Peter Gilmore Running

Mono and low iron

2010-04-03T07:38:00.001-07:00

Since I didn't update since my first race during indoors I figure I'll give a brief recap of indoors.

1/15/2010 - BU Multi-Team Meet. 3K - 8:25.47, 1st
1/30/2010 - Terrier Invitational. Mile - 4:14.94, 27th
2/06/2010 - Battle of Beantown. Mile - 4:20.04, 7th
2/19/2010 - America East Champs. 5K - 15:04.46, 10th
2/20/2010 - America East Champs. 3K - 8:32.52, 10th

-Clearly my best race was the first race. Training actually went pretty well throughout the entire season until about the second week of February when I got pretty sick and had to miss a workout. Before that, I had some uninterrupted training. All my workouts were geared toward the 5K. Terrier went OK. I lead for the entire first 1200m (3rd section).
Splits: (30.8, 31.2 (62.1), 31.6, 32.2 (2:05.8), 32.0, 32.1 (3:10.8), 32.1, 32.3). Clearly, I just couldn't close in the last 400m of the race. The winner of my heat ran 4:11.00 so I certainly think that could have been in the cards. As Bruce said, "endurance isn't the same as mile endurance." Running almost exclusively longer workouts I'm sure contributed to my lack of closing speed. However, I think that if I focused on the mile I would have been in the 4:10 range - but that wasn't the goal of the season.

The only mile workout that I had was the week before Beantown. Other than that workout I don't think that I dipped under 600m for any repeat of any workout. That workout was (on 2/02/2010):
500, 300, 300. 500, 400, 300. 4x150. 500, 300, 300. all w/ 2' rest. 4' rest before the final set
(78.1, 45.0, 44.1, 81.1, 62.2, 44.9, 20.6, 20.1, 20.0, 19.9, 76.1, 44.4, 43.7).
--It was a good workout and it was nice to finally get my legs turning over again. I don't think that it would have had much of a physical impact on my training but it was a good mental boost. However, the Battle of Beantown was a mess. The first time we tried to start the race my teammate (and 1:49 800m runner) Balint Horvath fell down and got spiked pretty badly. The second start was much better. However, the runner from the barrel took the lead and the leaders were out in 2:10. I think I hit 800m in 2:12 and closed in 2:08 or something. Tim Ritchie from BC won the race in about 4:10 (closing in 2:00.x) and second place was Rob Gibson (4:13). It was another less-than-pleasing performance.

The two weeks in between the Battle of Beantown (2/06/10) and America East (2/19/10) I only ran two workouts - one tempo and one lighter workout (2x(800, 600, 400)). It was a really rough two weeks of training. I got sick, had to skip a workout, and was really just trudging through all my runs. Regardless, I went into the conference meet with some optimism. The race went out really slow. My splits ended up being: (3:00, 2:56, 2:57, 3:03, 3:08). The last 2k was very bad. I just felt flat and slow. I hadn't felt like myself 2 weeks leading up to the race and it surely showed in my race. The next day; however, I came back and ran 8:32 in the 3k. Splits were about: (~2:53, 2:50, 2:50). I hadn't even planned on racing the 3K until the morning of the race when Bruce offered my some advice and said, "Well, if you're going to go down - you might as well go down swinging. You don't want to get into a habit of just laying down as soon as it gets hard." It wasn't a complete disaster. I was doing pretty well and just running with people up until about 500m left when they made a move and I didn't. It was that one push that separates me from where I am and where I should be. Although I would have liked to continue onto IC4A's and try to run under 8:20, we called it a season.

Based on the results from the conference meet Bruce suggested that I get some blood work done. I went to the doctor about three days after the race and got a mono-spot and a full blood work-up. The mono-spot came back positive and I found out that my serum ferritin was also low. So - low iron AND mono. I suppose a 15:04/8:32 double isn't too bad considering that. The next 3 weeks I didn't workout at all - ran 56, 66, then 69 miles for those weeks. From then up until my race last night (steeple) I had 5 workouts and only two of them were actual workouts (that weren't light workouts or pre-race workouts). I've been taking iron and trying to get sleep and stay healthy. I'm thinking that my last couple workouts may have been a result of that but I'm just trying to keep my head up and keep working hard.

Hopefully I'll get over my sicknesses, my workouts will start clicking, and I'll finally race at an intensity that I'm capable of.

First steeple - complete

2010-04-03T06:07:00.001-07:00

Well - I didn't fall down. I ended up running 9:34.83 and getting 17th place. They packed 26 people into the race and the first couple laps were very crowded. I don't want to critique myself too harshly because it was just my first one but maybe I'll go a bit into what went well and what went poorly.

