Monday’s Run / Signed up for a 5K

Last night I ran four miles at a nine minute pace followed by a mile and a half at an eight minute pace. An uneventful run.

I signed up for another race in a few weeks — a 5K this time. If you look over to the right (you’ll have to visit the actual blog to see it if you are reading this in a feed reader) you’ll see that my current 5K PR is 29:42. Which is a 9:34/mile average pace. That was also the first race I ever ran, back in March 2007. I figured the record needed updating.

Anyway, my goal for this 5K will be 22:00, which means a (gulp) 7:05 average pace.

Goal-paced 10

I don’t know when my next marathon will be because I refuse to sign up for one until I can go two solid weeks without noticing that my foot hurts. Whenever it is, I’m pretty sure I’ll try for an 8:30/mile race pace. That’s 18 seconds a mile off my PR at Eugene, which is slightly aggressive — a 10 to 15 seconds per mile improvement might be considered more typical for a runner like me — but I did run Eugene conservatively. Also, 8:30 is a nice round number.

With that in mind, I’m going to try to start doing some of my runs deliberately at an 8:30 pace. The idea of doing goal-paced runs makes good sense to me. It’s one more aspect of race-specific training. If you’re going to run a trail race, train on trails; if you’re going to run a hilly race, train on hills; and, so, if you’re going to run 8:30 miles in your race, run 8:30 miles in training. As far as training speed goes, a goal pace is somewhere in the middle: interval training or tempo training is faster, and long slow runs are, of course, slower. (Since nearly any theory you might propose about running has someone who confidently believes it, I believe you’ll also find people who will tell you that running at your goal pace is a wasted or at least significantly sub-optimal effort, taking place at a speed that’s a “dead zone” between useful speed work and slow base-building work. I just don’t buy it.)

This has been a really long-winded way to get to the point of this post. Saturday morning I ran 10.5 flat miles on the Sellwood-Steel Willamette loop at an 8:30 pace. It was a great day for running and it actually turned out to be a great run. I just felt like I was firing on all cylinders. Nothing felt heavy or sluggish or hurt. Sticking to 8:30s was hard enough to be interesting but easy enough to be fun. If only every workout could be so good.

So my bank failed

I’ve been saying Washington Mutual (WAMU) is going to fail for a while now. All my banking is with them: savings, checking, credit card, mortgage, and a (zero balance) home equity line of credit. I figured I’d leave my money with them even though I was expecting a failure because:

• A vague sense of good citizenship said I should do my part to avoid a bank rush
• Morbid curiosity to see what it would be like to be part of a bank failure
• I thought they would fail early enough in the current crisis that the FDIC would still be solvent, so I was risking inconvenience but not actual money.

Last night WAMU failed. Or was seized by the FDIC, same thing I guess. But they managed to sell off WAMU’s deposits, loans, and branches to JPMorgan Chase, so supposedly there’s no interruption of business and no further need for the FDIC or their money. We’re just all Chase customers now.

Chase’s “Welcome” message to WAMU customers is predictably cheery and calm:

Continue to bank just as you usually do:

• same account numbers,
• same Washington Mutual name on your account,
• same checks, debit cards, credit cards, deposit slips,
• same online banking website and passwords,
• same branches & ATMs,
• same familiar bankers, and
• same great service!

We’ll see. I paid some bills online this morning. Obviously it’s still the same old software running on the servers, so the experience was the same as always. The visible changes, rebranding etc, are expected to roll out over a course of months.

WAMU has a lot of branches in Portland — one in almost every Fred Meyer — and they have always done a pretty decent job at customer service. They’ve never nickeled and dimed me to death, and it’s a shame to see them go.

