PCTI Winter 5K Series, Race 4 (Finale) - March 4, 2018

The truth of the matter is this: speed training works. 

Even now, at a point when I am on the downswing and dealing with the reality that there will be no more PRs, doing the speed work still yields results. 

Case in point: This fourth and final race of the PCTI series ended up being my best of the bunch, likely because I have been hammering out 400s, 200s, tempo runs and 5Ks for the past three months.

While I was immediately ready for it to be over as soon as this fourth installment started, I felt good about keeping my leg turnover consistent after the initial downhill. Even the first big uphill did not feel like it took the wind out my sails the way it had in the previous races, so I was able to cruise into the first mile at 5:50, as I pushed from fifth to fourth place, passing Walter Hass (who quietly exclaimed, "Shit!" as I did so.  Sorry young Walter, the old guy passed you again.).

The steady incline before the second big descent slowed me down, but the downhill gave me a boost. The grunting and moaning started just before I hit the second mile marker at a 5:58, finally passing Anthony Bertollo and reclaiming my third place position once again. 

I was more than ready for this nonsense to end, yet somehow, my legs managed to push up the last big hill. I knew I needed to gut it out for only five more minutes. It hurt, but it was almost over. 

Digging into any reserve I could tap and extending my legs as much as possible, I hit mile three with an even 6:00, and mustered the best sprint I could. I finally hit the finish with an 18:53 (which would have been 18:27 if the course was not too long at 3.17 miles). 

At this point, I will take any race with a sub-6 average pace, so in addition to the beautiful trophy I took home for winning my age group, I consider this a personal win for my first and last 5K series.

"Never again," I told Rob Albano, the perennial and inevitable winner of this (and every) race.  He told me he said the same thing after his first series. 

We runners are gluttons for punishment, so I guess might, against my better judgment, end up doing this again next year.

My own personal 5K #2 - Feb. 18, 2018

Arrrrrrrrgh!

The email came on Saturday, before the snow even fell, that the fourth and final race of the Passaic County Technical Institute 5K series had been postponed until March 11.

Not only was I looking forward to getting the damn thing over with and never committing to a race series again, but the new date clashed with my own personal schedule.  This would mean that, in the end, I will have spent $100 on three small races on a difficult course that was incorrectly measured and I will have little to show for it because I will miss the finale.

Never one to waste valuable training, I did my own personal 5K again on Sunday, just as I had last month when the bitter cold shut down my intended post-marathon 5K.

Perhaps I can blame it on the strong wind or the steadily inclining point-to-point course I laid out, but it ended up being relatively bad anyway.  And it is probably my own fault for being way too inside my head, with my heart never really into it, no matter how much I convinced myself I was pushing with all my might.

The first mile had the biggest hill, so I surprised myself with a 5:56.  I thought I was keeping my leg turnover consistent, so the 6:11 of the second mile was a bit upsetting.  With only one more mile to go along the steady incline of River Road in Parsippany, I could not seem to pick up the momentum at all, as I hit mile three with another 6:11, finishing out the 3.1-mile course with 18:57 as my final time.  Not exactly the kind of result for which I was training.

On the other hand, perhaps my mind was not really in the game because I am simultaneously training for a March half-marathon, so this "race" was actually the first three miles of a 15-mile long run; and the last thing I wanted was to be burned out with 12 more miles to go.  I managed to do those next 12 miles at a pace in the mid-7s, which bodes well for my long game.


And then...

Aaaarrrrrrrrrrghhhh!!!!

Just when I had made my peace with my freedom from the race series, another email came Monday  morning - the race was re-re-scheduled for March 4.  A date on which I am completely available.  Which means this thing is not over yet...and I have to do two more weeks of speed training. 

My whole lower half hurts thinking about it.

PCTI Winter 5K Series, Race 3 - Feb. 3, 2018

Keeping race-winner Rob Albano's "tactical" description in mind, I had to be sure not to overdo it with the speed work. But repeating the last two weeks of Hal Higdon's Advance 5K training program, in the time between each of the four races in the PCTI winter series meant a day of eight 400-meter repeats, two tempo runs (45 minutes and 30 minutes) and quick six 200-meter repeats.

Of course, "overdoing it" is relative.  My 400s have been good, averaging in the low 1:20s; and my 200s have been OK, averaging around 40 seconds. No matter how hard I pushed on my tempo runs, though, I could barely get under a 6:00 pace, even for a few minutes.  That recurring and nagging problem with my glutes and piriformis kept me from really opening up.  My glutes are still in a constant state of soreness and a new pain in the back of my leg (my hamstring, probably) has been another source of recurring grief.

Since there was only one week between races #2 and #3, I was happy that it meant I had two taper weeks in a row (the 6x200 and the 30-minute tempo, plus two easy three-milers). 

My first mile in this third in the series was a mess mentally - Why am I out in front, with Rob Albano behind me? And damn, did I gain more weight (because I can feel my belly jiggling)?

I thought maybe Rob was messing with me, letting me taste the lead before nabbing it from me, but I later found out that he was taking it easy after having run a race the previous day.  Sheesh, and here I was complaining about having run a race last week.  And yes, I have gained five (or ten) pounds.

I was able to hang with Ryan Savercool until the first mile marker (5:50) before he broke away, with Rob passing me by to run alongside him. The gap continued to widen as they sped up and I slowed down. As with Race #1, pushing up that first hill took too much out of me, so by the time I hit the second mile (6:04 on my watch, but a little more on the too-long course), I was already grunting and gasping...and the gasping hurt because the air was so chilly.  

The long incline of Kattak Parkway seemed to suck whatever energy I had left, so the final steep descent into the last loop around the school was a relief, even though everything hurt and I simply could not get full extension from my legs. The rest of the third mile (6:05) was merely on fumes and my hard, mad dash to the finish line for the last two-tenths of a mile (still one tenth too long) took everything I had left. 

