Step Right Up
Ah, yes...the first post-marathon run! A lovely 3.5 miles in the 'hood and on the water tower trail, just over 30 minutes, about 9:15 pace. It was a nice shakedown cruise to see how the legs feel, and the report was good. No aches, pains, or other maladies, and I felt really great actually. That won't change my plan to run very easily this week, but it's good to feel good. I'm glad I took the extra time off this year after the marathon. It's important to let the muscles heal at the deepest levels, not just the superficial soreness that a long race effort can cause. This is not original thinking, of course, but it's certainly the first time after a marathon that I've actually followed such advice. I'll run easy on Wednesday and Thursday, go to the gym on Tuesday and Friday, and then will join the Gazelles for a nice 7 miler on Saturday. Should be a fun week!
Monday, February 27, 2006
FREESCALE RACE REPORT FINALLY DONE!
I've finally finished the Freescale report, and it's in the 2/19 time slot below. This weekend, it was in the high 50's and muggy, so we got the best weather weekend for the race out of the two or three surrounding actual race day! This weekend, I went to Florida for Justin's wedding (a friend from back in Atlanta days), and it was great not to have to take running gear. I had a nice long walk on Saturday morning, but that's about it. Today, I'll get out there this evening for my first post-Freescale running. Tomorrow, back to the gym, too. Nose to the grindstone and all that...
I've finally finished the Freescale report, and it's in the 2/19 time slot below. This weekend, it was in the high 50's and muggy, so we got the best weather weekend for the race out of the two or three surrounding actual race day! This weekend, I went to Florida for Justin's wedding (a friend from back in Atlanta days), and it was great not to have to take running gear. I had a nice long walk on Saturday morning, but that's about it. Today, I'll get out there this evening for my first post-Freescale running. Tomorrow, back to the gym, too. Nose to the grindstone and all that...
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Days and Days After...
I apologize for not getting the race recap up yet, but it's a long process. This weekend, I'm off to Florida for a friend's wedding, so it will probably be Monday before I finally publish the lengthy report. I feel pretty great today, by the way. I don't even walk funny anymore, and stairs are not a problem in either direction! I'm looking forward to Monday's little 30 minute jog. This weekend, if I get really inspired, I'll go to the hotel gym and spin a while on the cycle, but that's about all the exercise I plan on doing, except for zipping through airport terminals.
I apologize for not getting the race recap up yet, but it's a long process. This weekend, I'm off to Florida for a friend's wedding, so it will probably be Monday before I finally publish the lengthy report. I feel pretty great today, by the way. I don't even walk funny anymore, and stairs are not a problem in either direction! I'm looking forward to Monday's little 30 minute jog. This weekend, if I get really inspired, I'll go to the hotel gym and spin a while on the cycle, but that's about all the exercise I plan on doing, except for zipping through airport terminals.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The Morning After The Morning After...
Ouch! Ouch! Groan! Are my quads a functioning part of my body anymore? When I walk, it feels like my knees are collapsing backwards, since the quads aren't helping much with that simple motion. Just as it was yesterday, it gets better as I move around more, but I can sure tell that I worked hard on Sunday. This is the Day Of Maximum Soreness, so I know it will get better and better. The rest of my legs are fine, but those quads...
Ouch! Ouch! Groan! Are my quads a functioning part of my body anymore? When I walk, it feels like my knees are collapsing backwards, since the quads aren't helping much with that simple motion. Just as it was yesterday, it gets better as I move around more, but I can sure tell that I worked hard on Sunday. This is the Day Of Maximum Soreness, so I know it will get better and better. The rest of my legs are fine, but those quads...
Monday, February 20, 2006
The Morning After
I'm working on the lengthy race report from yesterday, but I thought I'd let everyone know how the Next Day is going. Let's just say that I seem to have forgotten how to stand up and/or sit down. My quads have apparently been disconnected from use as motive tools, with only the pain receptors left to play with. Once I get moving for 5 minutes or so, the legs come back and I don't look like I'm 70 years old, but it's been an interesting day. My calves, hamstrings and shin muscles are just fine, so I guess I'm really pretty lucky. The Day After Massage wasn't nearly as awful as I had dreaded, but I was much more sore after Ron got done than before. I know this is normal, and the massage will accelerate the recovery...that doesn't mean I have to like it!
Our training pace group has exchanged a zillion e-mails checking in on each other last night and today, and it's been happy communiques all around. We all finished under 4 hours, and we had some spectacular debut marathons in our tribe as well. Rich and Shannon both got under 3:30, Charlene finished second overall in her age group at just over 3:31, Jennifer blasted something in the 3:48 range, and the rest of us finished within 4 minutes of each other, Richard to Amy to Jay to Emily to Brian. Awesome stuff.
That's it for now. I'll be doing some walking, some easy cycling (indoors), and that's about it this week. I'll get back out for some really short and easy running next week, and might even hit the gym late next week after the legs have had a good chance to knit themselves back together at the cellular level. It's really a great feeling to know that all that hard work paid off for all of us. Very cool indeed.
I'm working on the lengthy race report from yesterday, but I thought I'd let everyone know how the Next Day is going. Let's just say that I seem to have forgotten how to stand up and/or sit down. My quads have apparently been disconnected from use as motive tools, with only the pain receptors left to play with. Once I get moving for 5 minutes or so, the legs come back and I don't look like I'm 70 years old, but it's been an interesting day. My calves, hamstrings and shin muscles are just fine, so I guess I'm really pretty lucky. The Day After Massage wasn't nearly as awful as I had dreaded, but I was much more sore after Ron got done than before. I know this is normal, and the massage will accelerate the recovery...that doesn't mean I have to like it!
Our training pace group has exchanged a zillion e-mails checking in on each other last night and today, and it's been happy communiques all around. We all finished under 4 hours, and we had some spectacular debut marathons in our tribe as well. Rich and Shannon both got under 3:30, Charlene finished second overall in her age group at just over 3:31, Jennifer blasted something in the 3:48 range, and the rest of us finished within 4 minutes of each other, Richard to Amy to Jay to Emily to Brian. Awesome stuff.
That's it for now. I'll be doing some walking, some easy cycling (indoors), and that's about it this week. I'll get back out for some really short and easy running next week, and might even hit the gym late next week after the legs have had a good chance to knit themselves back together at the cellular level. It's really a great feeling to know that all that hard work paid off for all of us. Very cool indeed.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Cold As Ice [Freescale Marathon 2006]
-Entered 2/27/06-
Okay, Bob Wischnia used this same song as his title, but I thought of it, too. Really.
This was one of those race days that my anal-retentive nature worked for me. My habit is to allow way more time than I need to get to a given race start, so Frank, Alex and I had planned to meet at the Palmer/RunTex bus stop at the finish at 5:00 for our trip up to the start. So, I woke at 4:00, quite refreshed. I had gotten 5 very solid and peaceful hours of sleep on Saturday night, no nightmares, no other getting up in the middle of the night, nothing. Ahhhhh.... I wasn't nervous or excited or anything, really, just sort of weird inside about the day to come. Maybe that was nervousness after all. :-) A last check of the weather confirmed that we were going to have 32 degrees all morning long, overcast skies, so I stayed with my plan to wear tights, two long sleeved Gazelles shirts, gloves and warm cap. My race number was already affixed to my outermost shirt, and over that I put on an extra t-shirt and a jacket for pre-race wear. I also had on my warm vest, just for fun. No sense being cold before I had to be. I gobbled a Clif Bar, started my Accelerade, and took a banana with me for the journey down to Palmer parking.
I had no problem getting to Palmer Center heading south on Mopac, but I did take care going across the Town Lake bridge, just in case there were some icy spots. It appeared to be gravelled and sanded, so it was no big deal. I rolled into the parking deck and backed into my spot at probably 20 minutes to 5:00, just two spots over from Alex, who was similarly early. We did a quick "Did you decide to wear shorts or tights?" question and answer (I had shorts in my bag, just in case I had a change of heart), and then returned to our vehicles to wait a few more minutes. Frank called Alex to tell him traffic had caused him some problems, and to go on without him if he didn't get there on time. 5 till 5:00, we figured it was time to mosey on over to the bus line. We ended up in the second bus going up from RunTex, and despite taking mostly frontage roads and some weird traffic choices, we made it up to the Freescale parking lot at 10 till 6:00. The traffic snarl getting into the Freescale parking lot was something to behold a full hour before the scheduled start time!
As Alex and I exited the bus, we took advantage of the free access to the port-o-johns and adjusted fluid levels. On the way there, we heard that the start had been delayed 30 minutes. So, after the rest stop, we moseyed inside the Freescale building to seek warmth. Ended up in the cafeteria there, and hung out with a few Gazelles (Liliana, Amy, Roger, Alex, Bob) as we whiled away the minutes. I went ahead and packed up my extra clothing in the drop bag, got out all my race gear, and changed into that stuff. Put on the custom made trash bag vest and strapped on my GU belt, and sipped on my water bottle (this was a store-bought water which I planned on dropping along the course).
About 6:45, Alex and I moved out into the cold. We dropped our post-race clothing (well organized and fully staffed), took yet another hydro stop, and walked over to the start area to see what was what. Basically no one was in line yet, but we found the DC corral, and after chatting with Liliana and a few other folks, Alex and I decided to do a modest warmup jog. We saw Gilbert jogging along for warmup, but he had his game face on, so we didn't bug him. We discovered quickly that the sidewalk and curbs and rocks along the paths were slick and frozen, so we jogged along the grass and found a nice crushed rock trail that winds around the Freescale campus. We covered somewhere around a mile at a mighty 10-12:00 pace, just loosening up, and finally found some interesting shrubbery to investigate (hydro stop three). I took my pre-race GU, and we were ready to go. About the time we got back to the corrals, they had started the National Anthem, which was pretty neat. The mic glitched in the middle of the song, and everyone waiting to run stepped in for her and sang until the mic came back on. That was a cool moment.
It seems that most of the 400 or so DC runners chose to run back in the pack, so there was plenty of room in the DC corral. I picked a spot with Amy about 10 yards back from the line, and held that position as they opened the fence behind us to allow the sub 3:00 and other fast runners move up for the start. I had a weird feeling of nervousness and unreality as I waited to go, ready but sort of disconnected from myself. I guess the horn sounded, and we were off.
The initial half mile or so was in the parking lots around Freescale. It was tight, but starting up front, it was no big deal getting out of there onto the wide streets for the rest of the race. We were about 18-20 seconds to the start line (more on that later). The 3:00, 3:10, 3:15 pace groups all passed me in the first mile, but I let the crowd surge by me while I tried to find my happy pace spot. I saw Amy just up ahead of me for a while, but then she disappeared. Whether that was behind or ahead of me, I wouldn't know until the race was over. On Anderson Mill, it was easy running with lots of room to run. I saw the first band at mile 1 playing guitar with gloves on both hands, with his drummer. I admired them for getting out there. I also ditched the trash bag right at 1 mile.
At the turn onto Pond Trail, there was a band at mile 2 out there, too, gloves on hands. They were tough hombres, too. The 3:20 pace group got me in here somewhere. Sipped water again from my disposable bottle. Tossed the t-shirt in this mile, by the elementary school.
During mile 3, Rich, Shannon, and Kelly all passed me in a happy little pace pod, along with the 3:30 pace group. By now, I was more or less among similarly paced people, as the faster folks had rolled by. I saw a woman bust her butt badly on a short little bridge when she went on the left side of the bridge where there was no gravel and sand spread. She went down hard, but geez, didn't she have a clue?
Mile 4 took us to the part of the course we'd run before a handful of times, so it would be familiar turf from there on out. I was strangely disconnected with things in this part of the run. I felt fine, I'd check my splits, adjust a little if I was too frisky, but mostly I was sort of drifting this early in the race. First GU at mile 4 or thereabouts, and I strolled through that water stop to do that. Pulled the GU packet from my glove where it was stashed. Finished off my water bottle here, and tossed it. I started the countdown of miles at the mile 5 marker (21.2 to go...), and at that point, I got a bit of nervous dread thinking how many miles remained. It went away, but your brain does funny stuff to you on these journeys when you're running without a partner. So far, so good. 5 miles done.
Splits miles 1-5: 9:00, 8:31, 8:31, 8:24, 8:25. Overall, 8:34 pace, right on schedule. I was a little concerned that I had those fairly sprightly 8:24 type miles, but just took it in stride, since I was feeling just fine.
