Chasing a Sub-6 Minute Mile

With the 2020 racing season canceled thanks to the dumb Covid-19 Coronavirus, I was left with a big hole where my Ironman training and race was. What to do, what to do? I thought about it for a little while and realized that I didn’t want to keep training for an Ironman that wasn’t going to happen and that I should probably dial it back some and maybe use this year as sort of a recovery from the heavy training I had been doing the past couple of years. Yeah… not going to happen.

Back in June I did something during my training that sparked an interest in me. I work in law enforcement in a part-time, non-sworn support position, and I joined my department for the annual Torch Run to benefit Special Olympics. I rode my bike about eight miles to get there that afternoon, ran the two miles with some coworkers to satisfy the event, and then for kicks I decided to see how fast I could run a mile. I did it in 6:35. And I thought, could I possibly run a sub-6 minute mile? At age 56 and change? It was definitely something I began to think about.

A month later, right after the race got canceled, I texted my Gunner teammates and advised them that I was deferring my Ironman to Chattanooga in 2021 and that I was not going to follow the training plan for the rest of the year. I also advised that I was going to shoot for the sub-6 minute mile.

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Johnny replied with this:

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Okay, now the game is ON! Actually, I’m not sure if John was laughing at my super long text about what I was doing, or that I had declared that I was attempting another stupid goal. John knows me well and knows that I will obsess over something that no normal person would do – the running streak that turned into 3+ years is a good example. That’s probably it. But whatever, I’m going for it!

In addition to the first time trial mile, I’m going to try to do at least one one-mile time trial per week. I will still do my typical three bikes a week and run on alternating days. I am going to add some speed sessions to my run workouts and probably run some hill repeats as well. My Ironman training plan had some intervals and repeats in them, but I want to focus a little more on shorter and harder efforts.

I’m starting this in mid-July, and it’s been hot and humid lately. I hope to see improvement throughout the next month, but I will probably need a very good weather day for my attempt. I’m also looking to scope out the best location to do the mile. A slight descent on a straight, uninterrupted portion of the trail might be a good option. I considered doing it on the track, but my son Ben said that GPS doesn’t work very well on the track if I want to use that as my official certifying distance and time. I do want proof. The last time I attempted a mile personal best was when I was in my late twenties, on an indoor track at Highland Park, IL High School. Ten laps around the small indoor track was a mile and I spent a few weeks working my way down to a 5:29 minute personal best. It was just me and the track and my Timex back then, so not all that official. I’m also thinking of having Ben pace me on my serious attempts. He’s game and that’s no problem for the kid.

Below is a short journal of my recent attempts:

JUNE 11, 2020 – The Mile That Woke Me Up

TIME: 6:35.2
WHERE: New Lenox Commons, approximately 1/3 mile loops
WEATHER: Sunny, windy, warm and humid, midday
LEAD UP: I biked to get there, ran an easy two-mile warm-up, then did the mile
COMMENTS: The loop has an incline and decline and it was a little windy that day

JULY 19, 2020 – The First Attempt

TIME: 6:32.1
WHERE: LINCOLN-WAY CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL TRACK
WEATHER: Mid-70’s but very warm and humid following a day-long storm
LEAD-UP: I jogged a three-mile warm-up to get there and that was probably one mile too many.
COMMENTS: I strained my back earlier in the day and was having a little discomfort with that, but I still ran as hard as I could. The track definitely felt warmer than when I was running in the shade on the trail to get there. I was forced to use lane 4 as my lane as lanes 1, 2, and 3 were flooded out from the storm in one turn from the earlier rain. Ben was right when he said that GPS may not record me very accurately on the track.

fullsizeoutput_14358 — I was in lane 4 the entire time. Nice job, GPS. That last diagonal line is when I finished the mile and then hit resume after walking 100 meters.

Here are the links to the attempt updates:

Chasing a Sub-6 Mile – Update #1

Moving On

THE LAST POST REGARDING IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020

R.I.P. LOUISVILLE IRONMAN 2020

It really didn’t take me too long to get over having the race I was training for come to an end. I guess I had been expecting it to end for quite a while, but I just kept moving forward (a tried and true Ironman motto) in my training until the final word was announced. So after having a week to think it over, here’s what I will most likely do going forward.