Looking for a new night route

Only three people showed up to run Wednesday night at the Beaverton branch of the Portland Running Company, and I was barely one of them. My nose was really stuffed up and I considered not going. I’m glad I did, though — as sometimes happens, a brisk (or was it grueling?) run totally cleared me out and made me feel 100% better. We tried out a proposed “winter route”. When it’s dark and wet out, the Fanno Creek paths are a non-starter, being both extremely dark and often flooded. So we run on the streets. It’s hard to find a good route in the are that meets all these criteria, though:

• Six miles, with a five mile option as well
• Starting and finishing at the store, preferably a loop
• Doesn’t cross major streets such as Scholls Ferry, Hall, or Murray
• Limits time running along such major streets
• Decent lighting
• Minimize turns where possible to make it easier to learn and remember route
• Minimize backtracking or detours that just are there to add distance

The route we tried last night actually turned out to only be 5.5 miles, which was a problem. Other than that it was OK. We averaged 8:12 per mile.

Ten slow miles, monitored

For a change of pace for my usual solo Saturday “long” run (which is just ten miles lately) I decided to use the heart-rate monitoring chest band that came with my Forerunner 305. I usually leave it at home, and by “usually”, I mean 99.5% of the time. Knowing that my heart is pounding away like a tiny monkey on his fifth cup of espresso doesn’t really do me much good.

But as I said, I was looking for a change of pace. So I put the monitor on and resolved to stay under 80% of my max heartrate. They say doing a lot of this kind of low-to-moderate effort running is really good for you, that it builds your aerobic “base“, prevents injury, burns fat, etc etc. “They” say a lot of things. (And they always say it with great confidence.)

About a year and a half ago I did an 80% heartrate run on many of the same paths. Back then, in my running infancy, it meant thirteen minute miles. Now? Ten minute miles. That’s a better pace, at least it looks like you’re jogging, not just oozing along like some sort of overly ambitious protozoan.

After that, I spent the rest of the weekend gorging myself on junk food. I might need to work on that :-)

So-so workout

I wasn’t feeling it at all last night. After my first slow warm-up mile, I was sweating and uncomfortable in the humid air and my right calf was hurting a little. I only ran three more miles, all slow. I felt generally run-down and achy. On the up side, my right foot is feeling pretty fine. I don’t think my calf is a big deal — just a bit of tightness and soreness, nothing injured feeling.

Hard Six

There’s a guy who’s been running with the Monday night group since springtime (I think), who’s been getting faster and faster (and also running longer and longer). He’s often the only one in the group who naturally runs around the same pace that I do. Last night he asked me how far I was running.

“Six miles.”

“Hard?”

“I can go hard, sure.”

“Good, I want a hard workout.”

It was pretty warm out, so we negotiated a bit about what this hard pace would be. I think we settled on 8:15 per mile or so. During the run, we pushed each other along; I think both of us though the other was having an easier time of it. Six tough miles later, we came in with a 7:42/mile average pace, with all six miles coming in under 8:00.

A rare trail run interlude

I’ve been running on flat asphalt and concrete so long now that I’ve forgotten what trail running feels like. My foot has felt reasonably ok, so Saturday morning I decided to try 10 miles on one of the less hilly sections of Wildwood — an out an back northwest from the 53rd Avenue trailhead. I also forgot how much slower trail running is for me! I had these crazy ideas in my head of easily keeping up 9:30 miles or something… ha! I was pretty weak on the uphills, and watching my footing wasn’t happening automatically either. It took me quite a while to give up the struggle to “go fast” and just keep moving at a natural pace. I think I averaged 10:30s or so out there. I could feel whole different sets of muscles being used, especially in the quads and glutes. I’m still sore today. Some parts of running conditioning are just very terrain-specific.

It was nice being out in the woods again, though. While my leg muscles got a workover, my overall endurance seemed fine. I was still running strong at ten miles. And maybe some of my lingering soreness is due to the softball game I played in after the run… or the furniture moving the next day. Ya think?

Six

September might be the best month in Portland. The weather is consistently nice and the bad hot spells are mostly over. It’s a nice time to be running.

Yesterday I ran six miles with the group down on the Fanno Creek trails. After my 7:30/mile 10K, I’m feeling a little faster. I’m starting to cast around for what my goal pace might be in my next marathon, whenever that might be. 8:30? Faster? In any case I found myself trying to run a little faster last night, trying to stretch out my definition of a “moderate” training effort. We ended up averaging an 8:06 pace. I think I went a bit over the “moderate” line, but not too much so.