The race went out fairly aggressive for the first flat 200m, I'm sure it was byproduct of it being a very crowded field. I was somewhere mid-pack. It was hard to actually "hurdle" the barriers and for a while I found myself just jumping over them. For the first 1200m every barrier lined up perfectly as left leg as lead-leg (my comfortable leg) so that was nice. I ended up jumping over goofy a few times too and that wasn't too bad. I hit every hurdle/water barrier in stride and didn't chicken step at all. I'm not saying that every single one was flawless, I just did them all sans chicken steps. For every water barrier I was one step in the water and then the next step out of the water. The first one was shaky at best and the rest were somewhere slightly better than that. What I didn't do was accelerate into the water. After about half the race my ankle (I think my left?) started to hurt as I landed in the water so I jumped with my other leg for a few jumps. I was really giving myself a lot of room over the hurdles and making sure that I didn't catch a trail leg or anything.
A few things I can work on: 1) accelerating into the water pit, 2) accelerating out of the water pit, 3) running "through" the hurdles and not slowing down so much each jump, and 4) actually racing in between the barriers.

I wasn't even very tired, my breathing was under control, and I felt in control. However, my legs were heavy. I think that just the sheer experience from this race will carry me to better times in my next few races. The general trend of novice steeplers is to drop big time in their first couple races and I feel as though that will be the trend for me as well. It is a bit unsettling to think that I ran 9:34 (not a very fast time) but what helps is that I feel as though I have a long way to go and I'll be able to make much of that journey this season. I know that a runner of my ability should be able to run closer to 9:05 and of course I understand that I shouldn't expect that in the first race. However, that is certainly the goal by the end of the season. On top of that, I feel like I have been slogging through all of my runs lately and it has been hard for me to make recovery from my workouts. Hopefully once training start clicking, my races will too.

Next weekend out team is traveling to Florida State for another race. They only have a 2K steeple there so I'm not sure if that will fit into my schedule. As nice as it is to travel, I think that a couple weeks of solid training will be just as good for me.

Here's a results link for those of you interested:
http://www.halfmiletiming.com/Datafiles/Spring2010/UF10/FLRelays/Results/

Steeple Debut

2010-04-02T15:04:00.001-07:00

I keep promising that I'll update this thing but never do. Here goes again.

Well, right now I'm just sitting alone in a hotel room in Gainesville, Florida - about 4 miles down the road from the University of Florida. It's 6:00PM right now and my ride over to the meet (Florida Pepsi Relays) leaves at 6:30. It's a 2-day meet with the open events today and the relays tomorrow. Tonight (at about 8:30, probably) I'm making my debut in the steeplechase. The workouts the last couple of week have been so-so, with a tough one just a couple days ago so I'm a bit worried. I've only really had 1 workout over barriers (1500, 800, then 2x800 flat and 10x100m strides) which went pretty well all things considered (4:38, 2:24, 2:15, 2:14). The typical pre-race workout on Tuesday; however, was pretty disastrous. But, it was just a light, "refresher" workout so I'm not dwelling on it too much.

Regardless - tonight I'll make my debut in a pretty star-studded field. Schools at the meet include Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Clemson. The weather is pretty nice and the heat is far from oppressive. Luckily for me, I should be racing under the lights and in about 74 degrees, which should prove to be nice. I have a natural knack for running over the hurdles and have practically 12 months of constant (not quite "flawless") training under my belt so I'm trying to look the brighter side of things. I'll be happy with any debut under 9:30. The heat sheets have 32 entries in the men's steeple and they don't have the heat split up yet so it could be a very tricky first couple barriers if there are 32 guys jostling for position and trying to jump over things at the same time.

The plan is to get out well, settle into a good pace, and just try and fight through the last 1000m. There's no sense of traveling all the way from Boston to Florida to put limitations on myself so I just gotta get out there and go for it. Regardless of the result tonight, hopefully I have a long, successful steeple career of steeple-ing ahead of me. As important as this race is, it's really just a stepping stone.

Here's to staying on your feet,
Peter

rust buster - first race - first collegiate win

2010-01-15T22:21:00.001-08:00

I promise that I'll try to start updating this thing more (I say this like I have millions of followers). I really would like to lay out my training and my ideas. Anyway just a brief recap -

Last night (Thursday, January 14th) I had my first indoor track race in about 2 years and my first race under 5k in about 18-19 months. I ran 8:25.74 for 3000m and won the race (second place about 8:27). It was only the first race of the season and just a "rust buster." Ran just about even splits of 2:50-2:50-2:45 (with a last lap of ~65). I took the lead around 1200m and lead the entire last 1.8K. Hopefully once I get into a fast heat and really get into the meat of my workouts, I'll be able to bring my my time down to around 8:15. The race was a fitness tester that went well. I wasn't really very surprised with the time I ran but I was pleased nonetheless.

