Amarco Half-Marathon

This was the race I had been preparing for since this past June when I decided to move up and tackle a Half-Marathon. At the time, I felt like 1:32 was a very ambitious goal, given that I was barely able to handle a 4.5 mile run on the track at 7:00/mile. But I'm still in my first year of real running so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. However, my training has been going amazingly well the past 3 months and I felt like, with good weather, I could challenge the 90-minute barrier.

I've spent the past two days driving on the road and at track meets. I was slightly worried that this could wear me out, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I decided to not worry about it much.

I made all my necessary plans and packing last night and I was able to get to bed around 11pm. I got a solid 5 hours of sleep (not ideal the night before a long race) before my alarm went off. Once I got to the Brown Convention Center I oriented myself and began my warm up about an hour before the race. I warm up a little longer than normal, and then quickly found myself rushed to get to the start line. Thanks to some nice pushing and shoving on my part I was able to work my way up near the front of my wave (correcting a mistake I made in October).

My goal was the run 7:00 to 7:05 for each of the first three miles before trying to pick the pace up. I was worried that I might crash and burn again like my last Half, so I tried to relax as much as possible and just let the race come to me.

As I passed the first mile mark I clicked my watch and saw 6:57. I felt pretty comfortable and just kept it going. At the second mile I saw 6:50. I was still felt good, but I knew I had to make a decision at this point to keep it going, or back off and play it safe. I decided to take a chance and kept the pace up. I ended up running the next three miles with a guy who was targeting a 3-hour marathon. I was nice running with him and it was the first time I ran with someone and didn't feel like I had to slow down so they could keep up or speed up just to keep it. We ran 6:48 for each of my next three miles to hit the 5 mile mark at 34:15. Somewhere around this point I found myself running with the 3-hour marathon pace group that had caught up with us. I used these guys until the Half-Marathon turn around point (mile 9). I took my first Gu pack around 7.5-miles and my second one around 10.5-miles.

I hit the 11-mile mark in 1:14:43 (6:47.5/mile) and began to get nervous. This was around the point in October when I slowed from averaging 7:09/mile to running my last three miles in a 7:25/mile average. I ended up backing off slightly and ran mile 12 in 6:57. This was a bit of a subconscious slow down (plus running into some wind) and I was disappointed that I backed off that much, but I was still feeling pretty good. I ended up running my last mile in 6:34 (last .1 mile in 40-seconds to finish in 1:28:52!!!! I couldn't believe it. I thought I could challenge 90-minutes with a good day. It didn't cross my mind that I could possibly break 89-minutes until I passed mile 8, still feeling good.

To put this in a bit of a perspective.... one year ago I ran a 4 mile tempo run, as hard as I could run, in 30:36 (7:39/mile).... 3 months ago I ran a Half-Marathon in 1:35:00 (7:15/mile).... and today I ran 1:28:52 (6:47/mile). I used to think that I would probably never run 21-minutes for three miles. I feel very humbled at the moment.

I'm in great shape right now and I plan on running a 3200m time trial, a 5k road race, and 10k road race during the next 2 months to set some new PRs. But I'm just going to take the next few days easy and I'll get back to the hard workouts at the end of the this week. That's all for now.

Final Tune-Up

Today was my final tune-up prior to the Houston Half this Sunday. I wanted to run a moderately difficult workout that I could complete, but would have to work to get it done. I also wanted to run a reasonable volume, but not too much.

So I decided to run 6x1600m w/400m jog recovery between each rep. I wanted to run negative times for every two repeats. I ran my first two reps in 6:57 and 6:55, my next two in 6:38 and 6:39, and my final two in 6:28 and 6:28. For each repeat my average heart rate stayed at 88-90% of it's max and I felt pleasantly exhausted at the conclusion, which is what I was looking to accomplish. All in all, I was pleased.

The hay is now in the barn. All I can do at this point is just jog around, eat right, and get some rest. I feel about as ready to go as I could at this point. I just hope no abnormal aches or pains pop up between now and then. Wish me luck!

Race Simulation

I wanted to get a bit of a race simulation workout in as today's workout was going to be my last real quality workout. I decided to run 2 miles @ Race Pace (track) + 4.25 mile tempo run (road) + 2 miles @ Race Pace (track). I took a 3 min jog recovery between everything, and this was only because it took me 3 min to get from the track to the road and back.

