FLASH: Sean's 5k PR Smashed This Morning in Albany NY

Unofficial time of 20:55, besting his previous PB by nearly 2 1/2 minutes on a decidedly hilly course. The best part of the race, as a University of Michigan alum, was out-kicking a die-hard Ohio State fan down the strech.

GO BLUE!!

DEVELOPING...

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Did I Eat Healthy Today?

I'd love to have the talent to execute a super-simple idea I have for a blogger side-bar widget. At the same time, I'd also love to have the talent to scour the internet to find this same thing that has probably already been invented somewhere else. Sadly, I have neither!

My idea is simple. It is all based off of asking a single question:

"Did I eat healthy today?"
"Was I an asshole today?"
"Did I practice the piano today?"

And etc...

Your question would be displayed as a title over-top of a small monthly calendar. You would "answer" your question by changing the color of the bounding box around the current date. For instance, if my calendar was tracking whether or not I ate healthy on a daily basis I would turn the box a green color (meaning "yes") for today. However, last Saturday and Sunday my boxes would both be red b/c I damn sure didn't eat healthy then. Over time, I would build up a history of these daily, color-coated answers and, just by glancing, be able to see what my eating patterns have been like over the last week, month, two months, etc.

There would be no fancy graphs or areas to log your consumed foods. It would be dead simple.

Green box = "Yes!" to whatever question you posed to yourself in the title.
Yellow box = "ehhh... kinda"
Red box = "Hell no!"

I feel like this is something I could get great value from and help me see just how healthy I think I am eating vs. how healthy I actually am eating. And, since it wouldn't require me to go visit some other site like FB, DailyMile, etc, it would be super convenient to use which means I would probably stick with it longer.

Any programmers or internet-search wizards out there care to help me out?

In the meantime....  YES  I ate healthy today.

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A Little Bit of the Good Stuff

I'm easing my way back into running after giving my legs/head a little time-off. Given the fact that I have been out of town every weekend for the last month, the timing of my mind-set seemed to work out quite well. Of course, I have been running about 3 times a week (still, same as when in training), but the distances have vastly decreased. For instance, this week was only 5k + 5.5 miles + 5k = ~12 miles.

HOWEVER, I'm happy to find that each of those 5Ks were run well under my current PR, which was set shortly after returning to running last Fall. How far below? Well, 0:37 seconds below, to be precise. Not to mention, I'm not running these 5Ks as if they were races, just simply spirited, shorter-distanced training runs!

What does that mean? Well... hopefully, that I have more left in the tank that I can soon empty on race-day, April 30th. In the meantime, I will be looking to start slowly raising my weekly mileage so that I can start marathon training May 30th with a slight edge.

* * * * * * *

In an effort to curb (very) poor eating habits, I've decided to start literally scheduling my meals. I'm not so concerned with specific times that I eat (lunch @ 11:30am vs. 12:30pm), but more-so what/how-much I eat. Something simple like this will keep my mind from drifting toward the dangerous "hmm, I could just run out and grab something quick" mentality that has thwarted my efforts too frequently as of late. It will also minimize the number of times I catch myself snacking.

* * * * * * *

I'm still searching for a half-marathon race that takes place sometime in early-to-mid August so that I can have something to break up my long marathon training.

* * * * * * *

In an unparalleled and unheard of marriage-karma-earning move, my name-change has officially and finally gone through. How many men have you ever heard of taking their wife's last name?

None?

Me neither!

Never-the-less, I've swapped my awkwardly pronounced, 2nd-generation Ukrainian name for my wife's single-syllable, Belgian-German name. Not only am I happy to make the switch, but I'm also glad to welcome all the great characteristics that come attached to this family. (Awww, so sappy, eh?) On a different note, Sean West Architects will make a MUCH better name when I finally open up my own Architecture Firm.

And, I know you all will eventually want to hire me to design + build your tiny training-camp houses up in the mountains or out in the country!

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Looking Ahead

I started this post slumped over on the couch after a 13-hour day of work after missing my short recovery-run. At the time, I thought it might be a good idea to take a quick look back and grade myself on all aspects of my performance leading up to the National Half Marathon.

Running - A
The actual running end of my training went very well.  I don't recall missing a single run the entire time and my paces proved to get stronger and more comfortable the further into training I got. I started in the neighborhood of 8:05/mile and ended up anywhere from 7:50-7:59/mile. I focused on form, easing into a run and negative-splitting ALL training runs. What really sealed the grade was that I did the majority of my runs indoors on a treadmill... in the winter... after work... in the dark.

Mental Health - A
My success on the treadmill fueled a pretty strong attitude. Sure, I was not excited to run on the treadmill, but I always felt great afterward b/c I continually nailed goals. Toward the end of training I was getting a bit antsy and ready to race (ready for endless training to be over), but I'm not counting that against myself. Another attribute that contributed to my positive attitude was definitely the location of the race - DC - which I love! So, not only was I looking forward to running a good time, but I was looking forward to visiting DC and doing it there!