Unfortunately, a tight right hamstring has been nagging me the last couple weeks and feels even tighter after the race. Hopefully it doesn't escalate into something more serious but I'm keeping a very close eye on it right now with massage, ice, stretching, etc. We will see!

Back blogging again

2010-01-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

Well - I never really followed through with the blog last time but I think I might actually do it this time. A few of my teammates and friends (Kevin Gilmore (Pushing On...), Elliot Lehane (Elliot Track), Craig Macpherson (Crag Mac on the Track) either have had blogs or have just started blogging and I figure I'll try to do the same now. I think it'll be a good way to have something a little more in depth than a running log that only lists workouts/times and not much else. We'll see how it goes, anyway.

Boston University Freshman Year Complete

2009-06-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that this post will be on the longer end of most of my blog entries. In this, I think that I'll sum up my freshman year of college - as it is a critical point in anyone's running career. Some other time I'll write one up about my High School career, but while the 2008/2009 academic year is still fresh in my mind, I'll work on that.

The summer going into my freshman year went pretty well. After a rocky start complete with about 2 weeks of knee pain (thanks to whoever stole my orthotics at NON during the 4xmile), I started my running aimed specifically at my first collegiate season. During the entire summer I averaged just about 70mpw, working it up from about 60mpw to a high of somewhere just over 80mpw. It was definitely the most mileage I had ever done before. I didn't have too much structure to my summer, did some strides every once and a while. I had some progression runs, some fartlek runs, and a couple workouts on the track. I think I did strides about 10 times, and progression/fartlek/road races 10 times. So, I didn't get too much faster running in, but I was in pretty good shape going into the season. During the summer I raced 2 times (Carver 5 mile road race - 26:30 (5:18), Falmouth 7.1 mile road race - 37:11 (5:14). Carver was more of a tempo run and Falmouth was just about an all-out effort.

During the 2.5 months or so that was cross-country season, I hovered right around 75-85mpw, complete with 2-3 workouts a week. It was the first season that I had experimented with running more volume while racing. On a tough Dartmouth College course, I tackled my first 8k in 26:43 (5:20) (winner- 26:00). It was a real tough course and a real good experience for my first race. I continued, the next week, to have my best race of the season at the Ted Owen Invitational where I ran 5.1 miles in 25:53 (5:04) (winner- 25:38). After that, the season was all downhill. We had another 4 weeks of training without any races then at the New England Championship meet I ran 26:33 (5:18) (winner- 24:35) on an 8k course at Franklin Park; it was a race where everything was working against me, including myself. Three weeks later was the conference meet on a tough UMBC course where I finished in 31st in 26:54 (5:22) (winner- 25:29). It was a step in the right direction after my blowout at New England's, but was still nowhere near where I wanted to be. Two weeks later we continued onto the NCAA D1 Northeast Regional meet at VCP where I ran 34:23 (5:32) (winner- 31:11) for 10k on a very muddy and rainy day.

The cross country season was a success in that I made a large adjustment in terms of higher volume and I learned what to expect in the upcoming seasons. The beginning of the season rolled along much more smoothly than the end. Based on some workouts and races, my coach and I thought that sub 25:30 would be in the cards for 8k at Franklin Park. But, the entire season was one big learning experience. I think that it helped in many ways. I learned a bit about the man and the coaching style that I will be subject to for the next 3-4 years, and I liked it. I think that my lack of success during the cross-country was responsible, in part, to a very good summer. I feel like my legs just started to had enough. I feel as though I could have kept racing, but I didn't have the spring in my legs longed for on race day. It was disappointing at the time to not have the results that I felt like I could have had, but this is a sport where consistency pays off. A combination of higher mileage, higher intensity, and an adjustment to school makes it tough for a freshman to have stellar first seasons. But, it is those things, bound with consistency, that help in the future.

Well, Indoors rolled around and I couldn't have been more excited. I've always kind of seen myself as a track guy, anyway. Took a little bit of downtime going into the season, but not too much. I hopped on the track, eased into the workouts a bit, but once we really got it going, I started to seriously surprise myself. I had myself convinced that I was in the best shape of my life. I was running 4x1600 workouts in 4:45 average feeling comfortable. 3k, 15, 15 in 8:59, 4:25, and 4:21. Closing down 5 mile workouts with a couple 800s in 2:10 and 2:08, feeling good. Ran a 3200, 1600, 1600 in 9:53, 4:45, 4:36 (2:57, 1:38), while not feeling 100% on top of my game. I was able to run 4 mile tempo runs in just about 5:00 pace and have it feel just like it should - a tempo run. I had some other workouts that were just as good as the ones listed above, and we hadn't even started to do 'faster' stuff yet, we were just working on strength. And, just like they say, "if something seems too good to be true - it probably is."

