Dominion's Sprint/Oly/70.3 Group--Closed (Page 34)

Went out for a run last night just felt like I should run. It turned out to be wet, windy, and cold! It wasn't pleasant at the time, but looking back I'm glad I did it. Wanted 5 but the unforecasted lightning turned me around at the 2 mile mark for 4 instead. Have a great weekend everyone!

Scott

Ran what was advertised as a 5K this morning. Apparently there was an impromptu change to the race course. Even the announcer that gave the description of the course described it the same as what was on the race web site, which covered a full 5K. But when we got towards the end of the race, the volunteers directed the runners a different way that resulted in the race only covering 3.0 miles.

I'm a little perplexed about how to classify my result. I pretty much gave this race just about everything I had. I was a bit shocked to see the clock at the finish line when it came into sight and I crossed the line at the 23:30 mark. Considering that I have only run 3 times this month and none of them have been at a high intensity, the last hard 5K I ran was on the treadmill in 25:11, and that time shattered my previous 5K PR by 1:22, I started to wonder. According to my GPS watch, it was only 2.98 miles. Similarly, my wife's watch said 2.97. Now, I see that the results on coolrunning say that it was a 3 mile run (no longer listing it as a 5K).

I want to be able to call this a PR, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Even if you extrapolate my time out to the full 5K at my average pace, it would give me a time of something like 24:24. Considering my current PR of 24:52, it would have become my new PR. Only it wasn't a full 5K and I don't have an official result to point to and call it a PR. I'm a little pissed about that because I ran just about as hard as I possibly can. My average HR was only a few beats per minute below my age-based max HR! I think I was in zone 5 pretty much the entire race except maybe the first 1/4 mile.

I guess I'll just have to let this one go. It was a great, hard run on my part. But in the end, that's all it will be. I just can't convince myself to call it a 5K PR knowing that the course long enough to qualify. And while it isn't a stretch to extrapolate from a 3.0 mile run to a 3.1 mile run, I just can't do it. So I guess I'll have to set a PR at my NEXT 5K. Still, grrrrrrrr!

Congrats! Look at it this way though, you have a 3 mile PR, ya should be able have a 5k PR next go round! ??

Unless you run the same 5K every time is it ever really a PR? Some courses have hills, more turns, sometimes its windy, or raining, sometimes it too hot, and sometimes everything is perfect. Even when its a track race the surface maybe different. Call it a 3 mile PR, or a 5k PR, or a course PR. You had a great race, Congrats!

Nate

Orthotics arrived today. Was able to go 6 miles yesterday without them and felt pretty good

Since the forum has gone a little quiet I thought I would bring people it with a question...

What is on your triathlon bucket list?

While not all 5Ks (or any race) are created equal, I still call it a PR. I can't keep a best time at every single race that I do, so I keep it at the race distance level. I would think most people would do that. But I can't really call this a 5K. It was only 3.0 miles and the results web site is even calling it a "3 mile run". It just sucks that they changed the course at the last minute and cut the extra tenth of a mile off. I ran my butt off for that race. I've never run that hard in any race before and it stings not to have that effort rewarded with a freshly minted PR!

Oh, well, back to training. I might be doing a turkey trot on the Thanksgiving after Saturday with my older brother. The race we had done the last several years for the family trophy, the CBF Cup, was not run this year and we were left scrambling to find a replacement race. Of course, this will be up in Vermont and the closest turkey trot is at Okemo ski resort! It might be a chilly day for a race, but my current PR was set on a day when the temperature was 31 and there were snowflakes in the air, so bring it on Mother Nature!! LOL

Edited by rjchilds8 2015-10-20 9:21 AM

Glad to hear the orthotics helped. I've had issues with just about every other part of my body except my feet. It's never fun to be injured.

