Broke 4 hours! Barely! 3:59:38.
A soul crushing run in some ways, things started to get hard at 13, then really got tough at 16. there was some walking starting at Galer at 20.5 and through Madison and Interlaken, and I was just able to eke out sub 4.
Half Splits:
1:55:53
2:04:36
Val and my mom suffered through he 3 year-old from heck all day so I could see them for a grand total of 20 seconds. :) It made my day both times I saw them before the finish, so thanks Val and Mom!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
11/27 Run - Last Run of the Taper
Friday was the last run of the taper. Seattle 2009 is on Sunday.
Went out around 6, Val and Mom watched Kaitlyn, and I ran an easy down and back on 35th. Could make no conclusive determination if my old shoes were going to destroy my legs if I ran in them so I decided to do the right thing and relace my shoes and run in the lower mileage shoes.
Packet pickup on Saturday, then Xmas photos, then an evening of rest.
HR is way out of whack for the first lap. It reported an HR above my max for a while. Second two splits are probably more accurate.
3.11 miles in 28:47 (9:16/mile) @ 156 bpm
9:20 @ 169
9:24 @ 147
9:02 @ 151
Went out around 6, Val and Mom watched Kaitlyn, and I ran an easy down and back on 35th. Could make no conclusive determination if my old shoes were going to destroy my legs if I ran in them so I decided to do the right thing and relace my shoes and run in the lower mileage shoes.
Packet pickup on Saturday, then Xmas photos, then an evening of rest.
HR is way out of whack for the first lap. It reported an HR above my max for a while. Second two splits are probably more accurate.
3.11 miles in 28:47 (9:16/mile) @ 156 bpm
9:20 @ 169
9:24 @ 147
9:02 @ 151
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Taper Madness - Decision Making
Not surprisingly, this last week I have been in the throes of taper madness. Ah, the joys of second guessing all of your training and equipment selection. Obsessing about the weather, worrying about every taper tweak you muscles throw at you... :)
After hours of obsessing, I think I've settled a few things out.
Clothing:
The weather today is projected to be 43-51. 10% chance of rain. So... shorts, long sleeve shirt, hat, and my #3 pair of shoes. I considered going for the #2 pair with 480 miles on them because they're a lot more comfortable in the uppers, but I think I'll wear the #3 set instead, simply so I don't damage anything.
I've been debating the tights, and only plan to fall back on them if the wind is extreme or the weather is much cooler than predicted.
Hydration Belt:
I've debated the extra weight a lot, and I think, despite having the bottle fall out the last run, that I'll take the single bottle instead of none, or the double. The bottle gives me some freedom for hydration and fueling timing, and I've trained with it so it's not like I'm not used to it. If I have family spectators at the mile 16 mark, I may dump it there.
Ah, heck, who am I kidding. I'm not sold. I'm still considering getting an SPI belt or equivalent and wearing that instead...
Hydration and Fueling:
Same plan as last year. GU every 2.5 -3 miles, starting at 5 miles. nuun in my bottle, water at aid stations or on refill.
Pace:
And the item that has been chewing up the most of my stress... target speed/pace.
I've been training to McMillans target paces since RnR Seattle, which project to a 3:45 finish (8:36/mile). This is from both my half marathon, and 10K performances. I've actually been running faster than those paces in some case (which is probably bad, but what are you going to do?)
If you use Daniel's VDOT system, it predicts a 3:39:33 finish (8:22/mile). The upper end of my goal is a 4:00 finish (9:09/mile).
I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go for it, and shoot for 3:45. I think I'll try to keep the first 2-3 miles at ~8:40/mile. Once things settle out and I can get a better feel for pace and HR, I'll work my way up to as high as 8:22, trying to keep my HR <= 160 for the first 10 miles. I'll allow it to slip to 163 or so for the next 10 miles, and up to ~165 for the last 6.2.
The last 6.2 are always the challenge, and especially here on the Seattle course with some ugly hills from 21-23. We'll see. The fallback pace is around 9:00/mile. Or whatever it takes to finish.
I'm really not sure about this set of goals. There's been a pretty big lack of speed and tempo work for this training cycle. Long runs were oddly inconsistent, etc...
Any input would be appreciated. I've got 2 more days. :)
After hours of obsessing, I think I've settled a few things out.
Clothing:
The weather today is projected to be 43-51. 10% chance of rain. So... shorts, long sleeve shirt, hat, and my #3 pair of shoes. I considered going for the #2 pair with 480 miles on them because they're a lot more comfortable in the uppers, but I think I'll wear the #3 set instead, simply so I don't damage anything.
I've been debating the tights, and only plan to fall back on them if the wind is extreme or the weather is much cooler than predicted.
Hydration Belt:
I've debated the extra weight a lot, and I think, despite having the bottle fall out the last run, that I'll take the single bottle instead of none, or the double. The bottle gives me some freedom for hydration and fueling timing, and I've trained with it so it's not like I'm not used to it. If I have family spectators at the mile 16 mark, I may dump it there.
Ah, heck, who am I kidding. I'm not sold. I'm still considering getting an SPI belt or equivalent and wearing that instead...
Hydration and Fueling:
Same plan as last year. GU every 2.5 -3 miles, starting at 5 miles. nuun in my bottle, water at aid stations or on refill.
Pace:
And the item that has been chewing up the most of my stress... target speed/pace.
I've been training to McMillans target paces since RnR Seattle, which project to a 3:45 finish (8:36/mile). This is from both my half marathon, and 10K performances. I've actually been running faster than those paces in some case (which is probably bad, but what are you going to do?)
