March Summary (22:17)

So March is over.....

Two races, both new PRs:
-- Shamrock'N Half Marathon - 1:35:22 (7:17 Pace)
-- Greek Independence Day 5k - 20:38 (6:38 Pace)
........Won my first gold medal! (M40-49 age group)

Mileage
-- Biggest, fastest month ever
-- Ran 25 days out of 31 (Goal was 27)
-- Average Run 6.6 Miles
-- Average Pace 8:06
-- Average Heart Rate 155
-- 165 Total Miles
-- 38 Average Weekly Miles
-- 49.8 Longest Week
-- 463 Miles 2007 To Date

Milestones
-- Restructured Training Plan (Including Speedwork)
-- Increased Weekly Mileage to High 40's
-- Running 6 days/week (Off, EZ, Tempo, EZ, Repeats, EZ, Long)
-- Started mile repeats (Best 6:39x4, 90 sec recovery)

April Goals
-- Run 24/30 days
-- Break 50 miles per week
-- 188 miles, Average 43.8 miles/week
-- Santa Cruz Half 4/22 (Goal - sub 1:34 7:10 Pace)
-- 1 Year Running Anniversary - April 2nd

New Training Plan - Week 1

Just finished the first week of my new, (and hopefully) improved training regime! If I'm going to get under 1:30 for a half marathon I'm going to need to have some confidence in the schedule and stick to it pretty closely. Let's see how week 1 went.....

Monday [10/10]
.....Plan - day off (I'm pretty confident about this day!)
.....Actual - Nailed it!
Tuesday [10/10]
.....Plan - 5 miles easy (8:15-8:30 pace)
.....Actual - 5.09 miles at 8:22
Wednesday [8/10]
.....Plan - 8 miles tempo (1m easy, 6m at 7:15-7:30, 1m easy)
.....Actual - 6.85 miles (1.5m easy, 4.3m at 7:13, 2m easy)
Thursday [8/10]
.....Plan - 7 miles easy (8:15-8:30 pace)
.....Actual - 6.89 miles at 8:00 [a little fast]
Friday [4/10]
.....Plan - 8 miles (5xmile repeats at 6:45-6:55, 60-90 sec recovery)
.....Actual - 5.26 miles at 8:37 [skipped repeats due to 5k race Sat.]
Saturday [4/10]
.....Plan - 6 miles easy (8:15-8:30 pace)
.....Actual - 5k race at 6:38 (5.26 miles total with warmup)
Sunday [8/10]
.....Plan - 14-18 miles long (first 3/4 at 8:15-30, 1/4 at race pace)
.....Actual - 15.05 miles at 8:21 [skipped fast finish due to race Sat.]
Total [52/70]
.....Plan - 48-52 mpw
.....Actual 44.39 miles

So overall it was pretty good for week 1. The 5k race obviously messed things up but that was expected. At 44+ miles, it was my biggest Monday-Sunday week ever. Next week should climb to 47 [close to plan] and the week after I'm up to 51 [if I'm on plan]. Then I ease back a little (45) and then it's the Santa Cruz half marathon (April 22nd)

5k Race

Just ran a 5k race around Lake Merritt in Oakland - The race was to celebrate Greek Independence Day, and due to the fact that I am completely not Greek, I felt like a little bit of a party crasher. But I've drunk plenty of Ouzo in my time so I think it's OK.

These shorter races are very useful for checking fitness levels during training for longer races and there are many formulae to predict times for different distances. Based on my recent half marathon (1:35:22) I should be able to run a 5k in 20:38 (6:38 pace), but based on the goal for my next half marathon (sub 1:30) I would want to run a 5k at 19:28 (6:17 pace). I decided that today I'd try to run at 6:30 pace and see if I could somehow kick at the end to go under 20 minutes (6:26 pace).

A good plan with bad execution.....
Ready, set, go! I was off like a rocket - way too fast - covered the first 1/4 mile at 6:05 pace and struggled to get onto 6:30 pace. Got through 2.5 miles OK but then faded badly. Finished the 5k (the course was 5.25k but they marked the 5k finish) at 20:38. That fast start really screwed things up and I was completely out of juice for that last 0.6 miles. Stupid mistake.

However, although I didn't beat 20:00 I did cross the 5k line in 5th overall and got the gold medal for my age group (it sure helps to be old and run small races....)

I'll give the sub 20:00 5k another shot sometime in May after the Santa Cruz half as I think with a little more attention to pacing and another month's training I should be able to do it.

