MITHACAL Milers 2017-2018
This week was the first of our MITHACAL Milers workouts. Xander, Scott and I signed up to participate in this indoor training through FLRC over the winter. The first workout was our time trial!!
Time Trial
This week was the first of our MITHACAL Milers workouts. Xander, Scott and I signed up to participate in this indoor training through FLRC over the winter. The first workout was our time trial!! We would run a timed mile to set all our training paces for the winter.
The timing was interesting because right after cross country ended, Scott and I decided to take a month off from running. Well, in truth Scott decided to take a month off and I chose to copy him. I remember our friend and owner of Finger Lakes Running and Triathlon Company Ian saying that runners should take an extended break every year to let their bodies recuperate, get fat (he said jokingly I think) and just reflect. There is plenty of time to run and we all need a break from it.
I hadn’t exactly enjoyed the month off, but the time did fly by and we filled it with things like lifting and other cardio so I didn’t feel like I lost too much fitness. My first run back made me feel like I wasn’t a runner anymore!! Of course it didn’t help that I was struggling to get breath through my cold. By this evening I’d had 2 runs over the past 3 days to get back into the swing of things.
Aren’t you excited?
Scott asked me as I kept slowing down as we were walking toward Barton. “Not especially,” I replied. “I’m nervous.” He went on asking me if I wanted to get faster. I said, “Not really.” Of course I didn’t mean this. I am excited about the challenge, I’m just afraid. Most of the training Scott and I do is alone and almost all of the speed work is alone. I find it hard to run full out with others. I think it is the lingering terrible memories from high school track that just fill my heart with fear as I head into something like this.
The mile
We began our evening with a nice series of stretches to help open up and stretch out our hips and then we ran for 10 minutes. The track at Barton Hall at Cornell is an 8 lap mile so we’d be running this track 8 times. I said that I struggle with running in circles and my friend Tonya said, “Well actually they are ovals if that helps.” That’s exactly what Scott told me when I was whining. I smiled.
Before you could even think about it we were off and running. I had sent in a time estimate weeks ago so Adam (our fearless leader) would have some idea of what to expect. I came up with it based on my fastest 5K time and my prediction was 7:45. However, that night I forgot what my prediction was and I didn’t do the math to know what my lap pace should be. I just ran.
While running I kept thinking, “When will this be over?” and just tried to count laps properly. My calf was tight by the end which I think is a function of not running for so long and then running all out. I ended up with a 7:25 mile and while that was slow for the group it was right near where I predicted.
More stretching and final thoughts
After the mile we did a 400 and a 200 and then some final stretching and core work. I felt more comfortable with the 400 and 200 because I’ve done more work with these distances and they are shorter. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever run a mile for time. As things go it wasn’t all that painful.
We now need to look up our training targets for the winter based on our mile time. I admit that I’m excited now! It will be fun to train with people, make new friends and hopefully increase my short distance speed!!
Week 1
Last week we had our time trial for the indoor MITHACAL miles group. My time trial was faster than I predicted, but it still wasn’t fast by any mile standards. I was chatting with a fellow runner as we warmed up about cross country in general. I said that before I ran cross country I used to spectate and think, “my poor child must be crying inside knowing that everyone is finishing and they are still nowhere near the end.” Once I started running cross country I realized that you are only focusing on your own running, with little to no awareness of how others are faring compared to you. I found the mile time trial no different. While I was slightly aware of how close I was to those right in front of me, that was the extent of it. Adam asked us specifically to keep the person in front of us in our memory for timing and I didn’t even manage to do that.
Week 2 of the program happens to fall over the holiday break so we have no formal group workout planned. Adam sent one by email “in case we want to fit one in.” I didn’t even read the email somehow thinking that it was just reminding us to meet next week. Scott, always the diligent one, read it and knew exactly what our workout was supposed to be. Elizabeth had her weekly indoor golf lesson at the Pinnacle Athletic Campus this week. Ironically it is an indoor facility just a mere miles from where we used to live in Fairport. As we were driving there I thought briefly about what our lives would look like if we had never moved. We all came to the lesson with the plan to go out to do some errands afterwards and to use the time to run. After getting Elizabeth settled with Lauren, the 3 of us headed to the locker rooms to change.