Cross-Training - B
My cross-training started with a bang back in January with me cycling 2-3 days a week for at least an hour. However, once the volume of my running started to increase, I noticed my knees starting to swell up on me after runs. Not wanting to end my season a few weeks into 2011, I chose to majorly dial back the cycling and let the running take over.

Strength training, particularly in the legs, was a major part of my cross-training. This was to address my primary concern of injury prevention. I feel like this routine was integral to keeping me injury free and allowing me to push myself harder on runs and lower my pace. However, the last 3 weeks or so leading up the race saw me even dial this back a bit. All in all, I would have liked to keep cycling throughout all of training.

I majorly neglected abdominal work the last two months which could lower this grade even more. Part of my plan moving forward leading up to marathon training is to get that situation back under control. Regular gym routines now MUST include abs + legs, THEN the fun stuff - arms, chest, lats, etc.

Nutrition - C-
Honestly, this grade could even be worse. I was smart the first 1 1/2 months, cutting my weight down about 8-10 pounds since the holiday season, but then I simply let my training take over as being solely responsible for keeping the weight off. Sure, it worked, but I could have been much leaner and perhaps even faster had I adhered to a smarter diet. No excuses here - just my lack of will-power to blame. This has to change.

Sleep - B-
I found that I usually got 6-7 hours of sleep a night, which is OK but definitely not preferable. I need to consistently be in the 7-8 range, especially during the work-week. I have grand plans to start transitioning back to morning workouts now that there is no more snow on the ground, and to do so requires getting enough sleep that I can roll my ass out of bed early in the morning.

* * * * * * * *

Overall - B

While the training itself was great, a lot of the stuff surrounding the training seems to have started well but then fallen by the wayside. I've got a good block of two months here to try and establish a better routine for myself before training starts to get "serious" again. I'm motivated by the fact that I was able to have a very successful race while not completely following through on all facets of training, but motivated more-so at the prospect of how much more I can potentially achieve if I'm a bit stricter with myself.

* * * * * * * *

As it stands, my next race is a 5k at the end of April that starts and ends at the park located less than two blocks away from me. Nice, huh? I'm setting my sites on a new PR, but nothing drastic or overly ambitious (in my opinion). In the meantime, I'll be steadily building my runs back up from 3-milers to 5-milers with some speed work mixed in. The key here is try and have some fun while keeping up a base fitness level (w/o over-doing it) so that I can be healthy/fit when I start marathon training in June.

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Race Report: Nation's Half Marathon

The Nation's Half Marathon was slated to be my first 'A' race of the year, and ultimately the second most-important race of my season (behind the Berlin Marathon in late September). E and I were using this race to test our fitness and see if we could successfully make it through a training-block injury free while still achieving some level of success.

Training went VERY well, especially considering that the entirety of our training was done during the months of December through March. Sometime in early February my training-runs eclipsed the 8:00 min/mile mark and I didn't look back from there.

My training partner, aka my beard. Don't I look manly against a back-drop of flower paintings???

The night before the race, our group hit Buca di Beppo for some carbo-loading. The whole time I was quiet and a little nervous. Not really tense, but more-so just a bit introverted and getting into things mentally. I had the course and elevation maps up in front of me so that I could memorize roughly where the tougher and easier spots would be. We ended up getting to bed by 10pm, which was slightly later than what I would've hoped, but still allowed for plenty of sleep leading up to our 4:50am alarm.

Race morning was pretty relaxed. I was the first one up and had a chance to go to the bathroom and eat my breakfast in silence. There was no rushing or scrambling as the few things needed for a running race were already set out from the night before. Instead of shivering our butts off by riding the Metro, we opted instead to pile into a nice, warm car and drive over. Parking wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We circled around the stadium and came in from the back, which gave saved us from having to wait in line with all of the other cars.

I loved that they let me customize my race bib!

I didn't have enough time to go inside and warm-up, so instead I just headed over the porta-potties, did my thing and got into my corral and started stretching. It was chilly that morning, but I was dressed appropriately and just did some jumping and stretching to stay loose. And before I knew it, the race had begun.

Our route through the city and my former home!

It was a crowded race, to say the least. You were never really clear of other runners enough that you could coast in a straight line for a long time, especially at beginning. Due to the crowds, I had to start out going slower than I would have hoped, but after mile 2 I was already back and track averaging an 8:00 min/mile. I knew going in that miles 0-5 would be rather enjoyable. My HR wouldn't be up yet, the terrain was relatively flat and the sun was not yet that far up. Already at this point I had banked about 30 seconds or so on my 8:00 min/mile goal.