Miles 6 through 8 were nice, flat and pretty uneventful. I got a sip of Powerade at the mile 6 waterstop and moved on. During mile 7, it seems that there was a musical act on Great Hills, a country swing act, the first music since mile 2. They were actually pretty good. There were lots of spectators around that stretch, presumably because it offered easy access and lots of parking. It made a difference, and sort of boosted us along Stonelake going towards Burnet. I saw another guy bust his butt on Stonelake trying to step off the course onto the curb and into the woods for a rest stop. The curbs were still frozen, obviously. I took my second GU at mile 8 or so, walked through that stop too, maybe 10 seconds. We made our way carefully over the couple of bridges on Braker, which were still slippery and frozen in spots, despite the gravel. I was just tooling along, clicking down the miles. The 3:35 group, if there was one, passed me somewhere in the 7-8 mile range. I had settled down into my planned routine of sipping Powerade at every other water stop, doing a GU with water every 4 miles, through mile 12.
The stretch through the industrial park off Burnet was disconcerting because it was slightly different than the published course map. I got a little upset at first, but settled down when the next mile marker split tallied normally. This was not a 3M situation. :-) We were through 10 miles now. So far, so good.
Splits miles 6-10: 8:23, 8:51, 8:41, 8:28, 8:35. Pacing all over the place, but overall, I was still right on 8:35/mile pace. I think the 8:51 mile included a water stop, but mostly I just sort of overcompensated for the 8:23 mile before it.
Under 183, onto Shoal Creek. There were a lot of spectators through to the half marathon split point. I saw Brian's parents, and I only knew them because they had a sign with his face on it, saying "Go, Brian, Go!" I called out to them. Saw Margaret, a Gazelle who's going to Boston, and it was fun to see another familiar face. As the half marathoners surged to the finish at the 12 mile marker, I had to focus hard to stay at my pace and keep my mind on my job.
Half marathon split was 1:52:51 on my watch, more or less right on 3:45 schedule. Once the half marathoners split off, the course thinned out a little bit, I guess, but the roads narrowed a bit from there on out, so it stayed cozy. There were always people around to run with or to slowly chase after. The long stretch along Great Northern was about like normal, with plenty of hardy spectators out in the bitter cold, and the bagpipers were out this year again, too. They played the Chariots of Fire theme and then that standard bagpipe song that I just don't know the name of. There was a rock band at the softball/baseball fields just before we turned. I continued to be surprised and grateful at the large numbers of spectators and volunteers who had showed up in terrible conditions for them. All the water stops all day long were fully staffed and extremely well done. Very nice.
Turning to head towards Shoal Creek, I thought back to last year, and how miserable I was at that point, even though it was 8 miles earlier in the race. There was steam coming up off the pavement last year, and the glare was so bright from the unforgiving sun that I lost all hope in 2005. This year was quite different. I was still chugging along, pace slowing just a touch, but I was running how I felt, trying to keep comfortable with so many miles to go. The 3:40 pace group caught me during this stretch.
I was surprised to see the usual Shoal Creek neighborhood crazies out there, heckling us and cheering us on while sipping their mimosas. Granted, at some of the houses, there were empty chairs out near the curb, but that probably meant that they were coming in and out, trying to get warmed up for their next round of cheering.
Splits miles 11-15: 8:25, 8:45, 9:00, 8:32, 8:40. Overall, 8:37/mile. The first modest hilly section is coming up. I still felt pretty good, and "only" 11.2 miles to go.
Turning onto North Loop, we hit the hilly section. I throttled back, as planned, and rolled through this bit in pretty good fashion. My pace fell off a little more than I had expected, but I didn't want to go crazy with the only inclines so far. Took my first Enervitene, a whole packet, at or near 16 miles, and got through the hills without much grief. Turning onto Duval, I started to get a little more tunnel vision. As Gilbert said, it was time to "foh-kus." My quads were talking to me a little by now.
Saw Christina, Rich's wife, cheering on Duval with a big "Go Gazelles" poster. That was nice. The 3:45 pace group caught me right at the 30K mark, and Jason was nice enough to check in with me as they passed. He didn't press me, but suggested that I try to keep them in my sight as we finished this thing. He told me that Richard was somewhere behind them, and then they moved on. This downhill bit was pretty restful, and I sort of spent that time checking out how I felt and giving myself a little pep talk. It was such familiar ground, and that helped a bunch.
I had shifted to about a 4:00 pace during these 5 miles, which felt pretty good. I passed Alex during the UT campus, right at the stadium. He was not having a great day, so after a few words of encouragement, I shuffled on. My new gear was working pretty well for me.
Splits miles 16-20: 8:50, 9:12, 9:08, 9:11, 9:18. I was sliding a little, but I still felt just fine except for my quads, which were getting beaten up. Overall, 8:45 pace. I had a huge cushion for my 4:00:00 goal, and I calculated that I could run somewhere around 10:30/mile pace to the end and still get under 4:00. That relaxed me.
Exiting campus, I did another Enervitene. I walked up some of the nasty little hill before the Capitol during mile 21, and then got back to running around the Capitol. This was the only other place where the course was slightly different than the published maps, but again, it was correct. We went a little further north before turning back south and Congress Avenue.
I got a boost going down Congress, but then got passed by the swiftly moving Jennifer, who looked like she was out for a fun little stroll. It was awesome watching her fly by, but I had nothing in reserve for a chase gear. Just 5 miles to go! I calculated that I could collapse to 11:00 miles from here on, and I would still break 4:00:00, so things were pretty good. I felt fine, cardiovascularly, but my quads were truly cooked by now. The legs weren't as useful as I remembered them.
I had a decent shuffle going on Second Avenue, just in case Mary Anne and the kids were there, but alas, they were not. Turning onto Cesar Chavez, I knew this race was almost done. I took some walks in here on the inclines, modest as they were, and Richard caught and passed me in this stretch, somewhere around the mile 22 or 23 marker. I gave chase, such as a "chase" could be described given both of our conditions, and we played yo-yo for the rest of the race. I found that I was a much faster walker than he was, but his shuffle was better than mine.
I saw Frank, Shannon, Patrick, Sean, Rich and Liliana, among others, kicking it in for their mile 25 or 26 going the other way on the out and back. It was good to see them doing so well, and it gave me some comfort knowing that we were getting close to being finished ourselves.
Pete was in the median some 500 yards ahead of the mile 24 marker where he could pep us up coming and going on the out and back, and that was truly great to see him out there under these conditions. He was advising us about where the turnaround was ahead of us, and warning us about the potentially slippery conditions. What a Gazelle! I picked my pace up when I saw him, out of some pride. Down and up the overpass and underpass, hit the turnaround, and I was ever closer to finishing this thing. I just wanted to be done at this point.
Richard and I teamed up on the return leg, and ran/jogged most of the rest of mile 25 together. We were even chatting as we went along. It may have annoyed some of those struggling around us, but it made sense at the time. I kept calculating where I was, making sure I wasn't blowing my sub 4:00 goal. Just after the mile 25 marker, I heard the Hash House beer people telling us there was just a mile to go. I glanced at the watch, and panicked, thinking I was cutting it just a little too close, so I picked it up into a pretty decent run. Richard hung back at that point, with his 2:00 chip time advantage in hand (he ended up just 20 seconds or so behind me on gun time, so it wasn't that big of an acceleration, I guess). I'm sure my face was a pretty determined one as I turned onto the First Street bridge. I had previously scouted out the mile 26 mark on one of our training runs, so I knew I was going to make sub-4:00 as I crossed that marker. I accelerated again for the last 385 yards, getting everything I had out of the day, and was relieved to see the clock ticking 3:56:00 as I was coming down the stretch. By now, I wasn't hearing individual voices, or even seeing individual faces in the crowd. I had eyes only for the finish, and the noise was just a wall of sound which faded into a continuous Nascar-type sound in my head. As I got closer and closer to the finish, my eyes teared up with emotion as I realized that the elusive 4:00:00 barrier was going down today. Of course, the cold wind dried those tears up pretty quickly. Hitting the finish, I raised my fist in celebration, enjoying the moment. Finally!
My watch time was 3:56:07, subject to later correction by a second or two (apparently, there was a problem with the chip time situation, so I'm not sure how that's going to be resolved).
Splits miles 21-26.2: 9:52, 9:37, 9:49, 10:43, 10:04, 9:32, last 385 yards in 1:40, a 7:37 pace for my killer sprint. :-) That mile 24 wasn't so great, but I got it back together after that, for which I was grateful and proud.
I waited on Richard for a few seconds, and we went to get our clothes together. The medal was, as usual, fantastic. They do a great job with that at Freescale. We picked up our Finisher's shirt, a nifty tech shirt, and then I made my way over to a clear spot to get all my warm clothes on. That mylar blanket had helped, but it was time to get bundled up! Emily, Brian, Amy and Leslie were all around while we got dressed, and everyone was plain giddy about how their races had gone. Jennifer joined us, too, and literally everyone had PR'd today. That's unbelievable! Jennifer had crashed during the race and had torn her tights, along with a skinned up hand, but she obviously bounced right back up to finish great, around 3:48, to qualify for Boston (so did Leslie!).
I started sipping my Endurox, and we got out my phone to make some calls. I had left it on in the clothing bag, and I guess the cold had hammered the battery. It lasted long enough to find that Mary Anne and the kids were in the Distance Challenge corral, and I also got a message from Jeff in North Carolina, congratulating me on the race. That's really fast congratulations!
Aaron joined us, and he had apparently had a bad car wreck on his way to the start of the race, but he ran a good marathon nonetheless. The conditions were probably worse for drivers and spectators than it was for us.
I picked up a bagel and some snack bars in the first food tent, along with a red Powerade (I had had enough of the blue stuff!), and then we finally found the DC corral after some craziness negotiating the crowds and fencing to find the way over there.
I was happy to see the kids, who were frozen, and Mary Anne, who had on all her warmest clothes. I gave my mylar blanket to Jake, and wrapped it around him under his sweater. I shared my post-race food with them, because I was thirsty, not hungry just yet. The Distance Challenge tent was packed with folks, and they had lots of good food for us. I picked up my DC finisher's shirt and yet another fabulous medal.
It turns out that the kids and Mary Anne had been right on the rail in the DC corral as I finished, and they screamed at me as I went by, but I didn't hear a single thing as I powered to the finish. They said they almost didn't recognize me because of the look on my face. I guess that's a good thing?
We saw Richard and his wife, Alex (briefly), Frank, Kenny and a bunch of other folks. I even saw Sara Fisher, who was just visiting after the race. There were lots of smiling faces now that we were done. Everyone slowly dispersed, due to the elements. It sure wasn't like last year, when we just collapsed to the ground in the bright sunshine!
The kids and Mary Anne left after 15 minutes or so, and after a while, I left, too, when there was no one around that I knew. Later found out that the Palmer Annex Center was opened up for runners so they could get warm after the race, but I didn't know that at the time. I guess with the temps as they were, it wasn't much fun to hang out. After much confusion and bumping into fencing, I finally found the way out of the post-race area, walking way around to my car. It was probably just as well that it took so long of a walk, just to help my legs in their recovery mode. Sinking into my car seat, I was a tired but happy guy. It wasn't too awful getting out of the Palmer Center parking garage, and soon enough, I made my way home.
POST-MORTEM:
I'm happy to have beaten the 4 hour barrier, after all those attempts, so this was a very satisfying run. I was a little disappointed about the walking towards the end of the run, but next time that can be a goal. I probably would have benefited from going slower early, which may have helped later in the race, too. As mistakes go, though, those weren't too bad. My nutrition plan was good, I trained hard, and I executed the plan well. Mission accomplished, and as always, lessons learned for next time. I ran a Masters PR and Freescale/Motorola PR of some 25 minutes, and beat my longstanding lifetime PR by 5:45, set way back in 1993 when I was but a wee lad. I finished the race running, and had a reasonable last mile. It's all smiles, my friends, and now it's time for the Spring Season, looking to run shorter and faster for a change.
I'll continue the weight training to build strength in the legs, hopefully I can lose another couple of pounds, and then it'll be time to try to trim more time off in 2007.
