Don't Go Out Too Fast...

My concern over the past 3 weeks has been my "faster" pace on my runs and how I want to run slow and controlled on marathon day.

It looks like I'm not the only one who is concerned about going out too fast...

New Battery For My HRM and Marathon Pace Run

I've been complaining about the fact that RedG's heart rate monitor has been giving me some crazy readings for the past few weeks. Mostly on the first mile or mile and a half and then it's fine - but I'm afraid that this is when I will need to use my HRM to control my pace the most on November 1.

I finally decided to get a new battery yesterday. Installing it was very easy - just turn the cover with a coin, pop the old battery out, put the new one in and put the cover back on...or so I thought.

I was all ready to go out for my run today (at lunchtime which was first thing in the morning for me today...) - I looked down at RedG and the Heart Rate field was blank. The little heart icon on the top was alternating flashing with an "X".

Now I felt like crap. Why do I always have to go toying with things to make them "better" and I end up breaking something and having to spend more time and/or money to fix them!

I had no MacGyver moment for this one. I ran upstairs to get the Owner's Manual (I know...very unlike me. I'm used to tinkering with things for a good 10 hours before resorting to the manual). A quick search of the manual and I was looking at the HRM troubleshooting section and it mentioned something about "pairing" devices. Got it - when I swapped the battery, somehow RedG thinks the HRM strap is a new device. I navigated through the Garmin menu to re-scan for the heart rate monitor strap, and now the heart rate field was no longer blank. HOORAY!

The new battery seems to work, too. Mile 1 of today's run (mostly uphill) I had an average heart rate of 144 and max of 157. No more readings in the 180s while I'm doing a slow jog :-)

My goal today was a 6 mile marathon pace run. I'm shooting for a 4:40 marathon which is a 10:40/mile pace. Most of my runs lately have been a lot faster than this, so the goal today was to SLOW DOWN.

I got into a nice rhythm during the first mile. I chose to do my normal 6 mile loop in reverse so I could go uphill for most of this mile - just like going uphill on the Verrazano Bridge during the first mile. However, my rhythm was just a tad too fast as RedG chirped a 10:20 at me. Mile 2 was mostly downhill, and although I felt like I slowed down, I ran another 10:19.

I decided that I had to make an effort on the next mile to really slow down and get my pace in the 10:40 range. The next two miles were 11:05 and 11:10 - and I was now on pace! And my average HR was still in the 140s. Woo hoo!

One thing toward the end of the run did concern me a bit. Mile 6 which is pretty much all uphill, I ran in 10:35, but my average HR was 165 (max of 179). I'm all for attacking the hills, but I'm hoping that something like this in the middle of the NY Marathon (i.e. the 59th Street Bridge) doesn't gas me for later on.

Overall, I ran the 6.25 miles at a 10:37/mile pace. My average HR was 151. Not too shabby, but I was hoping for a lower heart rate with this pace. Perhaps it was the warm weather (72 degrees at noon when I ran) or perhaps it was the lack of sleep this week.

To put myself at ease, I took a look in my running log at the last time I ran this route. In late June I ran this as a long run. The temperature that day was also 72 degrees. My pace was 11:25/mile and my average HR was 154. It is nice to see how far I have come in 4 months of training... even on a "bad" day!

HRM Needs New Battery, Or Lack Of Sleep?

I finally got out for a run today after missing yesterday.

As I started, I felt really "rusty". It seemed like a long time since my last run. I thought about this more and my last run was on Saturday morning. I had missed two days of running and I'm feeling rusty. Yikes! What am I going to do post-marathon???

My goal for today's run - take it easy. Try to hit a 10:40 pace. Slow down.

I kind of succeeded. My pace was slower than most of my recent runs - a 10:15/mile pace over 5.5 miles. My first two mile splits were 10:26 and 10:42. Mile 3 has a good amount of downhill in it and I ran a 9:53. Then a 10:27 and 10:20.

The weird part, though, is that my heart rate stayed above 150 bpm for most of the run. Even when I was running the slower miles.

Either I really need to change the battery in the chest strap (I have been saying this for about 2 weeks, so hopefully I'll get to it before my next run...) or the lack of sleep due to maintenance window activities at work has run me down a bit.

Since I'm still working nights at least through tonight and maybe tomorrow night too, I think we'll have to check the battery issue out first.

Back To The Track

It's speedwork Wednesday today. I decided to hit the track instead of the treadmill - since I have been working a lot on pacing, I wanted to be cognizant of my own pace instead of having a rubber mat set the pace for me like I did all summer.

Actually, it has been more than just "the summer". My training log tells me that the last time I was at the oval was in August of LAST YEAR. YIKES! I guess it kind of makes sense as I have been hesitant to go to the track with my Garmin as I felt that it would be really inaccurate in distance. Well, Garmin was a bit inaccurate - I ran 8.45 miles and Garmin had me at about 8.7 - but who cares! I'm able to go into my log and put in the exact distances anyhow since I hit the lap button when I finish a particular interval or recovery. Plus, Garmin did pretty well mapping my run :-) No more avoiding the track on account of the Garmin...

