track fan

http://results.bazumedia.com/event/results/event/event-3271

More later, my legs hurt, bad.  Thank you all for your love and well wishes.  My lucky javelina was pinned to my shorts (thanks allie) ... It helped a lot over those last painful miles.  xxoo 

Report:

I did ok, I really can't complain (except for how much my legs hurt the last 4 miles, and they hurt so much right now - ache - that I can't even take a nap - despite only getting ~3 hours sleep last night ;-)). My half-marathon splits were 1:38:51/1:40:24 -- I wanted to hold it together and go for sub 3:19, but I was just holding on at the end (or that is how I felt anyway).  I have to say that the course felt hillier than 2009 -- they did change it, both so we did not have to navigate through the 1/2 marathoners between miles 15-16, and so we could finish on Hayward Field (which I wish I could have enjoyed more - but, I was so focused on the finish line, and stopping running, that I did not see the Jumbo Tron -- small mercies :-) -- or much of the "track" ... ha ha).  Maybe it was just the 24secs/mile faster than I ran today that made the hills feel harder?  The other two larger points, both have to do with the fact that I am so lucky.  I can't believe that 10 years ago I started running.  My racing debut was a 23:30 5K followed up with a 1:39:xx 1/2 marathon -- both of these races were the same pace that I just ran 26.2 miles in!  I never would have believed it was possible, certainly not at 50 years old.  Which brings me to the second of my lucks -- today I hit an unspoken milestone -- it concerns something that Sasha doesn't believe in, but I do.  It is WAVA (age-graded performance). Basically, there is a calculator that estimates the percentile for your race results adjusted for your sex and age.  It is based on adjustment of your performance to the current world records of your gender - and accounts for the natural slowing that happens as you get older (loss of muscle mass happens no matter what you do).  They break this down into percentiles, 90th, 80th, 70th, etc. and the "rule-of-thumb" is that 90th percentile is "world class", 80th percentile is "national class", and 70th percentile is "local class" (they also give you an estimate of what your time is worth in "peak age" performance, which is a little 'murkier'.  Anyway -- I have been in the 75th-78th percentile range for the entire time I have been running.  Today ... bloggers, I hit a long sought after goal of mine -- I hit the 80.63th percentile!  I was very happy, maybe it is a silly target - but it was a target of mine for a long time.  

This race hurt more than any race I have ever done.  I never felt "comfortable" and I hurt very badly the last 4 miles.  My splits aren't horrible, and I am pretty surprised about this - because I tell you -- I was hurting.  I had a side stitch at mile 21, and then at mile 24 my side-stitch woes went away because my left leg was hurting so badly ... I saw all these guys (again, just like last time there were more men around me than women) laying around on the grass the last 3 miles, and I thought, oh man, I could so do that right now.  We ran by our hotel at mile 22 and I so looked at it, long and hard.  I wanted to stop and call it a day.  But, I was racing these women - we kept passing eachother back and forth the entire race, and I was "holding on to them" and I did not want to let them beat me.  They did -- but I was right on one of them at the end -- I was 3:19:15 and she was 3:19:14.  Frustrating because I passed her at about 25 1/2 and then she passed me as we hit the track!! I couldn't respond, I just hung on for dear life. 

First 5 miles (7:32 AP): 7:41, 7:23, 7:28, 7:35, 7:33

Second 5 miles (7:28 AP): 7:17 (downhill after an uphill), 7:32, 7:25, 7:32, 7:38

Third 5 miles (7:37 AP): 7:34, 7:42, 7:34, 7:39, 7:40 (I was really starting to hurt here - I felt like I was slipping into much slower pace than it ended up being)

Fouth 5 miles (7:36 AP): 7:25, 7:39, 7:43, 7:32, 7:41 (trying to pass the women)

Fifth 5 miles (7:40 AP): 7:39, 7:38, 7:44 (hurting really bad), 7:40, 7:43 (like really bad),

final two splits (were wrong, I think the 26 mile marker was in the wrong spot): 7:08, 2:17

So glad to stop running.  My legs cramped so badly when I finished ... yowser, from my toes to my adductor ... ouch.

So, that is that.  I loved the fans, I love Eugene.  At mile 24 there were these guys with cups, they yelled: "water", "beer"  ;-).  There was a lot of music on the course, from bystandanders. Mainly hits from Bob Marely, and from the 70s and 80s (my favorite).  The weather was PERFECT.  The size was perfect, it was a little congested the first mile, but it cleared out quickly.  Everything was perfect.

You are all perfect.  Thank you so much, for everything the past 6 years I have been on the blog, and throughout the difficult times in the last couple of years.  And, thank you for sharing these good times with me too.   

ha ha ha ... 20 mins!  

