March 3rd, 2012 § § permalink
As part of my training plan for Grandma’s Marathon, I want to run a half marathon a little over a month out. Grandma’s is on June 16th, so I would prefer to race one of the first two weeks of May–sometime between May 5th and May 13th. That would give me a week to recover, one last long run and then taper city.
I like the idea of doing a half around that time for a couple of reasons. First, it will be my best speed workout for the marathon. I’m not planning on doing any sort of track work only some tempo work so running 13.1 miles at a faster pace will be a challenging workout. Second, I’m hoping it will help me gauge a reasonable pace for the marathon. As I said, I’ve got a goal time set (3:29:59) but that’s flexible depending on how my training goes–if I need to adjust, I will and running a half 5-6 weeks will provide an indication of where I’m at. I won’t do any half-specific training so it’ll be interesting how it goes.
I haven’t decided what half marathon I’m going to do but I’ve basically narrowed it down to three.
The big draw to Eau Claire is that I lived in the area for close to 20 years & still consider it home. So I know the course–looking at the map, I can visualize exactly where it is going, places I have run for decades.
The downside is I would have to travel a bit–it is only a 2 hour drive & I’ve got a sister (Hi Beans!) or a sister-in-law that I could probably bunk with if needed. The price is a little high at $65 right now (if I had been more decisive and registered before the end of last year, I could have gotten in for only $40).
I have not run this race before (this is the third year) but I think it is put on by the same organizers that did the Tour de Eau Claire which was a well-organized race in its one year of existence. The course is not overly hilly although I see a few in there including the steep entrance back into Carson Park during the final mile. Last year over a 1,000 runners ran this race with 300 more doing the full marathon, which was run at the same time.
I ran this race last year and while there were some unusual problems for a well-established race, it was still a well-organized race overall.
The fact that I ran it last year and can compare time make this my default race for this year. The course has some moderate hills, there were around 2,000 finishers last year. It’s a simple 45 minute drive for me and the current price is $55 now. One of the small bonuses is that the Minnesota Pacers will be there–I’ve considered trying to be a pacer with them but have hesitated because I don’t know what it entails. So I would like the opportunity to see them in action again.
This is another established race that I have not run. It has a good reputation and I believe has some rolling hills (a positive). The Minnesota Pacers will also be here. It is probably about a 45-60 minute drive and the price is right, $40 (I can get in for $35 through tomorrow using their Facebook code).
I like idea of running a race I haven’t tried before but this is a week later than I would ideally like, it would mean probably running my final long run seven days after doing a training race. I could logistically do both this race and one of the other two but that is getting away too much from my main focus unless I use it as an aided training run & tack on a few extra miles before or after.
The ability to compare year over year gives Lake Minnetonka the lead this year–the numbers geek in me finds that very appealing from an analytical point of view although I already plan to run the Ron Daws 25k in early April so I’ll have that as a measuring stick. If New Prague was a week earlier, it would be a stronger contender. Eau Claire is the one I would do if I just picked one on its own merits and not part of a larger plan.
Any suggestions or recommendations? Anyone run any of these before?
February 2nd, 2012 § § permalink
I just posted a little bit of an update on how my running is going but with January just completed, I want to take a fuller look.
source
I ended up running 124 miles even in January, not sure actually how that compares to my plan but I know I only missed one workout and that was because something came up at work. I was going to make it up during the first week of February but on my last run of January, I twisted my knee a bit on some snow-covered trails and have taken the last two days off. I don’t think it is anything major but want to give it some extra time to heal.
I have also gotten my long run up to 13.5 miles. For comparison’s sake, I didn’t do a 10-miler last year until late February and the first time I did 13+ was April 2nd at the Ron Daws 25K so I’m feeling good about where I am. Still have a lot of work to do but think I’m on track for Grandma’s.
I wasn’t as diligent about attacking my gut but have taken some action the last week or so. I have been more aware of the amount that I eat and I’ve mostly avoided bingeing when I get home from work. I am also trying to take advantage of two plus hours I spend driving and do some abdominal clenching, might not be the best exercise but feels I’m doing something, only wish I could breathe as I do them.
In totally non-running news, my family got 3 pounds of furry fun. Since I’m the one that generally walks the dog, I’ve been reluctant to get a second one. But we stopped at the pet store to get fish food for my wife’s classroom and ended up with a Cairn Terrier (the same breed that Toto from The Wizard of Oz was) .
Toby Zoe is a puppy so she is a little nippy. And she leaves puddles (especially when I pet her). She whines a little when she is in her kennel. She was small enough to walk under our miniature schnauzer. And she is hilarious when shes runs with her tiny legs. Once she is parasite-free, she is going to spend days in my wife’s classroom.
January 12th, 2012 § § permalink
Last week I posted my running goals for 2012 without much explanation.
Well, I can either sit around in my underwear and watch The Big Bang Theory or I can actually write something for this blog (also while sitting around in my underwear). While the goals themselves are pretty straight-forward, I want to explain my motivations.
First, I’m gonna man-up and take ownership. I was pussy-footing around about running a marathon. Well that’s bull-shit. I am going to run Grandma’s Marathon on June 16th, 2012. There, I said it.
I hesitated to actually commit to this because I was not sure if I was willing to properly training for it. I have run one marathon before–Grandma’s 2000–and while I didn’t die, I went into it under-trained and struggled in the second half–I went through mile 16 in about 2:14:29 (8:24 pace). From there on, though, I struggled and ran/walked the final 10.2 at 10:22 pace, finishing in 4:00:14 (watch time).
To confess, while I was happy and proud that I finished, it was not a life-changing accomplishment for me. I guess having started running at 14, I just assumed that I would be able to do it if I tried–I had run as far as 16 miles before I started training for the marathon so I just had the mentality that I just needed to run longer.
I was not even disappointed in how the second half went–I knew I was under-trained. I had some more important things going on in my life (we were expecting our first child and my mother-in-law, who lived 5 hours away, was dying of cancer) and battled a cranky ITB during training so I did not have extremely unrealistic expectations. Although when I went through the half in about 1:50, I started to think I might run a 3:40-ish. Ha!
And while those final 14 seconds lingered in the back of my mind, I did not care enough to do anything about them. Although every time I told another runner I had run a marathon, I had to confess that those 14 blasted seconds existed.
But I thought I was content running 10 to 13.1 milers–those are great distances to race. They are long enough to be an endurance event but short enough that I can, if I want, jump into one if I’m in any sort of shape and not have to worry about being able to finish.
But then as I started to re-connect with other runners and I heard about their marathon experiences, I got the itch to try 26.2 again. Not sure when the I gave in-in August I was still saying I did not plan on running a marathon. But since September, I have run a 10-miler nearly every weekend “in case” I decided to train for a marathon. I am not only going to train for & finish a marathon but I’m going to run a marathon.
So I am starting my training. I have sketched out my plan, I have penciled-in a couple of practice races and I am going to do it. This coming weekend, I up my long run to 12 miles. I plan on doing 16 by the end of February.
And I am setting an aggressive time goal, 3:29:59. That is about what the race predictors say I should be able to run but considering I am a recycled Marathon Virgin, it should be pretty difficult.
Not sure how these old legs are gonna hold up, but I’m hoping for the best. And I’m sure I’ll bore you with some of the boring specifics.