Updated Half Marathon Goals

So after the success of the Shamrock'N Half Marathon in Sacramento last week I have decided, once again, to adjust my goals for the year. Originally I had planned to get the half down to 1:40, then 1:35. Now I'm thinking that sub 1:30 is a good stretch goal. That's a pace of 6:52/mile, down 24 seconds from my PR. At some point, I'm going to spectacularly fail to cut the next 5 minutes off my time. Let's hope it's not this time around.....

To do this, I've got 2 more halves planned, before I turn my attention back to training for a full marathon.

......The test race: Santa Cruz - April 22nd - sub1:34 (7:10 pace)
......The goal race: Los Gatos - July 15th - sub1:30 (6:52 pace)

To do this I realise that I'm going to have to train a little harder and a lot smarter. I've been running a little inconsistently and have had too many back to back hard training days. I've decided to increase the training mileage to just over 50 mpw (from 40ish right now) but also restructure my weekly training so that it is a little more balanced. Hoping that the combination can somehow find me the 24 seconds per mile.

The planned typical week is going to be.....
- Monday - day off (I'm pretty confident about this day!)
- Tuesday - 5 miles easy (8:15-8:30 pace)
- Wednesday -8 miles tempo (1m easy, 6m at 7:15-7:30, 1m easy)
- Thursday - 7 miles easy (8:15-8:30 pace)
- Friday - 8 miles (5xmile repeats at 6:45-6:55, 60-90 sec recovery)
- Saturday - 6 miles easy (8:15-8:30 pace)
- Sunday - 14-18 miles long (first 3/4 at 8:15-30, 1/4 at race pace)
- Total 48-52 mpw

It'll take me a few weeks to get there from where I am right now, but I have a solid 12 week stretch between Santa Cruz and Los Gatos. I also need to drop a 5K and a 10K in there somewhere to check fitness/readiness.

If I can somehow run under 1:30 in July, I should be in a great position as I move into a 20 week training program for the December full marathon. Maybe this time I will actually be able to run the whole thing!

....Go!

Shamrock'N Half Marathon - Race Report
The Setup
Advertised as a fast, mostly flat course. Run thru a bunch of Sacramento neighborhoods (some not very pleasant...), ending up in Raley Field (Home of the Sacramento River Cats - whoever they are). Weather was perfect, 46 to start, 56 to finish, sunny, practically no wind. About 2,100 runners (plus another 1,000 for a 5k)

The Plan
I had 3 Goals:
1) Beat 1:40 - this was the comfortable goal (7:38 pace)
2) Beat 1:38:54 - current PR. (7:33 pace)
This was from the "downhill" Kaiser Half run 5 weeks ago. Wanted to show I could also run flat courses too!
3) Beat 1:35 - this is my 2007 half marathon goal (7:15 pace)

The First Bit
Started early (8am, but on first day of daylight savings so felt like 7). Lots of people, absolutely zero discipline lining up. Gun goes off, and I swear I see people walking immediately, people running 10 min miles, all lined up at the front. Takes me a good quarter mile to get into open space - pace at 8:16 for the first quarter - so I wasted about 15 seconds. Then I settle down into a relatively fast pace (7:20) thru the first 4 mile loop on the east of the river. If I can hold this, I should easily get under my PR.....

The Second Bit
Miles 5,6,& 7 go well, a few little up and downs but nothing to worry about. Pace still fast (7:23). Feeling good. Still on track to comfortably beat 1:38:54....

The Middle Bit
About mile 7 an older guy runs up next to me, wearing exactly the same shirt. Well I'm not going to let him pass, so we start speeding up. Get down to 7:05 pace and cross the 8 mile point at 58:49 (Average pace 7:20) - According to my handy dandy time sheet, I'm on track for just over 1:36 if I keep on pace. Looking good.....

The Bit Before The End Bit
Miles 9, 10 go by fast, at 7:15 pace. I'm now thinking that 1:35 is within reach. Doing the math I realise I need to shave off about 30 seconds over the last 3 miles, which means running around 7:05. First half mile was 7:06, Second one was back to 7:15. Realised that 1:35 was probably not gonna happen, but barring disaster I should still beat 1:36....

The End Bit
Mile 12 was the toughest one for sure. My legs were dead and I was definitely feeling the effects of some of those fast miles. First half mile was 7:23 pace and then my slowest half mile (except the start) at 7:32. Realised 1:36 was at risk if I keep this up so I kicked it in for the last 1.1m Got back to 7:14 pace (which hurt like hell) and somehow found enough to cover the final 200 yards at 6:17 pace in front of the crowd. Crossed the line at 1:35:22 (7:17 pace), feeling like I had absolutely nothing left.

