High-Octane

Okay...The first thing you're going to wonder is why I entered 15.1 miles when the race was only a Half Marathon...Well after lunch Callie (my daughter) wanted to go and run 2 miles on the track so I went with her and ran (not quite with her) to make the extra 2 miles. My pace was somewhere around 8:15...?

Now about the race! Some runner might say it was a perfect day, 38 degrees at the start, low humidity with a light wind about halfway into the race. I was actually cold through about half of the race with my toes numb until then.  I really signed up for this race because I first heard it was a flat course and I wanted some advantage to try and beat my Half Marathon PR set two weeks ago at the Austin Livestrong Half. Well, after I signed up people started telling me that it is not that easy of a course. I decided to drive the course to find out what I was up against and decide a game plan on Friday before the race. I found that is was pretty challenging with several long steep hills. I'm not really sure how it compares to Austin because I only saw Austin one step at a time...if you know what I mean. I didn't drive that course and maybe that was a good thing...:) My game plan at this race was: first, not to be at the back of the pack when I started. At Austin I placed myself at the very back of the "chute" and because of that spent the first three miles weaving through people trying to get a pace established. As you can see from my chart below the first three this time were a lot faster but you can also see a little dip in my performance around mile 3. This always seems to happen when I run longer distances, I feel somewhat drained about mile 3 or 4 then a mile or so further I seem to get my pace and a second wind. At mile 5 I was feeling pretty good and decided to shoot for a 6:?? mile. I knew I had run one in the Austin race so I wanted to repeat that goal too. Well...I continued to feel good so I just kept running mile 6 at that pace. I knew at this point in the race that my heart rate was running higher than it was in the Austin race but I really wanted to check my stamina and see how I would hold up for a few more miles. Come to find out, after the race was over, my heart rate was lower overall than at Austin! Yeah!! At about mile 9 or 10 is where I feel I made a mistake in the race. I came up on a runner who looked about my age. As we ran along together I asked him about his running. He said he was 51 (my age) and had just come from Florida where he had run a Marathon. Being the cocky young old runner I am I proceeded to tell him of my goal to qualify for Boston on my first Marathon (In OK City) in a couple of months. He then told me, "Yeah, I've run it (Boston) several times but didn't have any interest in running it again"...basically he said "been there...done that". So again the smarty pants I am I said "how long did it take you to qualify for Boston". He said..."uh 20 years" so I proceeded to leave him behind in the race. Sounds good to this point doesn't it...Ha...but to my surprise about mile 12 he caught me, passed me and somewhat left me licking my smarty pants wounds and thinking I had completely run out of gas. Well...I guess I learned my lesson...RUN YOUR OWN RACE...and don't worry about the "other guy"! This guy ended up beating me by 30 seconds or so...But, the good news is, he did have to come from Minnesota to do it..:-} I was a little disappointed in my 13 mile as I think I had siked myself out and thought to myself "I am really tired". When I got about .25 miles from the finish I kicked and passed a few other runners just to make me feel in control again (actually my last .1 mile was 10 seconds faster than Austin...YES!!!...I really did have some more gas...

 I was really surprised how many runners were from out of state, many of them from way up north and some from Canada. The turnout was good with about 500 racers.

All in all I am very happy with my performance. I was shooting to beat 1:40:00 and simply blew that goal away! 

Oh...I should mention some of the breakdown of my run. My pace was 27 seconds faster than Austin and my HR was slightly lower. My fastest mile was faster (actually 2) and I ran every mile faster than the comparative mile in Austin except for one. Now, if I can just drop my pace this much over the next three races I'll be running with the Elites...:-)

Now for OK Marathon preparation....Any and all suggestions are welcome....!!!!!

Moe's Better Half Marathon - San Marcos
3/6/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	7:16:00	149	33 Out of 500 Runners 2th In Age Group out of 25
2	7:14:00	160
3	7:41:00	163
4	7:13:00	163
5	6:58:00	162
6	6:53:00	164
7	7:33:00	166
8	7:19:00	166
9	7:22:00	167
10	7:27:00	166
11	7:11:00	168
12	7:31:00	168
13	7:41:00	170
13.1	0:57:23	169
Total	96:16:23	164
Pace	7:20:57	38 Deg.

John 15:5

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Revcovery Day...

Genesis 2:2
"By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work."

Two days after the race and I feel fine...actually I think I felt fine yesterday. I wasn't really sore or tired...? I guess that's good! Today I ran my standard Loop but added my long driveway which added about a 1/4 mile. As a recovery day I ran by heart rate at 70% (135 bpm). You can see the difference in difficulty in this run by the speed changes. Anyway it was easy, relaxing and overall pretty good. The same run a few weeks ago yielded a 8:47 pace...might be the difference in temperature (53deg.) and humidity or maybe I'm really not completly recovered from the race.

