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Entering Race Season and February Recap

Last 6 Runs

7 miles, 6:45 pace | 7 miles, 6:45 pace | 3 miles, 6:30 pace | 5 miles, 6:45 pace | 6.5 miles, 7:00 pace | 5 miles, 7:15 pace

A text I sent to my dad on this week:

Officially into the worst running time of the year. Every time it warms up and then cools back off I am extremely depressed and motivation goes down the tubes

I stand by every word. Case in point: for the second run listed above it was 50 degrees and sunny on the weekend, and I got outside and enjoyed an awesome long run, my second in a row. The next day brought winds gusting above 40 mph, to the point where when I was running perpendicular to the win it was blowing my legs out from under me when they were in the air. Genuinely alarming stuff, so I audibled into a mile repeat workout. Being outside for 45 minutes in that would have been pointless. The next day, from consecutive 50 degree performances by mother nature, we were back down to 32.

It’s such a difficult mental tease. Having a great run and then two days later coming home from work and the temperature has dropped 20 degrees and it’s grey outside…I never deal with it well. Add it to the list of personal and self-inflicted obstacles I face for training effectively.

February has come and gone, and in the shortest month of the year, I turned in a pretty decent performance. 83 miles, which included the disastrous week off from a bachelor party/extended bachelor party recovery. I got my first workout of the year in, and have generally felt my comfort level with sub 7 minute miles come back to me. A jog is a 7:10 at this point. That’s a good sign.

More importantly, the race season is upon me? As you may have noticed in the sidebar, my first 5k of 2019 is happening tomorrow. I don’t have high expectations, but I am excited to set a bar that speed work will hopefully lower quickly as the weather gets warmer and the sun stays up longer. Goal for this race is probably somewhere around 18:30. By the end of this month, I’d like to lower that to 17:30.

Do you have any races or goals coming up soon to kick off the competitive running season?

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Speed Up and Slow Down

Last 5 Runs:

5.5 miles (Workout) | 4 miles, 8:00 pace | 6 miles, 7:00 pace | 5 miles, 6:45 pace | 5 miles, 7:00 pace

That would be a really good week of running rain/snow February for me, but it took me almost two weeks to get those five runs in. What gives? Well, this stuff may have had something to do with it…

A little bit too much sugar, a little bit too much liquor

I attended a bachelor party in New Orleans two weekends ago and while it was a great time, I didn’t exactly come out clean on the other side. I’m not much of a liquor drinker (beer and wine are much more my speed), but it never occurred to me to do anything but enjoy the local fare, which meant filling up on copious amounts of sugary rum drinks. On the final night I ate somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 pounds of shrimp (honestly, it didn’t seem gross at the time, but it is in retrospect), and I don’t think that helped much either. Anyway, the cumulative effect of a four day weekend got the best of me. I got home on Sunday with no ability or desire to do anything, and then spent Monday and Tuesday feeling far from 100%. Six days off it is.

Am I making excuses here? Yes. But it’s also worth mentioning because this won’t be the last time my penchant for a late night and a good time gets in the way of training. I don’t regret having fun in New Orleans and will continue to party when I get to see my friends. But to accomplish my goals, running needs to find it’s way into my routine during those weekends when I’m going to be burning the candle at both ends. One early morning wake up into a 5 mile run in New Orleans and I would be writing about a light week, not one where I almost feel like I’m resetting. All it takes is a little discipline one night and one morning. I’m going to Mexico for a wedding this spring and Colorado for some hiking this summer. Some opportunities to improve.

Enough philosophizing, let’s talk running. The funniest part about the New Orleans-imposed hiatus is it followed my first workout of the year. That’s right! I went for 1,000 repeats, with a slow 1,000 for recovery. The results:

  • Split 1: 4:00
  • Split 2: 3:28
  • Split 3: 4:03
  • Split 4: 3:17
  • Split 5: 4:02
  • Split 6: 3:25
  • Split 7: 4:12
  • Split 8: 3:31

That’s not too shabby! A 4:20 kilometer is right on a 7:00 mile, so staying comfortably below that pace for the entire workout is good. Feeling comfortable enough after running hard to stay at a solid pace (Split 7 did fall off a bit from the others but is still ~6:45) was actually quite encouraging.

The fast splits are pretty nice as well. Aside from the last one, I was pleased with my pace. To put it in perspective though, to hit my goal in the 5k, I need to string together five 3:18 splits consecutively, so there’s quite a bit of improvement required. Luckily, it’s mid-February.

