Sunday, November 28, 2010
Kaiser Half Marathon
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Pensacola Half Marathon
1. My legs hurt more at the end of that race any any other time in my life up to that point.
2. My plan to run easy for 10 miles then beat my brother in the last 5k almost worked.
3. According to onlineraceresults.com I was at 8:11 pace through mile 5, and finished with an overall pace of 7:44. (talk about a negative split!)
4. It was by far the biggest race I ever entered. Showing up the morning of the race to get my packet was NOT a good idea. We almost didn't get to run.
According to the VDot calc from my recent 3:06 marathon, my potential at a half is 1:30. That felt like it would be extremely easy. In April I ran 1:30 in the first half of Boston, so it seemed like too modest of a goal.
Never did decide on a good goal, but it really didn't matter. After getting out of the car Travis and I realized we both forgot our Garmins. There were mile markers, but since I had no watch, I couldn't even calculate splits. Looks like PE was the only gauge. Since it was hot for November (low 60's) and high humidity, my PE was high.
Saw Steve at the start line, then quickly said something to Evan a few hundred yards out. Another minute I caught and passed Brian who proceeded to talk much more than I expected. Lastly I said a few things to Chuck just past the 1 mile mark. Although I fully expected Chuck finish before me, I never saw him again. The last person I caught was Steve at mile 2, and we ran together for 3 miles.
The first time I noticed that my shoes were soaked from sweat was before Steve pulled away. This should of been a red flashing light to adjust my pace. The sweat contributed to a blister. 10k had a clock and I was only 3 seconds slower than 40 minutes. After that point the race became very boring, lonely, and painful. Oh well, not every race can be exciting. Finished in 1:26:43. PR by 15 minutes, and left plenty of room to PR twice more this season.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Additional Columbus Marathon Info
Training:
Average weekly milage for 13 weeks before race - 43
Long Runs 12, 12, 6, 14, 12, 8, 15, 17, 20, 12, 5, 18, 10
Yes, 3 weeks out my long run was 5 miles. My only 20 miler was really four 5 mile runs with short breaks.
Previous marathons:
05/08 - 3:32 - Flying Pig
02/09 - 3:32 - Pensacola (training run for Georgia)
03/09 - 3:09 - Georgia ING
04/10 - 3:18 - Boston
Ok, fine, here's a race report - Pricelined the Hyatt (host hotel) for $100. buca di beppo and BD's Mongolian BBQ are both walking distance from start/finish/hotel and yummy, interesting, and affordable (like $10 per person). Get reservations at buca if going the day before the race. My party of 6 waited for almost 90 minutes. The goody bag sucked, the race shirt is black short sleeve Nike technical shirt, and the expo was average (for a race with 15,000 people).
Monday, October 18, 2010
Columbus Marathon 2010
The plan was simple. In spring of 2009 I ran a 3:09. So, using the same 15 week plan, I was going to do it again, only with another 18 months of running in the bank. This would be an "easy" way to qualify for Boston again. I ran into 2 problems. First, this race was in the fall, not the spring, so I was training in the summer instead of the winter. Long runs were not quality workouts. Skipped some, and cut others short. Also, 2 weeks before the marathon I realized there was still 3 weeks left of the plan to do. When I scheduled everything back in June, I miscounted how many weeks I had.
If only there was a way to capture all the excitement and energy in the start of a race, and release it as needed. The live band at the start was great. Then after a few short announcements, the National Anthem, and a countdown with AC/DC blaring, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... nothing. No gun, and nobody moved. Well, lets try that again. Another countdown followed by a gun, fireworks, and everyone took off.
Rather than run by feel and be in tune with my body, I think my best races are better described as an out of body experience. Rather than take in what's going on and processing it to make decisions, I try to imagine myself as an actor going through the motions. The script has been written, and Scott is just there to execute it.
I wrote that, in order to understand this. When my first split was 7:08, Scott the actor was nailing it. Mile 2 in 6:52, and the director should of been ripping up the script and throwing chairs. Totally not what we talked about. Each mile was supposed to be between 7:10 and 7:15. There are timing mats that record my time. My Garmin was recording time. After a time was run and the split recorded, it's there forever. Some mistakes can be undone. However, if you start poorly in a race, you can't undo it.
