Race Report: Reedy River Run 10K

Results based on Guntime:

57:48 - 9:19 min per mile average

Overall 764/1290

Chip Time: 56:57 (PR)

Once again, there were no results per gender and age group published, so according to my (magic) Excel spreadsheet:

Female 260/594

Age Group 62/134 (30-34)



What a beautiful day for race, only that I didn't feel like racing at all. I didn't have a goal for this one and I didn't have an idea how my running is going these days. But since I was already registered, I got up at 7AM and had a pita bread with jelly (my new favorite pre-race food) and we headed out the door a little after 8AM for the short drive to downtown Greenville.

In front of Soby's we met up with several members of the DNR All Stars and friends and chatted the time away until the gun went off. This chit-chat stuff was entertaining (for us and the people around us!) and it certainly helped to distracted me, so I didn't even develop my race jitters! Even before that, I was out and about with Katie (not coach Katie) to make a little pit stop before we would get going. I told her that I really didn't feel like racing at all and she said, that on those days, your best races happen... And she would be right.

I started out in the back third of the runners lining up. I prefer that, since it's not like I am competing for awards and it also helps me not to go out too fast, because it takes a little while until the masses have stringed out. A 0.1 into the race, I heard the Garmin beeping at me and then I remember that I forgot to take out the programmed max pace from last Wednesday's run. CRAP! I can't handle the Garmin beeping at me for an hour... So I spend the next quarter mile to take the Garmin of my wrist and disable the max pace and put it back on. Then I saw Chris, our DNR team captain, and ran with him for a little before taking off on my own and try to figure out what I am going to do with this race.



Can you spot me in the crowd? ;-)

And while I kept plucking along, I checked in on how things felt and found that I actually felt pretty good. I also noticed that I enjoyed to run and the course and the weather. The first mile splits came up and the good feeling I had, was also reflected in those... Heck... I hardly run a sub 9 minute mile at a 5K and here all of a sudden I clocked two of them... Yes, they were mostly downhill miles, but still. I reached mile three in around 28 minutes and then I started thinking about the possibility that I could PR... And the thought became a mantra... I am going to PR, I am going to PR.

In Cleveland Park, the course gets pretty flat and I was just cruising along. I thought that I can push it some more, but I also remembered that I have two hills left. One around mile 5 that is not too bad and then a really nasty one at mile six. I skipped the second aid station shortly before mile 5, because I knew the end was near and things got a little congested around the station. There was the hill at mile 5 and then a little downhill and then another little hill... Hmmmm... I completely forgot this one. At mile 5.2 on my Garmin I had a time of 47 minutes and change. Right there I realized that I could run the last mile with a 10 minute/ mile pace and would still PR. Goody goody...

Then the course flattened out before the big finale... The hill up McDaniel. When we turned the corner and got our first glimpse at that hill, a girl in front of me turned around and said: "Do you see that hill?" I know exactly how she felt, because that's what I thought last year. I just said: "It's the last hill and then it's downhill to the finish! WE CAN DO THIS!"... She said thanks and took off!

All through the race, I took it easy on the uphill and then really picked it up on the downhills. It worked... But at McDaniel.... I attacked... Too much... When I was on top of the hill I felt nauseous and actually wasn't able to pick up my pace right away, but had to lower my HR a little first. This is probably the only thing that I would do different... And maybe wear less clothing... I completely over dressed. But before long the nauseous feeling passed and I picked up my feet again for a strong finish.

After the race the DNR All Stars gathered for a little recap before we went over the Liberty Bridge to get something to eat and drink. In our little group, there were several PR's and several goons** that ran this distance for the first time and just tore it up. SWEET! I am SOOO looking forward to run the Palmetto200 with these guys and gals!

**Our captain's pet name for the team members - I don't even know if that's offensive... Sometimes it sucks not to be a native speaker and not to have grown up in the same country... Some jokes are just completely lost on me!

I am a very happy camper about this PR... Two minutes at this distance is pretty awesome. Also, it really shows the progress that I made in the last 4 months*... I didn't get a chance to run a half marathon... But I had a successful 10 mile race two weeks ago and now I shaved off ALMOST TWO MINUTES of my previous time at the 10K. THANKS, COACH KATIE!

*My average pace at this 10K is faster than my average pace at the 5K back in November! Crazy stuff!

Fluke Or Not A Fluke?

