4 Miler Race Report: How'd I Screw Things Up?

Quoted message said:

4 miles/central park, 78F w/58% humidity. I ran a 25:11, 6:17
min/mile, 5 and 6 seconds slower per mile than I did the same course on
in May & June.

This is my first backwards step in the last 6-7 races over the past 3+
months when I switched to 2-a-day training. What happend? Donovan can
probably tell me exactly better than anyone since he knows me and my
style and the course.

It's hot. You can't expect to run the same times in hot weather as you would
in cool conditions. In the 5 miler, you got reasonable conditions. Usually in
summer, you don't expect to run PRs. Your time isn't that bad -- comparable
to 24:00-24:30 under good conditions. I wouldn't view it as a step backwards,
or even a "decline" in performance. Just be persistent and patient.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

It's hot.

Righto, you beat me to the punch, Donovan. Heat really sucks it out of you
(calm down, William), and it's worse if you have a "normal" as opposed to
"skinny runner" bmi. And I recall you're my height (5'9 ish) and 17x lbs,
which makes you a light-heavyweight.

Also, your warm up is a bit sparse -- it takes quite a while to warm up the
fat-burning pathways. If they're not in the game early on, you'll run
through your glycogen faster. I usually jog up until the last minute. When
I was in my heyday starting in the front row, I'd cut it even closer.

I've always warmed up about 20 minutes or so, easy jogging, just to get
everything up to operating spec, with a few 50 yd pickups. Most elites I
know warm up 15-20 minutes, and a 2:09 Kenyan I once ran with warms up about
30 minutes before a race.

You might ask around to see what the high achievers you know do before a
race -- I betcha it's along the lines of the above.

-- Dan

Lance,
Look in the mirror, see that backwards "L"> It stands for "loser".

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

snip<
When I finished the race this morning....oh my god...my muscles binded
and wound themeselves and tightend up in a way I had not felt in
years...since I was a kid and after the first day of Football practice.

OK, How did I screw up things?

Should I not have raced hard Wed. night?
And the 2 days Off before the race?
Overtrained?

Help! This was not supposed to happen to me today....I guess the
Running Gods Felt Otherwise....

78f / 58% is pretty sticky even for a short race, as said elsewhere.

No rest days in many weeks, every training run 5 miles long (this is a
pattern for burnout IMO (either physical or mental), then suddenly two days
off completely - that will mess up your energy pathways.

If you're going to race two days in close proximity, you should taper into
it and run or do something in between since the legs seem to recover better
after a race doing something easy rather than stopping cold.

I'd guess getting bound up after the race came from the 2 days off +
inadequate warm-up. Especially since your legs are used to running 2x/day,
warming up 30 mins very easy then 10 mins faster probably would have helped.

Just side comments from a cross-trainer guy, and a few more now: What's
wrong with variety and the occasional rest day? You admit to being a running
junkie, but even junkies need variety - throw in some 10 milers instead of
2x5 or even 5 then 15 the next day - same mileage but a training effect that
will suit a wider variety of races. But you've heard all this. Minimal
cross-training won't slow you down too much either.

-Tony

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

4 miles/central park, 78F w/58% humidity. I ran a 25:11, 6:17
min/mile, 5 and 6 seconds slower per mile than I did the same course on
in May & June.

This is my first backwards step in the last 6-7 races over the past 3+
months when I switched to 2-a-day training. What happend? Donovan can
probably tell me exactly better than anyone since he knows me and my
style and the course.

Quoted message said:

I stretched this morning and felt
great. My warm up? 1/4 mile at 50%, 1/4 mile at 90%.

Not enough. The greater my training volume, the more I had to do in
order to warm up properly. When I would race 8ks and 10ks I frequently
logged 30" easy warmup. Trust your body to handle it.

Quoted message said:

When I finished the race this morning....oh my god...my muscles binded
and wound themeselves and tightend up in a way I had not felt in
years...since I was a kid and after the first day of Football practice.

OK, How did I screw up things?

Should I not have raced hard Wed. night?
And the 2 days Off before the race?

I think this makes for a tough combination. Racing hard, then taking
off completely (or almost completely) is a major change for your body. It
might have been better to run all of those days, but make one an easy speed
session and the other a short recovery run - run until you warm up and feel
loose, and nothing more. I think the tight muscles are a reflection of
that.

Quoted message said:

Overtrained?

Possibly, but hard to say. When I increased my volume to the point of
2-a-days, it took a general toll on my body that made in-season racing
difficult. My times improved, but I never ran my best performances until I
lifted that burden and went into a taper mode. Then, all of a sudden, the
weeks of heavy intensity lead to light, fast, effortless performance. And
after 4 weeks it's gone :o(. Such is the fleeting nature of peak
performance.
Was this a big race, or are you simply trying to make improvements on
your last performance?
(IMVHO, I see a lot of non-team runners who try to train year-round
without clearly defined season peaks, and instead of leading to a tapering
phase and going back to volume, they just stay in high-intensity mode
indefinitely until they get injured).

Dave

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

4 miles/central park, 78F w/58% humidity. I ran a 25:11, 6:17
min/mile, 5 and 6 seconds slower per mile than I did the same course on
in May & June.

This is my first backwards step in the last 6-7 races over the past 3+
months when I switched to 2-a-day training. What happend? Donovan can
probably tell me exactly better than anyone since he knows me and my
style and the course.

