Today was the last long run before the marathon on February 14, 2010. We were to run the final 20 miles of the marathon. We’ve already run this path a few times. The pacers were to run with us too. I arrived before 6 AM (an especially early start) and we were to run between 3.0-3.5 hours but no more. I met my 4:00 pacer. Several of my running class buddies were also there with the pacer including Alvin, Angie, Chase, and Diego. We were to warm-up from Rogue to the Mopac bridge (the Rock) before starting MPG. We started and it seemed that our pacer was running faster than 9:10 during the warm-up. I cranked up my iPod and had it talking in my ears throughout. At the Rock Angie showed me her Garmin saying that the pace had been 8:36 – what! So our pacer was not doing his job at least during the warm-up – ugh. So we started out down Lake Austin Blvd and I stayed with the pacer and group. Things were OK, and I think we were running on pace, but without any mile markers or my own Garmin I couldn’t be sure. Right on to Entfield where the rolling hills begin, and then left on Exposition. At the first water stop the pacer stopped too long IMHO so I did my typical thing and took off early. It was the last time I saw the pacer for the rest of the run. I knew the route and when we got to Great Northern I stopped for water and two cookies at the ball park. I took my time there, and Angie and Chase arrived just as I was leaving. Oh, Oh. They are typically faster than me. Later some of the runners got confused on how to get to Red River and I accidentally followed them on 47th, but quickly got to 48th and Red River. However when returning back to Duval on 41st street I saw that some runners had taken a shortcut and skipped Red River altogether by heading directly down Duval. Somehow I caught up to Angie and Diego on Duval at the water stop (weren’t they behind me?!) and I assumed they had taken the shortcut. Instead of stopping I ran past them and kept going through campus. Am I competitive or what? I was getting pretty fatigued around the capitol but kept hoofing it down Congress to 8th. I thought about calling it quits at the “finish” then but I kept going all the way back to Rogue. I thought it would best simulate the real marathon. When I got back to Rogue my watch read 3:21. Phillip was there smiling like a Cheshire-cat. Angie and Diego arrived a few minutes later. At home I plotted my path and got 22.5 miles. Given that information I calculated my pace was 8:53 minutes/mile and this included a long stop at the Rock, and on Great Northern. Am I happy with the result? Well yes. Since I still have about 4 more miles to complete to get to 26.2 do I have it in me? I think so. Do I trust the pacer? Hmmm, that’s to be seen.
Monthly Archives: January 2010
3M Half Marathon
I got up early to avoid the traffic, and arrived at 5:40 AM. I sat in the car with the heat on until 6:15 and then did a 1.5 mile warm-up. It was windy out. While waiting for the start I kept worrying that I had on too much clothing, but the temperature and wind felt especially chilly to me. When it was all over the two layers, gloves and cap were fine. I listened to my iPod the entire time to help distract me. The organizers had to delay the 6:45 start for 30-45 minutes, because some barriers blew over along the course. We finally started and I tried, really tried, to maintain MGP for the first 8 miles. After that we were allowed to speed up if we wanted to – if we had it in us. The miles were: 8:24, 9:24 (slowed down too much, so sped up again), 8:35*, 8:35*, 8:03 (downhill), 9:14 (water), 8:26, 8:34*, 8:35*, 8:23, 7:48, 7:48, 7:31, 0:46 [* forgot to press timer, so halved split]. I know, I know, I went out too fast and just couldn’t slow down – sheesh. Near the end, when going down Duval I cranked it up. The wind was at my back too. I was happy that I had the energy at the end and did not break my form. Also no cramps or pains. At the end I was trying to break 1:50, but completed in 1:50:11. What’s strange is that I should be ecstatic with my time and my energy level, but I’m slightly bummed because I didn’t break 1:50 and I wasn’t even racing especially early on when I was trying to run at MGP. Final pace was 8:25 minute/mile. Overall it was a good race.
Update: Oh two more things, I ended 8th in my age 60-64 group, and today my name was in the paper because I was a top 10 finisher for my age group. Very nice!
Running log week of 2010-01-24
01/24 – Sunday – 3M Half Marathon – 13.1 miles – 1:50:11
01/25 – Monday – Neighborhood – 4 miles – 40 minutes (no core and no rollers, no tightness, good run)
01/26 – Tuesday – Class Amacattack – 10 miles – 120 minutes (core and rollers in morning, thermolyte before class)
01/27 – Wednesday – Neighborhood – 6 miles – 60 minutes (core and rollers, no tightness, easy and good run)
01/28 – Thursday – Neighborhood – 11 miles – 110 minutes (core and rollers, no tightness, good run)
01/29 – Friday – off (no core and no rollers)
01/30 – Saturday – End of Marathon Course 1/ Pacers – 22.5 miles – 3:21:11 (no core and no rollers, good run, but I didn’t have much left at the end)
Weekly mileage: 66.6 miles
Shoe mileage: 165.0 miles
Running log week of 2010-01-17
01/17 – Sunday – Neighborhood – 8 miles – 80 minutes (core and roller, no right leg tightness, light tightness back of left knee)
01/18 – Monday – Neighborhood – 4 miles – 40 minutes (core and roller, no right leg tightness, light tightness back of left knee)
01/19 – Tuesday – Class (Ruth’s ladder) – 6.5 miles – 90 minutes (core and roller, medium to severe tightness left leg hamstring)
01/20 – Wednesday – Neighborhood – 6 miles – 60 minutes (core and roller, no tightness)
01/21 – Thursday – Neighborhood – 11 miles – 120 minutes (no core and no roller, no tightness, burning sensation at back of right ankle, took aleve, iced it, still burning afterwards, glad I’m off tomorrow)
01/22 – Friday – off (core and roller, right ankle burning has lessened)
01/23 – Saturday – Long Run (Town Lake from Rogue to MoPac and back, no Longhorn Dam, had two salt tabs before & breakfast, no tightness or burning – yeah!, tried hard to slow down, ran faster than MGP, ugh, pace 8:53 overall with stops) – 9 miles – 1:20
Weekly mileage: 44.5 miles
Shoe mileage: 98.4 miles
4x2000m Class Workout
Ran 2000m or 5 laps of the track at 15K pace [8:30/M or 2:07 per lap] with a 1 lap recovery times 4 for the advanced runners – that’s me. Here’s what happened. The first set: 2:02, 2:07, 2:06, 2:09, 2:10 for 10:34. The second set: 2:10, 2:05, 2:07, 2:05, short?. The third set: 2:05, 2:08, 2:07, 2:07, short?. The fourth set: 2:06, 2:05, 2:08, 2:05, 2:06 for 10:30. I am amazed that I wasn’t able to count right for the middle two sets. I was brain dead for no good reason, and I was keeping track on my fingers, but not very well indeed. Regardless of this flub I felt good for the laps that I did run and the pace that I was able to maintain.