The weather was a bit on the chilly side for lunchtime (65 degrees) and there was some wind as well, but I can't say I minded a bit. It was nice to be in the cool air while I was heating up in my workout.

My plan for today - Yasso 800s - 10 x 800m with 400m recoveries, targeting a 4:40 for the 800m (a 9:20/mile pace). The Yasso 800 wisdom is that if I can do this workout, I should be able to run a 4:40 marathon - which is my goal for New York.

After my warm-up, I started out a bit faster than 4:40, and my first interval was 4:36. I slowed it down a bit for the second interval and came in at 4:39. Nice! However, that was the closest I would get to 4:40 today. The next intervals were 4:35, 4:29, 4:28, 4:27 and 4:18!

I had three more intervals to go and I was still feeling pretty good. I decided to try and slow down the next two and get closer to 4:40 and then go as fast as I could on interval number 10. Interval 8 was 4:33. On interval 9, my first split around the track was 2:08 - too fast. I tried to slow myself down, but I guess halfway around the track I got my groove again and ended up with another 2:08 for a 4:16 800m split.

Interval 10 was all guts. I started out really fast, but then reminded myself it's 800m - not 200 or 400! My first 400 split was 2:03. Could I beat an 8:00/mile pace? I got a bit faster as I started my second loop, rounded the turn and tried to pick up the pace even more down the straightaway. As I was rounding the last turn the wind picked up - I was charging into a strong headwind as I dug in and crossed the line. Garmin flashed my lap time of 3:51! My last 400m was a 1:47 (a 7:11/mile pace).

I really amazed myself on that last interval. Not that I was able to hit a 1:47 for 400m or a 3:51 for 800m. I know that I can do that if needed. I just didn't think I could do it after already running 7.5 miles.

The average time for my 800m intervals was 4:25. I know that this does not mean that I should be shooting for a 4:25 marathon time. I'm afraid that if I try to raise the bar too much on my goal that I will tire myself out and bonk like I did last year. So, I'll still be shooting for a steady 4:40 in New York.

Training runs like this and my 20 miler this past weekend are giving me some good confidence in reaching that goal!

18 Mile Long Run / Parks Half Marathon

For my 18 mile run today, I parked 5 miles from the start of the Parks Half Marathon, ran to the starting line and then ran the race.

My plan was to treat this as a marathon pace run. A little faster than a long run, but slower than I would normally run a Half Marathon. My target pace was 10:40/mile - which corresponds to a 4:40 marathon.

I set my alarm for 5:15am, but thanks to my younger son, I didn't need to rely on the alarm. He came into our room at 4:45am needing to go to the bathroom (which he can do on his own, but for some reason likes to wake us up in the middle of the night anyway...). I decided to get out of bed then and get an earlier start. I got into my running gear (including my UofM Alumni tech shirt - which was a great conversation piece during the run, especially after our big win over Notre Dame yesterday...GO BLUE!), made some instant coffee, went to the bathroom (the reason for the coffee, right?), ate a pre-run banana and headed out to my car. As I left my door, I saw a brightly shining moon and Orion up in the night sky....beautiful!

I parked at the Rio shopping center. As I was pulling into the Kohl's parking lot, I saw someone walking on the sidewalk in shorts and a t-shirt. Another crazy runner, I thought. However, I soon realized that this guy was actually heading home for the night - not heading out for the morning like me. Oy!

Since I was wanting to watch my pace today, I changed my Garmin main screen from 3 fields to 4 - adding average pace to my normal trio of elapsed time, current HR and distance. Later on I found out that by doing this, the elapsed time will only show HR:MIN and not HR:MIN:SEC when you go over 1 hour. It shouldn't really be that big of a deal, but I'm just so used to seeing the seconds on my elapsed time. If it continues to bother me, I may have to just leave average pace off the main screen and make myself hit the up button to see it on the next one. I'll need to make this decision in the next few weeks - I don't want to tinker with this during the NY Marathon.

I started my run - nice and easy. Average HR for the first three miles were 137, 138, 138 (the other two miles were 145 and 144, so they weren't so bad either). The Garmin showed an average pace over the 5 miles of 10:40...perfect! Except later on, when I downloaded my stats into RunningAhead, it shows my pace as 10:42/mile. Not such a biggie, but I'm started to get a bit frustrated about the accuracy of the Garmin....especially when I am using it to keep me on the right pace to reach my goal!

A few comments about the early run - it was definitely dark, and there were some areas that were not well lit (and one point where the sidewalk goes into the woods for a bit - woods where I know coyotes have been seen). I must say, I like running early in the morning, but I'm not such a fan of running in the dark alone.

The other thing is that although the coffee had it's desired affect before leaving home (and thus, not needing to use the port-a-john while on my run), it also gave me some pretty bad acid reflux. I was hoping this would go away at some point, but I was still feeling it towards the end of the half marathon as well.

I got to the starting line of the Parks HM about 25 minutes before the start. I bumped into a few people I knew - my running buddy from last week's 17 mile long run - HH - two "virtual" running buddies from RunningAhead who I knew would be at this race - Trent and Jellyfish - and my sister who was running her second half marathon.