I sure wish I could run more. My foot is feeling better than it was, but not entirely healed. My plan is still to stick with the 20 mile weeks for as long as it takes.

Race Report: 2008 Pints to Pasta 10K

The first two miles of this 10K brought back some difficult memories. It started on the long downhill past the Adidas campus on Greeley. That’s the downhill where I burnt my legs out during the Portland Marathon. After the downhill I got to run through the section of near-in North Portland where, back in the marathon, I was reduced to walking and a hobbled jog.

But this was only a 10K. It started at eight in the morning, but in my opinion, it was already a little warm. After blasting through those first two miles in 7:08 and 7:32, we went up and over the Broadway Bridge. My goal pace for this race was 7:50, and I was still staying well ahead: miles two and three were 7:29 and 7:41. I was reminded once again how much running in a crowd helps me keep up my pace. I glanced at my Garmin for my 5K split: 22:54. From here to the finish the route was almost all flat. We hit the downtown waterfront path and started getting full sun exposure. I slid my cap over to the left side of my head to block the sun. (Out of sight, out of mind). I’d definitely have liked it to be 10 degrees cooler.

The last two miles were through the south part of the path and the south waterfront. I slowed a bit in mile five — 7:52 — but I knew I’d be picking it up a bit for the last 1.2. Breathing hard, struggling to keep going, holding it together, mile six was a 7:30 and the final 0.2 miles were another 1:39.

Unofficial finishing time: 46:51.  That’s a 7:32/mile average pace. What do the kids say nowadays? W00T!

Update: Official results: 46:49. 248th of 1866 total finishers, 203rd of 768 men, 37th of 133 men 35-39.

Confidence Boost

After all the missed training this week (and the general feeling of slackishness that accompanies my months-long reduced mileage plantar fasciitis regimen) I haven’t been feeling confident about meeting my goal in the Pints to Pasta 10K this Sunday, 49 minutes or a 7:52/mile pace. So when I noticed that I was running pretty well last night, I decided to test myself a bit and hopefully get a confidence boost for the weekend. I kept up with John and Steve, two faster runners. Well, they slowed down for me, really. Which was nice of them. Except for how they described it as “taking it easy” or “being in no hurry” or “crawling along as a crippled slug might.” I made up that last one. Have I ever mentioned I hate people who are faster than me? 

This was the usual six-mile route, with water fountain stops at 1.6 and 4.4 miles. Mile splits 8:04, 7:39, 7:43, 7:55, 7:54, 7:43. Average pace 7:50/mile. I think that’s my fastest six miles yet, narrowly beating out this effort from mid-March. I think I’m looking good to meet my race goal…

Weekend

We went down to Southern Oregon this weekend, part of a MiPL group outing for wine touring, seeing two plays in Ashland, and swinging by Crater Lake. We hit five wineries in five hours or so on Saturday, some better than others. Fortunately for me, Southern Oregon’s vineyards aren’t as stuck on Pinot Noir as the ones up here near Portland — I’ve yet to taste an American Pinot that doesn’t make me screw up my face and scrub my tongue. Disgusting. It’s just me.

Sunday we saw Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge and Jeff Whitty’s Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler. One of these was an intense and interesting character-based tragic drama, the other an indulgent and silly piece of junk. Again, just my opinion. Both plays had wonderful acting and production values. Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival has defiitely got it going on.

The trip to Crater Lake was nice, though I think Oregon’s coast is a greater treasure. As far as enormous volcanic calderas filled with pristene blue waters go, though, it’s pretty nice.

I didn’t get a chance to run all weekend, and I also missed some push ups. Running-wise, I felt a bit weak Tuesday, so we’ll have to see how Sunday’s 10K goes. As for push ups, I just tried to see how many I could do, and reached 70 (!), so I guess the rest did me some good.