3/8/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:30:00	131
2	9:20:00	137
3	8:40:00	136
4	9:23:00	136
5	9:22:00	135
6	8:57:00	136
6.83	8:00:00	138
Total	62:12:00	136
Pace	9:06:25	66Âș/Humid

2 Kings 20:7
“Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.”

Maybe I'll try eating some figs...

I just came up with this work-out idea yesterday... I though I could do it but fell short of my goal. I planned to go to the gym and run the treadmill at a 6:00 pace for 4 minutes. I would warm-up for a half mile and cool down for a half mile. My goal fell short after the first two fast miles when I realized there was no way for me to run 4 consecutive 6:00 miles. After 2 fast miles I had to slow down to a recovery pace for a mile and then pick the 6:00 pace back up. So I actually ran 6 miles instead of 5, 2 easy and 4 hard very hard miles! On the second set of 2 fast miles I felt I was completly maxed out but seemed to hold on for the duration. Interesting thing is my heart rate never went over 172 bpm. I have my Max heart rate charted at 183 (measured quite a while back) and actually got it to 180 in the Austin half marathon a few weeks ago, it only got to 174 in the San Marcos half marathon this last weekend. ....Humm...It's a curiousity...? Oh, also had the treadmill at 1% incline as recommend by one of my good friends..:)

3/9/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1/2	5:00:00	124	Warm-Up
1	6:00:00	155	Speed Work
2	6:00:00	167
1	10:00:00	140	Recovery
3	6:00:00	164	Speed Work
4	6:00:00	170
1/2	5:00:00	142	Warm-Up
Total	44:00:00	153
Pace	7:20:00	1% Incline	Treadmill

Romans 3:23
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

It's a curosity to me that you can run one day at a certain pace and heart rate and then run the same run a couple of days later and the results be so different. I'm sure it's a normal thing in running but it still is a curoisty in my mind...! Today was that comparison, Tuesday I ran the exact same run (measured by HR) and had a 30 sec. pace slower. The temperature was a lot lower as well as the humidity. All I can hope for now is a cool, dry day on May 1st in OK. I can't afford a 30 second deficit on raceday.

3/10/2011
Mile	Time	HR	HR %
1	8:13:00	131	48%	Door to Door Made the Run 6.83 Recovery
2	8:44:00	138	55%
3	8:15:00	137	54%
4	8:52:00	138	55%
5	8:55:00	137	54%
6	8:21:00	138	55%
6.83	7:30:00	139	56%
Total	58:50:00	137	54%
Pace	8:36:50	38Âș

Matthew 8:18

"When Jesus saw that a curious crowd was growing by the minute, he told his disciples to get him out of there to the other side of the lake. As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. "I'll go with you, wherever," he said."

Hey guys, I found this website that has some good information expecially the "Training and Racing Heart Rate Zones" spreadsheet (I like spreadsheets!)...Take a look: http://mymarathonpace.com/Running_Calculators.html

Mad Run Today...Nothing to do with my running...all to do with my roping. Went to a roping last night and had run-back to win 1st and missed last one. Payout was about $ 1,400...Ahhhh!!!

Oh well...now to the run. After Blogging with Turbo Joe yesterday about the OK Marathon and his goal of 3:20:00 I decided to run my 12 miles at a 7:30 pace to see how it felt and to see if I thought I could stay with him...Well, I don't think I can maintain that pace for 26.2 miles, maybe 15....? So I think I need to access what my goal is going to be. I think I need to try about a 7:45 pace next week. It seems like I begin to "labor" over 155 bpm on my HR. I'm very happy with the consistancy of my pace. I tried to keep the same pace up and down the hills...Mr. Garmin doesn't lie..:-) The extra .35 miles was a jog back to my house.

Oh... I've added a HR% column to my chart so I can see where I am at every split...Pretty cool...Ehhh....? (The wonders of excel)

2/11/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate	HR %
1	7:23:00	138	55%	6.5 Out & Back (West) (Trying to Maintain 7:30 Pace) (1 Gu at Halfway Point)
2	7:30:00	152	69%
3	7:25:00	152	69%
4	7:31:00	152	69%
5	7:31:00	155	72%
6	7:29:00	160	77%
7	7:29:00	158	75%
8	7:35:00	158	75%
9	7:32:00	161	78%
10	7:34:00	165	82%
11	7:35:00	164	81%
12	7:26:00	168	85%
Total	90:00:00	157	74%
Pace	7:30:00	49 Deg.

 Genesis 18:14-16

“Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

This was an Easy Day...Keeping my HR below 139.

3/12/2011
Mile	Time	HR	2.5 Out & Back (Maintain 139 bpm or less)
1	8:05:00	131
2	8:25:00	138
3	8:29:00	139
4	8:54:00	140
5	8:38:00	139
Total	42:31:00	137
Pace	8:30:12	60 Deg.

Romans 3:23,

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."