Yesterday I flew back to Anchorage from California after a few solid meets. I ran 4:00 and 4:01 down south, so nothing spectacular but good efforts nonetheless. I talked it over with the coaches a few times, and we discussed the fact that we haven't really developed any pure speed yet in practice, focusing more on the 5000 and building aerobic fitness, so there shouldn't be any concern that I'm not dropping time in the 15 like I am in the 5000. I think it's a great approach, as I've seen 46 seconds dropped off my 5000m PB in the span of 2 races, something that makes me really excited to put in some further specific 1500m work.
Today I got a start on some of that raw speed work in a pretty interesting way, a different kind of workout that I had never had a chance to do before. Today's workout was a long run since we didn't get one done in California, and we were all looking to get into the 90 minute range. I know you're thinking this has nothing to do with raw speed, but believe me when I say I had the pedal to the metal on today's run. Many of you may not know this, but this was one of my first runs outside all semester. When I had my Achilles problem last October, I started back by running on the treadmill and next thing I knew the snow had started to accumulate on the ground. I spent almost all my winter training runs on the treadmill as it offered better footing and a nice temperature. When we got back from California though, almost all the snow had melted, and the temperature was right around 10 Celcius (50 Fahrenheit). The trails were still a little bit sloppy due to the melting, but it was perfect running weather so today we all decided to stick to the paved shoulders of some of Anchorage's roads.
Six of us took off, and quickly broke off into 2 groups of 3. The first group was going a little quick but I went with them anyways, and spent a lot of time yoyo-ing off the back of the two up front. The other group missed a few lights early on in the run, so I didn't really want to go back and wait for them a few minutes behind. About 30 minutes in, I fell back a little as I didn't think I could hang on for 90 minutes, so I tried to keep the pace comfortable to get through the whole run at a decent clip. I could still see the others up ahead, maybe 100 meters or so. A couple times I thought about trying to get back up with them, but I decided I would wait until they turned back to run with them instead of trying to bridge the gap then. A few minutes later, both of them went up a pretty sizable hill that went around a curve just before the top, with some short guardrails on either side. On the outer edge, you couldn't really see anything beyond the rail, as the terrain dropped off pretty quickly. At this point in the run, there wasn't any traffic on the road, maybe a pick up truck every few minutes, but hardly anything.
As the other two approached the curve in the road, I took a glance up at them, thinking "this is going to be horrible", as my legs started to tire. So I put my head down, and started to grind away at the hill. About halfway up, I lifted my head to see how much more of the hill remained. As I looked up, I caught a glance of a big dark figure right behind the guardrail at the curve in the road. I did a quick double take, as I thought it might have been a bear or moose. The dark figure turned to look at me, and sure enough it was the face of a black bear. It was the first time I had seen a bear in Alaska, so I really had no clue what to do. The other two were out of sight, so it had become a Kevin Vs. Wild showdown. For a split-second I wasn't sure if I should follow bear protocol (Yell, back away slowly, make flailing arm movements, don't run etc...) or if I should just start booking it down the hill (being a runner and all). It didn't take long to make up my mind. As soon as it hopped over the guardrail onto the road, I took off sprinting down the hill.
I figured I had 30-50 meters on the bear, so if it was going to catch me at all, it would take at least 150 meters. I quickly looked back at the bottom of the hill still in full stride to see it in the middle of the road still coming towards me, so I kept on hauling. I was hoping a car would come around the corner as I was running away, but no such luck. By the time I ran into the second group of guys, I had to have gone 400 meters. I stopped to turn around with the other group, and thankfully the bear was still only about halfway down the hill walking around aimlessly. It's pretty unreal to think that if I had held on to the other two for a little longer, or tried to bridge the gap I would have been almost face to face with the bear as it jumped out onto the road. The other two actually had no idea there was a bear on the road at all as they had just gone around the curve, and thankfully didn't have an encounter with it on the way back.
I'd like to believe that when the bear saw me bolt off it was discouraged and slightly stunned by my unbelievable turnover, but it was probably more amused by the look of terror on my face and the blurts of profanity as I took notice of it at the top of the hill. Let me tell you that was easily the fastest I have ever run, it's too bad nobody was there to clock a 400m split. I certainly would have been well below 4:00 in a 1500 if I was being chased by that sucker a little further. Maybe next race I'll hire someone to jump out unexpectedly onto the track dressed in a bear costume with a lap to go. It would almost guarantee a closing lap under 60, and possibly a need for a second pair of shorts post-race.
Pretty exciting run overall, and a wonderful way to work on my turnover, but I'm not looking forward to running that route any time soon.
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