I lined up with my sister and we left in the wave that was for the 10:00/mile and slower group, which started at 7:06am. I ran the first mile with my sister - hitting another 10:40 pace and average HR of 141. Mile 2 started to get downhill and I was trying to not get boxed in the crowd, so my pace was much faster - 9:50. After that, I made myself slow down and got into a rhythm.

I pretty much ran this race on feel - I was trying to watch my pace and HR, but didn't pay too much attention. At the half-way mark, my average pace was around 10:30/mile and my HR was in the high 150s. But I felt really good.

I actually felt so good, that around mile 9 or so, I was still chipper as ever while thanking the volunteers for volunteering for the race. One of the other runners made a comment that I was in way too good of a mood this far into the race! I ended up speaking to her for the next mile and a half - she was starting to get really tired and needed a little push to keep her going (or at least someone to speak to and keep her mind off of how much she likely wanted to stop...).

By the time we got to the last 2 miles - on the gravel Georgetown Branch Trail - I was still feeling really good. My average pace was at 10:39/mile - and even though I had already run 16 miles that morning, I felt that I had enough in the tank to put it into a higher gear and go. The Garmin shows that I ran the last two miles in 18:32, but it did lose the satellite while under the Air Rights tunnel so that may have messed up the distance part of the calculation (actually, it shows I did mile 13 in 8:04 - which I'm sure is not right). Either way, I was able to finish up strong with a chip time of 2:18:59.

Later on that morning (after showering and changing of course!) I met up with Trent and Jellyfish at the Silver Diner for brunch. It was nice to meet these folks in person and hear their running stories. Their take was that if I was able to run this course in less than 2:20 - and after running 5 miles already - that I should have no issues running a 4:40 in New York. The NY marathon is flatter and the weather will be cooler. However, I definitely need to ensure that I pace myself well - as it is in any longer distance race, if you go out too fast you are doomed at the end.

In summary - it was a great run capping off a week where my runs didn't feel so great. Still, I had my highest mileage week of the year - close to 37 miles - and I have two more really high mileage weeks before the marathon. I'm getting more confident that I will be able to reach my goals in New York - running a more balanced marathon and running it in 4:40.

Bethesda To The Lincoln Memorial And Back!

I went for my 17 mile long run this morning. I planned to meet HH, a running friend who runs about the same pace as me, at the Bethesda Avenue entrance to the Capital Crescent Trail at 6am this morning.

That meant I had to leave the house about 5:40am...yikes!

I was up early enough - I was in bed before 9pm last night and somehow woke up before my 5:15am alarm. I grabbed a banana and had some instant coffee (our coffee maker is pretty loud and I didn't want to wake the entire house up) and left the house a little late. I got to our meet up spot around 6:07am...luckily HH was still there waiting for me.

We started right away down the tree lined path. The sun still had not come up, so it was quite dark on the trail. The pace seemed a bit quick, but we were still able to converse, so I didn't try to slow us down. As my Garmin chirped out the 1st mile split, my hunch was confirmed - we ran our first mile in 9:54. Wow. I asked, "Are we running 17 miles today?" and said we should likely slow down a bit.

We didn't really slow down too much over the first 4 miles. Splits of 9:54, 10:05, 10:04 and 9:53 - however, my average HR splits were 142, 137, 141 and 144 so I know that I wasn't stressing my body out too much. I guess the trail from Bethesda into the city is a slight downhill, so perhaps that also helped with the speed boost.

We stopped for a restroom break after 4.5 miles at Fletcher's Boathouse. After that we slowed down a bit - all of our splits for the next 5 miles were in the 10:20 to 11:00 range. This part of the run was really cool for me. The trail runs along the C&O Canal and Potomac River - and I ran by many landmarks that I have driven by many times in the years that I have lived here. I ran on the bridge that goes over Canal Road at Arizona Ave, I ran by the Key Bridge, under Whitehurst Freeway, past the outdoor seating at Sequoia's, next to the Watergate Hotel and Kennedy Center and finally up to the Lincoln Memorial. We had run a little over 8.5 miles and now it was time to go back.

We finally slowed down on the way back up to Bethesda. Partially due to the fact that the trail is uphill on the way back, and partially due to the fatigue that starts to set in as the miles pile on. The next few splits were 11:15, 11:13, 11:32, 11:33, 11:52, 11:29 - this is about the pace that I thought we would be running most of the long run. Even better was my average HR for these miles which were all between 147 and 156. Normally by 14 miles into a run my HR is starting to elevate, but today I was fine.

At mile 14, my running partner started to really get tired. She wanted to walk a bit, so we agreed to walk one minute and run six. The last two splits were 12:30 and 12:23.

Final stats - 17.21 miles in 3:09:22. A 11:01/mile pace with an average heart rate of 148.

At the end of the run, my legs were a bit sore, but I felt like I could have continued running. I hope that my long runs continue to feel as good as this! It also did not feel like three hours went by...that's definitely attributable to running with someone else.

Here's the map of this morning's run. I will definitely want to do this one again :-)

An Awesome 11 Miler and 100 Mile Month Milestone!