There’s also the mental benefit that comes from doing a speed workout. It breaks up the monotony of distance running and gives you a baseline to build from during a training session. It’s pretty exciting to see what you’re capable of, especially because it’s often more than you realize. I’m certainly a little faster than I thought, and can try to bring more focus into my distance runs to make them faster going forward. And next time I go fast, it’ll be with improvement on my mind.

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Vortex Schmortex

Last 6 Runs

5 miles, 7:15 pace | 4 miles, 7:30 pace | 4 miles, 7:30 pace | 5.5 miles, 7:00 pace | 7 miles, 7:00 pace | 6 miles, 6:50 pace

We have officially run the gamut of ridiculous Ohio weather multiple times over in January and into February. Schools were closed in Columbus due to wind chills dropping below -20 in the middle of last week and so I was relegated to my old enemy the treadmill for a couple days. Can you guess which runs those were?

But then the polar vortex passed and three days later it was nearly 60 degrees and sunny. The temperature has moved from to 0 to 50 to 0 to 50 in the span of two weeks. Ohio is weird, and climate change is coming for us all. In other news, I’m officially an old man whose life revolves around the weather forecast. Honestly, I spend inordinate amounts of time on my weather app preparing for the hours when I might be spending time outside within the next week.

On the positive side of that global warming thing, you do get some pretty spectacular days to enjoy during what would normally be miserable winter. On Super Bowl Sunday I waited until about 2 p.m. when it was about 58 degrees and went for my longest run of 2019. With people preparing for the game, the bike path was emptier than it would normally be on such a perfect day for exercise, and I had an awesome run. Cruising along at 7 minute miles felt easy, and getting a little Vitamin D back in the system wasn’t too shabby either.

These types of runs are necessary for me. After a couple days straight on a treadmill, and a few runs where it was cold and grey and hard to convince myself to get outside, it’s so refreshing to reset with a run where you want to get out and get after it. It’s so encouraging to be running fast, and long, and feeling totally fine doing it. Running is not always like that.

The only way I could follow that up was with a ridiculous rain run the following day. It was still in the low 50s, but temps were going to drop significantly overnight, and I just couldn’t pass that up. So I through on the Patagonia water gear and my Boston Marathon hat (to let anyone else on the bike path know that I was better than them, of course) and headed on to the path again.

It was another great run, and I moved quickly because the rain and wind just have a way of keeping you especially active, but it also had a memorable detour. I was running on the sidewalk between sections of bike path when I car came by and hammered a puddle next to me. I have no idea if it was intentional, but it felt like the low moment in a movie when everything is going wrong for a guy and then a car comes and covers him in water, and I was pissed. I shouted and took off at a near-sprint, trying to catch the car and, I don’t know, knock on their window and shout more obscenities?

Alas, the driver was able to execute a right turn at the red light I was trying to catch up to him at and escape. I’d like to think that person was a little bit shook the rest of the way home, though. I’m an intimidating dude.

I ran 95 miles in January, a pretty solid number. I would have broken 100 if not for that cold/flu I got in the middle of the month. Still, I’m feeling really good about my running, and with only a month and a half of dodging cold weather to go, it’s exciting to feel like I’m in good shape with lots of time to improve. The base is pretty close to being there, and the speed comes next!

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The Cold and A Cold

Last 4 Runs

6 miles, 7:00 pace | 3.5 miles, 7:30 pace | 5 miles, 7:00 pace | 6.5 miles, 7:15 pace

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat. From my last post:

Mostly 5-7 mile runs where I’m executing a 6:30-7:15 pace…

I know. I have one excuse, and it’s not a great one, but here goes: treadmill.

It dropped to negative temperatures in Columbus Sunday and MOnday, and that’s just too damn cold for me to get outside. So I lowered myself to running indoors on a treadmill, which is probably my least favorite thing on earth to do.

For one thing, it’s impossibly boring. You just stare ahead the only scenery changing being the people walking past you in the gym or outside the windows, and try to keep trudging along in place. But the bigger issue is the discouraging feeling of treadmill running being so difficult. The technology to measure how fast you’re running on a treadmill is not something extraordinary; it doesn’t require math skills beyond division. Which I bring up to say that I guess the miles per hour numbers a treadmill is spitting out is a number we should trust. It’s discouraging then, that running at 7.5 miles per hour (or an 8-minute mile pace) is tiring for me when I’m doing it on a treadmill. That is a slow jog when I’m outside. So what’s going on here? Am I taxing myself that much mentally when I have to run inside?