My first thought was typical to my visits to suburban Rochester, “honey we’re not in Kansas anymore” was what crossed my brain as I entered the locker room. The lockers allow you to set your own combination, they have amazing showers and blow dryers mounted for your use in the getting ready area. I felt very strong envy all of a sudden.
I walked out to the 3 lane 350 meter track and felt very happy. Adam’s workout called for us to have a 10 minute warm-up followed by 4 sets of intervals. Each set called for 2 minutes hard running and 1 minute of easy running, then 1 min hard and 30 seconds easy ending with 30 seconds hard and 30 seconds easy. We’d finish with a 10 minute cool down. Xander was with us and we asked him to consider doing the workout, but he opted to do a fast mile followed by jogging. He’s still planning to join us for this experience so it was a good entry point for him. However, it must be shared that Xander woke up sick on Tuesday (the normal training day). About a half hour into the morning Elizabeth said, “do you guys have MITHACAL miles today?” We said, “no it is break week.” Suddenly Xander was well. Hmmmm....
The Workout
I brought music with me knowing it would be nicer to have some stimulation while running. I generally dislike track running, however I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this track. It felt like being outdoors and there was enough going on to look at that it felt enjoyable. I chose music by Ed Sheeran to warm up to and bopped around the track for 10 minutes. When it was time to start the tough part of the workout I switched it to Lindsey Stirling. The music is so repetitive it just provided a beat for me to run by. I LOVED the structure of this workout. By starting with the most challenging time and then moving down in duration it felt doable for me on an emotional level. It was almost enjoyable even ... almost. The sets flew by and soon it was time for the cool down run. I switched over to the Tim Ferriss podcast I had started on a run the other day and ran my final 10 minutes.
Golf and Afterwards
After getting back into street clothes I wandered in to watch the last bit of Elizabeth’s lesson. I don’t golf (well occasionally with my dad and Elizabeth I make it to the driving range or to do best ball at the course) so it was fun to listen to her coach talking to her about how she was doing, look at the cool screen etc. She has lessons set up here with Lauren Tallman on Thursdays for the winter so I’m suddenly rather excited for my possible regular trips up this way.
We finished our outing by hitting the Ski Company to use our coupons we’d gotten earlier in the season, a quick Wegmans trip for our gingerbread house materials and dinner at an Indian restaurant.
Final Thoughts
One thing that was interesting for me (and I have noticed this most of the time but never have chosen to write about it) was that this workout felt fun. I was ALONE for it. I am in the middle of reading a book called Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, recommended by my friend Anne on her blog. Here is the link to her post for a nice summary, but the punch line for me with running is that i do my best running alone. I seek group running opportunities for easy workouts, but struggle in a group for the hard stuff. I’m willing to push harder and have fun working harder when I’m alone vs in a group. I don’t know what this means for me this winter as we hit Barton with a big group every Tuesday, but it is good information for me to know that I don’t actually dislike track workouts and I’m not even scared by them when I do them by myself. It jives with what the book says about introverts vs extroverts, and in particular about music students; they spend a lot of time engaged in group practice but their real, focused efforts are almost always independent.
Week 2
Our 2nd workout was our first official workout in Barton. Last week was the holiday break so Adam sent out a workout for us to do alone. This week it was FREEZING outside, so we were excited about running inside.
I was working on school things right up to the second it was time to go and has somehow forgotten that we have to BE there at 7, instead thinking we leave home at 7. Elizabeth was teaching piano and Xander was in bed sick, so I felt a bit bad about leaving him. I was worried he’d wake up and need something during the time that all 3 of us were gone. But, off we went, arriving just a few minutes late and missing the first half of warm-ups. Note to self for next time: arrive on time!
