The Long Run

Croom Zoom 50k

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Location:

FL,

Member Since:

Mar 20, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

PR's:

  • 1 mile : 5:43 (3/2017)
  • 5K : 18:34 (12/2011)
  • 5 mile : 32:03 (5/2010)
  • 10K : 39:29 (11/2013)
  • 11K: 46:47 (July 2008)
  • Half Marathon : 1:26:47 (11/2012)
  • Marathon : 3:06:34 (02/2010)
  • 50K Trail: 4:34 (01/2012)
  • 50 Mile: 8:34:48 (4/2012)
  • 100K: 11:06 (2/2012)
  • 100 Mile: 24:19:44 (1/2022)

Marathons:

  • Treasure Coast Marathon (FL) - 3:39:51, Mar 2021
  • Towpath Marathon (OH) - 3:35:26, Oct 2019
  • Jacksonville Marathon - 3:31:10, Dec 2018
  • NYC Marathon - 3:49:12, Nov 2017
  • Marine Corps Marathon - 3:27:00, Oct 2016
  • Utah Valley - Jun 2016
  • Marine Corps Marathon - 3:28:12, Oct 2015
  • Pocatello Marathon (ID) - 3:32:25, Sept 2015
  • Chasing The Unicorn (PA) - 3:31:20, Aug 2015
  • Run for The Red (Poconos) - 3:30:40, May 2015
  • Boston - 3:24:42, Apr 2015
  • Clearwater - 3:27:04, Jan 2015
  • Clearwater - 3:16:17, Jan 2014
  • Boston  - 3:27:00, Apr 2011
  • DesNews - 3:10:57, Jul 2010
  • Gasparilla  - 3:06:34, Feb 2010
  • Space Coast - 3:11:29, Nov 2009
  • Estes Park  (7500' and up) - 3:52:19, Jun 2009
  • Boston - 3:17:22, Apr 2009
  • Niagara Falls - 3:19:21, Oct 2008
  • San Diego RnR  - 3:24:18, Jun 2008
  • Jacksonville Marathon -3:21:24, Dec 2007
  • Chicago Marathon - 3:35:08, Oct 2007
  • Disney Marathon - 3:52:34, Jan 2007

 

 

 

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

 

  • Sub 40:00 10K
  • 2:59 Marathon
  • 1:25 Half Marathon
  • 18:30 5K

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

Maintain my health and continuously seek to improve my fitness. Maybe someday get under 3:00 for marathon. More importantly, I'd like to figure out what my maximum ability is and reach that.

I'd also like to find the right balance in life and use running to enhance and improve myself.

 

Personal:

Dad of  three (welcome Charlotte Dani on 8/10/20) awesome kids and stepdad to three almost as awesome as my own kids.

I have a brown dog named Stella, and three cats - Catty, Tortie, and Esperanza.

  (old lines that were a little out of date but couldn't quite bring myself to removing them completely:) Also, have one wonderful brown dog named Sammy and just added a grey tiger cat (Catty) whose life started out rough but now has a better home.

I've recently started another blog so I can easily add lots of pictures and so other non-FRB users can leave comments:

Forward Progress!

 Also, for 2012 I started a blog to write down each day one thing that I am grateful for

Grateful Blog

 

Love living in Florida but love to travel and see the country and rest of the world.

 

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 20.88 Month: 54.08 Year: 342.30
Brooks T7 Lifetime Miles: 202.78
Brooks ST5 Lifetime Miles: 403.91
GoMeb Speed3 Lifetime Miles: 483.77
Brooks Pure Flow Lifetime Miles: 160.60
Brooks Launch(lobster) Lifetime Miles: 782.98
GoMeb Razor Lifetime Miles: 468.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
71.920.003.100.000.000.000.0075.02
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
16.430.000.000.000.000.000.0016.43

16.43@9:21

Day after Christmas run, a little better than expected.  Did some walk break practice.  One minute of walking at some point during each mile.  Run seemed to go by quicker.  

Ran from Westlake Village, cut through Eniswood, then onto the Pinellas Trail, then headed south, down to Curlew Road where I took a left to get to 8 miles out rather than waiting to cross Curlew to stay on the trail.  I did not stop at the fountain either on the way out or way back like I often do, just wanted to keep going.

Eventually I did stop briefly at Wall Springs to refill my water, so that was pretty good.

After getting back to the house, short nap then drove to the causeway to meet up with Jessica and the baby.  Hung out by the water for a bit until the sun went down.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
2.020.000.000.000.000.000.002.02

2.02@13:55

Afternoon power walk from work, a little bit of jogging sprinkled in to get the pace below 14:00

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
3.190.003.100.000.000.000.006.29

6.29@8:21

5 x 1km workout, goal of 4:12 average per km or faster (21:00 5k) and also goal to run all faster than 7:00 pace (often have trouble on the first one).

4:08, 4:17, 4:08, 4:18, 3:57

So, bonus this morning was 1 km under 4:00.  I missed hitting 4:12 on all of them but average came under 4:12 and all paces were under 7:00 finally.

Warmup was loop inside Westlake Vilage and repeats were done on Lakeview to Sandy Hook and back.

Hopefully see an actual 5km under 21:00 sometime soon.  Turkey Trot was pretty close.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
5.340.000.000.000.000.000.005.34

3.33@9:04

One loop inside Westlake Village before Jessica left to go to the office for a couple of hours.