Beat my PR by 3:32! Ran a pretty steady pace with negative splits! Also set a new PR for a 10K by over a minute! (Guess I need to go run a 10k properly sometime). If I hadn't been bogged down at the start I could have maybe broken 1:35 but I guess I now have to prove that on the next race.

Finished 127th overall out of 2137 which I was very happy with. In my age group (M40-44) I was 24th out of 149.

Next up is Santa Cruz Half on April 22nd. Haven't seen a course profile, but I hear it's hilly. Not sure what the goal is gonna be, but I doubt it'll be a PR.

Ready, Set.....

So tomorrow is the race in Sacramento. Just did a very easy 2-3 miler, after 2 days off. Ran a couple of easy 5 milers on Monday & Tuesday and a fast 5 miler on Wednesday (which included a new PR for 1mile, 2mile, 3mile and 5k).

Legs are nice and rested and other than a slight sore throat that came on yesterday I'm feeling in good shape.

Weather looks like it's going to be sunny and hot (low 80's), but I should be done before it gets much over 60, especially given the fact that it starts early: 8am, and with daylight savings starting tonight, that'll be like 7.

If all goes well, I'll be done by 9:38:53am - fingers crossed!

Into the Taper...

Just finished up the last full training week before the Shamrock'n Half Marathon. Now it's just a relatively easy semi-taper week before the race on Sunday.

Today's 12 miler thru Los Altos Hills started with a steady 7 miles (8:27 pace) climbing up thru 500 feet. Then miles 8, 9 & 10 were fast (7:36 pace) and although they had a net downhill of about 120' they had a couple of really steep climbs. Finished off with a relaxed downhill 2 1/2 miles (8:38 pace). Total was 12.6 in 1:44 (8:16 pace).

The rest of the week was pretty good - 3 tempos, 1 very easy and a good 7.5 mile pace run (7:35 pace). All in all it was good week, 41.3 miles total, and I'm feeling ready for the race next week.

This week will be just 20-25 miles of easy runs and short tempos with 1 pace run on Wednesday.

Goal for the race is to match the time from the downhill Kaiser (1:38:54 - 7:33 pace) which is going to be a challenge. However, I'm inspired by my friend who today qualified for Boston at the Napa Marathon (3:19:39) so if he can do the whole marathon at 7:33 pace, I should be able to do half.

February Summary

So Feb is over.....

Two races, both new PRs:
-- Kaiser Half Marathon 1:38:54 (7:33 Pace)
-- Coyote Point 5k 22:22 (7:12 Pace)

Mileage
-- Ran 20 days out of 28
-- Average Run 7.0 Miles
-- Average Pace 8:22
-- Average Heart Rate 152
-- 140.1 Total Miles
-- 35.0 Average Weekly Miles
-- 38.7 Longest Week
-- 297.7 Miles 2007 To Date

Milestones
-- Crossed 1,000 total miles run
-- Started (sporadically) running 6 days/week

March Goals
-- Run 27/31 days
-- 170 miles, 39.7 miles/week, big week 41 miles
-- Half Marathon 3/11 (Goal - 1:38:54 or better)
-- 10k late March (Goal - Sub 44 minutes)

An unscheduled easy week

So I decided to listen to my body and take this week easy. 50 miles in 7 days with a cold or two really took its tool last week, so instead of plowing through doing the 45 miles I had planned I did just 30.

MONDAY was the 5k race, which should have been the 10k!
TUESDAY, I ran an easy 4.5 miles up & down the Rubicon trail in Tahoe with a friend.
WEDNESDAY, I ran the same trail again, but this time much faster and a little further. A really great workout. I really love running on snowy trails.
THURSDAY, it snowed very hard but I tried running anyway. Got about half a mile but the grips on my shoes kept getting clogged and then I'd fall on my ass. So I cut it short at just over a mile.
FRIDAY was the scheduled day off, so I followed the schedule!
SATURDAY I decided to spend the time with the kids and skipped running (first time in ages I've missed a whole workout)
SUNDAY was back to the plan. A long 16 miler with plenty of hills (1,100 feet of climbing) and a fast 3 mile section (7:45 pace). Overall pace was 8:38. This run included a 1:52 half marathon. Not bad for a long easy run!

My legs really feel good for taking the week pretty easy (except for Wed/Fri) so I think it was a smart move.

Next week should be low 40's, and then it's high 30's the week after, ending with the Shamrock'n Half Marathon in Sacramento. This is a flat course, unlike the wonderfully downhill Kaiser Half so I will be very pleased if I can match the time (1:38) but I know it's going to be tough.