Workout Structure
We began with the series of warm-ups mostly to loosen up our hips. Next week I’m going to write down what they are because I couldn’t remember to go back and do the ones I missed. Then, we ran a 10 minute warm-up run at a comfortable pace.
Each set:
200 repeat pace followed by 200 recovery jog
200 repeat pace followed by 200 recovery jog
400 repeat pace followed by 400 recovery jog
Repeat for 3-5 complete sets. This is based on your weekly mileage: for 30 miles a week he suggested we do 3 sets.
The Repeats
This is what was totally new for me and surprisingly FUN. Adam asked us if we needed our paces. Our paces were calculated based on our mile time trial 2 weeks ago using the Jack Daniels calculator. I had mine written on my hand. I was worried that I’d forget them and thought I’d be running solo.
He went on to explain the mechanics of the evening. We’d run in a group so he asked us to find a group based on our mile time. He reminded us we shouldn’t be running alone. The point of this workout was to have a group and take turns leading, following, encourage each other, etc. He also talked about passing, moving to the outside lanes on our recovery laps and more. I joined the 7 min mile group of people and before we could even think about it, we were off.
The Group
After last week’s solo workout I was convinced that I do my best running alone, but I realized in this week’s group training that the group helps!! It was so much FUN!! I was able to hit the paces with a smile, enjoying the opportunity to talk with everyone during the recovery run. We felt connected, stronger and happy as we ran on the indoor track at Barton. My group ran 3 sets and then I enjoyed a cool down run with Tonya.
Final stretches
Scott and I left for these; with Xander home sick and the fact that it was the first day back to reality after vacation we felt pulled home. I would like to stay next week as the stretching/core work is super helpful.
Week 3
This week Scott and I were all set to arrive ON TIME and not miss any warm-up exercises. When we made it to downtown Ithaca we heard the sound of a TRAIN. Yup, the very long train they had warned commuters about was coming through an hour and a half later than expected. We were behind it.
8 minutes later, we were able to arrive just moments after 7 pm due to a combinations of aggressive driving and decent light timing. Luckily a couple other participants were stuck behind it too so we had some company in our arrival. I don’t do being late very well, so I was bumming but thrilled that we only missed the first few warm-up exercises.
The Workout
This workout was a ladder. Adam sent it to us and just listing it off made me scared. I was telling my co-worker (a cross country and indoor track coach) about it during our 6th grade lunch duty. “We have to run a 200/400/600/800/600/400/200.” I said. “How long is the recovery?” he asked. “Equal distances.” “One of my favorite workouts,” he replied with a smile. He then went on to talk about a student who was incredible at the 600, describing her flying around the track. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be flying around the track.
Should it stay or should it go?
Adam said if we weren’t routinely hitting 25-30 miles a week we could drop the 800. That was a bit of a quandary for me. I did hit 27 miles last week but only 17.5 the prior week. Scott and I recently took a month off running (my first time doing something like that) and getting back into it has been harder than I expected. Most of my group was below the mileage threshold so I decided to drop the 800 along with them. There were a couple of people from our 7 min mile crew doing the 800 and of course today I look back and think, “I should have done that.” Aah, regret. In the moment I had no such feeling.
Our Splits
We were asked to run repeat pace which was about 50 seconds for the 200, 1:45 for the 400 and so on in increments of 50 seconds. This week I was smart and re-set my stopwatch at the start of each interval so that I could follow along. I had a little pattern. I’d look at my watch right before the halfway point in the loop and then again as we neared the last turn. It helped me stay on track even though I had people to pace from. There was one 400 where the group took it fast, about 5 seconds too fast. I finished at exactly at 1:45 just as Tonya was saying they had taken it too fast. I’m so new to this that while I could tell they were going too fast and could have hollered something out to them I stayed quiet in case they had a strategy.
