Planning Ahead

OK, so despite a crash and burn in the last race, it was still an OK time so I am thinking I can get back into real PR shape.  Thinking ahead on plans, and also considering the changes in Boston registration regulations I have the following basic scheme.....

1. Run a decent half at Oakland on 3/27 - 7 weeks after Kaiser I am hoping to get into PR shape and do 1:23 something.  This may be tough but I'll give it a shot.
2. Run a marathon under 3:10 to get early qualification to Boston before September 12th. Now I am 45 my Boston time is 3:30:59 which is a pretty easy run for me, but in order to deal with the problem of Boston selling out in 8 hours they have changed the rules.  People who beat the BQ by 20 minutes can register a week early.  2 days later they ope to people who beat by 10 mins, then 2 days later those who beat by 5 mins.  Then, if it's no full they open to people who meet the qualification time.  So for me, it's a 3:10 to get the early (i.e. guaranteed) entry.  This should be easy enough if I pick a reasonable race, which I am still researching.
3. Run a fall/winter marathon and PR (beat 2:58:13).  Thinking California International Marathon (CIM) for this.  It's first Sunday in December.  I'd love to be shooting for 2:55 which I should be able to do if I have a good spring/summer/fall of training.
4. Run Boston in 2012 and win it (HAHAHA)

So that's the plan.  training needs to pick up from the current 60ish to a little closer to triple digits. Although I'm feeling pretty dedicated as I ran it crappy cold wet weather 3 times this week, which is a lot for a soft Californian like me.

Next week I'm hoping to get to 70, but I'm in Hawaii so will probably slack off and drink too much.

Kaiser Half 2011

A beautiful day last Sunday in San Francisco.  When I parked at 7:15 am it was already 67 degrees.  Closer to 70 at start time and approaching 75 at the finish.  Not ideal for the run, but great for the walk back to the car afterwards!

I decided to pace/run for 1:25 which was a little optimistic based on recent training paces.

Gun went off and I went out like a bat of hell.  I blame the fact that I was running on the right of the course, next to the 5K runners, but the reality is that I am just an idiot.

Goal for mile 1 was 6:29.  First half mile was under 3 minutes!  Mile 1 went by in 6:11 and mile 2 wasn't much better at 6:17 (vs 6:30 plan).  So 2 miles in I was on pace for under 1:22 and already 31 seconds ahead of plan.

Got my act together a little for miles 3,4 & 5 and ran them pretty much on target and was now 20 seconds ahead of plan.

Mile 6 was the hill and I flew down at under 6 minute pace.  Mile 7 was fast too and as I hit the great highway and passed the 7 mile marker I was 38 seconds ahead of plan, on pace for sub 1:23.  So I knew it was either going to be an out of the park PR or a disaster.

As we started on the coast road it was really hot.  There was a slight tailwind, so it felt really still.  Pretty quickly I knew this was not going to be the out of the park PR and I knew that I was going to pay dearly for my fast start.  But still, I had a 38 second cushion and only 6 miles to go.  I could afford to drop 6 seconds per mile and still hit my sub 1:25 goal.

Mile 8, I gave up 7 seconds of that cushion.....
Mile 9, I gave up 6 more....
Mile 10 was the turnaround and I was hurting, gave up 5 more with a 6:43.

Now it was back from the zoo to the finish. Hot with a slight headwind. 19 seconds of cushion, and needed to run about 6:35 pace to get under 1:25.

Mile 11 - 6:41, there go 4 of the 19 seconds!  Now I needed to do 2.11 miles in 14:09, or 6:36 pace.

Mile 12.  I tried to get back into the 6:30s several times, but the wheels were falling off at this point.  Heartrate spiked to mid 180s and I knew it wasn't going to happen.  Mile 12 came by in 7:00 and I was now 8 seconds behind pace for the first time.  Now I needed to go under 6:30 to beat 1:25.

I tried that pace for 50 yards but it was an all out sprint for me and there was no way I could do it for another 6 minutes.  With no hope of sub 1:25 I just decided to get 1:25:XX which meant I could jog it in.  Last mile+ was at 7:15 pace and I limped across the line at 1:25:56.

So a combination of weather, mediocre fitness but most importantly crazy aggressive pacing bit me in the ass bigtime.