Of Mice and Marathons

Did a loop using the main roads in my parents' town and a few other towns. I passed the memorial for my high school physics teacher, Mr. Ridgeway, who died in a car accident a few years ago. I will name the loop after him. This run was very enjoyable. Got several miles on hard-packed dirt. 16 miles in 1:58 (7:23 average). Longest run since the marathon. Slow the rest of the week with a sprinkle of razzle dazzle on Wednesday to sharpen up for Saturday.

AM: Wingood Road out and back + some barefoot running on my parents' front lawn - 7.5 miles, averaged 8:17

PM: Wingood Road out and back - 6.5 miles, averaged 7:55. Tried to convince Mandy, my parents' pointer, to start training for a sub-2-hour marathon. She fancies herself a pool long jumper though.

AM: Wingood/Cooper's Mill/Erskine Loop - 7.5 miles, averaged 8:06

PM: Wingood Road out and back + lawn loops - 4.5 miles, averaged 8:27. Almost brought a puppy home for Mandy. Cute little lab running after me into the road.

Late morning/lunch: 10 miles on the track. Did a sharpening workout for Saturday. I did this on my high school track where we used to run 2 miles for soccer. I doubt I ever broke 19 minutes. I know I ran 9:15 in the mile (1600) my freshman year in the spring.

I never do the same sharpening workout twice, so last night I decided 4 x 800 @ goal 10k pace then 4 x 200 @ around 5 minute pace (3-5 seconds slower than they should be). Did a 3-mile warmup with the idea that the last 400 would be @ fast MP (~6:20), but it was a bit fast (1:32), which was fine. Just needed something a bit above pace. Last night I wrote down 1:28-1:29 400s and 38-39 for the 200s.

2:58, 3:02, 2:58, 2:57 w/ ~ 2 min recoveries. Second was slow because I thought the fact that I had a running start (unlike the first) would make it too fast. Should have just went with it. A 400 recovery between sets, then on/off 200s: 37, 39, 38, 38. Pace was controlled. I wasn't breathing too hard on these, but I couldn't get my legs turning over much faster, which means lots of pool time, rolling, and easy running the next few days.

3-mile cool down. 10 total.

PM: Lawn loops - 3.1 miles, averaged 8:25. Did a little bit on road. Unlike Lafayette, no broken bottles and/or syringes to go through your feet.

Evening: Rail Trail - 5 miles, averaged 8:05. Sluggish. Should have got out this morning, but mom and I went to check out the Beach to Beacon course and pick up my grandmother. Bit of downhill to start. My guess is that the leaders hit sub:4:20 on that one. I was going to go out ultra conservatively, but I'm going to go sensibly and roll the downhill, trying not to worry if the first mile is in the 5:40s and make adjustments from there.

Wingood Road - 5.25 miles, averaged 8:29. Quite easy, then a handful of pickups at race pace then a bit faster.

I'll write a little more tomorrow. Not satisfied with my race. The effort was fine, splits were relatively clean, but my week of race prep was fair to deplorable. Not runnerly by any means (much of which I wont't detail).

I did run into Jemma Steel as she was doing strides and I was warming up from the high school. That wasn't bad. I heard someone make a secret bathroom joke and the guy who responded (he was visiting the secret bathroom) I could swear was Ryan Hall. He was there somewhere. Meb ran well from what I can tell.

Splits: 6:00 (downhill start), 6:15 (nervous about effort), 6:09, 5:59 (my road ID hit the stop on my Timex so add 13-14 seconds), 6:08, 6:14 (uphill), 1:08 for partial

I have a lot of work to do in the next 6 weeks or even breaking 1:20 will be a task in Philly. I really thought I could run 5:57-6:00 pace or faster today without killing myself.

RACE REPORT

Going into this race I thought I could run a PR because I ran a good 5k PR recently and hit a 4-mile tempo at 6:00-6:02 average with some 5:55s. I thought in a race situation that same pace would be fine. I did many things wrong this week diet wise and otherwise (I managed not to eat a full meal the day before). Had a good week with my family though, my longest stay since summer 2010.

We were fortunate to stay at a campground in my uncle's camper (which has a washer/dryer, wi-fi, and so on, so it's not exactly "camping"). I didnt sleep well, but pre-race sleeping is rarely excellent. We left a bit early to make sure I could get to the high school and run to the starting line. I warmed up from the high school to the starting line for ~25 minutes. Did some active stretching and light strides. I figured with a downhill start I didn't want to be too loose. Plan for mile 1 was 5:55, but no faster than 5:48 and no slower than 6:00. Started slow, decided the pace wasn't right, and picked it up. First mile was a 5:59 rounded to 6. I felt like a faster pace was not doable, so I backed off and ran 6:15. At this point I knew I was in for a tough race. Went through halfway in 19:03. I had projected 18:20-18:30. (I did manage a 3 or 4 second negative split.) mile 4 was messed up because my Road ID hit the stop button (I heard a beep, but didn't catch the stop for 13-14 seconds).

Mile 5 is a series of three hills that are relatively short and that temporarily plateau, but they come at a tough time. At about 5.5 you enter the state park and you run on a paved trail, which is narrow compared to the road. The crowd really started to cheer, so I started to grab another gear ~5.75 and the crowd got louder so I grabbed another gear passing 5-6 people, including a woman by whom I was later checked. Of course this was strategic so Andrea could make fun of me. Based on the partial split, I ran the last half mile at 5:23 pace. I got jammed in by a slower runner carrying a cellphone and listening to giant headphones. I made slight contact with him and he told me not to kill him before the finish. I wanted to give him a few race decorum pointers about running with headphones. He looked at his watch and took off as I got stuck behind a group we came up to. I went around the group and about this time I was chicked. Hit the finish line to see the clock ticking 38:1x.

Felt dizzy and a bit nauseous. Yesterday I also felt nauseous.

3 mile cool down.

I wanted to run this at 1:18ish half marathon pace so I could have a shot at running the same pace at Philly in 6 weeks. My goal for the fall is to work toward running 1:15-1:17:59 at the Indy Monumental half, and Nov. 2 is a LONG way off. I'm currently shopping for several 5-10k races to prep for Philly.