Okay, let me share a little athletic story from my teens. I think at one point, I mentioned that I was into gymnastics from age 7 to around age 17. I started out being fairly good, but around age 13 or so, my progress was stalling and I never really gotten into heavy competitions after that.

There was this one stellar moment late into one practice afternoon when I tried a back hand spring all on my own. No coach close by to help... Nothing. And I did it... I was the buzz of the locker room that afternoon. But as it turned out, the perfect back hand spring from that afternoon was just a FLUKE. I was never able to reproduce it.

So a couple of swim practices ago, I was gushing about my breakthrough only to learn that the actual breakthrough didn't happen until the very next swim practice. But I guess I just noticed that something clicked that day and when I got into the pool the next time it was like magic. We had 2x 400 yard time trials on tap and I did the first one in 6:40 minutes. Normally I need around 8 minutes for this distance. I thought I counted the laps wrong. The second 400 I did in 6:30 minutes, so I guess I have counted correctly... And the funny thing was, I could have kept on going. That whole thing felt effortless. I was able to maintain bi-lateral breathing, when normally, I start breathing to one side once I swim faster. Not this time, I was cruising through this whole set. My lane partner noticed it, the coach noticed it... IT FELT GREAT!!

Once I was out of the pool, I started worrying, if I would be able to hold on to this or if the next time, my form would just collapse to my old air-sucking self.

A week after those two time trials, we did a 400 yard race simulation in the pool. I swam the whole thing in 6:20 minutes! I was ecstatic... I still am... I start to believe that this time it isn't a fluke... This time, I can hold on to this progress.

--------------------------------

This morning, I did the Reedy River Run 10K. I had to expectation on this race, I didn't even feel like racing.... Well and now I have a new PR. According to my Garmin, my time was 56:57 minutes... That's almost two minutes under my PR time at this race last year!

What is EASY?

The other day I read this blog post from Elizabeth Waterstraat (athlete and triathlon coach) about the definition of success for athletes. According to her post, the secret ingredient for a successful athlete is PACING. Not only during racing, but also during training. They know when they have to go hard and when to go easy.

That made me think about my approach to training a lot of the time especially when it comes to running (for whatever reason, I don't seem to have this problem with swimming or biking) that I have only one gear. So my tempo runs have the roundabout same speed than my long runs than my recovery runs (what are recovery runs anyways! ;-)... You get the idea. So for Wednesday night I was telling myself, that I want to do easy six miles... And after I read this blog post, I thought to myself.... What is easy? To what pace does "easy" translate to?

So I remembered that a couple of weeks ago, I discovered the McMillan Running Calculator. One use for this sweet little gadget is race time prediction... Basically stuff like... I run a 50 minute 10K, what can I expect my half marathon time to be and so on. Of course this is not an exact science, just a guideline, but it certainly gives you an idea.

I am trying to use this gadget the other way round. My approach is, that I want to run the 10K of the Assault on Cherokee International Triathlon in under 58 minutes and with what kind of paces do I have to train to be able to accomplish this goal*. So I entered my goal time of 57:50 mins into the entry screen.

*Just as a side note, this is not a completely unrealistic goal, my current 10K PR is 58:53 mins.



And out came this table, that basically shows me when I have to run how fast... It defines paces for any kind of distance and intensity and I will print this baby out and use it for my reference in the coming weeks of training.


(Click to enlarge.)

So my "easy" pace based of the table is between 10:52 and 11:22 and I did my easy run of 6.2 miles with an 10:55 average right on target. And yes, it actually FELT easy. In order to keep me on track, I entered a max speed of 10:20 for this run in my Garmin and the little guy beeped at me to go slower and that worked out just fine obviously even though the max pace in the Garmin was so much lower than the target pace.

Tomorrow, I am going to race in the Reedy River 10K. That's actually the race were I PR'd last year. So far I haven't even thought about a specific goal for this race... We'll see what is going to happen.



On a completely different note:

So the race organization of the Myrtle Beach Marathon Weekend finally made an announcement this past Tuesday about how they are planning to "reimburse" the runner's that were not able to run the half marathon or marathon on Feb 13th 2010. If you picked up your package for the half or the full, you'll get a 50% discount for your 2011 entry, but you have to sign up by March 31th. I guess that will give us close to four weeks to decide what we are going to do.

Palmetto200 Updates

With everything else going on, I hardly had time to mention the Palmetto200 relay more than on a couple of side notes over the last couple of weeks. Let's get you up to speed with the scoop and the current planning situation.

