It's finally Spring! Time to think about some goals....

It's been ages since I posted anything.  The start of the year has been hectic with work and family life but I've kept running and riding (and even swimming a bit).  The spring half marathons have been my focus for the past three years, and this year is no different - although in past years I've been aiming to set a PR, I'm in some doubt that will be achievable in 2015.  Compared to 2014 I have run and ridden more in the first 3 months of the year mostly aided by the weather which was not as terrible as the "polar vortex" we enjoyed 12 months ago.

For 2015 I've been lucky enough to sign up as an ambassador for UGo Bars - a locally owned & operated sports nutrition business making wholesome energy bars from real, fresh ingredients.  They're based in Bloomington, I'm hoping to convince some shops in Columbus to stock the bars!  In the meantime check them out online at http://ugobars.com/

For the Quaff ON! running team, I'm competing in the Hoosier half marathon (April 11) and the Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon (April 25).  The first of these is a hilly workout, definitely not a PR course, but a great race around Bloomington and Quaff ON! is the beer sponsor for the event - we'll have a big after party at Quaff ON Bloomington with all the team members, friends and family to celebrate.  The Kentucky race is flat and fast, I set my PR (1:17:45) there last year, winning the 40-44 age group.  This year, despite having run more, I feel less prepared.  I haven't put in the hard work at the track to build speed, so these races will be a bit of an adventure!

The one key workout that I have managed to repeat is my 3 x 5k run at the start of March.  In 2014, I used the Pink Power 5k race to do this, running the course twice before the actual race.  This year, I couldn't attend the race but managed to convince Quaff ON! team mate, Danny Fisher, to join me on the people train one Thursday evening for the same workout.  We had a strong head wind as we ran towards town making the first half of the 5k harder, while that hurt, the tail wind on the return was very welcome each time we made the turn!  It's a truly punishing workout, we ran an average of 5:54.9 per mile for the 9.3 miles, I was pretty broken by the end of it, the slow jog back to town as a cool down run was uncomfortable as my calves tightened and quads ached.  As the saying goes, no pain, no gain....

2015 3 x 5k workout with Danny - Strava Data via Garmin 910XT

There's 4 weeks until the Louisville race - I plan to get back into our Track Tuesday workouts and build upon what I've got.  I doubt I'll run a PR but I hope that I can repeat my AG win, which means something sub 1:19:00.

Corporate Challenge 2014 - Bike & Run Race Report

The Indiana Sports Corporation organizes a Corporate Challenge each year where companies compete in a wide variety of events ranging from traditional sporting challenges through "school sports day" type events (tug of war etc) to traditional Indiana past times (corn hole etc).  Each event is a team effort being scored in a similar way to Cross Country racing based on individual finishing ranks.  I haven't been able to participate in previous years due to other racing commitments including the Mill Race Marathon last year.  2014 was different, and I was asked to represent Cummins in both the cycling (time trial) and running (10k).

Bike - Time Trial - P2 overall - 13:46 - Strava Data Link via Gamin FR910XT

The cycling event was hosted at the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis on Saturday 20 October 2014.  It was a 6.2 mile time trial with many of the roads being familiar from the Tri-Indy course.  For the team scoring, the best 5 times including one female athlete counted and we had exactly that, 4 men (Glen Alden, Spencer Dell, Josh Knight, Tim Proctor) and 1 woman (Melissa Morelli).  

Glen Alden; Melissa Morelli; Josh Knight; Spencer Dell; Tim Proctor

The team had been selected by captain, Andy Messer who wasn't able to compete this year, based on a qualification event in Columbus a few weeks prior.  The Cummins team has won the Time Trial event in numerous  years passed, so the pressure was on but we were confident of having some of the fastest riders in the field.

Given such a short distance, it's actually hard to judge the effort required - quite a lot more than "threshold" but too much and it's easy to blow-up before the finish.  Warming up thoroughly and effectively would also be key to come out of the start able to push hard immediately.  Glen and I rode a few laps of the Marion College Cyclocross course which is a permanent feature in the grounds of the velodrome at this time of year, it was good to ride instead of just sitting on a trainer, but the course demanded a lot of short sharp bursts which aren't what's needed on a time trial effort - so after getting the blood flowing, it was back to the pop-up and on the trainer for a methodical warm up.

