I've had a rough comeback from my short break in December. I'm not quite back to the level of fitness I had last November, but I think I'm getting there. On Sunday I had a marathon-pace run on the calendar.
Last year, marathon pace was 7:15 per mile. On Sunday I decided to go for 7:30. After a 3-mile warm-up, over 9 miles, my splits were as follows:
7:29
7:30
7:23
7:19
6:45 (for 1/2 mile)
7:31
7:26
7:35
7:33
7:05 (1/2 mile)
This run included two half-mile stretches at "tempo pace" -- 6:45 was what I was trying for. Other than fading a bit at the end, I pretty much hit my splits.
Then yesterday for just the usual DART run, Chad and I decided on a hilly route and I managed an average 7:46 pace without feeling too winded.
Finally today I had a 6.3-mile tempo on the calendar. I haven't uploaded my splits yet, but as I recall, they are as follows:
6:40
6:40
6:40
6:53
7:03
7:03
6:50 (1/3 mile)
That works out to around a 6:50 pace overall, so just off my 6:45 goal but pretty close, and those 7:03s came on some fairly decent hills.
It's not ideal, but it's better than it's been for quite some time. Next race is the Myrtle Beach half on February 16, so just under 4 weeks away. I had been hoping for a really fast race there. I might have to settle for a sort of fast race, but who knows -- maybe I'll continue to improve over the coming weeks and surprise myself.
Details of Sunday's run are below:
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
Mini-recap: The Salem Lakeshore Frosty 25K
I should be in some of the best shape of my life. I've just come off a fall season where I hit a huge 5K PR. But my most recent race was a disappointment due to bad weather. Or maybe I'm not really in the kind of shape I think I'm in.
After Rocket City I recovered fairly quickly, but then took a 10-day break from running as I travelled across the country for the holidays. When I got back in town, I struggled to get back into running shape. I've heard runners say that taking a week or two off of running shouldn't affect you much, but it certainly affected me quite a bit. Those five pounds I gained over the holidays didn't help much either.
But by the middle of last week I was starting to feel a little more like my old self, so I thought maybe I'd be able to summon up a decent performance for Saturday's Salem Lakeshore Frosty 25K. I had been in shape to run a marathon at a 7:15 pace, so surely I could handle that pace for just 15.5 miles, right?
I started out at that pace, and things went well for roughly the first half, but once I turned around and headed back towards the start, I could tell it was not going to be my day. Laura Gray, a DARTer who was running a 12.5K leg of the 50K relay caught me and passed me. I tried to keep up with her, but she gradually moved farther and farther ahead.
Now it was a struggle just to keep my pace under 8 minutes per mile. By the water stop at around 12 miles, I gave up on that and just hoped to keep it under 8:30 per mile. Chas and Bobby passed me, even though they were doing the 50K event. I tried to keep them in sight, but it was no use, and they disappeared ahead of me.
Several more runners I didn't know passed me, but one mile from the finish, I finally got a second wind and managed to hold off the man who was on my heels. I finished in 1:58:50, about a 7:40 pace overall. As it turned out, I didn't even beat the guy I held off, because he had started 15 seconds behind me.
Hopefully this is all just a minor blip in my training as I get over a cold and brush off the cobwebs from my vacation. I'd really like to put up some fast times over the next few months. I'm signed up for the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon, and I'd like to try for a PR there. That will require a much better effort than what I've done lately.
There's only one way to do that: Put one foot in front of the other in training, repeating as necessary.
After Rocket City I recovered fairly quickly, but then took a 10-day break from running as I travelled across the country for the holidays. When I got back in town, I struggled to get back into running shape. I've heard runners say that taking a week or two off of running shouldn't affect you much, but it certainly affected me quite a bit. Those five pounds I gained over the holidays didn't help much either.
But by the middle of last week I was starting to feel a little more like my old self, so I thought maybe I'd be able to summon up a decent performance for Saturday's Salem Lakeshore Frosty 25K. I had been in shape to run a marathon at a 7:15 pace, so surely I could handle that pace for just 15.5 miles, right?