 I also like blogging a little bit while I am in "recovery" - I have found myself going back to these posts when I have been injured, or recovering after races - seeing "how did I survive this last time" (there is no way I could remember without writing it down!).   I also am in the statistical analysis mode of my race -- trying to figure out *if* I were *ever* to run a marathon again (he he) what would I do better ... so, I looked at the 5 mile average splits (because of the hills the 3 mile splits were a little too variable, the 5 mile splits are much more smooth): 7:32, 7:28, 7:37, 7:36, 7:40  - although I did slow down over the last half of the race, I am not sure that running miles 5 -10 slower would have helped at all (e.g., my normal strategy would have been the opposite splits - with the fastest being the last miles) -- I think I ran the best I could on the day.  It is not my usual "negative split" race strategy, but, it is a marathon, and it was a race ... so, I guess I will just call it done!

Greg is a pretty serious advocate about the recovery cycle after a marathon, I am sure by this weekend I will start to get antsy, right now though, I am happy to take some downtime.  I did not feel at all like running until this AM ... I finally started some gentle rolling and some of my ab and back exercises yeterday.  I am on my way to SF for a business trip tomorrow, it will keep my mind off of my running routine -- it will be nice not to worry about how I am going to fit in all my runs on this trip :)

I wanted to share few tidbits I took away from Lauren Fleshman's talk (she was the guest speaker at the expo).  She is a funny, smart, and very nice person (we use the same ART therapist in Phoenix, and so it was fun to see her in this "mode").  

Her talk consisted of 4 major topics:

1.  Mystery column - this is sort of what Sasha calls "factor X".  No matter how good your training is, no matter how much you watch what you eat, and do everything right, there is always some intangible factor(s) that influence your race/your ability.  Could be something like genetics, could be something immeasureable that influence your performance on the day ... it is a mystery.

2.  Training - everyone has their favorite workouts, the workouts that they like, most likely what they are good at.  It sometimes has to do with your strengths (e.g., some people are really good at short interval workouts really fast, others are better at tempo runs) - sometimes it is just how you are wired (see #1 above).  Lauren made the case that you should focus on those strengths - train to them.   Greg McMillan also advocates this - he structures our workouts so while we sometimes touch on those systems that are not our "favorite" - he tries to make sure that 80% of our workouts for any give target race focus on our strengths.  It could be that people like Galen Rupp - who needed to work on his closing speed to compete at the world level - need to step outside of their comfort zone a little more often (Salazar sent him to work with the sprinters at U of Florida for a season -- it changed his kick a lot); but Lauren believes that even the world class athletes should spend the majority of their time training to their strengths.

3.  Recovery - don't run through injuries, don't be afraid to take the time required to stay healthy.  Learn from your training.  Lauren talked about the fact that she is not a high-mileage runner.  The first time she moved up from 70 mpw she broke her foot.  She convinced herself that it was some sort of fluke.  She recovered, and did the same training again, pushed the mileage again, broke it again.  After a few of these cycles, and a surgery that was pretty bad, she learned to listen to her body and she doesn't push through pain/injury cycle -- and she trains to her strengths (see #2).  Get massages, get treatment before injuries, not just wait until afterward.

4.  Psychologic side to running.  This is a growing area in professional athletics.  It concerns "the little voice" -- you know the one ... the one that tells you the last 1-4 miles that you can't go on, that you need to stop ... the one that, for Lauren, almost paralyzes you before the race even begins.  She told us how after winning her first US championship race (5K) she started to get so nervous before races that running wasn't fun anymore.  Her mind, "the voice",  would worry so much about what could happen ("what if I lose my national title", "what if I am 4th in this race and I don't make the team?") that she would be a mess before the race.  This is also the same voice that you can turn into, "right now I am in 4th - all I have to do is push it this last lap and I will have 3rd" or, "if that woman in 3rd doesn't keep up, I *will* take her".  There are specialists that can help you develop skills to "change the conversation" when the voice sabotages your races.  I have to say that I thought a lot about this during my race.  I have always been pretty good about convincing myself that "if I can do it in training, I can execute the race" - so I do a lot of fast finish runs, I run primarily on my own, so I spend a lot of time thinking "ok, how do I feel right now, what do I need to adjust to run 40 more minutes?", "can I go faster? do I need to slow down?".  But, when things start to hurt, it is so hard to keep the negative thoughts out, and replace them with the positive ... for elite athletes (where the stakes are oh so much higher) - this aspect of their training/racing can make the difference between a big payday, or not.  So, many are turning to experts in sport psychology, and Lauren believes this can make a substantial difference. 

There you go ...  it was very entertaining, witty, and fun.  I am sure I did not do it justice, and some of this stuff we all "know" (e.g., especially the injury one :)) - but it is so important, it is worth hearing all the time!

I hope you are all doing well!  Happy Wednesday, Bloggers! 

another 20 min run!  I feel slow, and fat, but I still don't care much ;-).  I can see that by later this weekend I might feel like running more than my schedule calls for, but still today - I am a little sore and would rather sleep in tomorrow than run ... fat and lazy that is me right now!!  

I am stuck in LAX -- my flight has been delayed 3 hours.  I am going to go for a walk, I will see how far I can go between the three terminals that are connected.   Hopefully I won't get into trouble ... you know how that can happen, even when you aren't expecting it.

Weird to not run today ... This is the first day of my "recovery time" that I am am antsy about running!!  So, I think I will eat instead :-)  

Happy Saturday, bloggers!!