Self training results

Sunday, December 06, 2015 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Hope your coffee is piping hot, as it is definitely the time of year when a mug of hot coffee goes down even better. Great day yesterday as Kathy, myself and a young man that Kathy has introduced to running, all ran the “Reindeer Fun Run 12K.” The race was the next town over in Aberdeen (North Carolina) and featured a lot of uphill climbs early in the race and thankfully a nice downhill finish. Because my personal training focus the past month or so has been to get stronger both aerobically and functionally, my goal was to push myself at this race and measure my progress. The event was festive with many wearing great costumes and everyone was given antlers to wear. I did not wear the antlers as I knew that they would last about 2 minutes before I would be carrying them. Funny because within a few minutes I did see a guy carrying his and that affirmed my decision. Someday I will be festive but, yesterday was about gaging my training. My training hasn’t been anything unique in fact, it has been pretty much the same “intelligent training” approach we use for all of our runners at “No Finish Line Running. Controlled “repeats,” long runs at “specific pace” and an easy run in between. The race was definitely challenging as the distance was a bit unique (7.5 miles), and add in 5 plus miles of hills, you had a pretty difficult course to navigate pace wise. Instead of taking it easy early and playing it safe, I decided to get to the pace I felt strong enough to maintain and just challenge myself to stay with it for as long as I could. I did not rely much on my Garmin besides a few glances for an idea of my pacing so, it was going to be all feel for me. As I climbed the final tough hill around mile six I was pretty much tanked and definitely could not have climbed another. Thankfully the next mile was a nice downhill and mentally I needed that. The challenge mentally was that I actually didn’t know how long a 12k was but, I figured it was longer than 7 miles so deciding when to kick was tough. After the good downhill I decided to get back into a good strong rhythm and some spectator even commented as I went by about my nice pace. The finish line came into view about 300 meters out so I picked it up some and started telling myself what I tell others that approach the final distance “pump those arms!” I came through the finish line at 62:34 and I could not have been happier! I haven’t looked at the specific data yet and my only interest in the data will be pace constancy because, I am very pleased with my overall effort and ability to run strong. Running a tough course while maintaining the effort I was able to be was all I wanted from myself. I need to add back in a fourth day of training to my schedule but, overall I am pleased with the results. Great race and great outcome! Time to drink coffee with my wife now! Have a great Sunday! God Bless! Mike