I will opt to take the automatic transfer to Ironman Chattanooga in 2021. There is really no way the other three Fall 2020 transfer options are going to happen in my mind. Three of us Gunner teammates were already signed up for Louisville, and two and maybe a third had not signed up. So if we decide as a group to head back to Chatty in 2021 all I need to do is make the transfer official and start training next year. If we for some reason want to do a different race then I will have no problem paying the transfer fee and do that race with the group. But Ironman has some pretty specific rules on transferring, so I will have to take that into consideration. We’ll have to talk that over. I remember us talking about not wanting to do Chatty again, but I think that was the dreadful heat of the 2019 race influencing that decision. It was an okay location, we enjoyed ourselves and I would go back. But before I get too confident with all that, I have to realize that this is all conjecture. There’s talk that this Covid-19 crap may stick around into 2021 and screw everybody’s race season up again. So there’s that…

I will keep training, that really isn’t a big surprise. I actually enjoy the weekly stuff, the long Saturday ride, and running is just part of who I am. I can’t imagine not running. Swimming on the other hand… well, let’s just say that I do enjoy a cannonball splashdown after a long run or ride. But I doubt I will do much swim training for the rest of the year. The training won’t be anything too overwhelming, but enough to keep me fit and doing what I love. I may join some local group rides now that it won’t interfere with me following my training plan. I may also text a local friend to see if he wants to do some riding again. We stopped riding together when my training became too specific and he just wanted to ride.

I was kicking around the idea of doing an Ironman of my own making either at home or in Wisconsin at my lakehome and inviting my buddies to do it, but I’m not so hot on the idea now. That would require us to keep training and following the plan and with the weather heating up and the fact we’ve had our bubble burst with Louisville, I don’t think any of us would want to do it. I may, however, do a half-iron distance day of my own just because I already have the fitness to do that and could pull it off pretty easily. I think the training plan has a 70.3 training day built into it coming up in a few weeks, so I may still do that. I need to sleep on that a little.

Lastly, I have one more hope left of having an opportunity to race this year and that race is the Big Hill Bonk Last Runner Standing elimination ultramarathon. This race was supposed to occur in April but got postponed to October. I received an email last week stating that as of right now the race is a go until the race director finds out otherwise. He gave us a drop dead date of September 15th, so we’ll know by then if he has to cancel it. So since that tells me that the race is iffy at best, I’m not going to do any special ultramarathon type distance training and if the race happens I will just go up to Beloit and run 4.166-mile loops every hour until I can’t take it anymore. And that’s all predicated on whether I feel comfortable around other athletes and doing the Covid-19 dance around each other. If I don’t feel safe in that environment or it’s too big of a hassle I will opt out.

So there you have it. I’m going forward with my daily workouts for fun instead of for a specific reason and we’ll see what happens. So long, Ironman Louisville 2020. Hello, Ironman Chattanooga 2021.

My Search For American Muscle – Part XI

PART XI – UPDATE! UPDATE! WE HAVE AN UPDATE!

Yes, I have an update, several actually, but not the kind you or I was hoping for. Ha! No, I haven’t bought a car. I just thought that I would update the blog regarding some of the cars I have had my eye on in the recent past and report on their status.

A FAKE GTX MAKES A REAPPEARANCE

A side shot of the Plymouth from the eBay listing. The redline tires have been replaced. Not sure why.

In my PART VII post, I blogged about this super nice looking GTX that when I looked into it I realized that it had a lot of red flags. You can read that post here: My Search For American Muscle – Part VII

What I determined was that the car was probably a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere II convertible cloned into a nice GTX tribute. The problem with the car was the VIN, which was for a 1967 GTX coupe and not a convertible and looked like it was hastily added to the car with glue. Needless to say, I took a pass on it as I didn’t want to spend money on a car that may not have a true and legal title and was being sold with false information.

The car spent some time on Hemmings.com but the pictures were awful and it languished there. It later headed to an auction in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where it had previously been sold. Someone from Arizona must have liked it enough to buy it at auction and it has now popped up again, this time on eBay. Here is the link to the listing: eBay – 1967 Plymouth GTX

Curiously, the listing uses some of the same pictures from the Primo Classics original ad. The listing describes the car as “This is a quality restoration that has been sorted out.” I can believe the quality restoration part, it does look nice. It’s the “sorted out” part that is the head-scratcher. Apparently, the sorting out part is from the description where it is described as “The car has an Arizona State assigned VIN # (see pic), apparently the original one was defaced.” Here’s a picture of the newly attached Arizona VIN:

Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 9.11.29 PM — You can still see the glue from the previously attached VIN underneath the new sticker.

Well, at least the Arizona Assigned Identification Number looks legit. The listing also declares that there is a “clean/clear Arizona title in hand.” I guess that sorts things out for the lister.

I’m still going to take a pass without any regret. This car is probably a very nice cruiser and will make someone pretty happy and turn a lot of heads. I just wouldn’t want to have to explain the erroneous fender tag or the Arizona AIN to anyone.

The current bid is $27,600. Looks like others are aware of the value of this car too and the price is reflecting that.

UPDATE – 1970 CHEVELLE SS CONVERTIBLE

My Search For American Muscle – Part X

I lusted over this 1970 Chevelle from PART X that was being auctioned online with no reserve and I foolishly thought that I might be able to get an awesome deal on a dream car. Ha! It sold for $84,000! Oh well.

