Oh, my! I woke up today with more or less the same generalized quad soreness and stiffness that I've carried since 3M. I had to do the same internal dialogue (see yesterday's entry) in order to convince myself that going on down to RunTex to run with my friends was a sane idea. :-) The good running angel advisor won the internal argument, and so I found myself standing around with everyone at 5:45am, despite my perceived condition. It seems that I wasn't the only one still suffering the after-effects of the 3M race, which helped a little. Weather was nice and cool, around 40 degrees.
Gilbert sent us off with the information that AT&T people were to do 5 x 2000m, and the Boston people (and half marathon peeps) "only" needed to do 4 x 2000m. Man, that was going to be a party, huh? I was strug-gul-ling [sic] with the running once we got moving, that's for sure! I was doing all I could just to locomote in the general direction of all the other troopers, and Jennifer picked up on my severely altered gait immediately. It took pretty much a full mile for my legs to start loosening up enough for some quasi-normal running form. Not too much fun, that's for sure. We drilled away, and those were only occasionally agonizing, and finally it was time to group up for the speedy fun.
Kenny was there to say that the first loop of Zilker was to be a little easier, and then he said something about these 2000's being at marathon goal pace. That conflicted a little with Gilbert's statement that we were shooting to show a time improvement from the last time we did 2000's at Zilker. So, our group sort of fell in the middle, aiming to run a good set of repeats without worrying about how close we got to our workout best for 2000's. That workout best was 7:00/mile pace, or 8:24/lap. Judging from how my legs were doing, I didn't expect to get too close to that, especially if we were doing 5 of them. So, how did it go?
We had a nice group to start with, and I hung out in the back of the pack for almost all of that first repeat. I was still finding my way into comfortable running form, and I just wasn't feeling it today. I moved up a bit on the little hill, and ended up pretty close to the front by the end of the lap. That one was really slow, by comparison to how we've done these in the past. It was plenty fast if we were aiming at the MGP standard, though. Go figure.
Anyway, from there, the group sort of split into subgroups, and the lead pack got smaller and smaller, until the last (fifth) repeat, when it was just Marty, Brian and me cruising around that last lap. I felt fine, cardiovascularly, but my legs were just pretty tired, and I didn't have a lot of snap in them. Still, Brian and I pushed and pulled each other through the end of repeat number five, and ended up with a set of 5 x 2000m that was consistently faster each lap. I could get behind that sort of numbers.
The splits: 9:19, 8:55, 8:51, 8:40, and 8:36. Average lap was 8:52, or 7:24/mile. That's way off what we did back a while ago, but considering how I felt going into this workout, I can handle this.
We had a nice comfortable cooldown run, and then I did some decent stretching, because Lord knows, the legs needed it!
I'm still pretty darned tired, but now for the rest of the week, I can relax a bit, and just aim for the 15 miler on Saturday (in Lufkin, solo, unfortunately). For the day, 9.4 miles, a pretty long day at the running office, but this was really the last tough workout before AT&T, I think. We might have something longish and snappy on Monday, but from there it's easy street as we sharpen the spear for the marathon.
And the countdown clock goes tick, tick, tick...
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Easy Running
My quads were pretty darned beaten up all day today. It was a classic case of 2DOS, or 2nd Day Onset Soreness. It was such that I really wasn't looking forward at all about running today, easy or not. I just couldn't imagine how it was going to feel out there if I felt that bad just moving around in my normal day. So, I tried to talk myself out of the easy recovery run on the schedule. I successfully avoided it until about 5:30pm, when I finally decided that I had no excuse, and if it was just awful, I could always just turn around.
I hit the road about a quarter till 6:00, and that first half mile or so was indeed an adventure. I ran quite slowly, letting my legs come to terms with my mistreatment of them, and finally, about the time I finished that first mile in the 'Hood, we decided to cooperate with each other, and the run was to continue. Man, that was a long sentence! With each mile after that, the running got better and better, and except for a couple of longer downhill bits (which were pretty rough on the quads), I enjoyed the run tonight.
I ended up with right at 6.5 miles, about an hour of running, and that was just what the doctor (or Coach Tuhabonye) ordered. I did some balance drills outside before coming inside for stretching, and my legs really did feel better after all that. I knew I had to get this run in so that tomorrow morning's 2000m repeats weren't just total death on my legs. Now, I can almost imagine that it will be okay tomorrow with the Gazelles. At least that's my hope. :-)
I hit the road about a quarter till 6:00, and that first half mile or so was indeed an adventure. I ran quite slowly, letting my legs come to terms with my mistreatment of them, and finally, about the time I finished that first mile in the 'Hood, we decided to cooperate with each other, and the run was to continue. Man, that was a long sentence! With each mile after that, the running got better and better, and except for a couple of longer downhill bits (which were pretty rough on the quads), I enjoyed the run tonight.
I ended up with right at 6.5 miles, about an hour of running, and that was just what the doctor (or Coach Tuhabonye) ordered. I did some balance drills outside before coming inside for stretching, and my legs really did feel better after all that. I knew I had to get this run in so that tomorrow morning's 2000m repeats weren't just total death on my legs. Now, I can almost imagine that it will be okay tomorrow with the Gazelles. At least that's my hope. :-)
Monday, January 29, 2007
Alternate Workouts
Monday was a day to ease into Gold's for some indoor cycling (30 minutes), some core exercises (Core II with the planks), and a single set version of the leg weight routine. I even did a bit of stretching after the cycling, along with some gentle work on the foam roller. Now THAT was interesting! Yeowwww! Anyway, after a slow start on the bike, my legs got happier as the day progressed, and by the end of the workout day, I felt pretty darned good. There's still some good old-fashioned soreness in my legs, especially my quads (it was that sort of run course yesterday), and getting into and out of chairs can be an adventure, but I'm already on the road to recovery.
Tuesday is an easy hour run here in the 'Hood, and another gym visit, probably. We return to Gazelle-ing on Wednesday, which will be fun with all the peeps.
Tuesday is an easy hour run here in the 'Hood, and another gym visit, probably. We return to Gazelle-ing on Wednesday, which will be fun with all the peeps.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
3M Half Marathon [Entered 1/29/07]
Sunday was our fastest local half marathon, the 3M Half Marathon. I've run a bunch of them, and we have been blessed with good weather every year for it. This year was no exception, with a sparkling clear morning, 40 degrees, and what wind there was came as a tailwind. Could not ask for a better day, that's for sure!
My friends Jeff and Andy were in town for the race, making a trip from North Carolina, so it was a fun weekend regardless of the race results. We were well-behaved on Saturday night, getting plenty of rest and avoiding a visit to some purveyor of a well-stocked beer selection. Even so, getting up at dark:30 was tough, but other than that, we got down to RunTex in plenty of time to pick up some members of the running tribe (Alex, Frank, Brian, and Emily) to carpool back up to the top of the course.
Andy was injured, so in order to avoid further pain and damage, he decided to walk a slightly shortened version of the official race course. He left from the start area right at 6:00am, to get a head start, and although he cut out a few of the early bits, he still ended up with something like an 11 mile walk. He finished about when I did, and had a pretty fun stroll through Austin anyway.
Brian helped find a great parking spot (I was probably a little too impressed with it, but it was, as Bob Uecker would say, "...in the front rooooowwwww!"), and after we made the usual pre-warmup stops, we were off for our warmup routine. We probably had 15 people with us as we toured the first mile of the course, into the wind, and then turned around and headed back. A nice 2 mile jog at just over 10:00/mile pace. Amy was there, but she had a serious game face on, and I was not to see her again until after the race was complete. (Foreshadowing...). We spotted Gilbert around that time, and our little group disintegrated. Some went to do drills, some went to huddle around the outdoor gas area heater near the big pre-race tent, and some of us went back to the truck to get down to our race clothing. I did a few drills and strides in the parking garage, and then we all got ready to race. There was much back and forth about last-minute clothing changes, but I stuck with my notion of wearing shorts and two shirts, with gloves and a hat. It was just under 40 degrees, and chilly when you were facing into the breeze. I figured even with the breeze at our backs, it would be nice to be warm enough on top. We shall see...
Anyway, after dropping my backpack at the baggage claim, and after checking about five times to make sure my GU and Enervitene gels were safely stored in my shorts pockets, it was time to get in line. By now, it was maybe 10 minutes to the race start. I made my way around the median, and worked my way into the crowd, but I was a bit dismayed to find myself 30 yards or so back from the start line. There was absolutely no one that I knew in my vicinity. Oh, well. I half expected to have Sue find me during the first miles of the race, but that was not to be. :-) I knew that the first mile, at least, was going to be a mental challenge, trying to find a balance between getting up to speed and not wasting too much energy weaving through the crowds. Groan.
Oh, yeah, pre-race goals: After sifting through the many versions of our suggested race plan, I decided to run "comfortably hard," figuring that if I ran about like I did at Motive, effort-wise, I'd PR today on this easier course without having to really blast it. I'm trying to stay focused on the marathon, so today was not a day to run like the wind. I hoped to be around 8:00 pace very early, then shift to something around 7:45/mile and hang out there, and then doing the usual "GO!" at mile 10 to try to bring it home.
Soon, the horn went off, Evel played the Tom Petty song, and...nothing happened. At least where I was standing, nothing happened. Time passed...we walked a few steps. Stopped. More time passed...more walking, two steps of a jog...and we stopped. Rinse, repeat, etc. Finally, some 2 minutes and change after the horn, I finally broke into something like a jog/run, and crossed the starting mat. I felt fine, but it was a drag to negotiate that first mile. I was all over the place, darting in and out of the folks lined up ahead of me. Lots of very slow runners who had badly misplaced themselves in the crowd, as well as assorted other slower folks. With all the maneuvering, it was very difficult to establish a good initial pace, and I was slightly concerned that I was messing up badly, but I just tried to settle down and pick good lanes to run. At the first corner, up on Braker, it got much better, and I actually passed Jennifer early. I was so intent on getting onto pace that I convinced myself that it wasn't her, and didn't say anything to her. She saw me, too, but we were both busy at the time. :-)
My first mile split was way off any pre-race plan, which was frustrating. I had to fight off a lot of negative thoughts from that mile marker through the next 3 or 4 miles. During mile two, I tried to pick the pace up, hoping to really be able to run by mile 3. I grabbed water at that first water stop, checked that split, again too slow, but better, and moved on. Mile 3 went up and across Loop 360 on the access road, up to Jollyville Rd. and then turned onto Mesa. I was steadily passing people at this point. I felt like I was running much better by then, and waved to Sarah's friend's family (that's a complicated phrase, isn't it?), and to Kenny, and even passed Javier, who had lined up ahead of me, obviously. The mile 3 split was a little bit too quick, as I was making the rookie mistake of trying to catch up all my lost time too fast. I settled down a little, I thought, relaxing a bit, but I was still in passing mode.
We turned down Spicewood Springs for the bombing run downhill, and as I passed the mile 4 marker, I started playing a math game (yes, I was and am a math geek), totalling up the number of seconds above (or below) an overall 8:00/mile pace I was at each split. How do you do that, you ask? You keep a total in your head of the number of seconds over or under 8:00 for each split, and manipulate those numbers. So, for my first four miles, I had a +35, a +8, a -22, and another -22. Altogether, I was at +1 seconds after four miles, or right on 8:00/mile pace. To get to my PR pace of 7:49/mile, I had a lot of work to do. I had to make up 40-something seconds over the last 9.11 miles of the race...40-something seconds UNDER that PR pace. 4 or 5 seconds per mile faster. Well, I had lots of time to work this out, and I had nothing else to occupy myself, except for running, so why not work the brain, too? :-)
Splits miles 1-4: 8:35, 8:08, 7:38, 7:38. Overall pace 8:00/mile.
I took a GU at that water stop, and continued on downhill. I tried to keep Gilbert and Pete's advice in mind to control my downhill run on that steep downhill, but I was only partially successful. More passing of people, and that part of the deal was pretty cool. It's always good to be going by folks, especially when you can hear some of them working pretty hard, and you're running at something like a controlled pace. The first music was at the traditional spot, in the median as we climbed the bridge on Spicewood going over Mopac. The bagpipers did their bagpipe thing, and as usual, the non-rocking music actually boosted my spirits. I was constantly telling myself to relax, to just run and not worry about the pace situation, blah, blah, blah, but I wasn't always successful convincing myself that it would work out.
Up and over that bridge, and we settled into the middle miles, largely flat as we wound through and around a neighborhood behind Northcross Mall. I think I sort of went to sleep in these miles, with none of my usual running buddies around to pace with, and my pacing became somewhat erratic, I thought. Mile 5 was a little too fast at that point, mile 6 about right. I almost messed up around the relay exchange zone, when a couple of people around me picked it up a bit to look good for their relay partners. I started to stay with them, but realized it soon enough that they weren't continuing at that pace, but were stopping. I took more fluids at the water stop at mile 6, and we turned onto Burnet for the long straight stretch down to North Loop. That part is a gentle downhill trend, and with the wide open roads, it was pleasant running. However, mile 7 and 8 on Burnet were off the pace. I relaxed a little too much, even though I was still catching and passing folks. I saw a band with horns sort of milling around on Burnet, but they weren't set up by then. What were they waiting for? Another band was camped out at Amy's Ice Cream, I think, playing "Brown Eyed Girl." Pretty sparse entertainment, but I'd take what I could get. Down to North Loop we went. The real race was starting now, as we hit the only real hilly part of the whole course....
Splits miles 5-8: 7:29, 7:45, 7:53, 7:56. Overall pace 7:53/mile. At this point, I was wrestling with whether to push hard enough to go for a PR or whether to just cruise it in, running in the 7:45-8:00/mile range for a quality training run. Believe me, it was a spirited internal conversation. The math game showed that I was going to have to get on my giddyup horse to catch my PR pace. Oh, well, I'd just keep running, push through the hills, and see where I was at mile 10 after we turned onto Duval.
Miles 9 and 10 had the uphill bits of North Loop, but there were plenty of downhill and flat sections through there as well. We know those hills extremely well, so I didn't fret about them, but just shifted into hill-climbing gear, and proceeded to pass even more people. The uphills didn't bother me much, but I was a little disappointed in my splits for those two miles. I had really dug myself a deep time hole for the last 5K of the race. I needed a bunch of time down Duval to run a PR, and I wasn't sure I was feeling it today. At least it was some good downhill running to the finish!
Splits miles 9 and 10: 7:49, 7:59. Pretty average running, given my fall race results, but I was still moving pretty comfortably, and the weather was still great, and the hills were basically over. Get going, Jay!
I knew that Richard and Stephanie were spectating at something like the mile 11 mark, just after a short hill on Duval, so I wanted to look like a runner going by them. That helped get me out of my doldrums a bit, and my mile 11 split was better, but by now, I had a huge amount of time to recover in the last couple of miles. I needed to recover some 33 seconds over the last 2.11 miles, and that would require some awfully peppy running. As a result, I just stopped looking at the watch, and just focused on running quickly and efficiently, reasoning that if I just ran, I'd get whatever I got, and maybe I'd get my brain to stop fretting so much.
I've probably run down that stretch, Duval to San Jacinto, through the UT campus, 50 times or more over the years, so it was like a friendly home course to me. I pretty much have all the bumps, inclines and downhills memorized. Probably could run it in the dark...come to think of it, we did run it in the dark (and rain and gloom) a few weeks ago on that crazy training run! I passed Christine and Banjo cheering for us with a Gazelles sign, and that was great to see. More running, more passing. I was actually working my eyes pretty hard looking for the mile 12 marker, and it was great to see it right at San Jacinto. Now, with a mile to go, I started putting even a little more effort into my race. The downhills were finished, and I just had that last flat mile to go. There was a mariachi band in there at the bottom of campus, and some sort of accordion and guitar ensemble before that, but it gets blurry now, thinking about it. I got into a pitched battle with a guy in a black shirt, and we took turns pushing the pace. He'd go around me, and pull away a few steps, and then I'd feel better, and put on a sustained burst, going around him, and so on and so forth. We passed the talking oil derrick, and continued onto Trinity for the homestretch. I could see way ahead the finish arch, but I must admit I was bird-dogging it a bit looking for that mile 13 marker. (That's an expression meaning that I had the excellent vision of a good bird dog, scanning the grounds for a quail or dove, or in this case, a mile marker). I heard Evel announcing people's numbers, and I put on a last burst once I passed the mile 13 marker, and was excited to see the finish line clock ticking away with a number that meant "PR," final time to be determined. Whoosh (or whatever sound I make when going through air), and I was done!
I thanked Black Shirt Guy for the spirited battle (I beat him, by the way), and saw the good news on my watch. A big PR (well, a significant PR, but not when compared to some of the other Gazelles...) was in hand.
Splits miles 11-13.11: 7:40, 7:19, 7:14, and 0.11 miles in 0:41, or 6:13/mile pace for the killer sprint. Final time 1:41:43, a PR by 37 seconds over Motive, and I guess I really only ran super hard the last couple of miles. I wasn't dogging it before that, but I was sort of erratic without a Gazelle buddy to share the day. Overall pace 7:46/mile.
I am happy with my day, especially the quality miles to finish off the race. It was a great feeling to have that sort of speed left at the end of a half marathon, and I was able to fight off some mental dullness today. I almost let the early running traffic jam annoy me to the point of quitting on the race effort early, and I'm proud that I did not let that happen. I settled down after the three snappy miles leading up to mile 5, was strong in the North Loop hills, and was fiesty down the stretch. All in all, a good day, and it was my sixth consecutive half marathon race PR (well, the first 3 were "Masters PRs," but it's been six consecutively faster halfs). I can live with that sort of consistent improvement!