For my bucket list, I'd love to be able to put Kona, but that ain't never gunna happen! :-) I definitely have a 70.3 race attempt in my future. I know I want that distance, but the first 70.3 I finish will likely be my last (unless the 2nd one is in another 10+ years when both kids are teenagers). I've targeted the Timberman 70.3 up in NH as the race I'd like to do, but some day I'd really like to do the 70.3 at Mont Tremblant. It just looks like an absolutely beautiful course. I'm not sure about qualifying, but if we're talking bucket list then Escape from Alcatraz is on my list. Lastly, I think I'd just say, generically, just something in an exotic, tropical setting. I read that there is a great running and triathlon community in Bermuda and I really enjoyed the island when we visited about 10 years ago. So any distance triathlon in Bermuda is on my list, too.

Nice list. Alcatraz is definitely at the top of mine. I would like to look at some half iron races too, and definitely want at least the first to be an iron man sponsored event.

You did the sprint up in NH the day before the Timberman 70.3, right? I'm giving strong consideration to putting that race on my calendar for 2016. It would allow me to check out the course and maybe get a look at some of the 70.3 race while I'm there. What were your thoughts on the sprint? Did the sprint follow the same course as the 70.3 (or at least part of it)?

Really liked the rave and would do it again this coming year but my son's school starts the week before next year's race. The run and bike course are part of the 70.3. I think it's a beautiful place to have a race. Although hilly I went a little easier than needed on the bike. We stayed near the course because there is limited parking at the start, other people were shuttled over from a local ski mtn.

Oh and probably the best event I've done in my two years

New blog update. If anyone wants to read about my experience at The Great Floridian 1/3 :

http://chrismooreracing.blogspot.com/

Edited by Dominion 2015-10-29 8:18 PM

Well, my costume might have been a jester, but my 5K time was no joke! LOL Finally got to actually claim a 5K PR, even while I was wearing this silly costume. I didn't set out with any intentions of running hard/fast. I figured with the costume I'd just be having fun. I didn't feel like I was pushing all that hard, but when I hit Mile 1 and looked at my watch it said 7:30. Hmmmmm. Still, I didn't really increase my effort level. I even stopped to pick up a witch hat a woman in front of me dropped and then sped up to give it back to her. I got to Mile 2 and a quick glance at my watch said 15:30, so the 2nd mile was in 8:00. I knew all I had to do was simply maintain my pace and I'd get my PR, no need to go crazy. I even slowed at the water station at about 2.5 to get a quick drink. I didn't check my watch again. I knew when I got about 0.2 from the finish I'd kick it up a notch. When the finish line was in sight, I shifted into high gear and pushed to the end. When I got close enough to see the clock I knew it was in the bag. I crossed the finish line right around the 23:50 mark, breaking my previous PR of 24:52 by just over a minute! Waiting for the official results, but it looked like 23:50 just as I crossed the line.



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Great job Randy!

Nate

SWIM 2h 18m 17s - 7800.00 Yd
BIKE 59m - 17.15 Mi
RUN 9h 39m 50s - 66.15 M

Overall good month. Increased my run as I planned. Only squeezed in one bike, and swam consistently once a month as planned. Was also able to drop my average mile pace while adding distance.

Still haven't ran in my new orthotics. Still breaking them in.

Nate




Edited by nrpoulin 2015-10-31 9:35 PM

October totals:
S: 0
B: 200.67 miles
R: 38.18 miles

I was sick the first half of the month, so I didn't get an October pool pass. It gets dark fast here in the mountains, so most of my bike riding has been on the trainer in my living room.

Pumpkin Pacer 5K
My first sub 35-minute 5K! It's been raining for days--for the first time since March--and today was no different. I got to the race site about an hour early, waited in a very long line to pick up my race number, and then waited in the rain for about ten minutes for the race to start. The race director then came out and informed us there would be a ten-minute delay, and that we should all go wait inside. After another ten minutes, we all started up the road--I had no idea where we were going; I just followed everyone else--and got to the start line. After ten minutes, the race director informed us there would be another delay, and said that anyone who planned to walk the route could go ahead and get started. At that point, most people took off. Finally, about fifteen minutes later, the race started for those of us "hard core" runners.

