Last Week!

It's here. The last week of training. The payoff, the Capitol Hill Classic 10K, is right around the corner!

Saturday May 10th we'll meet at 9 am at Stanton Square in DC by Union Station. I'll lead a pre-race strategy discussion, covering such things as:

Go out slowly. Perhaps once you circle around RFK, you can assess how you feel and pick up the pace if you feel strong. Don't fight the downhill in the fourth mile and don't be intimidated by the uphill in the fifth mile. Save some energy running in front of the Capitol for the upcoming uphill. Don't keep looking all the way up the hill as you travel up it. Check the horizon, then focus on the roadway 12 feet in front of you and concentrate on keeping moving. Lean slightly forward and use plenty of arm action. Glance up at the horizon only occasionally and only for a moment, to check your progress. Once you achieve the top of the hill, it is a level one-half mile to the finish line. The roadway will bear off to the left in a fork as you approach the final leg of the race. Water will be handed out during the race. Go to the website for packet pickup information. There is race morning packet pickup (and registration). Don't forget to wear your timing chip! Arrive early. Parking is difficult. Consider Metro, Union Station on the Red Line (8 minute walk) or Capitol South on the Blue/Orange Lines or Archives/Navy Memorial on the Yellow/Green Lines (20 minute walk). Study the course map beforehand. Last year's race map is contained in last week's post also.

After the discussion, Program t-shirts will be handed out to all attendees and then we'll go out for a run on the course.

Last week Kristin directed the show and John, Renee and Guest Coach Sasha took everyone out on a run around the CHC course. (Right: Coach Sasha leading runners around RFK (in this case, during the SunTrust National Half-Marathon, in a sub-8 time). Photo credit Matt.)

CHC: Sunday May 18, 2008 at 8:30 am at Stanton Square.

Penultimate Week!

Week 11 of the dcrrc TKG will meet at 9 am on Saturday, May 3, 2008 in Stanton Square in DC, a few blocks to the southeast from Union Station (Red Line). There should be plenty of street parking nearby on Saturday. This is the starting point, and the ending point, of the Capitol Hill Classic. Kristin will be directing the morning's activities, which probably will entail some variation on the actual CHC 10K race course. Sasha will be there from the Reebok SunTrust National Half-Marathon Program to take some runners out as well.
Don't forget that tomorrow night (Monday night, 4/28), is the Snowball Series Awards and Marathon Training Program Recognition Night. Everyone is welcome at 7:00 pm at the Cactus Cantina, 3300 Wisconsin Ave NW in DC, 20016, for the presentation of the Snowball Series age-group awards, and to recognize the coaches and participants in the Reebok Official Training Program for the SunTrust National Marathon. This is always a fun, informal event. The list of the 2007-2008 Snowball Series winners has been posted on the club's website. Awards are three deep in each age group.

Last Week, week 10, Saturday 4/26 at Haines Point. Bob and I took out all of the runners, including some guest runners from the Reebok SunTrust National Half Marathon Training Program, on a 7-mile run up Capitol Hill, through Stanton Square, to Lincoln Park, down L'Enfant Promenade and over the Francis Case Bridge on the return. This was achieved in about 70 minutes. Several of the runners achieved it in under a 10-minute per mile pace. A few runners varied the route or distance as they saw fit. (Above: Coach Bob leads the TKG on Haines Point in week nine.)

Marine Corps Marathon and DCRRC Hall-of-Famer Jim Hage spoke to us in Week 4 about running a race. Here is an article he wrote on why he runs. When you all graduate to a marathon, here are his tips on that.

Week Ten, April 26th, at Haines Point

Week 10, April 26, 2008:

Three weeks of training left! We will meet again on Haines Point in the Golf Course parking lot at 9 AM for a run of up to seven miles. Here is a 6.8 mile route that replicates the sixth, and then the first, mile of last year's race course. I recently received information from the race director that the course has been changed, due to security concerns. There is still a run up Capitol Hill, however.

For weeks 11 & 12, we'll meet at Stanton Square by Union Station and practice on the actual course of our target race, the CHC, which starts and finishes at Stanton Square. It's a five minutes walk from Metro at Union Station (Red Line), or there is street parking around the square.

Last week (week nine) John, Kristin, Peter and Bob led a small band of dedicated runners on a six mile run around Haines Point and along the Mall. It was a wonderful morning to run.

Afterwards a group of runners met at Whitlow's on Wilson (WOW) Boulevard in Arlington (Clarendon) and enjoyed brunch with some coaches and participants from the Reebok SunTrust National Half-Marathon Training Program and the dcrrc club president. (Right: TKG runners gather before the run from Roosevelt Island on a beautiful Saturday morning.)

Track was offered on Wednesday evening at 7 pm at Washington & Lee High School in Arlington as usual. The workout was 4 one-mile repeats at 10K race pace on the nearby hilly Custis trail (there was a lacrosse game so the track was closed) with quarter mile recovery runs in between. My splits were 7:26, 7:40, 7:49, 7:51. What were yours? Track work is the fastest way to get better and what you're going to have to do, probably, if you ever want to run a sub-50 minute 10K. The runner in the Reebok SunTrust National Half Marathon Training Program, who always went to track workouts, who went from wishing for a 1:50 to running an actual sub 1:40 half marathon in the race, was there. Go here to find out the track workout schedule.

