ACorn's Blog

Ran 5.5 miles up Milcreek canyon and back.  Enjoyable run and great weather.

Fartlek run in the afternoon.

Short morning jog before heading out to play some golf.

Ran after work.  Felt good and picked it up for the last .5.  

5.5 mile fartlek run

Easy 10k hill route. My mileage has been horrible as of late, can't seem to get my foot healed.  My plan is to still run a 1/2 marathon this Saturday.  I feel like I'm not in good shape. I have to remind myself that I've run more miles this past year than any other year in my life. As far as Saturday goes, I've got no expectations, I will just go out and see what I can do. 

4 easy nighttime miles then an hour on the stationary bike.  

AM

 Easy 4 miles and lots of rolling and stretching. 

PM

40 minutes on the stationary bike  

5.5 mile fartlek run, last run before Saturday.  

40 easy minute on the stationary bike, rest tomorrow

Did a mile warmup and headed to the Haunted Half Marathon. My foot felt pretty good warming up.  A little pain but minimal.  

I was surprised how big this race was.  I expected a couple hundred people but one of the race directors said there were right around a thousand people running.

Since it was my first half marathon, I was pretty nervous and not sure how I would hold up. I've never tried running hard for more than 10 miles and I was concerned that my foot would start acting up.  

Right out of the gate there were four of us that were immediately in front.  

Nicholas Watson, a runner at Dixie college, Joey Mortenson, my old high school buddy that has been running marathons since junior high, James Moore a.k.a. fiddy and me.

Running down emigration canyon I didn't go all out because I was worried that I wouldn't have enough in the tank. For the first 7 miles I was in fourth place, I ran behind fiddy until we turned into Research Park and I was able to get by him.  This is where the course got hard, the uphill section felt brutal after all of the canyon running.  From miles 7-9 I slowly inched up on Joey. We ran together until mile 11 where I was able to pass him on an uphill piece.  I could see Nicholas in the distance but he had probably 600 meters on me and I knew I wasn't going to catch him.  

Luckily, I was able to hold Joey off and get second place.  

I chose not to wear a Garmin so I don't have splits, I wanted to run by feel and not worry about a time on my first half marathon attempt.  It was a good race that kind of showed me where I am fitness wise.  The frustrating thing is that I don't know what my real time is. There is a picture of me crossing the line and the clock reads 1:19:55.  The official results that several racers including the winner said were wrong, have me at 1:21:54.  According to the results, I was 48 seconds faster than fiddy.   Hopefully, he knows his time so I can get mine.  

Anyway, I look forward to racing more half marathons. It was a challenge but I enjoyed every minute of it.  The course today was much harder that I thought.  I was thoroughly demoralized by the second half of it and realized I have lots to work on. That being said, I had lots of fun and know I'm capable of better once my foot is healed and I get a decent base built.  Thanks to my family, especially Jing and all the FRBers for support.

Congrats to my little sis, Megan for running the half. She was right around 2:10.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/acorn84/

If you're interested you can check the link for a couple of photos from the race.   

2 easy night miles hoping to speed up recovery 

Very easy 4 miles today.  Legs weren't as sore as I expected after Saturday, I'd say a 6 on the 1-10 sore scale.  Got out for a walk yesterday that helped quite a bit too.

A few thoughts about my first half marathon:

It was the most enjoyable race I have ever run. It was a humbling experience. I was surprised how mentally taxing it was and definitely had a few moments of doubt during the second half of the race.  I wasn't expecting that.  I'm convinced that the best runners aren't necessarily more talented physically than the other runners but more capable of mental toughness during races. I'm sure the marathon is insanely challenging mentally. 

It was difficult for me to gauge the appropriate pace due to my lack of longer runs leading up to the race and my general lack of experience running races.  Next half marathon training cycle I will definitely run a couple of 15 milers ahead of time with some goal pace miles thrown in. On the bright side, I was able to push pretty hard at the end and would guess I was around 5:30 for the last mile(downhill). 

Overall, I was happy with the result given my erratic training. I'm getting my foot fully healed and then the solid block of base training will follow for the next two months. Goal for next year is 1:14.  I plan on doing the Striders Winter circuit races, the 5k through the half marathon. 

10k Cotton Bottom trot. I gladly welcome the colder temps. 

10k loop, felt really good today and pushed the pace towards the end

Starting tomorrow, I'm beginning my two months of easy base running. I will start at 40 mpw and work up to 70 mpw.   

Tanner Park loop.  Nice and easy jogging.  Around mile 6, I had a staredown with a grumpy dog. I was getting ready to go Liam Neeson style on him but luckily we just went our separate ways.  

I've felt really good since the 1/2 marathon.  I thought it would make my foot worse but it seems to have helped.  

Another perfect weather day. 

More nice and easy running.