Last Racewalking Post for a while

My last race was on June 9th and I've been so busy at work that I haven't finished posting the results.

The race was Southern California Masters Track & Field Championships held at California State University at Long Beach. There was only racewalking event, a 5K, and 5 entries but one was a no show. I came in second overall, but one guy was disqualified and the other one was 21 years my senior. Pedro Santoni won the race and my age group, now that he's 50 it will be nearly impossible to win races. Here's Pedro and me after the race.


Oh well, I'll be moving to Israel for the next two years for a job at The Animation Lab so I don't think I'll be entering any club races in a while!

Here are the results:

M45 5000 Meter Race Walk
================================================================================
Name                     Age Team                    Seed     Finals  Points
================================================================================
-- Kurtzman, James         M45 So Cal Track                         DQ
================================================================================
1 Santoni, Pedro           M50 Southern Cal        27:04.00   26:41.77
2 Fort, Daniel             M52 unattached /        32:35.00   32:38.36
================================================================================
1 Rolle, Arvid             M73 Easy Strider        36:25.00   36:26.02

I didn't get close to doing it under 30 minutes, though I gave it a good effort as the Polar software chart shows:



Although I was feeling pretty good, I wasn't completely recovered from the marathon I did earlier in the week. Oh well, at least I got in a few races before the craziness of finishing one job and starting the next--I haven't been able to work out since this race. All of my energy is going into my next adventure, two years in Jerusalem working on the first animated feature to be done in Israel--The Wild Bunch.

One step at a time

First picture around the 1/2 marathon mark, second photo at the finish--ugh! Chip time was a little better, 5:37:01. It was a personal record, but way off of what I was hoping for.



The moment I crossed the finish line at the San Diego Rock 'N' Roll Marathon I was already thinking about the next race, a 5K in Long Beach. Will I have enough time to recover and get my speed back up? I took Monday off, did a "recovery" 5K on Tuesday and another 5K on Wednesday for training. Here's how it went:

Tuesday - 40:41
HR 133bpm Pace 8:11 min/km (13:10 min/mi)

Wednesday - 40:31 (4.9 km)
HR 148bpm Pace 8:13 min/km (13:11 min/mi)

Yikes--what happened? It turned out that this time the Polar RS800sd sent me much further than what I had marked as 5K in my neighborhood course. These past few weeks it was measuring much less and that was giving me false hope of doing a 30 min 5K and 1-hour 10K.

Although I was hoping to do a 10K workout on Thursday, my job had other plans for me and I wasn't able to get a workout in on Thursday or Friday. Next walk will be on the track at Long Beach.

Alone in a Crowd

So I was crazy enough to do it. I did the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon on Sunday. The week leading up to it was very stressful at work. We worked so much overtime that I had no time to work out, zip, nada. I was hoping to do it around 5 hours but I was willing to settle for a 12 minute/mile pace which was my original goal. However, that was not to be, not this time at least.

Bib   FName  LName City           State  Age  Sex ChipTime ClockTime Overall SexPl DivPl AgeGrade pace  ttlrace ttldiv ttlsex 10k      half     21_mi
16941 Daniel Fort  West Hollywood CA     52   M   5:37:01  5:47:11   11806   6492  491   42.1%    12:52 15958   611    7729   1:12:52  2:37:45  4:21:52

The splits show how badly I fell off my pace:

10K     = 11:56 min/mile
Half    = 12:02 min/mile
21 mi   = 12:28 min/mile
26.1 mi = 12:52 min/mile

Even though I carefully calibrated the Polar RS800sd, it was once again way off showing 44.5 kilometers when it should have recorded 42.26 kilometers.

Data                  Value  Unit
Duration              5:37:00
Sampling Rate         5      s
Running Index         41
Energy Expenditure    3847   kcal
Number of Heart Beats 53933  beats
Recovery              -39    beats
Minimum Heart Rate    123    bpm
Average Heart Rate    160    bpm
Maximum Heart Rate    172    bpm
Standard Deviation    5.8    bpm
Minimum Pace          15:47  min/km
Average Pace           7:35  min/km
Maximum Pace           4:22  min/km
Distance              44.5   km
Minimum Cadence       49     rpm
Average Cadence       72     rpm
Maximum Cadence       90     rpm

However, it does show graphically that the biggest change happened in the last quarter of the race.



Oh well--here is another nice metal to add to my collection.



I'm a bit tired, somewhat disappointed, but already thinking of the next race--a 5K racewalk at:

SCA MASTERS TRACK & FIELD
CHAMPIONSHIPS

SAT: JUNE 9, 2007
CSU Long Beach

What's Next?

It is official, I'll be going to Jerusalem to work on an animated feature film for the next two years. So what's the next, and last race that I'll be doing at home for a long time? Maybe the San Diego marathon or a local 5K next weekend, I haven't made up my mind yet.