LATER STILL:
After guitar practice (I didn't fall asleep or anything!), I met the Varelas, my family, Jan and Brad, and Alex for the semi-traditional Mangia pizza post-race feast. The pizza was fabulous, and it was great fun talking away as we relaxed now that the work was done for a while. It was a really nice dinner, and it was great to meet Brad, who we've only previously heard about.
After dinner, I took Alex and Frank over to the official Gazelles party at Rich and Christina's house, and we had a grand time there, too. The crowd was mostly people who had run the race, instead of the 100+ people that often show up at Gazelles gatherings. The mood was very good, the food and drink was there in vast quantities, and everyone had a great time. Gilbert was very pleased with how we did as a group, and we were happy to have run to his expectations for the most part. By 9:00 or so, it was well time to be going home, and after one last "attaboy" to and from Sean, I headed home.
What a day, a long day, a successful day! Now, let's take a vacation from running and come back sometime next week!
-Entered 2/27/06-
Okay, Bob Wischnia used this same song as his title, but I thought of it, too. Really.
This was one of those race days that my anal-retentive nature worked for me. My habit is to allow way more time than I need to get to a given race start, so Frank, Alex and I had planned to meet at the Palmer/RunTex bus stop at the finish at 5:00 for our trip up to the start. So, I woke at 4:00, quite refreshed. I had gotten 5 very solid and peaceful hours of sleep on Saturday night, no nightmares, no other getting up in the middle of the night, nothing. Ahhhhh.... I wasn't nervous or excited or anything, really, just sort of weird inside about the day to come. Maybe that was nervousness after all. :-) A last check of the weather confirmed that we were going to have 32 degrees all morning long, overcast skies, so I stayed with my plan to wear tights, two long sleeved Gazelles shirts, gloves and warm cap. My race number was already affixed to my outermost shirt, and over that I put on an extra t-shirt and a jacket for pre-race wear. I also had on my warm vest, just for fun. No sense being cold before I had to be. I gobbled a Clif Bar, started my Accelerade, and took a banana with me for the journey down to Palmer parking.
I had no problem getting to Palmer Center heading south on Mopac, but I did take care going across the Town Lake bridge, just in case there were some icy spots. It appeared to be gravelled and sanded, so it was no big deal. I rolled into the parking deck and backed into my spot at probably 20 minutes to 5:00, just two spots over from Alex, who was similarly early. We did a quick "Did you decide to wear shorts or tights?" question and answer (I had shorts in my bag, just in case I had a change of heart), and then returned to our vehicles to wait a few more minutes. Frank called Alex to tell him traffic had caused him some problems, and to go on without him if he didn't get there on time. 5 till 5:00, we figured it was time to mosey on over to the bus line. We ended up in the second bus going up from RunTex, and despite taking mostly frontage roads and some weird traffic choices, we made it up to the Freescale parking lot at 10 till 6:00. The traffic snarl getting into the Freescale parking lot was something to behold a full hour before the scheduled start time!
As Alex and I exited the bus, we took advantage of the free access to the port-o-johns and adjusted fluid levels. On the way there, we heard that the start had been delayed 30 minutes. So, after the rest stop, we moseyed inside the Freescale building to seek warmth. Ended up in the cafeteria there, and hung out with a few Gazelles (Liliana, Amy, Roger, Alex, Bob) as we whiled away the minutes. I went ahead and packed up my extra clothing in the drop bag, got out all my race gear, and changed into that stuff. Put on the custom made trash bag vest and strapped on my GU belt, and sipped on my water bottle (this was a store-bought water which I planned on dropping along the course).
About 6:45, Alex and I moved out into the cold. We dropped our post-race clothing (well organized and fully staffed), took yet another hydro stop, and walked over to the start area to see what was what. Basically no one was in line yet, but we found the DC corral, and after chatting with Liliana and a few other folks, Alex and I decided to do a modest warmup jog. We saw Gilbert jogging along for warmup, but he had his game face on, so we didn't bug him. We discovered quickly that the sidewalk and curbs and rocks along the paths were slick and frozen, so we jogged along the grass and found a nice crushed rock trail that winds around the Freescale campus. We covered somewhere around a mile at a mighty 10-12:00 pace, just loosening up, and finally found some interesting shrubbery to investigate (hydro stop three). I took my pre-race GU, and we were ready to go. About the time we got back to the corrals, they had started the National Anthem, which was pretty neat. The mic glitched in the middle of the song, and everyone waiting to run stepped in for her and sang until the mic came back on. That was a cool moment.
It seems that most of the 400 or so DC runners chose to run back in the pack, so there was plenty of room in the DC corral. I picked a spot with Amy about 10 yards back from the line, and held that position as they opened the fence behind us to allow the sub 3:00 and other fast runners move up for the start. I had a weird feeling of nervousness and unreality as I waited to go, ready but sort of disconnected from myself. I guess the horn sounded, and we were off.
The initial half mile or so was in the parking lots around Freescale. It was tight, but starting up front, it was no big deal getting out of there onto the wide streets for the rest of the race. We were about 18-20 seconds to the start line (more on that later). The 3:00, 3:10, 3:15 pace groups all passed me in the first mile, but I let the crowd surge by me while I tried to find my happy pace spot. I saw Amy just up ahead of me for a while, but then she disappeared. Whether that was behind or ahead of me, I wouldn't know until the race was over. On Anderson Mill, it was easy running with lots of room to run. I saw the first band at mile 1 playing guitar with gloves on both hands, with his drummer. I admired them for getting out there. I also ditched the trash bag right at 1 mile.
At the turn onto Pond Trail, there was a band at mile 2 out there, too, gloves on hands. They were tough hombres, too. The 3:20 pace group got me in here somewhere. Sipped water again from my disposable bottle. Tossed the t-shirt in this mile, by the elementary school.
During mile 3, Rich, Shannon, and Kelly all passed me in a happy little pace pod, along with the 3:30 pace group. By now, I was more or less among similarly paced people, as the faster folks had rolled by. I saw a woman bust her butt badly on a short little bridge when she went on the left side of the bridge where there was no gravel and sand spread. She went down hard, but geez, didn't she have a clue?
Mile 4 took us to the part of the course we'd run before a handful of times, so it would be familiar turf from there on out. I was strangely disconnected with things in this part of the run. I felt fine, I'd check my splits, adjust a little if I was too frisky, but mostly I was sort of drifting this early in the race. First GU at mile 4 or thereabouts, and I strolled through that water stop to do that. Pulled the GU packet from my glove where it was stashed. Finished off my water bottle here, and tossed it. I started the countdown of miles at the mile 5 marker (21.2 to go...), and at that point, I got a bit of nervous dread thinking how many miles remained. It went away, but your brain does funny stuff to you on these journeys when you're running without a partner. So far, so good. 5 miles done.
Splits miles 1-5: 9:00, 8:31, 8:31, 8:24, 8:25. Overall, 8:34 pace, right on schedule. I was a little concerned that I had those fairly sprightly 8:24 type miles, but just took it in stride, since I was feeling just fine.
Miles 6 through 8 were nice, flat and pretty uneventful. I got a sip of Powerade at the mile 6 waterstop and moved on. During mile 7, it seems that there was a musical act on Great Hills, a country swing act, the first music since mile 2. They were actually pretty good. There were lots of spectators around that stretch, presumably because it offered easy access and lots of parking. It made a difference, and sort of boosted us along Stonelake going towards Burnet. I saw another guy bust his butt on Stonelake trying to step off the course onto the curb and into the woods for a rest stop. The curbs were still frozen, obviously. I took my second GU at mile 8 or so, walked through that stop too, maybe 10 seconds. We made our way carefully over the couple of bridges on Braker, which were still slippery and frozen in spots, despite the gravel. I was just tooling along, clicking down the miles. The 3:35 group, if there was one, passed me somewhere in the 7-8 mile range. I had settled down into my planned routine of sipping Powerade at every other water stop, doing a GU with water every 4 miles, through mile 12.
The stretch through the industrial park off Burnet was disconcerting because it was slightly different than the published course map. I got a little upset at first, but settled down when the next mile marker split tallied normally. This was not a 3M situation. :-) We were through 10 miles now. So far, so good.
Splits miles 6-10: 8:23, 8:51, 8:41, 8:28, 8:35. Pacing all over the place, but overall, I was still right on 8:35/mile pace. I think the 8:51 mile included a water stop, but mostly I just sort of overcompensated for the 8:23 mile before it.
Under 183, onto Shoal Creek. There were a lot of spectators through to the half marathon split point. I saw Brian's parents, and I only knew them because they had a sign with his face on it, saying "Go, Brian, Go!" I called out to them. Saw Margaret, a Gazelle who's going to Boston, and it was fun to see another familiar face. As the half marathoners surged to the finish at the 12 mile marker, I had to focus hard to stay at my pace and keep my mind on my job.
Half marathon split was 1:52:51 on my watch, more or less right on 3:45 schedule. Once the half marathoners split off, the course thinned out a little bit, I guess, but the roads narrowed a bit from there on out, so it stayed cozy. There were always people around to run with or to slowly chase after. The long stretch along Great Northern was about like normal, with plenty of hardy spectators out in the bitter cold, and the bagpipers were out this year again, too. They played the Chariots of Fire theme and then that standard bagpipe song that I just don't know the name of. There was a rock band at the softball/baseball fields just before we turned. I continued to be surprised and grateful at the large numbers of spectators and volunteers who had showed up in terrible conditions for them. All the water stops all day long were fully staffed and extremely well done. Very nice.
Turning to head towards Shoal Creek, I thought back to last year, and how miserable I was at that point, even though it was 8 miles earlier in the race. There was steam coming up off the pavement last year, and the glare was so bright from the unforgiving sun that I lost all hope in 2005. This year was quite different. I was still chugging along, pace slowing just a touch, but I was running how I felt, trying to keep comfortable with so many miles to go. The 3:40 pace group caught me during this stretch.
I was surprised to see the usual Shoal Creek neighborhood crazies out there, heckling us and cheering us on while sipping their mimosas. Granted, at some of the houses, there were empty chairs out near the curb, but that probably meant that they were coming in and out, trying to get warmed up for their next round of cheering.
Splits miles 11-15: 8:25, 8:45, 9:00, 8:32, 8:40. Overall, 8:37/mile. The first modest hilly section is coming up. I still felt pretty good, and "only" 11.2 miles to go.
Turning onto North Loop, we hit the hilly section. I throttled back, as planned, and rolled through this bit in pretty good fashion. My pace fell off a little more than I had expected, but I didn't want to go crazy with the only inclines so far. Took my first Enervitene, a whole packet, at or near 16 miles, and got through the hills without much grief. Turning onto Duval, I started to get a little more tunnel vision. As Gilbert said, it was time to "foh-kus." My quads were talking to me a little by now.
Saw Christina, Rich's wife, cheering on Duval with a big "Go Gazelles" poster. That was nice. The 3:45 pace group caught me right at the 30K mark, and Jason was nice enough to check in with me as they passed. He didn't press me, but suggested that I try to keep them in my sight as we finished this thing. He told me that Richard was somewhere behind them, and then they moved on. This downhill bit was pretty restful, and I sort of spent that time checking out how I felt and giving myself a little pep talk. It was such familiar ground, and that helped a bunch.
I had shifted to about a 4:00 pace during these 5 miles, which felt pretty good. I passed Alex during the UT campus, right at the stadium. He was not having a great day, so after a few words of encouragement, I shuffled on. My new gear was working pretty well for me.
Splits miles 16-20: 8:50, 9:12, 9:08, 9:11, 9:18. I was sliding a little, but I still felt just fine except for my quads, which were getting beaten up. Overall, 8:45 pace. I had a huge cushion for my 4:00:00 goal, and I calculated that I could run somewhere around 10:30/mile pace to the end and still get under 4:00. That relaxed me.
Exiting campus, I did another Enervitene. I walked up some of the nasty little hill before the Capitol during mile 21, and then got back to running around the Capitol. This was the only other place where the course was slightly different than the published maps, but again, it was correct. We went a little further north before turning back south and Congress Avenue.
I got a boost going down Congress, but then got passed by the swiftly moving Jennifer, who looked like she was out for a fun little stroll. It was awesome watching her fly by, but I had nothing in reserve for a chase gear. Just 5 miles to go! I calculated that I could collapse to 11:00 miles from here on, and I would still break 4:00:00, so things were pretty good. I felt fine, cardiovascularly, but my quads were truly cooked by now. The legs weren't as useful as I remembered them.
I had a decent shuffle going on Second Avenue, just in case Mary Anne and the kids were there, but alas, they were not. Turning onto Cesar Chavez, I knew this race was almost done. I took some walks in here on the inclines, modest as they were, and Richard caught and passed me in this stretch, somewhere around the mile 22 or 23 marker. I gave chase, such as a "chase" could be described given both of our conditions, and we played yo-yo for the rest of the race. I found that I was a much faster walker than he was, but his shuffle was better than mine.
I saw Frank, Shannon, Patrick, Sean, Rich and Liliana, among others, kicking it in for their mile 25 or 26 going the other way on the out and back. It was good to see them doing so well, and it gave me some comfort knowing that we were getting close to being finished ourselves.
Pete was in the median some 500 yards ahead of the mile 24 marker where he could pep us up coming and going on the out and back, and that was truly great to see him out there under these conditions. He was advising us about where the turnaround was ahead of us, and warning us about the potentially slippery conditions. What a Gazelle! I picked my pace up when I saw him, out of some pride. Down and up the overpass and underpass, hit the turnaround, and I was ever closer to finishing this thing. I just wanted to be done at this point.
Richard and I teamed up on the return leg, and ran/jogged most of the rest of mile 25 together. We were even chatting as we went along. It may have annoyed some of those struggling around us, but it made sense at the time. I kept calculating where I was, making sure I wasn't blowing my sub 4:00 goal. Just after the mile 25 marker, I heard the Hash House beer people telling us there was just a mile to go. I glanced at the watch, and panicked, thinking I was cutting it just a little too close, so I picked it up into a pretty decent run. Richard hung back at that point, with his 2:00 chip time advantage in hand (he ended up just 20 seconds or so behind me on gun time, so it wasn't that big of an acceleration, I guess). I'm sure my face was a pretty determined one as I turned onto the First Street bridge. I had previously scouted out the mile 26 mark on one of our training runs, so I knew I was going to make sub-4:00 as I crossed that marker. I accelerated again for the last 385 yards, getting everything I had out of the day, and was relieved to see the clock ticking 3:56:00 as I was coming down the stretch. By now, I wasn't hearing individual voices, or even seeing individual faces in the crowd. I had eyes only for the finish, and the noise was just a wall of sound which faded into a continuous Nascar-type sound in my head. As I got closer and closer to the finish, my eyes teared up with emotion as I realized that the elusive 4:00:00 barrier was going down today. Of course, the cold wind dried those tears up pretty quickly. Hitting the finish, I raised my fist in celebration, enjoying the moment. Finally!
My watch time was 3:56:07, subject to later correction by a second or two (apparently, there was a problem with the chip time situation, so I'm not sure how that's going to be resolved).
Splits miles 21-26.2: 9:52, 9:37, 9:49, 10:43, 10:04, 9:32, last 385 yards in 1:40, a 7:37 pace for my killer sprint. :-) That mile 24 wasn't so great, but I got it back together after that, for which I was grateful and proud.
I waited on Richard for a few seconds, and we went to get our clothes together. The medal was, as usual, fantastic. They do a great job with that at Freescale. We picked up our Finisher's shirt, a nifty tech shirt, and then I made my way over to a clear spot to get all my warm clothes on. That mylar blanket had helped, but it was time to get bundled up! Emily, Brian, Amy and Leslie were all around while we got dressed, and everyone was plain giddy about how their races had gone. Jennifer joined us, too, and literally everyone had PR'd today. That's unbelievable! Jennifer had crashed during the race and had torn her tights, along with a skinned up hand, but she obviously bounced right back up to finish great, around 3:48, to qualify for Boston (so did Leslie!).
I started sipping my Endurox, and we got out my phone to make some calls. I had left it on in the clothing bag, and I guess the cold had hammered the battery. It lasted long enough to find that Mary Anne and the kids were in the Distance Challenge corral, and I also got a message from Jeff in North Carolina, congratulating me on the race. That's really fast congratulations!
Aaron joined us, and he had apparently had a bad car wreck on his way to the start of the race, but he ran a good marathon nonetheless. The conditions were probably worse for drivers and spectators than it was for us.
I picked up a bagel and some snack bars in the first food tent, along with a red Powerade (I had had enough of the blue stuff!), and then we finally found the DC corral after some craziness negotiating the crowds and fencing to find the way over there.
I was happy to see the kids, who were frozen, and Mary Anne, who had on all her warmest clothes. I gave my mylar blanket to Jake, and wrapped it around him under his sweater. I shared my post-race food with them, because I was thirsty, not hungry just yet. The Distance Challenge tent was packed with folks, and they had lots of good food for us. I picked up my DC finisher's shirt and yet another fabulous medal.
It turns out that the kids and Mary Anne had been right on the rail in the DC corral as I finished, and they screamed at me as I went by, but I didn't hear a single thing as I powered to the finish. They said they almost didn't recognize me because of the look on my face. I guess that's a good thing?
We saw Richard and his wife, Alex (briefly), Frank, Kenny and a bunch of other folks. I even saw Sara Fisher, who was just visiting after the race. There were lots of smiling faces now that we were done. Everyone slowly dispersed, due to the elements. It sure wasn't like last year, when we just collapsed to the ground in the bright sunshine!
The kids and Mary Anne left after 15 minutes or so, and after a while, I left, too, when there was no one around that I knew. Later found out that the Palmer Annex Center was opened up for runners so they could get warm after the race, but I didn't know that at the time. I guess with the temps as they were, it wasn't much fun to hang out. After much confusion and bumping into fencing, I finally found the way out of the post-race area, walking way around to my car. It was probably just as well that it took so long of a walk, just to help my legs in their recovery mode. Sinking into my car seat, I was a tired but happy guy. It wasn't too awful getting out of the Palmer Center parking garage, and soon enough, I made my way home.
POST-MORTEM:
I'm happy to have beaten the 4 hour barrier, after all those attempts, so this was a very satisfying run. I was a little disappointed about the walking towards the end of the run, but next time that can be a goal. I probably would have benefited from going slower early, which may have helped later in the race, too. As mistakes go, though, those weren't too bad. My nutrition plan was good, I trained hard, and I executed the plan well. Mission accomplished, and as always, lessons learned for next time. I ran a Masters PR and Freescale/Motorola PR of some 25 minutes, and beat my longstanding lifetime PR by 5:45, set way back in 1993 when I was but a wee lad. I finished the race running, and had a reasonable last mile. It's all smiles, my friends, and now it's time for the Spring Season, looking to run shorter and faster for a change.
I'll continue the weight training to build strength in the legs, hopefully I can lose another couple of pounds, and then it'll be time to try to trim more time off in 2007.
LATER STILL:
After guitar practice (I didn't fall asleep or anything!), I met the Varelas, my family, Jan and Brad, and Alex for the semi-traditional Mangia pizza post-race feast. The pizza was fabulous, and it was great fun talking away as we relaxed now that the work was done for a while. It was a really nice dinner, and it was great to meet Brad, who we've only previously heard about.
After dinner, I took Alex and Frank over to the official Gazelles party at Rich and Christina's house, and we had a grand time there, too. The crowd was mostly people who had run the race, instead of the 100+ people that often show up at Gazelles gatherings. The mood was very good, the food and drink was there in vast quantities, and everyone had a great time. Gilbert was very pleased with how we did as a group, and we were happy to have run to his expectations for the most part. By 9:00 or so, it was well time to be going home, and after one last "attaboy" to and from Sean, I headed home.
What a day, a long day, a successful day! Now, let's take a vacation from running and come back sometime next week!
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Freescale Goals and Other Last-Minute Stuff
Here I am, less than 24 hours from toeing the line at Freescale. Hundreds of miles of training, hundreds of laps of the Austin High School track doing speedwork, hill repeats at Meriden and the dreaded Wilke, dozens of hours in the gym building strength for the entire body, dozens of Friday nights spent at home instead of partying, 6 previous Distance Challenge races over some pretty tough courses, and even 3 pairs of shoes...all to get to this point.
I've got my Marathon Shoes, the 14th pair of Mizuno Wave Creations (the Creation 7, lucky number), and they're ready to go with 50 miles on them. This is also my 14th marathon. Is this a numerological omen? Lucky running shorts? Check. Lucky socks, singlet, long-sleeved shirt, hat, gloves? Check. Enervitene and GU for the race? Check. Got the stuff from the Expo and race packet? Check. Pre-race hydration and nutrition on track? Check. Good night's sleep on Friday? Check. Weather report? Nice and cold, possible drizzle. Saturday super easy jog, strides and stretching with the Gazelles? Check. Nervous? Check. I'll have my traditional marathon eve dinner of pasta, red sauce, and grilled chicken, and then I'll try to get to sleep. Good luck on that.
Now, what is my race plan, and how am I going to execute it? Here's some numbers to check out, first:
I like to mentally break up the race into manageable pieces. I use the 10/10/10 formula. The first 10 miles are mainly about enjoying the ride, getting to MGP by mile 5 or so, and holding that until mile 10. Overall pace at that point should be around 8:40-8:45. The next 10 miles I'll hang out at MGP, maybe clipping a few seconds during the downhill miles. Then, the last 10K is where you see what you've really got. If I've done a good job to that point, then I should be able to at least maintain my pace late.
I'll get water/Powerade every 2 miles, which should be plenty. Don't need to stop at every water stop. GU at the early stops, every 4 miles, switching to Enervitene for the last half of the race. I'll have a water bottle with me early, to be discarded along the way.
So, that's it. I know what I need to do, I've done the training, I've got one of the best coaches around, and now all I have to do is to do it. I'll let you know how it goes, of course. Tomorrow, after the marathon, I'll hang out for a while in the DC special finisher's area, then it'll be time for an ice bath, followed by guitar practice (I hope I don't fall asleep!), then food and the Gazelles after-party. Hopefully, it will be a great day, a fun day, and I can smile when we're hanging out at Rich's house tomorrow.
Here I am, less than 24 hours from toeing the line at Freescale. Hundreds of miles of training, hundreds of laps of the Austin High School track doing speedwork, hill repeats at Meriden and the dreaded Wilke, dozens of hours in the gym building strength for the entire body, dozens of Friday nights spent at home instead of partying, 6 previous Distance Challenge races over some pretty tough courses, and even 3 pairs of shoes...all to get to this point.
I've got my Marathon Shoes, the 14th pair of Mizuno Wave Creations (the Creation 7, lucky number), and they're ready to go with 50 miles on them. This is also my 14th marathon. Is this a numerological omen? Lucky running shorts? Check. Lucky socks, singlet, long-sleeved shirt, hat, gloves? Check. Enervitene and GU for the race? Check. Got the stuff from the Expo and race packet? Check. Pre-race hydration and nutrition on track? Check. Good night's sleep on Friday? Check. Weather report? Nice and cold, possible drizzle. Saturday super easy jog, strides and stretching with the Gazelles? Check. Nervous? Check. I'll have my traditional marathon eve dinner of pasta, red sauce, and grilled chicken, and then I'll try to get to sleep. Good luck on that.
Now, what is my race plan, and how am I going to execute it? Here's some numbers to check out, first:
- Existing "Masters PR" (2003 Motorola) - 4:21:18
- 2004 Motorola Marathon - 4:48:35 (three marathons in 5 months)
- 2005 Freescale Marathon - 4:28:13 (hot weather)
- Lifetime marathon PR (1993 Marine Corps) - 4:01:52
- Predicted marathon time (based on DC races) - 3:45:37
- "Masters PR" breaking 4:21:18. Yeah, it's seemingly ridiculous to put out a time this slow as a potential race goal, but a man's gotta have an emergency backup goal in case of climactic or other race disaster.
- Lifetime PR of 4:01:51 or 9:14/mile. Hopefully, this will also serve as only an emergency backup goal, but it would be a 27 minute improvement over last year's time.
- 3:59:59 (9:10/mile): I've tried to break 4:00:00 a bunch of times, and have made a variety of mistakes trying it, but this is the Golden Goal for tomorrow. Just to be able to say I'm a sub-4:00 marathoner would make a world of difference to me.
- Reach Goal: 3:45:00. All the numbers point to this as a reasonable goal for me, but it's scary to contemplate such a thing. If the weather will cooperate, then this should be possible. This is the pace band that I'll be wearing, by the way.