I started out at that pace, and things went well for roughly the first half, but once I turned around and headed back towards the start, I could tell it was not going to be my day. Laura Gray, a DARTer who was running a 12.5K leg of the 50K relay caught me and passed me. I tried to keep up with her, but she gradually moved farther and farther ahead.
Now it was a struggle just to keep my pace under 8 minutes per mile. By the water stop at around 12 miles, I gave up on that and just hoped to keep it under 8:30 per mile. Chas and Bobby passed me, even though they were doing the 50K event. I tried to keep them in sight, but it was no use, and they disappeared ahead of me.
Several more runners I didn't know passed me, but one mile from the finish, I finally got a second wind and managed to hold off the man who was on my heels. I finished in 1:58:50, about a 7:40 pace overall. As it turned out, I didn't even beat the guy I held off, because he had started 15 seconds behind me.
Hopefully this is all just a minor blip in my training as I get over a cold and brush off the cobwebs from my vacation. I'd really like to put up some fast times over the next few months. I'm signed up for the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon, and I'd like to try for a PR there. That will require a much better effort than what I've done lately.
There's only one way to do that: Put one foot in front of the other in training, repeating as necessary.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Back in the saddle again
After my disappointing finish at the Rocket City Marathon, I continued training as I had planned for December -- slowly building up mileage for the week following the race, then taking a 10-day break from running while I travelled out west for the holidays.
The hope was that I would return home refreshed and ready to start working toward my next goal, a fast half-marathon.
However, my first few runs upon returning were not exactly "refreshing." They were actually very hard. At times I struggled to maintain even an 8-minute pace, which is supposed to be an "easy" run for me. Could I really have gotten that out of shape in just 10 days?
I don't think so. Instead, I think I probably just had a cold. For about two and a half years, since I started running seriously again, I've not had the flu or even a cold to speak of. Even this time around, I didn't have a lot of cold symptoms, just a couple sniffles. But when I tried to run, my body ached. I had to slow down. Last Saturday I wanted help my friend Brian by running the last 8 miles of his final long run before he runs the Charleston Marathon January 20. He was doing great, running a 7:30-7:40 pace, but after about 5 miles, I just couldn't keep up and had to let him finish up on his own.
Finally on Sunday I managed a 10-miler at an 8:13 pace. By Wednesday I was able to run the DART loop at a 7:39 pace while keeping up a conversation the whole time. Today I ran 4.2 miles at a 7:40 pace, including a 7:21 on a steadily uphill mile.
Why just 4 miles? Because tomorrow I'll be competing in a race, the Salem Lakeshore Frosty 25K. If I was in peak condition, I'd be trying for at least a sub-7-minute pace in this race, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to dial it back quite a bit. The smart thing to do would be to run with some of the folks doing the 50K event. My friend Chas is trying for a sub-4-hour PR, which is roughly a 7:40 pace, so maybe I'll just stick with him for a while.
At least I finally seem to be getting to the point where running feels good again, so hopefully next week I can do some speed work as I start to prepare for the Myrtle Beach Half next month.
Details of today's workout are below.
The hope was that I would return home refreshed and ready to start working toward my next goal, a fast half-marathon.
However, my first few runs upon returning were not exactly "refreshing." They were actually very hard. At times I struggled to maintain even an 8-minute pace, which is supposed to be an "easy" run for me. Could I really have gotten that out of shape in just 10 days?
I don't think so. Instead, I think I probably just had a cold. For about two and a half years, since I started running seriously again, I've not had the flu or even a cold to speak of. Even this time around, I didn't have a lot of cold symptoms, just a couple sniffles. But when I tried to run, my body ached. I had to slow down. Last Saturday I wanted help my friend Brian by running the last 8 miles of his final long run before he runs the Charleston Marathon January 20. He was doing great, running a 7:30-7:40 pace, but after about 5 miles, I just couldn't keep up and had to let him finish up on his own.
Finally on Sunday I managed a 10-miler at an 8:13 pace. By Wednesday I was able to run the DART loop at a 7:39 pace while keeping up a conversation the whole time. Today I ran 4.2 miles at a 7:40 pace, including a 7:21 on a steadily uphill mile.