As you know, the team is complete. We have 12 runners and out of the 12, we have 10 original DNR members and 2 replacements (16.6% bounce rate is not too shabby)... Those 12 runners form a team with the sweet name of "DNR All-Stars" and the t-shirt logo looks something like this... But this is all still in the draft stage of things.

We also had a naked Calvin on our t-shirts from last year, so this is kind of a natural progression in team name and logo.


There was also some crazy talk about the three wolves t-shirt partnered with another 80's essential... But I think we are over this stage by now. Remainders of this discussion is a statement, that parts of the race will be run in Chuck's... For my part, I thought it would be fun to run one leg in a tutu, but really, the space is limited in vans! :-)

Design credit for the team logo goes to DNR team graphic designer Alex S.

After deciding on team name, logo and actually completing the team, it was time to assign the team members to the legs of the relay. I mentioned earlier, that I signed up for runner #3, then the course got changed around and I swapped for runner #6. Well, they changed the course again and as of now, I am up to 17 miles for the total relay once more... I guess it's just meant to be. Here is a comparison between the old split and the new split courtesy of Brian:




E is for easy, M for medium and H for hard... Since the course is pretty flat, the difficulty of the legs is really determined by the distance. My first leg will be 9.9 miles (longest of whole relay)... That is going to be tough, but at least it will be out of the way early. My next two legs are rated easy with 3.4 miles and 3.7 miles.

That's the status as of yesterday, we'll see if there are going to be more changed to the route.

Still in the works is van rental and hotel reservations for Charleston for after the relay. Since we ran to the beach, we figured it would be nice to stay there for one night before driving back home.

So long! :-)

In Case You Haven't Noticed Yet...

... I live in an AWESOME city! ;-)



Greenville SC has been profiled in the US Airways Magazine and here are the articles.

If that is not enough to convince you, there has also been some bike related praise by Competitive Cyclist back in January 2009.

I especially enjoy reading the conclusion of the article over and over again... It always makes me feel really proud to live here:

"Go to Greenville. Bring your bike. The weekend club rides there are, by reputation, high-quality both in terms of turnout & talent level. Stay at the Hampton Inn downtown on the Reedy River. Eat at the Lazy Goat or one of the other Soby's restaurants. Talk a long stroll through Falls Park and freak out a bit as you walk across the gorgeous Liberty Bridge. Outside of Europe, I've never seen such a cosmopolitan small city. It's a gem -- it's worthy of your vacation time, and it's certainly worthy of the USPro."

Since the Sprinx RunFest is going to have a marathon again in 2010 and the course will go over the Swamp Rabbit Trail up to Travelers Rest, I think it's safe to say, that by the time the race rolls around, they will have the downtown portion and the Travelers Rest portion of the Swamp Rabbit Trail connected to result in a 13 mile multi-purpose trail.

I am telling you.... It's a GREAT place, not only if you are into the swim, bike and run of things.

So long! ;-)

Forecast: Two Unstructured Weeks

I am back on my own when it comes to my training. No training plans are made for me anymore... At least for now, since there is a wedding in my near future that needs some of my time and attention for planning purposes. That doesn't mean that I will stop working out... Well, there is a life after the wedding... E.g. the Palmetto200 just two weeks later as well as a couple of triathlons over the summer. Besides, I need this working out to keep my sanity during this planning period and also to make sure, that I will still fit in my dress... Even though I don't have a dress yet... Which makes me a little panicky... ARRRGGGHHH!

Since I kinda like the idea of a training plan, but still want to keep my flexibility, I decided to go with a generic plan from Beginner Triathlete (short: BT). For the last two years I logged all my workouts on that web page as well as enjoyed the huge community of athletes for inspiration and advice. I never tried one of their training plans, but now is a good time.

I took a calendar, circled the date for my first "A race", the Middle Tyger Triathlon (400m, 14 miles and 4 miles) on June 5th and choose the "Intermediate Sprint Plan 3x Balanced". That basically means, that the plan is for people that already did a sprint distance and are working out for at least one year one a regular basis. 3x balanced means that you have three session swim, bike and run per week plus some strength and flexibility. This translates to up to 10 hours of training during peak weeks.

