Ethan Cannon

6:43 pace, east river road. Beautiful day and perfect weather to be out on a run. Nice and quiet too thanks to the holiday. 

6:55 pace, west river north. 

Campus loops. I had 4:10 rest this time. It was windy. Ran 12:20 and 12:14. That's the fastest I've averaged over the three times I've done this, although all were similar and neither of the previous attempts were expected to be barn burners. 

Today was the last day the fairgrounds will be closed. 6:50 pace on my modified Como classic route, although it felt slower. Felt tired. Wore a long sleeve and gloves!! That sure happened fast. 

6:46 pace, diagonal/St A parkway. Felt good on a nice crisp morning. The air outside was really clean, although I do think this is my most polluted route. 

Great cool fall morning to run on west river road. 18 miles felt really good in comparison to previous weeks. Also, my target was to run "chill pace" on the way out, and then do a 3 mile tempo on the way back, which overall feels easier than "slog it out" pace. I started the tempo after being done with the Winchell trail on the way back, and finished at the top of the hill at the entrance of west campus. 5:11 pace is solid for that route at that point in my run. 5:53 pace overall including most of the detours which I can now map. That is quite good. 5:43 pace on the way back, although I did stop to catch my breath for a minute after the tempo. My new gel tasted interesting but should be fine I think. Good day!

6:56 pace, Como classic. The fairgrounds were still a bit messy but I was able to get through them. 

6:56 pace, east river flats. Felt kind of tired. Overcast today but the cold weather the past few days has thrown me off. The warm air felt very weird. 

It was a humid, foggy day this morning. The air felt kind of stale, so my workout around the cemetery felt kind of gross and polluted from all the traffic. That probably wasn't a great idea. For my workout, I ran hard from the bottom of Ridgeway parkway to the top, ran easy along St Anthony boulevard, then ran hard again to the end of the Diag, before running easy until the loop started again. After two loops, I ran once more up the hill, which mean I did 3 ups (0.78 miles, 100 feet elevation gain) and 2 downs (0.88 miles, 60 foot elevation loss). 4 miles total volume. The rest parts were 5 minutes long at the top and 1 minute at the bottom. I didn't feel great especially going up the hills. Averaged 5:18 pace on the ups and 4:46 on the downs. 

6:48 pace, west river north. Another foggy morning. 

6:49 pace, farmers fields. Didn't realize they were doing construction on falcon heights park until I ran right into it. Looks like some big changes are underway, I hope they preserve the path. 

3 mile warm up along Como ave, then 10 miles at race pace (5:30 goal) along Como to Wheelock parkway and then around McCarrons lake and back. This would permit some good hill running, including the 85-footer on Wheelock. The route I had mapped was closed at one point, but thankfully I was able to estimate the length of short detour I took. I was excited at the turnaround by my pace, which is always nice. It didn't end up being as fast as I thought after mapping it out more accurately. But I still ran 5:18 pace (almost identical times both directions). I would say that is pretty good and shows some solid fitness, especially on that route. Weirdly, I could've had a conversation at the end of that run. It was definitely a different type of fatigue that set in. 

Combination of things led to a very slow day, 7:10 on east river road. 

Still felt tired. 7:03 pace, Como classic. 6:30 AM is getting early to go on the soft surface trail, but I did it. 

7:00 pace, Boom island. Hoping to start having a bit more spring in the step soon. There was a cool thunderstorm that passed by to the east of me this morning while running. 

6:56 pace for everything but the first 0.75 of WRR, estimating 7 flat pace overall then. It was warm enough that I didn't want to wear a shirt, but doing that in conjunction with running across the UMN bridge at 7:30 on a school day made me feel quite uncomfortable. 

6:57 pace, east river flats. Caught just a light rain. It was hot in my room last night compared to previous nights which I think made me warmer on my run given the temperature than I would have been otherwise. Oh well. Still feeling tired. 

Resevoir woods. 6:18 pace, including 6:10s on the way back if my math was correct. Ran 4-3-2-1 along Roselawn on the way back.

6:44 pace returning from east river road (pressed the wrong button on my watching going out). Still not as snappy as I'd like. Saw several people I know today. 

7 flat pace, Como classic. Really fun foggy morning for the run, but still wondering about this slow pace. 

