Race Report: Resolution Run, 2015 Recap, 2016 Goals

Stats/Goals

Distance: 1 mile
Location: Atlanta (Brookhaven), GA
Current PR: 5:55 (6/2/2015, ATC All Comers Mile)
90% Goal: 7:00
50% Goal: 6:30
10% Goal: 6:30

Result: 5:44 (http://tinyurl.com/ocxrfnx)

Quarter Mile Splits: (From watch)
1:16
1:28
1:31
1:40

Summary

Last year, I came into the Resolution Run nursing a calf strain.  This time, I hurt my hamstring in late November and have been on the mend since.  I had a few good runs the week before, but expected to take it easy.  Oops.

Race Prep

I had very low expectations for this race.  I've been injured most of the winter (I put up 24 miles in December after averaging well over 100 per month for rest of the year).  I had finally gotten back into the swing of things the week before the race.  I had a few run/walks with Angelina and Holden that went fine and then a pair of four milers where I pushed to the low 8/high 7 range.

This was Holden's first appearance at a race.  It was a little on the cold side, but we had him bundled up tight.  Angelina was going to walk the mile with him.  This was the first time most of the runner friends had a chance to meet the little guy.

A half hour before the race, we took Holden back to the car for a quick change/feed and loaded him into Angelina's carrier.  I ran the stroller back to the training tent so she wouldn't have to carry him around post-race and got to warming up.

I felt like 10 kinds of awesome after my warm-up.  I did some quick intervals and everything felt like it was firing on full.  My biggest worry following my injury was running up hills more than it was running fast.

Race

For once at an ATC race, I toed the line at the start.  The race is paired with a 4 miler, which most of the serious runners gravitate towards.  To my right was the woman who went on to win the race and to my left was a 8 or 9 year old that I nearly tripped over at the start.  Fortunately for everyone, no one got tangled up at the start went off without a hitch.

The course itself was pretty flat, but the first half was downhill making the latter half up.  I had a pretty torrid pace off the start, mostly because I wanted to avoid the aforementioned sprinting kids.  I was around 5th at the first quarter, 6th at the half way point, and fell two more spots to 8th in the final straight away.  With the uphill finish, I didn't want to push any harder than I felt comfortable.

The clock that I assumed was the mile clock was registering about 5:30 as I approached.  That seemed super fast, but wasn't unreasonable.  My watch had the course about 0.03 miles short.  I coasted for the last hundredths so my watch registered the full mile (which was about 20 seconds past my actual finish time at 6:03).

Post Race

I didn't actually SEE the finish, but I had assumed my friend at the start line had held onto the lead she had at the final turn.  I could tell she was super pumped.  I ran over and yelled "YOU WON!" right in her face and she yelled "I KNOW!"  Great excitement for all.  The biggest excitement was that it was her first race since being injured in June.  Rock Star.

I ran back along the course to find Angelina and Holden and walked the two of them in.  She came in ahead of her 20 minute goal.  Not to shabby for walking with a baby strapped to your chest.

Conclusion

Even though I haven't been able to run much lately, I'm still a lot stronger than I thought.  I continue to show that I'm a lot better in the middle distances.  This new mile PR was a 65% age-graded percentile rating (vs 63% 5k, 61% 10k, and 61% half marathon).  I am looking forward to this year's all-comers meets.  Maybe 5:30 is within reach this year?

2015 Review

This is mostly a copy/paste from my Facebook status, with a little more commentary.

1) Run a marathon (4:00 goal): completed on a very hard Publix course.  My body certainly struggled with the training (193 miles in February, would have had my first 200 mile month had it been a 30/31 day month).  If there was any doubt that I'm a middle distance athlete, this erased it.  I'm not that eager to train up for another.  It takes a lot of time and dedication which I'm unwilling to put in at this point.  I'm sure I'll do another one eventually, but it's not going to be a priority.  At this point, I'm going to wait until I'm down to 1:30 in the half.

2) Run 1500 miles...: I came up short on this one.  I was on pace at the end of October, but then ran 74 miles in November and 24 in December due to a hamstring injury.

3) ...at a faster pace than 2014: Despite running 300+ miles more than 2014, I dropped my average pace about 15 seconds (to 8:39).  I had hoped to be around 8:30, but I'm content.

4) Mile PR: I took 7 seconds off of my fastest mile form high school at an All Comers meet.  Then, I took off 11 more seconds at a race this morning (5:44)

5) 5k PR: Besides my mile, this had been my oldest PR (a super flat race in Savannah from when I was just starting to get more serious about running).  I took off 19 seconds off on a much more challenging course (20:23).

6) 10k PR: I had hoped for a bigger PR here, but a PR is a PR.  I took 4 seconds off of my previous PR, but this time I had to slow down a walk a bit on a stretch during mile 5 of Peachtree.

7) 1/2 PR: Missed on this one.  I had a great first 10k in Savannah (30 seconds faster than the 10k split on my PR), but the weather got to me and I died in the second half.

2016 Goals

1) Run 1000 miles: I'm sure my mileage will drop this year.  No marathon training plus a kid that I want to spend as much time with as I can will mean the time I put into running will go down.  I don't know if this goal is going to be super easy, super hard, or just right.  So I'm going to go with just right and wing it.

2) 20 minute 5k: I've had this goal in the back of my head for a long time.  It has been a long time since I've specifically trained for a 5k.  I plan on making 2016 the year of the 5k.  I'll probably run a half (Thanksgiving), but I'm not going to make it a centerpiece of my running year.

3) Peachtree Subseed Qualifier: I doubt I can accomplish this prior to registration in March, so I'll probably stick in A Wave this year.  However, if I can get the 20min 5k, this should follow along with it (subseed qual time last year was 20:14 for the 5k, 9 seconds faster than my time at Braves).

4) Top 1000 Peachtree.  This was a goal I threw in a couple months before Peachtree last year.  I ended up around 1200th I believe.  I would have had to run about 30 seconds faster to get there.  I'll have to do more faster runs this year on actual hills, not just speed work at the river.

5) Run all of the ATC Grand Prix races...: This is more of a logistical goal than anything else.  Hopefully I can make the All Comers meet work out.

6) ...and finish top 3 in my age group for the Grand Prix: This will be a lot harder.  For those unfamiliar with the Grand Prix, you get 10 points for showing up at an event, 100 for winning your AG, 80 for second, yadda yadda.  I snagged 80 points at Resolution run and there are 4 or 5 more races that I can realistically expect to get into the top 5.  Third place last year was 360 points.  If there are 12 events, I will currently have 190 points (80 from Resolution + 110 from the other races), so I'll need to scrape together at least 150 bonus points from placement.