Of Mice and Marathons

AM: Rutgers Unite Half Marathon in 1:20:05

I didn't deserve to run much faster but I was somewhat suprised by the lack of sub-6:00 miles given that workouts, although not great, have been solidly in the 5:5X range. Part of the problem today was a lack of a proper warmup. These days I don't run fewer than two miles before a half. Today I got in a 5 minutes. Driving to New Jersey, the shuttle, etc.

Started out fine, but felt very flat. Breathing was up and it took me a while to settle and I really didn't want to run after 2-3 miles. About 5-6 miles in a felt better and my breathing settled, but I lacked turnover. I ran behind a guy who increasingly was having a hard time. I could feel my legs waking up but still no real snap. I got passed around mile 9, but spent the final 5k reeling him back in and kicked from behind just before the 13 mile marker and handily beat himw with a 32.5 second partial (with a little bit of performance enhancing downhill).

The course was okay, aside from 3 180-degree turns and some really rough pavement.

Slowest half marathon in 2 years, but I'm fine with today. I'm going to keep pressing on.

The rich chocolatey goodness: 5:58, 6:04, 12:10 (missed), 6:04, 6:01, 6:10, 6:12, 6:04, 6:21 (not sure. bridge?), 6:07, 6:09, 6:05, 32.5 seconds (decent downhill)

Megan told me a guy ran about 4:50 pace for roughly the first 5 miles or 10k. Turns out he ran 10 miles in 46:42 or 4:40 pace. He's 45, so I'm guessing he cheated and still didn't win, running 1:27 something. Or maybe he had a funky chip. But I am guessing something is rotten in the state of New Jersey. On closer thought, he may have been the guy in the wheel chair but he has no 10k time.

3 mile cool down. Felt a little loopy.

PM: Likely no shakeout

AM: 6 miles slow. Some light hip stretching.

Feel pretty good. Quite sluggish but not too bad.

PM: 4 miles. No time for more. Less sluggish.

Megan almost beat me for mileage today. She's gearing up for Broad Street, so we will be extending our occasional outside runs with maybe some tempo minutes this weekend.

AM: 8.25 miles slow

PM: 5.75 miles slow. Stretching and core.

Slowing things down even more than my recent committment to slow down from what ends up being ~8:00-8:15 to 8:20-8:40. Today I ran 9:05 in the morning with only 1.25 miles under 9 minutes. Tonight I ran 9:20 (but over some technical trails in spots) and ran only 1.75 miles under 9 minutes. I'm hoping it burns some more lard and running is really enjoyable when you slow way down.

Observation: Strides become even more important when you run your easy runs slow as you get pretty stale.

AM/Lunch: Wissahickon Valley Trails - 10.6 mile w/ ~1200 feet of gain.

I fell of course but only once and more of a stumble if we are keeping track. That's probably it for today (100 minutes on my feet is fine for today) even though the weather is very dry and around 70 degrees and mostly sunny. Very tempted to pack on miles and see if we can get this machine looking like a runner by August 1.

Decided to race a 5k on Sunday to get the legs spinning. A few of the Wanderers are also running, so I might have some guys to latch on to, and see if we can beat up on the young guns.

AM: 8.25 miles easy. Stretching and core.

PM: 5 miles easy. Did a few strides to wake the legs up from their sleepy 9-minute pace revery.

The humidity has been in the 20-30% range in the afternoon. It's glorious. Except for the fire danger warning. It's 67-72. I could use a few weeks of this.

Lunch/PM: Wissahickon Valley Trails - 11 miles w/ 950 feet of gain

Paid some bills, felt good and bad about that, then plodded on the trails for just under two hours #notbad I jumped a deer (I was very close to it) and a few frogs. The greenery is getting green.

PM: 8 miles w/ Megan.

Just under 80 degrees with 25% humidity. I'm getting used to this. Best run of the year. Goal was to get Megan some time on her feet. She was working coming up the hill and of course I was goofing off with an old piece of bamboo pretending I was carrying a pacer's stick in between swiping at cars that might come too close to us.

Legs are feeling good after all the really easy running. 5k course tomorrow looks fast and flat. I need to make sure I get a good warmup, and not make the mistake I have the last two races.