Ralston Creek Half Marathon

After a week of recovery from the PIG, it was time for the in inaugural Ralston Creek Half Marathon. The race season for me usually waits until the end of April but this year, Racing Underground started a new half marathon in Arvada on the Ralston Creek bike path. The course runs west, around Arvada Reservoir and up the switchbacks.

I was worried with all the snow we've had the last couple weeks that the path would be covered in snow but early reports have the path as mostly clear with patches of snow and ice. Race morning and the temperature was around fifteen degrees and it wasn't supposed to get much higher.

After trying to say warm at the start, everyone was off. To make the temperature a little more bareable, the race had a late, 9:45, start time. The first mile was down a closed road to the path. Not wanting to start too fast, I picked someone I thought would be a good pacer and settled in. The first few cruised by and around mile five, I caught up to the first of the early starters. Up the southern hills of Arvada Reservior I met my pacer who was a two time CDA Ironman. I was going to make a move on the switchbacks, but I felt good on the descent so I decided to stretch it out.

I've ridden the switchbacks and they are about a mile long, five switchbacks and 4.5% grade. I like hills so I kept the cadence high and began to climb. By the time I was at the top, I had caught several people and was feeling good. The descent was long so I took it easy to not beat up the quads too much.

After looping all the way around the reservoir, the course joined back up with Ralston Creek and it was time to head for home. I was caught by one runner I passed going up the hill but I caught a couple more runners from my wave. Off the path and the last mile was back on the road with a slight uphill.

Overall the race went better than expected. I knew my fitness was good but I expected it to be my cycling that was improved. Even on the hard course with the rolling hills and switchbacks, I managed a PR with a 1:31:41, an improvement of about twenty seconds over last year's Westminster 13.1.

2008 Bolder Boulder

Memorial day dawned grey and dreary; it promised to be a good day for racing in the streets. The rain that woke me at 3 am had stopped leaving the streets wet and the sun hidden behind clouds.

I made good time getting ready and left with plenty of time to make the trip to Boulder. During the walk to the start line I saw the T-T group and saw Bob wearing his AG champ jersey from 2007. He went on to win his AG again this year.

I had plenty of time to get a good position in AA and lined up only a few people off the front. The wheelchairs started, A started and then I was off and running. You have to watch the pace the first kilometer since it's a slight downhill which combined with the enthusiasm of the start puts too many people out too fast. I held back a little letting the crowd settle down. The triathlete I met at the start left me behind even though he was trying for a time a minute slower than mine. I caught him around 4k and never saw him again.

I caught my friend Scott around 4k just like last year. Strange how I caught him both years around the same place. The rest of the race went pretty much according to plan, nice even splits, keeping focused on good form and good pacing. I finished in 39:09 which was good enough for 6th out of 388 in my AG and 429th of 48387 finishers overall.

After finishing the race, it started to drizzle a little which meant the trip to the post-race expo was quite short this year. No sense standing in the rain cooling down and catching a cold.

2008 Cherry Creek Sneak

Yesterday was the psuedo-official start of the race season with the Cherry Creek Sneak. I've run the Sneak several times and I've always had a fun time and this weekend was no exception. The main event at the Sneak is a 5 mile run through the Cherry Creek shopping district. The course has changed a little since I last ran it with the hill on York St being removed.

The sub-30 runners were given a five minute head start and then the rest of us were off. I lined up a few rows back from the start and was off and up to pace pretty quickly. My goal for the race was to hold 6:20, maybe a little below. That's my goal pace for the Loveland and Boulder triathlons and I wanted to see how my training is going.

I went through the first two miles around 12:06 and decided to pull back just a bit but not too much. Mile 2 saw the only climb and it wasn't really much. There was a slight breeze from the south so I pulled up behind a bigger runner for a little wind protection. Miles 3 and 4 are nice straight stretches down and back on Speer. Just when you're getting close to the finish line, you take a left and head into the shopping district, so close yet almost a mile to go. I tried to pass a couple people as we wove around the streets of North Cherry Creek but I wasn't able to get away. The last mile was a series of pass and be passed. There wasn't really a chance to sprint for the line. When you came around the last corner, you were twenty yards from the finish line.

Overall, it was a great race and things are looking good for the 2008 season. I finished fifth out of 205 in my age group and 32nd out of 3800 overall. My splits were pretty consistant according to the Garmin. I had it set to take 500 meter splits and they were around 1:50 - 1:55 with one at 2:15 and one at 1:40.

Tempo

When training for marathons, I usually think the standard twenty minute tempo run to be too short. If I'm going to be racing for three hours, shouldn't my tempo workouts be closer to forty or sixty minutes?

The way I do longer tempo runs is by using cruise intervals. The purpose of the tempo run is to run at or near your lactate threshold so your body improves its threshold. It also has a mental component where you mentally get conditioned to holding your pace for a longer period of time. Cruise intervals are done by running at your lactate threshold for five to fifteen minutes, taking a short rest interval and then repeating. You could do six repetitions with one minute rest. This would give you thirty minutes at your tempo pace with the rest intervals making sure your body didn't exceed your threshold for too long.

It's a good way to do a longer tempo run without exceeding your limits.