Telling myself to slow down, I proceeded to run the next 4 miles at 7:00 +/- 3 seconds. Each mile marker I cursed, shook my head, and wondered what this race report was going to look like. "Well, I went out too hard and blah blah blah..."
Mile 6 was time for my first gel, but it had to be at a water stop. Turned a corner and BAM there was water. I didn't have my gel ready and I was halfway past the stop. Inhaled the gel and choked on some water. That didn't go totally as planned, but I had calories in me at the right time. With mile 1 at the planned pace, and gel 1 at the correct location, Scott had 2 things going as scripted, and 5 miles of winging it.
As we crossed the 10k timing mat in 43:52 (7:04 pace), I told the guy next to me "well, now everyone will know that we went out too fast." To my surprised he replied "That's exactly what I was thinking." It should of been funny, but I believed it.
The next 2 miles I got serious. 7:09 followed by 7:08. Garmin and I had a little conversation and it was working. Mile 8 I saw my family, but my daughter didn't see me. Of course I did what any dad would do and stopped to get her attention and a high five. It must of got me motivated because the next 4 miles were back to my bad splits. Crossed the 13.1 mat in 1:32:47 (7:05 pace). This was not how Scott pictured the race.
Whoa, where did the crowd go? The half marathoners peeled off, and nobody was around. Soon I caught someone that was tattooed all over. No earrings, but his earlobes had a huge hole in the middle. Top it off with long dreads and long beard, and he was an interesting looking guy. As I approached him I said something about running beside him at the next race photo person. He responded and was very friendly and talkative. This was his first marathon, and he had no idea on how fast he was running or when he expected to finish. Pretty soon he said that he needed to peel off because he hasn't yet perfected his "poop schedule for the long run." We passed the porta potties but he kept running. Then we went by a tattoo parlor, and he went straight for the door while talking to the people waiting outside.
So much for the free spirit mentality guy keeping me company. At mile 16 it was time for my 3rd gel and time to get serious about pace again. I needed to stop being in the race, and start watching Scott execute the race plan. When running downtown for miles 12 and 13 the buildings screwed up my Garmin distance and gave me another .3 miles. Not acceptable, so Scott clicked the lap button at mile 16 when the clock read 1:53:00. Now the watch would click at the mile markers again.
A few meters before mile 17 Garmin clicked 7:02. By the time Scott crossed the marker, the clock read 2:00:10. Ha, Scott ran a 7:10 mile, and the Garmin was wrong! Then before mile 18 the Garmin clicked 6:49, but according to the clock bib 552 crossed in 7:05. This got me thinking, what if the Garmin was far enough off to make me think I was on pace for sub 3:10, but actually over? There was going to be a lot of math problems in the next few miles to find out if this was possible.
During the next stretch of miles, Scott's thoughts rotated from...
... this is a beautiful and peaceful day out here.
... sure is lonely out here with a thin crowd and very few runners.
... now my legs are starting to feel tired and heavy.
... I'm still going faster than I need to, so the legs must be doing fine.
... slow down so you don't blow up.
... keep running while you feel good in case you blow up.
To be perfectly honest, miles 14 - 24 were tough. The entertainment helped a lot. According to the website, there are "nearly 80 live bands and radio stations along the course to ensure that runners, walkers and wheelchair athletes had the support they needed throughout the entire race." My favorite was the guy playing the Rocky theme on his keyboard that was propped up on his bicycle. He looked like he was having a good time. Some of the bands sounded really good, and I heard Hang On Sloopy 4 times. It is Columbus, OH after all.
At mile 20 we crossed the last timing mat before the finish. 2:21:17 (7:04 pace). I wondered if I ran 8 min/miles for the next 6 miles, how much time I'd have remaining to run the last .2. It was useless, I couldn't do the math. For whatever reason, I kept wanting to multiply 8x8 instead of 6x8. Safe to say that exercise does not help my brain function.
The math problems kept my mind off everything else for a while. In fact, 4 miles went by 7:01, 7:03, 6:53, 7:07. Time for some more math. 2:49 and some change at mile 24. That means I could do two 10 minute miles and it's still in the bag. Or an 8 minute mile followed by a 12. Instead of being overcome with joy, I was still upset about being too fast. What if Scott blows up from going out too fast? Not only did he go out too fast in the first half, but also did the 2nd half too fast also! What an idiot this guy is. This was not the script I imagined. Scott is supposed to be a clock. The Columbus marathon is not the goal, it's just a step to get back to Boston.
