshoe in Ryan Park. Both ideas seemed hard, but since it was a quiet day at work, I decided to go to the track. My plan was do to another Daniels tempo run. Last week I did 3.5 miles and today I was entertaining the idea of 5 miles, mostly because I saw someone else do this on their blog (Goupil). As always, I let my body dictate what it felt like doing and today that meant 4 miles. I experimented with music, since last time I got bored doing so many laps alone. I carried my iphone and used the headphones that came with it (never tried them before). I think the music helped. Maybe it was my choice today:

I did the four miles in 23:58. The first three miles I was a tad off pace, but I had to use the 2nd lane since a guy was doing 300 meter repeats in lane 1. Once I got to use lane 1 the last mile + , my lap times went down 1 to 2 seconds each. I was happy with the result. I wasn't feeling super motivated and I thought about quitting early on. By the end I was debating going for 5 miles. Maybe next time. 2 mile warm up (14:57) and 2 mile cool down (15:19) on a rather quiet day on the track.

Friday: 7 miles - Old Mountain snowy trails with Yaktrax alone. I headed down to Wakefield to see if I could find any spikes at Camire's for the indoor meet. I was happy to score a pair at a reasonable price. I then headed over to Old Mtn Field to run trails in the woods rather than be exposed to the biting wind on the roads or bike path. I put on Yaktrax over my old Inov8's and gave it a shot. I kept the pace slow and effort as easy as possible on snow covered trails. The results were mixed: I enjoyed being out in the woods, I stayed warm, but it was a slog. I ran the 5K course in a blistering 30:49! I then looped around the pond and hill trails until I had been running a little over an hour.

Saturday: 10 miles - windy Charlestown/SK beach and road loop with Jeff, Muddy, and Mike B. Woke up to howling winds. If I wasn't meeting others, I probably wouldn't have ventured out this morning. It was comical trying to run down to the breachway. Once on the beach and heading east, the running got much easier, as the wind pushed us along. Mike B hung back with me on the road return. We reached our cars, and they all went back out for more miles. I was feeling good, but knew I had to stay fresh for tomorrow. Brought home some scones from the Charlestown Bakery. Need to run from here more often on morning runs!

Sunday: 6(?) miles - USATF NE Master Indoor Championships, Providence. I ran the mile in 5:06. This was kind of my worst case scenario, as I hoped to run sub 5 minutes, and my PR from the only other time I raced this distance (outside) is 5:02. I ran pretty well, but didn't take my pace up a notch to a more uncomfortable zone when I was falling behind. I managed to kick the final two thirds of the last lap at what I believe was a 200 PR of 30 seconds. This felt awesome, passing people, especially on the turn. Obviously I had enough in my legs to run harder during the majority of the race. Post race, people told me that indoor track times (especially flat tracks) will be 3-4 seconds slower than outdoor. This performance still would have fallen short. I'd like to take another stab or two at this distance this winter, as I feel like I have some unfinished business.

PROS:

Doing my first ever track meet. Never ran when I was younger. This was an awesome experience.

Hanging with my brother, running friends, and new acquaintances. There is a ton of down time waiting for your event(s). It was fun to kill time with other runners including Greg, Chris and family, Mike and family, George Adams, Dave Principe, Chris MacGill, and others I didn't catch or remember their names.

Wearing spikes! Loved them. Need to find excuses to wear them more.

Competing in the mile. I'll never be super fast in this event, but it was awesome to be in a competitive field at this meet, and the distance is a good challenge.

Watching the 800. This race was incredibly exciting! Mike, Greg, and Chris were top 3 for laps 2 and 3 (a couple of guys went out too fast in the first lap). Chris sprang to the lead to start the final lap. He seemed like he might pull away from Mike (Greg began cramping and looked in pain the last lap). After the final turn, Mike began gaining on Chris and the two ran side by side the final straightaway. Mike won by a nose.

CONS:

Getting lapped in the mile. Thanks Mike.

Being a rookie. From worrying my spikes were too long, to arriving hungy, there were some first time jitters going on. Not a big deal, but I will feel much more prepared/relaxed for the next one.

Not reaching my time goal. It happens.