Of Mice and Marathons

Philadelphia Love Run

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Location:

Lake Orion,MI,

Member Since:

Dec 28, 2011

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

PRs

16:52 Phillies Charities 5k (2016)

35:52 Beach to Beacon 10k (2015)

58:10 Broad Street 10 Mile (2016)

1:16:02 Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half Marathon (2015)

2:46:54 Philadelphia Marathon (2015)

Personal:

I live in Michigan with my wife, Megan, and our boys, Charlie and Sawyer. I started running in September 2010.

(Please note that Strava links might contain blog inappropriate langauge)

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	57.70	Year:	1986.65
Miles With Megan Lifetime Miles:						613.75
Miles With The Boys Lifetime Miles:						99.90
Nike Zoom Streak LT4 Mr. Pinks Lifetime Miles:						21.60
Saucony ISO Freedom 3 #2 Lifetime Miles:						253.80
Altra Rivera Lifetime Miles:						357.35
Altra Rivera (Dark Blue) Lifetime Miles:						145.10
Saucony Kinvara 13 Lifetime Miles:						465.10
Saucony Endorphin Pro Lifetime Miles:						287.00
Active 88 Boulder Lifetime Miles:						5.00
Saucony Freedom 5 Lifetime Miles:						304.80
Saucony Kinvara 13 #2 Lifetime Miles:						310.95
Saucony Endorphin Pro White Lifetime Miles:						23.40
Kinvara 14 Blue/Grey Lifetime Miles:						64.50
Saucony Ride Teal Lifetime Miles:						23.40
Saucony KInvara 14 Yellow Lifetime Miles:						12.40
Nike XC Flats Lifetime Miles:						4.10
Active 88 Boulder Lifetime Miles:						13.10

Sun, Apr 10, 2016

Race: Philadelphia Love Run (13.109 Miles) 01:18:20, Place overall: 11

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
4.00	0.00	13.00	0.00	17.00

AM: 17 miles. Philadelphia Love Run

I had a rough day. The half is my best distance and it didn't show that today. I ran better than my embarrassing 1:20 time last spring but this was not great. And I'm a bit embarrassed that I was so far off goal and what I've been able to run in good shape in the past. I'm not quite sure what happened. Did I overestimate my fitness? I don't think so. sub-75 was a stretch I knew but I though a PR chance was a reasonable goal. A few things here and there that I should have been better about and an off day I guess.

I picked Megan up from the airport at 12:00AM or so and got to bed late around 1:00 and couldn't fall alseep. I rarely go to bed before midnight before a race. This is something that needs to change.

It was a chilly and deceptively still morning. I warmed up 2 miles and felt really good. I never feel good on a warmup for any workouts or races. Not that good. Met Jonathan in the corral and told him what I was shooting for.

We got out in 5:46, which was maybe 2-4 seconds ahead of plan but managable. The next mile was a 5:33. I have no idea how. This seems off but both my Garmin and Strava have it down as such (must be true, right?). I forgot to turn my autolap off so the rest of the splits were junk given the issues in the city with the buildings and early splits.

Miles 1-4 in the city. Felt pretty good. Well, normal.

Miles 5-7 had a headwind that wasn't bad but it took my drive from me

Mile 8 was a nasty, twisty, uphill grinder with turns and some rough pavement.

Mile 9 I got back a bit after coming back down the hill. I hit about 5:45 here and knew my day was done. It was done by mile 6 really.

Mile 10 I got to final turn around and headed back down MLK Drive (more or less the final miles of the RnR course) and I got side stitches. This happens rarely to me and almost always in a marathon. Only once in a half and it was 70-75 degrees and humid (and I ran 1:18:30 that day).

The final miles I was trying to get rid of the stitch. Two guys passed me and then two more and I didn't really care; I wanted to jump in the Schuylkill. I lost my top ten finish right then, which is what I should have been focusing on as my time went out the window. I tried to get those guys but they ran the last 5k @ 5:35 pace after a 60-minute 10 mile split.

I was sucking air when I hit the finish but the overall effort didn't feel that hard. I just couldn't move. I pouted for a while then cooled down 2 miles. Cut it short as I wasn't feeling it and my stomach was going south. Felt pretty ill for a while this afternoon.

I want to pore over my training and find out what I did wrong, but I don't think I'll find it. I thought for sure with good workouts and a decent 5k PR I would have the speed to carry me through to a PR. I felt like I was running in sand and tried to surge to get my legs to fire faster than 5:50-6:00 put it wasn't working.

I'm tempted to take a day or two off and just run whatver feels right and run Broad Street with Megan and decide what to do from there and scrap an pre-determined summer plans for Beach to Beacon.

Weight: 0.00

Comments

From allie on Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 20:36:08 from 24.99.46.55

i'm sorry it didn't go as planned for you. sometimes things don't quite come together, for whatever reason. my 5k yesterday was so bad i can't even write about it. my post-race pouting lasted all day, and pouting is a mild term. :)

anyway, i empathize. here's to bouncing back...

From jtshad on Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 05:43:30 from 173.198.176.201

Good effort on a tough day. Do not beat yourself up that much, not every race goes as planned. You still ran good and can bounce back for the next race.

Remember, we do this for fun...right?

From Jake K on Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 13:07:30 from 159.212.71.77

Clearly not indicative of your fitness and training. You have good days and bad ones... it sucks when you have a great day on a random Wednesday and not a target Sunday, though..

Maybe a few days off and then just go back to what you were doing, with the hopes that you catch a break and have a great day at Broad Street?

From Drew on Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 14:20:22 from 71.46.56.53

Jason, I don't think you did anything wrong. In hundreds of tempos and races over the last 10 years, I've had about a dozen side stitches during hard runs. I've never found a particular cause, but the effect is always the same - game over.

From fiddy on Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 15:08:34 from 170.140.242.134

Is it possible that you just run a better half off of marathon training? I only gave a quick glance to your training but it seemed like you were mixing in some 10 mile MP runs prior to your PR. It may be that you are more in 5k/10K shape now.

From joebell1981 on Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 18:26:40 from 99.39.133.24

It seems like you rarely run a bad race you target, Jason, so its easy to understand your frustration. Your training and races have been impressive - clearly, the fitness is there for 1:15:XX and better. I say you train on through and go for it at Broad Street 10M.

From Jason D on Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 20:35:20 from 68.80.27.222

Thanks, all.

There's something to that James. My legs speed sucked when I ran my PR. I couldn't get much beyond 5:52-5:57 for the first 4-6 miles but I was running upper 5:30s in the final 5k. I am not sure why I didn't do more 8-10 mile tempos because it's my staple and I enjoy them. My endurance is very good. I think I could run 30 miles @ 7-minute pace but at marathon effort I wouldn't last much more than 18 miles in a marathon (if I even got that far). I guess I figured with a lot of time on my feet and good mile repeats and shorter repeats I'd kill it.

I might do an 8-mile tempo in one of my long runs to see how bad that system is currently running.

From SlowJoe on Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 19:45:23 from 107.77.105.92

I agree with everyone, don't see any need to make drastic changes. Very few blemishes on your racing record, so I'd expect the next one to go well, given your consistent training.

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