The 600s
Last week our ladder had us topping out at a 400. I was SO afraid of that 400 each time it came. This week just thinking about the 600 had me scared. However, in the moment it became more of a fun challenge than the 400. Could I hang with the group for the last lap? Could I run mostly even splits? This felt mathematical and fun. As I rounded each corner of the 600 I started to understand why kids who do indoor track improve so much in their cross country and track seasons. It is a game of mental fortitude. It requires that you stay in the moment and give everything you have both physically and mentally.
Tonya talked about how she approached it in musical fashion. She views each loop as a measure and went on with this language describing the beauty of the running. As she was talking I was thinking, “I’m really more about surviving” but in fact I was surviving just fine.
The Conversation
In these past two weeks I’ve grown to love and embrace the recovery. In fact, one of my favorite things about the recovery last night was that we had two reps where we got to recover for 3 loops. It allows for more casual conversation, and it is nice for me to see just how slow we can take recovery. On my own I struggle to recover slow enough and that makes each successive repeat that much harder. We talked about work, travels, race reports, anxiety about running. Tonya shared about an article about stress and running on Runner’s World that is worth a read. I checked it out right away as I feel a lot of stress in short distance racing (prior to this winter short distance meant a 5K).
Cool Down and Viva!
Following our 10 minute cool-down we stayed for the core exercises this week. I was super happy to be there for these very helpful after workout exercises. Adam hurt his ankle so he has to lead us without doing them now (and I’m so sad for him because he loves to run and now has to lead us while injured). They took about 15 minutes and then Scott and I headed to Viva. This ends late for us (8:15 ish) and normally we go home and get to bed, but the way the day went we hadn’t had time to eat dinner. Both of our kids had plans that evening (Xander had an All County Chorus rehearsal and Elizabeth had to teach piano) so we reasoned we’d be getting home right as they went to bed anyway, why not tack on 1/2 hour for a quick dinner at our favorite restaurant? A quick shout out to Scott’s dad - he picked Xander up from All-County for us so we could both go tonight!! Thanks Ed.
We scooted down the hill, nabbed a decent parking spot and enjoyed a lovely meal. Our friend Scott was our waiter which is always extra fun! Of course today we’re paying for being up til 10 - EXHAUSTED!! But it felt like a totally great choice last night.
Week 4
This week was a mixed up training week. People running the Hartshorne Masters Mile on Saturday had a shorter, faster workout and people not participating had a longer, slower, and more challenging workout. Scott and I arrived on time this week - early even! We were awfully excited and relieved to be there on time. As we started the warm-ups on this very cold, snowy, January evening I looked around and realized it would be a little different than other weeks.
By splitting this group into two, we wouldn’t be running in our usual pack. I have gotten comfortable with my big crew of people and I felt a little sad. I couldn’t help but think of the irony - just a few weeks prior I had been afraid to run fast with other people.
Warm-up
I ran the warm-up with my usual crew and we chatted about passports, work, online courses, iPad classroom integration and more. I always love the warm-up. We have a little pattern now. Run almost our full ten minutes and then peel off for drinks and last minute bathroom trips before we all gather at the start line.
The Workout
Our plan for this was to run eight 200s with 200 rest in-between starting at I pace (Interval) and dropping to R pace (Repeat) by the end. For Tonya and me that meant starting at a 55 and dropping to a 52 by the end. Our last 200 would be flat out fast or as like Adam said, “like you are being chased by a bear.” There was a large pack of us doing this workout but it was really 3 smaller groups with one person straddling groups. He chose to join Tonya and me for the cool down bits and run ahead of us for the workout part. It worked well.
Our First 200
Was too fast. I think we came in at 48 and change. I knew we were going too fast at the 100 mark but I didn’t do anything to adjust this pace. In my own head it didn’t much matter - we could adjust after the lap and I figured we might get tired and slow down naturally for the 2nd part of the lap. The other groups also went out too fast, needing to make similar adjustments for the other 200s.
The Middle Laps
These laps fell into place quickly. It felt easy compared to last week, and also strangely more challenging. One of the things about the 400s and 600s is that they give you equal rest time. That meant that by the time you started again you felt fully rested. I always felt a sense of fear as we started our next 200. I wasn’t quite ready and I wasn’t so sure I could stay with Tonya. However, we hit our paces well and generally enjoyed this.