You all should run three more times this week, at least 12 more miles total for the week, not counting Saturday's long run.

Approaching Week Eleven 5/5/07 in DC

2007 DCRRC 10K Training Program
Remaining 2007 SCHEDULE–9 am Every Saturday:

11. 5/5–Stanton Square in DC (near Union Station at Mass & Maryland Aves., C & 4th St.)
12. 5/12–Stanton Square in DC (near Union Station at Mass & Maryland Aves., C & 4th St.)
13. CHC 10K RACE is Sunday 5/20/07 at 8:30 am at Stanton Square.

NEXT WEEK (Week 11): Next Saturday, 5/5/07 at 9 am, (and also the twelveth and last week of training before the race) we’ll meet in DC at the actual starting point of the race, at Stanton Square a few blocks east and south of Union Station down Mass Ave. Click here for directions or go to the the Capitol Hill Classic 10K website. That is our goal race and you should study the course map anyway before you run it. You'll just have to find parking along the street or pay for parking at Union Station and walk over (an 8 minute walk) or take the Red Line to Union Station. Give yourself some extra time.

LAST WEEK: In WEEK 10, about a dozen athletes showed up at East Falls Church Metro Station and we ran six and a half miles west and back on the W&OD Trail in about an hour. (Left: Nobody, not even Mary Alice, was faster than Jake on Saturday. L-R, Hallie, Ashley, Gary and Arnetta.) The turnout included some alumni from last year's TKG program. Check out the great photos in Jeanne's post, just below this one. Everybody looked great and Mary Alice blazed the pace at about 8:40 minutes per mile. She's ready! Afterwards we chatted about running and things for twenty minutes at the top of the stairs leading down from the trail to the station's Kiss & Ride parking lot. (Right: Remember how far off the race seemed those weeks running on the Mall in February and March?)

Sunday was the Hill Workout in Falls Church. John showed up (I don't think he's in the TKG program) and in an hour of running, we ran about 5 miles up and over the hill and back again ten times on Highland Avenue, including one infamous boomerang (a dizzying descent and back again on a side hill). We practiced our downhill running and our pace (footstrike, turnover or cadence). Both are technique-driven and will make you faster. Afterwards I ran into Coach Bob riding his bike (!) on the W&OD Trail. He had come looking for the Hill Workout which conveniently was over! Incredibly, his bike had a bell on it, and he even demonstrated to me that he knew how to use it (he is a runner, after all). Your coach now is ready for the hill in Capitol Hill in the sixth mile. How about you? (Above: You will encounter this view on May 20th at around 8:50 a.m. after you have already run over five miles. Will you conquer this hill, or will it conquer you? Left: John getting ready for hills.)

Don’t forget the club will offer a Ten-Mile Group Training Program ("TMG") starting on Saturday, July 14th at 8 a.m. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (the steps that face the Washington Monument). The cost is $35. I hope to see all of you there. The goal race will be the Army Ten-Miler on Sunday, October 7, 2007 at the Pentagon. It’s a fun, albeit jinxed, race, fast flat and full (almost). As of today, there are only 6,015 slots left out of 26,000 originally available. Sign up soon if you know you’re going to run it!

Notable Upcoming Run: The Arlington YMCA’s Mother’s Day 10K on Sunday, May 13, 2007 was last year’s program’s goal race and is a worthy race to run. It is challenging and it runs over the very same hills we did two Saturdays ago when we hit the Custis Trail.

There are many fine running products out there. The many fine area running stores, like Fleet Feet in Adams Morgan, or Metro Run & Walk in Falls Church, Springfield and Rockville, or Pacers in Old Town and Arlington, or Gotta Run in Pentagon Row and Annapolis, or others, stock reputable products at fair prices. Go to a store and check out your running needs.

RUN ON YOUR OWN: You better!! I can tell who is! This week you should run three or four times on your own, 35 to 55 minutes each time, with some of the runs at a ten or eleven minute per mile pace or better. On Saturday, each coach will take you out on a route they choose that is a little further than we went last week. Our goal race is the Capitol Hill Classic 10K (CHC) on 5/20/07 which has a serious hill in the last mile. We’re within three weeks of the race now so it’s time to concentrate on your training! If you want to run the goal race at the conclusion of the program, you must sign up at the CHC website for the race and pay the entry fee on your own.

CLUB TRACK WORKOUT: In the meantime, go to the club’s website and look at the Wednesday evening track workout schedule at 7:15 pm every Wednesday at the Washington & Lee High School Track in Arlington. Speed workouts will make you better.

Visit the program’s running commentary on the Forum link at the club's website for more information. There’s lots of interesting and pertinent information there. Please feel free to comment on the blog or this forum link. As a matter of fact, I double dare you to comment!

Coaching tips:
Study the course map and familiarize yourself with where the milemarkers are. Pasta load the night before the race (spaghetti is traditional) and get plenty of rest! Lay out your racing items before you go to bed. Give yourself PLENTY of time to get there. Email your coach or me if you want/need more pre-race tips.

Odds & Ends: Read Jeanne's post right below this one concerning charity running. Ashley is running Chicago in the fall and needs to raise $500 for a worthy charity benefitting both education and underdeveloped regions. I am raising money in the same race for the same cause.
See you Saturday!