Since my original long-run plans changed, this morning I was on my own with my iPod. Instead of the Rockville Millennium Trail, I ran a a loop from my house into Olde Town Gaithersburg which was 11.5 miles.

The weather this morning was lovely - high 60s and low humidity. I'm going to LOVE running in the fall!

My pace and heart rate are improving - I'm not sure if it is due to the better weather or if my conditioning is improving - or both. I ran the 11.4 miles in 2:02:57 - a 10:49/mile pace with an average heart rate of 153.

Actually, only two of my mile splits had an an average HR of over 160 - miles 9 and 10, and for mile 11 I slowed down a bit to a 156 bpm average. Also, only one of my miles was slower than an 11:00/mile pace - a hilly mile 2.

With how well this run went, I started to think about pacing for the marathon, and that I may use the Parks Half Marathon in two weeks as a practice for how to run the first half of the NY marathon. I will be running 18 miles that day - parking my car about 5 miles away from the starting line, running to the start and then running the 13.1 mile race. I'm hoping that I can finish the half marathon in a consistent 2:20 with energy left in the tank. I think this will be a good test on whether I'll be able to pace well for a 4:40 marathon. We'll see...

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Looking at my running log, I see that with my long run today, I have crossed the 100 mile milestone for the month of August! This is my first 100 mile month this year (although the next two months will surely go over 100 miles as well!)

I have run 618 miles for the year so far, which puts me about 44 miles off pace for a 1,000 mile year. I'm not sure I'll be able to catch up to that milestone. I'll see how I feel after the marathon and make the decision then.

Marathon Pace Run - Sort Of...

I'm in week 9 of my training plan. It is a "step back" week on mileage and calls for runs of 4, 7, 4 and 11 miles.

Again, life takes over - there is no way that I'll be able to do a long run over the weekend, so I'm rearranging this to 7 today, 4 tomorrow, 11 on Thursday and 4 on Saturday or Sunday if I can get it in.

So...my plan for today was a 7 miler before work. I was going to attempt a marathon pace run - at around a 10:40/mile pace. It's not really a speed session - so I won't tire myself out for the rest of the day - but it is not as pokey as my long runs have been.

After this weekend's long run, I was thinking that a 7 miler would be a piece of cake. It's amazing what a 15 mile run can do for your perspective!

Once again, the weather this morning was great. Humidity not too high and the temperatures were in the mid-60s.

I started running - and I felt good. It's nice to have that feeling again :-)

The first mile I came in at 10:29. Then a 10:23. Mile three was 9:47. Oops!

I slowed myself down after that - but although none of my miles were sub-10:00, none of them were over 10:40 either.

I finished my run strong - totals of 7.12 miles in 1:12:28; a 10:11/mile pace with an average HR of 157.

Next time I do a marathon pace run, I'm leaving the iPod at home and I'll focus on trying to hit my pace. However, getting out there and running faster than I have been felt really good!!!

Finally - A Low HR Run!

This morning's plan was an easy 3 miler - on my usual lake loop route. I was going to leave the iPod at home and focus on keeping my pace slow and my HR under 150 as much as I could.

The plan worked!

When I first stepped out the door, I had my doubts - my HR was registering in the low 90s (it is usually in the low 70s when I step out the door...the mid to low 60s when I'm sitting down resting). I had gone out for a few beers with a neighbor last night, after the kids were in bed - so, it was a later night than usual, I got less sleep, my sleep was not at deep due to the alcohol, and I think I even felt a bit of dehydration when I woke up (not really a hangover, per se, but a little on the dry mouth side).

I started running at a slow pace - I wasn't sure how slow, but I checked in with my HR and kept it under 150 for most of that first mile. When my Garmin chirped for mile 1, I looked down and saw my pace was 11:30. Wow, that was slow. However, my average HR was 142. I knew this is where I needed to be.

During mile number 2, I saw a turtle crawling towards the woods. Very appropriate for this morning's run. I see tons of bunny rabbits hopping along in my neighborhood, but today was about slow and steady - and Mr. Turtle was there to remind me. Mile 2 chirped and pace was 11:04 with an average HR of 149.

I know that on the way back home there are a few hills. As I started the ascent, I reminded myself to slow down. I wanted to keep this a slow and steady run - even if the pace was pedestrian. I'm sure my thoughts wandered along the way, as my Garmin shows that I hit a max HR somewhere in there of 164 - but my average HR on that last mile was 152 - and at a 10:36/mile pace. For mile 3 to be 30 seconds faster and only 3 bpm higher on the average HR - I'm not going to be too hard on myself for going over 150 bpm.

Overall, the 3.2 miles took 35:15 - an 11:02/mile pace with my average HR at 148. I can't remember the last run where my average HR was under 150...so even though the pace was slow, I will take it!

(Too Fast) Pace Run

This morning my plan was to do a 6 mile Pace Run.  Since I'm shooting for a sub-2:10 Half Marathon right now, my Pace Run needs to be in the neighborhood of 9:55/mile.  I set up my Garmin to show current pace in one of the windows so I could monitor how closely I was running to this pace.  I intentionally had the pace on a different screen than my heart rate reading - I had planned to follow pace this morning and not heart rate.