Warming up? More info...

Warming up before the race

My problem for this race was knowing what the target race effort ought to be - 10 miles is about the shortest race I've ever competed in regularly and clearly I would need to be going harder than that with an expected time of under 14 mins.  I think I went a bit too hard on the trainer and didn't allow enough time between finishing my warm up and going to the start because as soon as I set off I could feel the fatigue in my legs - it was going to be a long & painful 14 minutes of racing!

Every time I felt myself settling into a rhythm, I stood up & sprinted for a short burst to up the speed and effort.  I stood up & sprinted out of each corner, I tried to stay one gear higher than I felt comfortable, forcing the cadence to keep the speed high.  I passed the 1 mile to go sign and my vision was slightly blurred, always a sign that things are on the edge, the thought of one more mile was a bit of a blow psychologically, but I knew there was a downhill run in to the finish, I found some additional effort to find the velodrome in sight below me.  I managed a small bit of recovery on the hill and then was able to sprint after the turn into the parking lot for the finish line.

Spencer rolled in just a few seconds after me with Glen close behind.  Josh and Melissa had opted for earlier start times so we didn't know how any of us had done until we regrouped back at the pop-up.  Personal timing only told us it was really close between Spencer, Josh and me so after getting changed, we headed over to the official timing stand for the results.

The team had a great result - we took 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall (Tim, Josh (by only 0.2 secs), Spencer); Glen got 12th overall and Melissa was 9th placed woman.  Despite not getting the overall victory, the points we secured gave Cummins a comfortable win in the Time Trial and the overall lead in the Championship going into the running & other events the next weekend...

Official results for the bike

Run - 10k - P4 overall - 34:54 (PR) - Strava Data via Garmin FR910XT

One week after the bike events, the Corporate Challenge moved to the iconic setting of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 10k and 5k run, 5k walk and other events such as tug of war, basketball shoot out etc.

I was running in the first event, the 10k race, which started at 8am.  This meant an early start from Columbus to get there in time for a warm up run, collect my shirt and bib and be ready for the start - however, the organizers had underestimated the number of participants, or perhaps their enthusiasm to arrive early, so as I turned onto Georgetown a couple of miles from the designated parking lot, I hit a traffic line that was nearly stationary and panic started to mount!

I changed into my new racing flats whilst sitting in the traffic and resolved that my warm up would be the run from the car to the Cummins tent to pick up my shirt & bib number!  So much for the calculated & methodical warm up routine, sometimes you just have to go with what you've got!

Having looked at the results from last years event, I knew it was a fast field at the front, and I felt a bit self conscious lining up on the front row alongside some obviously serious runners - so it was a surprise to find myself in a completely uncontested 3rd place as the race got underway.  The two leaders went through the first mile in close to 5 mins dead, my first mile was 5:26 which I knew was too hot to sustain for the full duration of the race.  I was convinced there were other people who should be running similar times to me so I resolved to slow down a bit, catch my breath and then use the motivation of running with others to force the pace in the later stages of the race.  This seemed to work pretty well.  Just as we came to mile 2 (5:46), I was caught - I thought there would be a bunch but it turned out to be just 2 other competitors so I latched on to them at what felt like a manageable pace with plenty of space between us back to 6th place it seemed that this was the race for 3rd, 4th and 5th.

From mile 2 to mile 4 we were running on the main speedway track - it's a huge and imposing venue that seems to take forever to run around!  During the drag along the back straightaway, our group of 3 was reduced to 2.  I started to worry about holding on to the 3rd place battle but as we turned off the main race track to the infield course I was able to find a bit more drive out of each of the corners and close up the gap, eventually taking 3rd place just before the 5 mile mark.  The final mile was a miserable winding labyrinth through the garage complex before we emerged at the 6 mile marker with only one turn remaining to the finish.  After pushing hard in the 5th mile and maintaining a surge after each of the many, many corners, I just didn't have a sprint left for the line so my partner for most of the race was able to ease away from me in the final minute and cross the line 4 secs ahead of me.