Mile 24 was done very carefully in 7:21. Thoughts became "slow down and treat the legs nice and they will take care of you." Mile 25 was even more careful in 7:27. After that last mile marker, for the first time I felt confident Scott would make it, so I allowed myself to run fast. For the first time in 5 marathons, I finished feeling good. PR by almost 4 minutes.
Official results http://bit.ly/cSybNm Garmin splits http://bit.ly/aPww2U
Nutrition:
Gels and water at mile 6, 11, 16, 21
Gatorade at mile 22 and 24 (or maybe it was 23 and 25...)
9 Endurolytes at miles 5(2), 8, 12(2), 15, 18(2), 22
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Half of 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
114th Boston Marathon
Now about how I did. I felt like I could of killed it. The goal when training was sub 3 hours. at that pace (6:52), training was going a lot easier than it did last year when my goal was 3:10. (7:15 pace). However, I wanted insurance that the race would go well. This is not the course to gamble on by going out at the pace you "think" you can do. So I set my goal in the 3:05 to 3:08 range. Running the first half at 6:55 pace and expecting to slow down during the hills around miles 16-21 to 7:10 to 7:20 pace would still give me a PR. That plan worked for about 21 miles. Mile 16 I let the pace slip above 7:00 for about 1/2 mile when I took a gel. Before mile 17 the pace (over the last mile) was back to 6:59. The next few miles were above 7:00, but within goal and felt fine. At mile 21 the hard hills were done, but so were my legs. Walking felt really good, and running hurt a lot. At this point I made up my mind to never run another marathon. Sub 3:10 was still within reach, but I didn't want to come back in 2011. I told myself that if I was at the finish line in time to qualify for next year, I'd stop and wait for a 3:11 to ensure I could not.
Doubtful that I would of kept that promise to myself, but we'll never know. With 2.2 mile to go, the gun time was over 3 hours. Chip time was only 2:57, but I didn't know that because my Garmin died. Less than a month after the 1 year warranty expired and it's useless now. I didn't care about the Garmin and I didn't plan on running 2.2 mile in 10 minutes or 13 minutes. It was all I could do to slug out 10 min miles for those last 2 miles. Finish time was 3:18:16.
I've been pondering what went wrong since mile 21. Most likely nothing went wrong. The result is simply what I'm in shape to run on that course on that day. However, next time I'm going to have workouts like I did in 2009. For those training runs I had to quit running because I couldn't maintain my race pace for the goal distance during my long runs. This year I did them all, and only one really tested my fitness.
Nutrition
Before race: 2 ensures, 1 banana, 12 oz water.
During race: GU Roctane with water at miles 6, 11, 16. Gatorade at miles 20, 22, and 24.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Ready for Boston
Plan is to go out at 6:55 pace. I want to hit halfway needing a neg split in order to break 3:00. Primary goal is NOT sub 3:00. The goal is to avoid screwing up the end of the race by going out too hard. There's other races out there to gamble on. I've invested too much on this one.
Here's the breakdown of my running 19 weeks before the marathon.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
McGuires 5k Prediction Run
Plan was to stick with Steve, as he led me perfectly in the 15k a few weeks back. After 200 meters we were running into a really strong wind. I was just trying to duck behind someone and had lost Steve already. So much for a plan. As it turned out, I was never more than 10 meters from him.
First few miles felt like I was going too fast, which is what I expected for a 5k. Hard to tell if I was since we were not allowed watches and there were no mile markers.
The last section of the race is when my lack of leg speed and strength showed. Steve, Anna, and another other girl started pulling away. I knew it was happening, and there was nothing I could do about it. I tried working harder, and it felt like my heart rate went up, but my speed didn't increase. Next year my 5k's will be fast. Next year.
Post race party was great. Music, costumes, friends, perfect weather, Irish Wakes, beer, stew, everything. If I only do one
Almost forgot about the results. Prediction 18:59. I thought I could run 18:30, but I wanted to surprise myself by going faster than my prediction time. Ran an 18:55, which was good enough for 9th of about 300 in my age group. No hardware, but close.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Double Bridge Run
Weather - low 40's and slight tailwind entire way
Goal:
Originally I thought 6:20 pace would be an excellent goal. I've been struggling with my tempo runs (sub 6:10), and this pace would give me a chance to go a little slower than my tempo goal and see how long I could hold it.