Why just 4 miles? Because tomorrow I'll be competing in a race, the Salem Lakeshore Frosty 25K. If I was in peak condition, I'd be trying for at least a sub-7-minute pace in this race, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to dial it back quite a bit. The smart thing to do would be to run with some of the folks doing the 50K event. My friend Chas is trying for a sub-4-hour PR, which is roughly a 7:40 pace, so maybe I'll just stick with him for a while.
At least I finally seem to be getting to the point where running feels good again, so hopefully next week I can do some speed work as I start to prepare for the Myrtle Beach Half next month.
Details of today's workout are below.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Race Recap: The Rocket City Marathon
This was supposed to be the post where I described my latest marathon PR. It was supposed to be the time I got to write about finally getting to run a marathon all-out, when I wasn't trying to qualify for anything, just go as fast as I could on a very fast course. Rocket City is a well-run marathon with a fantastic history. Typically the weather is very cold for this race; it's been in the teens more than once. I wasn't worried about that -- I run well in cold weather.
Then the weather forecasts started coming out. I tracked them almost religiously. 8 days out from the race the forecast looked fairly good: A low of 43 and a high of 55, with a chance of showers. 7 days out the forecast was the same. Then things changed. 6 days out, the forecast high was 70 degrees.
That's good weather for a 400-meter dash, but not for a marathon. I made a graph to show how the forecast changed day after day:
As you can see, the forecast wasn't improving. The only major change was that the forecast low was getting higher -- which meant I'd hardly even have good weather at the start of the race, let alone the finish.
At the pre-race pasta dinner, Bobby Aswell and I got to hear Bill Rodgers talk about his experience running marathons. "The thing about the marathon distance," he said, "is that there is a lot of luck involved. I was really, really lucky."
The Rodgers luck was about to run out.
My plan for the race, under ideal conditions, was to run a 7:15 per mile pace, steady, for all 26.2 miles. If I could hang on, I'd set a new PR, 3:10, which would beat my previous record by more than 12 minutes.
On race morning the temperature was 62 degrees, with 93 percent humidity. The temperature would rise to about 68 by the finish of the race.
It still felt cool, and I'd be running into the wind, so I decided to give the race a go at my planned pace.
For the first few miles, this pace didn't seem too bad. The few hills on the course were easily handled, and the breeze was keeping me relatively cool. Here are my splits for Miles 1-6:
1. 7:27
2. 7:15
3. 7:15
4. 7:15
5. 7:18
6. 7:21
Then during Mile 7 we passed through a parking lot and under a tunnel. It was a little confusing and I missed the mile marker; I finally pressed the "lap" button at 1.09 miles and recorded 7:52 for the split -- still a 7:14 pace for the mile. I was flustered. And I was starting to feel worn out, just 7 miles in. Could I keep this up for another 19 miles? I doubted it. Then I realized I hadn't had a gel yet: I was supposed to be eating them every 4 miles. I quickly opened and consumed one, but that slowed me even more. I kept running.
8. 7:22
9. 7:30
10. 7:34
11. 7:25
We were now on a seemingly endless four-lane road, heading straight into the wind. It was much more of a struggle to maintain pace, and I was gradually slowing down. I had planned to drop my pace to 7:30 a mile if 7:15 seemed too difficult, but now even a 7:30 pace felt like a struggle.
12. 7:50
13. 7:48
14. 8:10
My backup-backup plan was to hit an 8-minute pace for the last half of the race. If I could do that, I'd still have a shot at a PR: My 7:22:55 was an average 7:42 pace, and I already had a lot of faster miles in the bank. Then we turned and started heading back north into town. What had been a headwind was now a tailwind, which meant that we could feel no wind at all. It was like running in a sauna. I started taking walk breaks. Then I started taking longer breaks.
15. 7:55
16. 9:29
17. 8:12
18. 8:34
Now, there was no backup plan. The plan was simply to finish. Another runner pulled up beside me and told me his day was ruined and he was just hoping to finish under 3:30. Not long after that, the 3:30 pace team passed us.
19. 9:04
20. 10:13
21. 11:15
Could it get any worse? Soon I was passed by the 3:35 pace team. I tried to stay with them for a while, then let them go.