The “I’m being chased by a bear” lap
It seems like it is enough to give this direction. Run like your life depends on it was the core message. I most definitely did NOT run like my life depended on it. I am almost certain that bear would have made a nice meal of me. I had flashbacks to the few times in high school track that my coach actually put me in a running event. I “ran” track but mostly I was there to hang out with all the friends I wouldn’t get to see if I didn’t do track. So track for me was social and I threw the discus. I wasn’t terribly awful at that, and sometimes even placed. In fact I have 3 memories of track - one was skipping practice with my friend and lying to our parents in grade 7 (3 days of being grounded when they caught us within a half hour), a second is literally grabbing onto a teammate’s shirt and begging her to wait for me while running, and the last is an amalgam of memories of laying in the sun on Invitational Days with Sun In in our hair hoping to turn blonde. I’m sure that laying in the heat did wonders for our running!
I think the coach felt she had to put me in for more than one thing, so sometimes the 200 was a place that sometimes the coach felt she could sneak a not so great runner in. We didn’t need the points there and it was a good challenge for me. The reason for this was that my friend Stephanie (a state level athlete) was always in this event and she won every time. As I ran this 200 I got that same feeling of fear as I looped around the track. I got to run the 200 relay a couple of times and let’s just say that was not a good choice on the coach’s part!
Anyway, back to the present. I got a 45 and change for this 200. I started with no goals other than, “run all out like you are being chased like a bear” and wasn’t able to do anything with that info. I was telling Scott that I really should have had a 100 meter split time I was seeking. I think if I had approached it more scientifically, with less fear I could have gone faster. Tonya was 3 seconds ahead of me. I think having a 100 meter split time would have helped me a lot!!
Week 5
After running the Hartshorne Masters mile on Sunday we’d all be training together again on Tuesday. For week 4, some of the group members did a fast progression to be ready for the race and others did a longer workout because the race wasn’t on their weekend agenda.
I was happy to be back with the big group on Tuesday and wasn’t even alarmed when we got the email saying we’d be doing 800s. I am proud of this because every other week I have been afraid as I head up. I wonder if I can keep up, wonder why I signed up and have to constantly say to myself that I can do it! There were no such feelings this week.
Scott and I had to hit BJs either before or after the workout so we opted to leave early and cross that off our list. As a result, we arrived with plenty of time to spare before the training. It it is so much more relaxing to arrive early!
I got my chocolate medal from the race for winning my age group (I was the only person in my age group) and a monetary award for it being my first time running this event (I’ll include info about that in my post about the race) and got ready to run.
One of our cross country running friends was there. She hadn’t been before. She shared that she had asked Tonya and Adam if they were free and they invited her to join in. She had a baby sitter for her 3 and a half year old twins and her husband was out of town. It was fun to see her! The Lansing cross country coach is part of this group and she brought a lot of her team members this particular evening. Several of the girls joined our 7 minute mile repeat crew. This is one of the things I particularly love about this group and running in general. Ages and genders can blend in together so easily in this sport.
After warm-ups there were several groups of folks doing the 10 minute warm-up. We enjoyed catching up about our weekends and talking about the mile as we warmed up. Soon it was time to begin and there wasn’t much time to think about it! We determined we were going for a 3:40 800 pace and we were off.
The first 800 was really cool. I’ve learned about pacing from Tonya and shouted out our lap time at the end of each 200. I ran just off Tonya’s shoulder because it felt comfortable. Our group spread out enough to fit us all and we all held our pace goal. We had 2 minutes to cool down which translated into a very slow lap for us. I thought after the fact that I should have timed the two minutes, but it never occurred to me at the time.
Each 800 felt different - possible but different. Repeats this long are where I really feel the power of the group. You just go. There is no stopping, whining or quitting because the group is going. No reasoning about being tired, no unplanned drink breaks. Just get it done with the group. Soon we had finished our 4 and it was time to cool down.
