Active Community: Message List - May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:42:00 GMT

Ribs,

It woudn't bother me even a tiny bit. You ran the race they based your handicap on to the best of your ability and you did the same thing in this one. If the director didn't allow for the possibiity that someone could improve, then that's his mistake. I've run in a few handicap races, and for every one the runners have been asked to predict their times the day of the race or on the entry. If you had been asked I'm sure you would have predicted something very close to what you ran. You didn't sandbag! You just improved through good ol' fashioned hard work.

Don't you dare give that thing back! There couldn't possibly have been a more deserving runner in that field.

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:17:09 GMT

Thanks so much Jim and Sierra, but as much fun as it was to "win", the whole thing has bothered me all day. I talked it over with the Saint and I am going to give the prize back to the RD and ask him to use it for an upcoming race where maybe some newbies can get some reward from it, even if they pick names out of a hat for door prizes for people showing up, it would be great for his monthly race. These guys do it on a shoestring and don't need old guys playing games with each other.

I figure I win in two ways. I got to brag on the internet a bit, and by clearing my conscience about the prize that relieves me of the whole issue. Spareribs

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:14:49 GMT

Agree with Jim, Ribs. You didn't know that they were handling the awards differently, and the handicap thing took you by surprise--Enjoy.

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:45:40 GMT

Ribs, congrats on running the race at a faster pace than what you had been shooting for. Very good. Strange thing, that handicapping.

It sounds like you got in a good nearly 8 mile run as well.

Friday was 3 miles with my dog. Saturday: 4 miles after work in the fog and gloom here (I like it, it keeps it cool).

Today was 10 and a half miles, slow, about 10:45 mm overall. I felt last weekend's backpack in this run. A good, long backpack, given that it uses many of the same muscles as running, impacts my running the week afterward. It's as if I ran a race last weekend. My legs were tired today at 6 miles but I just pushed on. I was determined to get in a long run, though I didn't plan for a certain distance ahead of time. I hoped for 10. During the run, I added a few hills, and the variety of terrain helped the fatigue. The last two and half miles were all downhill on my favorite part of this course, which I reversed on this run. So, it was under oaks on mostly deserted streets. A big dog nearly made me jump out of my skin, though~~he was on a leash but was able to jump up on his owner's rock wall. He just appeared on the wall, growling, and for a moment I couldn't see the leash~~-he was too close for comfort. I've been bit before so I'm wary of dogs now when I run.

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:54:04 GMT

Great story Ribs,

Hope you don't fill too guilty about spending your winnings. You've come a long way baby!

Jim

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Sun, 31 May 2009 16:21:25 GMT

"Spareribs, we'll give you a ten minute handicap."

"Thanks," I said. "I could use it!" So I paid my money and went over to talk with my friend Terry who is a member at the Lake Grapevine club and he starts telling me about the handicap they gave him.

I said, "Wait a minute! This is a handicap race? I thought that guy was kidding me."

So of course they have in their db my previous times at this race which I ran after surgery. I think my first race there in November I ran a 10:24 pace, and eventually got it to 8:37 pace, but then ran another 5K elsewhere at an 8:32 pace. I could have gone back and changed it, but I didn't when my two AG enemies, Scott and John showed up and I learned Scott, who is way faster than I am now, was given 9:45. I have no idea what John's was. Had this been any other race but the Carrolton race I would have immediately gone back and adjusted for my current best 5K time, the 8:32 pace, because my goal today was to run it in 8's. But this race is very low key. Everyone gives back the trophies for example, and most of us are just competing with our AG friends. I thought no more about it since Scott's handicap was so large and I figured overall they were probably about right.. We get some high school speedsters who run it in 16 minutes.

So Scott and I and a few others hang around a bit after I did my 2.2 mile warm up and needle each other about handicaps. The Saint ran to the race from the house, about 3.7 miles away and her plan was to run home after the race. She got an 11 minute handicap. So the race starts and they send people off in groups and there is all this catcalling of "CHEATER!" and stuff like that, aimed at the earlier groups to go off.

When the big clock face counts down to 11 minutes off goes the Saint, and I follow one minute later. At about 3/4 of a mile I passed her and she kindly mumbled "SANDBAGGER!" as I went by. As I was running alone I had no idea what my pace was but I was determined to run this race in 8's and also not to go out too fast, so I was pretty pleased to look at my watch at one mile and see 8:08. I was VERY comfortable at one mile.

