All American 5K

Yesterday, Lt Dan Berschinski returned to Peachtree City after spending almost a year recovering from losing both of his legs serving our country in Afghanistan. As part of his welcome home, the Peachtree City Running Club put on a 5K race to help raise funds to defray some of the expenses he and his family have incurred as a result of his injuries. I haven't run a 5K in over a year, but I had to run this one.

The morning was warm and humid, both the temperature and dewpoint were about 70 degrees. Since I suspected that there would be a big turnout and parking would be a mess, I parked about a mile away and ran to the start as a warm-up. There was a big turnout, normally for these 5Ks there are several dozen runners. I'd estimate the crowd this morning to be several hundred, probably even close to 500 runners and walkers, all out to support Lt Dan. (of course, while running, I couldn't help but think of the movie Forrest Gump and the Lt Dan in that movie who also lost both legs.) Lt Dan was there to start the race and also at the finish to present the awards.

It was a little crowded at the start and it took awhile to settle into my pace, but I was able to run a good race, just a little bit outside of my comfort zone. Since the course is on the same route I run frequently, I was able to run most of the tangents and my Garmin read 3.12 miles at the finish line. My splits were:

Mile 1 - 10:12
Mile 2 - 9:37
Mile 3.1 - 10:39
Total time - 30:27, a 38 second PR!

The timing and results were no-frills. You noted your time crossing the finish line, then wrote your name, age, and time on a piece of paper and put in in the appropriate sex/age basket. There were already at least a dozen slips of paper in the 50-59 basket, but only one in the 60-69 basket. Looks like I have to either get faster or older to get any age group awards.

I think that I have a sub 30 minute 5K in me. I need to have better weather conditions, also, running 9 miles the day before probably didn't help my time ;)

Here is what I did the rest of the week:

Tuesday - 4.78 miles in 50 minutes, 11:31 pace

Wednesday - 9.42 miles in 1:50, 11:41 pace

Thursday - 4.6 miles in 50 minutes, 11:58 pace

Friday - 9.19 miles in 1:50, 11:59 pace

Saturday - 5K

Today - Planning to run about 15 miles in 3 hours

2 AM At The Gym

Quick post because it is 3:15 AM. Ran 4.78 miles in 55 minutes for a 11:31 pace. Felt better than I thought I would. There were 6 folks at the gym at 2 AM and only 3 of us at 3 AM.

This Week's Training

Less than two weeks until the FANS 24 Hour Run, my first attempt at staying awake and moving for 24 hours. Why did I think this was a good idea? My bedtime is usually 10 PM!

Here's how my training went this week:

Tuesday - Rest day.

Wednesday - 10.94 miles in 2:10:00 for an average pace of 11:54.

Thursday - 5.59 miles in 1:05:00 for an average pace of 11:39.

Friday - 5.41 miles in 1:05:00 for an average pace of 12:02

Saturday - Tempo run on the hotel treadmill, I did 1 mile at 5.1 mph as a warmup, then did a mile at 5.5 mph, and increased the speed each mile by .1 mph. I made it all the way to a mile at 6.1 mph before having to back down. Total mileage 12.13 miles in 2:10:00 for an average pace of 10:44.

Sunday - 5.6 miles in 1:05:00 for an average pace of 11:37.

Today - 23.7 miles in 5 hours for an average pace of 12:40. It was a heat acclimation run for me, temperature was about 80 degrees with a dewpoint near 70.

My plan is to try to stay up late tonight, then run for an hour at around 2 AM. I want to see if I can function on tired legs combined with sleep deprivation. If successful, I'll be back around 3 AM and let you guys know how it went.

Darkside 8 Hour Run

On Saturday I lined up with about 40 other people of questionable intelligence and started running for eight hours. It was the Darkside 8 Hour Run. This run is held at a school 400 meter track. The entry fee is only $10 and food to share with the other runners. Everyone was in excellent spirits despite the hot and humid conditions (temperature got into the upper 80s and the track is black, so I'm sure the temperature on the surface was over 90). I got to talk a bit with two runners who will also be running the FANS 24 hour run in Minnesota in three weeks. I also convinced super fast Susan (she's run a couple of sub 20 hour 100s, and is running Western States for the second time this summer) to slow down and run a few laps with me. She ran Burning River last year so I was able to get some course information and tips from her.

I planned this as a training run and was successful in staying on my feet for the full eight hours with few ill effects. I had no blisters or chafing, and my legs felt fine the whole time. I did slow down as the temperature went up, but still managed to cover 34.25 miles for an average pace of 14 minutes per mile. There was one thing that came up that has never happened before, though. After about 5 hours of running, I noticed a couple of drops of blood in my urine. I kept going of course, and noticed the same thing at about 7 hours. However, my urine was clear by the time I got home. Of course I googled this, and found there were several possible causes, most of them with an underlying cause of dehydration. I thought I had been hydrating adequately, but it looks like I will have to step it up on really hot days.

As for the rest of my training this week, this is what I did:

Monday - 5.3 miles in one hour - 11:20 pace

Tuesday - 10.43 miles in two hours - 11:31 pace

Wednesday - 5.16 miles in one hour - 11:38 pace

Thursday - 5 miles in 55:05 - 11:01 pace - this was an interval workout, 400, 800, 1600, 800, 400, all at 9:40 pace

Friday - 5.03 miles in one hour - 11:56 pace

Saturday - 34.25 miles in eight hours

Sunday - 5.42 miles in 1:05 - 12:00 pace

Total for the week 70.6 miles! This is my second highest weekly total, highest was the week of the Umstead 50 mile race.

I'm Back

Recovering from a five day break is worse than recovering from a marathon. After my birthday trail run, I flew to Vegas to continue my celebration. That, a crazy work schedule, and the soreness from my run up, down, and around Kennesaw Mountain all contributed to five days without running. I found that my legs didn't mind the break so much, but I lost a bit of cardio fitness during that time. Well, running in 85 degrees with 80 percent humidity didn't help much, either. In spite of having to recover from the break, I managed to run over 50 miles last week. Here's what I did:

Tuesday - 4.84 miles in 55 minutes - 11:22 pace

Wednesday - 9.11 miles in 1:50 - 12:05 pace (hot and humid)

Thursday - 4.49 miles in 55 minutes - 12:16 pace

Friday - 8.9 miles in 1:50 - 12:22 pace

Saturday - 4.69 miles in 55 minutes - 11:44 pace

Sunday - 19.02 miles in 3:53:45 - 12:18 pace

Next Saturday I am running around a 1/4 mile track for 8 hours with about 40 other crazy people. This will be a training run for my 24 hour run in Minnesota in less than a month. (and that run will be a training run for my first 100 mile attempt at the end of July) Forecast is for close to 90 degrees with a chance of thunderstorms. Could be interesting.

On an editorial note, did anyone watch House last night? I was excited when in the first couple of minutes Dr House announced that the patient was an extreme distance runner. I thought to myself, cool, I'll have some exotic ultra running disease to obsess about on my next long run. When they inevitably went to the patient's house, I was hoping to see some 100 mile belt buckles, or at the very least a couple of marathon medals. So what was on display? There were several.....wait for it.....10K finishers certificates! Apparently in Hollywood, 6.2 miles is an extreme distance. I just had to laugh. Oh, I did learn one interesting thing I might just have to try out. If you train for and run 10k's, your metabolism is revved up so high that you can eat two dozen donuts a day!