Brea 8k Recap: Lessons Learned From a Difficult Day

So I raced the Brea 8k this morning and it didn't go well.  But it's mostly my fault.  I learned a great deal from this morning and have some new training ideas I want to experiment with.  So luckily I'm making light of the situation.  

     The race itself was pretty good.  The course had a great deal of hills that I didn't respect and they bit me in the ass.  Not like a kinky bite.  It was a full on chomp.  Again, also my fault.  Always respect the hills.  I had some pretty awesome competition to go up against, which I haven't had much of for a while.  Finally decided to step up with some of the big dogs.

    The race started out quick and I settled in with the lead pack.  Despite a warning from one of my new Cal Coast teammates Roosevelt Cook (who finished 2nd), I was antsy and jumped into the lead and surged a bunch for the first 2 miles.  I decided I was going to try to drop everyone at the start of the main long hill (2 miles in), so I put in a huge surge.  Which didn't work.  I died.  Another of my new Cal Coast teammates (one who got 3rd) passed me and I did everything I could to hold on for the remaining 2.5 miles.  I came in at 25:49 for 5th place, a solid minute off my PR and the slowest I'd run in a while.

    But honestly?  That's what I get for surging like an idiot high school freshman.... and also running with a bad sinus infection.  Which I knew I shouldn't have.  I'm probably going to get more sick now that I went out and ran hard this morning....

    

    So yeah.  I don't get sick very often, but when I do (see above picture) I get really bad sinus infections.  And after an intense week last week in PT school, my body clearly was toasted.  Friday night my sinuses started closing, my throat started getting raw, phlegm was building up like crazy and I was generally feeling pretty crappy.  But I raced anyway.  Why?  Because I'm an idiot.

     Ok.  So I'm not a total idiot.  Just a partial one.  I wanted to come out and race for the new club I am now a member of:  The Cal Coast Track Club.  You're probably seeing a new banner on the right side of my blog.  I was excited to represent them for the first time and I wasn't going to let a sinus infection stop me.  I'll come back healthy in the future and do awesome things for them.  It's awesome getting to race alongside people like Roosevelt Cook, who is a very fast runner that is much more accomplished than I.  He mentioned a few stories racing some of the best people in the country, including Bernard Lagat in the mile (he ran 4:05 while Bernard ran 3:55 something, but they're both still really fast).  Roosevelt is just a little bit away from hitting the B-Standard for the Olympic Trials in the Marathon.  I will definitely be rooting for him.  He's also the one that tried to calm me down at the beginning of the race, but like usual I didn't listen, took things out really hard at about mile one and then you know the rest.

    So a couple good things did happen this morning.  It was really nice to meet and be a part of that group.  Plus I got a good tempo effort in as 5:11 pace is around my tempo pace and I usually do 5 miles for my tempos.  So it all worked out.  Plus my real focus is next weekend winning the Dairy Aire 5k, which like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts is part of the Triple Crown, which I am trying to triple win.  So far so good.  One more race to go.

Oh.  Those lessons.

1.  Be patient and don't be a dumbass.  That second part is something I should have learned from my college coach from UPS.  My nickname was dumbass if you didn't know (it was mostly "Kleiner", but "Dumbass" was a close second).  Because I did a lot of stupid stuff and asked a lot of questions because I was really curious about training and was working way too hard to run fast.  I couldn't wait to push the pace during this race and I started pushing it at mile 1.  I know from experience that I don't run races well that go out really hard and where I surge a great deal.  My best races start with me running fast and relaxed the first part and basically doing a progression run during the race.  Slowly increase the pace until I'm going balls out at the end.  Instead of just trying to hang on.

2.  Relax.  I run fastest when I run relaxed.  My previous 8k PR of 24:51 was set while I running "Fast and Relaxed" (another favorite expression of my college coach).  It was at the 2012 NCAA DIII West Regional Championships where I started out in dead last and worked my way all the way up to 10th place.  This  also qualified me for DIII Nats, which I had the pleasure of attending with another sinus infection.  During the Brea 8k, I was great the first mile, but then I got antsy and surged a bunch.  Fatigue set in and I never recovered.  I need to learn to stay relax during races so I can focus on good mechanics.  That'll take work.  My form is still a work in progress.

