Jailbreak 5k

Dee:

After a few good workouts with Michelle, I started kicking around the idea of running a fast 5k as a rust buster to see if my goal of breaking 18 later this year was tenable. Despite some good searching, I could not find anything local that fit the bill. Either the course was known to be difficult or the dates did not work. I mentioned this to Chad and he came through with the perfect race- the Jailbreak 5k in Lexington, SC. Normally this race wouldn’t have hit his radar, but our good friends, Team Schmitz, live down in Lexington and we were almost positive they’d be running the race and would be game to host us and Max for the night. Kristin & William promised me the course was fairly flat with 2 long but not terribly steep hills. The course sounded like a much flatter option than anything else in the area, so after a flurry of emails the plans were made for a 5k race followed by a 30 mile bike ride.

We zipped down to Lexington right after work on Friday and arrived to some cold drinks and a delicious dinner. Saturday dawned hot and humid- without a cloud in the sky! Oh well, races are run in all sorts of conditions, so this would be good preparation for Beat the Heat and Greekfest 5ks, both of which normally have some pretty rough weather. After our three mile warm-up it was time to hit the starting line and scope out the competition. I knew Kenzie had just run a new 5k PR of 18:27, so she was clearly someone I needed to watch for. There was also a very fit looking girl at the line in just a sports bra and briefs- not the usual outfit of a hobby jogger. My plan was to go out in 5:50 and see how long I could hold the pace. But the best laid plans often fall victim to a nice flat and slightly downhill first mile!

Kenzie and I ran together from the gun with Shawanna (fit looking girl I mentioned above) about 10m up on us. We hit the mile faster than I planned and Shawanna picked up the pace. I had no response. If she was planning on running 5:40 the whole race, the win was hers for the taking. At the halfway point Kenzie and I were still together and we were making up ground on Shawanna. By the 2 mile marker we were only 5m back. I noticed Shawanna was slowing on the hills, so when we turned the corner at 2.3 miles and saw a long uphill, I decided to throw down a bit and see who followed. No one followed. Of course, I didn’t know this until the last 200m of the race when Chad let me know that I had the win locked up. Apparently the look on my face was one of fear- understandable because I knew there was no fifth gear today.



William picked up the Clydesdale win, Kristin picked up
1st 30-34 and Chad also got the 30-34 win. 
The awards were handcuffs!



I finished in 18:19.61, which is my fastest 5k since my PR at Greekfest in 2010. 5:41, 5:56, 6:01, 0:40 (0.12- good tangent running!) I’m only 10 seconds off my PR and 20 seconds off the ultimate goal of sub 18. While that sounds like a lot of time, I trained through this race and the conditions were less than ideal. Both the Beat the Heat and Greekfest courses are flatter and faster, plus I have until July 21st to continue training hard and making improvements.

Chad flirted with a PR, but came up a bit short in 16:34.41, good for 5th overall. The mens race was blazing fast, with the winner clocking a 14:47 and 2nd coming in at 15:48.  Chad has now run within 2 seconds of his PR twice, so he is itching to knock some serious time off and get down into the 16:20’s. Judging by how strong he has looked in workouts, I’d say he’s got a great chance of making that happen this year. Now we are full steam ahead for the Latta Sprint Triathlon on June 9th. Here’s to two good weeks of training!

Jetton Park Sprint Tri

Chad-

As I ran out of the pool towards my bike during the Huntersville Sprint Tri, I suddenly realized I had not attached my bike shoes to the pedals, as I normally do during a race.  For whatever reason, I gave no thought to my transitions prior to the moment I was doing them.  That clearly showed in my slow T1 and T2 times.  I decided to prepare for Latta, I needed to actually think about all elements of the race and practice my transitions.  



Several friends had recommended the Jetton Park Sprint Tri and I was lucky enough to win a free entry, so bright and early Saturday morning, Danielle and I made the quick trip up to Jetton Park.  The race is a 750m open water swim, a 20k bike, and a 5k run.  The bike is in large part on the Lungstrong 15k run course, so I have some great memories of the area.  I spent Friday after work practicing my transitions and running off the bike.  While this was great for my transitions, it was not the best plan for my legs, which were feeling pretty beat up.  No matter- the race was simply meant to be a chance to practice and break out the new P2.  I hadn't raced on her yet and was anxious to have a chance prior to Latta. I was also a bit concerned since the swim was wetsuit legal and I would not be racing in a wetsuit (don't have one), but the water temperature turned out to be fine. 



