LMJS 10k LBRR

I've had plenty of runs since my last posting, but haven't felt the urge to write about them. Of note were my last Marin Ave run; no, I didn't finish, but I decided upon hitting Euclid that I might die if I tried this again. I mean, I may try it again, but I will have to advance at a more gradual pace to build my strength. I also had nice trail run last Sundayon the Strawberry Creek trail; I made it all the way up to Grizzly Peak Blvd, but then made the mistake of running back downhill on the paved roads instead of the trail. This cut about 2 miles off the return trip and was, consequently, much steeper and brutal on my knees. I also had a pretty good tempo run on Thanksgiving afternoon (before dinner) which left me feeling pretty good about this morning's 10k, the Lake Merrit Joggers and Striders 4th Sunday run.

LMJS puts on a no frills race every month on a certified course around Lake Merrit in downtown Oakland. The lake is about 3 miles around, and runners can choose to do a 5, 10, or 15k. I just wanted to take my pulse to see where I was after this rather mediocre year of training, 53 weeks after running a 1:24 in the Philly Half Marathon. I was hoping to find that I could come in right around 40 minutes, and I planned to try to negative split my laps, 20:12-19:48, if I was up to it.

I took Bart to downtown Oakland and jogged a mile to the start in the park, paid my $5 and pinned a tag with my name to my shirt. The start was a little late since Students Run Oakland had come out for a training run and registration was going a little slowly, but about 100 folks lined up and were off by 9:05. As I expected, a couple of students jumped out to the front but quickly fell back, and by 1/4 mile I was in a loose pack of 4, with (I think) another guy way out ahead of us. The pace felt a little fast for me, but I thought it a good idea to hang on until I got my first split. When we hit mile 1 in 5:57, I felt some relief but knew that my pllan was out the window. I dropped back, along with another guy in a green shirt; I later recognized him as Phil, a guy that I've run with at the Transports trail runs. I followed him through mile 2 and then felt him slow, so I passed and hoped that he would latch on to push me forward. Soon the sound of breathing faded, though, and I had to push myself through the next mile. Phil soon caught back up to me; turned out that he was running the 5k and just passed me as he finished. My 3 mile spllit was 7:04, but the next .1 mile measured only ~:27, so mile 3 was clearly long. Not sure about mile 2, which had split in 6:35. Anyway, my 5k split was 19:55, which made me happy although I was pretty sure that I wouldn't break 40 for the race running in no man's land. This turned out to be the case, and I had no competition for my position for the next 3.1 miles, although I lapped a few folks at the back of the pack. I finished the 10k in 40:18, first in my age group and, I think, 3rd overall, but the overall results haven't been posted yet.

The race is pretty easy to evaluate. I was about 2 minutes off my PR, set last fall at the Ben Franklin Bridge run, but I'm not in a bad position considering that I've run not even 2/3 the mileage this year. I have been running low mileage this year, with very little speed work, but I've done hella strength work with all the hills that I'm running, and that seems to cancel out one of my deficiencies. I was reminded, though, that track and tempo work is important not just to build speed, but to work on pacing. I'll have to spend some more time running in circles if I want to run a steady 5 or 10k. I would have liked to finish under 40 minutes, but the fact that I could run a sub-20 5k and keep going is pretty encouraging to me that with a gradual increase in mileage and by folding in some more specialized workouts, I should be able to get back into my 2006 shape.

We could neither run, Norwalk

Friday am, 5.3 miles in 42:48
Saturday pm, 11(?) miles in 1:31
Monday am, 4.6 miles in 39:10

Well, we could actually walk, but there was a little bout with the stomach flu last week that had everyone incapacitated for a couple days. Silas is still not quite right. I had set an unspoken goal of running at least 4 weekdays last week, but Wednesday and Thursday were out of the question. I managed a short run with Si on Friday morning, and had a very nice solo run on Saturday, out and back on the Strawberry Creek Trail in the rain. After investigating the map, I figured that I could have gone another half mile or so to hit the end of the trail. Sunday was a day trip to Santa Cruz with some hiking, and this morning was a short bagel run with Silas, battling stiff quads but enjoying the cool air.