3.  I need to work on my basic athleticism.  This was a thought that went through my head.  I'm not an athletic person.  I can just run because I've worked at it for many years.  And I've worked very hard.  Too hard.  Many of the best runners started off in another sport that tended to develop their overall athleticism.  I'm going to be adding in more plyometric stuff and will be working on my general leg strength quite a bit more.  Let the exercise experimenting begin (or continue.  It's never really stopped with me).

4.  I need to be doing more set workouts.  The Fartleks are nice, but I may start just doing those during normal runs.  I need to be doing more Hill In/Outs, Sprints, 400s, etc.  Today I guess can count for a good tempo run.  I'm need to find a track somewhere because another favorite workout of mine is doing a 4-5 mile Strider workout (sprint the straight, run the turn).  That's essentially a In/Out workout if done right.  I'll find a place to do that.  And I also need to run more workouts with John as he pushes me really hard during the short stuff.  He has much more leg speed than I do.

     So yeah!  The future looks bright despite the storm today.  At least I got a 1st place Age Group medal.  I'm excited to be part of the Cal Coast track club.  They're a really fun group.  I can't thank Ford Fuji for having me along.

     This race probably didn't look good, so if Saucony and Skechers don't consider me I'm not surprised.  Since Cal Coast is sponsored by Asics, I'm going to look into them to see what kinda of sponsorship they offer through the team.  I know it sounds like I'm just a free gear/footwear whore (which I am) but PT school is expensive!  Free stuff is always good.

   Back to studying now.

Thanks for reading!

As always, my thoughts are my own.

Tack On!

-Matthew Klein, SPT

*UPDATE: While I did not win the individual title, apparently I helped lead the Cal Coast Open team to the Open Division team victory.  Glad to be part of a team again.

Training and Life Update 2/21/14

Hello!

    Since I plan to have this as a physical therapy, running, training, shoe review and more type of blog, I'm going to branch out from only doing shoe reviews (as I have been doing the last few weeks).

    Life has been going pretty well the last few weeks.  I am very deep into my 2nd semester of physical therapy school and have been trudging through the first few midterms.  This week I successfully made it through our equally difficult Kinesiology exam and practical.  I am extremely inspired by my professor, Dr. Fairly, in that class.  He's basically a god to me as he is the expert manual therapy, gait, foot and footwear guy.  So it was a little intimidating having him critique me on the practical.  Luckily I was paired up with my awesome friend Noelle, with whom I had practiced a great deal with the day before.  Because we suspected we would be partners, despite everyone telling us otherwise.  So that worked out well!  Got my highest practical grade yet!  Now I have to just make it through the next several weeks until spring break.  By make it I am referring to the fact that I have at least one major exam every week until then.  No rest for the weary.

   Training has been pretty awesome.  At my first physical therapy conference at the 2014 CSM (combined sections meeting) a few weeks ago, I made contact with a fellow UPS alumni and awesome runner for the Asics Aggies Kota Reichert.  It was inspiring to go for a run with him during the conference (a fairly quick 9 miles after a tired but fast 4 mile uphill tempo early that morning around 5am).  We talked a great deal and he mentioned In/Out workouts, which I'd never really considered before but have been integrating into my training.  Mostly in the form of hill workouts.  IE 1:00 min hard uphill with 1:10 to get back down the hill and start again.  Doing about 8 of those.  The first session I ended up averaging 5:33 pace for a little over 5K (3.2 miles).  It hurt, but in a good way.  Since my favorite workout is the Fartlek, I've tried to integrate this type of training into that by trying to keep the off session at a fairly decent pace.  I still have not done set distance intervals for a while.  I find it so much easier to get Fartleks in multiple times a week by having the workout during a normal run rather than a set loop.  I've still been running very quick during the workouts, doing things like 15-18x1min ON 1min OFF or doing informal fartleks to forget about specific time and focus on form.

    My form work has continued as well.  I know there is still a long road ahead, but I've made some good strides (no pun intended) working on hip extension and controlling my crazy arm swing.  I learned some new things about the best exercises for the glute medius and max recruitment and have been modifying those working on my glute max strength especially (the main hip extensor).  These exercises include high step ups, single leg squat touches and more.  This combined with some tweaks in my nutrition (adding in more healthy fats for a more balanced diet) seems to have contributed to me feeling much better during runs.  Enough that I have not had a run average over 6:35 pace for about 2 weeks.  Almost every normal run is in the 6:10-6:15 pace range and that is fairly comfortable.  I pushed a 9.52 mile run at 5:55 pace and even that felt pretty good!  This has been really awesome because I've been able to get more miles in without more time infringing on my studies! Also I've been integrating a little bit of POSE form back in.  Not in a major way but just some of the things I used to work on my form back during the summer before my sophomore year of college.