For what I can gather, I ended up not really following anything given my stats:  6.21 miles in 1:00:31 - a 9:45/mile (this actually doesn't look too far off the plan, except for the fact that my first mile was a slower warm-up mile).  My splits were:

10:36 - warm-up mile
9:53  - pretty spot on, but it includes a big hill
9:20 - net downhill
9:35 - net uphill actually
9:51 - another big hill
9:11 - nice strong finish (?)
2:02 (9:35 pace)

A few comments about my run this morning:

• This pace was faster than the last 10K I ran.  Shouldn't a pace run (or a tempo run even) be slower than a race?
• This was great for 6 miles.  At this point, however, I don't think I can sustain this pace for 13 miles.  For my next pace run, I really need to slow down.
• How the heck am I going to be disciplined enough to get my splits to be more consistent?

For question #3, there are a few things I can do.  First of all I can ditch the iPod.  When I'm running and listening to music, I tend to drift off and not pay attention to what I'm doing.  Another thing I can do is run when it is light outside - in order for me to check my pace on this morning's run I had to turn the backlight on (not too bad, at least my Garmin has a backlight!, but it is a bit more difficult than just glancing at your watch).  Or lastly, I could do my pace run on the treadmill - but if I do I will miss out on the hill component.

I have a bit of experimentation ahead of me in regards to pace runs.  However, I'm sure I'll figure it out in the next few weeks - and hopefully ride it out to a sub-2:10 Half Marathon this spring!

Parks Half Marathon Race Report

I planned to run the Parks Half Marathon for the second straight year. It is a beautiful course which is mostly on the trail of the Montgomery County, MD portion of Rock Creek Park. It's rolling hills through the woods with a few longer hills (which I had totally forgotten about from last year...go figure!). The race finishes in downtown Bethesda, MD to a horde of cheering fans and live music. It's a great race and a great finish!

My younger sister had wanted to run a half marathon as well and I gave her advice in her training for this one. She trained for the past two months and she was ready and psyched! We went to pick up our race packets together on Saturday afternoon and I picked her up bright and early on Sunday morning.

Last year's race I decided to take it easy and not push myself since I had to drive to Raleigh, NC later that night. I kept my Heart Rate in the 160s for most of the race (average HR was 166) and I was able to finish strong with a 2:16:50. I felt I was in better shape - or at least faster - this year with my 25:17 time at the Kentlands 5K two weeks ago. So my plan was to keep to a 10:00/mile pace and hope to finish the race in 2:11 this year.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate.

Last year's race, the starting temperature was in the high-40s and very little humidity (the high temperature later that day was 64 degrees). Yesterday starting temperatures were in the 70s and humid (high temperatures yesterday were in the mid-90s!). Even though most of the trail is shaded, you can't get away from the humidity.

My race started a bit shaky as well. The Port-a-Potty lines were long, but I needed to go before the race. By the time I got out of the port-a-potty, the race has started, and the wave that I wanted to go out with - which had the 9:45 to 10:15 pace group - had already left. I ended up starting with the last wave of 12:00/mile + pace runners - and everyone else who got caught up in the Port-a-Potty lines!

The first 1.75 miles are on Viers Mill Road - a rather hilly main road in Rockville. I remember the beginning of last year's race cruising down this stretch of the race feeling really comfortable and cool. This year's race was not as comfortable :-( I could already feel the soupiness and stickiness of the air. By the time I entered the Rock Creek Trail, I was already sweating and my HR was already in the low 160s. I knew it was going to be a tough run.

My first few mile splits had me on target with pace, however, my heart rate was getting up there:
Miles 1-2: 19:21; avg HR 152, HR at split 163 (I didn't see the Mile 1 marker...)
Mile 3: 10:01; avg HR 168, HR at split 169
Mile 4: 10:35; avg HR 167, HR at split 171 (this included the first water stop and a longer hill which I decided to walk instead of run)
Mile 5: 10:04; avg HR 177, HR at split 173

I was still on pace with my goal, however, the weather was definitely pushing my heart rate up. To give some perspective, earlier in the week I did a tempo run at a 9:30/mile pace. It was 10-15 degrees cooler that morning and my HR over the 5 miles was a 161 average. At this point over the first 5 miles of the race, I was running about a 10:00/mile pace and my average HR was probably close to 170. My average HR of mile 5 - 177bpm - started to worry me, however, I was going to stick to my plan. I had run my best 5K a few weeks ago without considering my HR and just focusing on pace...and I was determined to try the same strategy here.

During these first five miles, I started to pick out runners that were running at a similar pace as me. Throughout the race I would see many of these people - they would go ahead or fall behind and then re-emerge later in the race. I had kind of found an informal pace group, although none of us really acknowledged each other. I'm sure that if I had started to strike up a conversation with someone in the pack that it would have been fine; however, we were all focused on running (OK, some of the runners were plugged into their MP3 players...) and chit-chat was not in the plans for any of us.

The next few miles were tougher. At water stations, more water was going on my head than in my mouth to help cool me down. My HR started to hit the 180s (max HR for me is around 187). I knew I could push myself at this heart rate, but for how long????

