5.20.09

No run today, just took a full day of rest, tomorrow an easy day, then a really light day Friday with some striders. Just the normal core work.

After Boston, Kara Goucher had planned to take time off. That mentality changed rather quickly when she finished within seconds of winning the marathon. She wanted a bit of redemption, or maybe just another crack at the marathon the next week at London. That may seem a little crazy, but not really due to the first three-fourths of the race being extremely slow. Thankfully she decided against it, heeding the advice from her coach Salazar. The marathon is an extremely grueling race, and London always being fast, would be difficult even if perfectly prepared and rested.

I wrote my own little opinion about it, basically stating that if I were in that position, family would have to wait until I got one more crack at the marathon. The fact is Kara was simply in excellent marathon shape, and I hated the idea of that level of fitness be reverted back to a sort of ground zero before taking another stab at a high finish. But alas, wise minds worked together and came up with the solution, the World Championships in August. That gives Kara another attempt at running her best marathon and enough time afterward to start a family before returning to training for the 2012 Olympics. I am glad she, her husband, and her coach made the decision. Assuming her training continues well, she will do amazing at World's. Paula Radcliffe will be there and what better marathon experience is there to gain from racing against the world record holder?

Goucher on World Championships in August

4.23.09

I probably should have just stayed home for the run today. I sort of forgot how hilly the soccer complex really was as I hadn't been there for a while, I suppose undulating is the best term. So this run was a little harder than I wanted it to be, but I guess getting the heart rate up a little higher ain't going to hurt anything. It went by slow at first, then a light rain came down for a few minutes, just a few sprinkles really and after that the run went by real fast and was over before I knew it. I did a few accelerations the last mile at about 80-85% and they felt okay, but as I said I was little tired from the hills and didn't really feel like pushing too hard the day before a race.

So in other news imagine you are running a race. You've been training for years just running on your own and just run for fun. It's a pretty big race and there are quite a few people in it. You run your heart out and see as you come to the finish that you not only ran a HUGE pr, but you far exceeded your expectations. Then find out that not only did you run an incredible race, but you WON the race. Then imagine you didn't win because you started later than those who are slower than you.

Yup, this really happened. I apologize if it's old news, but I just came across the article today and thought I would include it in my post. I can't believe that an organization would do this simply because someone underestimated themselves. I think it's a crock. The woman who "won" this race wasn't given her proper credit although she ran much faster than the "elites", bureaucracy at it's best. I mean if I was running a major marathon, or heck any race, and ran faster than someone else and wasn't given credit, that would piss me off. It's just not right and to do it to a woman at a race supporting the empowerment of women only race adds insult to injury.

In the defense of the race directors and such, I can see how they would make that mistake. The time honestly was not "elite", but it was faster than I've ever ran. They really should have brought in talent, or realized that there were going to be a lot of average women running when they realized no actual elites were in the race. I'm not saying average is bad or they are horrible runners, I'm just saying that most of the "real" elites out there will be running at least 15-20 minutes faster than this winning time. But to go and punish someone for something that isn't their fault to begin with, just seems a little too stubborn. She should have been given first place, and whatever reward or recognition that came along with it.

link to the article

actually there is a follow up included in the article, it was in a weird place so I didn't see it right away. She ended up being rewarded in the end, but still to have this happen in the first place is kind of silly. I'm glad they did work it out after all (although it does say she was "a" winner, not "the" winner, lol)

6:00pm. soccer complex. 75º 39%H 9mph wind from SSE
1:15:05 (10.81), gf 668
AHR163/MHR178

4.22.09

These past few weeks have really been up and down for me. Sometimes I get my runs with good motivation and other times I just seem to wimp out. Today I was slacking.

No excuse for this missed day of opportunity. It was nice outside today, but I was really tired from last night. Although I love April for buying me a starbucks, since I had it later on when I got back from my run it ended up keeping me awake well into the morning hours. Not her fault, I should have tried to go to sleep but I chose to watch all the DVR'd tv I missed while I was running instead. So that wore me out and I got a late start in the morning, spent the day working on my painting which is so close to being done I can taste it. Then of course we ate dinner and I just couldn't get myself in the mood to run on a full stomach again. So anyway there's the justification, legs feel good and fresh today though :)

So what to talk about that is still motivating. Oh yeah - the rumor that Kara Goucher would run London (which is this weekend) right after her great performance on Monday. Well that seems a little silly to me when I saw the rumor floating around twitterland leading to article that said she was "petitioning" her coach to let her run. Well I'm not the biggest guy on taking 1 rest day for each mile raced, but still this is a little too close for comfort. I'm sure she isn't worried about the negative publicity she would receive (for the very reason I just stated, recovery period) but she should be worried about how it would look if for some reason she had a bad race. All the media would be on her and it would bring a lot of negativity to her as well as our sport. Not a risk worth taking in my honest opinion, although I admit she is in such great shape that I wouldn't put a great performance past her.

I've ran beside a guy who Won a marathon Saturday, then the following day came down here to Knoxville and placed 3rd. So I'm not surprised when I see Kara wanting to get back out there. She is elite and I believe elite bodies are so well trained to run, that recovery time is exponentially less than typical runners, they are simply adapted to running hard.

Now also consider she wants to take time off right now. I understand she's getting "older" and wants to start a family, but if it were me I would choose to run at least few more races. I mean she's SO close to winning a major marathon, just seconds away. Why not train for another marathon and see if she can take it while she is in excellent shape? The whole theory of "why wait?" really seems appropriate. But I suppose the same goes for the whole family making goal as well. Let's face it, being pregnant isn't exactly the ideal training conditions, at least not near the third trimester. I'm not saying definitely she should wait. I mean Paula Radcliffe won New York months after having a baby and that's amazing, but Paula had won marathons before that and had already established herself as a world record breaking marathoner. She also suffered an stress fracture due to the pregnancy most likely the result of depleted calcium. I'm not saying it's a terrible thing, but just knowing how close she came, I think Kara should give it at least one more shot.

Image by Mark Shearman

Turning things to my side I've been thinking about my own goals and wondering what will be next for me. I was considering some ultra's as I think I could do really well in one, but that sort of goes against my whole focus on speed and requires a ton of mileage, so I pretty much threw that idea on the backburner real quick. Right now my goals are more abstract, get faster, more flexible, and improve at shorter distances. Those aren't very objective goals, but they are measurable so I think it's a good thing. Longer term I'm thinking half-marathon in the fall. I need a race to look forward to, races motivate me. Although the half would be my goal race, I would use 3 or 4 5ks as time trials and indicators of fitness leading up to it.

Even longer term I'll probably follow that race with the Knoxville Marathon again in the spring with a 10miler or 10k inbetween. It's a good race to train for because I know the course personally now, I know the people, the training schedule through a tough winter, and I learned a lot from just trying to race that distance. So coming back next year at the very least I'll know what's coming and definitely be able to focus my training better, i.e. hills like everyday and more runs at/below marathon pace. That's really as far as I want to think ahead. It's good to have goals, but you also have to be flexible as things change, so for now that's the plan.