The training plans on BT are flexible enough so you can tailor them to your needs. For example, put the swim on a day that suits you and the run on a day that works with the training of a buddy or a group run etc. For me personally, it means adjustments like getting rid of the third swim in the plan and put a little more emphasis on running since I will be doing the relay and also vowed to maintain a 10-mile long run in preparation of the international distance beginning of August.

It's a 12 week training plan and if I calculate the weeks back from race day to DAY ONE of the plan, I end up on March 15th... So besides of winter advisory for the Upstate for today... In my forecast are two weeks of unstructured training... SWEET! :-)

Training Duathlon and Girl's Ride Out

Can you believe it? It's MARCH! Two months of 2010 are already done and over. Daylight saving time starts in two weeks and I can't wait. Spring is not quite here, but ALMOST. See what I discovered on my walk with the doggy on Saturday.



Well, as I am typing this and look at the picture, I completely ignore the weather forecast that calls for 6 inches of snow tomorrow... Think happy thoughts... think happy thoughts.

Training Duathlon

On Saturday, the Upstate Tri Club organized a training duathlon out on the Furman campus. The duathlon consisted of a 5K run, 13.5 mile bike and another 5K run. Around 30 people showed and several brought along family, so we were quite a crowd.

The whole thing was scheduled to start at 1PM. I took it easy in the morning, slept in and then just stayed in bed for a little while longer, then ran some errands and got back to the house at around 12PM. The whole morning I forgot to drink and by the time I got back in I was thirsty... Once you are thirsty, you are already way too dehydrated. Great job, Kathrin! :-( So while I was trying to get my crap together, I sipped on some water to at least put something back in my system. I was at the transition area a little after 12.30pm and then I noticed that I forgot my bike shoes. Fortunately I live just around the corner and was able to make it back on time. Still... That's what you get if you prepare at the last minute.

I started off running at the very back of the group and took it easy, but actually felt pretty good. Maybe half a mile into the 5K I started picking up people and I did that for the whole distance. I can't remember being passed at all. At 5K, I hit the lap button on my Garmin and saw that I had a time of 28:13 mins. This is the lowest 5K time I had in a while and I wasn't even pushing it. Once I passed the 5K mark, I kept on running easy and made a little pit stop before returning to the transition area. This was training after all, so no need to go all crazy here.

Going on the bike felt good and I was glad that I put on a windbreaker in the transition area, since I was sweaty and the wind was really cold. The bike route started out on a familiar route for me, but 3 miles into it, I was on new terrain. On hilly terrain that is... Later I saw on the computer that the we did over 1,000 feet of climbing over 13.5 miles. There were a couple of hills that really hurt. Of course it didn't help that I started feeling the effects of my little water consumption earlier that day... I started cramping in my back and it was especially bad on the hills. Even though I started downing water like a crazy person once I got on the bike, it was just too late to catch up. My bike split had an average speed of 14.4 mph and I was disappointed about that, but I guess that was all I had in me that day.

By the time I was back at the transition area, I already decided that I am not going to do the second 5K... Maybe just a little one mile cool down jog or something, but once I got off the bike, I didn't even feel a cool down jog. Instead I had something to eat and a lot to drink and socialized a little.

When I got back home from the duathlon, I took the doggy on a long walk... That made my back feel better and made the doggy happy.... WIN WIN!


Girl's Ride Out

I am painfully aware of the fact, that my bike fitness is nowhere near I was end of last season. The ride during the duathlon was witness of this fact too, even though other factors sure also played into my performance... Like hydration! DUH!!!

Trainer rides can only do so much, especially if none of your trainer rides exceeded one hour in over two months. The ultimate cure for bad bike fitness is getting out there on the bike and ride it. So of course I was in, when Katie (not coach Katie) asked me if I was up for a ride. We decided to do the Donaldson Country Loop which I never did before... Just follow the light blue/ green arrows! ;-) The sun was shining, but it was still chilly, so we had on several layers. I can't wait for the days, when I don't have to think about how many layers I need. On the bottom I dressed quite light, I didn't even have booties or toasty toes, but I had three thin layers on on top and that worked quite good. The country ride is a nice loop with lots of rolling hills on back country roads and only very little traffic. Katie dropped me a lot which just made me push harder, so it was certainly good training for me. Over 31 miles, we did 1,500 feet of climbing with an 15.6 mph average for the ride... Not bad...

When daylight saving time is finally here, I will definitely take my bike to work at least once a week and join one of the evening rides that start just a little down the road... I think I can't hide it.... I am itching for SPRING!

So long! ;-)