Quoted message said:

I stretched this morning and felt
great. My warm up? 1/4 mile at 50%, 1/4 mile at 90%.

Not enough. The greater my training volume, the more I had to do in
order to warm up properly. When I would race 8ks and 10ks I frequently
logged 30" easy warmup. Trust your body to handle it.

Quoted message said:

When I finished the race this morning....oh my god...my muscles binded
and wound themeselves and tightend up in a way I had not felt in
years...since I was a kid and after the first day of Football practice.

OK, How did I screw up things?

Should I not have raced hard Wed. night?
And the 2 days Off before the race?

I think this makes for a tough combination. Racing hard, then taking
off completely (or almost completely) is a major change for your body. It
might have been better to run all of those days, but make one an easy speed
session and the other a short recovery run - run until you warm up and feel
loose, and nothing more. I think the tight muscles are a reflection of
that.

Quoted message said:

Overtrained?

Possibly, but hard to say. When I increased my volume to the point of
2-a-days, it took a general toll on my body that made in-season racing
difficult. My times improved, but I never ran my best performances until I
lifted that burden and went into a taper mode. Then, all of a sudden, the
weeks of heavy intensity lead to light, fast, effortless performance. And
after 4 weeks it's gone :o(. Such is the fleeting nature of peak
performance.
Was this a big race, or are you simply trying to make improvements on
your last performance?
(IMVHO, I see a lot of non-team runners who try to train year-round
without clearly defined season peaks, and instead of leading to a tapering
phase and going back to volume, they just stay in high-intensity mode
indefinitely until they get injured).

Dave

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

4 miles/central park, 78F w/58% humidity. I ran a 25:11, 6:17
min/mile, 5 and 6 seconds slower per mile than I did the same course on
in May & June.

This is my first backwards step in the last 6-7 races over the past 3+
months when I switched to 2-a-day training. What happend? Donovan can
probably tell me exactly better than anyone since he knows me and my
style and the course.

Quoted message said:

I stretched this morning and felt
great. My warm up? 1/4 mile at 50%, 1/4 mile at 90%.

Not enough. The greater my training volume, the more I had to do in
order to warm up properly. When I would race 8ks and 10ks I frequently
logged 30" easy warmup. Trust your body to handle it.

Quoted message said:

When I finished the race this morning....oh my god...my muscles binded
and wound themeselves and tightend up in a way I had not felt in
years...since I was a kid and after the first day of Football practice.

OK, How did I screw up things?

Should I not have raced hard Wed. night?
And the 2 days Off before the race?

I think this makes for a tough combination. Racing hard, then taking
off completely (or almost completely) is a major change for your body. It
might have been better to run all of those days, but make one an easy speed
session and the other a short recovery run - run until you warm up and feel
loose, and nothing more. I think the tight muscles are a reflection of
that.

Quoted message said:

Overtrained?

Possibly, but hard to say. When I increased my volume to the point of
2-a-days, it took a general toll on my body that made in-season racing
difficult. My times improved, but I never ran my best performances until I
lifted that burden and went into a taper mode. Then, all of a sudden, the
weeks of heavy intensity lead to light, fast, effortless performance. And
after 4 weeks it's gone :o(. Such is the fleeting nature of peak
performance.
Was this a big race, or are you simply trying to make improvements on
your last performance?
(IMVHO, I see a lot of non-team runners who try to train year-round
without clearly defined season peaks, and instead of leading to a tapering
phase and going back to volume, they just stay in high-intensity mode
indefinitely until they get injured).

Dave

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

4 miles/central park, 78F w/58% humidity. I ran a 25:11, 6:17
min/mile, 5 and 6 seconds slower per mile than I did the same course on
in May & June.

This is my first backwards step in the last 6-7 races over the past 3+
months when I switched to 2-a-day training. What happend? Donovan can
probably tell me exactly better than anyone since he knows me and my
style and the course.

Quoted message said:

I stretched this morning and felt
great. My warm up? 1/4 mile at 50%, 1/4 mile at 90%.

Not enough. The greater my training volume, the more I had to do in
order to warm up properly. When I would race 8ks and 10ks I frequently
logged 30" easy warmup. Trust your body to handle it.

Quoted message said:

When I finished the race this morning....oh my god...my muscles binded
and wound themeselves and tightend up in a way I had not felt in
years...since I was a kid and after the first day of Football practice.

OK, How did I screw up things?

Should I not have raced hard Wed. night?
And the 2 days Off before the race?

I think this makes for a tough combination. Racing hard, then taking
off completely (or almost completely) is a major change for your body. It
might have been better to run all of those days, but make one an easy speed
session and the other a short recovery run - run until you warm up and feel
loose, and nothing more. I think the tight muscles are a reflection of
that.

Quoted message said:

Overtrained?

Possibly, but hard to say. When I increased my volume to the point of
2-a-days, it took a general toll on my body that made in-season racing
difficult. My times improved, but I never ran my best performances until I
lifted that burden and went into a taper mode. Then, all of a sudden, the
weeks of heavy intensity lead to light, fast, effortless performance. And
after 4 weeks it's gone :o(. Such is the fleeting nature of peak
performance.
Was this a big race, or are you simply trying to make improvements on
your last performance?
(IMVHO, I see a lot of non-team runners who try to train year-round
without clearly defined season peaks, and instead of leading to a tapering
phase and going back to volume, they just stay in high-intensity mode
indefinitely until they get injured).

Dave