race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

running-forum.com
Promoting running discussion.

Main

Date: 10 Jul 2006 17:26:25
From: Charlie Pendejo
Subject: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

net 1:01:49 - #442 of 9407 finishers, 41/701 M35-39
gun 1:02:31 - nearly caught Olena Plastinina, who must've had a
horrible race

I achieved my primary goal of a top-500 finish, and along with having a
terrific weekend in all other respects that's enough to make me fairly
happy. I'd have been a lot happier with a sub-60, and during this last
week thought it might be a real possibility, as good as I was feeling
and as well as I was running through my prerace taper; but nope, not
this year.

Weather was quite good for a July race in this part of the country: 66F
at the 8 AM start rising to 72F an hour later, and not terribly humid,
dew point around 60F. I felt (still do) I had trained well, tapered
well, eaten, dressed, psyched, relaxed, massaged, hydrated, stretched
and generally lived well leading up to this, my big goal race of the
first half of the year.

Certainly chose a hotel well. While checking in at the Hotel Utica (a
really nifty and historic joint) Friday early evening, I noticed -
noticed? was practically gobstruck by - a row of tote bags behind the
reception desk. The bags were ordinary enough. They had names on
them: Rodgers, Shorter, Liquori, Dillon, Kuscsik, Corbitt, Lindgren,
Switzer, Robinson. Maybe +/- a name or two. Well, this is Boilermaker
HQ after all... and for a weekend, apparently just about the center of
the American distance running universe.

Saturday morning riding the elevator down from our 9th floor, we
stopped on 8 to pick up a very slim, fit fiftysomething runner. Could
it be? I felt 95% certain but would've been mortified to greet Bill
Rodgers and find out I had the wrong man. So instead Boston Billy
broke the ice, saying something to the two of us about appreciating the
elevator's oversized LED numerical display, "so you don't miss your
floor." All I managed was a wisecrack: "But I *already* miss my floor,
I *love* the ninth floor."

Enjoyed breezing through the small but inspirational Distance Running
Hall of Fame, then later that evening attending the 2006 induction
ceremony for said Hall, wherein the Hall welcomed Gerry Lindgren, Patty
Dillon, and on the strength of his buddyhood with Stumpus, Marty
Liquori. And K.V. Switzer's hubby, writer (and accomplished runner)
Roger Robinson, winner of the George Sheehan Award. Terrific stuff, to
hear these legends tell their stories, and to fell you could relate to
those stories in some respects, and to also know that nearly everyone
in the theater could similarly relate. Really touching.

Sunday morning I jogged a couple miles to the race start as a warmup,
with my attempt at a couple drills (high knees, butt kicks) and a few
strides. Felt a good mix of excited and relaxed, but also felt like
the easy running was taking more effort than it ought to - kind of like
running in heat and humidity does, except it wasn't very hot or humid.
Stopped jogging 10-15 minutes before the race, chased a caffeinated gel
with 6 ounces of water, and took my place (slightly further back than I
would've, had I better understood what I was looking at, but no
biggie). Nothing new here. The shoes were maybe a bit too not new: I
unretired my beat up but beloved Air Steak Ekidens - my favorite shoe
ever (reportedly a fave of P Radcliffe too), around 7 ounces, low heel
- in the hope that they might have a little magic left for me. I ran a
track workout in them Monday which went well; I'm not quite foolish
enough to wear 'em completely cold after a year.

Gun fired, about 40 seconds later I'm crossing the line. Crowd slowed
me a bit for the first quarter or half mile which, as I've come to
realize, might not be a bad thing at all in a race longer than five
kilometers. I'm used to this from all the Central Park races, and here
it's actually a lot better: thanks to a corral system, only a few who
lied about their projected time or snuck into the wrong corral in front
of me are completely out of place.

First mile passes in 6:57. My aggressive goal calls for about 33
seconds faster. But that's fine; a slightly slow first mile is far
preferable to an overly fast one in a race thing long. So I'll just
pick it up a notch, notch and a half, and hopefully that'll come to
6:20 or 6:25 or so for the next mile.

Nope! The legs just don't want to move that fast. There's not much
snap in the legs or in my mind. I can't honestly recall whether, in
the second mile, I was aware that my pace was considerably slower than
my effort seemed. or if I only learned this upon reaching the second
mile marker 6:41 after the first. Either way, by that time I realized
I wasn't gonna break an hour. I was pretty sure I knew how much effort
I could hope to sustain for about an hour, and that effort was moving
me forward at about 6:41 pace. A few races this spring I've tested
this judgement by telling my little voice to piss off and going a
little harder than it said I could, and have generally found the little
voice knows whereof it speaks. And besides, feeling a little dull
upstairs, I couldn't seem to rouse myself to override it anyway.

So I struggled uphill - yeah, it's not much of a hill to a Dan or a
Doug or a Dot, but I get winded ascending a second flight of stairs,
and yeah I do train on comparable hills multiple times a week - for a
6:54 and a 7:11. Then 6:01 downhill - whee, I'm whizzing past everyone
except the wheelchair dude who's whizzing past me but needing to brake
too much because the crowd won't reliably part for him. A 6:30,
another 7:04 uphill, and it's slightly downhill the last 2.3 miles. I
know this, having run the final 5 km (which is the course for a
separate 5k the same morning) with my other-gendered cohabitator Friday
evening.