I like to mentally break up the race into manageable pieces. I use the 10/10/10 formula. The first 10 miles are mainly about enjoying the ride, getting to MGP by mile 5 or so, and holding that until mile 10. Overall pace at that point should be around 8:40-8:45. The next 10 miles I'll hang out at MGP, maybe clipping a few seconds during the downhill miles. Then, the last 10K is where you see what you've really got. If I've done a good job to that point, then I should be able to at least maintain my pace late.
I'll get water/Powerade every 2 miles, which should be plenty. Don't need to stop at every water stop. GU at the early stops, every 4 miles, switching to Enervitene for the last half of the race. I'll have a water bottle with me early, to be discarded along the way.
So, that's it. I know what I need to do, I've done the training, I've got one of the best coaches around, and now all I have to do is to do it. I'll let you know how it goes, of course. Tomorrow, after the marathon, I'll hang out for a while in the DC special finisher's area, then it'll be time for an ice bath, followed by guitar practice (I hope I don't fall asleep!), then food and the Gazelles after-party. Hopefully, it will be a great day, a fun day, and I can smile when we're hanging out at Rich's house tomorrow.
Jog a Little, Stretch a Little
Today was damp and cool, in the 30's, but a large crew gathered this morning at 7:45 for the pre-marathon shakedown cruise on the trail. All bundled up, we did a truly easy 2.2 miles, 10:00 pace or so, just to get our legs moving after a couple of days off. 10 x 100m striders followed that, and we checked out the tent village starting to sprout up at Auditorium Shores that will contain all the post-race support activities. It started to drizzle harder, so we moved the stretching first to the sidewalk outside RunTex, and finally we moved inside for a nice warm stretching session. Thanks to RunTex, as usual, for helping us out. We were all over the store, stretching away, and I ended up on a low platform to lead the stretching, which was pretty funny. The energy level was awfully high today, as everyone is anxious for the race to start.
We took some group photos inside, and then Gilbert gave us our last pep talk and advice. It's all up to us, now. I made logistical plans with Alex and Frank for tomorrow's journey up to the start of the race, talked with Pete and Margaret for a while, and then it was time to get going. Hot tea and a bagel with cream cheese at Einstein's made the damp weather go away for a while, followed by the rest of the drive home.
It's time to run.
Today was damp and cool, in the 30's, but a large crew gathered this morning at 7:45 for the pre-marathon shakedown cruise on the trail. All bundled up, we did a truly easy 2.2 miles, 10:00 pace or so, just to get our legs moving after a couple of days off. 10 x 100m striders followed that, and we checked out the tent village starting to sprout up at Auditorium Shores that will contain all the post-race support activities. It started to drizzle harder, so we moved the stretching first to the sidewalk outside RunTex, and finally we moved inside for a nice warm stretching session. Thanks to RunTex, as usual, for helping us out. We were all over the store, stretching away, and I ended up on a low platform to lead the stretching, which was pretty funny. The energy level was awfully high today, as everyone is anxious for the race to start.
We took some group photos inside, and then Gilbert gave us our last pep talk and advice. It's all up to us, now. I made logistical plans with Alex and Frank for tomorrow's journey up to the start of the race, talked with Pete and Margaret for a while, and then it was time to get going. Hot tea and a bagel with cream cheese at Einstein's made the damp weather go away for a while, followed by the rest of the drive home.
It's time to run.
Friday, February 17, 2006
L'Expo
I'm still in the grip of Taper Madness, but that will end soon. Today was all about eating right (check), hydrating properly (check), and staying off my feet as much as possible (check). Mission accomplished. I met up with Frank at the Expo, and we toured the booths together. It's grown a lot since my first Freescale in 2003, which is good to see. I was able to get all my remaining Enervitene for the race at the Expo, and some socks and a shirt. We saw some old friends and some new friends, too, a not unexpected happening at your hometown marathon.
The weather is still the talk of the room, of course. The cool front blew in this morning, and it stayed in the low 40's all day long, overcast. It was 80 degrees yesterday afternoon. Texas weather. Looks like great weather for Sunday, so now I just gotta go and run the darned thing.
The nice perks for being in the Distance Challenge continued, with the special line to claim your packet and the free transportation on the shuttle on race morning.
I sure hope all the musical acts that are listed show up for Sunday. That would really help over those last 5 miles if all the listed acts are there. We'd have almost continuous music!
Tick, tick, tick...
I'm still in the grip of Taper Madness, but that will end soon. Today was all about eating right (check), hydrating properly (check), and staying off my feet as much as possible (check). Mission accomplished. I met up with Frank at the Expo, and we toured the booths together. It's grown a lot since my first Freescale in 2003, which is good to see. I was able to get all my remaining Enervitene for the race at the Expo, and some socks and a shirt. We saw some old friends and some new friends, too, a not unexpected happening at your hometown marathon.
The weather is still the talk of the room, of course. The cool front blew in this morning, and it stayed in the low 40's all day long, overcast. It was 80 degrees yesterday afternoon. Texas weather. Looks like great weather for Sunday, so now I just gotta go and run the darned thing.
The nice perks for being in the Distance Challenge continued, with the special line to claim your packet and the free transportation on the shuttle on race morning.
I sure hope all the musical acts that are listed show up for Sunday. That would really help over those last 5 miles if all the listed acts are there. We'd have almost continuous music!
Tick, tick, tick...
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Taper Madness
Today, with no exercise stuff on the calendar, and with the short week of work so far, I succumbed to Taper Madness. My legs feel out of sorts, I'm imagining all sorts of musculoskeletal maladies, and I'm trying to convince myself that I've got a cold or something like that. This is exactly how it is every time I do a full taper, but it's always disconcerting to feel this wacky so close to the race.
On the good side, it continues to look like great running weather is in store for us on Sunday. Today, of course, it was 80 degrees this afternoon, but a cool front is coming, they've promised. I'll go to the Expo tomorrow to get all those chores done, and that's about it for Friday. Tomorrow night, I'll have the traditional baked potato and whatever other foodstuffs that come to mind, but that's the only other ritual that I observe on the Friday before a Sunday marathon.
Closer and closer, tick, tick, tick...
Today, with no exercise stuff on the calendar, and with the short week of work so far, I succumbed to Taper Madness. My legs feel out of sorts, I'm imagining all sorts of musculoskeletal maladies, and I'm trying to convince myself that I've got a cold or something like that. This is exactly how it is every time I do a full taper, but it's always disconcerting to feel this wacky so close to the race.
On the good side, it continues to look like great running weather is in store for us on Sunday. Today, of course, it was 80 degrees this afternoon, but a cool front is coming, they've promised. I'll go to the Expo tomorrow to get all those chores done, and that's about it for Friday. Tomorrow night, I'll have the traditional baked potato and whatever other foodstuffs that come to mind, but that's the only other ritual that I observe on the Friday before a Sunday marathon.
Closer and closer, tick, tick, tick...
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Cruise Control
Today was a nice and easy tuneup effort, the last before the marathon. Most of the peeps gathered up for an easy 20 minute warmup, full of chatter and discussion, followed by 15 minutes of "diagonals." Those are longer striders with short jogs between on the grass at Auditorium Shores. A lot of the gang wasn't slowing down for the short jogs, so Gilbert called it to a halt at 15 minutes instead of the prescribed 20 minutes of diagonals. No big deal. We stretched moderately as a group, and then we were done.
I feel fine, but as usual at this point, I'm imagining all sorts of maladies. We're watching the weather and trying to get rested and fueled up for the big race. Current forecast is 43-47 degrees, overcast and fair chance of light rain, along with a tailwind of 10-15 mph. That would be okay with me. Later today, I get my pre-race massage to work out the legs, and that's the end of my preparations.
Another fairly restless night of sleep last night, but no marathon nightmares yet. I'm not unusual in this regard. Talking with most of my friends, it seems that everyone is tossing and turning while waiting for the race to start. It'll be over soon, but it's really weird this week. The Race Plan and goals are almost done, and I'll write those up in the next couple of days. At that point, all that would remain is to execute said race plan.
Tick, tick, tick...
Today was a nice and easy tuneup effort, the last before the marathon. Most of the peeps gathered up for an easy 20 minute warmup, full of chatter and discussion, followed by 15 minutes of "diagonals." Those are longer striders with short jogs between on the grass at Auditorium Shores. A lot of the gang wasn't slowing down for the short jogs, so Gilbert called it to a halt at 15 minutes instead of the prescribed 20 minutes of diagonals. No big deal. We stretched moderately as a group, and then we were done.
I feel fine, but as usual at this point, I'm imagining all sorts of maladies. We're watching the weather and trying to get rested and fueled up for the big race. Current forecast is 43-47 degrees, overcast and fair chance of light rain, along with a tailwind of 10-15 mph. That would be okay with me. Later today, I get my pre-race massage to work out the legs, and that's the end of my preparations.
Another fairly restless night of sleep last night, but no marathon nightmares yet. I'm not unusual in this regard. Talking with most of my friends, it seems that everyone is tossing and turning while waiting for the race to start. It'll be over soon, but it's really weird this week. The Race Plan and goals are almost done, and I'll write those up in the next couple of days. At that point, all that would remain is to execute said race plan.
Tick, tick, tick...
Monday, February 13, 2006
The Final Countdown
Unfortunately, this morning the Europe song "The Final Countdown" appeared on my internal radio station, and it stuck all morning long. However, it fit, in a weird way, with this week's Gazelles workouts. We're just ticking down the hours until 7:00 am CST on Sunday, when we toe the line for our little 26.2 mile jaunt through Austin.
Today was pretty nippy, but a still manageable 34 degrees, crisp and clear. We dressed appropriately, and headed out for Zilker Park for the now traditional Monday workout before a marathon, 3000m at MGP. Nice and easy warmup run, with Alex and Brian, as we brought up the rear of the whole troupe, 9:30 pace or thereabouts. We were passed by Mason and all the faster Gazelles while we were cruising along, just to give him a shout out. :-) Drills were drilled, and then we got G's last advice, to do either 3 x 1000m or 3000m straight at or slightly faster than MGP. We took off, and we were lucky enough in my pace area to have one of the Official Freescale Pace Group Leaders, Jason, with us. He was practicing his 3:45 MGP with us, and we might end up being his group on race day. A lot of my normal peeps took off faster, but we enjoyed a nice comfortable cruise around the Zilker loop, hitting 3000m at about 8:25/mile pace, slightly faster than the 8:35/mile that fits with 3:45 marathon goals. Nicely done.
The cooldown run was quicker, maybe 9:10/mile range, but still nice. We are all nervous, and that is expressed in the chatter that passes for calm discussion of the upcoming race. Finished it off with 5 x 100m striders, and it was a day. 5.8 miles.
It's both comforting and scary to be at this point in the training program. From here on out, there's really nothing going on that's going to bother us at all. Tomorrow, a truly easy 30 minutes or so here in the 'Hood, followed by my last pre-race gym visit, much abridged. Wednesday is 20 easy minutes with the Gazelles, followed by 20 minutes of strides and jogging, and that's pretty much it. Thursday and Friday are full days off, and Saturday is 20 minutes easy plus the usual stretching and pep talk. Fun and scary at the same time. Current weather forecast for Sunday looks pretty promising, maybe even perfect. Fingers crossed.
Tick, tick, tick, ...
Unfortunately, this morning the Europe song "The Final Countdown" appeared on my internal radio station, and it stuck all morning long. However, it fit, in a weird way, with this week's Gazelles workouts. We're just ticking down the hours until 7:00 am CST on Sunday, when we toe the line for our little 26.2 mile jaunt through Austin.
Today was pretty nippy, but a still manageable 34 degrees, crisp and clear. We dressed appropriately, and headed out for Zilker Park for the now traditional Monday workout before a marathon, 3000m at MGP. Nice and easy warmup run, with Alex and Brian, as we brought up the rear of the whole troupe, 9:30 pace or thereabouts. We were passed by Mason and all the faster Gazelles while we were cruising along, just to give him a shout out. :-) Drills were drilled, and then we got G's last advice, to do either 3 x 1000m or 3000m straight at or slightly faster than MGP. We took off, and we were lucky enough in my pace area to have one of the Official Freescale Pace Group Leaders, Jason, with us. He was practicing his 3:45 MGP with us, and we might end up being his group on race day. A lot of my normal peeps took off faster, but we enjoyed a nice comfortable cruise around the Zilker loop, hitting 3000m at about 8:25/mile pace, slightly faster than the 8:35/mile that fits with 3:45 marathon goals. Nicely done.