Apparently stil just under 6 minute pace? West river road and strides. 

7:05 pace. Wanted to keep it nice and chill today in Falcon Heights. 

Easy pre-race run and strides

Today I ran a time trial marathon, long story. I did figure that very long races like a marathon, along with the shorter races of 800 meters or less, lose the least in the absence of "race energy", allowing time trial performances to be similar to the real thing. Because I don't have a GPS watch, the decision of where to run was pretty much made for me: Gateway trail, so I could have mile markers. The route actually worked out quite well, I started just after a mile marker near the Rotary park, and ended at the end of the bike line at Norell and 120th. It was warmer than you might expect with a low above 60 degrees, although once I got into the woods it felt significantly cooler. I planned a "gun time' of 6:30 to optimize cool temps and light. I wore my old green Next%s. 

The race: My plan had been to try to run 5:30 pace, for about 2:24. My PR was 2:27:20, but I thought this would be an easier course (MapMyRun shows I did about 600 feet elevation gain, vs. >1000 in my first 2 marathons), and I hoped I had done a better job carb loading than before. My first "almost mile" was 5:30, which was a bad sign. I sped up a bit and next ran a 5:38. Then I sped up again and ran 5:31. This did not boost my confidence. At a couple points, I considered turning around and giving up. I decided I should push through for my pride, even if I had to hobble back at 6 minute pace. I was just concerned because early miles at let's say 5:20 pace had felt so easy in previous marathons. I think this may have been due to the race adrenaline perhaps, but I wasn't sure early on. I stopped for water four times, trying to limit it to 15 seconds each time. I am still not quite sure if I took 6 gels or 7. I could've sworn I made it through seven, but I had one leftover at the end. I could really feel how drinking water after taking a gel helped it digest instead of sitting in my stomach making me sick. I remember feeling kind of sick at mile 14, but knew there was water coming up and that taking a gel now was an investment for later in the race, so I'm proud I did. It was kind of windy today, but the Gateway trail is pretty covered, so I only felt it once I got to the end and had to battle. After running the last couple miles without markers seemingly pretty slow, I was optimistic to see I did my first half in 72:23. I have learned that in marathons, at least for me, you don't just gradually feel worse and worse. Instead, things ebb and flow. Sometimes I felt more sick, other times I felt good. At some points I felt almost burst of energy as perhaps my body was processing the carbs and giving permission for me to run fast. I started out pretty quick on the way back, and was able to hold it together going up the hills of miles 17-19ish. I knew once I got to 20, it would be mostly downhill. And then what happened is that I was able to hold it together. The back miles were nothing compared to my last two marathons. If I had to run 4 extra miles at the end, I would've done way better today. I felt inner thigh cramping like twice at the very end. And no bonking. So that makes me feel like I did a good job with carb loading. Still- I know I'm not nearly as competitive at this distance as I was at shorter distances. In fairness, it's not like I can run a sub-14 5K off my current training, either. But ultimately today felt like a longer, harder long run. I feel like I'm missing a piece. We'll see if I ever figure out what it is. Still, happy to have run a negative split!

Someone told me "one more week!" assuming I was running the Twin Cities marathon. Someone else kindly asked if I was ok at the end and said they were my "cheering squad" after I explained what I was doing. Funny they were concerned because I was doing *way* better than my previous ones. No sprawling out in the medical tent for 30 minutes or shivering and hardly being able to walk. I did inaugurate leaf catching season, with two grabs during the race!

Splits: 5:30 (not a full mile), 5:38, 5:31, 5:34, 5:36, 5:32, 5:31, 5:27, 5:31, 5:35, 5:33, 11:21 (past mile markers), 11:21 (same thing and same time!), 5:24, 5:33, 5:34, 5:31, 5:33, 5:41, 5:34, 5:25, 5:31, 5:39, 5:11 (not a full mile). 

After multiple mappings, I got that the route was 21.07 km each way, or ~11 seconds short. My overall time was 2:24:27. So I'll call it 2:24:38. I don't know what to say about the water stops. In a race someone would hand you the water. If you just added that time to my time, it would be 2:25:38 or so. So maybe right around 2:25:00 would be the most fair. 

7:26 pace, Como classic. Could've felt worse!

7 flat pace, Boom island. Felt surprisingly, significantly better than yesterday.