thoughts

I went out and ran 4.15 miles this morning.  It seemed fitting, given the date.  It was an easy/recovery run.  I didn't care about pace, I was just trying to enjoy the run.  I thought about the people that were at the Boston Marathon 2 years ago.  I thought how some will never be able to run again.  This run was for them, and I tried to enjoy it as much as possible.

It gave me time to also think about my goals.  One day, I want to qualify for Boston.  I have a whole lot of work ahead of me.  Until I am 35, my BQ (Boston Qualifying) time is 3:35.  That is fast, that's 8:12min/mile fast.  My goal for my next marathon is to get under 4 hours.  That's 9:09 min/miles.  I think I can do that.  Not tomorrow, but definitely in December.  I am going to work my butt off to get there.

One small hiccup in my training for this year is, that I will have about 8 weeks were I will be away working.  And my work is going to be pretty much 24 hours a day, for those 8 weeks, with little time to spare.  Time is definitely not on my side.  Every two weeks I will get a day or two off, and I can fit in a long run, however the rest on the time I will be trying to work on my speed.  I am thinking of making up workouts based on time, not distance, and use them when I can.  Every two weeks I will aim for a 10+ mile run.  But I have time,  I don't leave for work until late June.  And when I come back I still have about 3 months to fully train for the Honolulu Marathon.

And, my splits from this mornings run:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	39:47.0	4.15	9:35
1	10:11.9	1.00	10:12
2	9:27.0	1.00	9:26
3	9:20.8	1.00	9:21
4	9:23.9	1.00	9:24
5	1:23.5	0.15	9:21

trying to think of a game plan

This morning I ran my last hard workout.  6 x 400 meters.  It was tough.  I wanted to try to go at a little faster than 5k pace, so average around 7:30min/miles.  Yep.  That didn't happen.  I went too fast.  This is a real problem of mine.  Though, I am thinking I am doing ok - each repeat time was fairly consistent, and my last was faster than every other repeat.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	40:21.6	4.71	8:34
1	9:25.8	1.00	9:23
2	1:46.5	0.25	7:06
3	1:53.9	0.20	9:30
4	1:45.5	0.25	7:02
5	1:54.5	0.20	9:30
6	1:46.0	0.25	7:04
7	1:56.4	0.20	9:40
8	1:45.3	0.25	7:01
9	1:54.2	0.20	9:31
10	1:45.1	0.25	7:00
11	1:53.4	0.20	9:25
12	1:43.6	0.25	6:55
13	1:49.9	0.20	9:05
14	9:01.7	1.00	9:00

Race Plan:

I am now trying to work out with a game plan for the half marathon.  I was thinking of something like this:

• Miles 1 - 4 at a 9:00 - 9:10 min/mile
• Miles 4 - 10 at a 8:50 - 9:00 min/mile
• Miles 10 - 13.1 - keep pushing the pace

But then I think that seems so fast and crazy.  Can I do that?  It seems a little fast, but let's look at what I have done through this training cycle:

• Long runs averaging around 9:20 - 9:30min/mile.
• Pushing the last few miles of the long runs to around an 8:30min/mile
• Tempo runs around an 8:30 min/mile

But looking back through my training, I wish I had done a few more tempo runs.  I have one more coming up - a 30 minute run.  I may try and simulate the race.  Start at 9:00min/mile then push to an 8:50 and finish at around 8:30min/mile.  

Goals for this race:

1. I would love to PR - that means breaking 1:57:26.   I have trained a lot more intensely for this half than any other half I have completed.  However, I am expecting it to be humid and there is a hill.  I am ok if I don't break my PR, but I really want to!
2. Breaking 2 hours. I won't lie - I don't want to go back and be in the 2 hour range.  I have felt the feeling of being under, and I want to keep it alive!
3. Just finish without injury! This probably won't make me happy - but I guess I will have bling and will be able to learn from it for my next half.

good runs

It's been too long!

My running has been going really well.  I am consistently running, which is great.  I still struggle every morning - it takes me a while to get out of bed.  Sometimes I don't get out of bed at all - like this morning!  More often than not, I can will myself out of bed.