If you use Daniel's VDOT system, it predicts a 3:39:33 finish (8:22/mile). The upper end of my goal is a 4:00 finish (9:09/mile).
I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go for it, and shoot for 3:45. I think I'll try to keep the first 2-3 miles at ~8:40/mile. Once things settle out and I can get a better feel for pace and HR, I'll work my way up to as high as 8:22, trying to keep my HR <= 160 for the first 10 miles. I'll allow it to slip to 163 or so for the next 10 miles, and up to ~165 for the last 6.2.
The last 6.2 are always the challenge, and especially here on the Seattle course with some ugly hills from 21-23. We'll see. The fallback pace is around 9:00/mile. Or whatever it takes to finish.
I'm really not sure about this set of goals. There's been a pretty big lack of speed and tempo work for this training cycle. Long runs were oddly inconsistent, etc...
Any input would be appreciated. I've got 2 more days. :)
11/25 Run
I took Wednesday off, and got to run at home. Given my complete inability to hold a pace lately, I had what seemed like a brilliant idea. Run on the treadmill...
What a fecking debacle. I must have a poor memory for how miserable running indoors on the treadmill is. Sooooo hooooot! My HR was just a straight uphill climb. At least the scenery and people watching were interesting. I thought I saw a former coworker for a while. Weird.
First two miles at 9:30, next two at 8:20 (the theoretical upper limit for speed for the marathon), last at 9:30. The 8:20 miles were pretty tough. Harder than I expected, actually. We'll see if that's an achievable goal.
One more run, on Friday. 3 miles, nice and easy.
5 miles in 45:25 (9:05/mile) @ 157 bpm
What a fecking debacle. I must have a poor memory for how miserable running indoors on the treadmill is. Sooooo hooooot! My HR was just a straight uphill climb. At least the scenery and people watching were interesting. I thought I saw a former coworker for a while. Weird.
First two miles at 9:30, next two at 8:20 (the theoretical upper limit for speed for the marathon), last at 9:30. The 8:20 miles were pretty tough. Harder than I expected, actually. We'll see if that's an achievable goal.
One more run, on Friday. 3 miles, nice and easy.
5 miles in 45:25 (9:05/mile) @ 157 bpm
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
11/24 Run
Tuesday was the last run of the Thanksgiving week at work. Went out for an out and back to SPU again. No wind, so I wonder if there's a slight downhill outbound. Or I'm just getting tired. A reminder that I need to throw away my first few miles worth of input at the marathon if it looks good, when determining pace and heart rate.
Saw Jake and Bruce out at the track doing a last couple of sets of 400s before Seattle. Overachievers. :) A nice comfortable day, 48 degrees and foggy. Average pace ended up being at marathon goal pace (probably) at a pretty reasonable heart rate.
Two more runs to go.
5.02 miles in 43:20 (8:38/mile) @ 150 bpm
8:35 @ 145
8:27 @ 151
8:42 @ 151
8:43 @ 153
8:42 @ 154
0.02 - 8:47 @ 157
Saw Jake and Bruce out at the track doing a last couple of sets of 400s before Seattle. Overachievers. :) A nice comfortable day, 48 degrees and foggy. Average pace ended up being at marathon goal pace (probably) at a pretty reasonable heart rate.
Two more runs to go.
5.02 miles in 43:20 (8:38/mile) @ 150 bpm
8:35 @ 145
8:27 @ 151
8:42 @ 151
8:43 @ 153
8:42 @ 154
0.02 - 8:47 @ 157
Monday, November 23, 2009
11/22 Run
I had thought about making this an out and back on 35th to keep it nice and easy, but about a mile in I decided that would just be punishing myself, so I did the loop around the block instead.
A much better run than Saturday.
Garmin hung when ?I got home, but a reboot (hold bot buttons till screen goes blank) worked as advertised and the data was still available for upload.
3 more runs till the marathon.
6.21 miles in 54:11 (8:44/mile) @ 151 bpm
A much better run than Saturday.
Garmin hung when ?I got home, but a reboot (hold bot buttons till screen goes blank) worked as advertised and the data was still available for upload.
3 more runs till the marathon.
6.21 miles in 54:11 (8:44/mile) @ 151 bpm
11/21 Run
Saturdays run was going to be 10 or 11 miles through Mill Creek. I was leaning towards 10, and modified one of my routes to shoot for that mileage. I decided to run the route I normally run 'backwards' for some variety.
As I hit the turn to come home I realized I was only going to be a little over 9. This had been a surprisingly tough run. Not a super confidence builder, unfortunately, so I decided that 9 was good enough, and I could get the taper weeks miles in on Sunday.
Lost a bottle from a hydration belt for the first time on a run. The belt must have been a little loose, and as I was chugging up the hill about 4.5 miles in I could feel it slapping around a little. And then suddenly, I weight about a pound less. :( Fortunately I caught the bottle before it rolled down the hill. :)
9.26 miles in 1:22:44 (8:56/mile) @ 157 bpm
As I hit the turn to come home I realized I was only going to be a little over 9. This had been a surprisingly tough run. Not a super confidence builder, unfortunately, so I decided that 9 was good enough, and I could get the taper weeks miles in on Sunday.
Lost a bottle from a hydration belt for the first time on a run. The belt must have been a little loose, and as I was chugging up the hill about 4.5 miles in I could feel it slapping around a little. And then suddenly, I weight about a pound less. :( Fortunately I caught the bottle before it rolled down the hill. :)
9.26 miles in 1:22:44 (8:56/mile) @ 157 bpm
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