I try everything I can think of to accelerate: flogging myself for
being so far behind where I'd like, thinking about all the good
training in my legs and the race triumphs earlier in the year, grooving
to the plentiful live and recorded music whether good ("JB and the
Boilermakers" or some such doing justice to "Sex Machine"; a less
talented but enthusiastic group, with horns, performing the Commodores'
"Brick House", a personal favorite of mine dating back to the 70's
roller skating craze in my little Midwestern backwater) or horrible
(Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger"; some crappy current pop). Grooving to
the music seemed a lot more effective than anything else. I felt it,
along with the friendly topography, helped me run a decent final few
miles - 6:17, 6:27.

The final point three (1:47) was the best racing I managed. At around
the nine mile marker a group of four of us - two boys, two girls - had
just pulled cleanly away from the 8800 runners behind us. And there
was quite a large gap in front of us as well. I willed myself to what
I reckoned was a pretty good kick, at least for someone with my lack of
speed. Aided by a negative slope I thought maybe I could pull away; I
tend to be faster than most of my peers on downhills, just as I lag on
uphills. But no, the other three covered my move and we ran together,
a bit like the fighter jets which would fly over the enormous postrace
party 90 minutes later. In the end I was enjoying the view of the two
twentysomething women who beat me to the finish, but I did manage to
edge out the other dude in our little quartet. The results don't show
four of us all alone, so I gather we must've gained on some runners and
had others catching us at the finish.

Enjoyed very much a number of (free) postrace beers - after the finish
line, you walk a block or two to the FX Matt brewery, outside of which
transpires an enormous party, maybe the biggest and best post-race
party anywhere. It seems like the whole town is there, not "just" ten
thousand runners and their entourages.

So on balance, a very good time was had by all, but I harbor a few
grains of frustration in believing that a better race was in there
somewhere and I just couldn't uncork it for reasons unknown to me.

Thus ends Racing Season 2006, Part One, for me. I've enjoyed much
success and improvement this spring. I hope - gods, thyroid, et al
willing - to notch it up another level by fall and run a good NYCM and
smash my half marathon PR to smithereens. First I plan to take these
next couple or three weeks pretty easy: moderate mileage and no hard
workouts, just a few strides.

Date: 10 Jul 2006 20:47:37
From: Charlie Pendejo
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

Dan wrote:
> Pendejo wrote:
>> nearly caught Olena Plastinina, who must've had a horrible race
>
> Maybe she was one of the ones who got you at the end?

Doubt it: she started up front with the elite field, as confirmed by
her chip and gun times being equivalent. If I had overtaken her and
then she rallied to pass me at the end, I'd like to think she'd have
recognized me and offered to hook me up with some of that good Ukranian
prune yogurt.

> The whole issue of pre-race prep always interests me, so here's
> my .02:

And thanks for your tuppence. I'm fascinated by it all, and welcome
all input.

> I prefer to warm up until the last possible minute [...] not always
> possible in a subway-station of a race, though.

Bingo. I was about as last-minute as practical in this case; waiting
so long to enter the fray ultimately cost me quite a few rows' worth of
position at the starting line. Though that didn't make a substantial
difference to my chip time. And FWIW (I don't know how much that is)
with this large and dense a starting-line crowd, you're surrounded by
enough body heat to stay plenty warm and loose.

> Also, I avoid sugar for at least 1 hour before a run. I've read that
> you can get a hypoglycemic reaction.

For me, I don't worry about the hypoglycemia because I eat the gel
during a brief break between the warmup and the race, so it seems like
exercise physiology still applies. Anyhow this routine's pretty
thoroughly race-tested for me, and I did the same before my biggest
breakthrough race, at Philadelphia this spring.

> My rule is to eat no more than 200 calories no less than 2 hours prior to
> the race. Otherwise I feel sluggish.

Yeah, half a banana, one small oatmeal raisin cookie, and coffee, 2.5
hours before race time. I've also raced reasonably well off a manly
full-sized breakfast 3 hours before race time, but that might only work
in Finland.

> Anyway, congrats on a reasonable time (a PR?)

Thanks, and yeah, 'twas a 5:43 PR, my only prior shot at the distance
having been the 2004 Boilermaker. Though I must've passed the 15k mark
a minute and a half sooner at the flat, straight, cool Philthy ten
miler.

Date: 11 Jul 2006 02:57:17
From: Dan Stumpus
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

"Charlie Pendejo" <Charlie.Pendejo@gmail.com > wrote

> net 1:01:49 - #442 of 9407 finishers, 41/701 M35-39
> gun 1:02:31 - nearly caught Olena Plastinina, who must've had a
> horrible race

Maybe she was one of the ones who got you at the end?

> I achieved my primary goal of a top-500 finish, and along with having a
> terrific weekend in all other respects that's enough to make me fairly
> happy.

We have so much in common. I, too try to finish in the top 500. However, I
make sure the races I enter have 200 or less.

