Dare2Care 5K - Race Recap

I felt really good after last Saturdays race. I've been progressing nicely and I'm nearing my previous best fitness level. Usually when you have back to back weekend races one race goes extremely well and the other you fall a little flat on. Today's weather and a hip issue that started after the race last weekend made this race feel flat. I say 'feel' because looking at my results from last week I'd say they are about the same. It just felt harder today.You could see the humidity in the air this morning. What I thought was a storm rolling was just the sun bouncing off the humidity creating a dark looking sky to the west.

 I had a lot of friends racing with me today. I always enjoy having my friends around it makes the day fun. One of those friends was, Paul, a friend since early childhood and this was his first 5K. I was excited for him as I have been following his training since January. He's lost a good deal of weight and has been running on a treadmill very early in the morning. I was looking forward to seeing him run a good race I figured he'd likely finish in the 25 minute range. Also in that friend group was my "Rival" Jason.  If you are unfamiliar with this rivalry check my August 2012 blog called "The Rivalry". As you can imagine this put the race on a level a little bit higher than a casual race. It was a "gotta work hard this race to make sure I win" race.

Standing at the start waiting for the gun. National anthem - check, Prayer - check, I'm watching my heart rate monitor as they say 10 seconds to go and it suddenly jumps up. I went from 103 to 143 in a few seconds and I haven't even started running yet. BANG! Gun goes off and we fly out of the gate. Two younger kids maybe freshmen in high school really turn on the burners and I look at my buddy Brian and tell him to go run with them. Brian is a bit faster than me, so he's one guy I'm not worried about beating he's 150 pounds and 23. I don't stand a chance. Jason, on the other hand, had started out a little behind me. Though I didn't pay much attention because Paul was running shoulder to shoulder with me. I look at my watch and we are keeping a 5:45 min/mile pace. Too fast for me and I figure way too fast for Paul. All I could think was "poor guy is going to be hurting by the half mile mark".

Just before that half mile I settled into a fairly comfortable 7:20 pace as I watched Paul continue to pull ahead I figured he was running about a 7:10 pace. Jason, at this point, wasn't even a blip on my radar. I figured he hadn't done any training and was cruising 15 to 20 seconds behind Paul and I. With the mile mark within site I was just concerned about Paul. I thought for sure he would stop to walk or slow down a bunch just after the mile mark, maybe stop for a drink at the water table. In my arrogant, elitist head I could not comprehend not being able to keep up with him. I checked my watch to see how my pace and heart rate was. I looked because I figured maybe I was going slow. Unfortunately my pace was decent and my heart rate was already up in the upper 170's which meant I couldn't kick up the pace without paying for it before the end of the race. The humidity was taking it toll early.

It was a smaller race so by this point the runners had really thinned out. I was in that all too familiar spot of no one near enough to chase down or run with just to keep pushing the pace. All I had was Paul a good distance in front of me and he was not showing any signs of slowing down as we hit the halfway point. He looked smooth and comfortable. I battled on just trying not to lose any more ground on him. I figured maybe in the last quarter mile I could kick it up and take him, but it wasn't looking promising.

So there I am running thinking "good for him he's really killing this run" really exceeding my expectations and I'm all like "whoa is me", what's wrong with me. All this hard training and this is all I have to show for it. I can't even keep up with this noob?  It's hard to be happy for someone when your own world isn't going so well. I tried though. I really thought a lot about how hard he worked to get here and that he gets up super early every morning and goes to the gym before going to work. Running on that boring human hamster wheel. I come to realize he puts in a harder effort than me. He earned this. Truly I am happy for him. I'm just not happy with myself, but why do I have to be so concerned about me? Good grief I need a shrink!

While I'm still trying to work through these issues in my head I catch up to one of the kids that sprinted out of the gate at full speed. Poor kid hit the wall just before mile 2, he was spent. I shouldered up with him and he ran with me for a ways before finally falling off. I too was gearing down a bit trying to lower my heart rate and recover a little before pushing into the final mile. I thought maybe I can get comfortable enough to push in the last half mile. It was about this time that I heard the clomp, clomp, clomp and heavy breathing of Jason. I knew it, I knew it before I even turned around to verify it. I know the foot falls and I know the breathing anywhere. The turd must have been riding my shoulder the whole time. keeping me in arms reach and now as I slow up just a little he makes his move. I can't go with him now. I need to recover or it's over.

