From bobg@Radix.Net Tue May 30 09:46:27 EDT 2000
Article: 219183 of rec.running
Path: news1.radix.net!saltmine.radix.net!not-for-mail
From: bobg@Radix.Net (Robert Grumbine)
Newsgroups: rec.running
Subject: Just a few seconds
Date: 30 May 2000 09:30:12 -0400
Organization: RadixNet
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Status: R

  What a difference a few seconds can make!

  Since finishing my 10k last month, I've been thinking towards
a July mile race.  Much shorter, faster and more intense.  To start
getting a feel for what 'fast' felt like, I've planned on adding
in some time trials -- hard efforts at short, 2 mile and under, distances.
Two weeks ago, I ran a very disappointing 800m.  Not the time so much,
but the fact that I couldn't summon 'the bear'*.  No speed to start
with and slowed down a lot.

   In the last two weeks, I've put in a couple tempo runs, pickups
into my relaxed runs, and while on travel last week, paced off 100m
and ran 8 nearly full-out, uphill, and into a wind.  (Not that the 
slope or wind were all that major, but it sure wasn't downhill 
and wind-aided).  More significant, probably, is that although the
r.o.l. situation continues and worsens, I've made some adaptations to it.
Rather like running hills* -- not that it's fun or easy to be running
up The Hill, but that at this point, I know that I _can_ make it up
The Hill.

  Anyway, I went to the tack Saturday to run hard.  The original plan was
3200m, but we had several walkers in lanes 1 and 2.  So, time for another 
round of bear-baiting at 800m.  Hit the first 400 2 seconds faster (only)
but felt much more in control.  Started that 3rd 200 reaching for a 'kick'
(don't have one, but the thought counts) and held form this time.  At the
start of the last 200, I still hadn't attracted the bear, but at least 
felt like I was working rather than slogging.  Time to start focussing 
on the finish line.  Coming out of the last turn, I finally attracted a 
small bear.  In running an 800 I feel bad (as last time) if I don't call 
one up, so I took the good sign and carried it across the finish.

  This time out, just 4 seconds slower on lap 2 -- just what has happened
on my best 800's.  So ... held form/pace as proper to me for a good 800,
called a small bear, beat last times' time by 8 seconds, AND an (old age)
PR by 3 seconds!  Also hits some personally significant times from when
I was younger.  Along the way, it's clear that there's a lot more time
to come off, say with training to the 800, attracting a full-sized bear,
and maybe some competition.

  Since I'd planned on 3200m, I decided I should try another distance.
While recovering (10 minutes walk/jog, mostly walk) I debated between
200m and 400m.  It was conservatism vs. taking the dare/chance, respectively
(perception is all).  I decided to take the dare -- run the 400 for which
I had no real preparation or background (and little idea of _how_) as
hard as I could and just see what happened.  Hit the first 100 hard and 
try to hang on was the idea.  Remember profwdesk's comment that I was
probably thinking too much about breathing, when 400 is a real anaerobic
race.  Well, whatever it was, I did hammer the 400, taking 1.4 seconds
of my (o.a.) best, broke a 10 second barrier, and for the first time, beat
the average pace of my best HS 800m.  Better yet, in terms of future 
400's, I felt at the end like I could have held form/pace for another
100-200m.

  In the grand scheme, of course, little has changed.  The Olympic
committee, or even a local running club, are no more likely to 
recruit me than ever.  But the personal satisfaction from those few 
seconds is immense.  No only do the times have personal meaning (more
than I realized for the 400m), and that they were accomplished in a 
way that promises more in the future, but in the running I finally 
was able to hold focus over both the running and r.o.l. challenges.  !!



* The bear is shorthand for the lactic acid overload that you get in
running at a pace well above the maximum rate you can feed oxygen to
the body to carry out the energy cycle.  The alternate route doesn't
need the O2, but it produces lactic acid.  As the lactic concentration
increases, your legs feel heavier and heavier -- as if you were carrying
a bear on your back.

* Speaking of hill running, I went to a 5 mile hilly course race Monday
too.  Not a full race effort, more by way of a tempo/strength run.  Still,
it was nice to make it up the hills in good form.  Numerologists note:
my place, time (to nearest minute, only a few seconds away), age, and 
last two digits of my number were all the same.  (First digit was 7).

-- 
Robert Grumbine http://www.radix.net/~bobg/ Science faqs and amateur activities notes and links.
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much 
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they 
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences