It Is...A Puzzlement (Mt. Bonnell, Ch. 12)

This is normally a longer run that I really enjoy, the assault up Mt. Bonnell. In the past, I've climbed with some verve, and usually I'm the first up the hill in my group. And, I've usually finished these long runs with some nice fast miles at the end. This is so much the case, that Charlene and Rich, among others, kept looking around, figuring that I'd be right on their heels. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, though, and losing the element of dramatic surprise?

After I dropped off the Bonnell cooler on the way down to the start of the run (today, I had green Gatorade in there, because I used the rest of my blue Gatorade and had to use some yellow Gatorade mix to produce enough for everyone), I met up with the very large gang at RunTex. There were way more people than usual this morning, which was good to see. Jan actually fell in with my group as we made our way through the first couple of miles on the trail. Our group for the day was Brian, Rich, Bob, Jennifer, Amy, Charlene, Matt, Karen Harvey and Jan. Karen is still finding her way back after dealing with foot injuries, but it was nice to have a Guest Runner with us, along with Jan. We did one faster mile heading to the first Powerade stop, but by and large, we were adequately within pace rules to that point. So far, so good. I felt okay, but not really up to leading the pack as usual. Took first GU at the water stop, too.

Splits Miles 1-4: 10:05, 9:22, 9:33, .71 miles at 8:52/mile pace. Overall, 9:31/mile pace. A little slow, but given the warm and humid conditions, it made good sense.

The miles through the Scenic loop were a bit frisky, as we got pulled along (I think) by Karen's faster natural pace. We thought we were moving a little quicker than normal, but I was too busy trying to get comfortable on the run to do any calculations. Turning towards Mt. Bonnell, I was still hopeful that I'd feel pretty good going up the hill. We hit the bottom of Bonnell, and then it was time to climb. Charlene and Rich immediately left me behind as we turned the first corner, and eventually, Karen passed me as well. I fought off two very distinct urges to walk on the hill, both of them passing as the hill slightly levelled out at times. I felt quite a bit more beaten up than usual on this portion of the run. Still, we were more than halfway finished, and the green Gatorade mix did the trick to boost our energy a bit. I took my last GU here, too.

Splits miles 5-Bonnell: 8:32, 8:21, 8:43, .41 at 9:55/mile (Bonnell proper). Way too quick through Scenic, and noticeably slow going up Bonnell for me. Overall pace to 9:07.

Karen walked up the steps and made her way down the exit path to join us as we headed to Balcones Woods and the descent. Later, I realized that I didn't turn my GPS back on as we exited the mountain, but I was able to recreate the data from my regular watch. Going down Balcones Woods felt just fine, and I was at least in the lead pack going up the nasty little hill on 35th Street. I struggled a bit going down Exposition, feeling heavy-legged and more than a little out of sorts. Charlene and Rich again led the way, and got a pretty good gap on me. I was sort of tooling along between them and Amy and the rest of the gang. We saw Frank's group pass us a couple of different times through here, and Gilbert's group of super fast people also got us on 35th Street. I was glad to see the O. Henry Powerade stop.

Splits, Bonnell - O. Henry: 3.23 miles, 9:06 average pace. I was now feeling the result of those fast miles on Scenic. Individual mile splits not available here, due to incompetence by GPS operator (me). :-) Overall pace a still respectable 9:07, it just didn't pick up as normal for me on this stretch.

After taking a little extra time at that Powerade stop for an extra cup or two of blue stuff, I started trying to chase down the entire mob. Almost immediately, I found that I just didn't have a lot of acceleration to give. My first mile split was just fine, but once I reached Mopac and the trail, I just crashed and burned. I suppose I "bonked," but I'm not sure exactly why that was today. I sort of crawled in the last two miles, getting caught and passed by seemingly every training group in Austin on the way. (Pity Party Alert) Finally, I hit Auditorium Shores, and two bicycle cops passed me, cutting right in front of me at a pretty slow pace. I joked with them that I needed an escort to the Zero Marker, and they picked up the pace to a point that I was able to distract myself and push to the finish a little. I don't know if I've ever looked so forward to the end of a run. There would be no extra cooldown lap of Auditorium Shores today!

Splits O. Henry to the end: 8:22, 9:16, 9:26. Overall pace 9:06 for 13.55 miles. Everyone except Jennifer and Brian had finished ahead of me, some of them way ahead. As previously mentioned, at least they thought I'd be coming up behind them on the trail. Moral victory and all that. With the substantial water stop time, overall pace for the day drifted to 9:48/mile, still within all statistical realms relating to my projected Freescale pace(s).

Nevertheless, I was more than a little bummed at my total fade today. I always tell the new marathoners that everyone has at least one training run that just bites, but it didn't make it easier for me to deal with when it happened to me. I thought I had prepared properly, and maybe I did, but it just didn't work out for me today as usual.

Stretching afterwards was fun, except that I got a little dizzy leading it. I think some nutritional analysis is in order! Some fun chatting with the folks after the stretching, and then it was time to get out of there. Picked up the newest Gazelles shirt, a long-sleeved beauty featuring our new slogan, "Get Off Me!" on the back.

All things considered, this was an adequate training run, but certainly a large step backwards from the usual for me. I may take some extra rest this coming week in preparation for Motive as a result. Mile repeats on Monday will be, uh, interesting. Hopefully, we'll have cooler conditions for those.

For the week, 45.39 miles, a new record. Gee, I wonder if the heavy mileage has something to do with today? Did everything on the schedule except for one upper body/core workout on Wednesday. Next week, will try to dial down the weekly mileage just a tad to help my body recover from the last two long weeks.