22. 9:34
23. 9:15
24. 11:39
Finally the 3:40 pace team pulled up behind me. Surely I could stay with them, right? There was only one runner still in the group, a woman running her planned 3:40 pace, about 8:23 per mile. I resolved to stay with the pace team all the way to the finish, and somehow I did. The woman was running her first marathon, and it was amazing to see her pull it off as she had planned. I ran across the line just behind her, with an official chip time of 3:39:09, or not much better than I had done at Thunder Road for my "easy training run."
Here's the picture Bobby snapped of me just after I crossed the line:
And here's a photo of the two of us with our medals:
Bobby fared a little better than I did, finishing in 3:19 and just out of the age-group awards.
Then the weather forecasts started coming out. I tracked them almost religiously. 8 days out from the race the forecast looked fairly good: A low of 43 and a high of 55, with a chance of showers. 7 days out the forecast was the same. Then things changed. 6 days out, the forecast high was 70 degrees.
That's good weather for a 400-meter dash, but not for a marathon. I made a graph to show how the forecast changed day after day:
As you can see, the forecast wasn't improving. The only major change was that the forecast low was getting higher -- which meant I'd hardly even have good weather at the start of the race, let alone the finish.
At the pre-race pasta dinner, Bobby Aswell and I got to hear Bill Rodgers talk about his experience running marathons. "The thing about the marathon distance," he said, "is that there is a lot of luck involved. I was really, really lucky."
The Rodgers luck was about to run out.
My plan for the race, under ideal conditions, was to run a 7:15 per mile pace, steady, for all 26.2 miles. If I could hang on, I'd set a new PR, 3:10, which would beat my previous record by more than 12 minutes.
On race morning the temperature was 62 degrees, with 93 percent humidity. The temperature would rise to about 68 by the finish of the race.
It still felt cool, and I'd be running into the wind, so I decided to give the race a go at my planned pace.
For the first few miles, this pace didn't seem too bad. The few hills on the course were easily handled, and the breeze was keeping me relatively cool. Here are my splits for Miles 1-6:
1. 7:27
2. 7:15
3. 7:15
4. 7:15
5. 7:18
6. 7:21
Then during Mile 7 we passed through a parking lot and under a tunnel. It was a little confusing and I missed the mile marker; I finally pressed the "lap" button at 1.09 miles and recorded 7:52 for the split -- still a 7:14 pace for the mile. I was flustered. And I was starting to feel worn out, just 7 miles in. Could I keep this up for another 19 miles? I doubted it. Then I realized I hadn't had a gel yet: I was supposed to be eating them every 4 miles. I quickly opened and consumed one, but that slowed me even more. I kept running.
8. 7:22
9. 7:30
10. 7:34
11. 7:25
We were now on a seemingly endless four-lane road, heading straight into the wind. It was much more of a struggle to maintain pace, and I was gradually slowing down. I had planned to drop my pace to 7:30 a mile if 7:15 seemed too difficult, but now even a 7:30 pace felt like a struggle.
12. 7:50
13. 7:48
14. 8:10
My backup-backup plan was to hit an 8-minute pace for the last half of the race. If I could do that, I'd still have a shot at a PR: My 7:22:55 was an average 7:42 pace, and I already had a lot of faster miles in the bank. Then we turned and started heading back north into town. What had been a headwind was now a tailwind, which meant that we could feel no wind at all. It was like running in a sauna. I started taking walk breaks. Then I started taking longer breaks.
15. 7:55
16. 9:29
17. 8:12
18. 8:34
Now, there was no backup plan. The plan was simply to finish. Another runner pulled up beside me and told me his day was ruined and he was just hoping to finish under 3:30. Not long after that, the 3:30 pace team passed us.
19. 9:04
20. 10:13
21. 11:15
Could it get any worse? Soon I was passed by the 3:35 pace team. I tried to stay with them for a while, then let them go.
22. 9:34
23. 9:15
24. 11:39
Finally the 3:40 pace team pulled up behind me. Surely I could stay with them, right? There was only one runner still in the group, a woman running her planned 3:40 pace, about 8:23 per mile. I resolved to stay with the pace team all the way to the finish, and somehow I did. The woman was running her first marathon, and it was amazing to see her pull it off as she had planned. I ran across the line just behind her, with an official chip time of 3:39:09, or not much better than I had done at Thunder Road for my "easy training run."