I started out on the track and ran a very controlled and evenly paced 2 miles in 13:54 (6:57/mile). I averaged 89% of my max HR during this segment.

It took me three minutes to jog from the track to the road where I would do my tempo run. I then proceeded to run 4.25-miles over hills in 27:50.8 (6:33/mile). I wanted to try to keep my heart rate between 90-92% of it's max, but this was extremely difficult and I couldn't manage to run any faster. My average heart during this segment was only 89% of my max. Early on I was in my goal range, but I only managed about 13-minutes of total running in this zone. Maybe I was a bit over ambitious with my goal. Good run none the less, I expecting the total time to be a bit slower than this.

It took me 3 minutes to jog back to track, where I finished my workout with a controlled and evenly paced 2 miles in 13:54 (6:57/mile). During this part my average heart rate was 85% of my max. This portion felt quite easy and I felt I could have run significantly faster the last half-mile if I had to desire to.

It was a good workout, though I'm a bit concerned as I've noticed that it is taking me longer and longer to get warmed up. I've noticed that I never feel good in the first 20-minutes of any run; however, after that I feel good whether I'm running for another 20 minutes or an hour. I think this is evident by tracking my heart rate vs paces during this workout. I know this is a sign of good aerobic fitness, during my race next Sunday I won't be able to stop and jog 3 minutes after the first two miles so I'm going to experiment with a longer/harder warm up a couple times this week to see if that helps me get warmed up so that I don't overwork the first quarter of the race with my heart rate any higher than it needs to be. I just hope I don't over-do the warm up on race day.

Moderate Workouts

With less than two weeks until the Half-Marathon, I'm just resting and doing what I can to make sure I feel good on race day. I seem to always feel good when I back off on the intensity of my workouts.... so today I decided to run 8 x (1200m hard / 400m easy). I averaged 4:54.2 for each 1200m with my fastest one being run in 4:46 and my slowest in 5:01. I averaged 2:24 for each 400m jog (this included some short standing around to get water on a few reps). I totaled 58:25.9 for 8 miles (7:18.2/mile) of continuous running. Good workout. The pace I was running, 6:32/mile did not feel difficult to maintain and the 400m jog recoveries was more than enough. It was a good workout for what I wanted it to accomplish. I expect to get a good easy week of 55-60 miles with 2 quality workouts.

I'm just hoping to stay healthy between now and January 17.

Cruise Intervals

The morning of January 1 I woke up and decided not to run the 10k Time Trial I had been planning on. I ran the 10 mile fartlek a bit harder than I had originally planned and I'm beginning to feel my legs slowly get heavier and heavier with each run. I still wanted to get a long quality workout in, so I opted for cruise intervals.

THE PLAN: 5 x 3200m with my HR between 86-90% of it's max (170-180 bpm) and I start my next rep once my HR returned to 70% of it's max (145-150 bpm). I would run the first 4 reps on the road and my last rep on the track.

REP 1 - 14:10.4: Pretty comfortable, though I backed off on the effort during the second mile as there were two pretty good size hills.... avg HR was 89% of max.

REST 1 - 48.5 seconds: WTF?!?!? I was expecting it to take about 2 min for my HR to drop to 70% of it's max. I guess this is the pit fall of being fit. Oh well.... avg HR was 82% of max.

REP 2 - 13:37.0: Some decent downhills to make up for the uphill on the first rep.... avg HR was 88% of max.

REST 2 - 51.6 seconds: FML! I was hoping to stand around longer.... avg HR was 82% of max.

REP 3 - 14:13.2: Back up some hills.... avg HR was 89% of max.

REST 3 - 1:07.9: I wasn't ready to go at the start, so I got in a little longer recovery.... avg HR was 79% of max.

REP 4 - 13:45.7: Back down some hills.... avg HR was 89% of max.

REST 4 - 2:32.5: I had to jog about 400m to get back to the track, but I was able to keep my HR from dropping too fast by staying active. Once I got to the track, it took about 30 seconds for my HR to drop to 70% of it's max.... avg HR was 82% of max.

REP 5 - 14:11.0: On the track for this one, legs pretty heavy and I fell of pace a bit the last 1k. Oh well, still a good workout.... avg HR was 88% of max.

I got 13.5 miles in total. I'm really starting to like this HR monitor. I'm beginning to see all it's practical benefits. It definitely helped my keep this workout under control. From the moment I started the first rep, I got in a little over 62 minutes with my HR between 86-90% of it's max. Good day.