Hopefully this easy week will help me somehow.

When to skip a race?

So today was the Presidents' Day 10k. Yesterday I had a complete relapse with my cold, snot streaming from everywhere. Felt like crap. This morning I didn't feel any better. Decidced to go to the race anyway.....

Got there about 8am. There is absolutely no-one around. Hmmm...... Waited a while and about 8:10 the organizer wanders up with a table and starts getting setup. Not a very convincing start. So I go wait with him to get my number. It's really cold, and the wind is blowing in off the bay. All bad signs. Maybe I should just skip this race. "No" I think, I'll be fine.

Get my number - it's 13. Maybe that's a sign?

Race starts 15 minutes late (another sign?) and off we go up and over a reasonably steep hill (not really expected on the "flat, fast course"). First half mile just over 7 min pace, second half just under. Going pretty quick (goal was 7:09) but feeling really quite bad. Can't breathe properly due to all the snot.

It was a 5K race and a 10K race on the same course and as we get towards the 5K turnaround I decice I'm just gonna do the short race (Wimp!). Only 6 people have turned so far. Runners 1-4 look really fast but runners 5-6 look like they are catchable so I turn at 2.5K and quickly catch the 6th place guy. About 4K in I get the 5th place guy and kick a little to make sure I drop him. Then it was open running for the final kilometer up and over the hill again.

Finished in 5th place overall (less than 100 runners), at 22:22. My watch measured it long at 3.18miles and a pace of 7:01. Official pace was 7:12 but a few people thought the course was long. So I was just about on pace for my 10K run, just a little short on the distance!

I think I made the right choice to cut it short, another 25 minutes unable to breathe properly was very unlikley to make me feel any better. Plus I got to set a new 5K PR.

Where the hell am I?

Today I got lost. Not completely, not "how am I am gonna get home" lost, but more sort of "if I'm running the right direction, why can I see all that stuff in the wrong direction getting closer"?

Didn't help that it was 70+ degrees (my first hot run of 2007) and the place I chose to get lost was really hilly. So what was meant to be an easy 14 miler, with a fast finish, became an ugly up/down in the sun 14 miler with a slow finish.

I really hadn't planned for 1,400 feet of climbing, which is why I went without water or food. I've read that doing some of your long runs without carbs helps the body better handle things when you run out of carbs. Water would have been fine since there are water fountains on the course I was supposed to be running about every 4 miles. Of course, or should I say "off course", they weren't there today.

I got messed up around Pagemill and Arastradero after taking some random little trail behind some monster Los Altos Hills homes, and went thru the Arastradero nature reserve, and eventually got up near Alpine road. Once I got up there and looked behind me I saw Palo Alto and Los Altos in the distance and realised what a dumbo I was. Of course, it's a long way back and it's all up and down again.

Now my legs are feeling it, especially after running over 50 miles in the last 7 days. Tomorrow is going to be a real easy 3-5 to loosen up for a 10k race on Monday morning. I'm not sure today was all that good for the race, we'll see what that does to my goal (44:30 at 7:09). At least I was smart enough to move my long run to Saturday this week.

Golden Gate Finish

Finished the first full week of February with a great 12-13 mile run in San Francisco this morning. Started a little late & slow as I was up way too late last night. Ran from North Beach, down to Aquatic Park, thru Crissy Field and the Presidio, and then out and back over the Golden Gate bridge. That really is a fabulous run - Views don't get much better than that. First 8-9 miles was at an easy 8:45 pace (except for the 10,000+ steps to get up to the bridge) and then did a fast 3 miles at 7:30 pace. Final cool down for a mile and a bit bringing me home at 12.69 miles, 8:53 pace.

Rounded off the week at 38.73 miles, a little lower than planned as I skipped the Monday run after the race last weekend. Had a couple OK tempo runs on Tues/Wed and then a good fast 7 mile pace run yesterday. No speedwork, need to get that back into the schedule somehow. All in all, a good week, especially for the week after a hard race.

Next 3 weeks should be 43, 46 and 41 miles to get me ready for the next half marathon in Sacramento on 3/11. This time there is no 2 mile downhill stretch so it's going to be tough to beat my time from Kaiser: but that's the goal, even if it's only by 1 second!

A 10k race on 2/19 (Presidents' Day) to check fitness level. Goal is 44:30 (7:09 pace) which is going to be hard. I'm not sure I'm quite that fit yet but the whole point of goals is that they should be challenging!

And Tuesday this week should take me over the 1,000 mile mark! Not bad considering I couldn't run a mile when I started this 10 months ago.