Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Time Trial


Wow, my energy level today has been through the f'ing roof. Ever have those days where you feel fired up and are getting shit done? I'm there right now and I wish this would last forever. I don't think I did anything different to get me this way either. Last night I had kind of a nice/big dinner out, had some wine (2 glasses), got a decent amount of sleep (~8 hrs), made coffee like normal.... What could it be? I wish I knew those answers, because if there was a pill that did this I'd take it every day.

I'm MANIC!!!

So anyway, today was my infamous two mile TIME TRIAL. I've been a little quiet talking about it because I didn't want to psych myself out leading up to it. I've actually been relatively calm about running lately and not feeling nervous/anxious about performance, so that is wonderful.

I pleaded w/my coach to let me do this on a marked path, but Shawn told me that I had to do it on the track again. He wanted to keep the variables as close from the last one. So, FINE, the track it is.

Before the run I had plenty for breakfast and snacks; here's what I ate:
  • 8 a.m.: water, coffee, 2 pieces of toast (one jam, one butter), scrambled eggs (about 1 egg)
  • 10:30 a.m.: more coffee, water, yogurt
  • Noon: apple, water
  • 1:45 p.m.: water, Vanilla Gu just before my run
That's about 600 calories. I had no issues with my stomach during the run either!

I got down to the track to find the Portland State University track team working out - damn them! It was kind of inspiring to watch them warm up and do some intervals, but then they luckily left for a road run so I had the track to myself again.

I'm still not at the point where I trust my own pacing which is why I get anal about the Garmin. Instead of just going balls out for the whole run I wanted to set some expectations - my goal was to strive for 7:00/miles. I decided to manually hit the lap button on every quarter; I set my Garmin so that I could view the data fields for:
  • current lap (so I could check at the 200 to see if I was pacing right)
  • last lap (so I could look down at any point as see how I did on the last 400, not just when it flashes the last lap for a few seconds)
  • total distance (in case I forgot what lap I was on!)
So after some drills I hit the line and took off! My first lap was way fast, as I knew it would be. I dialed it way back after I saw the time for that lap and kind of hit a groove on the next one. I really focused on my breathing and stride and did the military chant (left right left) once I got in the right pace. Last lap I just tried to bust my ass and was getting to the point where my breathing was just OOC. Whatevs. Here's the stats:

Lap 1 = 1:34
Lap 2 = 1:48
Lap 3 = 1:47
Lap 4 = 1:49

Mile 1 = 6:58

Lap 5 = 1:49
Lap 6 = 1:51
Lap 7 = 1:49
Lap 8 = 1:44

Mile 2 = 7:13

TOTAL = 14:14
Avg HR = 183

(I know that doesn't add up right but I think Garmin rounds #s or something.)

Comparison to the last TT on 11/7/08:
  • no vomiting this time
  • one WHOLE minute faster!
  • avg HR less by 2 bpm
I'd like to think that I was totally drained and cashed after this but so far I feel fine. I could have maybe pushed it more in the middle by a few seconds per lap but I'm not going to over analyze here (right).

So glad about how I did and I feel great! Maybe all my energy is this damn taper - I love you taper! I'm excited for the race this Sunday and have been doing a lot of thinking on race goals, training recap and 2009 goals that I will share here soon.

I also added more peeps to my sidebar that you should check out sometime! Oh, and the significance of the pony pic is nothing other than making you smile. How can you not smile at that?

Notes to self: weather was sunny but track partly in the shade, mid-4os, I wore shorts and short sleeve + long sleeve drifit shirts (had jacket on during warm up/drills)

14 comments:

Chic Runner said...

Congrats! Great time trial! :)

KK said...

Way to nail those splits-congrats!!! That is such a good feeling.

Also, I chalk your energy levels today up to the 2 glasses of wine last night and to nothing else. It always delivers.

P.S. Ummm I totally know Mark Pomerolli. That is too funny and it is such a small world. Who else you got? I can't remember all the peeps from my grade that went to U of M (I graduated in '95), but I know there were a lot more. Annie doesn't ring a bell from Hagg Lake but that's just because we focused more on partying than the actual race itself. Jen might have mentioned what a mess we were the night we met her and Zach..yeah, embarrassing. Anyway, I hope to meet you sometime if we ever make it back there or you come to Boulder.

Good luck this weekend at your race (sorry for the dissertation).

Sarah said...

Good job!!! Sounds perfect!

RunToTheFinish said...

was that pony chasing you? Or were you chasing the pony?

When you started out did you use HR training and then start adding in speed work...or do you just do what your coach says and screw the HR? I don't think I'll be that fast any time in the near...ever, but it's pretty inspiring!

Alisa said...

Great job Emily!!!!!!!! Way to chip away at those minutes...one whole minute is HUGE!

Marathon Maritza said...

Whoo-hoo! A whole minute faster is HUGE on 2 miles! Way to go!

And I can't believe it was sub-7 on the first one...I am whole-heartedly envious. I'm putting some Aroma cookies in the mail to slow your ass down and stop making me feel all slow. Yes, I'm a biotech.

I miss ya!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the TT and great improvement over the fall.

Zach said...

Nice work there Speedy McGee.

jen said...

Sweet! Amazing time trial Emily!

Amy said...

Hi Emily - Its KK's sister, Amy. Congrats on the great TT! Your first mile is earily similar to the first mile of a half marathon I just did. Way to dial it back after. My favorite part of this post is the sentence "I love you taper." SO funny.

PS- belated congrats on your engagement! Very exciting!!!!

Amy said...

PS- I dated Mark Pomerolli in 10th grade. LOL!

Amy said...

I just added your blog to the side of mine too. I can't believe you know so many peeps from Northville. Small, small world. Definitely wear a pacer bracelet. I just printed off on-line (it wasn't fancy) but it did the trick. GOOD LUCK!

Unknown said...

Wahooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
congrats on the impressive splits!

Anonymous said...

Nice work. Very nice times.