Cool 5K/10K 2013

For the first time since I started running, I actually won a race.  Not just an age group, but I was the first to finish the 10K race!  I ran this race last year with some friends and my 16yo son Brannan and did well. I ran 44:07 and won my age group.  My goal going into the race was 42:XX.  The plan was to run around 7:00 for the first mile, then begin to negativve split. I was really focused on running a controlled race so I would have some left at the end. My race experience has shown that I tend to go out hard, and then just hold on at the finish.

Start: This is a 5K/10K small local race. Timing is done with the ankle straps used in triathlons.  They start the 10K first, then about 30 seconds later send off the 5K run/walkers.  I got to the front, and was out to a lead right off the bat. I settled into a comfortable pace.  One change I had made was to set my Garmin
screen to show Average Pace, Distance and Time only.  I tend to over focus on HR data when I race, and made a conscious decision to ignore it for this race

First 5K, 21:31 - I was all alone by the 1/2 mile mark, but by 3/4 the fast 5K runners (a 13-15yo kid came by me, followed closely by a 20 something kid.  I resisted the urge to pace with them and kept on my plan.  Mile 1 7:06 right on plan.  I picked up the pace a bit and continued to run alone.  Mile 2 6:54, Mile 3 6:53.  Hit 5K mark 21:30ish, right on plan, and was feeling good.

Second 5K, 20:56 - Mile 4 continued to feel pretty good, hard pace, but manageable.  I began remember that most of this mile was down hill, and knew I was going to pay for it on the turn around.  The course is sort of an out and back.  The 5K is a loop, the 10K we share the first part, then do an out and back to add the distance, then hook back up with the 5K course to finish.  Mile 4, 6:55.  Mile 5 was the point in the race where it began to hurt.  Every race has it's own "wall" and this was it.  It is the slight uphill back to the finishing part of the 5K course.  I began to pass the other 10K runners heading out the the turn around, and realized the closest runner was way back, I was on my own to get my goal pace.  This was the mental part of the race.  I could ease up and still win the race going away, or I could suck it up and finish hard.  Mile 6 I decided it was go time.  It was kind of fun to be passing 5K walkers/joggers.  Mile 6, 6:44, Final .2 (.15 according to my Garmin, I hit those tangents perfectly) 6:21 pace.  Finished 42:28, First Overall for the 10K.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/410496743

Really happy with how I ran this race.  It would have been nice to have someone to "race," but looking back I'm even more proud that I hit my goal pace all on my own.

Trying a New Plan for River, Roots and Ruts Trail Run Half Marathon

I'll be visiting Fort Myers Florida the first of the year, and registered for the River, Roots & Ruts Trail Run Half Marathon.  For all my races to date I've used the Runner's World Smart Coach to design my training plans.  While I've been happy with their plans, figured this would be a good chance to try out a new feature on Endomondo, a sports and activity data tracking program I've been using since I started running.


I entered all the data it asked for, using my HM PR from this spring of 1:33,  and it came up with a plan for predicting a 1:30 finish, with the easy/long run pace at 8:22.  Today's workout called for a time trial so it could adjust the plan for my current fitness level.

Garmin Data for the Endomondo 1.86 Mile Time Trial

I ended up running a 6:40 Avg Pace for 1.86 miles of the time trial (20:40 5K pace).  I was a bit disappointed with this pace, but I'm still nursing a sore foot/ankle left over from the Chicago Marathon a couple weeks ago.  

After the time trial Endomondo plan adjusted the paces of the workouts and now predicts a 1:40 HM with easy paces at 8:58.  This seems like a pretty big drop in pace and predicted finish to me.  The McMillan pace calculator predicts  a 1:35 for the same 5K pace, guess we will see how it goes!  Maybe I'll re-do the time trial in a couple weeks and see if it adjusts the paces and predicted finish and paces again.

Chicago Marathon, A Tale of Two Halves!

Weather at the start could not have been better.  Corral B is a great starting point, only took me to about 1.5 minutes to get to the start line and while crowded, everyone in this corral was where they should have been.  I got near the 3:20 pacer, found a few people to chat with, and off we went.