In any case, I did calibrate my running watch at the track on Saturday and met with some racewalking buddies on Sunday at the Valley Greek Festival. John Magnussen was there and he told me that the results and photos from the Palos Verdes Half-Marathon were up. I found us on page 17 and ordered a couple of shots.

.                                                                     Page 17
.              The 41ST ANNUAL KIWANIS PALOS VERDES
.
.     HALF MARATHON    RESULTS HALF MARATHON    HALF MARATHON
.                  Official results by PRIME TIME
.              SATURDAY, MAY 19, 2007 SAN PEDRO, CA.
PLACE DIV NO.   NAME                AG S DIV   T TOWN         TIME    PACE
===== === ===== =================== == = ===== = ============ ======= =====
. 818  48  1870 Daniel Fort         52 M M5054   West Hollywo 2:30:56 11:32
. 819  49  2227 John Magnussen      54 M M5054   Winnetka     2:31:00 11:32

If I can keep up that pace over a full marathon and with a few less hills, maybe I can do a 5-hour marathon. Seems like a challenge. In any case, if I don't do all my workouts this week I can say that I'm tapering!

Here are some more photos with John.

Way out of Calibration

This morning I did an easy 15 kilometer walk. This sort of makes up for Wednesday when I did such an easy 5k with Rosie that I didn't didn't bother turning on the running computer and yesterday when I skipped the morning workout because I had an early eye doctor appointment.

The stats look great:

Data                  Value   Unit
Duration              1:40:00
Sampling Rate         5       s
Running Index         60

Energy Expenditure    976     kcal
Number of Heart Beats 14512   beats
Recovery              -15     beats
Minimum Heart Rate    95      bpm
Average Heart Rate    145     bpm
Maximum Heart Rate    159     bpm
Standard Deviation    9.1     bpm

Minimum Pace         17:08    min/km
Average Pace          5:52    min/km
Maximum Pace          4:20    min/km
Distance              17.0    km

Minimum Cadence       53      rpm
Average Cadence       73      rpm
Maximum Cadence       86      rpm

But--I walked my usual 15k route and it ended up measuring 17k. It is also averaging in my warm up and cool down but still coming up with a pace of under 6 minutes per kilometer. I wish this is true, but it has got to be way off. Tomorrow I'm going to the Cal Tech track and that will be my chance to calibrate the foot pod.

Oops--left the watch running in my back pack

This one got a good laugh at work:



Somehow I didn't turn off the watch after completing this morning's 10k walk. Of course there was no cadence, stride, heart rate measurements but it did record me driving over the Hollywood hills and into Glendale to work.

It was a good workout, 10 kilometers in 59:18 and kept going faster every kilometer.

Lap      Time         Lap Time     Speed   Avg of Lap    Avg from Start    Dist     Dist from Start
1. A     0:06:50.7    0:06:50.7    5:36    7:29          7:29              0.935    0.935
2. A     0:12:40.2    0:05:49.5    6:40    5:56          6:41              0.997    1.931
3. A     0:18:28.8    0:05:48.6    6:40    5:46          6:22              1.011    2.942
4. A     0:24:40.2    0:06:11.4    6:15    6:18          6:21              1.005    3.948
5. A     0:30:29.8    0:05:49.6    4:50    5:43          6:13              1.019    4.966
6. A     0:36:26.4    0:05:56.6    6:44    5:58          6:10              1.020    5.986
7. A     0:42:20.9    0:05:54.5    4:28    5:58          6:09              1.004    6.990
8. A     0:48:10.4    0:05:49.5    5:33    5:56          6:07              0.997    7.987
9. A     0:53:45.0    0:05:34.6    4:52    5:37          6:04              1.008    8.995
10. A    0:59:18.9    0:05:33.9    5:21    5:24          6:00              1.033    10.028

Easy Five

I just took an easy 5k walk this morning. Average heart rate was 124bpm and the time to complete 5k, including warm up, was 36:06. That's 7:13 min/km or 11:36 min/mile. I also kept it running during cool down and the heart rate recovery seemed pretty good. After the walk I did a full session of strength training and stretching.

However, I can't say I'm trusting the distance readings after the Palos Verde half-marathon. I got a reading of 23.4 km but this was a USATF certified course and the half-marathon distance should be 21.097494 kilometers. That's over a mile off!

Darn, I thought I was really picking up some speed while all the time the Polar RS800sd was miscalibrated. How can this be? A kilometer checked out fine on the Cal Tech track and it was actually measuring the 200 meters on the short side instead of adding distance like on the half-marathon.

Guess the foot pod is nice for cadence and stride length but it isn't accurate for long distances. I'll try to calibrate it when I get back on the track.

Then again they are coming out with a GPS accessory for the RS800. Maybe add another piece of equipment to the tool kit?