My time of 34:54 was about 30 secs faster than I had hoped for and given the winding, technical course, I was really pleased to set a new PR.

Everyone in the Cummins team (5 places scored including at least 1 female) improved their times from last year and we were able to contribute to yet another overall Cummins victory in the Corporate Challenge.

My race splits worked out like this:

Mile 1 - 5:26 (too fast!)

Mile 2 - 5:46 (waiting for someone to catch me)

Mile 3 - 5:41 (running as 3rd, 4th, 5th)

Mile 4 - 5:34 (stretching it out, dropping 5th place)

Mile 5 - 5:35

Mile 6 - 5:35 (the twisty nature means the time doesn't do justice to the effort involved!)

0.2 Mile - 5:26 (push for the finish line!)

Overall - 5:37/mile

Official results for the run

Firetower 15.3 Race Report

1st place overall; 59:45.6

Strava data for [Run] (17:46.0); [Bike] (25:01.7); [Run] (15:59.1)

The Brown County YMCA organizes the Firetower 15.3 duathlon in beautiful Brown County State Park, this was the second running of the race.  Last year I came second to Greg Fraze who was using the event as a build up to his Duathlon Worlds competition (he got silver in his 35-39 age group), this year I had talked Quaff ON! team-mate Danny Fisher into competing and Greg made a return trip to defend his title.  It was sure to be a hard race!

The race with Danny was going to be interesting since he's a significantly better runner than me and we both figured it would be close, all hinging on how much Danny could limit his losses to me on the bike section with very little training.  He seemed to think there was no hope, I however, was worried - training or not, great athletes like Danny have so much inherent fitness and mental discipline to work through the pain it was no-way a "done deal" in my head.

We made a family weekend of it, camping in the state park on Friday night (even though it's only 15 miles from home!), this made the early start easy for me.  After a Skratchlabs recipe baked egg bite (see below) I simply rolled down the road on my TT bike to complete registration and get my transition area set up.  The race isn't a huge affair which is nice in one way - no lines for sign-on, plenty of transition area space with no fighting for places on the racks, but it's also something I hope will change as the organizers persist with it as an annual event and work on promotion to attract more people.  The 5k pavement run, 10 mile pavement bike and 2.2 mile trail run course is challenging for people wanting a hard race, but safe and manageable (with no swimming!) for first time multi-sport participants.  The final trail run is a really fun twist to the traditional duathlon format and takes advantage of the amazing trail network and challenging terrain in the park.

The first part of the race unfolded pretty much as I had expected.  Fisher was gone off the front in the 5k, and after the first mile or so it was just me & Greg Fraze running about 5 secs apart (Greg ahead of me) all the way to the turn.  I felt pretty good with the pace (about 5:45/mile) and in the second half of the 5k closed the gap on Greg to enter transition only 0.6 secs behind him - Danny of course was long gone, having run a 16:29 5k, he was about 1:20 ahead of us.  Closing the gap on Greg gave me some confidence as last year he was pulling away from me.

Making the turn in the 5k run

The bike section is quite technical, downhill with sweeping bends to a pivot turn, then climbing all the way back to the start / finish area which you ride past to re-trace the 5k run course making ~9.9 miles in total.  Greg has killer transition skills and opened up a gap as we set off to chase Danny Fisher down.  Just as we got going, Greg missed the first turn but quickly rejoined, still ahead of me after a trip over the grass!  I passed Greg with a surge of effort on one of the short uphill sections but I knew it would be tough to open any significant gap on him.  It wasn't until the turn that we finally got sight of Danny, who was, by that time about 20 secs in front of us.  I finally made the catch as we climbed back towards Hesitation Point, to be honest I was getting worried about how much effort and how much distance it had taken to recover the time loss from the run.  It meant that I had about 4.5 miles to build a big enough cushion to avoid being caught in the second run.  Having completed the climbing, the road flattened out and started to feel more like a traditional time trial, I found the legs to turn a bigger gear and pushed on towards the turn, and finally the transition area for the second time.  I only had 10 secs advantage over Greg and his superior transition skills meant that once again, I was following him out onto the final trail run.

