5k time trial ... thick and juicy

When I woke up and walked outside in West Knoxville, it was 70 degrees, blue skies and ... high humidity. At that point I knew it was going to be a tough one. Then to make things more interesting, as I drove into Knoxville, the blue skies and sun disappeared and changed into a thick, foggy, sticky heat box. Everybody showed up for the run (except Jason the pacer) and did their warmups, drills, strides. My brother and I ran 3 miles to warmup and were completely soaked after the first mile or so. It was the kind of stickiness that made you feel nasty (my clothes and shoes are in the wash as I type).

Annual Tom Black Track Time Trials

Presented by Runner Market & West Knox News
University of Tennessee – Knoxville, TN
August 1, 2009 Weather: Foggy & Humid

OVERALL RESULTS 5000M
Place Name (1600 Split) Finish
1. Michael Mentz (4:54) 15:29
2. Alan Horton (4:41) 16:03
3. Daniel Julian (5:10) 16:04
4. Eric Malkowski (5:12) 16:22
5. Bobby Holcombe (5:11) 16:29
6. Bob Adams (5:11) 16:32
7. Elijah Shekinah (5:10) 16:36
8. Brad Adams (5:27) 17:02

OVERALL RESULTS 1 MILE
Place Name (800 Split) Finish
1. Alan Horton (2:17) 4:41
2. Drew Streip (2:30) 5:05
3. Greg Johnson (2:43) 5:27

OVERALL RESULTS 800M
Place Name (400 Split) Finish
1. Ryan Smith (1:02) 2:11
- Nick Symmonds DNS

Even though the times weren't as good as most of us wanted to run, I still look at it as a positive, good tempo run in sub-par conditions, while most of us are putting in a lot of weekly miles in preparation for H2C. Most of us got in 11 total miles this morning and we are all running 15+ miles tomorrow on trails, so the weekend is a plus. After today's workout, I ended the week with 72 miles and plan to run 80+ miles next week. Can't wait to head out west (Oregon) and run in nice, cool, low humidity weather and dominate.

A summer working the 5K for a marathon+ runner ...

I know what you're thinking, and yes, a 5k does not really do it for me. But I committed to run on a Hood To Coast relay team with an impressive resume, and I need to work on my speed. I justify running the 3.1-mile distance by sandwiching the race in between a 3-mile warmup and 3-mile cool down. It is also a great source of a second speed workout/tempo run for the week. I've already completed three this summer, which is more than I usually do in one year. Tomorrow I'm taking it to another level and participating in a 5k time trial on the track with 8 other local Knoxville runners. There are about 5 of us that are around the same speed and looking to break 16 minutes. My PR is 16:08, something I've never really tried to improve upon because I could care less about this distance. When my non running friends ask me if I have a race over the weekend and I tell them a 5k, they usually shake their heads and tell me I can go out and drink the night before and then stumble through it in my sleep. And I almost agree with them, though, in the 5k's defense, I would much rather run a marathon at a 5:53 pace, than torture my body trying to run as fast as I can at a 5:15 pace. Wish me luck tomorrow morning. I will be back to let you know if I succeeded in breaking 16 minutes.

5000M
Bob Adams
Brad Adams
Jason Altman (possible pacer)
Bobby Holcombe
Daniel Julian
Eric Malkowski
Michael Mentz
Elijah Shekinah

1600M
Alan Horton
Greg Johnson
Drew Streip

800M
Ryan Smith
Nick Symmonds (rabbit - going out in .49 low)

Iron Horse 100K recap

I decided to do this race in December when I had the brilliant idea to deem 2009 "The Year of the Ultra." I didn't know what I was getting myself into at the time, especially since I've only been running 60-80 miles a week the past few months, and I was about to run twice as far and more than twice as long as I've ever gone before in my life.

I felt good race morning, and had my food intake plan in mind and water bottle in hand at the start line. When the gun went off, it was 7 a.m. and about 30 degrees. I was wearing a few layers of clothing, but those quickly came off (after 10 miles or so) as the sun came up. BTW ... the temperature when I finished was 60-65 degrees. I started off easy (7:15 pace, but that quickly picked up to around 6:40 pace as I got warmed up (I accidently ran a 6:18 mile at mile 17 ... it just felt right at the time). I was able to keep up a good pace up until about 38 miles (already in no-mans land, mileage-wise). I went through the first marathon in 3:00:50, and I was still under a 7:00 mile pace total at mile 38, but my pace started dropping some after that as my body was wondering what the heck I was doing to it. I could have given up knowing I still had 24 miles to go, but I kept going at my 8-to-9:00 per mile pace the rest of the way (only walking when I hit a water station to refuel. Food-wise, I ate (2 power bars, 2 small bags of pasta, 2 Boston creme rolls, and about 15 cliff shot/GUs), but after 40 miles, the only thing my body could handle were the GUs/Cliff shots (and they helped to drop the pace in the latter miles). I also drank some Pedialite and took a salt tablet every 15 miles or so. The course was flat but very rough and uneven all along the unimproved rail trail. That added to my leg fatigue, as I was constantly having to pick my spots to reduce the leg pounding. Mentally, I was stable the entire race, and remember it all, though I did get kind of delirious in the latter miles, especially after the race for about 20 minutes, in which I didn't want to talk or eat anything. I quickly recovered after that, and felt great physically and mentally the rest of the day, night and ever since. I had the best crew, as my dad and mom were at every water stop making sure I had food and liquid to take with me along the way. That really helped in the latter miles when I didn't have much of a clue what was going on other than thinking, "I've only got X miles to go, then you can relax." It definitely was a good experience overall, and now it's got me thinking about running in the 100k U.S. Championships in Madison, Wisconson (May 2010) to try and make the 100K national team. I would have to run under 7:20 (the team standard), and the course is a flat, road course and much faster than the course I just ran on. I will also actually train for that race correctly and have the experience under my belt from already running several ultras.

Coming up ... Boston Marathon in April, Smokey Mountain section of the App Trail (72 miles) in May, and the JFK 50-miler in November.