Pre Forever Friends Memorial 5K Thoughts

My left groin injury feels good today. A trace amount of pain persists. I believe if I stretch and warm up appropriately before the race, I should not run into muscle cramping issues.

I weighed in this morning at 186 pounds, my lowest weight of the year. This is surprising because I have only run twice in the last two weeks. I personally felt like I was putting on weight. We'll see if weighing four pounds less than my last run will have any impact on m y performance today.

This is a 1 pm afternoon race. I usually run around 8:30 in the morning, an hour or so after waking up for the day. I should not have any morning cobwebs this afternoon.

I have three pace zones I have established for today's run. These are all half-kilometer paces. 2:20 is a fast, PR speed pace, 2:25 is medium pace, on par with my last 24min 16sec effort and finally a slow 2:30 or 25 minute pace. If I run a 25 minute 5K today, something went wrong.

Durability

In any athletic pursuit it's one matter to have ability and quite another to have durability. For nearly every race I have run this year I have had a physical ailment to contend with and the race tomorrow will be no different. My groin injury from nearly two weeks ago persists. I can run, but have no idea if I will develop an intense cramp up I did this past Tuesday when I was forced to stop training just shy of five kilometers.

I have to work on both strength training and flexibility this running off season. I initially was going to work solely on strength training, but realized I need to get both stronger and more flexible. Much like anything in life you have to strike a happy medium between the two.

I have not been injured to the degree where I had to quit a race while running. My leg does not feel up to par yet and I am very concerned about not being able to finish tomorrow. I will walk if I have to in oder to finish the race.

2009 Schedule Update

Here is a listing of the races I have run this year as well as the upcoming races.

[minutes:seconds] = Personal Record

May 2009 (4)
3rd - Winning Kick 5K @ Mt Penn PA [26:58]
9th - Run for the Children 5K @ Palmyra PA [25:41] (2nd place age 40-49)
16th - Rerun Broad Street 5 Miles @ Lansdale PA [42:46]
(race was 4.89 miles - 5 mile time was 43:44)
30th - CMN/UFC Balloon Chasers 5K @ Hershey PA [24:50]
(race was 3.01 miles - 3.1 mile time was 25:35)

June 2009 (3)
14th - Classic 10K @ Middletown NY [59:34]
20th - Chocolate Miracle 5K @ Hershey PA [28:12]
28th - Stratton - Faxon half marathon @ Fairfield CT (withdrew)

July 2009 (4)
4th - Firecracker 4K Run @ State College PA [21:18]
11th - Freshburst Five Mile Run @ Lititz PA [42:35]
(race was 5.03 miles. 5 mile time was 42:19)
15th - Milllers Mutual Mile @ Harrisburg PA [6:54]
25th - Lebanon Area Fair 5K @ Lebanon PA [24:53]
(race was 3.14 miles - 3.1 mile time was 24:25)

August 2009 (3)
8th - Running for Reading 5K @ Mechanicsburg PA [23:20 ]
23rd - 32nd Annual Twilight Trot 10K @ Elizabethtown PA [1:03:21]
29th - 18th Annual Tim Russell Memorial 5K @ Hershey PA [24:16]

September 2009 (3)
7th - USA 20K National Championships @ New Haven CT [1:51:11]
20th - Forever Friends Memorial 5K Run @ Myerstown PA [23:41]
26th - Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon @ Toronto, Ontario (withdrew)
26th - Paxton Fest Two Mile Run @ Harrisburg PA [14:29]

October 2009 (3)
3rd - Fall Down on the Trail 5K Race & Hike @ Newville PA [23:11]
7th - Baron Stiegel Mile @ Manheim PA [6:26]
31st - York White Rose Five Miler @ York PA [40:35]

November 2009 (2)
8th - Harrisburg Marathon @ Harrisburg PA [5:40:01]

A total of 21 races for calendar year 2009.

Running and Lessons Learned

I have learned many things about getting back in shape and myself this year. I have listed a few of them, in no particular order.

Establishing a running goal which was formidable and required several months to achieve served to create a very structured summer due to the planning necessary to facilitate reaching the goal. I was never at a loss for something to do in my spare time this summer as training was a perpetual responsibility.

Setting goals is the most important takeaway I will retain from this summer. My wife and I have set goals for our family which will take two to four years to complete. All of our decisions now must be congruent with these goals.

Getting back in shape is no easy task. In the absence of a challenging and personally meaningful purpose for resurrecting yourself, you are doomed for failure.

If you haven't exercised for eight years as I had, it will take longer than eight weeks to get back in shape. You must develop your patience threshold to accommodate a reasonable time frame for reincarnating yourself physically.

There are no shortcuts and overtime when it comes to training is not good. If you plan to train four hours in a given week, trying to do two workouts of two hours is not as effective as four one hour workouts for the week.

You will have setbacks in the form of injuries. To minimize injuries proceed weekly on an incremental basis. I decided in the first few weeks of my training this year to see how long it would take me to run three miles as a baseline run. I wasn't ready to run three miles at the time and it cost me two weeks of training due to very sore knees.