Either way, I had to hop on a treadmill for the first time in 10-11 months and after I felt like I had been running for three and a half hours I looked down to learn that it had only been 2 minutes and 45 seconds. I stayed the course for long enough to make it feel like I’d done an actual workout, then happily hopped off the infernal machine to do some core work. It’s going to be cold enough again to force me indoors on runs, and I’ll work on sticking it out for longer.

Also from my last post:

I’ve run 9 of the last 12 days, and 5 of the last 6…

Yeaaaaahhhhh. Followed that up with only 4 runs in 8 days. Not great! I got sick and had to take it a little easier this past week. But to be honest, it hasn’t been all bad. I ran in a 40 degree rainstorm (to call it pouring would be hyperbole, but you’d have wanted an umbrella to walk outside). I’ve always thought running in the rain can be pretty fun once you get going; I have some of my best distance runs as I’m more focused on keeping my vision clear and avoiding puddles than my pace. You get weird looks from people and get to do your thing.

Anyway, about 1.5 miles into that run I stepped onto the grass to avoid a large puddle and hit a slick of mud that sent my feet flying out from under me. Imagine that, after it had been raining all day! I’m honestly not sure how, but my right foot got back onto the ground and I was able to right myself before hitting the ground from what I can only assume was a Djokovic-esque contortion. I’ve still got it.

My longest run of 2019 (low bar) was a good way to start a new week off right. More rainy 40s and near-zero temperatures are in the weather prediction for this week, so it should be another terrific time.

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Grey Ohio Winter Misery

Last Five Runs

6 miles | 5 miles | 5 miles | 5.5 miles | 5 miles  all at similar pace (~6:45-7)

A quick note about these Last Several Runs that will accompany the top of each post: The distances will be rounded to the nearest half mile to keep things simple. For example, that 6 mile run was a 10k. On certain key training runs, I may keep the exact distance.

And so we’re a couple weeks into 2019. Winter is an interesting time of year for me in terms of running, because it sucks, but it’s usually pretty important for hitting my goals in a given year. The desire to get outside, run hard and be productive vs. the dread of having cold hands or being outside in general is a battle I go through mentally almost every year. Last year it was the need to start pouring in miles for an early spring marathon; this year, it’s about finding a way to stay relatively fast and in great shape for when daylight savings time is done and real running can begin.

Because let’s make no mistake about it–running in the winter is awful. The weather in Ohio ranges from unpleasant to frigid (although in fairness we did have a warm December this year), and that is only made worse by the nearly-permanent dim grey color the sky settles into through February. Seriously, when the sun is actually shining you get some of your best runs during the midwest winter, because it feels like you have something worth living for.

And none of that includes the most underrated awful part of winter running: you have to do laundry at least twice as often. To deal with the cold, you have to slap on multiple layers of long-sleeved clothing and pants, which then get sweaty and fill up a washing machine much faster than normal clothes. Add to this reality the fact that normal people don’t own as many pairs of running pants or tights and pullovers as they do shorts and shirts, and you have to do laundry more often than normal just to maintain clean clothing. Yes, running in the winter time is the worst.

Anyway, let’s get to the running. It’s likely that there won’t be much variance on the Last Several Runs at the top of these posts until the weather warms up slightly and the sun stays out for longer. Mostly 5-7 mile runs where I’m executing a 6:30 – 7:15 pace over the course of them. I try to add surges here and there for a couple minutes to keep speed on my mind, but it’s nothing really focused yet.

I’ve run 9 of the last 12 days, and 5 of the last 6, which means it was time for nice evening off. The increased workload had my legs tired yesterday while running. That’s a good sign, because it means I’m running enough to gain some fitness. But it also means I’ve got some work to do. 5 out of 6 days running should become the norm, with speed work and higher mileage mixed in by the time spring gets here.

Solid start, but a long way to go, especially with some colder, snowier weather coming to make running outside more challenging. Keep pushing!

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Finishing 2018 and looking ahead

2018 Recap

When I came up with the idea for this blog, it was September and I was keeping myself in semi-shape with a couple jog-runs per week. My break from running hard had extended longer than I’d anticipated, but the summer of chilling and occasionally getting the blood flowing again was a nice mental break.

Then I signed up for a half marathon that was in three weeks, and realized it was time to get back in gear. I also signed up for a 10k a week after the half, and the 10k I always run on Thanksgiving day with some family. So uh, yeah, time to start running again.