> week thought it might be a real possibility, as good as I was feeling
> and as well as I was running through my prerace taper; but nope, not
> this year.

What god do we need to sacrifice to in order to keep those not-so-hot race
days away?

> Sunday morning I jogged a couple miles to the race start as a warmup....
> Stopped jogging 10-15 minutes before the race, chased a caffeinated gel
> with 6 ounces of water

The whole issue of pre-race prep always interests me, so here's my .02:

Dunno if this makes any difference to anybody else, but I prefer to warm up
until the last possible minute. I don't like to be idle for more than a
couple of minutes -- not always possible in a subway-station of a race,
though. It takes me a couple of minutes to feel up to speed if I stop even
a couple of minutes. In this case the slow start worked in your favor.

Also, I avoid sugar for at least 1 hour before a run. I've read that you
can get a hypoglycemic reaction. I think this may have hurt me in the past,
so I avoid anything stronger than water or coffee just prior to racetime.

My rule is to eat no more than 200 calories no less than 2 hours prior to
the race. Otherwise I feel sluggish. (I've run many pr's on nothing but a
cup of coffee in the morning; nowadays I have a very light breakfast).

Anyway, congrats on a reasonable time (a PR?), and may you hit the next race
on a really good day...

-- Dan

Date: 10 Jul 2006 18:58:06
From:
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

i'm impressed & proud of you charlie. seems you're on the positive
side of a tipping point and committed to realizing your maximum
potential as an athlete. you've made tremendous strides (pardon the
pun) and that's not easy in this hustle and bustle world we live in
with our lives being constantly pulled in any number of directions.
good for you. but don't quit, culminate your '06 w/a spectacular
NYCM. Good Luck.

Date: 10 Jul 2006 21:05:41
From: Jean S. Barto
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

I agree about the post-race grub--definitely the best food and drink after
any race I've been to, bar none--I ran the race back in 2002, and I was very
impressed that the food didn't run out for those like me at the back of the
pack.

Didn't that post-race popsicle just hit the spot??