I got my medal, starting drinking water, and found Alex right away. He pointed me to the baggage truck, and after getting my bag (a much improved baggage claim this year, by the way! I had zero trouble getting my bag within 30 seconds of walking up to the truck), I wandered back into the post-race hubbub to find my peeps. It was great to see everyone, and it seemed that virtually everyone had either run a massive PR or had at least run a race that matched up with their expectations and race plans. I got some food at the HEB tent, finished off my water, and started on Powerade. By then, I had hooked back up with Frank, Brian, Amy, Jennifer, Colleen, Venus, and a host of others. I found a nice spot in the sun to sit down and put on my post-race warmer clothing, and that felt really good. I saw Jeff and Andy around that time, too. After the folks had gotten all the breakfast tacos they could stand, and we had all gotten ourselves ready to go, it was time for the cooldown jog to RunTex.
I strapped the backpack up, and it actually rode pretty well, using the chest strap as well as the regular shoulder straps. There was a lot of chatter as we jogged back, but there was not a lot of speed. :-) We averaged a robust 12:30/mile for our 1.5 mile journey up to and down Congress Avenue, but it was a nice bit of recovery for our downhill-burnt legs.
Gilbert showed up as we got to RunTex, and we chatted with him for a bit. I did just a little stretching while we were getting ready to go, and then it was time to get driving north. Frank was nice enough to drive Jeff, Andy, Jennifer and me back up to Gateway, and after a few last words of congratulations, we all went our separate directions. The Carolina boys and I went to Einstein's (with apparently 50 other runners with the same idea) for post-race bagels, and then we found our way home after loading up on baked goods.
The day was polished off with a somewhat traditional Mangia pizza festival, as we dove into those seriously thick Chicago-style pizzas. Frank's family and my own joined us, along with Brian, Richard and Stephanie, and we had a grand time taking over the place, yakking away for quite a while. The two Live Oak beers weren't quite enough, so Jeff, Andy and I drove over to Ginger Man for a last quality draft beer experience. I had a Black and Tan, because Guiness is always appropriate. :-) The serious food and beer had mellowed us out considerably, especially when combined with the early morning wakeup call. It was a pleasant drive back home after that, and we were pretty much falling asleep by 9:30.
So, it was a great day at the running office. From here on out, it's tapering/peaking with a vengeance, and only a few snappy workouts remain between here and our date with the AT&T marathon. Awesome.
Monday is an officially sanctioned day off (per Gilbert's instructions on Sunday after the race). I plan on enjoying that!
My friends Jeff and Andy were in town for the race, making a trip from North Carolina, so it was a fun weekend regardless of the race results. We were well-behaved on Saturday night, getting plenty of rest and avoiding a visit to some purveyor of a well-stocked beer selection. Even so, getting up at dark:30 was tough, but other than that, we got down to RunTex in plenty of time to pick up some members of the running tribe (Alex, Frank, Brian, and Emily) to carpool back up to the top of the course.
Andy was injured, so in order to avoid further pain and damage, he decided to walk a slightly shortened version of the official race course. He left from the start area right at 6:00am, to get a head start, and although he cut out a few of the early bits, he still ended up with something like an 11 mile walk. He finished about when I did, and had a pretty fun stroll through Austin anyway.
Brian helped find a great parking spot (I was probably a little too impressed with it, but it was, as Bob Uecker would say, "...in the front rooooowwwww!"), and after we made the usual pre-warmup stops, we were off for our warmup routine. We probably had 15 people with us as we toured the first mile of the course, into the wind, and then turned around and headed back. A nice 2 mile jog at just over 10:00/mile pace. Amy was there, but she had a serious game face on, and I was not to see her again until after the race was complete. (Foreshadowing...). We spotted Gilbert around that time, and our little group disintegrated. Some went to do drills, some went to huddle around the outdoor gas area heater near the big pre-race tent, and some of us went back to the truck to get down to our race clothing. I did a few drills and strides in the parking garage, and then we all got ready to race. There was much back and forth about last-minute clothing changes, but I stuck with my notion of wearing shorts and two shirts, with gloves and a hat. It was just under 40 degrees, and chilly when you were facing into the breeze. I figured even with the breeze at our backs, it would be nice to be warm enough on top. We shall see...
Anyway, after dropping my backpack at the baggage claim, and after checking about five times to make sure my GU and Enervitene gels were safely stored in my shorts pockets, it was time to get in line. By now, it was maybe 10 minutes to the race start. I made my way around the median, and worked my way into the crowd, but I was a bit dismayed to find myself 30 yards or so back from the start line. There was absolutely no one that I knew in my vicinity. Oh, well. I half expected to have Sue find me during the first miles of the race, but that was not to be. :-) I knew that the first mile, at least, was going to be a mental challenge, trying to find a balance between getting up to speed and not wasting too much energy weaving through the crowds. Groan.
Oh, yeah, pre-race goals: After sifting through the many versions of our suggested race plan, I decided to run "comfortably hard," figuring that if I ran about like I did at Motive, effort-wise, I'd PR today on this easier course without having to really blast it. I'm trying to stay focused on the marathon, so today was not a day to run like the wind. I hoped to be around 8:00 pace very early, then shift to something around 7:45/mile and hang out there, and then doing the usual "GO!" at mile 10 to try to bring it home.
Soon, the horn went off, Evel played the Tom Petty song, and...nothing happened. At least where I was standing, nothing happened. Time passed...we walked a few steps. Stopped. More time passed...more walking, two steps of a jog...and we stopped. Rinse, repeat, etc. Finally, some 2 minutes and change after the horn, I finally broke into something like a jog/run, and crossed the starting mat. I felt fine, but it was a drag to negotiate that first mile. I was all over the place, darting in and out of the folks lined up ahead of me. Lots of very slow runners who had badly misplaced themselves in the crowd, as well as assorted other slower folks. With all the maneuvering, it was very difficult to establish a good initial pace, and I was slightly concerned that I was messing up badly, but I just tried to settle down and pick good lanes to run. At the first corner, up on Braker, it got much better, and I actually passed Jennifer early. I was so intent on getting onto pace that I convinced myself that it wasn't her, and didn't say anything to her. She saw me, too, but we were both busy at the time. :-)
My first mile split was way off any pre-race plan, which was frustrating. I had to fight off a lot of negative thoughts from that mile marker through the next 3 or 4 miles. During mile two, I tried to pick the pace up, hoping to really be able to run by mile 3. I grabbed water at that first water stop, checked that split, again too slow, but better, and moved on. Mile 3 went up and across Loop 360 on the access road, up to Jollyville Rd. and then turned onto Mesa. I was steadily passing people at this point. I felt like I was running much better by then, and waved to Sarah's friend's family (that's a complicated phrase, isn't it?), and to Kenny, and even passed Javier, who had lined up ahead of me, obviously. The mile 3 split was a little bit too quick, as I was making the rookie mistake of trying to catch up all my lost time too fast. I settled down a little, I thought, relaxing a bit, but I was still in passing mode.
We turned down Spicewood Springs for the bombing run downhill, and as I passed the mile 4 marker, I started playing a math game (yes, I was and am a math geek), totalling up the number of seconds above (or below) an overall 8:00/mile pace I was at each split. How do you do that, you ask? You keep a total in your head of the number of seconds over or under 8:00 for each split, and manipulate those numbers. So, for my first four miles, I had a +35, a +8, a -22, and another -22. Altogether, I was at +1 seconds after four miles, or right on 8:00/mile pace. To get to my PR pace of 7:49/mile, I had a lot of work to do. I had to make up 40-something seconds over the last 9.11 miles of the race...40-something seconds UNDER that PR pace. 4 or 5 seconds per mile faster. Well, I had lots of time to work this out, and I had nothing else to occupy myself, except for running, so why not work the brain, too? :-)
Splits miles 1-4: 8:35, 8:08, 7:38, 7:38. Overall pace 8:00/mile.
I took a GU at that water stop, and continued on downhill. I tried to keep Gilbert and Pete's advice in mind to control my downhill run on that steep downhill, but I was only partially successful. More passing of people, and that part of the deal was pretty cool. It's always good to be going by folks, especially when you can hear some of them working pretty hard, and you're running at something like a controlled pace. The first music was at the traditional spot, in the median as we climbed the bridge on Spicewood going over Mopac. The bagpipers did their bagpipe thing, and as usual, the non-rocking music actually boosted my spirits. I was constantly telling myself to relax, to just run and not worry about the pace situation, blah, blah, blah, but I wasn't always successful convincing myself that it would work out.
Up and over that bridge, and we settled into the middle miles, largely flat as we wound through and around a neighborhood behind Northcross Mall. I think I sort of went to sleep in these miles, with none of my usual running buddies around to pace with, and my pacing became somewhat erratic, I thought. Mile 5 was a little too fast at that point, mile 6 about right. I almost messed up around the relay exchange zone, when a couple of people around me picked it up a bit to look good for their relay partners. I started to stay with them, but realized it soon enough that they weren't continuing at that pace, but were stopping. I took more fluids at the water stop at mile 6, and we turned onto Burnet for the long straight stretch down to North Loop. That part is a gentle downhill trend, and with the wide open roads, it was pleasant running. However, mile 7 and 8 on Burnet were off the pace. I relaxed a little too much, even though I was still catching and passing folks. I saw a band with horns sort of milling around on Burnet, but they weren't set up by then. What were they waiting for? Another band was camped out at Amy's Ice Cream, I think, playing "Brown Eyed Girl." Pretty sparse entertainment, but I'd take what I could get. Down to North Loop we went. The real race was starting now, as we hit the only real hilly part of the whole course....
Splits miles 5-8: 7:29, 7:45, 7:53, 7:56. Overall pace 7:53/mile. At this point, I was wrestling with whether to push hard enough to go for a PR or whether to just cruise it in, running in the 7:45-8:00/mile range for a quality training run. Believe me, it was a spirited internal conversation. The math game showed that I was going to have to get on my giddyup horse to catch my PR pace. Oh, well, I'd just keep running, push through the hills, and see where I was at mile 10 after we turned onto Duval.
Miles 9 and 10 had the uphill bits of North Loop, but there were plenty of downhill and flat sections through there as well. We know those hills extremely well, so I didn't fret about them, but just shifted into hill-climbing gear, and proceeded to pass even more people. The uphills didn't bother me much, but I was a little disappointed in my splits for those two miles. I had really dug myself a deep time hole for the last 5K of the race. I needed a bunch of time down Duval to run a PR, and I wasn't sure I was feeling it today. At least it was some good downhill running to the finish!
Splits miles 9 and 10: 7:49, 7:59. Pretty average running, given my fall race results, but I was still moving pretty comfortably, and the weather was still great, and the hills were basically over. Get going, Jay!
I knew that Richard and Stephanie were spectating at something like the mile 11 mark, just after a short hill on Duval, so I wanted to look like a runner going by them. That helped get me out of my doldrums a bit, and my mile 11 split was better, but by now, I had a huge amount of time to recover in the last couple of miles. I needed to recover some 33 seconds over the last 2.11 miles, and that would require some awfully peppy running. As a result, I just stopped looking at the watch, and just focused on running quickly and efficiently, reasoning that if I just ran, I'd get whatever I got, and maybe I'd get my brain to stop fretting so much.
I've probably run down that stretch, Duval to San Jacinto, through the UT campus, 50 times or more over the years, so it was like a friendly home course to me. I pretty much have all the bumps, inclines and downhills memorized. Probably could run it in the dark...come to think of it, we did run it in the dark (and rain and gloom) a few weeks ago on that crazy training run! I passed Christine and Banjo cheering for us with a Gazelles sign, and that was great to see. More running, more passing. I was actually working my eyes pretty hard looking for the mile 12 marker, and it was great to see it right at San Jacinto. Now, with a mile to go, I started putting even a little more effort into my race. The downhills were finished, and I just had that last flat mile to go. There was a mariachi band in there at the bottom of campus, and some sort of accordion and guitar ensemble before that, but it gets blurry now, thinking about it. I got into a pitched battle with a guy in a black shirt, and we took turns pushing the pace. He'd go around me, and pull away a few steps, and then I'd feel better, and put on a sustained burst, going around him, and so on and so forth. We passed the talking oil derrick, and continued onto Trinity for the homestretch. I could see way ahead the finish arch, but I must admit I was bird-dogging it a bit looking for that mile 13 marker. (That's an expression meaning that I had the excellent vision of a good bird dog, scanning the grounds for a quail or dove, or in this case, a mile marker). I heard Evel announcing people's numbers, and I put on a last burst once I passed the mile 13 marker, and was excited to see the finish line clock ticking away with a number that meant "PR," final time to be determined. Whoosh (or whatever sound I make when going through air), and I was done!
I thanked Black Shirt Guy for the spirited battle (I beat him, by the way), and saw the good news on my watch. A big PR (well, a significant PR, but not when compared to some of the other Gazelles...) was in hand.
Splits miles 11-13.11: 7:40, 7:19, 7:14, and 0.11 miles in 0:41, or 6:13/mile pace for the killer sprint. Final time 1:41:43, a PR by 37 seconds over Motive, and I guess I really only ran super hard the last couple of miles. I wasn't dogging it before that, but I was sort of erratic without a Gazelle buddy to share the day. Overall pace 7:46/mile.
I am happy with my day, especially the quality miles to finish off the race. It was a great feeling to have that sort of speed left at the end of a half marathon, and I was able to fight off some mental dullness today. I almost let the early running traffic jam annoy me to the point of quitting on the race effort early, and I'm proud that I did not let that happen. I settled down after the three snappy miles leading up to mile 5, was strong in the North Loop hills, and was fiesty down the stretch. All in all, a good day, and it was my sixth consecutive half marathon race PR (well, the first 3 were "Masters PRs," but it's been six consecutively faster halfs). I can live with that sort of consistent improvement!
I got my medal, starting drinking water, and found Alex right away. He pointed me to the baggage truck, and after getting my bag (a much improved baggage claim this year, by the way! I had zero trouble getting my bag within 30 seconds of walking up to the truck), I wandered back into the post-race hubbub to find my peeps. It was great to see everyone, and it seemed that virtually everyone had either run a massive PR or had at least run a race that matched up with their expectations and race plans. I got some food at the HEB tent, finished off my water, and started on Powerade. By then, I had hooked back up with Frank, Brian, Amy, Jennifer, Colleen, Venus, and a host of others. I found a nice spot in the sun to sit down and put on my post-race warmer clothing, and that felt really good. I saw Jeff and Andy around that time, too. After the folks had gotten all the breakfast tacos they could stand, and we had all gotten ourselves ready to go, it was time for the cooldown jog to RunTex.
I strapped the backpack up, and it actually rode pretty well, using the chest strap as well as the regular shoulder straps. There was a lot of chatter as we jogged back, but there was not a lot of speed. :-) We averaged a robust 12:30/mile for our 1.5 mile journey up to and down Congress Avenue, but it was a nice bit of recovery for our downhill-burnt legs.
Gilbert showed up as we got to RunTex, and we chatted with him for a bit. I did just a little stretching while we were getting ready to go, and then it was time to get driving north. Frank was nice enough to drive Jeff, Andy, Jennifer and me back up to Gateway, and after a few last words of congratulations, we all went our separate directions. The Carolina boys and I went to Einstein's (with apparently 50 other runners with the same idea) for post-race bagels, and then we found our way home after loading up on baked goods.
The day was polished off with a somewhat traditional Mangia pizza festival, as we dove into those seriously thick Chicago-style pizzas. Frank's family and my own joined us, along with Brian, Richard and Stephanie, and we had a grand time taking over the place, yakking away for quite a while. The two Live Oak beers weren't quite enough, so Jeff, Andy and I drove over to Ginger Man for a last quality draft beer experience. I had a Black and Tan, because Guiness is always appropriate. :-) The serious food and beer had mellowed us out considerably, especially when combined with the early morning wakeup call. It was a pleasant drive back home after that, and we were pretty much falling asleep by 9:30.
So, it was a great day at the running office. From here on out, it's tapering/peaking with a vengeance, and only a few snappy workouts remain between here and our date with the AT&T marathon. Awesome.
Monday is an officially sanctioned day off (per Gilbert's instructions on Sunday after the race). I plan on enjoying that!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Bi-Cycle, Bi-Cycle!
Today, I decided to substitute some indoor cycling for a recovery run. I went to Gold's and did 30 minutes on the bike, watching the funny people around me in the gym. There was one woman who, uh, well, I believe she was interested in having folks check her out. There is no other explanation that I can derive that brings any sense to the workout gear that she had donned. The workout pants (the long stretchy kind) could not have been worn a millimeter lower, and the upper garment was equally brief. Naturally, her workout routine was to do about 10 minutes on the elliptical, take a break, walk all the way across the gym for a drink of water, and then repeat. I could be terribly wrong, of course, but it appears that she intended for people to stare. She spent most of her time looking around to see who was seeing her. It was amusing to see the guys sidling up to the elliptical machine nearest her, and commencing their workout. I guess this is the equivalent of a singles bar, at least without the alcohol. Funny, really.
Anyway, back to what I was actually doing. 30 minutes on the cycle, which was fun. I spun along at 90-95 rpm, and my legs felt really good doing that. After the cycle, about 15 minutes of stretching, and then a core workout (the one with the Roman Chair evil exercises). I finished things off with the recovery day leg workout, back to two sets of everything. My legs felt pretty rejuvenated as a result.