Coming off the hard bike effort, my calves cramped as soon as we started to run and the first mile of the trail is almost entirely downhill over rough terrain giving no respite to settle into a stride & shake out the cramps.  Having Greg clearly in sight the whole time was pretty much the only thing which kept me going at this point!  After about half a mile the cramps eased and I started to feel a more normal running gait come back to me whenever the path leveled momentarily.  The second mile of the trail is, you guessed it, almost entirely up hill with some brutally steep sections.  Each time we attacked one of the steep pitches, I felt I was taking some of the gap back to Greg and by about 2/3rds of the way up the hill I'd closed to only a couple of seconds - this was fortunate as I saw him go off course again and was able to call out to him the mistake (although I was so short of breath, I was worried that my feeble "yell" hadn't been heard).  He quickly rejoined just behind me and I didn't know what to do - I hadn't earned the lead on merit and I didn't really want the race decided by a simple mistake.  I eased up just a bit but on the next steep section, the sound of Greg's breathing dropped away and with a quick glance over my shoulder I saw a clear trail behind me, I had maybe 3 secs gap.  The final section of the trail climb is ridiculously steep, simply maintaining forward motion is a challenge let alone anything that might be considered running!  I knew this was coming and had saved something for the final effort (as the Strava data shows my heart rate peaked at 176 bpm) I stayed on my toes and tried to spring with each step as I climbed, finally breaking out onto the level trail with 0.2 miles to the finish and the win.  Greg finished 2nd and Danny came in 3rd, a minute behind me having run the trail 40 secs faster than me.  Quaff ON! team-mate, Erin Webb also had a great race, coming in 5th overall and first female.

Tim, Danny & Erin - Quaff ON!

It was great to win the race, having such a close battle with Greg made it more fun, but also made me try harder in every part of the event - it was a shame that he went off course, I'll always have a question in the back of my mind if I would really have caught & passed him on the final steep pitch of the trail but there's no way to know that - all I know is I put it all on the line, gave my best and had a great time being tested by both my peers and the terrain.

The race with Danny, which we'd debated over several pints of Busted Knuckle in the preceding weeks shook out like this:

5k run - Danny beat Tim by 1:17

T1 - Tim beat Danny by 0:17

10 mile bike - Tim beat Danny by 2:19

T2 - Tim beat Danny by 0:32

2.2 mile trail run - Danny beat Tim by 0:40

Equipment:

Shoes - Saucony Kinvara with elastic laces

Bike - Mercian TT bike (all steel frame, 26" front wheel) - retro still works!

Nutrition - Skratchlabs Lemon & Lime hydration mix; Baked Egg bite for breakfast (Skratchlabs Feedzone Portables recipe here)

Dances with Dirt Race Report

Dances with Dirt - 10th May 2014

Team placed 2nd overall

Strava data for my legs: Leg 1; Leg 7; Leg 10

Dances with Dirt (DWD), Gnawbone is arguably the biggest race of the year for the Quaff ON! Race team.  It's a trail race festival hosted in our "backyard" of beautiful Brown County - there are 10k, half marathon, full marathon, 50k and 50 mile solo races as well as the 100k team relay race - all these events are off road and cover some pretty extreme hilly trails as well as some bush whacking.

I've participated in the team relay race regularly since 2009 when one of my neighbors put a team together - we were much more in it for the experience and atmosphere of the event than the racing at that time, with fancy dress and fun being top of the agenda.  Last year was the first time I ran for Quaff ON! being part of the second team and this year we were able to enter 3 teams, each named after one of the signature beers - Busted Knuckle, Hare Trigger and new for 2014, the Six Foot Blondes, our all female team.