Here's the picture Bobby snapped of me just after I crossed the line:
 |
| I'd say this photo just about sums up the day. |
And here's a photo of the two of us with our medals:
 |
| Don't we look lovely? |
Bobby fared a little better than I did, finishing in 3:19 and just out of the age-group awards.
At the airport a woman saw the two of us waiting for our flight and correctly guessed that we had run the marathon. "Did you think the heat slowed you down?" She asked.
We assented, then learned that though she was the second overall woman, with a time of 2:52, she was still quite disappointed because she was shooting for a 2:46. No matter your pace, the marathon is still a very tough race. Not tough enough? Just try to run it a little bit faster, and it'll get plenty tough.
My race didn't go as planned, but if they always did, there wouldn't be much reason to run them, would there? Next marathon: Boston. Maybe I'll be able to do a little better there.
Details of Saturday's marathon are below.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Carbo loading, again
Another race, another carbo-loading regime. The goal is to consume 4.5 grams of carbs for every pound of body weight. I had been hoping to get down to 175 for this race, but as of now I weigh 185, so that's 832 grams of carbs, or 3,330 calories in carbs per 24 hours.
I'm going to follow last year's plan of carbo loading for only 48 hours.
Here's the plan:
Thursday:
First breakfast: Bagel/Cream Cheese (60 g)
Second breakfast: Cereal (80 g), milk (24 g), V8 (10 g)
Lunch: Bagel sandwich w/pb/j (2) (140 g)
Snacks: Apple (29), banana (27), raisins (66), granola bar (17).
Dinner: Spaghetti (1/2-pound uncooked = 160 g carbs), sauce (26), salad (1), bread (40)
That is still only 720 grams!
Extra carbs come from regular coke -- 117 grams in 3 cans.
Total: 837 g
Friday:
First breakfast: Cereal (80 g), milk (24 g), V8 (10 g)
Second breakfast: Scone (59 g), coffee.
Lunch: Bagel w /pb/j (70)
Dinner: Pre-race pasta dinner (180).
Snacks: 2 apples (58), raisins (66), granola bars (48), banana (27).
Drinks: 3 cans of Coke (117 g)
That wasn't so bad -- 817 grams. The Coke really helps.
Finally, on Saturday morning I will have a light snack when I wake up at 6.
Saturday:
Breakfast: Granola bar (24). Honey Stinger Waffle (21). Possibly a half-banana (28).
Pre-race: 1 vanilla GU at 15 minutes prior to start (25)
During race: 5 to 6 GUs (one every 4 miles, with mile 24 optional) (125-150)
A similar regimen was effective at Richmond last year, so I'm not changing much this time around.
As usual this week, here's the weather update:
Just three more days to the race!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Geeking out on the Rocket City Marathon
In four days, with any luck, I will have just finished the Rocket City Marathon. It's pretty clear to me that the folks putting this race on are serious running geeks. Case in point: The official course map. Here it is:
As you can see, there's tons of information here. Not only is there a detailed elevation profile, but the key high- and low-points are marked with exact figures. It's pretty clear from the map that Mile 8 and Mile 17 are the toughest, but overall these hills are pretty small compared to what I'm used to running. As a point of comparison, the biggest hill in the race stretches from Mile 16-17, with a total climb of 88 feet. You'd be hard pressed to find any two-mile stretch in the Thunder Road Marathon with less than 88 feet of climbing. My standard 6-mile run with DART has only one two-mile section with less climbing.
20 of the 26 miles at Rocket City have 25 feet or less of climbing, which is less than any of the miles on the DART loop.
None of this is to say that Rocket City will be easy — you can always make a race harder just by running faster. But it is to say that when I do a training run at marathon pace here in Davidson, it's a harder run than what I'll be facing at Rocket City.
Further geekiness: A mile-by-mile charting of the climbs in the race:
The big climbs are in Mile 1, 8, 17, 21, and 23. I think Mile 21 might be the toughest in the race — it's after Mile 20 and it can be demoralizing to have a significant hill at that point. But again, all these hills are small enough that they won't last long. If I can just maintain an equal effort — maybe run these miles at a 7:30 pace instead of the planned 7:15 for the race, they shouldn't pose too much of a problem. For me, the temperature is a bigger concern.