2.01@13:45

Afternoon power walk (tiny bits of jogging sprinkled in here and there) loop from my office through Highland Lakes neighborhood and back.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
8.080.000.000.000.000.000.008.08

8.08@8:56

Out and back run from Westlake Village, over to the Pinellas Trail and then north, a little bit past the old train tunnel before turning back.  Quick gel stop at fountain on the trail outisde of Wall Springs Park. It was a little bit cool and a little bit humid.

Trying to get in a few miles before the race this weekend, don't won't to slack too much since the race is more time on my feet practice.  It's the Croom Zoom 50k.  If there was more than two weeks between that and the 100 mile race I might try the 100k but 50k is good for this year.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
5.550.000.000.000.000.000.005.55

5.55@8:56, HR 145 bpm

Last run of the year and more importantly I'm finishing up the year with a complete blog (except for a period of time earlier in the year where I never caught up).

Finishing up 250 miles for the month (according to what's recorded on Garmin connect, should be close here as well as long as I didn't miss any walk/run miles).

Decided on doing the square loop around Westlake Village (Aldermant to Belcher to Nebraska, some side streets to Omaha and back to Alderman) along with 1.25 mile "marathon" loop inside Westlake Village.  Weather was nice but maybe a few degrees warmer than cool.

I didn't struggle too  much to get on pace (first mile 9:54)

Gentle New Year's eve celebration and then up at 4:10 tomorrow to drive up to Croom for Croom Zoom 50k

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Race: Croom Zoom 50k (31.069 Miles) 06:06:21, Place overall: 10, Place in age division: 4
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
31.310.000.000.000.000.000.0031.31

Croom Zoom 50k  Race report

Time: 6:06:21, 10th place overall, 4th age group

I was nearly 12 minutes faster this year compared to 3 years ago, however 3 years ago I missed a turn and added on about an extra mile and a half, so this year's pace was a tiny bit slower.

It was not easy running a race on new year's day at 6:00 am with an hour and 15 minute drive.  I did stay up until midnight the night before but was in bed at the time so went to sleep right after the ball dropped (which I missed because TV was on the wrong channel).

The first mile of this race is the easiest because it is 70% pavement before turning onto a sandy fire road for another half mile then a right turn onto single track.  I wore the same headlamp I wore for the training run a few weeks ago but did not have the handheld.  This was a big mistake.  I could barely see.  I let a lot of people go past me and walked up the rooty section going up Tucker Hill.  But, because of the paved section, the pace for the first 2.2 mile "starter loop" was 13:11.

Passing through the start area and then onto the first of three ten mile loops, the downhill side of Tucker Hill starts out pretty rooty and it was still dark out, so mile 3 came in at 16:09 - but fortunately that was the worst of it.  Next mile still dark and still kind of slow at 14:21.  As it got lighter out, pace got better and eventually started catching up to some of the many people who had passed me.

It was still pretty cool out while I was going slow, so I kind of felt chilly, but I knew it would warm up soon.  Got into the 11:00's for pace and a couple of miles in the 10:30's before finally slowing down a bit for up and over Tucker Hill on the completion of the first big loop (mile 12 was 12:43).

The second big loop would be a lot faster than the first big loop and slightly faster than the last loop.  I felt good starting out, continued to catch up to people.  But somewhere into the second or third mile I felt something like a big needle in my shoe so stopped to take care of it.  Took me a little more time than I cared to get my shoe off and back on but probably worth it.  A guy I had just passed came by me and said "got a blowout huh?".  (13:45 for that mile).

Rest of the second big loop went really well.  The official timing said the average pace was 10:54.  When I hit mile 16 (shortly after the shoe stop), my average pace was 12:05.

Going up Tucker Hill went pretty smoothly, went through the start/finish area and felt good going into the third loop.

Going back down Tucker Hill was a differnt story.  Feeling good and trying to slowly make up time, and feeling more confident, was taken down a notch when my right foot caught a root, almost lost my balance but managed to stay up right.  And even though I didn't fall, there was an instant of great pain.  A second or two of thinking I might've broken a toe.  Soon realized, no, basically just like stubbing my big toe.  Hurt for a bit, then got better.  With that little slowdown, mile 22 was 14:07.

The rest of the first half of the third loop continued on ok and I was soon at the Croom Road aid station, approximately halfway point of the loop.  I thanked the volunteers and told them this was my last loop.

The next 5 miles were not too bad, but it was getting a little bit warm.  I slowed a little for miles 30 and 31 (12:08 and 12:05), was not feeling too motiviated to push hard and my watch was on average overall pace and not lap pace so I didn't realize I was slowing down that much until hitting each mile.  Then finally, last third of a mile, last climb up Tucker Hill and into the finish chute where I was given a cool looking pair of Croom Zoom socks.

They had a DJ at the start/finish area which was the only music I heard during the whole run.  I had a pair of headphones on and my phone but I just never found a good time or place to start the music.  I did however have a few songs repeating in my head.

Relaxed for a bit, had a towel with me, laid down on it and stared up at trees while listening to the DJ and clapped every now and then when  another finisher came through.  Eventually got up, had a hot dog and some potato salad before heading home.

So, overall it was good.  I kept moving, felt fresh going into the third loop and never had to take any extended walk breaks.  I took a few here and there on purpose (originally was going to take one minute sometime during each mile but it didn't work out that way).  Long Haul course is much flatter which makes it easier in a way but at the same time you don't get those nice easy feeling downhill stretches.  Two years ago before Long Haul I was on a cruise so missed  this race.  The longest training run before that race was only 18 miles, and I ended up suffering.  I've got a few more long runs in this time, so hopefully will feel more like 2019 than 2020.

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
71.920.003.100.000.000.000.0075.02
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