The Quaff ON! Crew

The relay event involves teams of 5 each running 3 legs spread throughout the day.  The nature of the legs varies between long & fast mostly on trails to short, technical & nasty bush whacking, the challenge is to try to match up the strengths of the team members to the different demands of each section.  The two male teams were, on paper, pretty evenly matched in terms of running strength but the Busted Knuckle team had a distinct advantage of consistency, 4 of the 5 members had run (and won) the race for the last 3 years.  Familiarity with the course and the same people running the same legs year after year really makes a difference - knowing which way to go as well as when to push hard.  I was on the other team, Hare Trigger and we had a collection of great runners most of whom had done something in previous DWD events but none of us had run together as a team before and experience on specific legs of the race was practically zero.

Team Hare Trigger (from L to R): Pat Thomas; Jeff Yoder; Scott Breeden; Logan Worley and Tim Proctor

The race started well, after leading the whole first leg, I made the first hand over with something like 15 secs over Busted Knuckle.  The next team to exchange was the Six Foot Blondes, some 3 minutes back - Quaff ON! racing held 1-2-3 and it looked like that is how the race would continue.  However, after leg 2, Busted Knuckle had taken a 2 minute lead and never looked back, stealing a little more advantage on just about every leg.

My second run of the day was on Leg 7 and pitched me against Danny Fisher over 5 miles - I knew that I would lose time but was determined to minimize the loss.  The leg was about 3 miles of fast singletrack trail and then 2 miles of bush whacking, including about 3/4 mile directly along a creek and climbs so steep I needed hands and feet to scramble up.  The briers took their toll and I ended the run with bloodied and torn legs.  I was pleased to finish only 2 mins slower than Danny's time but this was just another add to our growing deficit in the race for the lead.

Briar'd & Bloodied

My final stage, Leg 10, was a relatively easy 2.8 mile run all on trails, unfortunately the other team now had such a lead that I shared the first mile with Cole Smith who was their runner starting the leg ahead of mine!  This did give me something to chase down and I was able to close a ~15 sec gap over the first mile before our paths separated.

With the lead team being a complete leg ahead of us, the rest of the race was pretty much a solitary affair.  We saw them briefly at the remaining exchange points and we were by this time so far ahead of the 3rd and 4th placed teams we didn't see them either.  It turned out that the Quaff ON! girls were having an epic battle for 3rd place finally stretching this to just over 15 mins after over 8 hours of running.

At the finish, we cheered home our anchorman, Logan, and took the obligatory trash talk from the winners whilst the after-party started.

The race was sponsored by Quaff ON! and our trusty beer truck, Smokey, was already serving beer to the thirsty runners who had already completed the 10k, half and full marathon distances.  The girls brought home 3rd place to complete the Quaff ON! domination of the event.  Not long after they got home, we were able to cheer in Joe Bell, Quaff ON! team mate who had chosen to run the 50 mile race (yes, 50 miles all on his own!).  He finished in 9 hours 33 mins and took 7th place overall, a truly awe inspiring result.

DWD is a great event - it can be a serious race (and we love that), but equally it's a wonderful way to spend a day with 4 companions enjoying the beautiful countryside and natural resources we're so fortunate to have so close to hand.  I know that I'll be back for more and I hope that we can keep the Hare Trigger team together to capitalize on some course knowledge and close the gap on Busted Knuckle!

Getting older... getting faster - Seymour Half Marathon Race Report

Seymour Half Marathon (5/3) - P1 overall - race time 1:16:42 (13.1 mile time 1:17:26)
Strava data from this race

On May 1st I turned 44 - not a momentous age milestone, not even a change in age group, and I didn't really pay it much attention.  The age group fact isn't strictly true because of a strange quirk in season start / end definition I actually have a Cyclocross racing age of 45 now!  I only started running seriously in 2010 and I've enjoyed a continuous improvement in both my 5k and half marathon times.  With my recent PR at Louisville, I was wondering if this would be a turning point.  It's hard to imagine running faster, the training intensity and race effort were quite daunting - I was starting to think that things would be downhill from here, certainly for the half marathon - I still have aspirations to break 17 mins for a 5k race this year!