The course was relatively flat, and I just tried to pace myself so I wouldn't burn out too soon. I did pretty well my first mile (11:12), but it wasn't until my second mile (10:47) that it occurred to me I might finally be in a good position to finally run a sub 35-minute 5K. I focused on that thought and pushed myself, coming in with an unofficial time of 34:10. A personal best by two minutes!

Unfortunately, since some people started ten to fifteen minutes early, the race organizers really don't know people's times, so who knows what order people placed? It was pretty chaotic. The initial men's "winner" turned out to have been one of the kids who started fifteen minutes early. Fortunately, some of the other runners knew this and were able to correct it. Since they gave out awards to only the top man and top woman, it wasn't really a big deal. Also, I don't know if they'll post official times since the last year they did so was 2013. Whatever! I had my GPS watch, and that's good enough for me! I'm happy with my personal best, which also happens to be three minutes per mile faster than I was running this time last year.

Nice race report, Chris. I understand the motivation struggle well!

Nice costume, Randy! And nice PR! I was supposed to be Raphael again this morning, but I forgot half my costume at work, and waking up to the deluge, I decided not to deal with it. Despite the Pumpkin Pacer being a costume race, most of us adults didn't dress up.

Edited by burner2 2015-10-31 10:05 PM

Nice run Cassandra, and congrats on the PR!

Did you ever find out what all the delays were about? The race sounds very unorganized. To let people just leave 15 minutes early than the official start and then try to give 1st place to one of the early "walkers"...crazy! 

And don't worry if they don't post an official time, you know what you ran...like I said in my latest race report.."It counts"  lol

Edited by Dominion 2015-11-01 4:39 PM

Thanks, Chris! It wasn't easy, but it wasn't the hardest I've ever run (that was the previous race that was only 3.0). A couple years ago, I don't think I ever imagined myself going sub-24. Sitting here after the fact, it's still hard for me to imagine doing sub-23 or sub-22, but I won't say 'never' because of days like yesterday.

Official time was posted as 23:54, so in the end it was 58 seconds off my previous PR. It helped that it was a pretty flat course, but it also had more turns than any other 5K I've ever done. The race was right in the middle of downtown Worcester, MA, so a lot of city streets, but not much for long straight sections. I finished 45/228 and something like 9/15 in my AG. I had to hand count my AG rank since the results web site didn't give the info. Still, this race just further proves how tough that 40-49 AG is!

From my perspective, the biggest problem was one person with one iPad checking in everyone, and although the list was alphabetized by last name, we were listed firstname lastname, which made it difficult to actually find people. I had to reach down two or three times and stop the list as the guy got confused and kept scrolling past my name in his haste to find me. As an IT professional, I sometimes have a hard time holding myself back from stepping in and fixing things, and there was actually a pretty easy fix for this. But sometimes communicating and implementing solutions can be very stressful, depending on people's levels of computer experience, especially in an already stressful situation, and the last thing I need before a race is to be dealing with this. If I had gotten there earlier, I might have stepped in, but like everyone else, I got there 15 minutes before the cut-off time. The race director was pretty frazzled and kept apologizing, saying they are going to fix the issues for next year, and I'm sure they will. These smaller races are great learning experiences for everyone, including volunteers.

Monty do you do two a days throughout the season usually?

No.  Just slowly building volume now.   My training plans are usually 12 workouts a week when I can swing it.  The strength training is first to fall short.  So, three of each sport with one extra: 3 bike, 3 swim, and 4 run with one day rest.  The next week maybe 4 bike, 3 swim, 3 run.  Then 2 strength workouts per week, 1 upper body, 1 lower, always with foam roll, stretch, and core.  I design my own strength training programs.  I feel that many plans just use generic gym rat exercises and don't address endurance athletes needs.  But that's a different topic.  Many nights before bed, while watching TV with my wife, I get in extra core and myofascial release.  

I'm wanting a strong run for this race so I'm probably going to have more 4 run weeks and cut back on swimming, it's my strength.

Here's a link to my schedule in January, the first month of my training plan:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/index-monthly.asp?memberid=287504&year=2016&month=1

My April totals should look like this:  It's a little scary 

 

 

Edited by HelmoAlkou 2015-11-04 8:11 AM