Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 14 miles moderate pace. HR 159.

Progression through 10 miles, then 4 miles easy. Starting at mile 4 until mile 10 I cut the pace down from 7:23-6:27. Weather was in the mid to lower 80s but it was dry and I ran mostly under tree cover (so I ran by heart rate), which helped. I think I will continue to do that until the weather gets cooler.

Good run. I sweat out many of my Fourth of July Weekend sins.

Walked with Remy for 40 minutes or so after lunch before going out for my run.

+ Stretching and core (late)

AM: Trail - 6 miles very slow. HR 131.

Walked with Remy in the Wissahickon for 30 minutes. Still working on his dog encounters but he's doing well.

Hit the 2000-mile mark for the year. In 2012 it took me until Oct 18. In 2013 I hit the mark on July 20, and last year I hit it on July 25. I don't know me exact totals for the half year in 2010 when I started running and I don't have exact totals for 2011, but I know I was well under 2000 for both years. It helps this year that I didn't have a marathon and my mandatory one week rest period that accompanies them.

PM (late): Treadmill - 7 miles. HR 133.

AM: Pre-meet shakeout - 2 miles easy w/ 2 strides.

Walked for 80 minutes, 40 of which were with Remy. Probably going to regret being on my feet later but it was unavoidable. I did manage to steal 4 more Titleist PROV1 golf balls, which are $5 a piece. The course maintenance guys had thrown them into the chip path to mow, so I figured, why not? I left several balls but took the good ones :-) #hardtimes

PM: Germantown Academy Track Meet Mile - 2 miles (my first meet ever and I didn't really know the logistics so I flubbed up on the WU)

I don't actually have my time but I need to put something in. The meet was swamped with people and they were slow with results. Megan thought 5:01, in which case this will anger me beyond belief because I ran like a weak saucing fool as far as effort goes. She didn't know the line was behind the clock and I tend to remember the time just before I cross the line, which I thought was 4:55/4:56. They were still posting earlier results and I didn't want Megan to wait so I didn't cool down. I only got 1 mile of warmup but I did a bunch of strides and stretching and some light jogging to keep sharp.

REPORT: Update: 4:56.12. The winner ran 4:48. The old man lost to some young lads of 16-19. I'm not upset about that.

I was in the fast heat, which wasn't very fast this week. Mid-80s or so but with some cloud cover here and there, dry but with a solid dew point. I was suprised when the gun went off that no one really hit the inside other than 3-4 up front. I got elbowed a bit and thinking back I could have got whatever position I wanted because I outweighed everyone on the track. I fell way back almost last because I was being too nice. At the half I got up into 4th or 5th and the pace felt pretty pedestrian. I was going to jump out in the lead but didn't want to look foolish when I got crushed (stupid me). My legs were a little junky but my breathing was pretty mellow.

I stayed there until 3/4 and then I got gapped with 300 to go. Mistake #1245 of the meet. I should have stayed with them. I got passed but started kicking around 150 and I am not sure what happened, whether I got passed or if I passed anyone in the final stretch. My legs started to go mushy about 30 meters out and I thought I say 4:55-4:56 but I am not sure where I was with respect to the line. I finished breathing heavy but not super hard and many people were doubled over. I hadn't run hard enough. I've definitely finished longer races feeling more winded.

As I think the splits played out: 75ish? for the 1/4, 2:30 at 1/2, 3:45 for 3/4, and I know the last lap was faster than at least the third and the second if not the first. If I have the numbers right this means I would have run the last quarter in about 70-72, which seems possible.

I am an anxious mess because I want to know my time but don't know when they will post. Whatever the time, it's not a great mile time, but I've never broken 5 minutes in the mile, only having run it twice and although it's a pedestrian time it's important to me because I know I can run faster. I'll probably never run anything decently fast ever but a lot faster than whatever I ran today.

I'll run for an hour on the treadmill once this meatloaf digests.

Night: Treadmill - 7 miles. HR 143.
 

Lunch: Trails - 7.25 miles. HR 136 (but I think my monitor is already messed up).

PM: 4.25 miles. Didn't have time for much more and I didn't feel like running on the treadmill after dinner again.

+ stretching and core (late)

AM: No run. I stayed up late and got up late. Our meeting with the apartment complex didn't start for 45 minutes and I had to get back to walk Remy (just under 40 minutes). Plan was only 4-5 miles, as I will be doing the Thursday group trail run with beer after assuming we don't get blasted with thunderstorms. Should be able to get in a medium long run today with a short single tomorrow and the race on Saturday, which is early and the coolest day of the week. I'll take it even if it is a 7:30AM.

PM: Trails - 10.6 miles.

