Learning As We Go
It’s important as we age, to be open to what works best. Of course this has been the case from day 1. But age has a way of reducing our choices, which seems to make each choice that much more important.
For some years I have approached races with what might be called a “modified taper.” Never a high mileage runner, I typically ran a couple five and six mile runs early in the week of a race, with my last run two days before. Then the day before I’d do water running or Stairmaster (REQs). This past year I tried something a little different: REQs two days before the race with an easy 3 miles the day before. This seemed to leave me a bit more rested.
Yet, as the Lone Gull Grand Prix 10K approached, I had questions. While I seemed to have fully recovered from a broken baby toe eight weeks prior (the only remnants being a bit of black and blue), my main concern was the prior month’s mileage was just 102. Not really enough to fuel a strong 10K. That said, I had run the Grand Prix 8K in 8:04 pace three weeks before, along with three shorter speed workouts, and put in long runs of 9 and 10 miles. Maybe this was enough. If it went well, I figured an average 7:54 pace was possible, a 10 second improvement from the 8K. Afterall, I had run 7:50 at the James Joyce 10K five months earlier, and that is a tougher course than Lone Gull. But I went into that race having logged more training miles.
So, I decided to adjust my training strategy: three 4-mile runs the week before the Sunday race, including some speed and short hills, then water running on Friday before an easy 3 on Saturday. I was curious how this would go.
As usual, the Lone Gull start was congested. Being a Grand Prix race, there were a lot of fast runners ahead of me. It took 23 seconds to get to the start line and then nearly two minutes before hitting full stride. Plenty of space after that. Overall, a good day for running: 60 degrees with some wind, which ended up in our favor as the majority was to our backs.
The first mile, including that congested start, was 7:43. Faster than expected, and followed by a 7:46. Heading into a mostly uphill section, my mile pace slowed to 8:00. Still, after three miles I was averaging 7:50. And feeling pretty good. The 4th mile included some downhill with the wind to our side. Yet, I only mustered a 7:51. The fifth mile included the longest hill but with the wind to our back I ran 7:55. I knew I was slowing some and in the 6th mile did a few short surges. I had to dig but wasn’t killing myself. When I passed 6 miles, I was averaging 7:51 and had to choose how much to “turn the screws” in the final stretch. I guess I did enough “turning,” as the last .26 miles (yes, the course was long), was at 7:28 pace. With a final average of 7:49 and helped by the good weather, I had exceeded by 10K goal by 30 seconds. And achieved an 82.1% age-grading.
This leaves me encouraged, expecting now to run closer to 30-mile weeks and hopefully be ready to run two half marathons three weeks apart (October 18 and November 8th), the last being the 10,000 person BAA Half Marathon in Boston, a race I have run many times but not since 2019. I am curious whether this new tapering approach might continue to bear fruit, so I am going to give it another go and see.