Just after arguably one of the best workouts of my life - I started to feel sick. And it got worse from there. It didn't feel like just a passing cold - and it wasn't passing. I thought I had the flu, strep throat crossed my mind, anemia became a possibility. I didn't want to admit the reality that it was probably mono. However, the first 2 mono tests came back negative. I had given out so much blood for tests that I was getting seriously pissed (I worked hard to make that blood efficient as hell). Anyway, test #3 came back - positive for the Epstein-barr virus (mono). That was it - goodbye indoor season, goodbye stellar workouts. I felt like I was in a completely different ballpark than I had ever been before; I was surprising myself week after week. But the next 3.5 weeks were complete with a 4-day streak of a 102 fever, daggers in my throat (or so it felt), night sweats, swollen nasals, mouth full of blisters, and the worst - no running.

I got back into things after 3.5 weeks and just started running and working my mileage back up. There were no hopes of an indoor season, all I could do it look toward the outdoor season. I overestimated my potential for the outdoor season. I was doing some workouts that were embarrassingly taxing. My mileage was semi-normal, but the workouts were not there. Going into my first 5k in Georgia, I asked my coach what he thought I should be able to run (I hoped to hear something like 14:50), he told me "15:20." My PR was 15:07 from a full year before that (and in High School). I thought I was going to run 15:07 with a bad race. The 3 day trip down to Georgia concluded with a bad sunburn and a 15:19.

I didn't race again until my conference meet in Binghamton, NY. I lined up for the 5k. This time sub 15:00 seemed like an actual possibility, it was almost a month after my season opener in Georgia. Top 8 score. I was in 7th place running right on the heels of 5th and 6th with 1000m left. A decent last 1000m would put me in 5th place and sub 15:00. However, I made a mistake that I often make while racing - I got content. I looked up - counted the places in front of me, saw that I was in 7th, and said "Hey, I'll still get a medal for 7th - all you need to do is hold this spot." And so I did. 5th and 6th pulled away from me, I started to fall apart, ran a 36-second last 200m and ran 15:07. 5th place ran 14:59.02. I lacked physical and mental strength. This comeback from mono was slowly becoming a more difficult battle than I expected.

I lined up for one last time as a freshman at BU at the New England Championships on May 8th. I pretty much just sat in the front pack in about 2nd-3rd place the entire race. Instead of counting down the laps the whole way or feeling bad for myself off the back of the pack, I just tried to race. We went out pretty slow and the first 1000 felt really slow (even though it didn't end up being that way). Some people made some moves throughout the race, no one made any huge decisive moves, but I was covering everyone's moves and such. Didn't really hear too many splits during the race (I thought that I heard a lot of "Good job, 71!" - so I thought we were running faster than we were), just kind of keeping position up front. Like I said, covering moves and staying close. I took the lead with about 1000m to go or so and instead of taking the lead and trying to make some of those other guys doubt themselves by making some sort of a move, I just kind of kept the same pace (maybe picked it up a tad). That was one mistake. Found myself in the lead late in the race and wasn't aggressive enough. A UMASS-Lowell kid passed me with about 600m to go and I didn't respond to his move. The one move I didn't respond to ended up being the winning move. I had my chance and didn't take it. With about 300 or 400m to go the race wasn't over yet but my legs felt like rubber and I didn't think I was going to be able to spin them over any faster. Closed down the last 200 in a mean 36 again! I had my chance at sub-15, put myself in good position but didn't go in the last 800m.

Bruce said before the race that the last 800m you can make almost a 10 second difference in the 5k (which in my case - is almost certainly true), and I should be able to close in 2:16-2:17. Came around and only ran the last 800 in 2:22.5. My strength is lacking at this point. Not going to hang my head about the race, but I'm by no means elated either. At this point I just see it as a stepping stone to some much better things down the line.

I had some real good cross-country races and some very promising winter workouts. Was getting adjusted to more mileage and having some killer workouts, but then obviously got mono. Was looking forward to a really solid indoors and an even better outdoors, but had to reassess my goals. Just having to reassess my already lofty goals was a bit demoralizing, so it was real hard to be even content with any of the three races that I ran. I half expected myself to be able to jog a 15 minute 5k, but that's not how it worked out. It's really hard for me to take positives from this year because it was athletically a really tough one. However, I have definitely adjusted to the volume of work that I will be handling over the next four years which is always good. I did run a 5k XC PR en rout in a few cross country races. Indoors was non-existent. And then outdoors I ran a 4 second PR over 3.1 miles. Considering that I was elated when I ran 15:07 in HS, I think it says a lot about my expectations as a runner since I am down in the dumps a bit even after bettering that time. I had to bounce back and to even just be a tiny bit ahead of where I was last year after my indoor season is a step in the right direction (at least I'm doing something right, right?).

Hopefully this summer will be just as successful as I plan it to be.