Jean in VA

"Charlie Pendejo" <Charlie.Pendejo@gmail.com > wrote in message
news:1152577585.172409.226080@35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> net 1:01:49 - #442 of 9407 finishers, 41/701 M35-39
> gun 1:02:31 - nearly caught Olena Plastinina, who must've had a
> horrible race
>
> I achieved my primary goal of a top-500 finish, and along with having a
> terrific weekend in all other respects that's enough to make me fairly
> happy. I'd have been a lot happier with a sub-60, and during this last
> week thought it might be a real possibility, as good as I was feeling
> and as well as I was running through my prerace taper; but nope, not
> this year.
>
> Weather was quite good for a July race in this part of the country: 66F
> at the 8 AM start rising to 72F an hour later, and not terribly humid,
> dew point around 60F. I felt (still do) I had trained well, tapered
> well, eaten, dressed, psyched, relaxed, massaged, hydrated, stretched
> and generally lived well leading up to this, my big goal race of the
> first half of the year.
>
> Certainly chose a hotel well. While checking in at the Hotel Utica (a
> really nifty and historic joint) Friday early evening, I noticed -
> noticed? was practically gobstruck by - a row of tote bags behind the
> reception desk. The bags were ordinary enough. They had names on
> them: Rodgers, Shorter, Liquori, Dillon, Kuscsik, Corbitt, Lindgren,
> Switzer, Robinson. Maybe +/- a name or two. Well, this is Boilermaker
> HQ after all... and for a weekend, apparently just about the center of
> the American distance running universe.
>
> Saturday morning riding the elevator down from our 9th floor, we
> stopped on 8 to pick up a very slim, fit fiftysomething runner. Could
> it be? I felt 95% certain but would've been mortified to greet Bill
> Rodgers and find out I had the wrong man. So instead Boston Billy
> broke the ice, saying something to the two of us about appreciating the
> elevator's oversized LED numerical display, "so you don't miss your
> floor." All I managed was a wisecrack: "But I *already* miss my floor,
> I *love* the ninth floor."
>
> Enjoyed breezing through the small but inspirational Distance Running
> Hall of Fame, then later that evening attending the 2006 induction
> ceremony for said Hall, wherein the Hall welcomed Gerry Lindgren, Patty
> Dillon, and on the strength of his buddyhood with Stumpus, Marty
> Liquori. And K.V. Switzer's hubby, writer (and accomplished runner)
> Roger Robinson, winner of the George Sheehan Award. Terrific stuff, to
> hear these legends tell their stories, and to fell you could relate to
> those stories in some respects, and to also know that nearly everyone
> in the theater could similarly relate. Really touching.
>
> Sunday morning I jogged a couple miles to the race start as a warmup,
> with my attempt at a couple drills (high knees, butt kicks) and a few
> strides. Felt a good mix of excited and relaxed, but also felt like
> the easy running was taking more effort than it ought to - kind of like
> running in heat and humidity does, except it wasn't very hot or humid.
> Stopped jogging 10-15 minutes before the race, chased a caffeinated gel
> with 6 ounces of water, and took my place (slightly further back than I
> would've, had I better understood what I was looking at, but no
> biggie). Nothing new here. The shoes were maybe a bit too not new: I
> unretired my beat up but beloved Air Steak Ekidens - my favorite shoe
> ever (reportedly a fave of P Radcliffe too), around 7 ounces, low heel
> - in the hope that they might have a little magic left for me. I ran a
> track workout in them Monday which went well; I'm not quite foolish
> enough to wear 'em completely cold after a year.
>
> Gun fired, about 40 seconds later I'm crossing the line. Crowd slowed
> me a bit for the first quarter or half mile which, as I've come to
> realize, might not be a bad thing at all in a race longer than five
> kilometers. I'm used to this from all the Central Park races, and here
> it's actually a lot better: thanks to a corral system, only a few who
> lied about their projected time or snuck into the wrong corral in front
> of me are completely out of place.
>
> First mile passes in 6:57. My aggressive goal calls for about 33
> seconds faster. But that's fine; a slightly slow first mile is far
> preferable to an overly fast one in a race thing long. So I'll just
> pick it up a notch, notch and a half, and hopefully that'll come to
> 6:20 or 6:25 or so for the next mile.
>
> Nope! The legs just don't want to move that fast. There's not much
> snap in the legs or in my mind. I can't honestly recall whether, in
> the second mile, I was aware that my pace was considerably slower than
> my effort seemed. or if I only learned this upon reaching the second
> mile marker 6:41 after the first. Either way, by that time I realized
> I wasn't gonna break an hour. I was pretty sure I knew how much effort
> I could hope to sustain for about an hour, and that effort was moving
> me forward at about 6:41 pace. A few races this spring I've tested
> this judgement by telling my little voice to piss off and going a
> little harder than it said I could, and have generally found the little
> voice knows whereof it speaks. And besides, feeling a little dull
> upstairs, I couldn't seem to rouse myself to override it anyway.
>
> So I struggled uphill - yeah, it's not much of a hill to a Dan or a
> Doug or a Dot, but I get winded ascending a second flight of stairs,
> and yeah I do train on comparable hills multiple times a week - for a
> 6:54 and a 7:11. Then 6:01 downhill - whee, I'm whizzing past everyone
> except the wheelchair dude who's whizzing past me but needing to brake
> too much because the crowd won't reliably part for him. A 6:30,
> another 7:04 uphill, and it's slightly downhill the last 2.3 miles. I
> know this, having run the final 5 km (which is the course for a
> separate 5k the same morning) with my other-gendered cohabitator Friday
> evening.
>
> I try everything I can think of to accelerate: flogging myself for
> being so far behind where I'd like, thinking about all the good
> training in my legs and the race triumphs earlier in the year, grooving
> to the plentiful live and recorded music whether good ("JB and the
> Boilermakers" or some such doing justice to "Sex Machine"; a less
> talented but enthusiastic group, with horns, performing the Commodores'
> "Brick House", a personal favorite of mine dating back to the 70's
> roller skating craze in my little Midwestern backwater) or horrible
> (Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger"; some crappy current pop). Grooving to
> the music seemed a lot more effective than anything else. I felt it,
> along with the friendly topography, helped me run a decent final few
> miles - 6:17, 6:27.
>
> The final point three (1:47) was the best racing I managed. At around
> the nine mile marker a group of four of us - two boys, two girls - had
> just pulled cleanly away from the 8800 runners behind us. And there
> was quite a large gap in front of us as well. I willed myself to what
> I reckoned was a pretty good kick, at least for someone with my lack of
> speed. Aided by a negative slope I thought maybe I could pull away; I
> tend to be faster than most of my peers on downhills, just as I lag on
> uphills. But no, the other three covered my move and we ran together,
> a bit like the fighter jets which would fly over the enormous postrace
> party 90 minutes later. In the end I was enjoying the view of the two
> twentysomething women who beat me to the finish, but I did manage to
> edge out the other dude in our little quartet. The results don't show
> four of us all alone, so I gather we must've gained on some runners and
> had others catching us at the finish.
>
> Enjoyed very much a number of (free) postrace beers - after the finish
> line, you walk a block or two to the FX Matt brewery, outside of which
> transpires an enormous party, maybe the biggest and best post-race
> party anywhere. It seems like the whole town is there, not "just" ten
> thousand runners and their entourages.
>
> So on balance, a very good time was had by all, but I harbor a few
> grains of frustration in believing that a better race was in there
> somewhere and I just couldn't uncork it for reasons unknown to me.
>
> Thus ends Racing Season 2006, Part One, for me. I've enjoyed much
> success and improvement this spring. I hope - gods, thyroid, et al
> willing - to notch it up another level by fall and run a good NYCM and
> smash my half marathon PR to smithereens. First I plan to take these
> next couple or three weeks pretty easy: moderate mileage and no hard
> workouts, just a few strides.
>

Date: 11 Jul 2006 14:57:05
From: Daniel
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

On 10 Jul 2006 17:26:25 -0700, "Charlie Pendejo"
<Charlie.Pendejo@gmail.com > wrote:

>net 1:01:49 - #442 of 9407 finishers, 41/701 M35-39
>gun 1:02:31 - . . .