So, I guess it's better to have spoken goals rather than unspoken ones. I was searching around for a good goal rain the spring that I could spend about 6 months working towards. I couldn't find any marathons that suit my needs, but there is the Tilden Tough Ten in May, a ten mile trail run put on by one of the local clubs.

As the name implies, it's a tough course, and I think I would shoot for under 70 minutes (garnering myself an Under-70 shirt in the process). I'm going to spend a few months building my base into the New Year, and then do some more specific training through the spring, including a few road races. The same club, the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders, has a no-frills Fourth Sunday race every month on a certified course around Lake Merritt in Oakland; runners can choose 5k, 10k, or 15k. I think that I'll do the 10k this month, just to take my pulse. As far as training goes, things will be a little erratic as Silas adjusts to Standard Time and recovers from his bug, but I will plan to run 4 weekdays and 2 weekend days each week, with Friday as an off/makeup day. The mileage doesn't need to be high, but I should be doing 40 miles/week consistently by the winter holidays (when, of course, everything will be thrown off again). So that's the plan; let's see what happens.

The Race

The course: The North end of Milvia St, a rolling quarter mile starting
at Hopkins. A net climb of 30 feet.

The scene: Silas and I are heading east on Hopkins, toward Milvia.
Another runner is heading west on Hopkins and turns onto Milvia ahead of
us. I'm going to catch him.

The prey: He has about a 20 meter jump on us and is running at a
slightly faster clip. I turn right onto Milvia and size him up. He
reminds me of Jim: large frame, deceptively fast. Weak ankles. His
shorts are blue.

The race: There is a psychic link among us. It's clear that only one
(or two) of us will come out ahead. It's also clear where the finish
line is - the top of the hill at Milvia and Berryman. Silas and I push
it on the uphill, then start blueshorts in on the downhill. He is
running on the left side of the road and we, in the spirit of fair play,
are on the right. He looks over his shoulder, taking stock. He is
toast.

We hit the last uphill, a steep one, and blueshorts is still about 5
meters ahead. Suddenly I hear a sound behind me - a cyclist is trying
to get into the mix. Si and I are closing the gap with blueshorts, but
halfway up the hill, the cyclist pulls even with us. Then she drops
back, and we pull ahead of blueshorts. We hit the top of the hill steps
ahead, and he crosses behind us, turning right on Berryman. The cyclist
catches up to us and continues on her way, and Silas and I take a
victory jog back home.

5.5 miles in 42:19.

Sunday pm: Marin #7, 7.9 in 1:14
Monday am: 5.9 in ?

I took Silas out last night for the next shot at Marin Ave; despite my
lingering cold (and lost voice), this run would cap a big 13 mile week
and I was hoping that the effects would balance themselves out. I took
the first 3 miles to Marin Ave quickly, then took it easy up the hill to
Regal St. Standard time caught me by surprise, but it meant that Si and
I got to stop by the Berkeley Rose Garden for a great view of the sunset
over the Bay. The rest of the run home was in the dark, taken slowly to
account for the downhill and potential cracks in the sidewalk.

I stayed home from work this morning while Christine recuperated from a
night of baby-catching-helping and took Silas on an errand run. We went
to Transports to pick up some new shoes, but they didn't have my 2130s
in size 13-EEEE, so I'll have to wait a few days. We also browsed a bit
in the bike store next door, looking at trailers, infant helmets, and
tricycles, before heading back home. Probably due to a timing malfunction,
the run apparently went down in 40 minutes.

Saturday am, almost 5 miles in almost :38

I've been slightly sick this week, which shouldn't necessarily have kept me from running, except that I wasn't sleeping well and just didn't want to get up in the morning. Saved by the weekend, I took Silas out this morning to pick up breakfast and knock the rust off. It was an easy run, past the Edible Schoolyard, half a lap on the MLK track, up and around to the Cheese Board, where I picked up a couple pastries, and home again on Milvia. The ease of the sub-8 pace tells me that I probably should have made more effort to run this week, but maybe the rest did me some good. I left large quantities of phlegm in my wake, anyway (in case you wanted to know).

Followed up with some cross-training, i.e., digging a garden bed in the back yard, and some ginger-cayenne-lemon-honey tea, a homemade concoction that is providing some relief for my sore throat.