July 4th of 2009 I went to Jefferson City and ran the Firecracker mile with the goal of breaking 5 minutes. The previous month, my friend Adam Beston and I had come up with a list of athletic goals we want to accomplish, what I'm now calling my "athletic bucket list".
- Sub 3 hour marathon
- Sub 1:20:00 half marathon
- Sub 1:00:00 10 miles
- Sub 35:00 10k
- Sub 17:00 5k
- Sub 1 hour 40k bike
- Sub 1:00 100yard swim
- Sub :30 50 yard swim
- Sub 2:00:00 Olympic distance triathlon
- Sub 4:30:00 Half Iron
- Sub 10:00:00 Ironman
- Sub 1:00 400 meters
- Sub 5:00 1 mile
- Sub 15 hour 50 mile
- Sub 36 hour 100 mile
A year and a half ago I thought I would do it, thought for sure breaking 5 minutes was a done deal. Instead, as I ran those final 10 yards that day I saw the clock tick past 5:00 and register 5:02 before I finally crossed. I won the race, but had fallen short of my goal.
The Firecracker Mile started with a steep 2 or 3 hundred yard downhill and then was mostly flat the rest of the way. In 2010 I skipped the Firecracker Mile and instead ran the Big River Macklind mile in St. Louis thinking more competitive runners and a longer downhill stretch would help me break 5. Instead, I ended up running a 5:05 in 2010 in what was a much more competitive field and an easier course.
So that brings me to 2011. Around three weeks ago, several friends and I ran three one mile repeats indoors at the Hearnes center. In between running the miles, we did some major core exercises, pull-ups, pushups, and sit-ups. Despite the core exercises, we still pushed each other and I ran a 5:36, 5:26, and faded a bit on the third with a 5:38. Then, several weeks later I ran a 1:03 400 solo on the indoor track followed by three sub 1:15 400s with Bill Stolz. After reading about this workout, my friend Adam suggested I give the sub 5:00 mile a shot. At first I was wanting to go for the sub one minute 400, but after checking out the outdoor tracks in town and finding them all snow or ice covered, I decided I would give the sub 5 minute mile a shot.
Both the Firecracker Mile and the Macklind Mile are downhill miles and I had failed in both to break 5. Ultimately the goal is to run a sub 5 on a track, but if I can’t do it in a downhill mile I’m not going to do it on the track either! With that in mind, I headed this past Saturday to Rockbridge State park. I drove from the bridge just before the entrance to Devils Ice Box up the road to the Pierpont store, exactly one mile. So I drove back down to the Devils Ice Box parking lot, parked the car and warmed up by running to the start.
Basically, the mile I was about to run is on a narrow winding road that starts out mostly flat for about half a mile, then has some gradual downhill, and then for the final 1/3 of a mile it is fairly steep downhill, about 7 or 8% grade. The only drawback about the course is the 50mph speed limit and the fact there are no shoulders. Oh well, I figured if I ran against traffic I should be ok!
The only thing tougher about a road mile is you don’t have the instant feedback of checking your pace every 200 yards like on a track. But, using a Garmin I was able to get a fairly good idea of my pace. I started out by running a 1:12 first 1/4 mile with my heart rate topping out at 174. The next 1/4 was a 1:14.39 and my heart rate was up to 189. The third 1/4 was 1:14.69 with a 190 max heart rate. At this point I was struggling, but fortunately knew the rest was downhill and that if I kept on pace I was guaranteed of breaking 5. That final downhill quarter I covered in 1:08.69 while maxing out my heart at 191 bpm! Total time of 4:49, a new 1 mile PR by 13 seconds.
Adam and I had not gotten into the specifics of our “athletic bucket list”, but I had a feeling a downhill mile wasn’t going to fly in his opinion. Sure enough, he cited some USATF rule regarding the max amount of elevation loss per x distance or something... Fine, so maybe this isn’t a legit mile by USATF standards, but for the time being it is legit for me! I finally went under that elusive 5 minute mark, I did it early in the season and by myself without the competition of a race. I did this run for me and in my book it is legit, but just to be sure I’ll do it again on a track, just give it a month or two and maybe then all this dang snow will be melted!
This might of actually been harder then on the track and it is January. I definately have to give ya props for going with just the watch to pace yourself. I think just getting out there and trying to run a mile like this is an accomplishment. I have tried a couple times and quit after a 400. I still think you can do it on a track (even the indoor one based on your times). Anyway, last time I had a really long drive I stopped every 1.5 to 2 hours from the start and would jog a mile with some drills or calisthenics and a stride or two and it was AMAZING. Something to think about for your half mary drive coming up bc you have had problems with the long drive in your past and I want to see you go under 80. I am not trying the mile until April after I start some running speed stuff.
ReplyDeleteI'm not big on counting "training runs" as PRs, especially when they come on the roads, but it sounds like you're definitely capable of a sub-5 on the track or in the next road race.
ReplyDeleteWhat's up with the sub-15 50 and sub-36 100? Even on the hardest of courses, those times should be a piece of cake. Is your goal just to finish?
Keep up the hard work!
I told him to change those to 10 and 24 unless the conditions warrent. There are some course with certain conditions and night running that make those times decent marks but they are deigned that way.
ReplyDeleteI came by tony bc I need to know if the swims are off the blocks. If so I think I can knock off at least the 50 soon.