The cooldown run was quicker, maybe 9:10/mile range, but still nice. We are all nervous, and that is expressed in the chatter that passes for calm discussion of the upcoming race. Finished it off with 5 x 100m striders, and it was a day. 5.8 miles.
It's both comforting and scary to be at this point in the training program. From here on out, there's really nothing going on that's going to bother us at all. Tomorrow, a truly easy 30 minutes or so here in the 'Hood, followed by my last pre-race gym visit, much abridged. Wednesday is 20 easy minutes with the Gazelles, followed by 20 minutes of strides and jogging, and that's pretty much it. Thursday and Friday are full days off, and Saturday is 20 minutes easy plus the usual stretching and pep talk. Fun and scary at the same time. Current weather forecast for Sunday looks pretty promising, maybe even perfect. Fingers crossed.
Tick, tick, tick, ...
Saturday, February 11, 2006
It Cuts Like A Knife
The title song was the last thing I heard on the radio before starting the run today, and with the wind cutting through us, it seemed appropriate. Wind chill was in the mid to low 30's, which was actually just fine once we got going. Today's exercise was to turn 10-12 miles, nice and relaxed, no fast finish. This is sort of the junior equivalent of what the Tour de France guys do, keeping a workload on the body on "rest days" as we taper away.
It was a treat to be able to see the trail and roads this morning, with our later 6:30 start time. There was a great deal of chatter as we went along, and honestly, it was a pretty uneventful run. We had some fun, and ran comfortably, gathering up various runners as we went along. A couple of water stops brought our pace down, but that's not a big deal anymore. It was nice to know that we won't face that long out and back on Lake Austin Blvd on marathon day. The route was the Scenic loop, so we could get some modest hills in one last time. Shannon joined us later, running backwards on the route, due to a clock malfunction. Bob and Charlene also had clock troubles, and caught us the old fashioned way, running faster behind us. They hooked up with us at the last water stop with about 3 miles to go. The conversation today revolved mainly around race strategies, pacing, goal times, and other last-minute stuff that crowds our minds with a week to go. We picked it up very slightly over the last 3 miles, approaching MGP, but it was nothing like the crazy fast finishes we've done over the past 3 months.
Overall, 11.4 miles, average pace 9:13 without water stop time, 9:39 including all stop time. Basically we did just what we were asked to do, and I think everyone felt pretty comfortable doing it. We're starting to experience all those weird physical and mental things that crop up when you're backing down the mileage. People are reporting phantom pains, heavy legs, imagined breathing difficulties, and general sleep issues. Normal, and nothing the actual marathon won't cure.
We did a handful of striders at Auditorium shores, and then did the full stretching routine. I think everyone is just ready for this to be done, to see what all these months of training have brought each of us. Just 8 more days now!
The title song was the last thing I heard on the radio before starting the run today, and with the wind cutting through us, it seemed appropriate. Wind chill was in the mid to low 30's, which was actually just fine once we got going. Today's exercise was to turn 10-12 miles, nice and relaxed, no fast finish. This is sort of the junior equivalent of what the Tour de France guys do, keeping a workload on the body on "rest days" as we taper away.
It was a treat to be able to see the trail and roads this morning, with our later 6:30 start time. There was a great deal of chatter as we went along, and honestly, it was a pretty uneventful run. We had some fun, and ran comfortably, gathering up various runners as we went along. A couple of water stops brought our pace down, but that's not a big deal anymore. It was nice to know that we won't face that long out and back on Lake Austin Blvd on marathon day. The route was the Scenic loop, so we could get some modest hills in one last time. Shannon joined us later, running backwards on the route, due to a clock malfunction. Bob and Charlene also had clock troubles, and caught us the old fashioned way, running faster behind us. They hooked up with us at the last water stop with about 3 miles to go. The conversation today revolved mainly around race strategies, pacing, goal times, and other last-minute stuff that crowds our minds with a week to go. We picked it up very slightly over the last 3 miles, approaching MGP, but it was nothing like the crazy fast finishes we've done over the past 3 months.
Overall, 11.4 miles, average pace 9:13 without water stop time, 9:39 including all stop time. Basically we did just what we were asked to do, and I think everyone felt pretty comfortable doing it. We're starting to experience all those weird physical and mental things that crop up when you're backing down the mileage. People are reporting phantom pains, heavy legs, imagined breathing difficulties, and general sleep issues. Normal, and nothing the actual marathon won't cure.
We did a handful of striders at Auditorium shores, and then did the full stretching routine. I think everyone is just ready for this to be done, to see what all these months of training have brought each of us. Just 8 more days now!
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
The Reggae Shuffle
This morning was one of my favorite workouts in the Gazelles canon, the fartlek tuneup run. It was glorious out there again today, in the high 30's, crisp and clear. We ended up with a giant mob of runners this morning in our pace pod, which was pretty fun. Rich and Rachel were back today, and it was good to see them moving pretty comfortably. We also added a bunch of Frank's crew to our number. At any rate, we did two easy miles at something like 9:40 average pace, and then started our cycle of a fast 2 minutes and a recovery minute for 10 cycles on the trail. With so many people, no one had to repeat a turn in front of the pack, and that made it a little easier on most of us. I think the group was pretty consistent in their turns at the front, and we ended up with 3.6 miles of fartleks, at an overall average of 8:06/mile. That probably works out to be around 7:15/mile pace on the 2:00 accelerations, with 9:30/mile recovery jogging, more or less. No matter what, it felt fine out there, and we all felt pretty good during the workout and after. We finished up our faster running west of the footbridge, and so we got in a good 1.3 miles of recovery cooldown running at the end, at about 9:25/mile pace. Overall, it was right at 7 miles, 8:45/mile average. Good job!
Once we were back at Auditorium Shores, we knocked out 5 striders and then called it a day. Gilbert had mentioned doing the balance drills, but maybe he changed his mind while we were out there. There's a continuing theme of nervous energy in the group as we get ever closer to the marathon, and there's lots of talk of race strategy, split times, pace, nutrition, and the weather. Increasingly, it looks like we're going to have pretty good weather for race day, but long range weather forecasting is about as reliable as reading tarot cards, so we'll see about that.
I did most of the stretching routine once we got done, and headed home. Another day closer...
This morning was one of my favorite workouts in the Gazelles canon, the fartlek tuneup run. It was glorious out there again today, in the high 30's, crisp and clear. We ended up with a giant mob of runners this morning in our pace pod, which was pretty fun. Rich and Rachel were back today, and it was good to see them moving pretty comfortably. We also added a bunch of Frank's crew to our number. At any rate, we did two easy miles at something like 9:40 average pace, and then started our cycle of a fast 2 minutes and a recovery minute for 10 cycles on the trail. With so many people, no one had to repeat a turn in front of the pack, and that made it a little easier on most of us. I think the group was pretty consistent in their turns at the front, and we ended up with 3.6 miles of fartleks, at an overall average of 8:06/mile. That probably works out to be around 7:15/mile pace on the 2:00 accelerations, with 9:30/mile recovery jogging, more or less. No matter what, it felt fine out there, and we all felt pretty good during the workout and after. We finished up our faster running west of the footbridge, and so we got in a good 1.3 miles of recovery cooldown running at the end, at about 9:25/mile pace. Overall, it was right at 7 miles, 8:45/mile average. Good job!
Once we were back at Auditorium Shores, we knocked out 5 striders and then called it a day. Gilbert had mentioned doing the balance drills, but maybe he changed his mind while we were out there. There's a continuing theme of nervous energy in the group as we get ever closer to the marathon, and there's lots of talk of race strategy, split times, pace, nutrition, and the weather. Increasingly, it looks like we're going to have pretty good weather for race day, but long range weather forecasting is about as reliable as reading tarot cards, so we'll see about that.
I did most of the stretching routine once we got done, and headed home. Another day closer...
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
GymStuff
A quick visit to the gym for a single set workout. It was pretty weird to stop after single sets of the upper body exercises, but that's my plan, so I stuck with it. Did the full core workout, but single sets of legs and upper body. It felt great to hit the gym. Two more gym workouts and I'm done until after the marathon.
A quick visit to the gym for a single set workout. It was pretty weird to stop after single sets of the upper body exercises, but that's my plan, so I stuck with it. Did the full core workout, but single sets of legs and upper body. It felt great to hit the gym. Two more gym workouts and I'm done until after the marathon.
EZ Running
Another Tuesday, another recovery run with Frank. We met at 6:00am, and once again, that extra 15 minutes of sleep seemed to be much more than that. I felt nice and refreshed this morning, which was a welcome change. We trimmed the normal 7 miler to 5 miles, in honor of taper week 2. Pace turned out to be 9:12/mile for 5.2 miles, which felt truly easy. We stopped at the Austin High School track on our journey for a quick cup of Powerade and a visit with the Tuesday/Thursday Gazelles as they ran their 800's, which was fun. Another beautiful morning, crisp and clear, 35 degrees. Another beautiful sunrise over the city, another Chamber of Commerce type day. Ho hum. Now, will we get this sort of weather on the 19th? Fingers are crossed. This afternoon, I'll go in for a single set weight workout. I think on Thursday, I'll do the easy indoor cycle instead of another recovery run, like last week (and like next week). Another day closer to Freescale. At this point, we're down to worrying about weather, and that's about it. Tick, tick, tick.
Entertainment/Literary Notes
Based partly on Richard's online recommendation, I picked up and read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a sort of period piece about the history of English magic. Pretty fun book, but it was loooooonnnnngggg. I enjoyed the author's details about life in the early to mid-1800's, which reminded me of the Neal Stephenson trilogy (Quicksilver, Baroque Cycle) set in a similar time frame. As a snack after that long book, I read a collection of Isaac Asimov's short science fiction, Nightfall and Other Stories, which I found back home in Lufkin in my old room.
Musically, I've been listening a lot to Ryan Adams (not Bryan Adams, the Canadian), Steve James and Del Rey, the new Paul McCartney album, Paul Westerberg ("Folkie"), New Pornographers and the new Spoon album. They're in the "New CD" folder on the iPod, so I'm checking them out. It's nice to be able to take all my newer CD's with me all the time in that small package, and it's another example of how this little music player has changed the way I consume my music.
This year, once again, I have started watching "24," but unlike past years, I've actually enjoyed that show this time, and I've stuck with it. I don't watch it live, but via DVR, which speeds up the process. Good show. It's fun to see what Jack Bauer will do in each episode that violates all possible legal rights of the various bad guys. The idea is that it's for the greater good, which I suppose fulfills some inner law and order fantasy that the nation holds. Anyway, I don't think I'll be going to purchase the previous seasons of "24" on DVD or anything like that, but it's entertaining television. Unlike most of the Super Bowl this year. Could the Rolling Stones have played 4 songs instead of 3, by the way? Surely we didn't need the extended versions of "Start Me Up" and "Satisfaction?" Play those songs, yes, but not the 6 minute versions of each. Sigh...
Another Tuesday, another recovery run with Frank. We met at 6:00am, and once again, that extra 15 minutes of sleep seemed to be much more than that. I felt nice and refreshed this morning, which was a welcome change. We trimmed the normal 7 miler to 5 miles, in honor of taper week 2. Pace turned out to be 9:12/mile for 5.2 miles, which felt truly easy. We stopped at the Austin High School track on our journey for a quick cup of Powerade and a visit with the Tuesday/Thursday Gazelles as they ran their 800's, which was fun. Another beautiful morning, crisp and clear, 35 degrees. Another beautiful sunrise over the city, another Chamber of Commerce type day. Ho hum. Now, will we get this sort of weather on the 19th? Fingers are crossed. This afternoon, I'll go in for a single set weight workout. I think on Thursday, I'll do the easy indoor cycle instead of another recovery run, like last week (and like next week). Another day closer to Freescale. At this point, we're down to worrying about weather, and that's about it. Tick, tick, tick.
Entertainment/Literary Notes
Based partly on Richard's online recommendation, I picked up and read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a sort of period piece about the history of English magic. Pretty fun book, but it was loooooonnnnngggg. I enjoyed the author's details about life in the early to mid-1800's, which reminded me of the Neal Stephenson trilogy (Quicksilver, Baroque Cycle) set in a similar time frame. As a snack after that long book, I read a collection of Isaac Asimov's short science fiction, Nightfall and Other Stories, which I found back home in Lufkin in my old room.
