High-Octane

Ok....I'm on my last week before the Cowtown Marathon on Sunday February 29th. Today was my Taper Long Run - 10 Miles @ 7:26 Pace. I originally planned to go to Austin and run the Livestrong Half marathon as my training run (at 7:26 pace) but opted out and spent time with the family instead.

Now I need to decide what I'm going to run at Cowtown. I have been training for a 3:15 marathon based on the Run Less Run Fast program. Supposedly, with the 18 week training program I just completed, a 3:15 marathon is achievable. My first marathon time was 3:38 (last year) but I had some major injury problems and I basically didn't run for a full month before the marathon. My Boston Qualifying time is now a 3:30 with the new time requirements. I have also signed up to run the Oklahoma City marathon again which is 8 weeks after the Cowtown. I was thinking I should run Cowtown at about 3:25, knock out my QB and then be free to go all out at OKC shooting for the 3:16. I'd sure like some advice regarding this decision :-)

Here's my long run results:

 

2/19/2012
Mile	Time	HR	Ascent	Decent
0.25	Warm-Up
1	7:13:00	No HR Monitor	90	66
2	7:25:00		86	171
3	7:25:00		135	66
4	7:29:00		112	73
5	7:27:00		95	78
6	7:22:00		74	82
7	7:20:00		84	98
8	7:23:00		43	80
9	7:23:00		125	95
10	7:06:00		67	110
0.25	Cool-Down
Total	73:33:00		Total Miles	10.5
Pace	7:21:18
Gatesville - Out & Back Route
45Âș - Calm
Target: Long Run - 10 Miles @ 7:26 Notes: This run felt good. My legs are great I just still worry about my aerobic condition. I forgot my HR monitor so I just ran by feel.

Cross-Training Day - T-6 Days and counting. I forgot how much different riding the road bike is compared to running, or even the stationary bike. It really uses different muscles. It's also hard to keep your HR up and at a consistant rate.

So far the weather is looking great for the marathon on Sunday. 49 Degrees at the start would be just perfect for me, but you know Texas weather, it may change at the last minute!

How about those SPURS....!!!!!!

2/20/2012
Miles	Time	Speed	HR	HR %
10.5		19.4	138	71%
10.5		18	134	68%
21	Total	18.7	136	70%
Miles	1:09:48	Speed
65Âș
Road to feed Horses - Through Staples and back the same way.

Something came up yesterday so I had to do my Inteverals today. Easing off the quantity in the RLRF program but I went ahead and kept the speed a little faster than the plan calls for. I just felt comfortable at this pace, I'm hoping it's not that big of a deal to increase the speed :-)

2/22/2012
Mile	Time	HR	HR %	Max HR
2	Warm-Up @ 7:48 Pace		144
400m	1:15:00	149	78%
400m	Recovery
400m	1:18:02	155	82%
400m	Recovery
400m	1:15:12	150	79%
400m	Recovery
400m	1:15:35	152	80%
400m	Recovery
400m	1:17:32	151	80%
400m	Recovery
400m	1:11:44	168	91%	168
2	Cool-Down @ 8:08 Pace		152
		154	82%
			Total Miles	6.75
High School Track
65Âș - 15 mph wind
Target: Repeats - 10-20 Min. Warm-up, 6 x 400m @ 1:27 (5:48 Pace),  400m Recovery between each, 10 Min. Cool-Down. Notes: Started out faster than I was supposed to. It felt comfortable so I didn't slow it down.

I only have one more running day before the marathon so I took today off. Tomorrow will be a light cross training day and Saturday will be 3 miles.

I went to the doctor today for my yearly check-up. My blood pressure was 90/59. Last year it was 98/60. My resting HR has been 36 when I've measured it in the morning. I think that's all good for someone who is 51 years old.

I recieved an e-mail with the link to track me real-time in the Cowtown Marathon this Sunday. If you're interested the link is: http://www.xacte.com/templates/cowtown/ 

Enter my name Preston Tatum and I think you can select text message or a couple other choices.

My BIB number is 42...How do you get a number that low?Last year there were about 1,500 runners. I'm hoping there are more this year. 

I decided to go ahead and run my last short run this evening intead of trying to fit it in tomorrow.

1 Mile Easy, 1 Mile @ 7:26, 1 Mile @ 7:23, 1/2 Mile Easy

I'm off-line until after the race.....

It's seems a little odd sitting here looking at my running schedule and only having one more 3 mile run before the marathon on Sunday. I thought about going to the gym and cycling but then decided 2 more hours of sleep would be better than 1-1/2 hours of energy draining sweat. My plan is to run my last 3 miles tomorrow (Saturday).

I'm heading up to Ft Worth tomorrow morning and have a hotel room 1.5 miles from the race start which will be very convienent. I can just do my warm-up run from the hotel to where the race starts.

I was looking at the past results of 50-54 age group and it appears the same people run this race year after year. I should be able to run in the top 5-6 and maybe 3-4 if I had a really good race. Next year I should be able to push the leader...if all goes well :-)