Wow, congratulations! All that hard work has paid off admirably for
you. [ . . . maybe when I have another 3000 miles logged I can press
forward so well! ]

I must say I am *so* relieved this was not a race report with *too
much information* about digestive glitches!

Good going!

Are you planning a 12 week prep for NYC Marathon?
--
Daniel ( deltaechomike@usa.net )

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Date: 11 Jul 2006 20:50:59
From: Parker Race
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

"Charlie Pendejo" <Charlie.Pendejo@gmail.com > wrote in message
news:1152577585.172409.226080@35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> net 1:01:49 - #442 of 9407 finishers, 41/701 M35-39
> gun 1:02:31 - nearly caught Olena Plastinina, who must've had a
> horrible race
>
> I achieved my primary goal of a top-500 finish, and along with having a
> terrific weekend in all other respects that's enough to make me fairly
> happy. I'd have been a lot happier with a sub-60, and during this last
> week thought it might be a real possibility, as good as I was feeling
> and as well as I was running through my prerace taper; but nope, not
> this year.

Did you see these guys (two on the right in yelow singlets)?
The one on the left finished just a little ahead of you but ended up in the
Medical tent.
http://www.teamutopia-usa.com/images/placidhalf04/lp5.jpg

> Weather was quite good for a July race in this part of the country: 66F
> at the 8 AM start rising to 72F an hour later, and not terribly humid,
> dew point around 60F. I felt (still do) I had trained well, tapered
> well, eaten, dressed, psyched, relaxed, massaged, hydrated, stretched
> and generally lived well leading up to this, my big goal race of the
> first half of the year.

Looks like you got lucky with the weather, the upcoming weekend looks not so
good, highs in the 90s and humid.
I Feel bad for DF and my friends who are doing the VT 100. Looks like I'll
be jogging the Indian Ladder trail races.

>
<rest appreciated but snipped >

Date: 11 Jul 2006 20:39:35
From: Dot
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

Charlie Pendejo wrote:

> net 1:01:49 - #442 of 9407 finishers, 41/701 M35-39
> gun 1:02:31 - nearly caught Olena Plastinina, who must've had a
> horrible race

From another post:
> Thanks, and yeah, 'twas a 5:43 PR, my only prior shot at the distance
> having been the 2004 Boilermaker.

Congratulations, Charlie! Top 500, top 5%, a 5:43 PR on a 1ish hr race
(about 8% drop). Sounds like you had a really nice race. Maybe didn't
get your sub 60, but getting there. Sounds like your training is paying
off. Keep it up!

Thanks for the race report - and some info about the race, including the
fact that a National Distance Running Hall of Fame exists. Road running
in lower 48 is really a world apart from where I am and what I'm exposed
to on a daily basis. ;) And I always find the concept of "distance
running" confusing. I thought Jim Ryun was a miler and Pre was 5k (?).
If it weren't for this ng, I wouldn't know the race (or the Hall of
Fame) even existed, never mind being fairly significant.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people"
-Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

Date: 11 Jul 2006 18:08:43
From: Tony S.
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

Date: 11 Jul 2006 18:09:54
From: Tony S.
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

"Tony S." <email_tonys@yahoo.com > wrote in message
news:LORsg.7790$aL2.2165@trndny07...
> "Charlie Pendejo" <Charlie.Pendejo@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1152577585.172409.226080@35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> > net 1:01:49 - #442 of 9407 finishers, 41/701 M35-39
> > gun 1:02:31 - nearly caught Olena Plastinina, who must've had a
> > horrible race
>
> Good job charlie - top 10%ish! I don't think you should be upset with
> yourself for not uncorking a faster one. All you can do is run your best
on
> race day right.
>
> -Tony, hoping similar (and rainless) conditions prevail in the Catskills
on
> July 30th...

I meant top 5%ish!

Date: 11 Jul 2006 09:54:21
From: Ed Prochak
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

Charlie Pendejo wrote:
> Dan wrote:
[]
> > Anyway, congrats on a reasonable time (a PR?)
>
> Thanks, and yeah, 'twas a 5:43 PR, my only prior shot at the distance
> having been the 2004 Boilermaker. Though I must've passed the 15k mark
> a minute and a half sooner at the flat, straight, cool Philthy ten
> miler.

yes Congratulations on a well run race
With thanks for a well written race report.

Now admit it, you were saving the fact it was a PR so someone could pry
it out of you. Enjoy the PR, it looks like ther are more to come.

Ed

Date: 18 Jul 2006 07:52:10
From: Charlie Pendejo
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

anders wrote:
> What's this about you and Ukrainan ladies?

That's a rhetorical question, right? I mean, presumably you've seen
your share of Ukranian ladies.

> I certainly don't see anything in the way of a 1:24:xx HM in
> the fall, if you choose to make one a goal race

Yeah, twenty-one four minute kilometers sounds like a good and fairly
plausible goal, even if that 1:24 figure looks a tad intimidating at
first glance.

> (and manage to master the art of focus, concentration, internal
> conversation and visualization)

You may be correct about these, though the only one of the four which
I'd identify as a common weakness in my racing is visualization. I
could certainly benefit from improvement - in racing as well as in a
wide array of challenging or novel situations in other areas of life -
in this realm; it just hasn't been a big part of my repertoire, and
isn't as simple to incorporate as deciding "OK, I'm going to
*visualize* now."

