Great Aloha Run Training: Week 1

I'm dedicating a few blogs over the next month to my training for the Great Aloha Run. For those who don't know, the Great Aloha Run is an 8.15 mile run starting in downtown Honolulu ending in Aloha Stadium (where the Pro-Bowl is played). I figure these blogs will help me keep on point with training and give me a sense of accountability since everybody will be able to see if I'm slacking...don't want that. Hope you enjoy the reads. Feel free to comment, share advice or experience, let me know if I'm slacking, or whatever! Let's get to it.

One of my goals this year is to finish the Great Aloha Run in under one hour. Last year I finished in just over 1:05 so I need to shave a little over 5 minutes off of that time. However, a year ago I was routinely running at least twice a week and had been for several months leading up to the Aloha Run. This year I only started running a little over a month ago. And it was pretty inconsistent. Once a week mostly, twice if I was on it. What I knew from those runs is that my endurance is pretty good, my form needs some work, and I need to increase my speed to hit the pace to finish the Aloha Run in under an hour. Knowing those things, I just started seriously training for the run this past week. Here's how I'm doing so far.

Last week Monday I did a track workout at Punahou High School with my buddy Waimea (fun fact for those who don't know, Punahou is where President Obama went to high school). We did an interval workout running 200 meters within a certain time, and we decreased that time limit as we went. Our first set we ran 200 meters in 1 min 30 sec, which is plenty of time. Wasn't hard at all. The next interval was 1:10, picked up the pace a little bit in order to maintain at least 10 seconds of rest between intervals. The final interval was 1 min, which by that time was really difficult. We were tired out enough that it was a struggle to maintain 10 seconds of rest between each interval.

At the start, the track workout didn't seem like much because we had so much time between intervals but what it really did was tire us out. When it came time to speed up we really had to push it. By the last couple of intervals my legs burned. In total we ran 4 miles, took over 45 minutes, and it ended up being a good workout testing endurance and willpower.

Tuesday I ran a 4 mile loop around Diamond Head, an inactive volcano. Still sore from the track workout I tried to maintain a pace fast enough to feel uncomfortable. I don't have a watch so I don't know what my pace was. I just gauge based on the amount of effort I exert and if I had to guess I averaged 8:30 per mile. I stayed outside my comfort zone just a bit throughout the whole run but it wasn't so vigorous that I could walk the next day normally.

Aerial view of Diamond Head

Wednesday I didn't run but went to jiu-jitsu. Rolling is an excellent workout for conditioning and resistance but it also gave my legs a break from running.

Thursday I ran a 6 mile loop around Diamond Head (I run around Diamond Head a lot) with Waimea. Our goal was to maintain an average pace of 8:30 per mile. I just wanted to log mileage more so than work on speed but we ended up averaging 8 minutes per mile, faster than our goal. It was a nice surprise. It felt fairly comfortable.

Friday was a rest day. It was nice.

Saturday's plan was to do another track run with Waimea at Punahou. But the school was doing their admissions testing for kindergarten and the parking lots were full. Instead we went to Kapiolani to do a 4 mile run around...yep you guessed it...Diamond Head! We set a target time of 32 minutes to finish the run. That's a pace of about 8 minutes per mile. We finished the first mile, which is almost entirely uphill, in 7:22. Not bad. The second mile is flat with a few declines. We finished mile 2 in 7:10. Our third mile was slower, somewhere around 8:30. I'm not sure what the fourth mile was exactly but I finished the run at 30:32, well below the target of 32 minutes. I ran at a pace of 7:38 per mile, not bad, but I was struggling at the beginning. It was really tough to keep up with Waimea, who was pace-setting, the first mile and a half. I started to get my wind during the third mile and felt comfortable for most of the fourth mile. But the last half mile was really tough for me. I try to open up my stride and speed up during the last half mile, then speed up more the last quarter mile, and sprint as best I can the last 50 meters. Didn't work so well this time. My legs were burning and felt heavy like they were filled with sand. I sped up a little but I didn't finish as strong as I would like to. Gonna have to work on my finish.

Week 1 felt pretty good. I ran 4 times and pushed the pace on a few runs. In order to finish the Aloha Run in under an hour I'll need to run all 8.15 miles at an average of 7:20 per mile. It's going to take an effort to get there but I think I'm in range. My idea is to get to 4 miles at that pace, then 6 miles. I figure if I can do 6 miles at 7:20 per mile I'll have a good shot at lasting the whole 8.15 at that pace.

Things to work on: smoother stride, stronger finish, increasing speed. I think I'll do one or two shorter runs at a fast pace – maybe 1 or 2 miles at 7 min per mile – just to get the feel of running at that speed. Hopefully it'll carry over to the longer distance runs. Bring on week 2!