Musically, I've been listening a lot to Ryan Adams (not Bryan Adams, the Canadian), Steve James and Del Rey, the new Paul McCartney album, Paul Westerberg ("Folkie"), New Pornographers and the new Spoon album. They're in the "New CD" folder on the iPod, so I'm checking them out. It's nice to be able to take all my newer CD's with me all the time in that small package, and it's another example of how this little music player has changed the way I consume my music.
This year, once again, I have started watching "24," but unlike past years, I've actually enjoyed that show this time, and I've stuck with it. I don't watch it live, but via DVR, which speeds up the process. Good show. It's fun to see what Jack Bauer will do in each episode that violates all possible legal rights of the various bad guys. The idea is that it's for the greater good, which I suppose fulfills some inner law and order fantasy that the nation holds. Anyway, I don't think I'll be going to purchase the previous seasons of "24" on DVD or anything like that, but it's entertaining television. Unlike most of the Super Bowl this year. Could the Rolling Stones have played 4 songs instead of 3, by the way? Surely we didn't need the extended versions of "Start Me Up" and "Satisfaction?" Play those songs, yes, but not the 6 minute versions of each. Sigh...
Monday, February 06, 2006
Running Against The Wind
Today was the last really snappy workout before Freescale. We met at RunTex and did the long warmup (2.7 miles) to Austin High School. I ran over with Jennifer, Brian, Jerry and Jerry's son-in-law, Tim. We trailed the rest of the gang by 50 yards or so, but still covered the distance in a pretty quick 9:07/mile. Drills were drilled, and it was time to get going. The wind was pretty darned strong, blowing from the north or northwest, which made it seem much cooler than the actual 54 degrees. Gilbert grouped us up, and assigned our pace group 3:30/800m. 6 repeats, minimum, 8 maximum, 2:00 rest between.
My group was Kristina, Emily, Susan, Jennifer, Charlene, Brian, Marcy, and me. In the dark, it took us a couple of repeats to find the pace, but we ended up with a nice grouping of repeats. I felt a little tired during repeat number 5, but just kept on going, and I felt okay pretty quickly after that. Once I did 6 repeats, I knew I would do all 8, and it got easier towards the end. I didn't have quite the snap that I usually do on the last repeat, but that was okay with me. I picked it up for the last repeast at least, and after Saturday's rather brisk long run, that was all I wanted out of the workout today. I was pleased that we had a lot of people willing to take the lead on the repeats, because with the wind howling around the first turn and backstretch, it was tougher to lead than normal. Brian took a few repeats, I took a few, and Susan, Marcy, Emily and Kristina shared a couple as well. That sure makes it more fun.
Splits: 3:35, 3:31, 3:25, 3:28, 3:29, 3:26, 3:29, 3:23. Average pace 3:29, right on target. We were a little slower than last time with this workout, but the wind is probably largely responsible for that discrepancy.
After we were done, we knocked out 3x200m striders, and soon adjusted our route on the track to do those with a favorable wind. The cooldown jog was back the shorter way, and we covered those 1.6 miles at a still nice 9:06/mile. Good one. As I said, this was the last track work until after Freescale, so spirits were high afterwards. 9.15 miles for the day.
I stuck around and stretched, which I really needed. I was a little beaten up from Saturday, but today's workout helped to get the kinks out. The marathon is really right on top of us, now, and the taper really kicks in at this point. There's nothing we can do to improve things at this point, but there's a lot of ways we can mess things up between now and the 19th.
Oh, yeah, I saw the painted Finish Line marker on Riverside as I drove home today, and it's a little closer than I had thought. That'll make it even better as we steam around that last corner on marathon day.
Today was the last really snappy workout before Freescale. We met at RunTex and did the long warmup (2.7 miles) to Austin High School. I ran over with Jennifer, Brian, Jerry and Jerry's son-in-law, Tim. We trailed the rest of the gang by 50 yards or so, but still covered the distance in a pretty quick 9:07/mile. Drills were drilled, and it was time to get going. The wind was pretty darned strong, blowing from the north or northwest, which made it seem much cooler than the actual 54 degrees. Gilbert grouped us up, and assigned our pace group 3:30/800m. 6 repeats, minimum, 8 maximum, 2:00 rest between.
My group was Kristina, Emily, Susan, Jennifer, Charlene, Brian, Marcy, and me. In the dark, it took us a couple of repeats to find the pace, but we ended up with a nice grouping of repeats. I felt a little tired during repeat number 5, but just kept on going, and I felt okay pretty quickly after that. Once I did 6 repeats, I knew I would do all 8, and it got easier towards the end. I didn't have quite the snap that I usually do on the last repeat, but that was okay with me. I picked it up for the last repeast at least, and after Saturday's rather brisk long run, that was all I wanted out of the workout today. I was pleased that we had a lot of people willing to take the lead on the repeats, because with the wind howling around the first turn and backstretch, it was tougher to lead than normal. Brian took a few repeats, I took a few, and Susan, Marcy, Emily and Kristina shared a couple as well. That sure makes it more fun.
Splits: 3:35, 3:31, 3:25, 3:28, 3:29, 3:26, 3:29, 3:23. Average pace 3:29, right on target. We were a little slower than last time with this workout, but the wind is probably largely responsible for that discrepancy.
After we were done, we knocked out 3x200m striders, and soon adjusted our route on the track to do those with a favorable wind. The cooldown jog was back the shorter way, and we covered those 1.6 miles at a still nice 9:06/mile. Good one. As I said, this was the last track work until after Freescale, so spirits were high afterwards. 9.15 miles for the day.
I stuck around and stretched, which I really needed. I was a little beaten up from Saturday, but today's workout helped to get the kinks out. The marathon is really right on top of us, now, and the taper really kicks in at this point. There's nothing we can do to improve things at this point, but there's a lot of ways we can mess things up between now and the 19th.
Oh, yeah, I saw the painted Finish Line marker on Riverside as I drove home today, and it's a little closer than I had thought. That'll make it even better as we steam around that last corner on marathon day.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
You Dropped A Bomb On Me
This was our theme song today. Gilbert scheduled a 15 mile jaunt over the middle to late portion of the Freescale course (between miles 7 and 21, more or less), with the last 5 miles "very hard." He modified that slightly this morning as we got ready to run, saying that if we didn't feel it, we didn't have to really drop the bomb on the last 5 miles. So, after carpooling up to Gateway theatres, we got together and headed out. It was spectacular weather once again, with temps hanging in the low to mid 40's throughout the run, turning just wonderful once the sun rose higher while we were stretching, but I'm getting ahead of myself with that.
I experimented this morning by waking up earlier than usual, and eating a Clif Bar along with my usual banana. Just figured it was time to test my newest nutrition strategy, aiming to get a few more last-minute calories stored on board before the long run. It worked great, by the way, so as always, I learned something new today.
Gilbert introduced me to a new guy, Lance (not Mr. Armstrong), who would run with us today. Our pace posse was comprised of most of the usual suspects: Amy, Shannon, Charlene, Jennifer, Colleen, Bob, Brian, Richard, Kurt and Lance. But it was a strange day in that regard. Rachel and Rich were both nursing aches and pains, and weren't able to join us. They were missed.
We were supposed to be running nice and easy early, and for one mile, I guess we did. But, once we got onto Braker, from there on we were running pretty quickly for a long training run. I guess the combination of the "short" distance today and the great weather, along with the very familiar course, got us in a running frame of mind. We all felt pretty comfortable, though, and even with splits quicker than usual, we just kept rolling. Various of us took hydration adjustments in the first miles, and by the time we reached the first water/Powerade stop at Shoal Creek and W. Anderson, we had grouped back together. Our group kept splitting into two pods, and I hung back with the second group. The gap would grow to 50 yards or more, but our slightly slower group would gather back up with the first group at various stoplights or the water stops. Anyway, through the first 5 miles, things were going great. Most of us took a GU, and it was time to get moving. Rudy did a great job for us all day long with the rolling water stops, too.
Splits miles 1-5: 9:40, 9:08, 9:30 (brief stop for me), 8:36 (catching back up), 8:45. Overall, a sprightly 9:07/mile. Nice.
Today, I realized just how long that straight stretch along the railroad tracks is. It seemed neverending, but of course, it did end. By now, we were mixing it up with Frank's group ahead of us, which was strange. That almost never happens on the road. Maybe at the early water stops, but not while we're running. Were we going faster, or were they taking it easier than usual? Maybe both? During this second 5 miles, we more or less formed a giant pace blob, upwards of 20 runners. Alex, Patrick, Marcy, Thon, Frank, Carrie, "the other" Amy, and others were all mixed up with us by the time we reached Rudy and the second water/GU/Powerade stop on Duval. We passed a group of three guys running slowly with the course map while we were on North Loop, and we passed a bunch of Rogue Training folks on and around Duval. We were really moving along! I passed along a couple of songs to stick in people's heads, including "Let It Whip" by Dazz Band, and "Drop The Bomb," by the Gap Band. Brian later told me that they both stuck with him for the rest of the run. Funk is just the best, isn't it?
Splits miles 6-10.4: 8:58, 8:50, 8:54, 9:02, 8:47, 0.3 miles at 8:45/mile. Overall pace had improved to 9:00/mile.
Anyway, another pretty efficient water stop with Rudy around the 10 mile mark, and it was time to "Drop the Bomb," using Gilbert's terminology. I figured I'd go with it and see how I felt, but I wasn't going after a particular pace. It was "run how you feel" time. So, I got going from the water stop pretty much behind everyone, and started to pick up the pace. As we rolled down Duval, I just kept catching people, including some folks who I was surprised to see. I guess I was just having a really good day, and most of the other people were happy finishing up with an accelerated but not super fast pace. This close to a marathon, everyone has pretty specific needs out of a given training run, so I totally respect everyone's effort and pacing decisions. Still, like I said, it was disconcerting to go by Frank, Patrick and Alex. It was almost like I was doing something wrong.
But, Charlene and Thon hooked up with me by the time we hit the UT campus, and we made up a tidy trio for the rest of the run. I've grown accustomed to bringing up the rear on the long runs the last couple of times out, so this was sort of weird for me, but I was just enjoying the ride. I knew we were going faster, but it didn't feel stupid fast. Going around the Capitol, I heard Charlene and Thon discussing their "easy" miles at 3M in the 7:30/mile range, which scared me some more. 7:30/mile is awfully quick to me on runs that long! Rolling down Congress, we found the roads blocked off to either side of Congress, which made it a lot of fun to roar down that slope towards the finish. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts had some sort of parade happening later. We had to dodge some of them and their carts, but it was okay with me. Thon and Charlene backed off the pace once we crossed Cesar Chavez, but I wanted to finish up things in style, and kept going at my quicker pace. I ran to the last corner of the Freescale course, and then eased the throttle back to see if I could find the finish line painted on the curb somewhere on Riverside. No such luck. However, GPS marking from the 26 mile marker that I saw showed me that the finish will be more or less where it usually is, right across from the Convention Center. What a run!
Splits, miles 11-15.3: 7:55, 7:20, 7:44, 7:00, and 0.73 miles at 7:21. A short bit (.17 miles) of jogging to cooldown followed. It was a really strong fast finish for me, and was totally unexpected. Overall pace without water stops included was 8:32/mile. With 4:30 in water stop time added, pace moved to 8:50/mile, still very quick compared to our MGP. 15.3 total miles for the day.
We moseyed over to get our stretching gear and warm clothes, and then knocked out 4 striders while we waited for Gilbert to start the balance drills. Those were as silly as usual, but I like the way they loosen up my hips and legs. The full stretching session after that was just great, hanging out in the warm sun, laughing with the peeps. Amy drove Jennifer, Kenny and me back up to Gateway to retrieve our vehicles, and the fun running day was over.
For the week, mileage was cut back to 36 miles. Next week, a couple of speedy workouts, and then basically we get to kick back for 10 days until Freescale. It's getting really close now!