3+ miles to Valley Green, waiting around a bit for people to start (I hate lag time even during workouts and races). I was hoping Jonathan would be there so I would know someone. I did meet some nice folks. We went on some sections of the trails I've never been on and some I never knew were there. Some of it was a bit too much like rock climbing. We did about 5 miles and the storms hit. We went back to Valley Green and took cover under the warming stables. I ate some beef jerky I packed in my shorts.

We were supposed to do the beer tasting but then everyone want to go to the brewery. We didn't even check to see if the tasting was going on and even if it wasn't the Inn has beer. It kind of ticked me off because I have been waiting for a time when I could do the Thursday runs without feeling too indulgent given that it takes a lot of time in the evening and I am the one responsible for dinner. I had packed a snack and my debit card and was really looking forward to the run. It was fun, but too much walking and waiting for people. I like to do 98% of my training alone. Harder workouts are great with people and I could use someone for easy long runs, other than that I think most of the time I am good. Unless it is with my wife. She can run with me whenever she wants.

2.25 miles after some standing around. It was pouring and the road was flooding. The lightening was hitting and the thunder was in the vicinity when I got back to the complex. It was getting a bit scary.

+ Stretching and core (very late)

Lunch - 5.6 miles. HR 145. Did a few pickups around race pace, then did a good set of strides.

Felt like crap as I usually do the day before a race. Some soreness in my hamstrings from the mile on Tuesday and legs a little dead from running a bit harder yesterday on the trails than I usually do.

I think I managed to get a break in the weather as it should be in the upper 60s at 7:30 tomorrow with okay humidity. I just hope I have something in my legs. They have a 10k mat, so I can get that split and not really care about the extra stupid distance for the quarter marathon. Probably a conservative start and start knocking off goal pace splits for B2B after 3 miles.

PM: 30 minute walk with Remy.

AM: Phil's Tavern Quarter Marathon - 12 miles total w/ 6.5 in 39:05 or just under 6:00 pace

The race was $15, they had cash, pies to age group winners, and breakfast so I signed up back in April. We got a decent break in the weather after the crazy storms on Thursday that I got caught in. A tick under 70 degrees to start with lowish dew point.

Warmed up 3.2 w/ a half mile steady. Changed into my flats and did some strides. Felt flat but my strides felt okay. We started 10 minutes late but it was announced and I was okay with that. They had drones to take video, which was so freaky because they were hovering at head level and looking at us.

Goal was to run just under 6:00 pace for a few miles, then start ripping off goal pace splits for Beach to Beacon (5:40-5:45) but I never really got there. Sections of the race were on very soft woodchips and very windy trail, some sections of wet grass, but mostly roads. I kind of enjoyed the cross country sections even though they slowed me down a good deal. Not really to much to report for the race.

I passed a few people and couldn't quite gut it out to pass the two guys ahead of me. I think I counted about 7-8 seconds on them at one point. I felt pretty stale the whole race and it was mentally tough. My breathing was pretty good, but legs just didn't want to turn over. I think part of my problem is I rarely run before 10:30 and this race was at 7:30, meaning I had to get up at 5:45, which never happens. Might need to think about some early runs for a number of reasons.

The mile markers seemed to be missing in at least one place, another time my watch split early, so I resplit about 9 seconds later to make sure it was on. However, below are the "smoothed" Strava splits (basically even if you don't split your watch Strava takes splits for you).

5:48, 6:21 (windy, wood chip trail), 6:00, 5:49, 5:57, 6:09 (hill, then grass and some soft, but dry mud for a good bit of this), 5:44 (for last half mile or so)

I split at 10k to get that running time, and ran the last .35 at 5:15 pace, which had a slight downhill at the end. 37:15 for 10k.

Not a great race but not terrible. I'm not going to dwell on it. I don't have too much LT stuff and nothing of any duration, which will probably bite me in three weeks but I also have a 5 mile race I will use as a final workout. Just going to keep rolling and beating my head against the wall and see if I can turn myself into a decent runner.

My former training partner ran a 5k PR today in 15:55 and he has gone sub-16 in a 4-miler. He runs a third of my mileage (or less) and he has been running about the same amout of time. I'm doing something wrong.

Run this afternoon with Megan. Hopefull she takes it easy on me. 10 minute guy might be in 1st place for the PM run.

PM: Forbidden Drive w/ Megan - 5 miles. HR 116?

My blood sugar dropped pretty seriously around mile 2 and I was very light headed and dizzy. Snapped out of it. Not sure if my monitor is working correctly. One mile I was running 100 BPM but it also corresponded almost exactly to when I was trying to keep from falling over. I enjoyed the run other than bonking at 10+ minute pace. HR got to 89-90 at one point.