Running log week of 2010-01-10
01/10 – Sunday – Neighborhood – 8 miles – 80 minutes (core and roller, no tightness)
01/11 – Monday – Neighborhood – 4 miles – 40 minutes (core and roller, no tightness)
01/12 – Tuesday – Class (1 mile warm-up, 4 x 2000m @ 15K w/ 400m recovery, 1 mile cool-down) – 8.4 miles – 85 minutes (core and roller, light to medium tightness)
01/13 – Wednesday – Neighborhood – 6 miles – 60 minutes (core and roller, no tightness)
01/14 – Thursday – Neighborhood – 11 miles – 110 minutes (core and roller, no tightness, but light muscle pull on back of left knee up to hamstring – argh! I’m glad I have tomorrow off.)
01/15 – Friday – off (core and roller)
01/16 – Saturday – South Austin Ramble – 16.5 miles – 154 minutes (no core or roller, immediately felt muscle on back of left thigh, but no tightness – maybe because I was worrying about this newly developed ache, however, I ran with it trying to keep it loose, overall pace 9:20/mile – dunno if I did MGP for the last three miles but I tried throughout to be consistent.)
Weekly mileage: 53.9 miles
Shoe mileage: 53.9 miles
New Shoes
A week or so ago there was a shoe sale at Rogue and I bought a new pair of running shoes. I started using them this week on Monday 01/11 for my 4-mile run. I had started using the previous pair the week of 11/15. Since then I’ve kept a shoe mileage record on my weekly log and I accumulated 410.0 miles on that pair.
Running log week of 2010-01-03
01/03 – Sunday – Neighborhood – 8 miles – 90 minutes (core and roller, unknown tightness)
01/04 – Monday – Neighborhood – 4 miles – 40 minutes (core and roller, no tightness)
01/05 – Tuesday – Class – 8 miles – 80 minutes (no core or roller, light tightness)
01/06 – Wednesday – Neighborhood – 6 miles – 60 minutes (no core or roller, no tightness)
01/07 – Thursday – Neighborhood – 11 miles – 110 minutes (core and roller, light tightness, breathing deeply at start, very cold and windy, fighting wind on outbound – ugh!, running w/ wind on inbound – nice!)
01/08 – Friday – off
01/09 – Saturday – Long Run (2×8@MGP) – 18.76 miles – 2:53 (no core or roller, light tightness, breathing deeply at start, screwed up and cut off about 1.24 miles on return leg – ugh, [mgp outbound miles: 1 missed, 2 17:54, 3 9:00, 4 8:31, 5 8:34, 6 8:49, 7 9:03, 8 8:37; mgp inbound miles: 1 8:34, 2 8:44, 3 skipped ugh!, 4 short! 5:21, 5 9:10, 6 8:43, 7 8:51, 8 8:25] overall total pace 9:13 min/mile)
Weekly mileage: 57 miles
Shoe mileage: 410.0 miles
Last 19ish Miles of Marathon
It was colder this morning than expected at 28 degrees F so I put on long-johns and tights at home. The group took off at about 6:30 AM. During the first 2-3 miles my ankle was tight again. Ugh! People would pass me especially some of my running classmates. I just couldn’t run any faster. I was struggling. This tightness really messes with my mind. I was thinking about quiting the class and skipping the marathon, but I kept going. At the first water stop I was just beginning to feel a bit better. My ankle was loosening up. I didn’t stop, because I wanted to pass my running mates. However, shortly they came blasting by me and still I couldn’t keep up with them and they went ahead. However, I kept them in sight this time. Finally around Northcross Mall one stopped for a bio-break, and I passed the other two. I kept going now with my ankle not bothering me. Taking the turn to head south I stopped for water at Arroyo Seco, and the two of them caught up to me, but I started out early and it was the last time I saw them. I won’t say it was an easy run, but I just kept digging deeper and getting it done. I ran and ran and ran. Down Duval, through Campus, up MLK, around the Capital, and down Congress. I thought about walking after where the marathon finish line would be, but I kept going. I kept running. I completed 19.6736 miles (based on Gmaps Pedometer) in 3:10.13 or 9:08/mile. What especially surprised me was my final pace is the speed I need to run the entire marathon in 6 weeks. Now if I can only figure out this tightness.
