After nearly a year into a pandemic and six and a half months of writer’s block it may be time to put some things down again. I have been working from home for nine of those months, and have not had a lot of in-person social interaction outside of family, other than doing the essentials like going to the store. Hopefully, with new treatments and a vaccine in sight we’ll be winding down by next summer and this will be behind us.
At the time of my last posts in April we were all new to this and still trying to figure things out. However, back then there was hope that things would be better by mid-or late summer, although even then many knew the reality was that things would not approach normality until we get a vaccine.
So here we are. Probably in a worse state than in April, even here in Colorado which up until a few weeks ago had done fairly well.
Training
Back in April I was still in build-up and preseason training for time trials and virtual races. I ended up with two seasons of sorts. May to July 4 was the first, then took an easy few weeks, and have been running steady from mid-July through now.
My philosophy through all this has been not to take risks and to train at about 85-90% capacity both in volume and workout intensity. That aspect has worked and I have been very consistent. In the May-June block I ran 50-55 miles and got in a couple workouts a week. That started out well, but after a couple of race efforts in time trials I plateaued quickly, and by the end of June realized that I did not have enough base to continue racing.
So after a brief taper and recovery over the first week or so of July, I upped the miles to low 60s and cut back on workouts for about a month before resuming a routine of typically two workouts a week, while maintaining the mileage. Since the second week of July miles have ranged from 51-65 per week, with most weeks above 60. And I have consistently done CV and tempo workouts. It’s all been solid, but I haven’t pushing.
Racing
Although I am reasonably satisfied with the training, and think it’s about what I should be doing, racing has been less than satisfactory. I set out to run an age grade of 85% or more from the mile to half marathon. In the spring block I kicked off with a 15K solo time trial, and was reasonably happy with that; not quite reaching my goal of under an hour, but on a blustery day ran 1:00:40 at 5500′, with Tamara’s support and cheering.
Next up was a 10K on Memorial Day, part of a masters virtual series that we set up, and also as a virtual Bolder Boulder. I got really fired up for that event, even though practically no one else was in sight and ran 39:47 on a flat course at 5100′ north of Denver. So I reached my goal of a sub 40 at age 62, but a far cry from the low 38s on the tougher course in Boulder.
In June and into July I set my sights on the virtual mile with the Brooklyn Mile, and a virtual 5K over 4th of July as the second event in our three race series. Those were a wash. I picked a so-so course for the road mile and a lousy day with an 8 mph headwind for a third of the way and cross wind for the remainder, and could only muster a 5:33. Two days later I tried on the track but tanked at 800 meters and just ran in the last two laps, posting a 5:47.
The 5K a couple weeks later did not fare any better. I felt flat and ran 19:17, so far off the 17:28 at sea level last year, or 18:05 at altitude in the fall. So rather than fight it, went back to basics with the training.
Phase II went better. I ended up doing two in-person trail half marathons in Grand County (elevation 8500′-9100′ each) in August and September, another 10K for the virtual series (38:50, taking nearly a minute off the time from May), and two in-person 5Ks in Denver, with 18:56 and 18:47. The capstone was to be a 10 mile race in October which cropped up a few weeks earlier, and it was slated for a fast course in Loveland. However, we were struck with a blizzard that day and I decided not to make a risky drive to run in poor conditions there, and ran an impromptu half marathon time trial (after already putting in 5 miles that morning) in 1:28:30.
I have one more race on the schedule, another in-person 5K in Denver later this month, and hope knock off another 10 or 15 seconds off of the previous efforts.
Race Result Summary
So how’d I do with the age grade goal (all times at 5100′-5500′)?
1 mile – 5:33 (85.38%) – 4:26
2 mile – 12:15 (82.86) – 9:46
5K – 18:47 (85.98%) – 14:57
10K – 38:50 (85.11) – 31:01
15K – 1:00:40 (83.79) – 48:27
Half marathon – 1:28:30 (82.08) – 1:10:41
rrunnin234 