The nice part about these four miles is that they were very familiar to me. I used to run this part of Rock Creek Trail when I lived in Bethesda, MD in 1999 and 2000. I wasn't much of a runner then. I didn't enter races - I just ran for the exercise, for the solitude and to get outside every once in a while. And this was one of my favorite spots to run. Here's my splits over the next four miles:
Mile 6: 10:12; average HR 179, HR at split 183 (included water station)
Miles 7-8: 20:38; average 183, HR at split 186 (I didn't see the Mile 7 marker)
Mile 9: 10:09; average HR 187, HR at split 189

I was still on pace for a 2:12 at this point, which still would have been a PR for me. However, I was totally wiped. I tried thinking of some of the running quotes that I had read in Runner's World the night before - about not quitting, about leaving it all on the course, about pushing your body to do more. I just couldn't find it in me anymore.

In my past half marathons, it was usually my leg muscles hurting which slowed me down in the final miles. My quad or calf would tighten up or my knee would have some pain. However, today my legs could do it...I was just beat (and beet red!)

I started to walk some. Then I found it difficult to start running again once I started walking, but I kept trying to make myself run. The kicker came for me at about 11.5 miles. There was a runner down on the side of the trail with EMT personnel working on him. I recognized him as one of the people who was running at my pace earlier. I immediately thought to myself that if I had pushed myself too hard, that guy could have been me. At that point I was convinced that I just needed to get to the finish line - no more pushing myself past my comfort zone. I thought of my wife and my two boys who were waiting for me at the finish line. I needed to get to them at the finish line - I couldn't be that guy on the side of the trail. Even if it meant walking the rest of the way.

My splits at the end are pretty embarrassing for me to post - lots of walking (I believe miles 11 and 13 were almost ALL walking):
Mile 10: 11:16 (avg HR 187, HR at split 174)
Mile 11: 13:11 (avg HR 177. HR at split 179)
Mile 12: 12:18 (avg HR 182, HR at split 172)
Mile 13: 13:24 (avg HR 172, HR at split 186)

I was able to run the last .1 mile. It's a very uplifting scene - the trail goes into a tunnel for about a quarter of a mile and emerges in downtown Bethesda. (Here's a photo from Edward Johnson showing me emerging from the tunnel)  Spectators cheer everyone as they leave the tunnel and you round a corner and see the finish line. I saw Sherry and the kids and my brother-in-law and my nieces cheering me on as I approached the finish line. I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch - 2:22:24 - a good 10 minutes over my anticipated time...I was disappointed to say the least.

Here's me trudging to the finish line:


A few minutes later my sister crossed the finish line with much different emotions. I actually did not see her cross - I was re-hydrating and getting out of my sweat-soaked clothes and into the dry shirt, shorts and socks I had sent along in my "checked baggage". However, afterwards she mentioned that she felt so great crossing the finish line. What an accomplishment for her! She had just finished her first Half Marathon! Her first run over 10 miles! I definitely remember that feeling and I'm glad that she was exhilarated after crossing the finish line.



Here's a picture of me and my sister after the race:


It was great to hear her excitement after the race and it helped lift me up a bit after my disappointing time. Even better was seeing the kids playing together and how much fun they were having!



For me, there will be more successful races and better chip times. However, after hearing from my sister and seeing Sherry and the boys, I knew it was better to focus on the positives. I completed a long morning run on a beautiful trail that is close to my home. Despite the hot and humid conditions I finished without injury and with my family there to cheer me on. Really...what can be better than that?

Park Half Marathon - UGH!

Official chip time - 2:22:25.

No PR.  Actually, this was worse than my time for this race last year.

I don't have time to post a full report now, but the main story here was the weather.  Starting temperatures at the beginning of the race was somewhere in the low 70s with humidity.  Last year, the same race had starting temperatures in the low 50s and no humidity.

I followed my race plan - run at 10:00/mile pace.  However, with the heat and humidity, my HR was waaaaay too high and I broke down about mile 10.

I'll post the splits that I have and more details about the race later.  It was just a disappointing race for me.

On the brighter side, my younger sister ran the race as well and completed her first Half Marathon!  Go Lauren!!!

Race Prep

Tomorrow morning is the Parks Half Marathon.  I picked up my race packet this afternoon, I have been drinking a good amount of water and gatorade today (and cut down significantly on the coffee and soda - and no beer during the Michigan game), and I had a pasta dinner.

All in all, I'm ready!

A few last minute items to go through tonight and tomorrow morning.  First, I'll need to figure out which shirt I'm wearing and pin my race bib to it.  The weather is going to be a low of 70 degrees tonight - so tomorrow's race will be warm and muggy.  ICK!  I'll most likely wear my Fleet Feet singlet - I have a U of Michigan tank top - which I wore during last year's race -however, given how poorly UofM played today against Notre Dame, I'm not so sure I want to flaunt my UofM apparel tomorrow.

I think I have my nutrition/hydration plan down for tomorrow.  I'll have a granola bar either on the way to the race or when I get there.  I'll bring 3 GUs - I'll most likely only use 2 during the race, but if the weather is really humid and hot I'll have an extra one just in case.  As for hydration - I'm not going to bring my water belt and I'll rely on the water stops on the course.  I'm hoping I don't regret this decision later on...