I grabbed a quick lunch and then Ron did his post-long run massage magic for me. I only had to grit my teeth a few times, this time. I think the foam roller stuff that I've started has helped break up the junk in my legs better, so that Ron's deep tissue work doesn't have to start with breaking up knots. At least that's my theory.
Tomorrow, I'll do the fartlek workout on my own here in the 'Hood, and Thursday will actually be a recovery run type day.
Anyway, back to what I was actually doing. 30 minutes on the cycle, which was fun. I spun along at 90-95 rpm, and my legs felt really good doing that. After the cycle, about 15 minutes of stretching, and then a core workout (the one with the Roman Chair evil exercises). I finished things off with the recovery day leg workout, back to two sets of everything. My legs felt pretty rejuvenated as a result.
I grabbed a quick lunch and then Ron did his post-long run massage magic for me. I only had to grit my teeth a few times, this time. I think the foam roller stuff that I've started has helped break up the junk in my legs better, so that Ron's deep tissue work doesn't have to start with breaking up knots. At least that's my theory.
Tomorrow, I'll do the fartlek workout on my own here in the 'Hood, and Thursday will actually be a recovery run type day.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Zippy Zilker Mile Repeats
Man, I really didn't feel like going downtown this morning! I got plenty of rest Sunday and last night, but I could tell that I was still physically tired after the 22 miler. I couldn't imagine doing mile repeats at any particular speed feeling like that. But, after some easy stretching before I even got out of bed, and then puttering around the house getting ready, I started feeling a little more life-like. I kept trying to find a reason to turn around, even as I drove down to RunTex. Darned if I couldn't come up with a good enough reason...
Anyway, it was good running weather again. 40 degrees, slight breeze, clear skies for a change. What made me happiest, besides seeing my friends, of course, was Gilbert saying that we would do a maximum of 4 mile repeats today. Now, that's still a tough workout, but something about "only" having to do 4 x 1 mile instead of 5 or even 6 made a huge difference to my mental outlook. That alone should tell all of us that we're truly in the lunatic fringe of runners. :-)
Nice and easy warmup over to Zilker, talking to Frank and Marcy, then drills, and it was time to go. We had a huge group settle in around us after Frank's group went off, and with the last warning to go a little easier on the first repeat, we were running. I fell in just behind the lead pack of 3 or 4 runners, sort of loafing through the first half of the first repeat, going counter-clockwise on the rolling course. At that point, though, I moved on up to make sure we didn't lollygag too much. That first one was surprisingly solid, pacewise, and it felt pretty comfortable. Rachel mentioned that we used to run entire mile repeat workouts trying to average what we ran on the first "easy" one today. Es verdad!
From there on, I ran up front with Brian and Rachel, and Marty on a couple of them. We picked it up lap after lap, and finished with the fastest mile of the day. It turned out to be a very good workout, despite my internal whining this morning on the way down to the workout. On that last repeat, Brian pulled away on the nasty little hill early in the repeat, and I was thinking that he was going to run away for good, but I slowly caught back up, and we pushed each other over the last quarter of the repeat for a good finish. Thanks, Brian! I needed that today.
Splits: 7:16, 7:04, 6:57, 6:50. Average 7:02, which wasn't a "PB" for this workout, but was still very solid.
I felt pretty tired afterwards, as usual with this workout, but the cooldown run back to RunTex with Bonnie, Frank and Rachel picked me right back up. Once there, I got in most of the full stretching routine with Lisa, Rachel and Colleen. I chatted with Gilbert after that about 3M and how hard I could or should run that race, and he mentioned a pretty scary target time for AT&T while we were on that sort of subject.
That was that. After getting home, I did some core stuff and then did the foam roller stuff to work out some serious knots and junk in my legs remaining from Saturday's long run. As usual, that's some tough going, but my legs felt much better afterwards.
For the day, about 8 miles. The rest of this week will be easy running, with just the fartlek workout on Wednesday or Thursday in the "snappy" range, as we do a mini-taper for 3M on Sunday.
Anyway, it was good running weather again. 40 degrees, slight breeze, clear skies for a change. What made me happiest, besides seeing my friends, of course, was Gilbert saying that we would do a maximum of 4 mile repeats today. Now, that's still a tough workout, but something about "only" having to do 4 x 1 mile instead of 5 or even 6 made a huge difference to my mental outlook. That alone should tell all of us that we're truly in the lunatic fringe of runners. :-)
Nice and easy warmup over to Zilker, talking to Frank and Marcy, then drills, and it was time to go. We had a huge group settle in around us after Frank's group went off, and with the last warning to go a little easier on the first repeat, we were running. I fell in just behind the lead pack of 3 or 4 runners, sort of loafing through the first half of the first repeat, going counter-clockwise on the rolling course. At that point, though, I moved on up to make sure we didn't lollygag too much. That first one was surprisingly solid, pacewise, and it felt pretty comfortable. Rachel mentioned that we used to run entire mile repeat workouts trying to average what we ran on the first "easy" one today. Es verdad!
From there on, I ran up front with Brian and Rachel, and Marty on a couple of them. We picked it up lap after lap, and finished with the fastest mile of the day. It turned out to be a very good workout, despite my internal whining this morning on the way down to the workout. On that last repeat, Brian pulled away on the nasty little hill early in the repeat, and I was thinking that he was going to run away for good, but I slowly caught back up, and we pushed each other over the last quarter of the repeat for a good finish. Thanks, Brian! I needed that today.
Splits: 7:16, 7:04, 6:57, 6:50. Average 7:02, which wasn't a "PB" for this workout, but was still very solid.
I felt pretty tired afterwards, as usual with this workout, but the cooldown run back to RunTex with Bonnie, Frank and Rachel picked me right back up. Once there, I got in most of the full stretching routine with Lisa, Rachel and Colleen. I chatted with Gilbert after that about 3M and how hard I could or should run that race, and he mentioned a pretty scary target time for AT&T while we were on that sort of subject.
That was that. After getting home, I did some core stuff and then did the foam roller stuff to work out some serious knots and junk in my legs remaining from Saturday's long run. As usual, that's some tough going, but my legs felt much better afterwards.
For the day, about 8 miles. The rest of this week will be easy running, with just the fartlek workout on Wednesday or Thursday in the "snappy" range, as we do a mini-taper for 3M on Sunday.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Ra-a-a-a-a-a-in, I Don't Mind [Entered 1/21/07]
Saturday was the seventh (or eighth) consecutive day of dreariness outside, but it turned out to be fine for a long run. This was the last super long run before the marathon, a 22 mile tour of most of the AT&T course. It was 40 degrees the entire run, with alternating mild rain, drizzle and mist to spice things up. This time, everyone was prepared, so nobody had to endure conditions that were wildly out of synch with their running apparel choices. I broke out my Gore-Tex running jacket, which is probably 20 years old, mainly so that in case of big rain, I'd be more or less comfortable. At 40 degrees, it was a shorts day, and I wore just the one long-sleeved shirt under the jacket. With gloves and a hat, I was good to go.
We got off pretty much on time, right at 5:45am. While we never got sunshine or very much light at all, it wasn't nearly as bad as last week. The groups did their usual shuffle in the first 4 miles or so, and we were left with a pretty big group. We picked up Renee and Leslie at the first water stop, which would give them an 18 mile day. Amy ran ahead of us, and we never saw her after about 2 miles. The pod of people around me were Brian, Javier, Rachel, Diana, Renee, Leslie, Sue, Grace, Jennifer, and probably others that I'm not remembering right away. Sort of like last week, when everyone is bundled up more, it's harder to get an idea of who's with you.
We were finding our way, pace-wise, for those first 4 miles, letting the faster people blow by us and settling in for the long day's journey. I had those usual long-run jitters, mainly because like most of my gang, I had not taken any serious pre-race carbo-loading or other precautions, except for the usual pasta dinner on Friday night. I had plenty of GU for the journey and all that, but I think we all backed off just a little today as compared to previous longer runs, just to make sure that 22 miles was covered without having to crawl in the last few miles.
We ran up on the pace group ahead of us at the first water/GU/Powerade stop at Enfield and Lake Austin Blvd., and so it was a fairly long stop. I was actually feeling a little warm in that jacket, but thankfully, once we got going again, the north wind and increasing drizzle changed things enough that the jacket was the perfect garment for today's labors. There weren't any serious troubles up Exposition, except that I noticed my heart rate spike up a bit on some of those hills. It settled right back down afterwards, so I took that as a good sign. The super-fast Gazelles whooshed past us on 35th Street as we hit the Mopac bridge. The group stretched out a bit through there, but we yo-yo'ed back together after that second refreshment stop. Today, for some reason, my GU was just a little too sweet for my taste, and I had to struggle with them for the first couple of water stops. By the third stop, everything had settled down, but it was not as easy taking those things at first today! That second stop was on Bull Creek.
Splits miles 1-7.4: 9:41, 9:12, 9:28, 9:09, first water stop at 1:53, then 9:17, 9:10, 9:27, and 0.36 miles at 9:35/mile. Overall running pace a fairly relaxed 9:21, but still well within acceptable pace range. Second water stop 2:21.
After that stop, we were basically done with the obvious hills on the course, and we travelled the next miles on a sneaky slight incline backwards on much of the old marathon course, up Shoal Creek and up Great Northern to the third stop. The conversation along here plummeted to a somewhat salacious level, due to the usual comraderie that occurs when you're sharing the combination of yucky weather and a long training effort. As always, those conversations were to be enjoyed only by those on the run. :-) I offered up "Kung Fu Fighting" in an attempt to lock up people's brains with a catchy tune, but it didn't take today. Oh, well.
Splits miles 8-12: 9:09, 9:08, 9:23, and 0.83 at 9:02/mile. Third water stop 2:46. Overall running pace 9:18. We were staying pretty consistent, and everyone seemed to be moving along pretty well.
The next little stretch took us behind Northcross Mall and then on the long straight stretch going up to Woodrow. That bit from Burnet to Woodrow is another steady incline, which again wasn't severe at all, but just another test for marathon day. Once we reached that corner, though, we enjoyed some modest downhill running for quite a while, all the way to North Loop, really. For some reason, I started feeling a lot better through here, probably because the miles were starting to tick down under double digits, and I was in pretty good shape, leg-wise. The fourth water stop was right before Lamar on North Loop, and by now, I was sort of looking for a spot for a hydration adjustment. That fourth GU taken, and everyone tanked up, off we went. The hills on North Loop weren't that bad, but as I've said before, on race day, it will be a test to see those rollers at that point in the course (around mile 20).
Splits miles 13-15: 9:19, 9:14, 9:19. Fourth water stop 2:07. Overall running pace still around 9:18/mile. Onward, through the fog!
I got the song "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden stuck in my head in here somewhere, which is funny, because I don't own the CD, and wasn't a real Soundgarden fan. Sigh... But there it was, the chorus and some fragments from the verse, over and over and over. At least it distracted me from any discomfort I might have been feeling! :-) Down Guadalupe, and Rachel and I think Diana went straight at that point, cutting off 2, maybe 3 miles by going to 45th and then Duval. They're running Boston, so they didn't need to be doing the full 22 today. I picked it up a little through there, on 46th Street, and found the port-o-john at a construction project, just as I remembered it from the last long run. I dashed in, and then, much happier, dashed on to catch up with the gang as they rolled up Avenue H and turned onto 51st Street. My HR climbed as if I was doing a bigger hill, but it settled down soon enough once I caught up with everyone else. We were getting close now, and it was great to see those miles click down. "Five to Go." "Four to go." We looked around for that fifth water stop, but it wasn't on Red River, and I figured it would be on Duval after the nasty little hill on 38th Street. The group got a little quieter as we tackled that last obstacle, and as a result of that focus, I think we missed the water stop on the other side of 38th near the golf course. Oh, well.
Duval was fun after that hill, and again, we had predominately downhill running, if ever so slight, for quite a while, to the UT campus and then through. Despite missing that last water stop, I felt good, if a bit leg-weary, so I didn't stress out too much about that minor issue. Sure, I had that fifth GU packet in my pocket, but it didn't seem necessary once we got to MLK and then up to Congress Ave., tackling that last modest hill. A bunch of the herd went over and got a bit of water at some coolers set up on Congress, but they were another group's supplies, not ours. It's not a bad thing to take water where you find it somedays, as I'm sure most other groups "borrow" ours under similar circumstances. However, Sue, Jennifer and I skipped that last water stop, since we were under 2 miles to the end of our training day. As we rolled around the Capitol, and then hit the downhill bombing run that is Congress Avenue heading south, we launched into a modest fast finish. We caught most of the lights, and even though there wasn't either a parade or other public event blocking off Congress to traffic, we got a clean shot down to 1st Street. We caught a break crossing Congress, and then zipped along behind the Farmers Market set up on Cesar Chavez. I had to duck under their banner strung across the sidewalk, but managed to do that without hanging myself, so I still had a moderate amount of grace left. We picked it up even more at that point, across the bridge on First, down the ramp where we saw Frank and Amy strolling back to RunTex (they had finished earlier), under the bridge, and finally we were done at the coolers at Auditorium Shores. Nice!
High fives and heartfelt thanks exchanged between the three of us, we were glad to be done. We had all three had really strong runs, and the relief was evident on our faces. After a couple of cups of water, we did some striders (I think we got 5 of them) on the sidewalks and the trail, and then enjoyed the triumphant walk back to RunTex. It's so cool to know that you just ran 22 miles (or 20, or whatever the long run was on your particular day), and you finished strong and uninjured.
Splits for the long finish: 9:15, 9:15, 8:47, 8:55, 8:26, 0.6 miles at 8:39/mile (stoplight), 8:32, and 0.5 miles at 8:06. 22.2 miles at 9:08/mile average running pace. With all stop time included, we were still at 9:35/mile, pretty good.
As usual, I was grateful for the warm and dry clothing I had stashed away in the truck, and Brian and I told more stories as we changed into post-run mode. We decided to go ahead and stretch, although everyone else had either gone or wasn't interested in sticking around in the cold. We found a good spot out of the weather (but still outside) on the south side of RunTex, and did the full routine. Although I was pretty stiff in spots, I'm really glad we did the stretching. I'd be a mess if we hadn't. Alex saw us through the window, and came out into the cold to give us his good news from his 22 miler. We even saw Gilbert and Lisa as they came in and out of the store. What a day!
So, this truly was the peak of the training. Next week, we have the last hard speedwork, really, with the Zilker mile repeats on Monday. 3M half marathon will be just for fun, I guess, and that following week, we'll do a single zippy workout, maybe a tempo run? After that, just 800's, I guess, and the taper whittles away at our overall mileage even more. The hard work is done, and now we just have to make sure we peak for AT&T, letting our bodies build strength and energy reserves through the next 28 days.
Now, will I follow Sean's suggestion to try using the pace groups for the marathon? I've got some time to decide, but since I've run marathons using every conceivable strategy, maybe I owe it to myself to try letting someone else do the mental work of pacing for a change? We'll see...
For the week, 38 miles despite the slushy and icy conditions earlier in the week. Good enough.
We got off pretty much on time, right at 5:45am. While we never got sunshine or very much light at all, it wasn't nearly as bad as last week. The groups did their usual shuffle in the first 4 miles or so, and we were left with a pretty big group. We picked up Renee and Leslie at the first water stop, which would give them an 18 mile day. Amy ran ahead of us, and we never saw her after about 2 miles. The pod of people around me were Brian, Javier, Rachel, Diana, Renee, Leslie, Sue, Grace, Jennifer, and probably others that I'm not remembering right away. Sort of like last week, when everyone is bundled up more, it's harder to get an idea of who's with you.
We were finding our way, pace-wise, for those first 4 miles, letting the faster people blow by us and settling in for the long day's journey. I had those usual long-run jitters, mainly because like most of my gang, I had not taken any serious pre-race carbo-loading or other precautions, except for the usual pasta dinner on Friday night. I had plenty of GU for the journey and all that, but I think we all backed off just a little today as compared to previous longer runs, just to make sure that 22 miles was covered without having to crawl in the last few miles.
We ran up on the pace group ahead of us at the first water/GU/Powerade stop at Enfield and Lake Austin Blvd., and so it was a fairly long stop. I was actually feeling a little warm in that jacket, but thankfully, once we got going again, the north wind and increasing drizzle changed things enough that the jacket was the perfect garment for today's labors. There weren't any serious troubles up Exposition, except that I noticed my heart rate spike up a bit on some of those hills. It settled right back down afterwards, so I took that as a good sign. The super-fast Gazelles whooshed past us on 35th Street as we hit the Mopac bridge. The group stretched out a bit through there, but we yo-yo'ed back together after that second refreshment stop. Today, for some reason, my GU was just a little too sweet for my taste, and I had to struggle with them for the first couple of water stops. By the third stop, everything had settled down, but it was not as easy taking those things at first today! That second stop was on Bull Creek.
Splits miles 1-7.4: 9:41, 9:12, 9:28, 9:09, first water stop at 1:53, then 9:17, 9:10, 9:27, and 0.36 miles at 9:35/mile. Overall running pace a fairly relaxed 9:21, but still well within acceptable pace range. Second water stop 2:21.