The Seymour half marathon is a small race promoted by the Crossroads of Indiana race series, it's the same weekend as the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon but has only 200-300 people vs 30,000 in Indy - far more relaxed and easy to access.  I'd signed up ages ago with no real agenda, two weeks after Louisville and two weeks before the Dances With Dirt team relay race, it was always going to be "just another run".  I had a plan to make it a training race - run 4 miles hard, take a mile easy, run 3 miles hard, take a mile easy, run hard to the finish.  My race preparation was very different to Louisville - instead of careful diet, focusing on good things to help my body perform, I had my birthday meal out, drank more than I would normally in a week and ate a lot of birthday cake.  The night before the race, Clare and I went to Bloomington on a date night and consumed hot dogs, pulled pork nachos and dips at Quaff ON! Bloomington as well as couple of beers and a late night!

I set out fast at the start of the race per the "training plan" however, when I got to 4 miles (on schedule @ 5:50 min/mile) I still felt good, the next couple of miles were both sub 6:00 and then I started to think that I could perhaps break my PR, a year older than I just set it!  After a pleasant run out into the country north of Seymour we made a turn-around and I face a block head wind for about 1.5 miles back into town, despite this, my pace stayed good, all below 6:00 min/mile which meant with a push in the last 5k I should be able to go under my Louisville time.  I was conscious that the race course mile markers were coming early relative to my GPS watch markers, coming into the finish I knew that the official distance would be short of 13.1 miles but with a PR in mind, I resolved to run on after the finish to get to 13.1 miles by my GPS - which in fact is probably still short of an official USATF course distance despite my efforts to run the shortest course.  I'm sure I looked ridiculous continuing through the finish shoot at race pace and running off down the road, but I wanted to know what a real half time would have been.  My GPS watch measured the race at 12.98 miles with a race time of 1:16:42.  I ran on to a GPS distance of 13.11 miles in a time of 1:17:26 which I feel is a legitimate PR, some 19 secs faster than my Louisville effort.

All this goes to show that preparation isn't everything - sometimes it all just comes together when you're not really expecting it.  I certainly put less pressure on myself for this race compared to Louisville, maybe that is a factor.  I also went out harder than I would normally, I am a conservative pacer and paranoid about "blowing up", going out hard and holding on to a pace at the finish is something I'm rarely brave enough to do and I think that was a bigger factor in this race than anything else.

My team mate Joe Bell came home 3rd overall and Sara Martin took first place female with a PR, cheered home by her parents.  Joe and I were also able to cheer on Chasity Smith (although not wearing a Quaff ON! jersey, she's the brains behind our race kit design and logos).

Joe Bell; Tim Proctor; Sara Martin
Quaff ON!

Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon Race Report

This was it, my "A" race for the first part of the year.  The hard training, the losing weight, the taper tensions all added up to this race, my goal to go under 1:18:00 for the 13.1 miles.

I rode my bike Friday and had a great time, didn't try too hard and felt great.  On Friday evening I headed down to Louisville, there's no race morning packet pick-up, so the day before race trip was necessary.  Instead of facing the drive home again and the 4am wake-up to drive back down to Louisville, I stayed at a hotel out of town near the Cyclocross track at Eva Bandman park.

Louisville looked pretty good in the spring evening sunset

I ate pasta with my family before leaving Columbus, later in the evening I had a baked egg

Protein & Carbs

from the Skratch Labs Feedzone Portables book as well as a U-Go bar, this "last supper" was washed down with some Hare Trigger beer and a large glass of Beetroot juice - not exactly an inspiring culinary experience but quality fuel for the task ahead of me.

Waking up at 6am was far better than the 4am alternative even if the price paid was not sleeping in my own bed and a hotel air conditioning unit which sounded like a small aircraft trying to take off in my room!

A short drive had me parked about a mile from the start location, it was a cool morning, but not cold.  I started a short warm up run, after about half a mile I picked up the pace to what felt like a comfortable race effort.  Looking at my GPS, I was at 5:45 min/mile - faster than my target pace, and my legs felt good.  Sometimes in these brief warm up efforts, you just get the feeling that it's going to be a good day - today was one of those days.

