Track Season Starts

I have spent the last 15 weeks free of any regular after school obligations.  It has been great!  I often got my running workouts done and was home by 4:30 pm, which allowed time to adequately refuel, wind down, stretch, ice, and rehab.  Following that, I still had a few hours each night to spend quality time with my wife and kids.  I have even managed to run every day since November 18th, a streak now closing in on 100 days.  I knew the day was coming, though, when this would change. ...........

Last week was the first official day of track practice in the state of Iowa.  It also happened to be the day of the most snow/ice thus far the entire winter season.  I coach sprinters, which meant form drills, hallway running, injury prevention discussion, and the weight room on such a horrible weather day.  I also scouted out the roads and trails before practice and recommended the distance girls find something other than a road run to do.  It was not safe out.  It was kind of a fitting, depressing start to the track season.  The best training of my life and some great family time was being dumped on much like the snowstorm that interrupted the amazing winter weather we have had.

Currently, the girls’ track team has had roughly 90 different girls attend practice.  We hope to get a few more after the basketball season ends and we will likely lose a few as the work load and schedule conflicts claims a few casualties.  I anticipate we’ll settle in around 80 girls.  I have about 45 girls working with me as sprinters.  They had an incredible first week where we did more work than I have ever accomplished in my previous seven seasons of coaching.  I have set very high work expectations and they are responding very well.  I am quite lucky to have committed girls and great senior leaders to back me up.

Finding balance will be the major struggle for me in the coming weeks.  After this week, I still have eight weeks of training left before the Boston Marathon.  My mileage will peak in the upper 80s in the next couple weeks, then I’ll have Spring Break to recover, and soon I’ll be to my taper.  It’ll be a grind, but I’m excited for the challenge.

Here is my training for the past week.

The day after the Red Flannel Run, my hamstrings were quite tight, which I very much expected after putting down some fast miles.  Unfortunately, I did not get a break in hard workouts.  The next day was my long run that included a goal pace tempo of 12 miles thrown into it.  I did the majority of the run at Ada Hayden due to its gentle terrain.  Unfortunately, there is little cover, so the brisk wind that day got a little annoying.  Also, it was about 25 degrees outside, so I had to layer up as well.  I ran a 4.5-mile warm-up and realized my route would have to change due to a large brush fire being battled in the prairie adjacent to the NW corner of the lake.

After the warm-up, I ate a pouch of goo as I continue to experiment with what might work well on race day.  I’ve tried two different brands recently, both of strawberry flavor, and I liked them equally, so I’m gaining some confidence there.  My goal for the tempo was to hold onto my 5:55-6:05 pace range.  I actually ran under the goal from the start and I got faster as the run progressed.  For example, the 4-mile segments were 23:40, 23:32, and 23:10.  My last mile was 5:36.  I felt amazing and ended up averaging 5:52 pace, which is about 6 minutes under my actual marathon goal.  Afterward, I did a 2-mile cool down.  Total: 18.5 miles – 1:54:53 (6:13 pace).

Monday was the first day of high school track practice.  I was scheduled for a 9-mile aerobic run.  I coach the sprinters, but I decided to scout the area bike paths and neighborhoods for a good place for our distance runners to do a workout.  I ran along 24th Street, into Moore Park, down Stange, up Ontario, through a lot of the Iowa State campus, and along University Ave before returning up the stadium bike path.  The best stretch I found only lasted 1.5 miles of slip-free running.  Overall, conditions were very poor and getting worse with sleet causing black ice to form.  I ran just a bit faster than my goal for the day so I could get back in time for practice, but it was so slippery that I felt as though I ran near tempo effort.  Total: 9 miles – 1:01:17 (6:49 pace).

After a rough night of sleep with a baby girl teething, I faced a two-a-day workout.  So, I rolled my butt out of bed at 6AM, ate a quick bowl of cereal, and headed to the indoor track for a recovery run of 6 miles.  Aside from about 75 ROTC cadets doing a workout at the same time and my Frosted Flakes not sitting the greatest the run went well.  I had to practice much restraint to make it a true recovery run, which was hard.  I was pressed to get to work on time and I did not like cadet after cadet passing me while I slogged my laps.

The second workout of the day was an easy 4.5-miler.  I again scouted for the distance track athletes and checked out whether Ada Hayden’s path had thawed.  The second run was okay, just putting in the miles.  I definitely needed the easy day.  The footing was much better too.  Total: 10.5 miles – 1:20:08 (7:38 pace).

I faced my first track workout of my marathon buildup on Wednesday.  The goal was 6x800m at 2:34 per rep with an easy 400m jog in between.  I ran this workout after track practice instead of before because I wasn’t sure I could get done in time.  It made for a long night by not getting home until 6:30.  I started with a 2.5-mile warm-up, and then proceeded to turn out 800s at a good clip.  I set my watch incorrectly, so my recovery jogs were only 2 minutes each, but I managed.  In the end, my fastest was 2:28.4, my slowest was 2:32.4 and my average was 2:31.0.  They actually felt a little sloppy, probably due to the short recovery (another 30 seconds would have gone a long way).  I ended with a slow 2-mile cool down.  Total: 9 miles – 59:09 (6:34 pace).

I got a recovery day on Thursday, so I sought out the hardest hills in Ames and did loops on them.  Knowing that the pace didn’t matter made the run very enjoyable.  Total: 8 miles – 58:51 (7:21 pace).

Friday was an aerobic day with strides.  I ran a large loop out Lincoln Way and up Dayton.  We called it Kelsey’s loop during XC season.  I wanted to run about 6:50 pace today, but the strides at the end pushed my time under.  The first few strides were pretty tight, but I loosened up very nicely by the end for a very good run.  Total: 8 miles – 53:15 (6:39 pace).

On Saturday, I got to do another two-a-day.  In the morning, I ran a 12-mile semi-long run.  I ran the first four miles solo at 6:25 pace.  Then, I helped one of the distance runners through a tempo run.  We did a 2-mile warmup and 2-mile cool down at 7:41 pace.  In between we ran a hard 4-miler.  It was 6:15 pace.  Total: 12 miles – 1:21:49 (6:47 pace).  The afternoon run was a simple 4-mile recovery.  I just headed out to Moore Park for a single hilly loop and headed home.  It’s funny how a 45-second change of pace feels crazy slower.  The run was effortless.  Outside of what I am certain was a couple boys shooting a bb-gun at the trail and just missing my left calf, the run was un-eventful.  Total: 4 miles – 30:44 (7:41 pace).

For the week (Sun-Sat), I hit 79 miles in 9:00:06 or 6:51/mile.