After that stop, we were basically done with the obvious hills on the course, and we travelled the next miles on a sneaky slight incline backwards on much of the old marathon course, up Shoal Creek and up Great Northern to the third stop. The conversation along here plummeted to a somewhat salacious level, due to the usual comraderie that occurs when you're sharing the combination of yucky weather and a long training effort. As always, those conversations were to be enjoyed only by those on the run. :-) I offered up "Kung Fu Fighting" in an attempt to lock up people's brains with a catchy tune, but it didn't take today. Oh, well.
Splits miles 8-12: 9:09, 9:08, 9:23, and 0.83 at 9:02/mile. Third water stop 2:46. Overall running pace 9:18. We were staying pretty consistent, and everyone seemed to be moving along pretty well.
The next little stretch took us behind Northcross Mall and then on the long straight stretch going up to Woodrow. That bit from Burnet to Woodrow is another steady incline, which again wasn't severe at all, but just another test for marathon day. Once we reached that corner, though, we enjoyed some modest downhill running for quite a while, all the way to North Loop, really. For some reason, I started feeling a lot better through here, probably because the miles were starting to tick down under double digits, and I was in pretty good shape, leg-wise. The fourth water stop was right before Lamar on North Loop, and by now, I was sort of looking for a spot for a hydration adjustment. That fourth GU taken, and everyone tanked up, off we went. The hills on North Loop weren't that bad, but as I've said before, on race day, it will be a test to see those rollers at that point in the course (around mile 20).
Splits miles 13-15: 9:19, 9:14, 9:19. Fourth water stop 2:07. Overall running pace still around 9:18/mile. Onward, through the fog!
I got the song "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden stuck in my head in here somewhere, which is funny, because I don't own the CD, and wasn't a real Soundgarden fan. Sigh... But there it was, the chorus and some fragments from the verse, over and over and over. At least it distracted me from any discomfort I might have been feeling! :-) Down Guadalupe, and Rachel and I think Diana went straight at that point, cutting off 2, maybe 3 miles by going to 45th and then Duval. They're running Boston, so they didn't need to be doing the full 22 today. I picked it up a little through there, on 46th Street, and found the port-o-john at a construction project, just as I remembered it from the last long run. I dashed in, and then, much happier, dashed on to catch up with the gang as they rolled up Avenue H and turned onto 51st Street. My HR climbed as if I was doing a bigger hill, but it settled down soon enough once I caught up with everyone else. We were getting close now, and it was great to see those miles click down. "Five to Go." "Four to go." We looked around for that fifth water stop, but it wasn't on Red River, and I figured it would be on Duval after the nasty little hill on 38th Street. The group got a little quieter as we tackled that last obstacle, and as a result of that focus, I think we missed the water stop on the other side of 38th near the golf course. Oh, well.
Duval was fun after that hill, and again, we had predominately downhill running, if ever so slight, for quite a while, to the UT campus and then through. Despite missing that last water stop, I felt good, if a bit leg-weary, so I didn't stress out too much about that minor issue. Sure, I had that fifth GU packet in my pocket, but it didn't seem necessary once we got to MLK and then up to Congress Ave., tackling that last modest hill. A bunch of the herd went over and got a bit of water at some coolers set up on Congress, but they were another group's supplies, not ours. It's not a bad thing to take water where you find it somedays, as I'm sure most other groups "borrow" ours under similar circumstances. However, Sue, Jennifer and I skipped that last water stop, since we were under 2 miles to the end of our training day. As we rolled around the Capitol, and then hit the downhill bombing run that is Congress Avenue heading south, we launched into a modest fast finish. We caught most of the lights, and even though there wasn't either a parade or other public event blocking off Congress to traffic, we got a clean shot down to 1st Street. We caught a break crossing Congress, and then zipped along behind the Farmers Market set up on Cesar Chavez. I had to duck under their banner strung across the sidewalk, but managed to do that without hanging myself, so I still had a moderate amount of grace left. We picked it up even more at that point, across the bridge on First, down the ramp where we saw Frank and Amy strolling back to RunTex (they had finished earlier), under the bridge, and finally we were done at the coolers at Auditorium Shores. Nice!
High fives and heartfelt thanks exchanged between the three of us, we were glad to be done. We had all three had really strong runs, and the relief was evident on our faces. After a couple of cups of water, we did some striders (I think we got 5 of them) on the sidewalks and the trail, and then enjoyed the triumphant walk back to RunTex. It's so cool to know that you just ran 22 miles (or 20, or whatever the long run was on your particular day), and you finished strong and uninjured.
Splits for the long finish: 9:15, 9:15, 8:47, 8:55, 8:26, 0.6 miles at 8:39/mile (stoplight), 8:32, and 0.5 miles at 8:06. 22.2 miles at 9:08/mile average running pace. With all stop time included, we were still at 9:35/mile, pretty good.
As usual, I was grateful for the warm and dry clothing I had stashed away in the truck, and Brian and I told more stories as we changed into post-run mode. We decided to go ahead and stretch, although everyone else had either gone or wasn't interested in sticking around in the cold. We found a good spot out of the weather (but still outside) on the south side of RunTex, and did the full routine. Although I was pretty stiff in spots, I'm really glad we did the stretching. I'd be a mess if we hadn't. Alex saw us through the window, and came out into the cold to give us his good news from his 22 miler. We even saw Gilbert and Lisa as they came in and out of the store. What a day!
So, this truly was the peak of the training. Next week, we have the last hard speedwork, really, with the Zilker mile repeats on Monday. 3M half marathon will be just for fun, I guess, and that following week, we'll do a single zippy workout, maybe a tempo run? After that, just 800's, I guess, and the taper whittles away at our overall mileage even more. The hard work is done, and now we just have to make sure we peak for AT&T, letting our bodies build strength and energy reserves through the next 28 days.
Now, will I follow Sean's suggestion to try using the pace groups for the marathon? I've got some time to decide, but since I've run marathons using every conceivable strategy, maybe I owe it to myself to try letting someone else do the mental work of pacing for a change? We'll see...
For the week, 38 miles despite the slushy and icy conditions earlier in the week. Good enough.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day
Ah, yes, Jethro Tull. Don't know what they're trying to say in that song, but they rhyme "...present tense" with "...audience," so you see what you're dealing with here. :-)
As for today's return to GazelleHood, a fairly small but enthusiastic group gathered after tiptoeing down to RunTex in our cars. It was mostly the fast and superfast Gazelles, but there were a few folks there around my speed, so I'd have someone to pace along with on the workout. It was cold, about 33 degrees, but I felt good out in the elements. The warmup run was interesting, as we had to sort of skate across the Pfluger pedestrian bridge since it was covered with a sheet of ice all the way across. The circular ramp was especially entertaining. Drills drilled, we were ready to go.
Gilbert divided up the groups and gave out target times for the 800's. When it got to my group, the last group, I suggested 3:30 per 800m if we were doing 10 x 800, and he agreed that would be a good pace. So, off we went. We had two new guys (new to me, at least) from the Tu/Thursday group, Brian, Leslie, and Liliana. It was dark, of course, but after a slightly slower first 800m, we really got locked into almost perfect pacing for the bulk of the workout. Leslie and I, especially, stuck together as a little subgroup, especially after the 5th repeat. Brian took off with Liliana after that, and the two new guys only had to do 6 repeats, so Leslie and I were a group of two to the end of the workout. Brian pulled up after 8 repeats, as did Liliana (she was only supposed to do 8 anyway), but Leslie and I pushed and pulled each other along through those last two tough repeats. I felt pretty good until number 9, and I had to do some mental gymnastics to get myself through that one. The last one is always the easiest to start, since it's the last one (duh), but it's the hardest to finish, because that coach of ours "suggests" that we pick it up on the last repeat. Leslie and I accomplished our mission, and on balance, I was pleased with the workout results.
After the ice-related layoff, it was great to get out and run fast with my friends, but my legs were a bit heavy. No aches or pains, but I didn't feel as fluid as usual. I've got some stretching and other work to do between now and Saturday morning so that I get through the 22 miler in good shape!
Splits: 3:33, 3:27, 3:31, 3:29, 3:29, 3:28, 3:29, 3:28, 3:28, 3:24. Average for 10x800m was 3:29, or 7:00/mile pace. Not too shabby. For "Yasso" repeats, this allegedly says I'm up for a 3:29 marathon, but I'm still not convinced about that correlation between the 800m workout and the 26.2 mile race. :-) Last year about this time, I did only 8x800m at average of 3:29, so I'm a little bit better this year. I was off my 3:25 type pacing from the last couple of 800m repeat workouts this season, but not horribly so.
Alex and I did the cooldown run together, and took the steps up to the Pfluger bridge. However, it was still a careful walk across the bridge to get back to RunTex. There was a lot of tree limb debris and other junk on the trail, so it looks like Town Lake got out of its banks during the heavy rains over the weekend.
For the day, 8.8 miles. I chatted a bit with Pete and Gilbert after changing into warm clothes, and got my logistical orders for the water/Powerade coolers on Saturday morning. Then, I had to go home and get the kids to school (they started 2 hours later than usual this morning).
One interesting thing while driving home was watching big chunks of flat ice flying off of cars and crashing into cars trailing behind. We're talking one foot square pieces coming loose, flying up into the air, and turning into little bombs. Cool if it wasn't your car that got hit by the debris.
As for today's return to GazelleHood, a fairly small but enthusiastic group gathered after tiptoeing down to RunTex in our cars. It was mostly the fast and superfast Gazelles, but there were a few folks there around my speed, so I'd have someone to pace along with on the workout. It was cold, about 33 degrees, but I felt good out in the elements. The warmup run was interesting, as we had to sort of skate across the Pfluger pedestrian bridge since it was covered with a sheet of ice all the way across. The circular ramp was especially entertaining. Drills drilled, we were ready to go.
Gilbert divided up the groups and gave out target times for the 800's. When it got to my group, the last group, I suggested 3:30 per 800m if we were doing 10 x 800, and he agreed that would be a good pace. So, off we went. We had two new guys (new to me, at least) from the Tu/Thursday group, Brian, Leslie, and Liliana. It was dark, of course, but after a slightly slower first 800m, we really got locked into almost perfect pacing for the bulk of the workout. Leslie and I, especially, stuck together as a little subgroup, especially after the 5th repeat. Brian took off with Liliana after that, and the two new guys only had to do 6 repeats, so Leslie and I were a group of two to the end of the workout. Brian pulled up after 8 repeats, as did Liliana (she was only supposed to do 8 anyway), but Leslie and I pushed and pulled each other along through those last two tough repeats. I felt pretty good until number 9, and I had to do some mental gymnastics to get myself through that one. The last one is always the easiest to start, since it's the last one (duh), but it's the hardest to finish, because that coach of ours "suggests" that we pick it up on the last repeat. Leslie and I accomplished our mission, and on balance, I was pleased with the workout results.
After the ice-related layoff, it was great to get out and run fast with my friends, but my legs were a bit heavy. No aches or pains, but I didn't feel as fluid as usual. I've got some stretching and other work to do between now and Saturday morning so that I get through the 22 miler in good shape!
Splits: 3:33, 3:27, 3:31, 3:29, 3:29, 3:28, 3:29, 3:28, 3:28, 3:24. Average for 10x800m was 3:29, or 7:00/mile pace. Not too shabby. For "Yasso" repeats, this allegedly says I'm up for a 3:29 marathon, but I'm still not convinced about that correlation between the 800m workout and the 26.2 mile race. :-) Last year about this time, I did only 8x800m at average of 3:29, so I'm a little bit better this year. I was off my 3:25 type pacing from the last couple of 800m repeat workouts this season, but not horribly so.
Alex and I did the cooldown run together, and took the steps up to the Pfluger bridge. However, it was still a careful walk across the bridge to get back to RunTex. There was a lot of tree limb debris and other junk on the trail, so it looks like Town Lake got out of its banks during the heavy rains over the weekend.
For the day, 8.8 miles. I chatted a bit with Pete and Gilbert after changing into warm clothes, and got my logistical orders for the water/Powerade coolers on Saturday morning. Then, I had to go home and get the kids to school (they started 2 hours later than usual this morning).
One interesting thing while driving home was watching big chunks of flat ice flying off of cars and crashing into cars trailing behind. We're talking one foot square pieces coming loose, flying up into the air, and turning into little bombs. Cool if it wasn't your car that got hit by the debris.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Ice, Ice Baby
Okay, sorry about the cheesy Vanilla Ice reference...actually, I'm not sorry. Let that song stick in your heads, kids! :-)
On Day Two of the Great Ice Storm of 2007 (that's what they say on the continuing "Stormwatch 2007" coverage, anyway), the roads up here in the 'Hood cleared enough that I felt safe to go out for a nice hour run this afternoon. It was a fun morning, with the power popping off a few times (2 hours the first time, then 30 minutes, then 10 minutes), but the icicles are melting off the eaves of the roof, and the frozen back patio is slowly melting, so normality is coming back to us. With that being the case, I bundled up a little bit, and headed out for some running fun. I've been a slug the last 3 days since the fun rain run, and I needed this little outing just to shake loose some athletic cobwebs, so to speak.
The roads weren't too bad, but there were some spots that I had to slow down and carefully step through some ice still unmelted. I learned my lesson from last year, and stayed off the painted white lines on the street, since they stay frozen longer than the asphalt. The most frozen spots were actually when I got on the water tower trail. With no traffic on those gravel and dirt roads, the ice is hanging in there pretty well. In fact, I had to turn around earlier than I had thought, right at the water tower, because the ground from there on seemed a solid sheet of ice (thin, but solid). It was a dicey turn getting around and headed back to the house, that's for sure. Not too many cars out this afternoon, and not too many pedestrians, either, but you can tell that people are getting ready to rejoin the real world tomorrow.
Safely back at the house, I'm glad I got out there. It was a nice 33 degrees, but dressed properly, that's not such a big deal. I hope we're able to get down off the mountain tomorrow morning so I can rejoin the Gazelles for speedy stuff.
For the day, 6.6 miles, just over an hour. 9:09/mile pace. Oh, yeah, I did Core II at the house afterwards and got in some stretching and foam rolling, just because.
On Day Two of the Great Ice Storm of 2007 (that's what they say on the continuing "Stormwatch 2007" coverage, anyway), the roads up here in the 'Hood cleared enough that I felt safe to go out for a nice hour run this afternoon. It was a fun morning, with the power popping off a few times (2 hours the first time, then 30 minutes, then 10 minutes), but the icicles are melting off the eaves of the roof, and the frozen back patio is slowly melting, so normality is coming back to us. With that being the case, I bundled up a little bit, and headed out for some running fun. I've been a slug the last 3 days since the fun rain run, and I needed this little outing just to shake loose some athletic cobwebs, so to speak.
The roads weren't too bad, but there were some spots that I had to slow down and carefully step through some ice still unmelted. I learned my lesson from last year, and stayed off the painted white lines on the street, since they stay frozen longer than the asphalt. The most frozen spots were actually when I got on the water tower trail. With no traffic on those gravel and dirt roads, the ice is hanging in there pretty well. In fact, I had to turn around earlier than I had thought, right at the water tower, because the ground from there on seemed a solid sheet of ice (thin, but solid). It was a dicey turn getting around and headed back to the house, that's for sure. Not too many cars out this afternoon, and not too many pedestrians, either, but you can tell that people are getting ready to rejoin the real world tomorrow.
Safely back at the house, I'm glad I got out there. It was a nice 33 degrees, but dressed properly, that's not such a big deal. I hope we're able to get down off the mountain tomorrow morning so I can rejoin the Gazelles for speedy stuff.
For the day, 6.6 miles, just over an hour. 9:09/mile pace. Oh, yeah, I did Core II at the house afterwards and got in some stretching and foam rolling, just because.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Splish, Splash, I Was Taking A Bath...
Or, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" --
This morning's run was one for the scrapbooks, that's for sure! Scheduled for today was a tour of the revised 3M Half Marathon course, with a couple extra miles at the end to get us to RunTex and stretching, etc. The forecast last night was for 60 degrees and scattered thunderstorms, which sounded tolerable to me. I figured a long-sleeved shirt, a cap, maybe a running vest, and I'd be fine. So, this morning when I awoke, I heard the pitter patter of rain outside, and felt pretty smug that I'd sussed out the weather conditions. Got my banana and pre-race Gatorade, and I got in the white bus to drive down to RunTex for the carpool caravan.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the old car thermometer read "51" as I started the drive downtown. Hmmmmm. Still, I was definitely dressed for the conditions, and felt pretty good about things. It was "just" 15 miles or so, so how bad could it be? By the time I reached RunTex, the temperature had dropped ominously to 49 degrees, and the rain was a'falling. Still, I thought that would be okay. I dropped my warm post-run clothing in Amy's car, and waited under the shed with my fellow Gazelles for Gilbert's arrival.
When he got there, he was very excited. He was shouting, "You guys are awesome! There's nobody else out here! You are tough!" It worked a little bit, I guess, but we were already feeling a little silly about the whole thing. With rumbles of thunder occasionally rolling across the sky, and the rain being pretty insistent, it was definitely a day for just the most dedicated/crazy of runners, that's for sure.
I piled my truck full of runners (and T-Dog, who rode behind the third row of seats), and with the defrosters blowing hard, we eased our way up to Gateway for the start of the point-to-point course. Rachel had reserved a seat in the Tahoe, but at departure time, she had not arrived, so her seat was given to the first Standby Passenger, Eric. Turns out that Rachel woke up, got dressed, and turned around when she realized she couldn't see her car from the door of her house. Can't say that I blame her much. :-) Water was pooling up all over Mopac, but we were still thinking that the rain might blow itself out soon...which proved to be a thought without merit.