The weather was perfect, lots of my One2Tri Racing teammates were assembled, and Danielle was on hand to take pictures and keep tabs on the 30-34 guys.

Results:

13:37 swim;1:49/100m (20th overall)           

0:32 T1

35:43 bike; 20.83 mph (49th overall)

0:28 T2

17:21; 5:36/mile (1st overall)

1:07:39; 6th overall and 2nd AG

I was 3:30 behind the AG leader and 2:00 out of 3rd heading out onto the run.  I managed to run my way into 2nd and was only 1 minute behind the AG winner.  Not too bad.

Overall, I am pretty pleased.  I know my swim fitness is not where it needs to be, but my time was still good.  My legs were shot on the bike before the race started and I still had one of my fastest bikes ever.  I know my times will continue to improve as I get used to the P2, work hard, and perhaps even taper a bit.  Or at the very least not trash my legs a mere 14 hours before the race.  My transitions were spot on and my run was what I expected.  I'm definitely getting excited for Latta.  I think I can post a pretty solid bike split and really surprise some people. 



Updates Galore!

Now that we're back "in season" I hope to be better about blogging!  We've done plenty of training and racing since the Tobacco Road Marathon, but no blogging.  Brief photo recap of our recent races!

March 10th, Corporate Cup Half-Marathon

Running so fast his feet don't even
touch the ground.

1:16:41
5th Overall
New PR!









April 1st, Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run

Chad ran a 57:47 which is a new PR!
Sadly, no pictures, but judging by the time I'm sure he looked fast.

April 28th, Get Up, Get Out 5k


All smiles after winning
money for the wife to spend


17:10
5:03 first mile to win the $100 preem













April 29th, Huntersville Sprint Triathlon

Almost done with the bike

1:10:38
1st Age Group, 9th overall female
Fastest run split

Kicking it in to the finish

1:02:31
5th Age Group, 20th overall
Fastest run split







And now we're up to date!  Next up is Tri Latta on June 9th.  This sprint triathlon doubles as the Charlotte World Championships, so we're going to be very tri-focused these next 6 weeks.  Might jump in the Jetton Park Sprint Triathlon on May 12th as another tune-up, but that is still undecided.  Really looking forward to posting some improved bike and swim splits!

TRM- The Recap

I approached the Tobacco Road Marathon start line fit, but nervous. My training block had gone well. I increased my mileage a bit and increased the number of long runs I tackled. My taper had gone well. I cut way back on junk food and alcohol, and bumped by bedtime up to ensure 8+ hours each night for the final week. There was nothing to make me think that attaining my goals would be out of the question- except the weather. The weather had been warm and humid all week and race day dawned 60 degrees with 90% humidity. I was just grateful it was overcast. I am very much a cold weather runner, so I was thinking more along the lines of high 30s to low 40s, but the weather gods had other plans. No matter. I adjusted my fueling strategy, but decided against adjusting my pacing strategy. The plan was to run 6:45s the whole way.

My legs felt great on our short warm-up. I was ready. The gun went off and we spent the first mile settling in. The full and the half stay together for 2.5 miles, so it was really crowded and we had to work to stay together and relaxed. Chad had signed up for pacing duties because he is crazy and a glutton for punishment. And he loves me. So Chad took to the helm with me, Michelle, and Mo tucked in behind him. Right after the turn onto the American Tobacco Trial we picked up Kaylyn, who was looking to go sub 3, Allen, who was also looking to go sub 3, and one other mystery runner who didn’t mention his name- conserving energy no doubt. Our group of 7 rolled along the lovely hard packed dirt to the turn around point at 8.5 miles. We really struggled to settle into the pace and were jumping around a bit. Some of the mile markers were off (one was nearly 45 seconds after where it should have been), so that made it difficult to determine if we were going the right pace. Somewhere after mile 9 we lost Mo and Kaylyn. We hit the half in 1:28:37; 6:46 pace. Perfect.

