A few weeks ago Coach Sumner pulled me aside at the track and said he found me a training partner for Chicago, someone who is looking to run 2:40. In pops Karen Barlow, an Aussie, who had just won the New Orleans Marathon in a relatively easy 2:45 and also won the Surf City Half in 1:18. I was caught slightly off guard because I do not know many sub 2:45 female marathoners in Newport Beach. Karen is not a full-time training partner, but it’s a good fit for both of us because she uses our run as her tempo and it helps me get my long, easy, rhythm runs back to the low six minute range. Apologies to a few Yale and CDM ladies but she is by far the fastest female I have run with.
I met Karen at the track at 6:15 a.m. for her tempo/my easy run (I only say easy because it’s conversational pace for me, but it’s not that easy). She was looking to do a 10 mile tempo, with about 14 for the day, but that is too much for me during the middle of a week, especially when I have to rush to work afterwards. I have also been nursing tight calves and hamstrings, and am closely monitoring my hip flexor from Tuesday (iced three times last night). We had previously worked out a plan where we warm up two miles together then run the first 8 miles of her tempo together before I peel off and head to work. It was a perfect 57 degrees when we started from the high school and headed down the bike path towards Irvine for five miles, then did an about-face and came back the same route. It is a monotonous route but great for this workout because there is a narrow dirt path adjacent to the bike path that is easy on my joints.
Karen wears the Garmin Forerunner 405, a great watch if you are not on a budget, ($350) which spits out mile splits, elevation gain/loss, average speed, calories burned, and heart rate. Then the computer spits these out in a nice display for personal records. Normally I would not pay attention to splits on an easy run, but we were cruising along nicely. The last eight miles I ran with Karen were: 6:12, 6:24, 6:23, 6:22, 6:19, 6:14, 6:22, and 6:32. The last mile was straight up hill so we didn’t slow down as much as it looks and Karen averaged 6:10 over the next two. No residual pain in the hip or legs, but I didn’t have time to ice after the run.
After work, I went to the pool with Drew and Blake. I did my usual drills, then 2 x 200 yards at a comfortable pace. Then Blake and I did 4 x 25 yard sprints, with a 25 yard breaststroke recovery. After this we went into 4 x 50 yard sprints, which beat the crap out of me, and I started cramping a bit in my arms. I cooled down with 3 x 200 yard easy and called it a day—1500 yards in the pool. I’m feeling pretty good considering all the work put in today. I think the pool actually got the blood flowing from this morning’s run. Now I’m about to go chow down on some sushi.
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