We all piled out at Gateway, and after a small amount of crowd inertia working against us, we finally just started running. Within the first mile, the groups had separated out, and we were pretty much set for the rest of the day. I was fairly comfortable by the end of that first mile, except for my hands, which would remain pretty chilly. We had a pretty huge group running along around our pace, including but not limited to Emily, Monique, Colleen, Jennifer, Lisa, Sue, Renee (toughing it out in the short sleeved shirt!), Laura, Javier, and Megan. It was hard to tell who was actually there, what with all the hoods, hats, and jackets covering everyone up. After negotiating the semi-scary access road along 183, we crossed Loop 360, and finally made our way up towards Mesa Drive. Gilbert, Pete, and the rest of the faster Gazelles caught us along this stretch, and we settled in for the rest of our long day in the rain. Sooner than expected, we reached Rudy and the first water stop at Anderson High School. We made the first of our rather quick water/Powerade/GU stops there (hard to hang out and chat under those conditions), and moved on. So far, so wet.
Splits miles 1-3.3: 10:04, 9:30, 9:08, 0.3 miles at 9:10. Overall, 9:32/mile pace.
From there, the rain came down harder, and we had to negotiate increasingly large and deep puddles and streams along the sides of the roads (and on the sidewalks, too!). We enjoyed the largely downhill stretch on Mesa to Spicewood Springs, and then crossed back over the road to go over the Mopac bridge and then turn onto Shoal Creek. Colleen mentioned that she was listening to "Get The Knack!" in her car lately, and so I was stuck with Knack songs for the next hour. Thanks, Colleen! It was noticeably more comfortable when we were heading south, with the chilling breeze to our backs. A few turns later, we were headed to Great Northern, and I took that opportunity to check out some fencing to make sure it was stable. Having confirmed that, I caught back up with the gang on McElroy, as we cruised the flat couple of miles in there and behind NorthCross Mall. Rudy was there with the second water stop on Foster, and we made yet another quick stop with the gang. Still feeling pretty good, albeit with fully soaked clothes and shoes, we moved on. Yee haw, and all that.
Splits miles 4-6: 8:53, 9:12 (fence stop), and 0.68 miles at 8:27/mile (catching up). Overall down to 9:15/mile. Under the conditions, that was a solid training day.
We ran through more deep rivers and puddles along Foster/NorthCross Drive, and abandoned any hope of avoiding totally soggy feet. From there on, we just stomped our way through whatever was there, and it was liberating, in sort of a 5-year old playing in the rain sort of way. We crossed onto Burnet, and ran along the flooded sidewalks and grassy storefront lots as we went south towards North Loop. I was also in charge (self-appointed, of course) of judging the relative danger of lightning. I used the old slow counting trick from the flash of the lightning, using 1000 ft per second for the sonic boom to catch up with the light. Like I told the gang, we were okay as long as it didn't go "FLASHBOOM!" The closest it got was maybe a mile, so we felt all right about that.
It was somewhere in here that I really got the giggles...we could scarcely imagine the reactions of the few drivers out on the water-logged streets as they saw this pack of runners working their way along the roads in the rain, lightning and thunder. Along Burnet, there were several times when I could tell that everyone had fallen into themselves, in a sort of individual bubble of concentration, to try and push themselves through this run. It was fun and all, but we rarely have to run in the rain here in Austin, so this was taking some mental horsepower to push through today.
Up North Loop, we reentered last year's Freescale course, and motored up the hills to the next water stop. I took my second GU there, but all things considered, I probably didn't need it. A short time later, we were off again. We were way past halfway done, so at least we could say that!
Splits miles 7-8.8: 9:01, 9:02, 0.8 miles at 8:47/mile. Overall running pace 9:09/mile.
More deep water puddles later, we trudged up the rest of the hilly section of the course, on North Loop / 53rd Street, and turned south onto Duval for the start of the nice downhill finishing stretch of the 3M course. Again, the wind was at our backs, so things improved a bunch just because of that. The rain would come down hard for a while, then let up a bit, then crash down again. Variety is the spice of life, I have heard, but this was sort of a one-track spice, if you ask me. We tried to pretend that we were in Seattle, but that only helped a little. The last water/Powerade stop was along Duval, and we almost ran by it. Renee spied it before we could rumble past. One last bit of Powerade (another GU seemed unimportant by now), and we were into the homestretch. We knew we were going to get through this thing, but you could tell that everyone was starting to accelerate a bit to get to their dry clothing. Simple things make us so happy! Frank and Brian caught and passed us at that last water stop, having made a stop somewhere along the way, I guess.
Splits miles 9-11: 0.31 miles at 8:55/mile, 21 second stoplight, 8:57, and 0.87 miles at 8:49/mile. Running overall pace 9:06/mile. Time to head to the barn!
We totally got our feet drenched on San Jacinto and through the UT campus, but it was just a matter of how much new cold water was in our shoes by this point. The shoes were so water-logged that they weren't functioning very well as cushioning devices, but as heavy as they were, I guess they were still doing their job. We dodged a bus or two, a couple of cars, and exited campus on Trinity Street, heading to the half marathon finish line. Unlike in years past, there is no deep dive to the finish this year, but it is a pretty flat to gentle downhill trend for the last couple of miles, so that's fair. We passed the finish line at Waterloo Park, and motored up the hill on Trinity to 11th Street, where we turned to go over to Congress and the big finish.
We were all feeling ready to be finished, and we bombed down Congress on the sidewalks, carefully watching our steps as we went up and down curbs and through puddles. I did notice a bit of irony as we saw a considerable number of homeless folks curled up under whatever shelter they could find in the entrances to various businesses downtown...and we were voluntarily out there almost playing in the same rain and cold that makes life so tough this time of year for those less fortunate people. Sobering if you take a moment to ponder life's vagaries...
At any rate, I called another route audible, and we crossed Town Lake on the Congress bridge. We saw our second non-Gazelle runner out there, crossing north on the bridge as we flew south. We exchanged greetings, and just for a moment, you could tell that despite the wet and the cold, there was a sense of determination and pride that flashed between us. It was that feeling that, like Gilbert said, "No one else is crazy enough to be out here, but here we are!" I noticed what appeared to be a lot of debris in Town Lake, but it turned out to be hundreds of ducks or other water birds (hard to tell from that height). I guess it really was weather fit for a duck, huh? They were having a grand time floating in the water with the rain falling all around them.
We crossed Congress on the bridge, and cut over to the Hyatt, and finally crossed to RunTex via the parking lot for the Chamber of Commerce building. Laura was running step for step with me on my shortened "fast finish," and as we reached the shed where Rudy was parked and the other Gazelles were huddled out of the rain, I broke out in a big smile and laugh as we finished this silly, crazy running day. High fives all around, we had definitely earned our running badges today!
Splits miles 12-14.6: 8:47, 8:40, 8:39, 0.65 miles at 7:28/mile. Overall running pace 8:57. With water stops included, it was 14.64 miles at 9:26/mile. Not too bad.
My HR numbers were terrific today, only bumping up over sedate long-run bpm during the short fast finish, and even then, it just burbled over into that range for a few minutes. Except for the weather conditions, it was a blast. And, truth be known, I think the weather made this run that much more fun. It certainly has made it a memorable one!
Amy rolled up a few minutes later, in her car, and I grabbed my bag and went into RunTex to borrow their bathroom so I could get out of the soaking wet clothes and shoes. That was almost miraculously wonderful, getting into warm clothing. My skin felt funny, until I realized that it was just the blood starting to flow back into the periphery of my body, bringing me back to normal operating temperatures. Amy had the car heater blasting when I climbed back in for the ride up to Gateway to retrieve our cars. Liliana, Amy and I laughed a lot about this run as we drove carefully up Mopac, including the perpetually flooded underpass under Steck. A Transportation worker was out in the far right hand lane, digging through the water trying to unclog the drains that would normally make that underpass, uh, passable. The water was knee-deep to that guy.
Once we got back to the cars, I had to wait in my car for a couple of minutes until the heated seats started warming me up to get the shivers to stop. An uneventful ride back home from there, and my running day was done. No stretching, due to weather, but it was actually a pretty great training run. Only a runner could understand, but it was fun out there today. Something about sloshing through the driving rain, ankle-deep streams of water, and occasionally howling winds makes you feel a more heightened sense of awareness of the world around you. And, you'd only get to experience that as a runner, I think. Okay, maybe a hiker, cyclist, soldier, etc., might get it, too, but you understand where I'm coming from, right? :-)
A great day at the running office! Now, will we get what the weather folks call "Wintry Mix" tomorrow and/or Monday? Can't wait to see!
This morning's run was one for the scrapbooks, that's for sure! Scheduled for today was a tour of the revised 3M Half Marathon course, with a couple extra miles at the end to get us to RunTex and stretching, etc. The forecast last night was for 60 degrees and scattered thunderstorms, which sounded tolerable to me. I figured a long-sleeved shirt, a cap, maybe a running vest, and I'd be fine. So, this morning when I awoke, I heard the pitter patter of rain outside, and felt pretty smug that I'd sussed out the weather conditions. Got my banana and pre-race Gatorade, and I got in the white bus to drive down to RunTex for the carpool caravan.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the old car thermometer read "51" as I started the drive downtown. Hmmmmm. Still, I was definitely dressed for the conditions, and felt pretty good about things. It was "just" 15 miles or so, so how bad could it be? By the time I reached RunTex, the temperature had dropped ominously to 49 degrees, and the rain was a'falling. Still, I thought that would be okay. I dropped my warm post-run clothing in Amy's car, and waited under the shed with my fellow Gazelles for Gilbert's arrival.
When he got there, he was very excited. He was shouting, "You guys are awesome! There's nobody else out here! You are tough!" It worked a little bit, I guess, but we were already feeling a little silly about the whole thing. With rumbles of thunder occasionally rolling across the sky, and the rain being pretty insistent, it was definitely a day for just the most dedicated/crazy of runners, that's for sure.
I piled my truck full of runners (and T-Dog, who rode behind the third row of seats), and with the defrosters blowing hard, we eased our way up to Gateway for the start of the point-to-point course. Rachel had reserved a seat in the Tahoe, but at departure time, she had not arrived, so her seat was given to the first Standby Passenger, Eric. Turns out that Rachel woke up, got dressed, and turned around when she realized she couldn't see her car from the door of her house. Can't say that I blame her much. :-) Water was pooling up all over Mopac, but we were still thinking that the rain might blow itself out soon...which proved to be a thought without merit.
We all piled out at Gateway, and after a small amount of crowd inertia working against us, we finally just started running. Within the first mile, the groups had separated out, and we were pretty much set for the rest of the day. I was fairly comfortable by the end of that first mile, except for my hands, which would remain pretty chilly. We had a pretty huge group running along around our pace, including but not limited to Emily, Monique, Colleen, Jennifer, Lisa, Sue, Renee (toughing it out in the short sleeved shirt!), Laura, Javier, and Megan. It was hard to tell who was actually there, what with all the hoods, hats, and jackets covering everyone up. After negotiating the semi-scary access road along 183, we crossed Loop 360, and finally made our way up towards Mesa Drive. Gilbert, Pete, and the rest of the faster Gazelles caught us along this stretch, and we settled in for the rest of our long day in the rain. Sooner than expected, we reached Rudy and the first water stop at Anderson High School. We made the first of our rather quick water/Powerade/GU stops there (hard to hang out and chat under those conditions), and moved on. So far, so wet.
Splits miles 1-3.3: 10:04, 9:30, 9:08, 0.3 miles at 9:10. Overall, 9:32/mile pace.
From there, the rain came down harder, and we had to negotiate increasingly large and deep puddles and streams along the sides of the roads (and on the sidewalks, too!). We enjoyed the largely downhill stretch on Mesa to Spicewood Springs, and then crossed back over the road to go over the Mopac bridge and then turn onto Shoal Creek. Colleen mentioned that she was listening to "Get The Knack!" in her car lately, and so I was stuck with Knack songs for the next hour. Thanks, Colleen! It was noticeably more comfortable when we were heading south, with the chilling breeze to our backs. A few turns later, we were headed to Great Northern, and I took that opportunity to check out some fencing to make sure it was stable. Having confirmed that, I caught back up with the gang on McElroy, as we cruised the flat couple of miles in there and behind NorthCross Mall. Rudy was there with the second water stop on Foster, and we made yet another quick stop with the gang. Still feeling pretty good, albeit with fully soaked clothes and shoes, we moved on. Yee haw, and all that.
Splits miles 4-6: 8:53, 9:12 (fence stop), and 0.68 miles at 8:27/mile (catching up). Overall down to 9:15/mile. Under the conditions, that was a solid training day.
We ran through more deep rivers and puddles along Foster/NorthCross Drive, and abandoned any hope of avoiding totally soggy feet. From there on, we just stomped our way through whatever was there, and it was liberating, in sort of a 5-year old playing in the rain sort of way. We crossed onto Burnet, and ran along the flooded sidewalks and grassy storefront lots as we went south towards North Loop. I was also in charge (self-appointed, of course) of judging the relative danger of lightning. I used the old slow counting trick from the flash of the lightning, using 1000 ft per second for the sonic boom to catch up with the light. Like I told the gang, we were okay as long as it didn't go "FLASHBOOM!" The closest it got was maybe a mile, so we felt all right about that.
It was somewhere in here that I really got the giggles...we could scarcely imagine the reactions of the few drivers out on the water-logged streets as they saw this pack of runners working their way along the roads in the rain, lightning and thunder. Along Burnet, there were several times when I could tell that everyone had fallen into themselves, in a sort of individual bubble of concentration, to try and push themselves through this run. It was fun and all, but we rarely have to run in the rain here in Austin, so this was taking some mental horsepower to push through today.
Up North Loop, we reentered last year's Freescale course, and motored up the hills to the next water stop. I took my second GU there, but all things considered, I probably didn't need it. A short time later, we were off again. We were way past halfway done, so at least we could say that!
Splits miles 7-8.8: 9:01, 9:02, 0.8 miles at 8:47/mile. Overall running pace 9:09/mile.
More deep water puddles later, we trudged up the rest of the hilly section of the course, on North Loop / 53rd Street, and turned south onto Duval for the start of the nice downhill finishing stretch of the 3M course. Again, the wind was at our backs, so things improved a bunch just because of that. The rain would come down hard for a while, then let up a bit, then crash down again. Variety is the spice of life, I have heard, but this was sort of a one-track spice, if you ask me. We tried to pretend that we were in Seattle, but that only helped a little. The last water/Powerade stop was along Duval, and we almost ran by it. Renee spied it before we could rumble past. One last bit of Powerade (another GU seemed unimportant by now), and we were into the homestretch. We knew we were going to get through this thing, but you could tell that everyone was starting to accelerate a bit to get to their dry clothing. Simple things make us so happy! Frank and Brian caught and passed us at that last water stop, having made a stop somewhere along the way, I guess.
Splits miles 9-11: 0.31 miles at 8:55/mile, 21 second stoplight, 8:57, and 0.87 miles at 8:49/mile. Running overall pace 9:06/mile. Time to head to the barn!
We totally got our feet drenched on San Jacinto and through the UT campus, but it was just a matter of how much new cold water was in our shoes by this point. The shoes were so water-logged that they weren't functioning very well as cushioning devices, but as heavy as they were, I guess they were still doing their job. We dodged a bus or two, a couple of cars, and exited campus on Trinity Street, heading to the half marathon finish line. Unlike in years past, there is no deep dive to the finish this year, but it is a pretty flat to gentle downhill trend for the last couple of miles, so that's fair. We passed the finish line at Waterloo Park, and motored up the hill on Trinity to 11th Street, where we turned to go over to Congress and the big finish.
We were all feeling ready to be finished, and we bombed down Congress on the sidewalks, carefully watching our steps as we went up and down curbs and through puddles. I did notice a bit of irony as we saw a considerable number of homeless folks curled up under whatever shelter they could find in the entrances to various businesses downtown...and we were voluntarily out there almost playing in the same rain and cold that makes life so tough this time of year for those less fortunate people. Sobering if you take a moment to ponder life's vagaries...
At any rate, I called another route audible, and we crossed Town Lake on the Congress bridge. We saw our second non-Gazelle runner out there, crossing north on the bridge as we flew south. We exchanged greetings, and just for a moment, you could tell that despite the wet and the cold, there was a sense of determination and pride that flashed between us. It was that feeling that, like Gilbert said, "No one else is crazy enough to be out here, but here we are!" I noticed what appeared to be a lot of debris in Town Lake, but it turned out to be hundreds of ducks or other water birds (hard to tell from that height). I guess it really was weather fit for a duck, huh? They were having a grand time floating in the water with the rain falling all around them.
We crossed Congress on the bridge, and cut over to the Hyatt, and finally crossed to RunTex via the parking lot for the Chamber of Commerce building. Laura was running step for step with me on my shortened "fast finish," and as we reached the shed where Rudy was parked and the other Gazelles were huddled out of the rain, I broke out in a big smile and laugh as we finished this silly, crazy running day. High fives all around, we had definitely earned our running badges today!
Splits miles 12-14.6: 8:47, 8:40, 8:39, 0.65 miles at 7:28/mile. Overall running pace 8:57. With water stops included, it was 14.64 miles at 9:26/mile. Not too bad.
My HR numbers were terrific today, only bumping up over sedate long-run bpm during the short fast finish, and even then, it just burbled over into that range for a few minutes. Except for the weather conditions, it was a blast. And, truth be known, I think the weather made this run that much more fun. It certainly has made it a memorable one!