We hit a small downhill that leads to the 2 mile mark and I figure I'll take advantage of the downhill to pick up some speed without pushing the heart rate up. Jason comes with. We were chugging along at about a 6:50 pace and making up ground on Paul. I think to myself  "this is good and bad". Good because as a group we can really push each other. Bad because we have a mile left and I'm hurting and my heart rate is approaching the 180's. I can't sustain 185 for very long once I hit it. We caught Paul and I clapped him on the shoulder to let him know he was doing a great job. That was enough to give him a boost of adrenaline help him run with us and sure enough he did as we hit Addelman St. We ran shoulder to shoulder to shoulder for a good three and a half minutes. Then Paul fell off pace and Jason picked it up. I wanted to fall off pace too. I was hurting. Now I traded Paul for Jason in front of me. Can't I catch a break?!. I would rather lose to Paul.

Jason did a great job gaping me. He had a good 8 second lead on me as we turned on to Harris dr. with a little less than a half mile to go. I could hear the first runners being announced as they crossed the finish line. It was encouraging to hear the pain was almost over. I didn't know if I could make up the 8 seconds on Jason before the end. I had to hope that he would have to walk. Then I had to hope he wouldn't start running again just as I caught up. Then I hoped I would just die because I knew the last quarter mile was going to be all push and pain.  I passed him and shortly after I could hear him pick it up again. We turned down the last street and I decided then and there that if he wanted to catch me he was going to have to work hard to do it. I picked it up to a 6:48 pace and pushed. My heart rate was 187 and I hoped that I could maintain for this last quarter mile. At mile three we make a slight turn to run up the driveway with a tenth of a mile left before we hit the finish line. I took the opportunity to peak over and see what kind of gap I had. As I feared there wasn't much of one and Paul was right behind him. I looked at my watch and prayed my heart wouldn't explode pushing 190 bpm. I started to sprint dipping into the 5 min miles and eventually 4:58 by the finish and peaking at 194 bpm. I had held him off, won today's battle without my heart exploding. Next rivalry race will be the Minooka 5K in June.

The Injury Experience

Shortly after the last post (Aug 26 2012) I succumbed to an injury, two injuries to be exact.

 First I'll tell you the back story before getting to the actual injuries. My goal for 2012 was to get faster. I had hit a speed plateau that was far from my goal. My goal, incidentally, is to run a 5K in 18 minutes and 40 seconds or at an average pace of 6 minutes per mile. I'm currently stuck in the 21 min range right around 7 minutes per mile. My thinking going into 2012 was to improve my aerobic capacity and I thought the best way to do that was to run more miles. Until September hit I was on pace to break 1,000 miles for the year. In 2011 I was averaging about 60 miles a month. I was consistent running 3 to 4 days a week. In March of 2012 you can see the spike to 80+ miles a week and in July, gooood night, almost 120 miles. I accomplished this by running 6 days a week at a pretty slow pace. I was trying to build aerobic not anaerobic.

Bix 7 Elevation Profile

July was a crazy month. I had inadvertently signed up for a 10 mile race and a half marathon back to back. The 10 miler on Saturday and the 13.1 miler on Sunday. My frame of mind was "I'm up for it, run slow the 10 mile and push hard the next day at the half no problem". I should write a whole post about that experience. It was miserable. The 10 was good, but the half was bad from the moment I woke up and it only got worse as the day went on. The only thing I felt good about that race was that I managed to sneak in just under the 2 hour mark...But that's not all! The following weekend we traveled out to Iowa for the Bix 7 a very popular very hilly 7 mile race. We went with some great friends and had an absolute blast.

Bix 7 Friends

Shortly after the race was finished we stopped to grab a sandwich and we drove up to Green Bay, Wisconsin for the Welcome to Training Camp Packer 5K at Lambeau Field. The race started at 7pm. The race where my rival, aka brother in law Jason, beat me.