An example of my horrible arm swing an mechanics at the 2014 Run For Russ 5k.  Which I still won in 15:23.  This is before I started working on my form again.  

   I added 3 mile night runs back into my training just to shake my brain out after long school days.  Also to get some more fast mileage in.  I wear my Brooks T7s on these runs and I push them pretty hard.  My fastest one so far has been 3.1 miles in 16:54 (5:27 pace average) and all of them have been under 5:50 pace.  That's with a 6:00-6:30ish first mile and then moving.  It takes less than 20 minutes for a nice run break and then I'm back to studying.

   Racing has also been going decently.  Three weeks ago I won the 2014 Run for Russ in 15:23 which is awesome considering I trained through it.  My training buddy John Barker PR'd and then we did a hard Fartlek right after just to get some extra work in.  I've done a second workout after every race except my half marathon this year and plan to continue doing that to try to get better.  A week ago I won the 2014 Anaheim Semper 5k in 15:48 on a very hilly course that I measured at +3.2 miles.  I was pretty excited to run that there as I had been working on my form and my pace had really increased early that week.  Also they gave out a pretty awesome first prize.

Picture from the 2014 Anaheim Semper 5k that I won in 15:48 on a long (3.2 mile) and hilly course.  Lower extremity form is better, but that arm swing still needs work.  Granted my left arm is like that because I'm pointing to the way I think I'm supposed to go for confirmation from a race official.  That part wasn't marked well.....

   Coming up on Sunday 2/23/14 I'm racing the Brea 8k.  Since I'm doing 3 races in three weeks (also doing the Dairy Aire 5k next weekend.  If I win that I'll have won all three of the Chino Triple Crown races.  The 2013 Reindeer Romp 5k and the 2014 Run for Russ 5k were the first two), I'm only doing a few workouts per week.  I'll probably be wearing a Cal Coast jersey and am hoping that if I win this I'll get some recognition from footwear companies.  Also it'll be a nice longer effort compared to the 5ks I've been doing. Even if I don't win it'll be nice to have some really good competition as that race has been very quick in the past.  Next week I'll be racing the 2014 Dairy Aire 5k going for a Triple Crown win (as I mentioned early).  If they have an accurate course I may have a shot at a PR since Chino, CA is completely flat.  And it should be relatively accurate since it's USATF certified.  However I've learned that certification is relative after the 2014 Ontario Mills 5k that I won in a slow time that I later learned was due to the course being much longer than a 5k.  Certification?  Yeah right.

    Speaking of footwear companies, I haven't heard anything from the Saucony Hurricane program.  I'm not totally discouraged (even though this last week was the time that athletes have heard from them in the past) because I haven't seen anyone else post anything on the internet about being accepted.  So maybe they're just taking a bit longer.  However I also submitted my application to the Skechers Performance Elite team just as another option.  I figure I'll wait it out for a bit and see who gets to me first.  If nothing happens I'll review my options from there.  If Cal Coast does not have an elite team with sponsorship I may have to head over to check out the Snail's Pace Racing Team to see what kind of benefits they get from New Balance.

Yep.  I got one of these for free.  I cannot thank Brian Brown and the wonderful people at Elliptigo enough for this wonderful opportunity.  

    So that is what's going on in my life.  I'll keep this blog up and we'll see where my future takes me.  Also..... I won an Elliptigo 8C at that 2014 CSM conference I mentioned (as you can see above).  I know this is completely random to throw in at the end here.  But it's awesome.  I'll have a review up soon.  I've made fun of people who ride these things for years and I take it all back.  If you haven't tried an Elliptigo yet, find one.  They are sooooooo awesome.  Seriously.  You feel like a badass riding one.  At least I do.  It has become a great tool that also gives me a huge piece of mind just in case I get injured.  Having this tool is insurance that I will be able to maintain my running fitness, my mechanics and still get outside in that event.

   So things are going to get pretty interesting!!  I'm hoping for some big things in the next few weeks and I hope you'll check back in!

Thanks for reading!

As always, my opinions are my own.

Tack On!!!

-Matthew Klein, SPT