Another great week of training!
Week 6
As with every week, Adam sent out an email with the workout early in the day. Scott gets these in his inbox and forwards them to me and I don’t open it until I feel strong and ready to face what the evening will bring. I’ve grown to like this part of the program. I always know it will be a challenge, but I don’t know until that day what that challenge will be. It is fun not to have to make up your own plan sometimes!!
This week’s plan called for 2 to 3 sets. Each set was:
1000 at tempo pace followed by a 1 minute rest, another 1000 at tempo pace and another 1 minute rest and then four 200s at repeat pace with a 200 jog in between. Some quick math and I realized even 2 sets would be a long workout for our 7 minute mile crew!!
I went into the pacing calculator and our 1000 pace was about 1 minute per lap and I already knew our repeat pace was about 52. I actually wrote the whole thing up on paper, calculating out how many minutes the workout would last and started to get my head around things.
Scott and the kids and I are doing this new thing where we try to eat dinner earlier. Because of activities our dinners have been pushed so late that it is now 7:30-8pm that we’re eating most nights. This is fine except we all go to bed by 9 and sometimes even 8:30. It isn’t that great to eat and go straight to sleep. This is all good but on MITHACAL miles night it is hard to eat early and not throw up during the training AND we had plans to go to Viva with Tonya and Adam for dinner. Another quick calculation that we’d be eating at 9ish went through my head. Ok ... I can do this I thought and had a salad and something else that I can’t even remember now as a snack before the training.
The first set
We arrived with plenty of time to spare again which always makes a night start out better. Our friend Lesley was there so it was fun to catch up with her. The group was on the small side for the evening and I was a little worried about doing the workout without some of our regulars. Again I found myself amazed at how quickly I could come to depend on people to keep things nice and even for us. John and Dave and Bob were all “absent” and I missed them. We had a nice crew though so it was all good.
Tonya and I enjoyed our 10 minute warm-up and we all gathered at the start line. Without much chit chat we found ourselves beginning our first 1000. I found this enjoyable actually. Every lap Tonya would shout out our pace. I had my watch to check as well but I liked that she was shouting it out. On other evenings we’d both be shouting it out, but the group was small enough it felt like overkill to have 2 people reminding everyone of our pace. Plus, really 1 minute paces are awfully easy not to mess up!!
We rested our one minute and then it was time for the 2nd 1000.
The 200s felt comfortable and familiar and I enjoyed the jog. I have also come to love the jog - there’s that “I can’t talk - I’m working all out” portion of the workout and then there’s the wonderful time to catch up and jog at a snail’s pace between reps.
And the 2nd
Adam warned us that the 2nd set would feel more challenging and of course he was correct!! However, it felt doable and that first 1000 at tempo pace felt even enjoyable after the fast 200s. Our friend Kim had done one track workout already that day and she managed to do the entire first set and the 1000s of the 2nd set before bailing for the 200s. I was so amazed/impressed that she was able to do TWO track workouts in one day - wow!!
Our last 200s felt like they’d never end. We picked up another person for this and she did every other one with us. I chatted with her toward the end of the evening and she said she felt up for every other one as she was struggling with some shin issues and speed was rather new for her. That’s another thing I love about this evening - you can pop in and out and it is all ok. You can improve on your own timeline which is a nice thing!
Tonya’s watch can pick up our activity inside and Strava has a new feature that allows you to tag a friend so you can more easily take someone’s workout that you did with them. She shared it with me.
I think that’s super cool - love seeing all the little orange circles around the track!
It’s a wrap
There was no time for cool down with this and truthfully I felt no desire either! This is one thing about being in the 7 minute mile group when you have the 5:30 and the 6 and 6:30 crews all out there. You are the slowest so you take the longest.
We did our cool down stretches and soon we were at VIVA for a much anticipated dinner with Tonya and Adam. We enjoyed our food and conversation to end our Tuesday night workout.