That allowed me to finish with an official time of 18:56 (third place again), though my real 5K time would have been closer to 18:26, coming in with a 5:59 pace.  I may be getting older and slower, but I am still sneaking in under a 6:00 pace.  Not only that, but everyone else in the top five each week has been younger than I (though Walter Hass was noticeably absent this week).

Unless something goes horribly wrong with me or unbelievably right with fourth placer Anthony Bertollo, I might have a lock on third place overall in this (admittedly very small) series.

PCTI Winter Series 5K, Race 2 - Jan. 28, 2018

How does one train for a race series?  

Though I have done a few back-to-back races, a series of four is new territory for me, so I have been trying to figure out how best to train. I asked the great Rob Albano (current and eventual winner of this series...and every other race he runs) and he said to think of the races as "tactical"; to regard them as "challenging workouts" rather than events for which to be in tip-top shape.  

But since I only do challenging workouts in order to get into tip-top shape for races, I still felt stuck.  However, I liked the word "tactical," so that got me thinking - what if I simply used the last two weeks of the Hal Higdon Advanced 5K training program and kept repeating them.  That would give me a peak week and a taper week before the first two and fourth races, and a single taper week before the third.

It was a rainy Sunday morning, but at least it was warmer than last time (low 40s), so once we got going, blasting off for that downhill, it did not take long to warm up, despite wearing shorts and a thin polyester long sleeve shirt. Naturally, Rob Albano darted out to the front, doing his insane 4:55 pace (you call that "tactical", Rob?), but this time three young guys formed a little pack in front of me.

After the first big uphill, and as we made our way to the first mile mark on Kattak Parkway, 15-year-old Anthony Bertollo (the fourth placer from last time) started to flag, so I overtook him as I hit the first mile mark (according to my Garmin) in 5:52, though the marker was up farther and clocked me in at 5:59.  Ross Mistretta, the race director had moved up the turnaround point to shorten the too-long course from last week, but he did not move it far enough.

Around the main Passaic County Technical Institute a second time, there was a slighter incline, but it still required some work and it was there that I started to make my move on 18-year-old Walter Hass (the fifth placer last time). As we rounded the corner, Ross was standing there and said to me, "Go get those young guys!"

So I did.  I closed the gap as we approached the second mile mark (6:01 on my watch) and, for the next uphill, near the police academy, I passed Walter and chugged along - never looking back, but always expecting him to be at my heels (though he was not).  However, I was also far from the heels of the second-placer (26 years old) Ryan Savercool and there was no catching him.

Finally cresting that last incline on Kattak and pushing into the downhill for the third time around the building, I focused on my leg turnover, taking big strides. I was starting to lose control of my breathing and my tummy started feeling the nausea of pushing too hard for too long, but I had picked the pace up to a 5:55 for the third mile (hitting it on my watch long before the marker) and threw everything I had into the final sprint, which ended up being two tenths of a mile, instead of one tenth.

My watch hit 3.1 at 18:28, and I hit the finish mat at 18:56, securing third place again. 

Having done more speed work and more hill training in the past two weeks - combined with the better weather - I managed to push my pace down by around seven seconds.  With the next race only one week away, instead of two, I will do the short bursts of speed work and take the extra rest days of the final-week taper, and hope I can keep up a consistent sub-6 pace for the remainder of the series.

PCTI Winter Series 5K, Race 1 - Jan. 14, 2018

"...so the course is a little long..." said Ross Mistretta, the organizer of the small PCTI Winter Series, as he explained the course turns before the race.

Wait, what?  Did I just not pay $100 to run a series of four USATF-certified 5Ks?  What do you mean the course is a little long?

It was 19 degrees, a little windy and the course was clearly going to be quite a bastard with its tough hills and twists and turns.  The last thing I needed was there to be more of it.

There were about 40 people at Passaic County Technical Institute this morning; and, aside from the always amazing Rob Albano, whom everyone knew would be the obvious winner, nobody seemed truly jazzed to be there.

Yet there we all were, about to run this difficult (and "little long") course for the first of four times.  Apparently, this is the first time in a few years that this series has been held, so Rob seemed especially happy for it to be back.  Me, I have never done a race series before, so this would be a new experience for me.

At the "go" command, we ran downhill and around the main PCTI building for a full loop, passing where we started (so, you know, going back uphill) and onto Kattak Road, which continued to be an incline. During this first mile, I settled into third place, but quickly overtook the man in front of me for a brief time in second place. 

The first half of the PCTI Winter Series course

We turned around just before reaching Oldham Road and, as I approached the first mile marker with an exhausting 6:09, but not before I heard footsteps coming up behind me quickly.  I thought the guy I passed was ratcheting it up, but instead it was someone different and there was no overtaking him.  His stride was long, his turnover was measured and his speed could not be matched by the likes of me.

I was already feeling gassed, so heading downhill and around the main building again (the opposite direction) was a boost.  But it was back uphill again as we rounded one parking lot and then ran through another, cutting through the police academy area before making our way toward the northern entrance, back at the top of Kattak Road.  I do not know what my second mile was, but it was damn slow, I can tell you that.

The second half of the PCTI Winter Series 5K course

Pushing again and trying to use that downhill for all it was worth as we rounded the main building a third time, and, finally, to the finish in front of the building, I maintained my third place standing, but the second place guy made sure it was distant. A finish time of 19:41 would have been extremely disappointing if not for the fact that it was freezing cold and the course was, according to Gloria's Garmin, approximately 3.2 miles long.  That means my real time was probably closer to 19:04. All things considered, I can live with that.