- I left my job, and am taking the summer off. So I have no excuses for not running.
- Rebuilding fitness after not running in Feb/March is not going as quickly as I had hoped.
The last few months have looked like this.....
- April - managed 83 miles, all slow except for one 3.5m tempo.
- May - 162 miles. 3 tempo runs, bay to breakers, long of 18 miles.
- June - 168 miles. 1 tempo run, 2 lame track workouts.
- July - should hit ~200 miles, 2-3 tempos (all short), 1 track workout, and 1 race!
The race is not going to be pretty. It's the San Francisco 2nd half marathon, and it is in 9 days. This is the course that I did last year in 1:23:47. I was just looking at my splits for that race and I am a long, long way off. The first 10K was 40:01, 2nd 10K was 38:31. That first 10K climbs about 200 feet. I don't think I could run a downhill 10K in 40 right now, so this is not going to be a PR or fun.
Last year, I'd run about 1,600 miles from Jan 1 until the SF race and was in great shape, this year it's less than 1/2 that. I was regularly doing 70-80 mile weeks, 6-8 mile tempo runs and long runs of 20-22. I am not doing any of that right now, so I am lacking in both endurance and speed. And the extra 12lbs I will be carrying this year is unlikely to help, although I doubt I will get hungry as I am carrying plenty of stored energy.
Purely looking at track & tempo workouts, I think I'm about 15-20 seconds/mile off, but couple that with the lack of endurance and I am gonna be lucky to stay within 30 seconds/mile of last year....
- Last Year - 6:23 pace = 1:23:47
- +15 seconds - 6:38 pace = 1:26:58
- +20 seconds - 6:43 pace = 1:28:03
- +30 seconds - 6:53 pace = 1:30:14
I think I'll start off trying to run at last year +15s/mile and see how long I can hold on. It will give me a real assessment of where I am and how much work I have to do in order to get back into real racing shape.
The good news is that my fall marathon is 8 weeks later than last year (December VS October), so I have all that extra time to train, which I will need. The goal is still to beat my Chicago time in the California International Marathon.
I have 4 weeks after SF to continue building a base and then 15 weeks to do some sort of amazing marathon training plan that is yet to be be worked out......