After 2.5 miles of warm up I arrived at the start.  I hadn't appreciated how big this race was going to be.  With the mini-marathon and full marathon combined, there were over 16,000 participants - that's a lot of people trying to use a porta-potty within 30 mins of the start!

I was seeded in coral A based on my projected finish time - this was great - only the second time in my life I've been brave enough to stand right at the front of a big race & watch as the elite athletes (who don't get a coral) finished their warm ups and lined up just ahead of us.  My Quaff ON! Racing team mate, Danny Fisher was running the full marathon and as a previous champion was seeded #6.  It was great to see a friendly face and shake hands before the start, even though I knew I wouldn't see him again until he finished his race!

There were two things I noticed about my peers in the race - this is a group of people who've all trained and are strong enough to run a half marathon at around 6 min/mile pace, so they're all experienced runners
First - within the first 5 miles, 2 people stopped to tie shoe laces, one of them ran past me again, then stopped again to tie the other shoe lace!
Second - the number of people not running the shortest course.  USATF certifies the course over the shortest distance, the roads are closed which means you run corner to corner.  I passed people running the left hand gutter like it was a training run expecting oncoming traffic.
So my takeaways from this, even for experienced runners is (1) always double tie your shoes, really, it takes no additional effort, just do it! (2) run the shortest course - turn off the training mentality and look for the line corner to corner.
Sounds basic, it is basic, but there are plenty of people running semi-elite times that aren't paying attention to these basics.

My race quickly settled into a rhythm with my pace at or just below my target of 5:58 min/mile.  It quickly got thinned out and by 10k there were really only 3 or 4 people around me. The course goes through the Churchhill Downs race course, as we dipped back under the tunnel to start the dead straight 4 miles to the finish, Paul Althoff, caught up with me and we exchanged a few panted words about our objectives - both wanting to break 78 mins - we came through 10 miles in 59:33, I knew it would be a close call to hit my goal time - we remained in sight of each other to the finish briefly exchanging positions as one started to fade, or the other felt strong it was good motivation to stay on pace and definitely helped me when the going got tough.  We were running into a head wind which at first was hardly noticeable but the closer we got to the down town, the taller the buildings got and channeled the wind directly at us.  The final mile of this was truly miserable, culminating in running under the long bridge of the conference center which was like a full-on wind tunnel.  I kept telling myself that once we turned out of the wind onto Main Street for the final 0.6 miles, I'd find some speed but when we finally made the turn, there was nothing left to accelerate, just maintaining pace was taking my full effort.  Finally I made the last turn to the down hill finish and found something to pick up the pace.  I could see the clock already past 1:17:00, with a weak surge I crossed the line with an official race time of 1:17:45.

Finishers medal 1:17:45 - new PR!

I had beaten my goal time, I came 23rd overall (out of 11,800 starters!) and won my age group.  A result I'm really proud of - the preparation in training paid off.

After a short cool down run back to the car, I was able to cheer on Danny Fisher who finished 4th overall in the marathon with a PR time of 2:30:18 - he'd just run two half marathons back to back faster than my personal best - a humbling thought!  Also running the full marathon (his second in 7 days) was team mate Joe Bell, who come in at 2:58 - sub 3 hour marathons are becoming the norm for Joe who's endurance and persistence are inspiring.

Tim Proctor, Danny Fisher, Joe Bell
Quaff ON!

Link to my Strava activity for this race

Taper Tension

Like many people at this time of year, I'm in a taper week ahead of a big race.  For me it's the Kentucky Derby Festival Half Marathon.
Some people (like Danny Fisher) hardly taper, but normally these are seasoned runners with high mileage weeks being the norm in their life.  My experience leads me to taper quite a lot, this week I'll run about 50% of a normal week.  That sounds great "just run a lot less than you usually do" but actually it's hard.
In training, I feel in control - I set objectives which I either meet or fail to meet, this guides me and gives me feedback on how my body is adapting.  This close to the race, there's no more adapting going to happen - the "money is in the bank" and this loss of control, no more chance to influence the outcome, is what plays on my mind.

Beet, Carrot & Apple... Quaff ON!

