Rock n Roll Marathon

Time 3:46:35
Overall 1568 out of 13328
AG 128/677

The good race/bad race trend continues.

The temps were in the low 60’s with a light mist early on. The sun never came out and I don’t think it ever got higher than 65. The humidity was pretty high and that’s probably what affected me the most.

My plan for the race was to just run at a pace that felt good. Most of the first 7 miles were down hill and that led to a fast first half (1:41:58) but it wasn’t that much faster than at Boston. I took it slow for the 3 miles up 163 but they were all under 8:30 pace. I felt pretty good when I got to Friars Rd but pulled back a little because I had started so fast.

By mile 15 I was starting to wear down so I slowed the pace but was still running sub 9:00. By mile 18 the small but constant hills started. I decided the best strategy was to walk up the hills to conserve energy and try to run everything else (at a slow pace). This strategy worked for a while but by mile 22 I had little left. From 22-24 I was walking 1 minute and running 2. When I made it to mile 24 I managed to run the rest of the way.

Outside of avoiding any race with temps over 50 I’m not sure what else I can do. Maybe slowing down early on would have helped a little but my time might have still been about the same anyway with the only difference being that I didn’t have to walk.
Hopefully October in Connecticut will be cooler.

Overall the race was very good. Very organized, well staffed and plenty of water stops. I’m not sure if I would run it again but would recommend it.

Results
Race site

New Shoes - New Balance 850

It’s new shoe time again (already?). My knees were starting to bother me and the tread on my shoes was getting pretty worn down. The Brooks that I had been running in were decent shoes but at $130 they weren’t any better than the $90-100 shoes I had been getting.

After looking at different shoes at Fit2Run (I had 20 minutes to kill since the staff had better things to do than to help customers) I decided to get New Balance 850. The club price was $103. They felt great in the store and were very comfortable on my run yesterday.

I was a little concerned about getting new shoes the same week of a marathon but these look like they will do just fine.

Weekly summary 5/24/2009

Weekly total 52.0
Monday 5.51
Tuesday 7.37
Wednesday 7.33
Thursday 7.67
Friday 7.46
Saturday 8.27
Sunday 8.36
Average pace 8:07

I pretty much kept to my plan this week. I wanted to get in at least 1 long run but I didn’t want to push it too much so I limited each run to an hour. I still felt run down most of the week but I should have plenty of opportunity to rest up this week.

For this week I want to get in two 1 hour runs on Monday and Tuesday and then take the rest of the week off (until Sunday of course).

1 week until San Diego

Weekly summary 5/17/2009

Weekly total 49.9
Monday 7.6
Tuesday 4.19
Wednesday 10.34
Thursday 7.22
Saturday 12.23
Sunday 8.35
Average pace 7:57

I decided not to race this weekend and instead try and build up a little mileage before I start tapering later this week. I’ve really been stuck in a rut the last few weeks. Find it really hard to get myself going. I’ve been able to get some long runs in but it has been a struggle. Every pace seems to be too much effort to maintain. I’m only guessing here but this might be the result of over training. My weekly miles haven’t been that high but I haven’t given myself much of a chance to rest either.

My plan this week is to limit myself to one long run (tues or wed) but try and get a run in everyday and into the 50-55 mile range. If I’m still struggling like last week then I’ll take a day off. I want to have one last week of higher mileage because I plan to take most of next week off. Four days off before the marathon should give my body a chance to rest and heal a little.

2 weeks until San Diego

Weekly summary 5/10/2009

Weekly total 40.5
Tuesday 10.3
Wednesday 8.67
Thursday 4.15
Saturday 3.12, 3.13
Sunday 11.19
Average pace 7:37

The miles were down a little this week because I was busy on Monday and I took Friday off (prior to race day). Tues and Wed were pretty good training days. It took a little while to loosen up (especially Tues) but I was mostly pain free. On Thurs I felt really tired from Wednesdays medium run so I decided to just settle for a few easy miles. Sundays run was my first long run outside in almost 4 weeks. I was tired and never really got going. I was content to run an easy pace and only managed to get 2 miles under a 8:00 pace.

Since I have another 5k this week my training plan is pretty much the same except my only day off will be Friday. Since my next marathon is quickly closing in I would like to at least get 50 miles in this week with 2 long runs (Tuesday 10+, Sunday 15 miles).

3 weeks until San Diego

Miles for Moffitt

Time 20:19
Splits 6:13, 6:39, 6:47
Overall 34 out of 1359
Age group 3rd place

Another disappointing 5k although this time it wasn’t unexpected. I felt a little run down for the last 2 weeks. I was hoping that an easy run and a day off would give me fresh legs for the race but my legs didn’t feel any fresher than they did in the beginning of the week.

Race morning was pretty warm and humid. I did an easy jog for a few minutes to try and loosen up but my primary goal was to keep hydrated and stay in the shade. I started out pretty good but I knew right away it was going to be a struggle to keep that pace. I was running with a small group of people and decided to run at the same pace for mile 2. I was hoping to at least keep under 6:30 but ended up going a little slower. Somewhere around 1.5 miles we starting catching up with the 5 mile participants who started 30 minutes earlier. With a mile left to go I tried to motivate myself to pick up the pace a little but it was really difficult with the larger groups of 5 milers walking around me and the heat. I managed a sprint over the last 0.1 but that wasn’t enough to salvage a decent time.

I plan on running the USSS 5k next Saturday. I expect that race to be a little better. Starting at 7:30 (instead of 8) and being by the water should make it a little cooler. And I won’t have to worry about running though all of those walkers. Based on past races there are quite a few runners that finish in the 19:30-20:00 range. This will definitely help with the motivation.

Results

Weekly summary 5/3/2009

Weekly total 48.6
Monday 8.21
Tuesday 7.58
Wednesday 8.22
Thursday 6.38
Saturday 3.1
Sunday 15.14
Average pace 7:49

This week was kind of a crazy week. I wasn’t sure if Ken was going to run on Saturday until midweek. If he didn’t run then I would race (otherwise an easy run with Ken). Knowing that he was going to run meant that I could put in a lot of miles but by Thursday my allergies/cold was really coming on strong. I had the full blown sneezing fits, achy body and dry eyes. I had little energy on Thursday and could barely get though work let alone run on Friday. On Saturday, I felt a little better but was glad that I only had an easy run (instead of a race) to worry about. Sunday I just decided to push myself and see how far I could go. I still felt sluggish but managed a good 15 mile run.

My goal this week is to try and get some longer runs early in the week and then make sure I rested for Saturdays race (a real race this time). Saturday afternoon and Sunday I’ll try and get some long runs in an hopefully get my mileage back into the mid to high 50’s

4 weeks until San Diego