Flashback - Last winter I remember sitting down with Paul to create a marathon plan to finish sub 3:10. He said my tempo runs should be at 6:20 pace. I couldn't do 3 miles at that speed, and tempo runs were as long as 4 miles.
I really wanted company, and I was hoping I could keep up with someone I knew. After talking with Jeremy and Steve, we concluded that a goal of sub one hour would be a good. I was happy that I'd have not just one, but two buddies to run with.
Pre-race nutrition was my standard bananas and Ensures. 2 of each if I recall correctly. No reason to change what isn't broken. Linked up with Steve and Jeremy at the start line, but I didn't have time to find any of my co-workers that were running. Next time maybe I'll show up earlier.
First few miles:
It seemed like we looked at our watches a lot at the beginning. We wanted to be around 6:24, and we were spot on. 6:23 and 6:22 the first 2 miles. Just like the entire race, Steve did a great job of saying things here and there to keep us focused without getting bored. After about 2 miles I was getting really anxious to pass people, which is probably why the pace went up just a bit to 6:18. Steven or Jeremy would notice the pace going up just a bit and say something.
Three Mile Bridge:
People were now spreading out, which made it easier to resist the temptation to speed up to pass. Before the hill in the middle of the bridge, Jeremy let us know that he did not want to go into debt at this hill. Steve agreed, and I thought it made sense. At we neared the top we could hear some nice relaxing music. Relaxing? It sounded like something they would play at a tiki bar on the beach as people relaxed on the hot beach with a cool drink. Not exactly motivating. I thought of mentioning something about Mark's music being better suited for this, even though we made fun of him listening to Boom Boom Pow in his minivan. However, I stayed quiet in an effort to conserve energy. As we finised the bridge it looked like a water stop was ahead, so I took my gel.
There was no water, just a crowd of people and a bad taste in my mouth with no way to wash it out. Splits were 6:19 to start the bridge, 6:20 over and down the hill, and 6:25 finishing the bridge.
Gulf Breeze to end:
10k done and still felt great. Not sure when, but I remember Jeremy mentioning that his knee was a little sore. We picked it up to 6:14 pace for mile 7. About half a mile later I was too tired to look around, but I asked Steve if Jeremy was still here, and he said no. He told me fatigue was setting in and I shouldn't let him hold me back. Right around this time he said we didn't have much time banked to reach our goal. That made me nervous, so I pushed to get to the top of the last hill with a little bit of time banked. Mile 8 was 6:12. Now only 1.3 miles to go, and all three little hills were done, and a little more time banked. In addition to that, Boom Boom Pow was playing at the top of the hill. Almost funny enough to make me laugh.
At the end of the second bridge I found Johnny. I said a few words and focused on finishing the last mile strong. Knowing that at least 2 people I knew were behind me, I wanted to keep good form and look like I wasn't hurting or tired. No idea why that's important to me. There were
footsteps close behind, which kept me from slowing down. I didn't want to look back, but I really wanted to know who it was! So frustrating. I maintained 5:58 pace for mile 9, which hurt. The last .3 was around 5:50 pace thanks to the sound of those darn footsteps pushing me. Found out that the person behind me was Johnny. When I passed him I thought I was going a good bit faster than him, but he said he didn't have a reason to push the last mile until I passed him, so he picked it up. Love competitive people. :)
Post race I was cold. Next time I'll have extra clothes at the finish. However, the food was good, the beer was good, and I found at least 6 coworkers that I didn't see at the start of the race. Looking forward to doing this race again next year.
Splits – 6:23, 6:22, 6:18, 6:19, 6:20, 6:25, 6:14, 6:12, 5:58 Total 58:37
Friday, March 5, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
2009 Yearly Totals
382 Hours
Per Month - 31.8
Per Week - 7.35
Bike:
174 Hours
3032 Miles
Per Month - 14.5 hours / 252 miles
Per Week - 3.4 hours / 58 miles
Run:
198 Hours
1489 Miles
Per Month - 16.5 hours / 124 miles
Per Week - 3.8 hours / 28.6 miles
Swim:
7 Hours (yes, per the year)
The funny part is my 7 hours of swimming includes the 3 mile bridge swim, and the 2.4 mile IM swim.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Ironman Cozumel Race Report
Training:
According to my training log, I averaged 8.1 hours per week for the 36 weeks before the race.
bike - 56% and 81 miles/wk
run - 41% and 25 miles/wk
swim/other - 3%
Prerace:
2 bananas @ 5:30
1 GU @ 6:45
40-50 oz water
very liberal with body glide and suntan lotion
Prediction - 1:30 to 1:45
Result - 1:08:02 (everyone was 10 to 15 min faster than expected)
Swim: 130 of 183
Had to pee from start but couldn't make myself in water.