And I was comfortable at 2 miles with my 7:44. So now all I had to do was pick off the slower people who went out ahead of me, and I got the last guy at 2.5 miles. I ran just steady and fairly comfortably the rest of the way with no one near me, 7:59 for the 3rd mile and a kickless 47 for the final tenth and 24:39, or 7:57's for the race.

Now here is the part I feel bad about. Instead of the normal scoring with AG trophies etc. which is what I thought it would be, they gave a $25 gift certificate from a local running store! I figured later on that if I had gone back and given them a more realistic predicted time before the race that I would never have won, but I didn't realize how they were going to do the awards. They have never given prizes before. The 2nd and 3rd place winners got running socks. Of course had I done that, Scott would have won and he sandbagged almost as bad as I did.

I ran the course again to cool down and when I came back Scott and some of my friends were sitting in camper chairs drinking beer. We talked about that scene in "The Sting" when Doyle Lonigan, after losing at cards to Henry Gandolph, complains about not being able to tell Gandolph that he was a better cheater. I talked to the RD after the race and told him I felt bad about the prize, but he said only that he was very happy to see how my running improved and that he was happy to see me running so well, so that is something. Spareribs

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:01:51 GMT

Thanks Ribz for update on SS. She writes too cryptic for me to understand most of the time. Good luck on your 5k tomorrow.

Simon - good luck on your 10K.

Did my 5k this morning sans any type of timing device. Ran purely to race and not worry about time. Finished 4th oa. in 19:08. First was 16:40. @nd was 18:54 and third ? The 2nd and 3rd guys were high school boys. Gaining on them but just couldn't pass them when they felt my presence. Race them two a month ago and much closer today even with a slow time. Heat and humidity horrific this morning. Race was a charity for a volunteer fire dept. It was their 1st annual and they did a good job except for starting the race at 8 a.m. instead of 7.

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:13:10 GMT

Simon, the thing with Clayton at Antwerp when he ran the 2:08 and it was such a big deal is that years later people tried to say the course was short. It was a very fast course and by then no one knew where the exact start and finishes were. He didn't take kindly to this kind of talk as you can imagine. It was a huge record at the time.

Since my track workout of Wednesday I have just run a couple of days easy, and tomorrow I will race a fiveK just to see about where I am, because I like to use that info to adjust track paces. Maybe I will do this at 8 minutes a mile. We'll see. KS is getting worse weather than I am. He is down south in TX on the Gulf of Mexico where it gets very hot and humid. In North TX where I am it is 72 degrees in the morning all this week so I am pretty comfortable. People don't run in the afternoons here in TX unless they are crazy. I ran 36 miles this week with no long run.

KS, you inquired on KR about SS and where she is going. She is loading up that van she bought and spending the summer just driving around the U.S. and Canada and visiting friends. She will see Millbot in Utah, and WJ, Glider, Lad and others in Portland. She just doesn't want to say too much. Spareribs

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Sat, 30 May 2009 16:21:58 GMT

For some reason I had never heard of Derek Clayton- what a punishing training regimen! Australia and New Zealand had some great runners in the 1950's and 60's, milers particularly.

I have done very little running over the last month, just a few tempo runs, lots of excuses I won't bore you with for now.

A local 10k tomorrow appeals to me, hilly loop course, but cheap to enter and close by, so I may give it a try. After that I will get down to training for my half in October.

Re: May - 50 Plus Training and Racing

guest — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:40:25 GMT

Derek Clayton:

http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=50776.html

"Really? Gebrselassie ran 250km (156 miles) a week during his buildup to Berlin. Well, Clayton ran 250 miles a week.

“It was all experiment," he says now. “I didn't have books or magazines back in my day. I was flying blind.

“No-one

had done what I did. There was no-one to talk to. No-one knew anything

much about marathon running, had a lot of experts on 1500m and 5000m

but not on marathon running. I was a bit of a pioneer.

“I was shooting in the dark a bit, so I tried 250 miles a week later in 1969.

“I just wanted to see how my body accepted it - and that was not very well, only because I started getting injuries.

“I

did some miles before Antwerp because I wanted to run under 2:08. I

used to have a typical buildup of 10 to 12 weeks before a marathon

because I felt if I pushed it much more than that I was going to get

injured or sick.

“Before Antwerp I probably averaged 170 to 180 miles per week.

“A

lot of it was quality. I thought the quality part was the important

part. A lot of people could run 180 miles if you run it slow enough,

but I wanted to maintain a high rhythm, in the rhythm of the race. I

wouldn't start off hard. I'd start off at a leisurely pace and then

build-up, but I'd finish off pretty quick."