UPDATE – 1967 OLDS 442 AND 1967 PLYMOUTH GTX FROM VOLO CARS

My Search For American Muscle – Part VIII

I was watching these two cars online and their high asking prices made me feel like they would be for sale at Volocars.com for quite some time. I was wrong. Even with a pandemic going on, these two cars sold fairly quickly. I wasn’t ready to spend over $65,000 on either of those.

UPDATE – 1967 PLYMOUTH GTX FROM PACIFIC CLASSICS

Also from my same blog as the two above cars, I had been watching this hardtop GTX. It has also sold. Had it been a convertible, I would have pulled the trigger for sure. Ha! Yeah, right.

So there you have all the updates! I’ll keep looking and I hope you’ll keep being interested in this dumb quest of mine! Thanks for reading!

Ironman Louisville 2020 Is Canceled

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

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WEEK 16 – June 29 > July 5, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART XVI

Well, it’s over. I finally got the email that I had been expecting for a few weeks now.

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Of course, the main reason the race has been canceled is due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But add in a lot of social unrest going on in Louisville right now, I think that trying to host this race during all of this is a huge headache for the City of Louisville and Ironman.

Actually, I am a little relieved, to be honest. Had Ironman dragged on the decision to cancel to a later date, I probably would have been a little ticked off. I’ve trained for 16 weeks of 30 and had I done more training only to have the race be canceled would not have made me happy. Here are the options Ironman gave me:

Transfer to Ironman Maryland (Cambridge) 2020 on September 19, 2020
Transfer to Ironman Chattanooga 2020 on September 27, 2020
Transfer to Ironman Texas (Waco) 2020 on October 17, 2020
Transfer to Ironman Chattanooga 2021 on September 26, 2021

The option to transfer to Ironman Louisville 2021 doesn’t exist, as Louisville was given a 1-year extension on their previously expired contract. It appears the City of Louisville has moved on from Ironman.

Three of the four options for transferring my registration are for races in the Fall of 2020. Does it make any sense to think that if the October 2020 race has been canceled, that there will be any fall races in 2020? I seriously doubt it. I guess it may depend on the location and how they are dealing with the pandemic, but there has yet to be an Ironman or any other major race held in 2020 that occurred in the United States after the pandemic stay-at-home order.

Cambridge, Maryland is in Dorchester County, MD, and there have been a total of 201 cases of Covid-19 and only five deaths. I guess that is promising. I was expecting it to be somewhat higher. Waco, Texas has had 1563 total confirmed cases with nine deaths. And Chattanooga, Tennessee checks in with 2909 total cases and 35 deaths. Chattanooga’s cases are on the rise, though.

The fourth is the safest bet, a fall race in Chattanooga in 2021. But we all had just done Chattanooga and we weren’t thinking about heading back there any time soon. It’s going to be a tough decision.

I’m not sure what the rest of my Gunner teammates want to do. Jan and I were already signed up to do IMLou, but Dave and Alex were not. I’m thinking Jeff was also signed up but I’m not sure. So at least Jan and I have to make a decision on the above options. The trouble for Dave, Alex, and possibly Jeff is that if you click on the Maryland website it shows it as closed. So if Jan and I opt for that, we won’t be joined by the others. Ironman Texas and Chattanooga are both open for registration, so those are the two options for this year that all the Gunners could be in on. If I were a non-registered Gunner, I’d probably opt out of racing at all. I have been hearing a lot of that on Facebook recently – people are sad that they can’t race, but in reality not racing is probably the smartest and safest thing to do.

The one last option that I may pitch to my buddies is to head up north to my lake home and do Ironman Minocqua – Team Gunners! It would be a self-supported team “race” that we could do on our own, which would have its own set of issues. But it might be a fun team thing to do.

I’m not sure what option I will choose. I’ve got some thinking to do.

TOTALS FOR WEEK 16:

As for Week 16, I did have a pretty good week training up north in Minocqua. I got in an open water swim in Lake Minocqua that Garmin tells me was 2178 yards, which is 70.3 swim distance territory. I felt pretty good doing it too. The other notable thing was that I discovered a paved bike trail system that can take me from Minocqua east to St. Germain and then north to Boulder Junction and then even further west to Manitowish Waters and Mercer. I’m not sure if all that is paved, but what I rode for four hours on Saturday was. It’s a little technical, with a lot of twisting and tight turns and a lot of rolling hills. I will definitely be exploring that trail some more.

Swim: 1 / 1500 yards
Bike: 3 rides / 83 miles
Run: 3 runs / 21 miles

I’ll post again in the next week or two about what I decide to do. I have until July 16 to decide.

Lastly, I’m very glad that I had the opportunity to race Ironman Louisville in 2017. We had a pretty good time then, and I set my personal best Ironman time there.

2017 Ironman Louisville Finisher. One of the best finish lines in Ironman.