Well, over the next three weeks I never made it more than eight miles and headed to Auglaize County, Ohio a little disappointed in my effort and anticipating more or less jogging it out over the course of the half marathon. But we had a day with perfect weather and I felt amazing, pushing the final five miles to finish in 1:28:14. Nowhere near where I’ve run in the past, but at least 7 minutes faster than I thought I was capable of on that day. Pretty exciting!

The good vibes from that weren’t enough to carry me through the 10k a week later. There, while the weather was hotter, I wasn’t really able to run a pace any faster than I had a week earlier and finished in a disappointing-but-should-have-seen-it-coming 39:40. Okay Nate, you’re not quite ready to set the world on fire.

From there, I had about 6 weeks to get in shape, and started committing to speedwork. I got on the track once a week with a couple friends once a week and worked through some intervals to try and get some speed. It felt productive and I felt myself getting some degree of faster, but the results weren’t really there–a 39:05 was my final finish of the year. To be fair, this course in Mason is hilly and very difficult, especially the second half. But I was expecting to be faster than that by a good margin.

Lessons Learned and Looking Forward to 2019

So a mixed bag to close out the year. I wasn’t expecting to set the world on fire, but I’ve also got some major work to do mentally and physically to achieve my goals for this year. Obviously, in order to be faster than I’ve ever been, I will need to be running more than I was, and I plan on it. That shouldn’t be a problem. But one concern I have as I kick off a new year is whether I will have the mental capacity to push myself that way I need to. Running fast requires feeling pain and discomfort, and embracing it and running through it. I wasn’t able to execute that in the Thanksgiving 10k, when it probably would have netted me another 45 seconds.

I did have that will to a degree in the half marathon though! After a conservative start, I felt so good through 8 miles that I decided to go for it, and ran a comfortable negative split (boom, blog reference). There were a few factors involved in that success; 1) the weather could not have been better, and 2) the general slowness of my pace at that point made it a simpler acceleration. But the seeds are there! With harder work going into the races in 2019, building on that mental state is my biggest focus.

Let’s make it happen.

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Why I’m here

Welcome!

Running is probably my favorite hobby, and writing is something I went to school for and did professionally for a few years. Both have always brought me the joy and present me with occasionally frustrating challenges that I get satisfaction out of overcoming. I love setting aggressive goals in running and pushing for them, but I’ve let my writing deteriorate after changing careers. Negative Splits is my idea for changing that.

A new running goal popped into my head after taking some time off and recovering from my last major race – setting a personal best time in the four major distances (5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon) in the next couple years. It’s an enticing thought to be running my fastest as a total amateur doing it on my own, in some cases several years removed from my running peak. In thinking about it I also realized achieving it would probably require more accountability and commitment than I typically ask of myself. And so the idea of keeping a journal about training, airing some of my ideas and aggravations outside of my own head (even if I’m the only person who ever reads this) is going to serve as my means of self-motivation. Hopefully the benefit will be two-fold: some racing performances I can hang my hat on and some re-sharpening of my writing skills.

So, about those PBs:

5,000:      16:55
10,000:    38:17
Half marathon:     1:20:36
Marathon:     2:57:36

Some of these should be easier to break than others. I’ve not run very many 10ks, and the majority of them are from a time when I wasn’t in great shape (for me) in college or was more focused on training for something else. I expect to better that time, so I’d like to improve by more than just a personal best in that case. On the other hand, even though 16:55 for a 5k is not exactly an elite time, I’ve not worked on running the kind of per-mile pace required to beat that in at least 10 years, focusing more on half and full marathons since high school.

Why the vague “next couple of years” timeline for completing this? Well, as I came up with this idea we were headed into fall and I wasn’t in particularly great shape. I was able to get a couple good races in before winter, but 2019 is going to have to be the year for real improvement. And then there’s the small matter of the full marathon. I don’t know if I’ll even run one in 2019, because they’re kind of the worst. That’s at least based on the training plan I have swirling in my head right now (more on that in the future). I do plan to push for this, but realistically I don’t think it will happen before 2020.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be doing my best to keep it light and enjoyable, hopefully producing some pieces of writing that I’m proud of on top of the races. I may even eventually add some non-running posts on my other interests–movies, books, sports–when I see or hear or read something worth getting fired up about. I love having discussions, so I’d be happy to hear your thoughts.

-Nate