Stopped 3 times to empty water from goggles but it never helped. Eyes burned for about half the race.
Arms started feeling fatigued about 15 min into race - big lack of swim training.
T1:
9:03
small water bottle
Lots of chamois buttr and more suntan lotion
peed for a really long time
Bike:
Prediction - 17.5 to 18.6MPH
Result - 6:13:22 (18MPH)
Items to improve on.
1. Work on adding water to aerodrink. After failing twice I came to a complete stop at more than half the aid stations to fill it.
2. Just because there are 5+ bikes in front of me doesn't need I have to pass them all in 20 seconds. Ride my own race.
3. Mix the infinit morning of, not the night before. All the powder settled and became syrup at the bottom, and water at the top.
4. Determine an upper HR limit to use in addition to feel and avg speed.
other bike details.
1800 cal of Infinit
400 cal of GU
17 aid stations
1 filled wrong chamber
2-7 filled small chamber (x6)
8 no water avialable
9-12 filled small chamber (x4)
13, 15, 17 skipped
14, 15 filled small chamber (x2)
Total water - small chamber 17x13=221oz
started with 20 Endurolyte pills and used 10
no bathroom breaks on bike
stomach hurt, but I had high hopes it was due to being bent over in aero position. Best guess on cause of stomach was too hard on bike, and/or cal per hour at start was too high from all the powder settling to bottom of chamber overnight.
lap 1 18.7mph, 140HR too much passing packs then backing off
lap 2 18.2mph, 137HR felt like perfect pace for the course
lap 3 17.4mph, 136HR lap was missing one fast section the other 2 laps had. went easy last 8 miles to settle stomach
T2: 5:03
fresh socks
small water bottle
lots of petroleum jelly
Did not "have" to pee, but was able to some. Assumed hydration was not bad.
Run:
2 GU's
1 banana
4-5 orange peels
4 ritz crackers
2 servings of coke
h2o as I could stomach it
Goal - 3:45
Result - 5:10:28
Legs were able, but the stomach was not.
Mile splits 8:01, 8:47, 15:24, 9:15, 9:38, 9:00, 8:48, 10:24, 11:47, 13:34, 18:43, 15:59, 15:46, 9:18, 8:47, 11:25, 9:21, 9:01, 12:17, 10:09, 12:28, 11:48, battery died...
At first I thought that my stomach would feel better the longer I ran due to not being tucked into the aero position on the bike. That thought lasted 2 miles. The entire 3rd mile I walked, took in water, endurolytes, 1 gel, and an orange slice. I knew a great marathon wasn't going to happen if I walked an entire mile, but I was still hopefull for a sub 4:00 if my stomach started feeling better. Between the last part of the bike, and first part of the run, I probably took in 200 calories during 2+ hours. I had hopes that 15+ min of a lower HR would start to digest the calories. If felt like the calories in my stomach just needed time to start working. In retrospect, maybe I should of kept dumping the calories in. Most likely that would of made me vomit, which probably would of helped.
After running miles 4-7, I stopped and told my wife the 2nd lap was going to be really slow. Stomach was getting worse every mile. After that, my pace changed from slow and painful, to walking and soaking it in. Any hope of reaching a time goal was blown, and I was cool with that. It was a relief to realize my "race" was done. The only thing left was to walk across the finish line, which was 18 miles away. The next 4 miles I walked every step. I tried coke (yuck), ritz crackers, a banana, and lots of water. My main concern was avoiding a ride in the ambalance due to dehydration.
Halfway into the marathon I did attempt to run again, but the expectations were not high. Without nutrition, I knew I couldn't sustain of good pace. The last thing I tried to eat was before mile 13, and I had no intention of eating anything else. I assumed I'd finish around the 15 hour mark, but apparently I can't think on an empty stomach.
Total: 12:45:58 (101 of 183 in AG)