Compliments

Last week after a night run, my group was sitting around stretching and shooting the breeze in the Rec Center. A bike officer, Eric, came in, we waved and he came over to say hi. He told us how he was out riding the path and saw some lights in the distance. At first he thought the lights were a bike rider since they were moving pretty quickly. After watching the lights for a while, he realized that they were runners and they were us. I thought it was pretty cool that he thought we were going fast and came by to tell us. I guess it's the little things that make a difference.

Treadmills

People either love treadmills or hate them. They call them hamster wheels or dread mills but for people with real winters, treadmills can be an great training tool. Even people with good weather year round can benefit for a session or two on a treadmill.

I run on a Precor 956 which has a set of preprogrammed workouts and I'm becoming a fan of the 2 minute interval workout. The workout alternates the pace and incline every two minutes. The base workout alternates between 0% incline for 2 minutes to 3% incline for 2 minutes.

My latest workout is 50 minutes long, 8 minutes to warm up, 32 minutes of hard inclines and then 10 minutes warm down. The warm up is 8 minutes long to give me to sets of inclines. 32 minutes gives me 8 sets of inclines and then the 10 minute warm down gives me 2 inclines to warm down followed by 2 minutes flat. Right now I'm breaking the 8 sets of inclines into 2 sets of 4 with each incline being slightly faster than the last in each group of 4. I think start again with the second set of 4.

So before you give up on the treadmill, look at the programs and try something different.

2007 Review - Part 2 - The Running Races

The whole season wasn't just about triathlons, I also completed a few road races. The running season started in my backyard with the Warrior 5k. The weather before the race was wet and the dirt course showed it. Some people joked it was like cross country but everyone in the lead group went around those puddles. After catching the overly enthusiastic youngsters on the rec center hill, I settled into fourth and stayed there until the end. Not a bad way to start the season.
Memorial Day saw me in Boulder for my fourteenth Bolder Boulder. Since I had completed the Pelican Fest triathon two days prior, I wasn't sure how I would do. My strategy was to stay with Kara as long as possible and try to finish strong. I felt good and made my move at the four mile mark and held on to the end. I wanted to finish under 38:20 but I was very happy with my 39:07, especially two days after a strong triathlon.
In July, I took a couple days off and went to Grand Lake. Since I was in the neighborhood, I had to do the Buffalo Days 5k which I've done a few times. The plan was to relax and run easy since Boulder Peak was the next day. I started easy and passed a lot of people on the long climb. I passed a few more on the steep rollers coming back and finished second in my AG. A really good finish especially since I didn't push too hard.
September saw me racing in my backyard again at the inaugural Panerathon 5k. This race was worth doing for the post-race food. Panera supplied the bagels and sandwiches which were very yummy. Oh, yeah, I finished fourth overall.
October took me to Chicago for my big race of the year. Barry and I signed up almost a year before the race. Unfortunately this was year of the big heat. The temp was close to 80 at the start without a breeze in the Windy City. I was doing fine until twenty-three when I decided to pull back on the speed to avoid heat problems. I finished in 3:09 which was pretty good considering the conditions. Over 10k people didn't finish so I guess I did really good.

GPS

I ran a local 5k last weekend (4th overall, 2nd AG) with several friends and afterwards we were talking about the course. Since everyone these days wears a GPS, we were comparing distances. They all ranged from 3.2 to 3.4 miles. About two miles of the course format was out and back which gave me a good chance to see what my GPS measured.
I uploaded my run and switched the route view to satellite. The scale in the picture is one into to 200 feet. The course is on a paved bike path so the maximum width of the course is eight feet. You can clearly see in two areas where the out and back don't overlay. I try to run the tangents and since going out, I was near the front, there wasn't any problems cutting corners. You can also see where it looks like I'm running off the concrete path and through a field and a parking lot.
A GPS is a great tool for mapping runs and estimating distances but it's only as accurate as it's reception. While this path had very few trees and only on building over two stories, the GPS wasn't perfect and I don't think it's right to expect it to be. It's worn on the wrist so it's pretty small with a small antenna. It has a rechargable battery so it's not very powerful. So if you have GPS, enjoy your ability to measure your runs anywhere you go but remember, it's not perfect.

Chicago - D Minus 17 Days and Counting

There's one way to get into Chicago but two ways to run it. The only way in is to register early before it sells out. The best way to run it is to have a fast qualifying time from another marathon. What's a fast marathon time going to get you? I just received my race brochure with my starting wave and I'm in corral A. Corral A is the third group behind the professionals and the 100 elites. That means there will be about 200 people in front of me and 44,800 people behind me. That means a minimum of swerving and dodging and being able to get into a rhythm right from the start. How cool is that?

Buffalo 5k

Nothing like a 5k before your A-race to see how you legs feel. The Buffalo 5k is held in Grand Lake at 8400 feet with 125 feet of climbing. Even if you don't push it, you have trouble breathing with elevations like that.

I decided to run the race the day before with a goal of just having a good run and not pushing too hard. I let the start group take off since it was mostly high school kids who were all legs and no weight.

After an easy start, I began the steady climb to the turn around point. Most of the people who went out too fast faded on the climb and I was able to climb up the standing. The second half has a pretty steep and long climb which you just push through. Overall I was tenth and second in the 40 - 49 age group. Now I just have to hope I didn't push too hard with Boulder Peak tomorrow.