The other potential barriers I see to an eighty-four minute HM are:

[a] NYC's fall races - Central Park and Staten Island - have
topographical costs around a couple minutes apiece, relative to a flat
course like this spring's Philadelphia ten miler. There's a flat, fast
(Deena Kastor ran an American record in 2005 before breaking it in
Berlin this year) half marathon in Philly, but it's held in
mid-September, right in the middle of NYCM training.

[b] Thyroid. I'll refrain from extrapolating "TSH-adjusted" times for
any of my recent or future race times, but I strongly suspect (and
fervently hope) my thyroid dysfunction has been a rather substantial
factor in my running and my life, and that getting my glands in order
(hopefully a painless and reasonably straightforward process!) may
yield significant results. OTOH maybe my running will stay about the
same but I'll have enough energy to stay awake and mentally sharp the
rest of the day, keep up with much higher BMI folks climbing stairs,
and not require skin cream eight months out of the year. I see a bona
fide (and maybe Ukranian-American; fingers crossed) endocrinologist,
Dr. Olga L, tomorrow.

> Anders (who doesn't mind the sound of approaching footsteps)

I'm afraid mine aren't approaching with the rapidity of marko's (I
suppose by now his are actually receding), but yeah, I'd love to line
up next to you as plausible competition in some race during a future
visit (no current plans) to your country.

Date: 24 Jul 2006 18:33:02
From: Donovan Rebbechi
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

On 2006-07-18, Charlie Pendejo <Charlie.Pendejo@gmail.com > wrote:

> The other potential barriers I see to an eighty-four minute HM are:
>
> [a] NYC's fall races - Central Park and Staten Island - have
> topographical costs around a couple minutes apiece, relative to a flat
> course like this spring's Philadelphia ten miler. There's a flat, fast
> (Deena Kastor ran an American record in 2005 before breaking it in
> Berlin this year) half marathon in Philly, but it's held in
> mid-September, right in the middle of NYCM training.

For whatever reason, people often run fast times not only in Staten which is
in my opinion actually a fairly moderate course, but also in central park
(which really is quite slow). You might find that being in peak condition and
running in cool conditions gives you that extra push even though the course is
not easy.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

Date: 18 Jul 2006 02:57:50
From: anders
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

Charlie Pendejo kirjoitti:

> net 1:01:49 - #442 of 9407 finishers, 41/701 M35-39
> gun 1:02:31 - nearly caught Olena Plastinina, who must've had a
> horrible race

What's this about you and Ukrainan ladies?:-) Olena might have suffered
from her old "foot separation issue", something to do with her
Achilles.

> I achieved my primary goal of a top-500 finish, and along with having a
> terrific weekend in all other respects that's enough to make me fairly
> happy. I'd have been a lot happier with a sub-60, and during this last
> week thought it might be a real possibility, as good as I was feeling
> and as well as I was running through my prerace taper; but nope, not
> this year.

I was going to congratulate you on making the grade as a runner as I
once set it for myself - running faster than 4:00min/km for longer than
1 hour - but then I remembered the Boilermaker wasn't a 10-mile race.
So I'll have to wait. (BTW since it was a 15-km race, you would've been
in a kind of catch-22 anway...)

> (...)

> Thus ends Racing Season 2006, Part One, for me. I've enjoyed much
> success and improvement this spring. I hope - gods, thyroid, et al
> willing - to notch it up another level by fall and run a good NYCM and
> smash my half marathon PR to smithereens.

I certainly don't see anything in the way of a 1:24:xx HM in the fall,
if you choose to make one a goal race (and manage to master the art of
focus, concentration, internal conversation and visualization). At the
lower end of expectation I would find a barely missed sub-1:26 as a
prep race - and a very solid benchmark M, provided you won't stumble on
the carpet edge or start believing that the time's already ripe to go
for sub-3.

Anders (who doesn't mind the sound of approaching footsteps)

Date: 24 Jul 2006 02:48:35
From: anders
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

Charlie Pendejo wrote:

> > What's this about you and Ukrainan ladies?
> That's a rhetorical question, right? I mean, presumably you've seen
> your share of Ukranian ladies.

Both with and without a moustasche:-) It can indeed be quite something
to walk in the main street or park of *any* city, big or small, in
Ukraine on a summer's day - especially if one is what is sometimes
called a legman (but this is not to say that either one of us is...).

> Yeah, twenty-one four minute kilometers sounds like a good and fairly
> plausible goal, even if that 1:24 figure looks a tad intimidating at
> first glance.

Three four-minute kilometres meant a result of 3000m in the Cooper
test, i.e. the mark that used to separate the men from the boys (and
the nerds and the fatties) in high school. Since I was first quite crap
at running and then quite adept at rebelling against the Phys Ed
teacher I never made it (until I was playing at being a soldier six
months after graduation) and therefore it was quite thrilling to think
that I'd (almost) covered a HM distance at that pace.