That's me in the blue behind the guy in front of the Washington Monument. I have ZERO memory of running by any of the monuments - a good sign of my focus? :)

Great, right?.. but I knew miles 5-7 were going to have some hills in them so I'd most likely lose some of that time back. That's OK though, b/c instead of burning out early in the race and maintaining my pace, I had planned to drop a little time here hoping it would let me save something for later in the race. I also figured now would be a good time to grab some water, so I hit the water-station and attempted to pull off the run/pinch/drink maneuver where you squeeze the top of your cup together until it leaves a small hole that you can essentially slurp the water out of. Of course, I failed miserably and started choking on water. Net result - elevated heart-rate and zero water consumption. :(

Right around mile 5, heading uphill toward Adams Morgan.

Much to my surprise, I have actually run the route from miles 5-7 fairly often a few summers ago. This was a huge mental boost b/c I knew exactly what I was into and where things would start leveling out again. As it turns out, I did end up dropping some time, but only 15 seconds or so, which meant I still had some banked time.

I don't remember much about miles 8 and 9, to be honest. It was kind of a gap in my race-plan where I just figured I would recover a little from the undulations of the previous few miles. Of course, there were still some ups and downs that started weighing on me. I finished of a Gu and found a water-station where I wisely chose to walk for 15 or so seconds and actually take-in some water.

Apparently I was following this cleverly disguised alien.

Mile 10 had me feeling a bit rejuvenated, thanks to the Gu. However, after glancing at my watch, I had lost a little bit of time and was now only 6 seconds ahead of my 8:00min/mile goal-pace. Uh oh... getting a bit tight!

Mile 11 was planned to be a "maintenance mile," if there is such a thing. The goal was to simply run a straight 8:00 min/mile pace (whereas the earlier miles were aimed at banking 5-10 sec/mile on the flats) and prepare myself mentally for the last 2.1 miles, aka The Grind. Unfortunately, my wits suddenly started to leave me around this part of the race. What was hopefully going to be a mentally relaxing mile ended up being a mentally taxing mile. Combine that with some uphill running and all of a sudden I'm BEHIND on time and starting to come apart at the seems. Ahh!!

That's the look of confusion - wtf am I doing out here?!?!

Mile 12 and 13 were tough, to say the least. My form was deteriorating, but my mental-state was deteriorating even quicker. It's been a while since I was this far gone, mentally. All sorts of wild thoughts went streaming through my head about walking, quitting, how much this sucked, why was I doing this, can I really run a marathon in September?, arghGHHGhghGhGh!!

My data. Check out some of those sharp elevation spikes! The passes under the traffic circles started whooping me in the later miles there.

Ultimately, after about 12.5 miles I was able to break out of the funk and start to put my head down and charge for the line. The finish-line was uphill and around a corner so I couldn't see it from too far out, but I trusted it was close after I looked down at my Garmin and noticed I had just surpassed 13.1 miles.  The line came at 13.3 miles by my calculations, but I'm sure that's completely due to my own zig-zaggy route. I wobbled through the snack line and set up camp on the grass and just relaxed... finally.

Victory!!!!

My official race time was 1:45:58, which places me 268/778 (age-group), 1132nd man and 1575/9299 (overall).

Really, what a nice medal, huh?! Very impressive!

My two Garmin times were 1:44:34 (13.1 miles) and 1:45:02 (13.3 miles). I'm conflicted on which of the three times to recognize, but the more I think about it the more I think I can really use all of them. My goal was to run the race averaging under an 8:00 min/mile. I did that, clocking in according to mr. garmin at a 7:58 min/mile (close, huh?). That average includes the moment I crossed the starting line to the moment I crossed the finish line for both 13.1 and 13.3 miles. So, in that sense, I very much accomplished my pacing goal.

However, my pacing didn't align with my overall race-time. You're told to never rely on your watch for pacing alone, but to also use the mile-markers. Unfortunately, I don't recall seeing any mile-markers out on the course until around mile 9 or 10 so that wasn't really an option for me. Also, the discrepancy between what my garmin said compared to where the miler-markers were gave me even less confidence that they were even accurate. No problem though, b/c my race was geared more toward my own pacing and less on a specific finishing time, which meant I was fine with just glancing down at my watch from time to time.

Overall, this was a great experience and a positive sign that I can indeed train hard, smart and during the depths of the winter. It's now time to get in a nice/long recovery before getting back out on the roads to try and capture some shorter-distanced speed!

Enjoying the cherry blossoms.

Pretty soon there will be no more cherry blossoms, but all of the other trees will be full of green!

My training partner, post-race.

Having a little fun with the beard-removal. I present to you my 1920s-era baseball player impersonation!

Don't worry, the mustache was removed immediately after this photo was taken!

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