The one thing that I have have not figured out yet is my race plan.  In the past I have run according to heart rate, however, two weeks ago I ran my 5K trying to stay at a particular pace and I set a PR.  I'll definitely have my heart rate monitor with me tomorrow, however, I'm thinking of trying to keep to a 10:00/mile pace the whole way through - or even better, for the first 9-10 miles and then speed up for the last 3 or 4.   And, if I decide to do this, should I stick with the "official pacer"?

I have conflicting thoughts about running with a pace group.  On one hand, it's a great way to keep a consistent pace throughout the race and meet people who are at the same level/speed as you.  However, I kind of feel like I'm cheating a bit...I mean, someone else is leading you through the race.  Am I crazy to think that this cheapens the race time if I use a pacer?

I'll try to get to bed early so I can get a good night sleep before waking up early for the 7am race start.  Hopefully I'll post a race report tomorrow afternoon while watching some NFL football!

Easy Run Becomes Tempo Run

My plan this morning was for an easy run.

I had to be in Northern Virginia this morning for work, so I decided that I would get in my running gear, pack up my work clothes in my gym bag and hit the gym in Reston, VA.

Last night before hitting the sack, I had an even more brilliant idea - try to find how close the W&OD Trail is to the Reston Fitness First. Perhaps I could run on the trail instead of the treadmill, and then just go to the gym to shower. I checked it out on the internet and found out that the W&OD Trail is right across the street from the Reston Fitness First - what luck!

New plan was 2.5 miles West on the W&OD Trail to the Herndon train station - mile markers 17.5 to 20.0 - and then back.

I got out of the house later than I wanted to - at 7am - but I still got on the trail by 7:45am (for DC traffic, travelling 27 miles in 45 minutes is actually quite impressive!). My original plan was to do an easy run, however, that soon changed.

There was something about this morning that wanted me to go a bit faster than my normal, easy plodding jog. The weather was great - overcast skies and 64 degrees. The trail was nice - a wide asphalt path with a gravel path to the side of it. No cars on the trail - just bikes, runners and walkers. Each half mile was marked on the trail which actually made the run go by quickly as well (direct feedback every 4.5 to 5 minutes!)

The scenery wasn't so great - the part of the trail that I ran still runs through some pretty highly developed areas of Reston and Herndon - and it seemed like there were power lines overhead the entire run - however, there was just a great feeling not having to share the route with cars, trucks and buses. I also had my iPod shuffle with me and a mix of fairly uptempo songs. So everything was pointing to a faster run.

There were a few times that the trail crossed a street in which I had to stop. Since I was running a bit faster I didn't mind the short breaks which got my heart rate back down. Most other road "crossings" were overpasses or underpasses which created some small hills on the trail. Since the hills were not too steep or long, I "attacked" the hills when they came - trying not to lose my pace.

I ended up doing the 5 miles in 47:13 - a bit under a 9:30/mile pace. My HR for the first half averaged at 155 bpm and the second half at 167 bpm. I was a bit concerned about how much my HR went up in the second half. Sure, I did run the second half a little faster (40 seconds over 2.5 miles) and since it was only a 5 mile run I was fine. However, as I choose a pace for this weekend's Half Marathon, I see that a 9:30/mile pace is going to be too fast for me at this point. I started going into the anaerobic HR zone at about 4 miles (for me that's around 170 bpm) - and I know that I won't be able to sustain that for 9 miles. I'm going to try to stick to a 10:00/mile pace the best I can this weekend - that would still get me a PR of 2:11 if I can stick to it.

Treadmill Run During MNF

I executed my plan for last night and hit the gym after the kids were in bed. I got to the treadmills, changed one of the televisions in that area to the Monday Night Football game (can I reiterate just how happy I am to be back at Fitness First instead of Bally's!), hopped on a treadmill and started to stretch a bit.

Just as I was starting the treadmill, a neighbor of mine showed up and took the treadmill next to me. We started to chat, so I began my run at a slower pace - about an 11:00/mile pace - for the first mile and a half. At that point, the conversation between us died down, so I brought my speed up a notch to a 10:00/mile and started to concentrate more on the game.

I would like to run the race this weekend as close to a 10:00/mile pace as possible. My Personal Record in the Half Marathon is 2:15:54 (although I did clock a 2:13 and change during the first half of the Frederick Marathon...) and I would love to set a new PR. That would be two PRs in two weeks as I just beat my previous 5K PR by more than 1 minute!

I'm won't blog too much about the game (the biggest news was that Aaron Rogers looked very good - this helped save face for the entire Green Bay Packers organization for dissing Brett Favre this offseason). I ended up running 5.75 miles in 58:40 - about a 10:13/mile pace. The good thing is that I held the 10:00/mile pace for a good 4.25 miles, and my heart rate stayed in the 140s and 150s the entire time (average HR was 144).

As long as the weather cooperates on Sunday, I'll be shooting for a 2:11 which is equivalent to a 10:00/mile pace. I'll need to remember to rest up towards the end of the week, hydrate on Friday and Saturday and carb load a bit. It sounds like a great plan...now it's time to Just Do It!