The course is a big T, with the start of the second half of the T starting right after mile 14. Thomas was waiting for us and jumped in to help Chad with pacing duties. I was very happy to see Thomas because I had been running alongside Chad and was looking forward to being able to tuck in and stop thinking. The run out was uneventful. I felt bad, then great, then bad, then great. We hit the turn around just past the 19 mile marker and tried to grab some water at the aid station, but they were completely unprepared for us. We ended up having to actually stop to grab water and Gatorade. Normally I would have just skipped the aid station, but the weather meant this would have been a bad idea. We had gotten fairly lucky and the weather was holding at 60 degrees, overcast, and humid, as opposed to heading north to 72 as was forecast, but that still meant we needed to be vigilant about hydration.

Mile 20 was 15 seconds too slow, but we rebounded with a fantastic mile 21, 5 seconds under our goal pace. I was feeling great during mile 21 and then the wheels came off. Mile 22 was a monumental struggle, as Michelle and I both started to fade. Mile 23 was even worse despite having Dalena, Carolyn, and Anna cheering us on. Mile 24 was an improvement over 23, but still nothing to write home about. At the 24 mile marker, Michelle decided she was ready to be done and picked up the pace. I tried my best to follow and picked up the pace too, but not enough to stay with her. Miles 25 and 26 were back down to sub 7, as I struggled to maintain my composure and get home. The last 0.2 was uphill and slow. At that point I knew a PR was in the bag and sub 2:59 was in the bag, so I was content to run hard and enjoy the moment instead of trying to sprint it in. Not that I had anything left to sprint with. Second half: 1:30:07; 6:52 pace. Finishing time: 2:58:44; 6:49 pace, a 59 second PR.

Michelle finished in 2:58:06; just shy of a 4 minute PR. She looked so strong out there. I knew she was set to have a great race after another stellar training cycle. Mo zipped across the line a few minutes later in 3:02. Kaylyn had some awful blister problems that led to both feet being covered in blood, but managed a 3:12. Our new friend Allen hit his goal of a sub 3 with a 2:59.

The Van Crew- all smiles pre-race.



There were so many friends out there, it was incredible. Anna, Dalena, Emily, and Carolyn all finished the half marathon and ran back to cheer us on.  John & Caitlin were at the finish taking pictures.  Aaron not only drove us to the race and took care of all of the logistics; he also was waiting at 24 and ran in with me and Michelle. Later I learned that he ran that 2.2 mile stretch no less than 4 times to cheer people on and help runners to the finish. Despite being sidelined with injury and having no long runs and one workout under his belt, Thomas jumped in at 14 and ran the rest of the way with us. He helped keep me on task, focused, and relaxed.

Chad was the perfect pacer, as usual. He kept the pace right on, until mile 22 when he realized that I was going as fast as I possibly could at that point. From then on he played a game where he would coax me to stay on his shoulder and run just a little bit faster, trying to get as much out of me as humanly possible. It worked. I am incredibly grateful to him for being so amazing; although I’m not remotely surprised.

All in all, it was a good day at the office. Hopefully there are faster marathons in my future- perhaps Boston 2013!  Splits by garmin: 6:46, 6:42, 6:40, 6:45, 6:39, 6:50, 6:41, 6:47, 6:40, 6:43, 6:43, 6:43, 6:47, 6:49, 6:46, 6:40, 6:50, 6:47, 6:42, 7:00, 6:40, 7:01, 7:10, 7:01, 6:52, 6:53, 1:59 (7:01 pace for 0.28; great job running the tangents).

Tobacco Road Marathon

2:58:44
59 second PR
4th Female
1:28:37/1:30:07 half splits
60 and humid
Recap to follow

All smiles with Michelle, who finished 3rd in 2:58:06

Cupid's Revenge

Dee:

After nearly four months off of racing, I finally returned to the land of flats, singlets, and fast times. I hadn’t been planning on running the Cupid’s Cup 5k, but I did want to do the so-called “Cupid’s Revenge” workout and it seemed like a waste of time to only do half the workout. So, I was in for the race, despite having done only marathon workouts and training the past 4 months.