First 10K: 46:51 (7:25 average pace, HR 158-160)  I felt great for this entire portion.  I noticed that the 3:20 pacers were closer to a 3:16 finish pace at this point, but also figured I would need some extra because it’s such a wide course I would probably run an extra .25 miles, which I did.  Mistake #1 not backing off to my planned pace and let the pacer group go, but I was feeding off the excitement and spectators and other runners and just felt so darn good.  Nutrition right on target.  Shot Bloks @ mile 3, salt tab @ mile 6.

10K-HM: 1:40:04 – (7:35 pace for this section) Average pace had dropped to 7:30, but I had made a conscious decision to back off to the HM point as I had gone out too fast.  Nutrition was still on target, Clif Gel @ 8,  Salt Tab @ 10, Shot Bloks @ HM.  As we turned west heading out of the loop, I had the first feelings that I may be in trouble.  Legs were feeling more fatigued then they should have at this point.

HM-30K: 2:23:39 (Avg pace for this section 7:43, but steadily slower each mile) Average pace dropped to 7:35, and the HR was moving to lower 160s, bad combination to be going slower with a higher HR!).  I began to realize my 3:20 goal was probably out of the picture which was psychologically difficult to handle.  I still had my 3:25 BQ in sight, but my legs were very heavy, and there was the early signs of cramping in my right arch and both calfs.  Nutrition was fine, took a Gel @ 16.  Looking back I think I discovered mistake number 2.  For some reason I convinced myself that I was going to use Gatorade at every aide station and skip the Salt Tabs for the rest of the race, it seemed to make sense to me at the time.   Note to self, next time stick with the plan you made when you have not been running for two hours, not the one you make up on the fly!  I’m thinking this may have contributed to the later cramping.

30K-Finish – 3:31:42 (Avg pace for this section 9:19  HR 163-5 until the cramps kicked in, then it dropped) My legs continued to be very heavy, but I was able to keep around a pace in the lower 8:00s.  Got a nice boost from a large group from the Grayslake Running Club friends at the mile 19 marker which was awesome!  I was mentally struggling seeing all these splits in the 8:00s, but my legs would just not go.  Just after the mile 22 marker, my left calf fully cramped, ouch! I slowed the pace, and walked the aid station, had a couple Gatorades and picked it back up.  By now I knew even my BQ was out the window so I figured I should make sure to soak in the atmosphere and try to enjoy the rest of the run. I made sure to high five as many kids as I could, and thank everyone along the way.  Miles 24-25 were awful.  Full cramps in left both calfs, and my right foot.  Became a crawl for these two miles (10:31 - 10:03): run, cramp, stretch, walk, and repeat.  At the 25 mile mark I decided come hell or high water I was going to run the rest of this darn race.  I was able to go 8:51 for mile 26, and 8:20 pace for the final “kick.”  I took Shot Bloks @ 20, but skipped the last planned gel @ 24 (too busy just trying to stay upright!).  The finish of Chicago is awesome, little hill during the last 400m, then a turn and the line is in sight, lots of spectators, loud, very exciting.  I hope there is video of my finish as I tried Leap across the finish line, and as I jumped both calfs and my right Hamstring fully cramped and I almost face planted, I literally laughed out loud at my stupidity as I was trying to maintain my balance. 

Summary:  Chicago is a great venue for a Marathon, though I’m not sure I’ll do it again next year (too many other marathons I want to do).  I need to stick with my plan and not get caught up in the excitement of the race both on pace and nutrition.  My HR data tells me that my fitness level was more than adequate (158 Avg HR), so I think it was more of a failure to manage electrolytes and early pacing.  From a training standpoint I think I will do more marathon pace tempos during the last 5-6 miles of my Long runs to train my body to push through that heavy leg point. Lesson Learned (Probably not, more like lesson taught, LOL).  Overall a great experience even without meeting my goal time! 

My streak of running at least 1 mile everyday hit 190 days (just over 6 months). In that time I've covered 1276 miles (An average of 6.75/day) I could have run from Grayslake Illinois to San Antonio Texas in just over a week (7.5 days running). I've burned 172817 calories just from running (even more if I included the swimming, biking and lifting) which would be about 115 Red Robin Burgers & Fries!

Fort2Base Race Report:

My training plan called for 16 miles on Sunday, so I planned on running 3 miles to warm up before the 11.5 mile race. Warm up was perfect, 9:20, Zone 1 HR, felt great as I got to the starting line. I was looking at this as more of a Tempo run than a race, and my plan was to pace a friend from the running club said he wanted to run a 7:45/mile pace. I made a big mistake at the bag drop. I left my GU/Salt Tabs in my bag, so the plan for practicing my marathon nutrition was screwed up. I knew I would be fine to run this distance, but I missed out on a great opportunity to practice my aid station/nutrition plan.