This Week's Schedule?

With no training plan to follow, but a race coming up in less than two weeks, I need to figure out what workouts to do during the next 10 days.

The weather here in DC is turning hot again - 90 degree temperatures the next three days - so running in the early morning, or inside, will be key.

I definitely have Saturday morning inked in - a 10.8 mile long run with my sister on the Rockville Millennium Trail.  With this in mind, I'll probably want to rest both Friday and Sunday.  So I'll run tomorrow and Thursday mornings this week.  I'll probably do one Tempo Run (probably at 10K pace) and the other either an Easy Run or a "at Half Marathon pace" run.

Next week, I'll try to follow a similar schedule - Monday longish run, Wednesday Tempo and Friday easy or HM pace - perhaps at shorter distances as a "mini-taper" leading up to the Half Marathon on Sunday morning.

Last Training Run Before The Race!

I am officially complete with my "Fast 5K" Training Plan!

On the schedule for today was Long Strides 6 x 150m with 250m recovery. I stayed up late last night watching the DNC (I had figured that after the Olympics I would be able to get myself to bed earlier...but that's not necessarily the case for the next few weeks with the political conventions now going on). My older son was kind enough to play alarm clock this morning - I heard him at 5:30am, which meant I could have rolled out of bed and jogged to the track to do my workout before the High School students came rolling in. However, I decided to stay in bed.

Since I didn't get out of bed until 6:30am, there was no way I was running this morning. Also, since school is in session, I didn't feel like going to the High School track either.

So, I hit the treadmill at the gym during a break in my day (an early lunch break?? I did have a conference call during my normal lunch hour, so I guess that's what I'll call it).

Since the treadmills at my gym don't have a display for meters (perhaps they show km, however, I couldn't figure out how to change the display from standard to metric), I was going to use time for my strides. I know that 150m at an 8:00/mile pace should take 45 seconds - so...the workout was 6 x 45 seconds at 7.5mph, then back down to jogging speed (today 5.4 mph) for the rest of the quarter mile.

I felt great! My HR barely got over 150. I decided to do the entire quarter mile at 7.5 mph for the last Stride interval before a half mile cooldown.

The only issue is that I wasn't setting the pace myself - the treadmill was setting it for me. I believe I'm OK hitting that 8:00/mile pace given the practice runs I have done over the past week and a half, but this would have been a good chance to do it one more time.

We'll see how everything comes together on Saturday. Wish me luck for a new 5K PR!

Lunchtime Strides

As I mentioned in my previous post, there was a chance that I would have some downtime at work this afternoon.  My regularly scheduled 11am to 12 noon conference call ended at 11:15am and I didn't have anything on my calendar after that.

It's a beautiful sunny day in the low 80s, so I put on a singlet (that's "tank top" in runner's speak), and headed to the track for my Strides workout.

I warmed up with an 800m jog and then did my 6 x 150m strides at race pace with a 250m recovery.  I calculated that an 8:00/mile pace translated to running 150m in 45 seconds.  So I was doing my best to hit 45 seconds on my strides.  I did very well!  Here's my "splits":  45.1, 46.7, 43.9, 45.2, 42.5 and 44.5.

I'm starting to feel how to "lock-in" to an 8:00/mile pace.  This is much different than my running over the past 4 years or so, where I let my HRM set the pace for me.  I now really need to concentrate on my stride and how fast/slow I feel like I'm going vs just watching a number on my HRM watch.

I ended the workout with a recovery jog of 1 mile.  3 miles altogether at lunchtime.

This weekend's workout is another 2 mile time trial.  I am planning to run the first two miles of the 5K course again, and this time I'm hoping to have enough left in the tank to run the rest of the race course at a slower pace (last weekend I had to walk the rest).  I'm going to try to map out where the 1/4 mile splits are and try to get as close to 2:00 per 1/4 mile split as possible.  I'm hoping for as close to a 16:00 two miles as possible.

Two Mile Personal Record!

This morning's run was a 2 mile time trial.  The plan was to jog up to the starting line of the Kentlands/Lakelands 5K (about 0.4 mile from my house) and run the first two miles of the course.

The great news - I have a new Personal Record (PR) for two miles - 15:35!

OK...I have no previous time for two miles, so anything would have been a personal record.  However, a 7:48/mile pace is awesome for me.

The bad news - after running those two miles, I had nothing left in the tank to cover the other 1.1 miles of the course.  And right after two miles on the course is a consistent uphill incline for about a third of a mile.

YIKES!

I have the same 2 mile time trial on my calendar for next weekend, and an interval run at race pace earlier in the week so here's my plan:

• Try to set my "race pace" at an 8:00/mile pace, or a tad slower
• Run my intervals on Monday as close to an 8:00/mile pace as possible
• Determine where the quarter-mile points on the 5K course are for the first two miles, and try to keep to the 8:00/mile pace during my 2 mile time trial next weekend by checking my time every quarter mile (should be 2 minutes per quarter mile...this will be a lot easier for me to keep pace)

I think by slowing down - even 15 seconds per mile - will give me the energy I will need to finish that third mile of the 5K.