The Nemesis

My nemesis hasn't been a person (but wouldn't that be fun), or a certain race course, or a workout.  My nemesis is the 5K.  A couple months after I first started showing up at West Valley TC workouts and slowly fighting my way back into shape, I ran my first race - a 5K in 16:29.  A year later, at the end of my first full season of consistent training in several years, I ran the second 5K of my age 30+ competitive career - finishing in 16:07. 

In two and a half years since that race, I've knocked 4 minutes off my best half marathon, run over a minute faster on a several cross country courses, plus trained faster, longer, and more consistently.  Yet despite all that, I can't seem to clock a good 5K.

My best was a 15:49 on the track in the Spring of 2010, but other than that it's just been a long string of blowups in the low to mid 16's. 

Heading into 2011, my goal was to focus my training around running a good 5K.  Being just fast enough to jump in college open meets, there are several opportunities to race the distance.  Surely just more time on the track would lead me to a sub 15:30 (that magical 5-flat per mile pace).  Throughout the winter I worked my mileage up to a an average of 60 miles per week - which I've held all year.  Our Tuesday workouts first featured longer intervals at hard tempo pace - which I'd often run 5:15 pace, then transitioned to faster somewhat shorter interval workouts.  Week after week I would run 3 - 4 miles of repeats, all between 71 - 75 second per laps.  One workout in particular, I ran 5 times 1000 meters averaging 3:02 - 15:10 5K pace.  I didn't think I'd hold that pace running each kilometer back to back, but surely everything pointed toward me running 15:30!

My first shot was the Hornet Invite - an open college meet at Sacramento State (the track where I ran my lifetime 1500 PR back in 2000).  Throughout the week, the forecast got worse and worse, and sure enough the morning of the race had a steady rain and 25-30 mph winds blowing right through the stadium.  I hit the split right around 5 flat with the leader, but as soon as it strung out, it got ugly.  In the second half I was red-lining pretty much every lap by the end of the front stretch, only to recover on the back stretch just in time to hit the wind again.  My splits got slower and slower, and I finished with an ugly 16:32. 

The next 5K, which was the one I really had circled on the calendar, was the SF State Distance Carnival.  It's a meet with deep, fast fields, at a great venue - I bet this is the least windy track in the Bay Area.  For some reason on race-day my mind was in the wrong place.  I knew my training was going great, so I had no reason not to have confidence.  Instead, I kept thinking of every way I could have a bad race.  I wasn't thinking about crushing the race, I was thinking about not having a bad race.  It was like I was battling all demons that plagued my performances for much my college career.  I raced the slowest of 3 heats, but with a group that would be running in the mid 15 minute range.  The pace was perfect - we were clicking off 74-75 second laps, hitting the mile just under 5 minutes.  I hit half way thinking this is going well, but a lap later the pain really hit & I just wanted to quit.  I hit 2 miles in 10:07, then 3 miles in 15:28, finishing in 16:04.  This was the first race in a long time where I was really beating myself up for a while afterward - just felt like a wasted opportunity. 

The 3rd race was the Carlsbad 5000 (near San Diego) with my West Valley teammates where I would run in an age group 30-39 race (no young guns!).  It was a fun trip, even though Southwest canceled our flight getting us in pretty late.  I went out conservatively, but still found myself right in the thick of a chase pack that let lead 3 runners go.  I moved myself toward the front, again hitting the mile right around 5 flat.  I felt great for the first part of the second mile, thinking this was my day.  I led the chase pack shortly after the mile.  Then for the third week in a row, things went south quickly.  A couple guys passed me, then 3 more went by.  I went from leading the chase pack to trying to hang on.  I hit the 2 mile mark in 10:15 - REALLY I just slowed down that much??  I don't think I totally gave up in the last mile, but surely wasn't digging deep as I ran the last mile in a pathetic 5:30 for a finishing time of 16:18.  On a positive note, watching the elite race was AWESOME as former 5K world champ Eliud Kipchoge got kicked down at the finish (13:10 was the winning time).

So there you have it.  My big goal for the season has been an epic failure so far.  Training has been an ongoing success.  So what gives?  I wish I had an easy answer...  I think mentally I've gotten so used to underperforming at this distance that it's turned into a self fulfilling prophecy.  For most of my good races I was there with my buddies, having a good time, and feeling loose before the race.  Lately I'm analysing my race before it even starts.  Physically, it's a tough distance.  It always starts hurting pretty bad about half way, when you still have 7 minutes of hard painful running to go.  When building up my speed and fitness, I need to run my workouts under control in order to benefit from consistency.  But I think I really need to push the envelope every few workouts, otherwise I won't know how to dig deep into the well on race day.  Finally, the workout that's been missing is the fast tempo (as opposed to the longer half marathon pace runs).

So how does this end?  I really don't know.  I just know I'm not ready to say "I'm too old for the 5K" and throw in the towel in favor of longer distances!

Another Interview: Tennesse Running

In the San Francisco Bay Area I'm just another sorta fast guy trying to stay within sight of some real elites.  But I was fortunate enough to have a successful high school career in Tennessee where I was also competitive on the national scene.  That fact that I got to do a couple of interviews on the internet this past year, is certainly not the result of anything I've accomplished recently (as in the past decade). 

Dave Milner - who is a buddy of my high school teammate Jeff Edmonds - edits tnrunning.com, a website reporting on runners who live in Tennessee or originally hail from there.  I'm a little embarrassed to see my name up there with Phoebe Write and Andrew Bumbalough, who are both developing into full blown world class runners.  That said, I appreciate Dave sending me some questions, and reporting on what this has-been has been up to!

http://www.tnrunning.com/interviews/where_are_they_now/Gifford-Feb11.html

Interview on The Logic of Long Distance

I meant to write this post two months ago... after I knocked off one or two items on my blogging to-do list.  But since my recent thoughts have been making their way onto the web 2.0, I realized it's time to post this.

I met Jeff Edmonds when I showed up for the first cross country practice as a 7th grader at Baylor (high school).  At the time he was the captain and lead runner of our Jr High squad, and I was the newbie.  Over the next four years, we were teammates, friends, and at times rivals.  Jeff was the guy I chased in practice as I was getting faster and learning how to be a runner.  When I was fast enough to actually train with him our workouts, and even our normal runs could get intense, because neither of us liked to ever back down!

Jeff graduated two years ahead of me, but we both experienced high school success, followed by the ups and downs of college running.  After college we found ourselves focusing on our career, and in his case, educational goals (Jeff earned PhD in philosophy two years ago).  Right around the time we each turned 30, we started lacing our shoes up more often, and both found ourselves cranking out the miles and racing again.  I don't get to see Jeff very often - living on opposite sides of the country - but we've really enjoyed sharing our experiences and refound passion for distance running over the past few years.

Jeff has a very cool blog - The Logic of Long Distance.  He combines two of his passions - running and philosophy - into a single forum.  Often he'll discribe the triumphs and frustrations of his own running through the thoughts & writings of other philosophers. 

Another feature of his blog is to interview runners non-professional runners who are still out there training hard trying to run fast.  Jeff acted like I was doing him a favor by answering his questions, but he was the one doing me a favor.  I had a lot of fun thinking back over my high school, college, and current careers, and putting my thoughts in worlds.  I think in times when I get stuck in a rut with my training or racing, it's good to go back and see what I was doing and what mindset helped me run fast in the past. 

I'm not posting the intereview here, because I'd encourage you to check out The Logic of Long Distance if you've never done so before.

http://thelogicoflongdistance.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-jamey-gifford.html