A Bit of Running and the Dangers of Linear Extrapolation (no Politics)

Running Notes: Last night, I helped out at the Bradley Cross Country Meet. Rain had made the course into a mess and the times were slow, by NCAA standards (thought there were good runners there).

I got a kick out of one young lady XC runner asking me if I had run in the Olympics years ago. I replied “of course; 1984 marathon, 2:09:20″. Just kidding. Actually I replied that the only way I’d get into the Olympics is to buy a ticket.

Morton 10k Pumpkin Fest race. The results are already up; my shame there for all to see. Yeah, you have to scroll down to 262 to find me (out of 418). Was it really only 1999 when I ran in the 42s for this course? (scroll down to number 66)

The interesting thing is that my place was higher in this 10K run (in terms of percentage) than it was in the 5K swim, even though I was much more prepared for the latter.

The reason: in running, if you get too tired, you can do a slow walk. In swimming…well you swim or you drown!

Anyway, about the race: Time: 57:15. Yes, it was supposed to be a “run”.
How it went: I did some walking and then some light walk/jogging to warm up (about 2 miles); the day was very overcast and we were between heavy rain showers. The streets were wet. The humidity was literally 100 percent and the air temperatures in the 70′s; very sticky.

I lined up way in the back and eased into mile 1 in 9:12. I was far enough back to see almost everyone but yet close enough to feel as if I were part of the race. I admit it was kind of fun just to run with friends without being at puke intensity.

We turned into a semi-rural neighborhood and mile 2 came at 18:34 (9:21). I noticed that I was gaining on folks without really trying to; I could hear lots of heavy breathing. I still felt relaxed and I focused on my torso; I tend to bend forward from the waist.

I knew from experience that the mile 3 marker is short and the mile 4 marker is accurate (that is, mile 3 is at about 2.9 and mile 4 is really at mile 4) so I ignored the mile 3 marker and recored mile 4 in 37:39 (19:05 for the last 2). I heard some sighs of discouragement from those who had thought that they had slowed down on mile 4.

By then we were running past farms.

We then turned into a neighborhood and mile 5 came at 47:02 (9:22). I wasn’t feeling that bad so I decided to pick it up a little to something resembling a race effort (don’t laugh; my running conditioning sucks right now)

I made it my goal to pass someone who seemed to be about 200 meters ahead (and of course, everyone in between) and I got them all, though my target got me back at about 50 meters to go. Then I remembered him; he is a USAFA graduate that I had bantered with in the past! (Like John McCain, I am a USNA graduate)

So my last 1.2 miles was done in 10:13 or at about 8:30 mpm, my old marathon pace.

Afterwards, I walked around a bit and congratulated Kevin Carrigan (who ran at 7:27 mpm) and who had sent me a card thanking me for cheering him on last weekend.

Then I made a yoga class at the Riverplex. I found that the instructor’s personality to be completely grating, but she gave good feedback and was really good at demonstrating the poses. Yes, she was attractive too, personality aside. But more importantly, I left with a good stretch.

The Dangers of Linear Extrapolation

Hey, two weeks ago, my time for a road 10K course was 1:00:44, so I improved by 3:30 (3 and one half minutes). That is 1:15 minutes worth of improvement per week. So at this race of improvement: 24 x 1.25 = 30 minutes, and 57:15 – 30 = 27:15. So, in 24 weeks (less than 6 months), I’ll be racing at world class speed!

Does anyone want to buy stock in my road racing career?

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