Which reminds me: Here's my updated temperature graph:
Which reminds me: Here's my updated temperature graph:
As a reminder, this graph charts the forecast for December 8 on a given day, not the actual weather on that day. Today's forecast is similar to the past two days, so the weather pattern may be stabilizing. Looks like I need to be preparing for a race that will mostly be in the high 50s and low 60s.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Weather Update, 5 days out
We're now just five days away from Rocket City, and the weather forecast has taken a fairly dramatic change. The forecast high has gone from 53 to 68, and the predicted low is now just 1 degree less than the predicted high two days ago!
The chance of rain has also gone down significantly, from 60 percent to 30 percent.
Presumably as we get closer to race day the forecast is getting more accurate, so I need to start thinking about racing in temperatures that are 10+ degrees warmer than what I'd prefer.
Remember, this graph represents the predictions for December 8 put out on a given date, not the weather on that date.
On the plus side, we've now reached the point where the National Weather Service has predicted hourly temperatures, so we can make some guesses as to how this prediction will pan out in terms of actual temperatures during the race:
The red line represents the temperature and the green line is the dew point. At the 8 am start, the NWS is predicting a temperature of around 53, rising to 61 around the time I'll be finishing -- with any luck that will be about 11:10 a.m.
61 is a lot better than 68. It's still a little warmer than my ideal temperature, which is probably around 45-50 degrees, but there's no point in drastically altering my race strategy yet. I'll keep my obsessive runner's eye focused on the race day weather all week.
In other news, yesterday's long run revealed yet another thing to worry about as the race approaches. As I got ready for the run, I noticed that the battery on my GPS was dead, despite the fact that I had placed it in the charging cradle the night before. Garmin claims that the cradle for the 910XT is secure, but I've experienced this problem several times. If the unit is not seated properly in the cradle not only will the watch not charge, it will drain the battery. Argh!
My plan for the race is to simply not charge the unit the night before. It's got a 20-hour battery life, so if I have it charged before I leave for Huntsville and leave it turned off until race morning, I should have plenty of juice for the race.
Otherwise, tapering has been going well. I'm decreasing the mileage on my daily runs, but trying to include at least a couple miles each day at race pace of 7:15 per mile. This is helping me dial in to the pace I'll be running on race day. Details of this morning's workout are below.
The chance of rain has also gone down significantly, from 60 percent to 30 percent.
Presumably as we get closer to race day the forecast is getting more accurate, so I need to start thinking about racing in temperatures that are 10+ degrees warmer than what I'd prefer.
Remember, this graph represents the predictions for December 8 put out on a given date, not the weather on that date.
On the plus side, we've now reached the point where the National Weather Service has predicted hourly temperatures, so we can make some guesses as to how this prediction will pan out in terms of actual temperatures during the race:
The red line represents the temperature and the green line is the dew point. At the 8 am start, the NWS is predicting a temperature of around 53, rising to 61 around the time I'll be finishing -- with any luck that will be about 11:10 a.m.
61 is a lot better than 68. It's still a little warmer than my ideal temperature, which is probably around 45-50 degrees, but there's no point in drastically altering my race strategy yet. I'll keep my obsessive runner's eye focused on the race day weather all week.
In other news, yesterday's long run revealed yet another thing to worry about as the race approaches. As I got ready for the run, I noticed that the battery on my GPS was dead, despite the fact that I had placed it in the charging cradle the night before. Garmin claims that the cradle for the 910XT is secure, but I've experienced this problem several times. If the unit is not seated properly in the cradle not only will the watch not charge, it will drain the battery. Argh!
My plan for the race is to simply not charge the unit the night before. It's got a 20-hour battery life, so if I have it charged before I leave for Huntsville and leave it turned off until race morning, I should have plenty of juice for the race.
Otherwise, tapering has been going well. I'm decreasing the mileage on my daily runs, but trying to include at least a couple miles each day at race pace of 7:15 per mile. This is helping me dial in to the pace I'll be running on race day. Details of this morning's workout are below.
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