This was our theme song today. Gilbert scheduled a 15 mile jaunt over the middle to late portion of the Freescale course (between miles 7 and 21, more or less), with the last 5 miles "very hard." He modified that slightly this morning as we got ready to run, saying that if we didn't feel it, we didn't have to really drop the bomb on the last 5 miles. So, after carpooling up to Gateway theatres, we got together and headed out. It was spectacular weather once again, with temps hanging in the low to mid 40's throughout the run, turning just wonderful once the sun rose higher while we were stretching, but I'm getting ahead of myself with that.
I experimented this morning by waking up earlier than usual, and eating a Clif Bar along with my usual banana. Just figured it was time to test my newest nutrition strategy, aiming to get a few more last-minute calories stored on board before the long run. It worked great, by the way, so as always, I learned something new today.
Gilbert introduced me to a new guy, Lance (not Mr. Armstrong), who would run with us today. Our pace posse was comprised of most of the usual suspects: Amy, Shannon, Charlene, Jennifer, Colleen, Bob, Brian, Richard, Kurt and Lance. But it was a strange day in that regard. Rachel and Rich were both nursing aches and pains, and weren't able to join us. They were missed.
We were supposed to be running nice and easy early, and for one mile, I guess we did. But, once we got onto Braker, from there on we were running pretty quickly for a long training run. I guess the combination of the "short" distance today and the great weather, along with the very familiar course, got us in a running frame of mind. We all felt pretty comfortable, though, and even with splits quicker than usual, we just kept rolling. Various of us took hydration adjustments in the first miles, and by the time we reached the first water/Powerade stop at Shoal Creek and W. Anderson, we had grouped back together. Our group kept splitting into two pods, and I hung back with the second group. The gap would grow to 50 yards or more, but our slightly slower group would gather back up with the first group at various stoplights or the water stops. Anyway, through the first 5 miles, things were going great. Most of us took a GU, and it was time to get moving. Rudy did a great job for us all day long with the rolling water stops, too.
Splits miles 1-5: 9:40, 9:08, 9:30 (brief stop for me), 8:36 (catching back up), 8:45. Overall, a sprightly 9:07/mile. Nice.
Today, I realized just how long that straight stretch along the railroad tracks is. It seemed neverending, but of course, it did end. By now, we were mixing it up with Frank's group ahead of us, which was strange. That almost never happens on the road. Maybe at the early water stops, but not while we're running. Were we going faster, or were they taking it easier than usual? Maybe both? During this second 5 miles, we more or less formed a giant pace blob, upwards of 20 runners. Alex, Patrick, Marcy, Thon, Frank, Carrie, "the other" Amy, and others were all mixed up with us by the time we reached Rudy and the second water/GU/Powerade stop on Duval. We passed a group of three guys running slowly with the course map while we were on North Loop, and we passed a bunch of Rogue Training folks on and around Duval. We were really moving along! I passed along a couple of songs to stick in people's heads, including "Let It Whip" by Dazz Band, and "Drop The Bomb," by the Gap Band. Brian later told me that they both stuck with him for the rest of the run. Funk is just the best, isn't it?
Splits miles 6-10.4: 8:58, 8:50, 8:54, 9:02, 8:47, 0.3 miles at 8:45/mile. Overall pace had improved to 9:00/mile.
Anyway, another pretty efficient water stop with Rudy around the 10 mile mark, and it was time to "Drop the Bomb," using Gilbert's terminology. I figured I'd go with it and see how I felt, but I wasn't going after a particular pace. It was "run how you feel" time. So, I got going from the water stop pretty much behind everyone, and started to pick up the pace. As we rolled down Duval, I just kept catching people, including some folks who I was surprised to see. I guess I was just having a really good day, and most of the other people were happy finishing up with an accelerated but not super fast pace. This close to a marathon, everyone has pretty specific needs out of a given training run, so I totally respect everyone's effort and pacing decisions. Still, like I said, it was disconcerting to go by Frank, Patrick and Alex. It was almost like I was doing something wrong.
But, Charlene and Thon hooked up with me by the time we hit the UT campus, and we made up a tidy trio for the rest of the run. I've grown accustomed to bringing up the rear on the long runs the last couple of times out, so this was sort of weird for me, but I was just enjoying the ride. I knew we were going faster, but it didn't feel stupid fast. Going around the Capitol, I heard Charlene and Thon discussing their "easy" miles at 3M in the 7:30/mile range, which scared me some more. 7:30/mile is awfully quick to me on runs that long! Rolling down Congress, we found the roads blocked off to either side of Congress, which made it a lot of fun to roar down that slope towards the finish. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts had some sort of parade happening later. We had to dodge some of them and their carts, but it was okay with me. Thon and Charlene backed off the pace once we crossed Cesar Chavez, but I wanted to finish up things in style, and kept going at my quicker pace. I ran to the last corner of the Freescale course, and then eased the throttle back to see if I could find the finish line painted on the curb somewhere on Riverside. No such luck. However, GPS marking from the 26 mile marker that I saw showed me that the finish will be more or less where it usually is, right across from the Convention Center. What a run!
Splits, miles 11-15.3: 7:55, 7:20, 7:44, 7:00, and 0.73 miles at 7:21. A short bit (.17 miles) of jogging to cooldown followed. It was a really strong fast finish for me, and was totally unexpected. Overall pace without water stops included was 8:32/mile. With 4:30 in water stop time added, pace moved to 8:50/mile, still very quick compared to our MGP. 15.3 total miles for the day.
We moseyed over to get our stretching gear and warm clothes, and then knocked out 4 striders while we waited for Gilbert to start the balance drills. Those were as silly as usual, but I like the way they loosen up my hips and legs. The full stretching session after that was just great, hanging out in the warm sun, laughing with the peeps. Amy drove Jennifer, Kenny and me back up to Gateway to retrieve our vehicles, and the fun running day was over.
For the week, mileage was cut back to 36 miles. Next week, a couple of speedy workouts, and then basically we get to kick back for 10 days until Freescale. It's getting really close now!
Friday, February 03, 2006
The Day The Music Died
This is the anniversary of Buddy Holly's plane crash in North Dakota (or was it Iowa?). That was the inspiration for Don McLean's "American Pie," among many other tributes. Holly was incredibly young when he died, and had already produced a treasure trove of great tunes for us to enjoy even today. If he were alive today, I bet he'd be a producer and/or studio owner. But, alas, he is not. Crank up your Buddy Holly tunes today, along with Richie Valens ("La Bomba" and "Donna"), and the Big Bopper ("Chantilly Lace"), and see what the fuss was about. Rock and Roll Heaven is certainly celebrating!
This is the anniversary of Buddy Holly's plane crash in North Dakota (or was it Iowa?). That was the inspiration for Don McLean's "American Pie," among many other tributes. Holly was incredibly young when he died, and had already produced a treasure trove of great tunes for us to enjoy even today. If he were alive today, I bet he'd be a producer and/or studio owner. But, alas, he is not. Crank up your Buddy Holly tunes today, along with Richie Valens ("La Bomba" and "Donna"), and the Big Bopper ("Chantilly Lace"), and see what the fuss was about. Rock and Roll Heaven is certainly celebrating!
Pump It Up
Today was a quick visit to the gym for a little core stuff and the full upper body workout. The new folks who've joined the gym for a New Year's Resolution are still visible, and God bless 'em for that. I hope they keep it up. I did Roman Chair stuff and planks for core exercises, and it's been a while since I've done them, it seems. Full upper body exercises went great, and next Tuesday will be the last time I do the full complement of two sets of those. Like I've said before, I'm even tapering the upper body weight work for Freescale. Anyway, it was a good visit, pretty quick, and now I just have to get ready for tomorrow's 15 mile journey on the Freescale course. I'm going to try experimenting with eating a little more before the run, waking up earlier than normal to take in some food, then going back to bed for an hour, and then going to the run. I'm hopeful that eating a couple of hours ahead of the run will boost my energy even more for the effort, even though we're running pretty easy to start with on Saturday.
Today was a quick visit to the gym for a little core stuff and the full upper body workout. The new folks who've joined the gym for a New Year's Resolution are still visible, and God bless 'em for that. I hope they keep it up. I did Roman Chair stuff and planks for core exercises, and it's been a while since I've done them, it seems. Full upper body exercises went great, and next Tuesday will be the last time I do the full complement of two sets of those. Like I've said before, I'm even tapering the upper body weight work for Freescale. Anyway, it was a good visit, pretty quick, and now I just have to get ready for tomorrow's 15 mile journey on the Freescale course. I'm going to try experimenting with eating a little more before the run, waking up earlier than normal to take in some food, then going back to bed for an hour, and then going to the run. I'm hopeful that eating a couple of hours ahead of the run will boost my energy even more for the effort, even though we're running pretty easy to start with on Saturday.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want To Ride My Bike...
I did a substitute workout today. After 5 straight days of running, I decided to do a nice 25 minutes on the indoor cycle at Gold's instead of a similar length EZ run. Served the same purpose, and gave my legs a break from the impact of running. It felt great to just spin for a while. After that, I did core stuff and then single sets of the leg exercises, including the next to last leg presses before Freescale. Next Tuesday will be the last time out for those until after the marathon. I'm even tapering my weight workouts, just to keep in step with everything else. It was a good little workout, and I feel great. Tomorrow, I hope to sneak over to Gold's for more core stuff and the upper body weights only. Just 2 weeks and 3 days till Freescale...
I did a substitute workout today. After 5 straight days of running, I decided to do a nice 25 minutes on the indoor cycle at Gold's instead of a similar length EZ run. Served the same purpose, and gave my legs a break from the impact of running. It felt great to just spin for a while. After that, I did core stuff and then single sets of the leg exercises, including the next to last leg presses before Freescale. Next Tuesday will be the last time out for those until after the marathon. I'm even tapering my weight workouts, just to keep in step with everything else. It was a good little workout, and I feel great. Tomorrow, I hope to sneak over to Gold's for more core stuff and the upper body weights only. Just 2 weeks and 3 days till Freescale...
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Foggy Day In Austin Town
This evening, I set out in the 'Hood for a solo tempo run. I couldn't join my fellow Gazelles this morning due to family commitments, so unfortunately, I had to do it on my own. Not as much fun, and my neighborhood is more hilly than the usual Town Lake course, but what the heck. At any rate, as dusk came and went, I headed out to see what I could do. After a relaxed mile or so at 9:30/mile pace, I just picked it up for the next four miles. Those clicked off at 7:59, 7:29, 7:27, and 7:19. 30:14 total, which is off my best by a minute and a half, but 7:34/mile average pace wasn't too bad this soon after 3M. It would have been nice to have someone to chase (or be chased by), which is usually good for a bit of acceleration, too. After I finished up the four faster miles, I just backed it down to a relaxed 9:44/mile for a last cooldown mile. I suppose this was more like a fartlek workout, but it served the purpose.
Once I got back to the house, I did some balance drills to loosen up my legs and called it a day. The weather was pretty yucky, totally foggy and misty, about 65 degrees. Tomorrow, an easy 45 minutes and a gym visit. Another day closer to Freescale...
Oh, yeah, after hearing a couple of her tunes during the run tonight, I have to wonder: Can Ani DiFranco either introduce or sing a song without uttering at least one expletive? I like most of the songs, but I'm just curious...
This evening, I set out in the 'Hood for a solo tempo run. I couldn't join my fellow Gazelles this morning due to family commitments, so unfortunately, I had to do it on my own. Not as much fun, and my neighborhood is more hilly than the usual Town Lake course, but what the heck. At any rate, as dusk came and went, I headed out to see what I could do. After a relaxed mile or so at 9:30/mile pace, I just picked it up for the next four miles. Those clicked off at 7:59, 7:29, 7:27, and 7:19. 30:14 total, which is off my best by a minute and a half, but 7:34/mile average pace wasn't too bad this soon after 3M. It would have been nice to have someone to chase (or be chased by), which is usually good for a bit of acceleration, too. After I finished up the four faster miles, I just backed it down to a relaxed 9:44/mile for a last cooldown mile. I suppose this was more like a fartlek workout, but it served the purpose.
Once I got back to the house, I did some balance drills to loosen up my legs and called it a day. The weather was pretty yucky, totally foggy and misty, about 65 degrees. Tomorrow, an easy 45 minutes and a gym visit. Another day closer to Freescale...
Oh, yeah, after hearing a couple of her tunes during the run tonight, I have to wonder: Can Ani DiFranco either introduce or sing a song without uttering at least one expletive? I like most of the songs, but I'm just curious...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)