Amy rolled up a few minutes later, in her car, and I grabbed my bag and went into RunTex to borrow their bathroom so I could get out of the soaking wet clothes and shoes. That was almost miraculously wonderful, getting into warm clothing. My skin felt funny, until I realized that it was just the blood starting to flow back into the periphery of my body, bringing me back to normal operating temperatures. Amy had the car heater blasting when I climbed back in for the ride up to Gateway to retrieve our cars. Liliana, Amy and I laughed a lot about this run as we drove carefully up Mopac, including the perpetually flooded underpass under Steck. A Transportation worker was out in the far right hand lane, digging through the water trying to unclog the drains that would normally make that underpass, uh, passable. The water was knee-deep to that guy.
Once we got back to the cars, I had to wait in my car for a couple of minutes until the heated seats started warming me up to get the shivers to stop. An uneventful ride back home from there, and my running day was done. No stretching, due to weather, but it was actually a pretty great training run. Only a runner could understand, but it was fun out there today. Something about sloshing through the driving rain, ankle-deep streams of water, and occasionally howling winds makes you feel a more heightened sense of awareness of the world around you. And, you'd only get to experience that as a runner, I think. Okay, maybe a hiker, cyclist, soldier, etc., might get it, too, but you understand where I'm coming from, right? :-)
A great day at the running office! Now, will we get what the weather folks call "Wintry Mix" tomorrow and/or Monday? Can't wait to see!
Friday, January 12, 2007
GymThang
Today, on a soggy, humid day outside, I made my way to Gold's for an indoor workout. I had time today, so I did a little more cycling than usual, a total of 25 minutes, at a slightly higher bpm. On a cycle, it's an exercise in focus to keep the HR up high enough...you really have to zip your legs along on the pedals to get a HR that on foot would be no problem in achieving. But, on an off day, this felt just fine as a warmup and alternative workout. I saw Karen from Gazelles cruising along on an elliptical trainer, so I stopped and chatted with her between my cycle workout and the rest of the festivities. She trains on a different day, so I don't see her as often as I once did. Things seem to be going great for her, and it was a nice little visit.
After that, it was time for some concentrated stretching, some foam rolling on the quads (not so bad today, so all my efforts to rehab the sore spots in there seem to be working), and then Core II with the planks. Since I missed yesterday's workout, I did some single sets of just the main leg exercises (quad extensions/hamstring curls, seated calf raises, leg press) to give the legs just a little work. With the 15 mile tour of the 3M course tomorrow, I figured that was plenty. Then, I finished things off with a somewhat abbreviated upper body set, with double sets of bicep curls, bench, seated rows, and tricep pulldowns. Not a bad workout.
Now, it's time to go back to work on the garage cleanup project...
After that, it was time for some concentrated stretching, some foam rolling on the quads (not so bad today, so all my efforts to rehab the sore spots in there seem to be working), and then Core II with the planks. Since I missed yesterday's workout, I did some single sets of just the main leg exercises (quad extensions/hamstring curls, seated calf raises, leg press) to give the legs just a little work. With the 15 mile tour of the 3M course tomorrow, I figured that was plenty. Then, I finished things off with a somewhat abbreviated upper body set, with double sets of bicep curls, bench, seated rows, and tricep pulldowns. Not a bad workout.
Now, it's time to go back to work on the garage cleanup project...
Thursday, January 11, 2007
...And The Weather Does Its Thing
So, tonight, after that great crisp morning yesterday, we had almost 70 degrees and humid. Of course, after a couple days of scheduled rain Friday and Saturday, it promises to get back down towards freezing. Crazy, man.
Anyway, today, I failed to go to the gym, but I'll get there tomorrow. Tonight I went out for a nice 6.5 miles of recovery running, 60 minutes, average pace 9:16. Good HR numbers, and everything felt great out there. After yesterday's deep tissue massage, I was worried that I'd feel a little beaten up today, but that was not the case. The recovery continues.
Friday will be a cycle/gym visit, with some foam rolling (Ron sez every other day is about as often as I should use that particular piece of apparatus), followed by Saturday's tour of the new 3M half marathon course. I'm hopeful that it will either be raining and in the 60's, or dry and in the 50's, for the Tour d'Half. Cold and rainy isn't much fun.
Anyway, today, I failed to go to the gym, but I'll get there tomorrow. Tonight I went out for a nice 6.5 miles of recovery running, 60 minutes, average pace 9:16. Good HR numbers, and everything felt great out there. After yesterday's deep tissue massage, I was worried that I'd feel a little beaten up today, but that was not the case. The recovery continues.
Friday will be a cycle/gym visit, with some foam rolling (Ron sez every other day is about as often as I should use that particular piece of apparatus), followed by Saturday's tour of the new 3M half marathon course. I'm hopeful that it will either be raining and in the 60's, or dry and in the 50's, for the Tour d'Half. Cold and rainy isn't much fun.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Goin' Round and Round
This morning, we got to do some shorter, snappier intervals on the track for a change. I know that for marathoning, the longer stuff is much more applicable to training, but it's sure fun to do 400m repeats. At least it is for me. It was nice and cold this morning, 36 degrees at the start, and so it was a "Superman tights" kind of training apparel deal. A pretty big crowd was there at RunTex, even though a lot of us had run the 20 miler on Sunday. Gilbert told us to run these repeats just to get some snap back in our legs, dropping 2 seconds per lap between sets, and not to try to get down to 5K pace by the end of the workout. That was good news to me!
A nice gentle warmup and drills (at the crowded track!) left us ready to run. A fairly huge group of people clustered in my pace neighborhood, and I told them my vague idea of aiming at 1:50, 1:48, 1:46 and 1:44 for the four groups of 5x400m repeats. 1:00 rest between repeats, and a full jogged lap between sets. Okey dokey. In the pre-dawn darkness, we were off.
It was confusing with all the competing training groups jockeying for track position on our wildly disparate workout regimens, but we managed to lock into a reasonable pace for the first set of repeats. For a change, it was cool to be able to run at a peppy, but not breathless, pace on 400's. The first set of 5 repeats were knocked out at an average of about 1:52, which was a little slower than planned, but at least we were consistent.
Set number two was solid, too, and we had a good number of people willing to help set the pace. By the end of that set, I could actually see my watch, so it got easier to lock into a pace after that. The second set was about 1:48, so we were back on schedule. Emily had to leave after that set...this is a long workout, and we ended up losing folks due to time constraints as it went on.
A lot of folks had to leave after set number three, but we did some good running in that one. By then, the other training groups had cleared out, and it was just the Gazelles out there, plugging away. Again, the pace got quicker, but it still felt awfully comfortable out there. I'll take that as a good sign. Third set average was 1:45, so we were doing a good job of slowly ratcheting up the effort.
For the fourth set, I was happy to see that 6 of us were able to stick around for the full Monte, so to speak, and after the first three repeats at more or less the 1:44 target, we got frisky when we saw that the workout was coming to an end. The last two laps were fast and then faster, and that was fun to end the long day on some hot laps. Except for some heavy legs at times, I felt great out there, so this was an excellent workout coming after the stresses of the 20 mile race on Sunday. Last set average was 1:40.
For the full 20 x 400m, we averaged 1:46, or 7:06/mile. Very nice following up a big race effort. The individual splits: 1:53, 1:53, 1:50, 1:51, 1:52, then 1:49, 1:47, 1:48, 1:44 (oops), 1:46, then 1:43, 1:46, 1:46, 1:47, 1:44, and finally 1:46, 1:43, 1:43, 1:37, 1:31.
A big tribe ran back to RunTex, nice and easy, and after some stretching in the sun, we were done. Norma was a spectator at the workout (she has the Houston marathon Sunday), and she was nice enough to treat us to some bagels while we stretched. Awesome!
For the day, 9.5 miles.
After that, I visited Gold's for upper body and core I workout. Not much to report there, except that I did go, and I'm still plugging away at my project to be able to do 10 pullups. That's sort of pitiful that I can't do that already, but I'm working on it! On the way home, I dropped by Academy and bought a foam roller torture device, so I can continue to work on my quads. This afternoon, I go to visit Ron for my post-race massage. That should be a fairly painful experience, but I know it's for my own good. :-)
A nice gentle warmup and drills (at the crowded track!) left us ready to run. A fairly huge group of people clustered in my pace neighborhood, and I told them my vague idea of aiming at 1:50, 1:48, 1:46 and 1:44 for the four groups of 5x400m repeats. 1:00 rest between repeats, and a full jogged lap between sets. Okey dokey. In the pre-dawn darkness, we were off.
It was confusing with all the competing training groups jockeying for track position on our wildly disparate workout regimens, but we managed to lock into a reasonable pace for the first set of repeats. For a change, it was cool to be able to run at a peppy, but not breathless, pace on 400's. The first set of 5 repeats were knocked out at an average of about 1:52, which was a little slower than planned, but at least we were consistent.
Set number two was solid, too, and we had a good number of people willing to help set the pace. By the end of that set, I could actually see my watch, so it got easier to lock into a pace after that. The second set was about 1:48, so we were back on schedule. Emily had to leave after that set...this is a long workout, and we ended up losing folks due to time constraints as it went on.
A lot of folks had to leave after set number three, but we did some good running in that one. By then, the other training groups had cleared out, and it was just the Gazelles out there, plugging away. Again, the pace got quicker, but it still felt awfully comfortable out there. I'll take that as a good sign. Third set average was 1:45, so we were doing a good job of slowly ratcheting up the effort.
For the fourth set, I was happy to see that 6 of us were able to stick around for the full Monte, so to speak, and after the first three repeats at more or less the 1:44 target, we got frisky when we saw that the workout was coming to an end. The last two laps were fast and then faster, and that was fun to end the long day on some hot laps. Except for some heavy legs at times, I felt great out there, so this was an excellent workout coming after the stresses of the 20 mile race on Sunday. Last set average was 1:40.
For the full 20 x 400m, we averaged 1:46, or 7:06/mile. Very nice following up a big race effort. The individual splits: 1:53, 1:53, 1:50, 1:51, 1:52, then 1:49, 1:47, 1:48, 1:44 (oops), 1:46, then 1:43, 1:46, 1:46, 1:47, 1:44, and finally 1:46, 1:43, 1:43, 1:37, 1:31.
A big tribe ran back to RunTex, nice and easy, and after some stretching in the sun, we were done. Norma was a spectator at the workout (she has the Houston marathon Sunday), and she was nice enough to treat us to some bagels while we stretched. Awesome!
For the day, 9.5 miles.
After that, I visited Gold's for upper body and core I workout. Not much to report there, except that I did go, and I'm still plugging away at my project to be able to do 10 pullups. That's sort of pitiful that I can't do that already, but I'm working on it! On the way home, I dropped by Academy and bought a foam roller torture device, so I can continue to work on my quads. This afternoon, I go to visit Ron for my post-race massage. That should be a fairly painful experience, but I know it's for my own good. :-)
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
More Baby Steps
And, in a rush of miraculousness, I even went out tonight and put in some easy running. It was a dusk type run, 5.3 miles, about 46 minutes, 8:50/mile pace. HR good, legs acceptable, mission accomplished. Second run in my proposed marathon shoes, the Filas. My left quad is a little tight still, perhaps sore from the foam roller treatment this afternoon, but hopefully that will continue to improve.
Now, I wonder if Gilbert is going to call an audible for tomorrow's scheduled 16x400m workout? That would be a fun one as written, but sometimes he'll change it if he thinks everyone is too tired. I'll let you know. Saturday should be a fun tour of the new 3M half marathon course. I'm interested to find out how the modest course changes have altered the nature of the race. It's still a fast course, but it looks to me like it's a little tougher in the last couple of miles than it used to be.
Now, I wonder if Gilbert is going to call an audible for tomorrow's scheduled 16x400m workout? That would be a fun one as written, but sometimes he'll change it if he thinks everyone is too tired. I'll let you know. Saturday should be a fun tour of the new 3M half marathon course. I'm interested to find out how the modest course changes have altered the nature of the race. It's still a fast course, but it looks to me like it's a little tougher in the last couple of miles than it used to be.
Baby Steps
Today, after taking Monday off, I eased back into the exercise world. So far, I've gone to Gold's and done some cycling (18 minutes to warmup), some stretching (a good 15 minutes), and some exquisite torture with the foam roller, to which I was previously not introduced. I saw it over there, and decided to test it out on my sore quads, and it was, uh, something! It was much like the toughest parts of the massage treatments I've received in the past, albeit with some control on my part as to letting up on the torture. Zowie! After I was done, though, I could tell that I had done some good on my legs. From my post-run cataloging of aches and pains, it appears that the 20 miler mostly pounded my quads, with some minor foot arch soreness. Calves and hammies are feeling remarkably good. After that stretching and rolling, I did Core II, the one with the planks, and then did a single set full routine of the leg weights, to accelerate the healing process. The leg weights always make me feel better the next day, so I'm counting on that.
It was a good visit to the gym, and now I may have to go find a foam roller to add to the arsenal of home remedies for leg knots and soreness.
After that, I went home and put the Christmas stuff up in the attic, and got sidetracked with a bunch of garage cleaning. We've got junk piled everywhere in there, and it's way past time to get it organized and cleared up. So, although it appears to be about a weeklong project, I'm encouraged by the start I made today.
Hopefully, I'll get a chance to do a super easy 60 minute run this evening in the 'Hood.
And, for those keeping track, I've probably put $50 worth of change back into the U.S. currency circulatory system since my little coin dispersal project was begun some weeks ago. Every time I think I'm almost done, I find another little pile of coins somewhere in the house to add to the mix. It's kind of like finding "free money," since it was obviously out of our pockets all this time. The latest stash was found out in the garage over the weekend, when I found a jar with a bunch of coinage in it. Sweet! :-)
It was a good visit to the gym, and now I may have to go find a foam roller to add to the arsenal of home remedies for leg knots and soreness.
After that, I went home and put the Christmas stuff up in the attic, and got sidetracked with a bunch of garage cleaning. We've got junk piled everywhere in there, and it's way past time to get it organized and cleared up. So, although it appears to be about a weeklong project, I'm encouraged by the start I made today.
Hopefully, I'll get a chance to do a super easy 60 minute run this evening in the 'Hood.
And, for those keeping track, I've probably put $50 worth of change back into the U.S. currency circulatory system since my little coin dispersal project was begun some weeks ago. Every time I think I'm almost done, I find another little pile of coins somewhere in the house to add to the mix. It's kind of like finding "free money," since it was obviously out of our pockets all this time. The latest stash was found out in the garage over the weekend, when I found a jar with a bunch of coinage in it. Sweet! :-)
Sunday, January 07, 2007
ARA 20 Miler [Entered 1/8/07]
Well, Sunday it was time to revisit the course of the Moe's Better Half Marathon, the site of some really bad races for me in the past. That course, plus some additional miles cleverly added, made up the ARA 20 Miler, the longest race in the Distance Challenge. The terrain was challenging but not awful, sort of a milder form of the Decker course, stretched out a bit. Weather was bright, sunny, and cool enough for good racing. Yeah, we got the traditional north wind towards the end of the race, but it was only a big issue in the last mile and change, so there's not much there to complain about, either. So, good conditions, a fair race course, good on-course support, and some fellow Gazelles to pace along with...how did I do?
Since the race was down in San Marcos, it made sense for me to drop by Casa Varela on the way to carpool with Frank. I found his house without any wrong turns, and we got to the race site 15 minutes early for the warmup festivities. Conversation was light, as we both sort of had our game faces on, or at least we had gotten the game faces out of the running locker, ready to put on soon. I've laughed about how casually we've all treated this race, but it's not quite so funny when you get within an hour of starting it. :-)
The pre-race facilities were sort of tucked behind the outlet mall, so we were able to visit them without any sort of wait as we got ready for the warmup. A pretty good mob of Gazelles met up at the finish line right on time, and we were off on our gentle 2 mile warmup by 7:05. That bit of course reconnaissance showed a nice downhill to the finish line, maybe as much as .4 miles, but a long steady uphill climb to that last hill crest, so it would be interesting at the finish! It was really pretty out as we warmed up, with the sun peeking up over the eastern horizon and the moon still high in the western sky. Our two mile warmup was knocked out at a robust 10:45/mile pace, so at least we did the warmup properly. After that, the group scattered to the four corners of the outlet mall, in search of places to drop extra clothing, pin on race numbers, take care of any remaining personal business, and maybe even take on last minute nutrition or fluids. I did just a few drills, and then Frank and I went back to the truck to get ready to race. After checking out the weather in person, I ditched the gloves and warm hat, and went with the regular running cap instead.
With my pants pockets loaded down with GU and Enervitene, I trundled back to the starting area to meet up with my pace buddies. The plan, of course, was to go out for 5 miles nice and relaxed, and then run 15 miles at MGP, which I had planned at 8:30-8:35/mile. Amy, Jennifer, Leslie, Sue, Colleen and Steve eventually found their way together with me in the back middle of the starting pack, so I was hopeful that we'd have a good crew for at least the first 5 miles. The usual recorded National Anthem was anthemed, and we were off.