And, indeed, a goal must, in order to serve as a goal, not only be
plausible, but also look a tad intimidating at first glance. One must
not only believe that one can achieve it, but one must also believe
that one can only achieve it if one believes one can do it:-)

> > (and manage to master the art of focus, concentration, internal
> > conversation and visualization)

> You may be correct about these, though the only one of the four which
> I'd identify as a common weakness in my racing is visualization. I
> could certainly benefit from improvement - in racing as well as in a
> wide array of challenging or novel situations in other areas of life -
> in this realm; it just hasn't been a big part of my repertoire, and
> isn't as simple to incorporate as deciding "OK, I'm going to
> *visualize* now."

It is possible you're just counter-deadpanning to my deadpan, but I'm
surprised you didn't immediately recognize that sports psychological
quartet of magic words as stemming from Lance's book:-) I am not quite
as keen on the "mumbojumbo" as he is (or portrays himself as being).

IMHO it is sufficient to relax and let go of the clutter in one's mind:
put one foot in front of the other and your mind will follow! One can
seek to emulate what the elites do for the sheer fun - or vanity - of
it, but it won't make any discernible difference to any available-time
athlete who doesn't race for a podium position.

> [a] NYC's fall races - Central Park and Staten Island - have
> topographical costs around a couple minutes apiece, relative to a flat
> course like this spring's Philadelphia ten miler. There's a flat, fast
> (Deena Kastor ran an American record in 2005 before breaking it in
> Berlin this year) half marathon in Philly, but it's held in
> mid-September, right in the middle of NYCM training.

One of my pet theories is that we are racing at such a humble level of
intensity that these kind of courses with relatively small and short
hills cannot really cost us more than tens of seconds unless we let
them. If we won't bow to them, we'll gain back most of the time lost
on the ensuing downhills.

(The way to tackle Central Park hills is to visualize yourself as a
free diver seeking a record depth: after six strong, but unhastened
purposeful strokes you simply relax. let your heart beat slow down and
let yourself sink deeper and deeper, equalizing the pressure in your
ears by taking air into your mouth. Once you've reached the
marker/crest, you let yourself up/down and gasp for air...)

> [b] Thyroid. I'll refrain from extrapolating "TSH-adjusted" times for
> any of my recent or future race times, but I strongly suspect (and
> fervently hope) my thyroid dysfunction has been a rather substantial
> factor in my running and my life, and that getting my glands in order
> (hopefully a painless and reasonably straightforward process!) may
> yield significant results. (...)

OK, I'll grant you that you may need to get this issue sorted out
before getting the kind of results I'm seeing for you. A drawback of
being in good shape is that you =B4may develop some kind of health
problem and still feel sort of okay - while if you'd been in barely
decent shape, the same problem would've left you feeling fairly rotten
and you'd therefore have known - and had to - to do something about it
much earlier.

(I certainly believe this was so in my case; in hindsight - now that I
know how I *should've* felt before, during and after training - I was
clearly suffering from poor health, but all the time I believed I was
just two or three weeks of serious training away from being in a good
enough shape to train seriously. I had gradually lost the memory of how
good training felt and I ended up straining and straining instead of
training. No wonder I got more and more disinclined to and even
despondent about running sub-three...)

> I'm afraid mine aren't approaching with the rapidity of marko's (I
> suppose by now his are actually receding), but yeah, I'd love to line
> up next to you as plausible competition in some race during a future
> visit (no current plans) to your country.

Well, the sound of Marko's footsteps was never really audible behind
me, he just lacked a recent result to match his pace.

As for your lining up with me as close competition - I sure hope not,
I'd like to match every second your improvement in pace with two of my
own:-)

Although if it'll happen also in other than a virtual sense, chances
are not excessively remote it couldn't take place on Manhattan (and
other boroughs) - but, if we are to dream up travel plans, why couldn't
we strive to make Steve's long repeated wish true next year, too, and
meet on neutral ground somehwere in France?:-)

Anders

Date: 24 Jul 2006 19:46:29
From: steve common
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

"anders" <hop.allez@suomi24.fi > wrote:

>but, if we are to dream up travel plans, why couldn't
>we strive to make Steve's long repeated wish true next year, too, and
>meet on neutral ground somehwere in France?:-)

Now yer talking. I'll need all the advantages of neutrality I can get ;-)

Date: 05 Aug 2006 09:50:56
From: Charlie Pendejo
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

anders wrote:
> Pendejo wrote:
>> common weakness in my racing is visualization
>
> It is possible you're just counter-deadpanning to my deadpan, but
> I'm surprised you didn't immediately recognize that sports
> psychological quartet of magic words as stemming from
> Lance's book:-)

Most of the time you'd be right: I counter-deadpan with the best of
'em. But that time you must've caught me in a moment of weakness.

Ah well, no less a runner and writer than Amby Burfoot recently wrote
(on his blog: http://ambyburfoot.blogspot.com):

I started wondering: Is there anything that can numb the
pain of racing hard? Like when you're at the 2-mile mark
in an all-out 5000 meters, and you really wonder if you
can keep it going. It would be nice to have some
distraction, or something to cover up the pain.

[...]

