Tag Archives: race strategy

Bolder Boulder Race Plan

27 Saturday May 2017

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BB shoe

Everyone has a race plan for running the Bolder Boulder, until they run up that mile-long hill on Folsom in the second mile.  That’s when they learn that at altitude, even slopes feel like mountains.  I like strategerizing my race plans ahead of time.  My goals for Memorial Day include running faster than the year before, and to do so with a sub 7 minute per mile pace.  The fun in planning is from knowing this course so well.  I know every turn, every uphill, every down slope.  I know the third mile will very likely be my slowest and the fifth mile will be my fastest.

So another goal will be to run the third mile better.  One clever way to do that is to run slower the first two miles.  It’s not easy starting slow in such a massive race stacked with screaming spectators from start to finish.  The excitement is amped up, and my BA wave will start out fast.  I’m going to try to run the first mile a little over 7 minutes, maybe 7:05.  Rinse and repeat for mile two.  That will have me averaging over 7 minute miles, but if I can commit to race mode at the top of Folsom Street, I’ll make it up over the next four miles with a sustained surge.

The best place to start my surge might actually be half way into mile three at 4KM on Glenwood Drive.  This is near the high point of the course.  The streets undulate a bit here and continue a slight climb to mile four, which is where I historically start my surge.  It’s also where everyone else surges.  When they zig, I’ll zag.  One issue with this plan though is that the street gets crowded in the third mile as starting waves begin to converge and it might be difficult to pass other runners before mile four.

I’ll leverage that convergence at 4 kilometers.  Runners who have started 60 seconds behind me in the next wave and maintaining a 6:40 pace will catch me about here.  Surging will be easier if I can follow after a faster runner as they pass me.  The question will be how long I maintain my surge.  I don’t expect to be able to hold it to the end.  That’s fine, but I’d like to maintain it through mile 5.  And I’m not certain I can run a 7 minute pace.  I’ve only been running on weekends for the month of May, and might have lost some conditioning.  I’m certain I can maintain a 7:20 mile pace.  Regardless of pace, the plan for Monday is for a conservative start and an early, sustained surge after two miles.  I’d like to break 44 minutes.

My Surge Strategy

27 Friday May 2016

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I talk a good deal about racing.  Honestly though, my idea of racing is nowhere close to what a real, or at least younger, athlete does.  I’m not referencing speed because that is obvious, but the willingness to push oneself beyond reasonable limits.  As we age, most of us become comfortable.  We add weight.  I’m 10 pounds over the medical range for my height.  Older athletes like myself still enjoy races, but we rarely push ourselves beyond our lactate threshold.  We stay within our limits.  We might even chat while racing, I do.  Maybe we put on a good kick, knowing the end is near.  I rarely even do that, afraid of pulling one of my delicate muscles.  More often than not, I tend to cool down the last half mile, I slow down, to ensure I live to run another day.  I maintain that’s what wise old runners should do.  Although this isn’t my plan Monday morning for the 2016 Bolder Boulder.

course map

While I’m not in race shape necessarily, I believe I’m in good enough condition to race sections of this course hard.  Because I’m in decent overall aerobic shape, I should be able to surge for short sections and then recover, sort of like running a fartlek workout.  I’ll take the first mile easy, because starting out in oxygen debt will ruin this entire plan.  Although, I plan to start my first surge just before the one mile marker, and carry the surge around the corner down Pine Street to Folsom.  It’s a short section, likely under a quarter mile.  I’ll run steady up Folsom, there’s a small dip mid way into the second mile where I’ll try to  surge again if I’ve fully recovered.  Otherwise my next surge won’t be until Vista Hill, a little over half way into mile three.  This is where the racing truly starts for the elites, Vista Hill is strategic.  It’s followed by two more rolling hills, ending at Casey Hill just past the fourth mile, all three hills marking the top of the course elevation profile.  I’ll attempt short quarter mile surges on the downhill sections here, and recover on the uphills.  From here is a mile and a half downhill run through downtown Boulder, around Pearl Street.  This is the fastest section of the course.  Anyone racing runs their fastest pace in the fifth mile.  The real trick is to hold this fast pace past the fifth mile onto Folsom.  I couldn’t do that last year.  I’ll try harder this time.

elevation profile

No point in saving anything for the final half mile after the bridge over Boulder Creek.  It’s the steepest climb of the course and very few of the runners that I might have passed on Folsom will be able to pass me back here.  Everyone slows down for the hill that enters the stadium.  I’ll race for 5.75 miles with my surge tactics and cool down the final half mile.  If I can recover at all atop the final hill, I won’t so much as kick to the finish line, but I’ll try to surge again with a strong enough stride that looks good for the cameras.  Chances are though, I’ll just pretend that final hill isn’t there.  I’ll block it from memory, even while running it.  There is no spoon.  It’s nice to finish in Folsom Stadium, but not at the cost of climbing that hill.

The risk in this plan is that I won’t be able to recover sufficiently after a surge and my overall time will be much slower than if I were to run an even pace.  In fact, if I were in racing shape, I would of course run an even pace, because that’s what you do.  So in a sense, this is a wildly stupid plan, but it will be brilliant if it helps me to break 45 minutes. Odds are, I won’t break 50 minutes and will be running in oxygen debt the entire second half of the course.  But it might provide me some ephemeral moments of racing glory.

Signaling today that I’m going to run hard Monday certainly sets myself up for failure, but I like forecasting because it gives me that extra push.  Running is like golf in the sense you are really just competing with yourself.  Sort of like how betting on sports makes the game more interesting, there’s nothing like putting a little pressure on yourself with a pre-race prediction.  See you at the finish line.