Miles 1-2: We went out a little fast for the friend I was going to pace, @7:27, and he paid for it in mile 2 where we dropped to a 7:56. Turns out I'm a terrible pacer, and when he said go ahead and run, I did.

Miles 3-6 (7:34, 7:24, 7:25, 7:31): The course is on a very flat paved bike bath that runs from Fort Sheridan to the Great Lakes Naval Base, perfect chance for a Tempo run. There was a woman whom had just gone by us, so I caught up with her, and her pace was right around 7:30, so I settled in with her and we chatted for a bit. I adjusted my plan, and decided to make this more of a HR run. The plan was to keep my HR @ or just under 160 (mid Zone 3 for me). This went really well and felt great the entire time.

Miles 7-9 (7:34, 7:34, 7:30) Still feeling pretty good, though the humidity was starting to get to me. I let the HR climb to 162-63. We enter the base right around mile 8, and the 7:30 pacer group caught me right about that time. I ran with them until we hit "Hero's" hill.

Miles 10-11.5 (7:20, 8:13, 4;24 (for the last .55)) This is the part of the race that makes this a challenge. We run down a steep hill to the shore of Lake Michigan, but when you run down hill...you got to run up. (check out the elevation profile at the end of the race http://connect.garmin.com/player/365519772 ) I struggled to recover my pace after the hill, but as able to finish pretty hard for the turn to the finish line. My Dad and Son were near the finish (my 11yo did the 3 Nautical mile run) and it was fun to see them.



Result: 1:27:23, 7:36 Average Pace, 158 avg HR (PR by 3 minutes from last year, where I actually raced it much harder), 90/825 overall, 13/60 Age Group. http://results.active.com/events/fort2base--3/10-n...mile-searchable/patrick-morris This was a very successful Tempo race for me, though I did skip the 1.5 mile cool down run I had planned and instead went to breakfast with My Mom, Dad and two of my kids! Great run and a fun race I will try to keep on my racing schedule!

Chicago Marathon Training adjustments from the race: I think keeping my HR 156-160 (which translated to 7:30ish yesterday) will work out quite well for Chicago. It was interesting to note the difference allowing it to creep up a bit to 162-3 at the end made in how I was feeling. Pretty comfortable at 158, much more of an effort @ 162-3 and then into the 165+ range after the hill. Without my built in pacer in Chicago, I'm going to really have to concentrate on keeping that HR where I want it, regardless of pace, and I was able to do that pretty successfully yesterday.

Why I'm Blogging!

In January of 2012 I looked in the mirror and realized I had become a FAT GUY!  As a Chiropractor it is my job to teach my patients and community about living life in the "Wellness" model, and I was certainly not doing that.  I began a Journey that would see me lose 63 pounds, regain my passion for being an athlete, and start living what I was preaching.

Diet and exercise were both integrally important to my weight loss.  Using LoseIt I was able to get my caloric intake back to a reasonable level, as well as begin to make better choices for those calories that I was taking in.  I had also become very sedentary.  I had been a very active person in my younger days, playing soccer through college, swimming and soccer in high school, but "adulthood" brought about a much less physically active life.

When I decided to get back into shape, I quickly discovered that running was the most efficient way to burn the most calories in the shortest period of time, so I ran.  At first about a block was all I could do without walking, but soon enough my length of runs increased.  A friend of mine had discovered running a few years earlier, and encouraged me to run a 5K with her.  At that point I couldn't run a 10:00 pace, and did not want to be the last place finisher, back with the walkers, so I said no.  But the racing bug was in my head, and by April I was signed up for the Chicago Shamrock Shuffle 8K, and completed it in under an hour (and under a 10:00 pace, barely) and was happy.

Before I knew it I was signed up for a sprint triathlon, then my first half marathon, and suddenly a marathon.  I was able to qualify for the Boston Marathon in my first full marathon in May (3:23) and have since completed an Olympic Distance Triathlon, Ragnar Relay (200 mile relay race with 11 other crazy runners) and several other fun races.

I plan to use this blog to continue to document my journey to being a healthy inspiration to my patients, friends, but most of all to my kids!

Patrick