Buying the Garmin Forerunner GPS watch and using the http://connect.garmin.com website served to enable myself to record and chart my progress of my runs throughout the year. Analyzing your past performances aids in developing training plans for yourself.

I had to remind myself several times this year I am not an elite athlete and nor should I stress over times or performances which were not as good as I had hoped. The important issue is to be a part of life, not a spectator of life.

I lost thirty pounds this summer, by accident. I had no specific weight loss goals. Getting back in shape results in many beneficial unintended consequences. I would like to think my wife is appreciative of my new vim, vigor and vitality levels.

When you exercise your personal engine needs to run on high grade fuel. Vegetables and fruits are important components in a healthy diet. Portion control is where most people fail with dieting. A scoop or two of ice cream after dinner is fine. Having four to six scoops of ice cream after lunch is a portion size not conducive to losing weight.

There are varying degrees of 'in shape'. You have to decide how far you want to go with yourself to feel comfortable about your own fitness level. I frequently get passed by men much older than I at running races who are in better shape than I. You need to feel comfortable about your own current fitness level, not where you could be or other people's levels.

Last but not least, you need to make your training as fun as possible. Enlisting a partner to get back in shape helps serve to challenge you during training sessions as well as motivating you when your spirits are down. ( I ran alone this summer, but would have welcomed having a friend train with me were I able to find someone interested in running.)

Quest for a Five Kilometer PR (Personal Record)

The five kilometer Forever Friends race on Sunday at the Elco High school represents my last chance to set a personal record for this race length. I remain slightly hobbled from my twenty kilometer race on Labor Day. I must carefully increase my training mileage without re-aggravating my groin injury.

As I run more races I am getting much better at pacing. In order to eclipse my current 23 minutes and 20 seconds 5K PR I need to finish each kilometer under a 4 minute and 40 second pace. This pace is equivalent to a 7 minute 31 second mile. For my last 5K in Hershey, which was my second best 5K run of the year, I averaged a 4 minute and 51 second pace and finished in 24 minutes and 16 seconds. This pace is equivalent to a 7 minute and 49 second mile.

I recently figured out how to set up my Garmin Forerunner 305 watch to record my split times at custom distance intervals. In order to get feedback on my pace more frequently throughout a race, I set up my watch to record my times at half kilometer intervals. A half kilometer is slightly more than a quarter mile or one lap around a running track.

Using the paces mentioned above, I need to record half kilometer splits under 2:20 to set a new 5K PR. In order to beat my second best 5K run off the year I need to log sub 2:25 half kilometer splits. The numbers I will have running in my head throughout the race will be 2:20 and 2:25. If I consistently remain between this interval I will finish with a good time.

I will record ten split times for this 5K race. This affords myself an excellent opportunity to manage my pace throughout the race. In essence, I will get a report card every 500 meters. I believe this race is run on a road, on trails and finishes on a track.

Update: I re-aggravated my groin pull on the last lap of my training today. I will be resting for the remainder of the week in an effort to have my leg heal as quickly as possible. Setting a 5K PR this Sunday now looks very bleak.

Toronto Half Marathon Withdrawal

All of us have priorities in our lives we must constantly juggle. Over time, new priorities surface and old ones are retired. Over the course of this year I have had a laser focused dedication to training for a long distance run. Initially I had my sights set on a 26 mile marathon and then set a more reasonable goal for myself at the 13 mile half marathon.

For all purposes, completing the twenty kilometer race at Yale University in Connecticut on Labor Day fulfilled my goal of 'running long'. A half marathon is 21.1 kilometers long. I know personally I have the ability to complete a half marathon. The New Haven Road Race 20 kilometer race was an awesome accomplishment for myself. It was a beautiful day, the course was fun, and I completed the 12.4 mile run with relative ease. Adding to my enjoyment was my wife and kids had a great time in New Haven also.

While I am disappointed our family will not be traveling to Toronto and visiting the zoo there and seeing Niagara Falls for the first time, we were facing going much more in debt to finance this trip. My wife will be returning to Penn State to complete her Bachelor's degree and we need to focus our efforts on making this happen.

I will continue running this year into October. It does appear there is not much road racing from November until April of next year due to the cold weather here in Pennsylvania. I hope I can keep maintain my fitness during this running off-season.

Forever Friends Memorial 5K Run

I decided to run a tune-up race prior to my half marathon at the end of the month. It is a five kilometer run in Myerstown at the Elco high school next Sunday, September 20th. This race is scheduled for the afternoon. I imagine the race is in the afternoon to afford people the opportunity to attend church services in the morning as Myerstown is a very religious town

I am assuming I will be sufficiently healed from my current groin injury. I am feeling much better today. I can walk without a limp.

I ran a 24:16 at my last 5K race. For several reasons, I believe I could have broke 24 minutes very easily. If the weather and course in Myerstown cooperate, I would like to run a 23:30'sh time next Sunday.