Fellow Charlotte Running Club member, Aaron Linz, coaches several of the girls I train with and one of the girls I am running the Tobacco Road Marathon with. He created this workout last year and it worked so well, he decided to put it on the schedule again. It involves running the Cupid’s Cup 5k all out, then taking a short break for fuel and shoe changes, then jogging 0.75 miles to the start of a rolling 7.35 mile course. The goal was a marathon pace temp (6:45 for me). Chad wasn’t ready to do a 5k, but he nicely offered to pace the tempo portion; an offer which I readily took him up on. Interestingly, this would be my longest run to date at marathon pace. I knew I could handle the pace in general; it was just the pace after a race that concerned me.

With almost no speed work to speak of and a tough tempo afterwards, I decided to just run comfortably hard and not fret about my time. Anything under 20 minutes would have been fine by me.

Race morning dawned nice and cool but with none of the terrible wind that would descend later in the day. After a short warm up, I was on the starting line then off. The pace felt a bit quick at first, but the race starts uphill. Once I hit the flat the pace felt much easier and I was pleased to see my garmin said I was running right at 6 minute pace. Finished the first mile right at 6:00. The second mile starts with a long uphill, flattens out, and has one more uphill, before flattening out again to the 2 mile marker. I cruised through the 2nd mile in 6:12, still feeling good. The third mile is entirely downhill and I knew it would be possible to run my final mile around 6:00 minute pace again. I was very surprised when I hit the 3 mile in 5:43. Mo was charging hard behind me, so that helped me to pick up the pace the last half mile, but I did not expect a 5:43, even downhill. The course is known to be short and measured short again this year (3.07), but that was fine by me. I crossed the finish line in 18:21. That converts to 18:34 for 5k. Even adding in some additional time to account for the terrible tangent running I normally do, this time was unquestionably faster than anytime I ran in the past 18 months. I was happy and surprised.

Before I knew it, we were all resetting our garmins and starting the tempo portion down Providence Road. Our destination was the Arboretum shopping center where Aaron, Billy, and Rich would be waiting to kindly drive us back to the race site. Chad immediately took to the front and worked to bring us down to the proper pace without exerting too much effort too soon. The first two miles were a touch slow, but then we picked it up and put in a solid effort for the next 5.35 miles. Right after the 3 mile marker, the group split off, with the faster runners settling into their marathon pace for the remainder of the run. I was left with Chad and Mo, which was perfect. We stayed right under our goal pace and crushed the remainder of our run.

6:50, 6:49, 6:31, 6:42, 6:42, 6:40, 6:39, 2:21 (6:30 pace).

I was really happy with this run, even moreso in the context of the entire workout. Next week starts my three highest weeks of mileage. I’ll be looking to hit 70 each week, before tapering. I had one other week at 70, right before Thunder Road in 2010, but I have never done a sustained block of mileage in this range. Hopefully the result will be a PR in the marathon at Tobacco Road!

2011 Trials of Miles

Chad & Dee:

Well, 2011 is in the books.  It was quite the roller coaster of a year.  For Chad, it was a year filled with hard work, good training, and PRs in every distance except the 5k.  Unfortunately, the year ended with him back on the DL nursing some type of hamstring injury thanks to a spin class.  Proof that cross-training is bad.  For Danielle, it was a year filled with injuries and set backs and nothing close to a PR.  However, not every year can be good, and sometimes we need to take a step back before we can take a step forward.  Hopefully 2012 is a step forward!

2012 will see us change our focus from running to triathlons.  There will be plenty of running and racing, to be sure, but this year we are foregoing the Run For Your Life Grand Prix Series, and looking to do a triathlon Grand Prix Series instead.  We are very excited to represent One2Tri Racing again! 

Just for fun, here is our mileage breakdown for 2011.  Let's see if we can't do better in 2012.

Dee-                                                         Chad-
Run:    2,264 miles                                     Run:    2,423.2 miles
Bike:   2,232.5 miles                                   Bike:   2,967.6 miles
Swim: 156,590 meters (97 miles)                 Swim: 389,280 meters (241 miles)

Chad's totals are a bit off since he tends to stop tracking as vigilently when he is out injured.

Here are the stats from 2010- the year we started swimming and bought bikes.

Dee-                                                         Chad-
Run:    2,558.7 miles                                  Run:   2,067.9 miles
Bike:   291.7 miles                                     Bike:  747.1 miles
Swim: 55,824 meters (34 miles)                  Swim: 315,371 meters (195 miles)
 

Solid improvements on the biking and swimming, but still plenty of work to do.  Here's to some great training in 2012!