I know many running psychologists who claim we can do much
with various "visualizations." I've never been able to get
these to work, unfortunately. I'd like to pretend that I'm
dangling my feet in a cool mountain lake, but I just can't
tear my thoughts away from that last mile.

> A drawback of being in good shape is that you may develop
> some kind of health problem and still feel sort of okay - while
> if you'd been in barely decent shape, the same problem
> would've left you feeling fairly rotten and you'd therefore have
> known - and had to - to do something about it much earlier.

Yeah, and it can also cut the other way: some muscle or chemical ratio
or weak tendon might present no obstacle to a sedentary person, but is
a notable weak link to even a halfway dedicated recreational athlete.
This is most dramatic and tragic when the athlete is, say, a weekend
warrior marathoner and the weak muscle is the heart; but I've read and
believe that it's also not uncommon (1) for endurance athletes to be
diagnosed with things like thyroid problems. A 30 minute 10k runner
will know something's wrong if his performance deteriorates to 32:15;
his obese, smoking cousin who works in an office may, at most, find
himself huffing and puffing up a flight of stairs and make a quick and
quickly forgotten promise to himself that he's "gotta get in shape one
of these days".

> now that I know how I *should've* felt before, during and after
> training [...] I had gradually lost the memory of how good
> training felt

Right. And how does one bottle that feeling for future comparison?

How can one answer the dor's question, "do you have low energy?"

"Maybe... I think so... but of course I've never been this old before,
nor have I pushed my body this much, this consistently, and my 'life
stresses', don't get me started... how am I *supposed* to feel given
all that? Tell you what, I can say pretty definitively that I wouldn't
mind having more energy more of the time, as long as we're not talking
total nervous wreck."

> why couldn't we strive to make Steve's long repeated wish
> true next year, too, and meet on neutral ground somewhere
> in France?

That doesn't sound half bad! And it gives the old lady - who parlays a
bit of Frahnsay - a reason to stick around another year too.

(1) Sorry scientists, I've got no formal survey to support the
implication that a higher ratio of athletes is diagnosed than of couch
potatoes, nor that the athletic activity serves more as an indicator
than as a cause of the problem.

Date: 07 Aug 2006 04:01:49
From: anders
Subject: Re: race report: Utica Boilermaker (2006)

Charlie Pendejo kirjoitti:

> Ah well, no less a runner and writer than Amby Burfoot recently wrote
> (on his blog: http://ambyburfoot.blogspot.com):
> I started wondering: Is there anything that can numb the
> pain of racing hard? Like when you're at the 2-mile mark
> in an all-out 5000 meters, and you really wonder if you
> can keep it going. It would be nice to have some
> distraction, or something to cover up the pain.

I've raced so seldom that my solution to that has been simply to sort
of embrace the pain and so far I've managed to convince myself that I'd
"better enjoy it right now and right here because soon it'll be too
late". It's a variation of "Pain is temporary, glory is eternal", but
works better for me because I'd have difficulty kidding myself about
the glory part.

Then again, the best painnumber in races would IMHO be fear that is
directly brought upon you by the race situation: fear of dropping from
a pack, fear of being caught up by someone behind you, fear of not
catching up with the runner in front of you. The finest methods cooked
up by the best sports psychologists in the world pale in comparison
with what nature has developed in man!

> I know many running psychologists who claim we can do much
> with various "visualizations." I've never been able to get
> these to work, unfortunately. I'd like to pretend that I'm
> dangling my feet in a cool mountain lake, but I just can't
> tear my thoughts away from that last mile.

How can you run fast when your mind's feet are dangling in a lake?:-)
That would strike me the kind of dissociative visualization you could
better use if you had anxiety attacks in elevators or when you feel
unfomfortable and thirsty during a long run on a hot day.

I've understood that associative techniques tend to work better for
races, and IMHO for instance, repeating positive thoughts, picturing
yourself running with your best possible form and seeking a relaxed
state by consciously observing tension in your body would be far more
effective than trying to pretend that you are doing something else
somewhere else.

Anyway, if the kind of visualization mentioned above is to be at all
succesful, the imagery must be extremely strong and vivid, the scene
and the sensations immediately associated with it must be
extraordinarry, direct and primary. If you have never dangled your feet
in a cool mountain lake in an unusually memorable way, you are more
likely to end up with sense of unease whenever you receive a postcard
from the Adirondacks than to find your way to a new 5K PB:-)

FWIW my "last mile technique" involves a deep early childhood memory of
running down a hillside towards a stream that had dug itself throught
red soil and over a wooden plank bridge with the crowns of the fir
trees reaching high up in the blue sky on an August day - even as I
type this I only need to close my eyes to sense the various smells and
the feel of the sand and the wood under my bare feet. I have to move my
legs faster, I hear the booming sound of my steps on the bridge, I
cannot stop, there is no place I'd rather be now, this moment could
last forever, thud thud, faster etc. You get the drift, don't you?:-)

OTOH I remain pretty sceptic about the actual measurable results; I
might have been just as fast concentrating on the pain or on the next
guy's irritating choice of apparel or focusing on the next day's lunch
menu or just letting my mind wander...

Anders

PS for a quickish view of the conclusions of recent scientific research
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0991.htm