Saturday, January 10, 2009

Is This Thing On?

Running got hard again.

My workouts this week consisted of:
3 miles last Sunday
spinning on Thursday
5 mile run this morning, Saturday, with the trailsnails, which I limped through, running alongside a 3:25 marathoner, who was kind enough to slow down to snail pace.

Today was also orientation for my new speed development program. The program consists of one track workout on Tuesday nights, and one long run on Saturday mornings. A total of 330 people signed up. How do you get 330 people running on a track at once?? I guess I'll find out. It was a long orientation session, set in a local high school cafeteria, and as our coach spoke, I could feel myself getting hotter and queasier. I'd been under the weather earlier in the week, but thought I had it beat. Maybe not.

Anywho, next Saturday is our first race, a 4-miler, which will help determine which pace group we should be in. The groups are broadly divided, thusly:

* The Red program is for runners whose long run is between 4 to 6 miles and weekly mileage is between 10 to 15 miles.
* The White program is for runners whose long run is between 6 to 8 miles and weekly mileage is between 15 to 25 miles a week.
* The Blue program is for runners whose long run is between 10 to 12 miles and weekly mileage is over 25 miles a week.


and as usual, I don't fit into any of them. My long run is between 6-8 miles but my total mileage per week? um...

Last year's total mileage:
541.6 Mi
in:
101:09:35
for an average pace of
11:13 min. miles

OR we can examine it this way:
Dec 2008 54.6 Mi 11:15
Nov 2008 51.1 Mi 11:14
Oct 2008 42.3 Mi 11:13
Sep 2008 32.1 Mi 12:00
Aug 2008 46.1 Mi 10:55
Jul 2008 34.1 Mi 11:00
Jun 2008 32.1 Mi 11:03
May 2008 30.2 Mi 10:47
Apr 2008 29.4 Mi 11:52
Feb 2008 46.5 Mi 11:20
Jan 2008 63.3 Mi 10:28

541 hours divided by 52 weeks?? doesn't look so good, does it.

Sigh.

With that, I'm off to my sickbed.

19 comments:

Petraruns said...

Don't be so hard on yourself! Keep up the good work and keep at it - you'll find somewhere to fit in. And speedwork WILL help - I really think it will. Although it hurts..

Get well soon first though..

Kelly said...

I think it's probably better to fit yourself in with the group that matches your long run rather than the group that matches your weekly total.

Good luck!

And yes, I have been looking at jobs in DC... I think it would be a great place to go next (plus, it's market #9!), however very few stations are looking for directors right now.

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

Wait, so do they dictate your mileage based on your speed? That ain't gonna help you PR at National if your long runs are 4-6 miles!

Nancy Toby said...

Don't they have a "slightly green in the face" group??

peter said...

I don't know about all those numbers (my eyes glazed over) but you voted for The One, right? So you're in the blue group. (See how simple running is?) And doan worry, mon, 330 peeps might have signed up (best intentions pave what to where?) but much less than half will show up as the initial weeks pass by.

IHateToast said...

tell them you won't join the groups until they come up with something more original than red, white, and blue. i say hagfish, electric eels, and blue-ringed octopi. or triskets, wheat thins, or ritz. or or or.

whatever it is, you're in the group that runs this for long runs, that for weekly mileage, but always with heaps of sass.

Susan said...

Feel better, speedster!

Mike Fox said...

I believe the standards were set for "plain ol' runners" (like me) and not triathletes (like you). If you didn't bike and swim last year, your weekly running mileage would have been a lot higher.

If your weekly long run is 6-8 miles, I'd say go with the White group.

And have some chicken soup (or faux chicken soup...I forget if you're a vegetabletarian or not...). Feel better!

ItchyBits said...

I totally agree with I Hate Toast - maybe you should suggest that at your next session

ShirleyPerly said...

Oh, sorry to hear you're coming down with something :-(

And on which program to do, I think you ought to talk to the group coaches about your concerns and ask for their input. I'm sure they'll be happy to help.

LBTEPA said...

get well soon darl :)

Jack said...

Hope you feel better soon. You could try each of the group and see which works best for you ;-)

Nora said...

Sounds like a new adventure is about to begin. Hope you feel better soon!

Thomas said...

Well, the point of groups like that is that your weekly mileage will shoot up into stratospheric numbers, right?

I predict a white grouping for you. Just make sure to take it easy and recover from whatever is bothering you now.

Vickie said...

What? No purple group?

21stCenturyMom said...

White group. You will work hard and you will get faster and thus, the program will prove itself worthy of your attendance.

Hope you feel better soon.

Rainmaker said...

You clearly need to take a little video camera (or a digital camera that does video) out to the track, cause I really really wanna see what 300+ people on a track at once look like!

David said...

Well if you'd stop messing around with that swimming and biking macho hormone thing you'd log bettr than 10 miles per weee of running.

David said...

Oh oh. I think that genuine Greek ouzo is starting to work on my typing. NOS is back from Greece.