Doing less work, means watching the diet more closely to avoid last minute weight gain, but it also means eating the right foods to ensure muscles and metabolism are recovered & fully charged for the hard race effort ahead.  I'm a big believer in raw vegetables and this week I'm drinking a lot of beetroot, carrot & apple juice made fresh with a juicer.  Beetroot has a scientifically proven benefit for endurance sport performance, helping the body transport oxygen to the muscles more efficiently.  The rest of the diet needs to ensure enough protein and vitamins to help recover strength as my body rests as well as the carbohydrates needed to charge up the muscles ready for work.

Taper doesn't mean no work, it's important to keep some intensity so I went to Track Tuesday and completed a short, but fast pre-race workout just as we did before the Hoosier Half a couple of weeks ago.  I've got a short run planned today where I'll hit target race pace for 1/2 - 3/4 mile just to remember what it feels like.
Normally Friday would be a complete rest day, but it's the Good Friday holiday here and the one day in the year when I don't have to go to work but the kids have to go to school!  I'm making the most of this and riding with a friend to Bloomington where we'll meet our wives for brunch at Farm, before driving home again.  An easy 50 mile spin on the bike will loosen up my legs without adding significant fatigue and I'll recover with some good food and an early night.

Pink Power 5k Race - Thinking of Spring....When will Winter end?

After the Ultra Cross race at Southern Cross my focus turns from cycling to running and Spring half marathons.  I'm aiming to break my PR of 1:19:48 when I run the Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon in Louisville, KY on April 19th.  I'm aiming to go under 1:18:00 with a target race pace of 5:54 min/mile.

The bad weather in Indiana has prevented most serious speed workouts with tracks covered in snow and roads icy or snow covered so there's lots of work to do. There are 8 weeks until the race to build up speed and the strength to sustain it over the race distance.

This week the weather was just about kind enough and the Quaff ON! team were able to meet up for "Track Tuesday" which has only happened on two other occasions in 2014.  On Satruday, after two easy days and a rest day, the Crossroads of Indiana Race Series Pink Power 5k race started at 9am.  I planned to use this race as part of a workout which I had dreamed up - in the cold wintry parking lot outside Hamilton Ice Center it was not feeling like such a good idea.... I planned to run the course 3 times at my target half marathon race pace, twice before the race, with a 4 minute recovery and then run the race after a 5-6 minute break.  It's easy to back out of hard sessions like this, particularly when it's something you're doing on your own, so I posted a message to my team mates on Friday evening with my plans by way of making the commitment & knowing they'd be chasing me up to see how I got on - that's enough peer pressure to make me follow-through!

I started my repeats at 8:15 and ran 18:22 for the first time over the race course which is twisty and if anything slightly long.  After a 4 minute recovery, I ran the second repeat in 18:46 - this was by far the hardest psychologically.  Finally, I lined up for the race with nearly 300 other people.  Team mates, Joe Bell and Sara Martin were there as well and I knew that with the other people around me in the race, the third repeat would be easier than the second.  Joe set a fast pace at the start opening a small gap by the mile mark, we were together with the rest of the field about 10 secs back.  In the middle of the race, Joe moved ahead as I was feeling the effects of the previous efforts however, my pace was still good as far as my training target.  Towards the end of the race, it felt like I as starting to close down the gap but Joe won easily about 9 secs ahead of me, my time being 18:13.  It was great to see Sara come home 3rd overall out kicking her rival for the women's victory, Melissa Truex, over the final tenth of a mile.  So the Quaff ON! team took 1, 2, 3 and 1st in the women's race - a great result on the day.  We were all surprised because in previous years, this event has drawn a fast field and our times would barely have been top 10 results in last years race (see below), but you've got to show up to end up in the results and a "W" is a "W" no matter what!

Here's a link to the race section on Strava

My 3 efforts today on the course:

The average pace over the 3 x 5k course distance is 5:54 / mile - exactly my target!

Results from 2014 and 2013

 The Quaff ON! Team finishing 1-2-3

Joe Bell

Tim Proctor

Sara Martin