Our first 3 miles were pretty much on easier pace, but by the fourth mile, Amy, Leslie and Sue had pushed on ahead at a new and improved pace, Colleen had shifted to her pace, and Steve, Jennifer and I had fallen somewhere in between. We had already found our way to MGP, as the mile 4 split revealed. And, despite our attempts to dial it back, we failed miserably, and I just figured we'd proceed with that pace. In the back of my mind, I decided that if necessary, I could just back off at mile 19 so that I'd come up with 5 easier miles to go with 15 MGP miles in between. We'd see about that. The terrain for the first 5 miles was the typical rolling stuff, with some long steady hills and long declines as well. Rolling stuff. At a pace that's more long run style, that wasn't as big of a deal as it can be in shorter, faster races, but it was certainly a tester. I grabbed water or powerade at each water stop, which were about every 2 miles, at least a sip or two, and did my GU's at every 4 miles, as I will at the marathon. Through 5 miles, we were on our way, and so far, so good.
Splits miles 1-5: 9:26, 8:58, 8:57, 8:27, 8:37. Overall, 8:53/mile pace.
The next chunk of the course took us to the rougher pavement that the middle section would feature, and I must admit that it was somewhat distracting to fight the camber of the road in places. Still, it was pleasant running. We turned and ran by the concrete/chemical plant that I remembered from the Moe's course while we were on the out and back section of the course, so I was on familiar ground. It was pretty fun to see the faster runners zoom past us on their way back, and at that point, around mile 7 or 8, Gilbert "only" had a 3 mile lead on us. It was cool to see our fellow Gazelles and other familiar faces as they came by, as well. There was a certain amount of relief to finally reach the turnaround point, and finally we were able to run back into the rising sun and see those folks who were trailing us. Mile 10 came while we were still heading back to the new part of the course, and we were still doing okay. I think the mile markers may have been a little mixed up in there, but it certainly wasn't a big problem. Halfway done, so now it was time to put on our serious running masks for the second part of the race.
Splits miles 6-10: 8:31, 8:41, 8:37, 8:37, 8:40. Overall pace 8:45/mile. We were dancing around MGP, and close enough to the planned pace that I felt okay with it.
We finally turned off the Moe's course in there somewhere, and hit a nice stretch that went through a more heavily wooded area. We got our water and Powerade at the mile 12 water stop, and then stepped on the 20K timing mat. I took my first Enervitene at mile 12. Steve had pointed out Emily and Monique ahead of us about 20 yards about that time. By the time we reached the mile 13 marker, catching Emily and Monique, I noticed that Jennifer and I had dropped Steve. I don't like to look back during a race, so I didn't know if Steve was just a few steps back or 20 yards back, but he was gone at that point. The four of us made up a new pacing quartet, and clicked off another couple of miles as a group. The water stop people at about mile 13 were nice enough to tell us that the next water was at mile 16, so that you wouldn't get caught short. Good idea! Mile 15 dumped us out of the woods and onto the long rolling straightaway that led back to the final corner of the race. I wasn't feeling great, and Jennifer had pulled in front of me, but I was in that mode where I needed to prove something to myself, and it was time to show some inner strength on a not-great running day.
Splits miles 11-15: 8:35, 8:25, 8:44, 8:35, 8:41. Still doing okay, pacewise, overall pace down to 8:42/mile. Using my "middle 15" MGP race idea, I only had 3 more MGP miles. Okey dokey.
Mile 16 had a tester of a hill right at the start of it, but I did okay with that. I felt sluggish, sort of heavy-legged, but just kept putting one foot in front of the other. How else was I going to get back to the Outlet Mall? Some training group's people were running along behind us with a chatterbox of a leader, and that got a little annoying, with her telling her people every step of the race ("Okay, here's an uphill, shorten your strides!...Here's a downhill, don't go too fast, we've still got 4 miles to go! ... and so on and so forth...). I grumbled something that Emily caught, and she just laughed, because she and Monique had been listening to her for quite a while before I started running with them. :-) Jennifer and Emily slowly pulled away from me during miles 17 and 18, but I was staying in touch with Emily, at least visually. Each little hilly bump seemed to further sap my mental reserves, but I was mainly trying not to walk, so keeping a sort of survival shuffle was the new game plan at that point. Finally, I realized that I was coming up on the 30K timing mat, and I made a deal to myself to keep running at least to 30K, and then we'd see how we were doing. I stepped on 30K at about 2:43:00 (timing mat, but I don't think it was turned on), which would be a PR if I counted such "en route" PR's. Another little uphill bump, cross the street, and it was the homestretch!
With the turn to the homestretch, however, came a pretty nasty headwind. Oh, well. :-) It seemed to be picking up as the day went on, so I worried for those runners behind me. It was lonely running on that stretch of road, since the pack had spread out quite a bit. I'm sure Monique was behind me somewhere, able to pick out my red running shirt from quite a ways back, but I had eyes only for the finish line. Steve Sisson, the Rogue running coach, was at the mile 19 marker, cheering on his troops, exhorting them to run hard to the finish and be willing to hurt a little bit. As I came up on his position, he recognized me as a familiar face, and with all my Gazelles gear on, he said "I know you know how to hurt!" I agreed that I was indeed familiar with the concept, especially right then. Or words to that effect. :-) That last long climb seemed interminable, but finally I crested the hill, and was greeted with the full glory of the headwind as a tasty reward. Well, at least I had gravity helping pull me to the finish, right? Frank was standing on the side of the road in there, and gave me some encouragement. I think he told me to pass the guy in front of me some 20 yards. So, just in case that's what he had asked me to do, I dug deep, and ran past that guy, at least, finishing with a little honor. God, I'm glad I was done!
Splits miles 16-20: 9:01, 8:49, 8:57, 9:33 (ouch!), and 9:16. Not a distinguished finish, but it was okay, I guess. Overall time 2:56:07, 8:48 overall pace, and a 40 second PR over last year's race. Woo hoo! My "middle 15" miles from mile 4 to mile 18 averaged 8:40/mile, so I missed my MGP goal for the day. What to make of that?
The overriding emotion on everyone's face was relief that it was over. I chatted for a bit with the troops at the Gazelles tent, and then Frank and I labored over to the truck to get our post-run gear on. While putting on my long pants and then putting my shoes back on, both of my calves cramped up as I pointed my toes downward. I worked out those cramps pretty quickly, but it was a sign of how depleted I was. Frank went off to shop at the Adidas store, and I went back to the Gazelles tent to see if anyone wanted to labor through some cooldown mileage. Alex decided that laps around a tree in the traffic island would be enough cooldown for him, but Jennifer, Colleen, Amy, and I think Monique, Emily and Sue joined us as we went off gently to work out some of the junk in our legs. Our pace was quite slow, but with each step, it seemed to help my legs feel a little better. Pretty soon, just Jennifer, Colleen and I remained together, and we gently continued our little efforts for a big mile of cooldown. That cooldown was at a whopping 12:41/mile pace! Still, I guess we have to realize that that pace was as fast or faster than a good number of the runners in the race today. We are blessed to be at even our current level of fitness, by comparison!
A little more conversation at the tent, some modest stretching, and it was time to get going home. Frank treated me to a big Dr. Pepper as we stopped at Wendy's for his post-run snack (I guess by now, it was after 12:00, so it actually was lunchtime!), and the trip back was spent rehashing the race and trading funny stories from it. Those shall have to remain privileged information, of course. :-)
The rest of my day was spent (after the nice hot shower) playing guitar with some of my classical guitar compatriots, so I didn't have time for the ice bath that I had planned. Constant snacking all afternoon long, and then some nice thick crust pizza at dinner, and I felt pretty good by bedtime.
The verdict for the day's efforts? I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't able to better sustain my MGP, so I may have to reconsider my race goal a bit for AT&T. 3:50 is still a solid race goal, based on today's data, and who knows...with a proper taper and good weather, maybe 3:45 is still a possibility? I'm glad that I didn't stop and walk, and I guess I did fight through a case of the "quits," so there's good things to take from the race. I'll score this a "B-minus," take it easy Monday and Tuesday, get a massage on Wednesday, and move on. My streak of great races ended at 3 (Scenic 10 miler, Motive Half, Decker 20K), but I can't complain about that. I've got to focus on the next six weeks and the AT&T marathon. The 3M Half Marathon will be a fun race, where I can run gently fast, if that makes any sense. It won't be a time to go all out, but I think on that downhill course, I can consider a PR attempt anyway. After all, my current half marathon PR is on the Motive course, which isn't exactly designed for PR's. :-)
For the week, 47 miles, a new peak for this training season. The next three weeks will be the biggest mileage period of the training, and then the taper to AT&T. Let the countdown to the marathon begin!!
Since the race was down in San Marcos, it made sense for me to drop by Casa Varela on the way to carpool with Frank. I found his house without any wrong turns, and we got to the race site 15 minutes early for the warmup festivities. Conversation was light, as we both sort of had our game faces on, or at least we had gotten the game faces out of the running locker, ready to put on soon. I've laughed about how casually we've all treated this race, but it's not quite so funny when you get within an hour of starting it. :-)
The pre-race facilities were sort of tucked behind the outlet mall, so we were able to visit them without any sort of wait as we got ready for the warmup. A pretty good mob of Gazelles met up at the finish line right on time, and we were off on our gentle 2 mile warmup by 7:05. That bit of course reconnaissance showed a nice downhill to the finish line, maybe as much as .4 miles, but a long steady uphill climb to that last hill crest, so it would be interesting at the finish! It was really pretty out as we warmed up, with the sun peeking up over the eastern horizon and the moon still high in the western sky. Our two mile warmup was knocked out at a robust 10:45/mile pace, so at least we did the warmup properly. After that, the group scattered to the four corners of the outlet mall, in search of places to drop extra clothing, pin on race numbers, take care of any remaining personal business, and maybe even take on last minute nutrition or fluids. I did just a few drills, and then Frank and I went back to the truck to get ready to race. After checking out the weather in person, I ditched the gloves and warm hat, and went with the regular running cap instead.
With my pants pockets loaded down with GU and Enervitene, I trundled back to the starting area to meet up with my pace buddies. The plan, of course, was to go out for 5 miles nice and relaxed, and then run 15 miles at MGP, which I had planned at 8:30-8:35/mile. Amy, Jennifer, Leslie, Sue, Colleen and Steve eventually found their way together with me in the back middle of the starting pack, so I was hopeful that we'd have a good crew for at least the first 5 miles. The usual recorded National Anthem was anthemed, and we were off.
Our first 3 miles were pretty much on easier pace, but by the fourth mile, Amy, Leslie and Sue had pushed on ahead at a new and improved pace, Colleen had shifted to her pace, and Steve, Jennifer and I had fallen somewhere in between. We had already found our way to MGP, as the mile 4 split revealed. And, despite our attempts to dial it back, we failed miserably, and I just figured we'd proceed with that pace. In the back of my mind, I decided that if necessary, I could just back off at mile 19 so that I'd come up with 5 easier miles to go with 15 MGP miles in between. We'd see about that. The terrain for the first 5 miles was the typical rolling stuff, with some long steady hills and long declines as well. Rolling stuff. At a pace that's more long run style, that wasn't as big of a deal as it can be in shorter, faster races, but it was certainly a tester. I grabbed water or powerade at each water stop, which were about every 2 miles, at least a sip or two, and did my GU's at every 4 miles, as I will at the marathon. Through 5 miles, we were on our way, and so far, so good.
Splits miles 1-5: 9:26, 8:58, 8:57, 8:27, 8:37. Overall, 8:53/mile pace.
The next chunk of the course took us to the rougher pavement that the middle section would feature, and I must admit that it was somewhat distracting to fight the camber of the road in places. Still, it was pleasant running. We turned and ran by the concrete/chemical plant that I remembered from the Moe's course while we were on the out and back section of the course, so I was on familiar ground. It was pretty fun to see the faster runners zoom past us on their way back, and at that point, around mile 7 or 8, Gilbert "only" had a 3 mile lead on us. It was cool to see our fellow Gazelles and other familiar faces as they came by, as well. There was a certain amount of relief to finally reach the turnaround point, and finally we were able to run back into the rising sun and see those folks who were trailing us. Mile 10 came while we were still heading back to the new part of the course, and we were still doing okay. I think the mile markers may have been a little mixed up in there, but it certainly wasn't a big problem. Halfway done, so now it was time to put on our serious running masks for the second part of the race.
Splits miles 6-10: 8:31, 8:41, 8:37, 8:37, 8:40. Overall pace 8:45/mile. We were dancing around MGP, and close enough to the planned pace that I felt okay with it.
We finally turned off the Moe's course in there somewhere, and hit a nice stretch that went through a more heavily wooded area. We got our water and Powerade at the mile 12 water stop, and then stepped on the 20K timing mat. I took my first Enervitene at mile 12. Steve had pointed out Emily and Monique ahead of us about 20 yards about that time. By the time we reached the mile 13 marker, catching Emily and Monique, I noticed that Jennifer and I had dropped Steve. I don't like to look back during a race, so I didn't know if Steve was just a few steps back or 20 yards back, but he was gone at that point. The four of us made up a new pacing quartet, and clicked off another couple of miles as a group. The water stop people at about mile 13 were nice enough to tell us that the next water was at mile 16, so that you wouldn't get caught short. Good idea! Mile 15 dumped us out of the woods and onto the long rolling straightaway that led back to the final corner of the race. I wasn't feeling great, and Jennifer had pulled in front of me, but I was in that mode where I needed to prove something to myself, and it was time to show some inner strength on a not-great running day.
Splits miles 11-15: 8:35, 8:25, 8:44, 8:35, 8:41. Still doing okay, pacewise, overall pace down to 8:42/mile. Using my "middle 15" MGP race idea, I only had 3 more MGP miles. Okey dokey.
Mile 16 had a tester of a hill right at the start of it, but I did okay with that. I felt sluggish, sort of heavy-legged, but just kept putting one foot in front of the other. How else was I going to get back to the Outlet Mall? Some training group's people were running along behind us with a chatterbox of a leader, and that got a little annoying, with her telling her people every step of the race ("Okay, here's an uphill, shorten your strides!...Here's a downhill, don't go too fast, we've still got 4 miles to go! ... and so on and so forth...). I grumbled something that Emily caught, and she just laughed, because she and Monique had been listening to her for quite a while before I started running with them. :-) Jennifer and Emily slowly pulled away from me during miles 17 and 18, but I was staying in touch with Emily, at least visually. Each little hilly bump seemed to further sap my mental reserves, but I was mainly trying not to walk, so keeping a sort of survival shuffle was the new game plan at that point. Finally, I realized that I was coming up on the 30K timing mat, and I made a deal to myself to keep running at least to 30K, and then we'd see how we were doing. I stepped on 30K at about 2:43:00 (timing mat, but I don't think it was turned on), which would be a PR if I counted such "en route" PR's. Another little uphill bump, cross the street, and it was the homestretch!
With the turn to the homestretch, however, came a pretty nasty headwind. Oh, well. :-) It seemed to be picking up as the day went on, so I worried for those runners behind me. It was lonely running on that stretch of road, since the pack had spread out quite a bit. I'm sure Monique was behind me somewhere, able to pick out my red running shirt from quite a ways back, but I had eyes only for the finish line. Steve Sisson, the Rogue running coach, was at the mile 19 marker, cheering on his troops, exhorting them to run hard to the finish and be willing to hurt a little bit. As I came up on his position, he recognized me as a familiar face, and with all my Gazelles gear on, he said "I know you know how to hurt!" I agreed that I was indeed familiar with the concept, especially right then. Or words to that effect. :-) That last long climb seemed interminable, but finally I crested the hill, and was greeted with the full glory of the headwind as a tasty reward. Well, at least I had gravity helping pull me to the finish, right? Frank was standing on the side of the road in there, and gave me some encouragement. I think he told me to pass the guy in front of me some 20 yards. So, just in case that's what he had asked me to do, I dug deep, and ran past that guy, at least, finishing with a little honor. God, I'm glad I was done!
Splits miles 16-20: 9:01, 8:49, 8:57, 9:33 (ouch!), and 9:16. Not a distinguished finish, but it was okay, I guess. Overall time 2:56:07, 8:48 overall pace, and a 40 second PR over last year's race. Woo hoo! My "middle 15" miles from mile 4 to mile 18 averaged 8:40/mile, so I missed my MGP goal for the day. What to make of that?
The overriding emotion on everyone's face was relief that it was over. I chatted for a bit with the troops at the Gazelles tent, and then Frank and I labored over to the truck to get our post-run gear on. While putting on my long pants and then putting my shoes back on, both of my calves cramped up as I pointed my toes downward. I worked out those cramps pretty quickly, but it was a sign of how depleted I was. Frank went off to shop at the Adidas store, and I went back to the Gazelles tent to see if anyone wanted to labor through some cooldown mileage. Alex decided that laps around a tree in the traffic island would be enough cooldown for him, but Jennifer, Colleen, Amy, and I think Monique, Emily and Sue joined us as we went off gently to work out some of the junk in our legs. Our pace was quite slow, but with each step, it seemed to help my legs feel a little better. Pretty soon, just Jennifer, Colleen and I remained together, and we gently continued our little efforts for a big mile of cooldown. That cooldown was at a whopping 12:41/mile pace! Still, I guess we have to realize that that pace was as fast or faster than a good number of the runners in the race today. We are blessed to be at even our current level of fitness, by comparison!
A little more conversation at the tent, some modest stretching, and it was time to get going home. Frank treated me to a big Dr. Pepper as we stopped at Wendy's for his post-run snack (I guess by now, it was after 12:00, so it actually was lunchtime!), and the trip back was spent rehashing the race and trading funny stories from it. Those shall have to remain privileged information, of course. :-)
The rest of my day was spent (after the nice hot shower) playing guitar with some of my classical guitar compatriots, so I didn't have time for the ice bath that I had planned. Constant snacking all afternoon long, and then some nice thick crust pizza at dinner, and I felt pretty good by bedtime.