Green Bay 5K

It was obvious that my stamina was good. Distance was no problem, but I never gained the speed I was looking for with all the added miles. This realization came on August 9, 2012 when I ran the FireFly 5K in Channahon and did worse than the previous year.



I was furious. These were my notes from my running log about that race "It just wasn't there tonight. I didn't want to hurt so I didn't push. I should have pushed hard in the first mile when I was feeling good and just held on like normal. I'm pretty upset about this race. Time to hit the tempos and track work hard. very hard!"  and notes from the following run on the following day "Ran hard, walked, ran hard walked. Very angry run. It appears I need stamina runs at a good speed. I'm so upset with yesterdays race. I've never been so impassioned to improve. Fall is coming and I'm just not ready yet."  I remember being near tears on this run. I worked so hard all summer to improve. Double races, extra miles. Fall is coming fast and I'm slower than I was a year ago. I went into panic mode. Speed work. I needed speed work. Lets throw in 2 sessions a week and keep running 6 days a week. That will do it.

Well. It did it alright. I ignored a nagging pain in my left foot that according to my running log started to be noticeable enough back in late July (ding! ding! hello!) that I made mention of it in my notes "Yesterdays good run, today's ughh run, until I realized that I ran faster in a hotter temperature. Still not as smooth as yesterday felt. Started out in the GoRuns today, but noticed my left heel was hurting. So I quickly turned around went back home and changed shoes. I figured I'd have to adjust to the GoRuns. They have a low heel drop that will stress the achilles and calf muscles which typically results in heal pain. Once I switched the pain went away. The rest of the run was mentally tough with the heat. Got that tired sluggish feeling." I made it worse in August with the extra speed work in those low heel drop shoes. Sanity returned after a 10 mile run in late August when I realized my heel problem wasn't going away it was actually getting worse. The injury alarm that I was ignoring finally got through.

 I was even more frustrated because the fall races that start in September were just a few weeks away and I still wasn't ready. Now on top of not being ready I have to rest my foot. I thought if I just give it 2 weeks off I will be okay. It would heal up and I could still salvage the season. I stopped my training and joined a fall softball league figuring I'd still be able to stay in shape and the minimal running shouldn't be an issue.

If you didn't see it coming here it is - injury #2. My worn out body was not ready for, nor in shape to handle, softball. As a runner you get this false sense of security that you are in great shape and can handle any type of physically demanding activity especially one that involves your legs. A sprint to first base in the second inning proved me wrong. As I was trying to leg out a poorly hit ground ball to the short stop I felt and heard a loud "THUD" in the back of my left leg. My hand immediately grabbed my hamstring as I tried hopping the rest of the way to 1st base. I managed to crawl the remaining 10 ft where I stayed on the ground for a few minutes to gather my senses. I was in a small state of shock. I couldn't put any weight on it and had to be carried to the bench where I spent the rest of the night on an ice pack. All I could think was "great, another 2 weeks lost"

The boot

If you look back up at the chart I posted at the top of the page you can see how the rest of the year went. The fall races were ran, but the results were ugly. The worst part was after 4 weeks of not running the heel problem was still there. After my final race on December 1st I hung up my shoes for the year. The week before Christmas I got into see the podiatrist and she put me a boot for 3 weeks and assigned me to physical therapy.
This is where the story gets better. I went to ATI for my physically therapy at the Joliet West ATI facility where Deb put me back together. I went 3 days a week from the end of December to beginning of February. I love making new friends. I'm an extrovert extraordinaire and the staff at ATI in Joliet were my kind of people. Even the other patients were pulled in and I made friends with them too. We joked and laughed everyday. It was good healing.

2012 - 2013 miles

I was released the second week of February with permission to run. Run slow and run short, but I could run.  As you can see I've slowly and carefully been building back the miles. Only running 3 to 4 days a week with 2 cross training days and a full rest day on Sundays.

Now that my distance is decent I'm starting to work on speed again. Carefully and cautiously. I'm racing my first 5K since last Decembers 5K that resulted in me walking in the middle of it. I feel pretty confident that this will be a good race to springboard forward into the summer training. I have 2 half marathons that I'm training for this year and of course the fall race season. With some smart training I should be able to slide 15 seconds per mile closer to my goal.