Running Shorts

I bombed a race this past weekend. The Mill Race Half Marathon , to be specific. I ran 1:08:17 and finished a fading third. I came into the race with high expectations. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about going to the well in workouts, specifically citing my 4-3-2 mile intervals run at 5:00 pace. Based on that effort, I knew I was ready to challenge the Olympic Trials standard of sub-1:05 -- and the plan was to go for it at the Mill Race last weekend. I had all my splits planned for the race: 5k at 15:25, 10k at 30:50, 15k at 46:15, 10 mile @ 49:35, even 12 mile at 59:30. Given past years' competition, I knew there would be some fast Africans, so the strategy was to tuck into the pack and stay as comfortable as possible, looking for the splits to stay on target. If I was on pace and feeling good at 10k, then I'd go for; if I was off pace or struggling, then I'd back off and save it for another day. So when we went through 10k at 31:15 and I was already hurting , I kn...

"Quenton, this is where you find out. This is the time and place. All the rest is window dressing. ... You can do very nearly anything. Haven't you figured that out?"                                                                                                  - Bruce Denton, Once a Runner If you've read this blog before, you know how I often preach training at a controlled effort. Strides should be run at a relaxed fast effort. Interval workouts should be finished feeling like you could do one more . Et cetera et cetera. And I stand by the philosophy that most of your training should be controlled. Most of it, but not all of it. Every once in a while -- maybe once or twice a season MAX -- you should think about running a workout where y...