The count down is on, just a touch over 4 weeks until my half marathon.  I think my training is going well.  I am getting in some speedwork, tempo runs and, of course, long runs.  This weekend I will bump up my runs to 2 hours.  Hopefully that will get me close to 13 miles - though probably closer to 12.

Some highlights of my week:

My hill run!
I decided instead of a tempo that I would run up a hill close by to my house.  I started with a mile warm up, then start to climb.  I'm lucky that I have this hill, and it pretty much goes for as long as I like.  I think I got to about 1.5 miles, then turned and raced back down.  I tried to keep my legs turning as I went down.  I have heard this helps improve cadence.
My splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	44:05.3	5.00	8:49
1	9:23.1	1.00	9:23
2	9:24.6	1.00	9:25
3	9:12.3	1.00	9:12
4	7:24.6	1.00	7:25
5	8:40.7	1.00	8:41

You can tell where I was running downhill for the full mile!  7:25min/mile!!  I climbed almost 400ft too!

4 x 800m

Now, I missed my spadework on the Tuesday, so I decided to perform it on Friday, the day after my hill run.  I ran in the afternoon, after a lot of coffee during the day - I really believe this helped me out!  I was in shock with this run.  First, my watch wasn't working - it just wasn't saying the correct pace or distance.  I stopped, and reset my watch and started my run again.  I kept looking at it, thinking it was off, as my pace was too fast.  However, the distances were spot on (as I was running a normal route, where I know what mile I should be hitting and when).  

I wanted to go comfortably hard, and was aiming for around an 8:20min/mile pace.  I was shocked with the end results:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	42:28.3	5.00	8:29
1	8:39.8	1.00	8:40
2	3:55.3	0.50	7:51
3	2:32.0	0.25	10:08
4	3:50.9	0.50	7:42
5	2:27.6	0.25	9:50
6	3:44.4	0.50	7:29
7	2:28.5	0.25	9:54
8	3:43.4	0.50	7:27
9	2:22.3	0.25	9:29
10	8:44.1	1.00	8:42

The 800m splits: 7:51, 7:42, 7:29 and 7:27.  The last one hurt a little more than the others.  I did try to push myself for the last two splits.

What I am amazed with was how easy this felt.  It felt comfortable.  My recovery was done at a jog, and my warm up and cool downs were below 9 minute miles.  This is a first!   I really believe this could have something to do with the previous days hill run - maybe my legs were thinking of the downhill part!  I'm definitely adding more of those hill workouts!

Long Run

This run I did not want to do.  I was planning on going for 2 hours, then I slept in.  I then decided an hour and a half.  While I was running I thought I wanted to hit 10 miles, so I ran 5 miles to my turn around point, which made me run the other 5 miles back home!  I thought that I should do this run as a 3/1 - three quarters slow and then the final quarter at, or close to, race pace.  At the 7 mile mark I did not think I could pick up the pace.  However, my last long run I told myself that different muscles are in use.  I need to find my fast muscles and use them.

It worked - I managed to get a faster pace and hold it!  I did stop just before the final mile to stretch, as I was going to use it to cool down.  Then as I started running again I thought, 'No, I want to keep it up!'

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:31:59.4	10.00	9:12
1	9:37.7	1.00	9:38
2	9:25.6	1.00	9:26
3	9:34.0	1.00	9:34
4	9:25.6	1.00	9:26
5	9:21.2	1.00	9:21
6	9:40.3	1.00	9:40
7	9:35.6	1.00	9:36
8	8:40.1	1.00	8:40
9	8:16.5	1.00	8:17
10	8:22.9	1.00	8:22

I'm really happy with this run.  For not wanting to go, then being able to pull out 10 miles - with the last three fast, it shows what you can do if you put your mind to it!

Now for this week.  I have done 3 easy pace miles - which I ran too fast (again!) and then didn't run today - Tuesday.  It was my 4x800m day, according to my training plan, but I am thinking I will do that tomorrow morning.  Let's see if I can get out of bed!