Magnolia Road

23 Saturday May 2015

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Magnp;ia RoadKeith picked me up at 8:30am this morning to run Magnolia Road.  Our goal was to find suitable terrain to prep for our upcoming mountain trail relay race in Snowmass.  By suitable, I mean not flooded or overly muddy.  It has rained nearly every day this May and many trails are impassable.

I’ve never run Magnolia Road.  I don’t generally run roads.  This is packed dirt and not pavement, so like a really wide trail.  I would not call it pedestrian though.  At over 8000 feet and popularized in the local running book, Running with the Buffaloes, I was a bit intimidated.

Driving west out of Boulder on Canyon Road, headed up to Nederland, the turn onto Magnolia lies to the left just past the tunnel.  We drove four miles down until the pavement turned to dirt and parked on the side of the road.  This saved us probably 2000 feet of steep climbs.  The road began downhill for over a half mile, which meant we would finish uphill.  The trees thinned out and presented us with gorgeous views of mountaintop valleys.  There are quite a few homes up here but the traffic was light.  We were able to average a 9 minute pace, faster than I expected.  The terrain consists of rolling hills, each a good half mile or more long.  At this elevation, it’s a tough slog.  My Garmin captured 800 feet of elevation gain over the 8 mile out-and-back run.  We escaped the rain but heavy clouds rolled in from the east on our return, dropping the temperature and making it impossible to tell the time of day.

This was my last big workout before Memorial Day’s Bolder Boulder 10K.  We didn’t push our pace but the hills gave us a good aerobic workout regardless, and I still feel them in my glutes.  I’ll maybe run an easy 3 tomorrow, in the morning to prep for running early.  I’ve been telling anyone who’ll listen that I intend to run hard Monday.  Not sure why I commit like that and put myself out there.  But honestly, my pace predictions are generally fairly accurate.  My fastest 10K, since I started running again 6 years ago, is a 7:08 pace at the 2013 Bolder Boulder.  Which is also the last time I ran it.  I know I can run under a 7 minute pace this year and really expect to hit 6:50 per mile.  My stretch goal is 6:40 per mile.

I rarely hit my stretch goals, but they’re good to have when I discover early in a race that I’ve underestimated myself.  I’ve demonstrated this year I can run a 6:40 pace 5K.  The trick to running nearly that fast for a 10K will be in how I manage the first mile.  First half mile really.  If I can avoid oxygen debt early on, and I’m mentally prepared to race, I feel like the 6:50 pace is doable.  My plan is to shoot for that pace consistently each mile.  Then hopefully run the 5th mile in 6:40, saving little to nothing for the final mile up Folsom.

The Bolder Boulder is an uphill course with three notable downhills.  There is a 4th, albeit slight, downhill leading into the end of the first mile, down 28th Street and across Pine.  After Pine Street, mile two is entirely uphill on Folsom.  The 3rd mile ends on a decent down slope that bleeds into the 4th mile.  Mile four contains a second downhill, but finishes up at the highest point of the course on Casey Hill.  And the 5th mile is totally downhill.  It might look flat after Casey Hill but it’s not, and it provides motivational crowds as it zig-zags through downtown.  Conversely, mile six is entirely uphill after turning back onto Folsom.

My strategy is to pick up my pace on each of the four downhills I just described – including the slight slope at the end of mile one.  Still, I’m looking to run an even mile pace for the first four miles.  I’ll recover a bit running down Casey Hill, and then run the 5th mile as if it’s my last.  My experience suggests there is little reason to save a kick for the end.  The hill is too long and too steep leading into the stadium.  I think this plan of action will give me the best possible time.  I’m not racing against other runners, just time.  Not that tactics won’t matter on some of the turns, but I believe maximizing the downhills will provide the optimal overall time.  I’ll let you know Monday.

For the Hellth of It

20 Friday Feb 2015

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Mile 5 by the Hyatt HotelRunning marathons is probably on par with bolemia or similar health conditions.  Lucky for me, running is perceived as a healthy habit.  Run Forrest run. My insurance provider would even grant me a $100 rebate if I put a hundred hours into tracking my activities on their senseless web site.  I’ll try that again when I wear an Apple Watch with an app to automate the upload.  I do believe running is good for my mental health.  Some athletes curl stones across the ice.  Pick your diversion.

I can tell you that I felt great after the Austin Marathon last Sunday, and recovered well enough to run the next day.  I didn’t run the next day because the weather sucked and I was busy, but I could have.  My post-race massage deserves credit for much of my muscle recovery.  I think the point I really want to make is I didn’t hurt myself.  There were no marathon-related strained muscles.  I was a bit concerned I would make my cold worse, or develop allergies from the high mold count.  My cold did feel worse that night but mostly cured by Monday, and no allergies.  I dodged a bullet.

finisher photoThat I recovered so quickly hints that I am in fact in shape to run a marathon.  I usually know when I am but I don’t always know when I’m not. I think my slow down on the final 10K was only partly due to the hills in Tarrytown and the warm temperature and humidity.  The biggest factor is running the first 10K too fast.  The trick to running Austin well is a slow start, made difficult by the long downhill stretch on South First Street after 3.5 miles.  The photo above is in front of the Hyatt Hotel between 5 and 6 miles.  If I run this next year, I’m running super slow the first six miles.  Or I might just switch to the half marathon.

I picked up my sister Sandy from Austin Bergstrom at midnight Wednesday. She’ll visit for ten days. My mom now has a full house and I’m sleeping on the couch. I started running again Wednesday but have no race plans. Normally Moab would be next but I have yet to commit to that.  I’ll keep my runs at an easy pace and distance for the next few weeks to promote recovery and stay healthy.