The verdict for the day's efforts? I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't able to better sustain my MGP, so I may have to reconsider my race goal a bit for AT&T. 3:50 is still a solid race goal, based on today's data, and who knows...with a proper taper and good weather, maybe 3:45 is still a possibility? I'm glad that I didn't stop and walk, and I guess I did fight through a case of the "quits," so there's good things to take from the race. I'll score this a "B-minus," take it easy Monday and Tuesday, get a massage on Wednesday, and move on. My streak of great races ended at 3 (Scenic 10 miler, Motive Half, Decker 20K), but I can't complain about that. I've got to focus on the next six weeks and the AT&T marathon. The 3M Half Marathon will be a fun race, where I can run gently fast, if that makes any sense. It won't be a time to go all out, but I think on that downhill course, I can consider a PR attempt anyway. After all, my current half marathon PR is on the Motive course, which isn't exactly designed for PR's. :-)
For the week, 47 miles, a new peak for this training season. The next three weeks will be the biggest mileage period of the training, and then the taper to AT&T. Let the countdown to the marathon begin!!
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Super Easy Running (again)
It's the Day Before A Big Race, so as per the usual program, we met late (at 7:45) for a really easy 30 minutes of running. I dropped off coolers early on Mt. Bonnell, so I took a somewhat fitful nap for 45 minutes in my car waiting on everyone to arrive. At least I didn't sleep through the start of the run this time!
For a change, we took the Really Easy part to heart, and burbled along at a nice 10:00/mile pace for 3 miles. The conversation was light, and there was some discussion of tomorrow's MGP for the last 15 miles of the race. Sue will probably be running with me, and possibly Amy and some others in my pace tribe. The long run group will almost certainly start the day together for the first 5 miles, and then will slowly shift into our respective MGP. At least the weather is supposed to be pretty nice!
Once we were done jogging, we did a bunch of strides (I did 8), and then Gilbert had us doing his hopping and balance drills for a while. Those are fun because we probably look so silly to other runners out on the trail.
Stretching was at RunTex, and we were done. I picked up my race packet with Alex, and that was that. I like this year's race shirt...it's a Back In Black sort of design in a technical shirt.
Race Goal for tomorrow? Just like Gilbert suggests: Easy 5 miles at standard long run pace, then shift to 8:30-8:35 miles for the rest of the run, with a possible modest fast finish over the last 2 miles, speeding up maybe 15-20 seconds/mile at the end. I'll try and run smart on the hills, backing off on the inclines and getting the time back on the downhills and flats, but I'm going to try and not overly obsess over pace tomorrow. It's mostly a standard long run, just a little quicker and without the more casual water stops. My PR at this distance is from last year, my only other 20 mile race, 2:56:47 (8:50/mile).
For a change, we took the Really Easy part to heart, and burbled along at a nice 10:00/mile pace for 3 miles. The conversation was light, and there was some discussion of tomorrow's MGP for the last 15 miles of the race. Sue will probably be running with me, and possibly Amy and some others in my pace tribe. The long run group will almost certainly start the day together for the first 5 miles, and then will slowly shift into our respective MGP. At least the weather is supposed to be pretty nice!
Once we were done jogging, we did a bunch of strides (I did 8), and then Gilbert had us doing his hopping and balance drills for a while. Those are fun because we probably look so silly to other runners out on the trail.
Stretching was at RunTex, and we were done. I picked up my race packet with Alex, and that was that. I like this year's race shirt...it's a Back In Black sort of design in a technical shirt.
Race Goal for tomorrow? Just like Gilbert suggests: Easy 5 miles at standard long run pace, then shift to 8:30-8:35 miles for the rest of the run, with a possible modest fast finish over the last 2 miles, speeding up maybe 15-20 seconds/mile at the end. I'll try and run smart on the hills, backing off on the inclines and getting the time back on the downhills and flats, but I'm going to try and not overly obsess over pace tomorrow. It's mostly a standard long run, just a little quicker and without the more casual water stops. My PR at this distance is from last year, my only other 20 mile race, 2:56:47 (8:50/mile).
Friday, January 05, 2007
Gym'n'cycle [Entered 1/6/07]
Friday, I went up to Gold's for another gym workout. This was Core I and upper body. I started off with the cycle, going 20 minutes plus the 3 minute cooldown, since I didn't go running this morning. Some good stretching, and then it was off to workout land. Again, I'm slowly getting better at all the exercises, but it's still early in my Return To Gymwork, so I'm trying to remain patient.
After that, it was time to go to the Container Store to score some Elfa shelving and a desk to make some home improvements. I had fun setting up the shelves in the laundry room, and it's amazing what sort of storage space you can create with just a bunch of wire shelving. Saturday, I'll build Sarah's desk and shelves.
After that, it was time to go to the Container Store to score some Elfa shelving and a desk to make some home improvements. I had fun setting up the shelves in the laundry room, and it's amazing what sort of storage space you can create with just a bunch of wire shelving. Saturday, I'll build Sarah's desk and shelves.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
GymTime
Today, I made my way up to Gold's for a little visit. On the tab for the day was 15 minutes of warmup on the cycle, some good stretching for the legs, and then Core II, which is the floor exercises plus the planks. That wasn't too bad. Did the full leg circuit, and did some stretching between sets and exercises. Except for some junk in my left quad, my legs are feeling pretty good. I didn't get out for an easy run today as planned, but I'll go out tomorrow morning, maybe, for a super easy 5 miles before Friday's gym visit.
And, from the observational realm while at Gold's: Why do people think that the super white blonde hair look is natural and good-looking? You know, that peroxided color that really doesn't exist in nature? It just makes the woman look like her hair is a confection that might dissolve in water, with straw-like texture to boot. Maybe it's just me...
Today, the kids and I dismantled Christmas, and successfully undecorated the house and put the stuff away until next December. The tree was sawn in half, and it awaits its departure tomorrow morning with the garbage folks. This year, I know I put the lights away in careful bundles, but I realize that they will tangle themselves up while in the boxes. They never seem to be easily used the next year... :-)
And, from the observational realm while at Gold's: Why do people think that the super white blonde hair look is natural and good-looking? You know, that peroxided color that really doesn't exist in nature? It just makes the woman look like her hair is a confection that might dissolve in water, with straw-like texture to boot. Maybe it's just me...
Today, the kids and I dismantled Christmas, and successfully undecorated the house and put the stuff away until next December. The tree was sawn in half, and it awaits its departure tomorrow morning with the garbage folks. This year, I know I put the lights away in careful bundles, but I realize that they will tangle themselves up while in the boxes. They never seem to be easily used the next year... :-)
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Run, Run, Run
This post's title is a fun song by Jo Jo Gunne, from the dark ages of the late 60's or early 70's. Check it out if you can.
Back from that musical digression, this morning on a massively overcast morning, a pretty large tribe set out for the fartlek workout of the day. Once the group sorted itself out, the folks around my pace numbered maybe an even dozen, but it was so dark, it was hard to tell for sure. :-) Gilbert only called for 12 x 1:00 of faster bits, so this was an easier day than usual for this workout. And, with so many people, only a couple of us had to lead more than one acceleration. We were a bit more relaxed than usual, so we didn't have many fast bits that were crazy fast, and that helped make it a pretty fun morning. With just 12 x 1:00 of fast stuff, we ended up with a little over 2 miles of cooldown running at the end. Considering that we've got a 20 mile race-type effort on Sunday, people were in a pretty good mood. Maybe we're all just in denial about it...
Anyway, the stats break down like this: 2 easy miles of warmup at 9:50/mile pace, then 12 x 1:00 fast bits covering 1.67 miles at 7:11/mile pace, 11 x 1:00 recovery bits covering 1.2 miles at 9:10/mile pace, and 2.07 miles of cooldown running at 9:09/mile pace. Pretty good stuff. Total just under 7 miles at 8:53/mile overall pace.
We did striders once we finished, and a big group stuck around to join me for stretching today, which was nice. It was fun to have some more company than usual for that post-run time. Gilbert has given us some options for the 20 miler, but it looks like the plan from last year is still the one I'm going to use: Relaxed long run pace for first 5 miles and then 15 miles at MGP. I still need to ask him about a modest fast finish, and to confirm what I should use for MGP, but I've got a pretty good idea about that. The trickiest bit will be to shift smoothly into that slightly quicker gear without getting carried away and falling into a serious racing mode.
I followed up the fartleks with a visit to the gym for core stuff and upper body exercises. Today was "Core I," when I do the Roman Chair stuff, floor exercises, and the slanted rack stuff with back raises and oblique raises. Those went okay, but I can tell that it's Day Three in a row for core exercise, starting with circuit with the Gazelles on Monday, and my body is still getting accustomed to the old workload. The upper body stuff went pretty well, too. I was glad to get in to make the workout, despite a strong urge to go home instead.
Back from that musical digression, this morning on a massively overcast morning, a pretty large tribe set out for the fartlek workout of the day. Once the group sorted itself out, the folks around my pace numbered maybe an even dozen, but it was so dark, it was hard to tell for sure. :-) Gilbert only called for 12 x 1:00 of faster bits, so this was an easier day than usual for this workout. And, with so many people, only a couple of us had to lead more than one acceleration. We were a bit more relaxed than usual, so we didn't have many fast bits that were crazy fast, and that helped make it a pretty fun morning. With just 12 x 1:00 of fast stuff, we ended up with a little over 2 miles of cooldown running at the end. Considering that we've got a 20 mile race-type effort on Sunday, people were in a pretty good mood. Maybe we're all just in denial about it...
Anyway, the stats break down like this: 2 easy miles of warmup at 9:50/mile pace, then 12 x 1:00 fast bits covering 1.67 miles at 7:11/mile pace, 11 x 1:00 recovery bits covering 1.2 miles at 9:10/mile pace, and 2.07 miles of cooldown running at 9:09/mile pace. Pretty good stuff. Total just under 7 miles at 8:53/mile overall pace.
We did striders once we finished, and a big group stuck around to join me for stretching today, which was nice. It was fun to have some more company than usual for that post-run time. Gilbert has given us some options for the 20 miler, but it looks like the plan from last year is still the one I'm going to use: Relaxed long run pace for first 5 miles and then 15 miles at MGP. I still need to ask him about a modest fast finish, and to confirm what I should use for MGP, but I've got a pretty good idea about that. The trickiest bit will be to shift smoothly into that slightly quicker gear without getting carried away and falling into a serious racing mode.
I followed up the fartleks with a visit to the gym for core stuff and upper body exercises. Today was "Core I," when I do the Roman Chair stuff, floor exercises, and the slanted rack stuff with back raises and oblique raises. Those went okay, but I can tell that it's Day Three in a row for core exercise, starting with circuit with the Gazelles on Monday, and my body is still getting accustomed to the old workload. The upper body stuff went pretty well, too. I was glad to get in to make the workout, despite a strong urge to go home instead.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Semi-Easy Running + Gym
It was dark this morning at 5:45am, and seemingly the sun didn't pop up over the horizon until about 7:00, but that didn't stop Emily and me from enjoying a 7 mile recovery effort around Town Lake. We started out nice and easy, but her natural easy pace is a little snappier than we usually go, so we ran quicker than normal. It worked out fine, and it wasn't that crazy fast, but we did drop down to what will probably be my marathon goal pace for about half of the run. It was fun to get caught up on her life and the pending wedding plans, and it was certainly nice for both of us to have a running partner to get us outdoors on a chilly morning. It was easy to dress properly for the weather, though, and I enjoy cold weather, so 35 degrees felt fine to me!
We ended up with 7 miles at just under 9:00/mile pace, and we even did 4 striders to finish things off. It was one of those deals where my first instinct this morning was to wait until later to run, but I'm glad I just kept moving and did the run early.
After bundling up in dry clothes, and chatting with Amy for a bit, I headed up to Gold's for the recovery day workout. Once there, I did most of the full leg stretching, and then hit the floor for core exercises. Today was floor exercises and planks. It's getting better each time I go, but the ab work is still the least fun that I have in the gym. After that, I did the full set of leg exercises, and as usual, that felt good. I did some extra stretching before each set of leg weights, just to enhance the recovery aspects of the workout. Good one!
So, another day passes that includes check marks in all workout boxes on the old daily planner. Now, what is going to be my MGP for Sunday's 20 miler (at least for the 15 miles that will be at MGP)?...
We ended up with 7 miles at just under 9:00/mile pace, and we even did 4 striders to finish things off. It was one of those deals where my first instinct this morning was to wait until later to run, but I'm glad I just kept moving and did the run early.
After bundling up in dry clothes, and chatting with Amy for a bit, I headed up to Gold's for the recovery day workout. Once there, I did most of the full leg stretching, and then hit the floor for core exercises. Today was floor exercises and planks. It's getting better each time I go, but the ab work is still the least fun that I have in the gym. After that, I did the full set of leg exercises, and as usual, that felt good. I did some extra stretching before each set of leg weights, just to enhance the recovery aspects of the workout. Good one!
So, another day passes that includes check marks in all workout boxes on the old daily planner. Now, what is going to be my MGP for Sunday's 20 miler (at least for the 15 miles that will be at MGP)?...
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year 2007
It was a wonderful start to the new year this morning, as we gathered late (9:00am!) for a fun circuit playtime with Gilbert. There weren't many of us out there, but we were all pretty amused at ourselves anyway. Most of my normal pace crew were taking the sensible route, and were either travelling or sleeping in today. Still, there were plenty of folks to chat with as we warmed up over to AHS. Braz brought his two boys with him, and I estimate they were 8 and 7 years old. We were bemused to find that their running form is perfect as we hit the trail. Kids have great running form, and then somewhere along the way, we lose that effortless form and have to relearn the simple art of running. Sigh...
Drills drilled, we awaited the word from G. He called for 3 x 800m circuits for those of us doing the 20 miler on Sunday, and he wanted a little peppier running pace than usual on the circuits. I did my 3 circuits at 3:35, 3:41, and 3:43, for an average mile pace of 7:22. Snappy enough, with all the exercises in between.
After that, it was time for all the extra fun stuff. Did I mention how beautiful it was out there today? Bright clear sunshine, low 40's by this time in the workout. Made you feel good to be alive out there. Anyway, the extra stuff included a lot of things, because with the holiday, we had no time constraints. We started with hopping, two-legged and one-legged. Gilbert even made us do the one-legged version one person at a time, so he could check out our form. Talk about pressure! After that, we did the 15/30/45/90 degree leg lift series, the leg over/under/around series with a partner, the arch/squeeze series, and even a new deal, the glute squeeze exercise. We got the giggles on that one. There was also a new sneaky exercise to get the tibialis anterior muscle (the shins), which was deceptively difficult as the burn set it. We finished off the morning's extra stuff with 2 x 1:00 of fast feet, with chanting and singing.
Gilbert gave us some final words of encouragement to start off the New Year right, and it was the end of a fun day. Some of us ran back to RunTex the "long way," going back via the Mopac footbridge. We had some fun conversations about food running back, since by then, we were getting a bit peckish.
I stuck around for a bit of stretching in the nice warm sun with Emily and Monique, and we talked about training and race strategy for the 20 miler on Sunday. Then, I stopped by Einstein's for bagels to finish off this great morning.
For the first day of the new running year, I scored 6.35 miles. It was the first run in my newest pair of Mizuno Creations, my 17th pair of that shoe model. I'm rotating in the two new pairs of shoes that I purchased on Saturday, to ease them into full action while the existing Mizuno and Fila shoes hit their final miles in the next couple of weeks.
Drills drilled, we awaited the word from G. He called for 3 x 800m circuits for those of us doing the 20 miler on Sunday, and he wanted a little peppier running pace than usual on the circuits. I did my 3 circuits at 3:35, 3:41, and 3:43, for an average mile pace of 7:22. Snappy enough, with all the exercises in between.
After that, it was time for all the extra fun stuff. Did I mention how beautiful it was out there today? Bright clear sunshine, low 40's by this time in the workout. Made you feel good to be alive out there. Anyway, the extra stuff included a lot of things, because with the holiday, we had no time constraints. We started with hopping, two-legged and one-legged. Gilbert even made us do the one-legged version one person at a time, so he could check out our form. Talk about pressure! After that, we did the 15/30/45/90 degree leg lift series, the leg over/under/around series with a partner, the arch/squeeze series, and even a new deal, the glute squeeze exercise. We got the giggles on that one. There was also a new sneaky exercise to get the tibialis anterior muscle (the shins), which was deceptively difficult as the burn set it. We finished off the morning's extra stuff with 2 x 1:00 of fast feet, with chanting and singing.
Gilbert gave us some final words of encouragement to start off the New Year right, and it was the end of a fun day. Some of us ran back to RunTex the "long way," going back via the Mopac footbridge. We had some fun conversations about food running back, since by then, we were getting a bit peckish.
I stuck around for a bit of stretching in the nice warm sun with Emily and Monique, and we talked about training and race strategy for the 20 miler on Sunday. Then, I stopped by Einstein's for bagels to finish off this great morning.
For the first day of the new running year, I scored 6.35 miles. It was the first run in my newest pair of Mizuno Creations, my 17th pair of that shoe model. I'm rotating in the two new pairs of shoes that I purchased on Saturday, to ease them into full action while the existing Mizuno and Fila shoes hit their final miles in the next couple of weeks.
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