Cal City Half Marathon

Over the past few years I've developed a routine for the Chicago Marathon. Three weeks out from the marathon, I try and pretend that it is just a regular training week. I try and convince myself that I'm not tapering for anything, and then at the end of the week, I run a small half-marathon by my house. Usually, about halfway through the week, I get lazy and decide that I really should be tapering and it's more important to get a good confidence boost from the half in a few days, so I start slacking off. This year was no exception.

For some reason , there is always someone at this race who is faster than me. When I was running a 1:21, there was some guy who would run a 1:17. When I got down to 1:17, there was a 1:14 guy there. When I got down to 1:14, the 1:12 guy started showing up. This year, I didn't know what I was capable of, and I really didn't recognize anyone who I knew could beat me. I mean it looked like there was a decent pack of fast looking guys, but no one who I knew that would beat me.

So the gun went off, with little to no warning, and we were off. My friend Dave's, pre-game pick for the winner, was out like a shot and quickly opened a nice little lead on me. I really wanted to go out slow on that first mile, but with this guy going out so hard, I lost all perspective on a decent pace, and hit the first mile in 5:13. Yikes. I'm gonna pay for that.

At that point, I knew that this guy was out of my league, and besides the goal of this race was to run strong, not win, so I from here I wanted to just settle into a nice pace and not worry about place. Not that it mattered. I was cemented in second place. I was able to get into a nice rhythm right around a 5:30 for the next bunch of miles though and was actually surprised at how fast the miles were flying by.

However, due to my completely self-defeating attitude, I kept waiting for the bonk to happen. I was pretty much in unchartered territory for the entire race. I was really closer to my historical 5K race pace than my historical half marathon race pace, so I really was unsure if I could maintain it. At every mile split, I just kept thinking, OK, if I do 6 min/miles from here on in, could I still PR? Finally around mile 7 or 8, it actually became possible to do 6 min/miles and still PR. For whatever reason that gave me some confidence, since I knew I could probably limp home and still come away with a decent time.

I can't say I ever really struggled during the race though, although miles 8-11 were the only ones that I let myself drift into the 5:40+ range. I say drift, because it was during those miles, where I just kept telling myself to get to mile 11, and then you can push as hard as you want. So I guess subconsciously, I took things easy and let the pace drift a little. Or maybe I was just tired.

I was able to recover at 11 though and got back under 5:40 for the 12th mile and ran my second fastest mile of the day (behind the insanely fast opening mile) for my last mile. I came across the line in 1:12:13, which is a PR almost 2:30. However, after checking my Garmin and many other Garmins at the race, the course was short by .15 miles. So for PR purposes, I took my average pace for the run, which was 5:34, and extrapolate (thank-you. Didn't even have to look that word up) that out to the full 13.1 miles which gives me a PR of 1:12:58. Also, my 10K & 10 mile split both blew away my previous PRs at those distances, but I guess I'll wait for a real race to update those PRs.

Here are the splits from the race:

I'll Take It

Not a bad week, but nothing too great either. Recovery from Dances with Dirt was the main goal early on in the week and then the latter part of the week was spent trying to fit in some runs around an out of town wedding. I got the miles in which is all you can ask for sometimes. This is how last week went down:

Mon: 7 Miles Recovery from DWD
TuesAM: 9 Miles 6:38 Pace
TuesPM: 7 Miles
Wed: 17 Miles 6:21 Pace (last 8 around 6 pace)
Thur: 7 Miles
Fri: 21 Miles 6:41 pace
SatAM: 12 Miles 7:30 pace
SatPM: 10 Miles
Sun: 10 Miles Wedding Recovery Pace (Read: SLOW)

Total: 100 Miles in 9 Runs

Over the weekend, I took a look at my shoes and noticed that the bottoms were completely worn down to the point where there is hardly any tread left on them. That made me start thinking about how long I've had this current pair of shoes. I racked my brain and realized that my wife bought them for me as an early fathers day present, and that I actually wore these shoes for the Sunburst Marathon (which I dropped out of half-way through due to bad pacing).

So today I went back and looked at my log and realized that I've run over 1200 miles since then, and all but probably 30 of those miles were done in these shoes. Yikes. No wonder I've been noticing more and more pebbles during my runs. I can actually feel them through the shoe. I think now would probably be a good time to make that last marathon race day shoe purchase.

Catching Up

The Dances with Dirt race was a blast this past weekend. I ran 3 legs of 6, 4.5, and 4 miles each. The first and last legs were on good trail with lots and lots of hills. The middle had some nice trails for the first 3 miles and then river crossings and mud jumping the for the last 1.5 miles. The middle leg was definitely the most fun I've had running in a long time. I was literally covered from head to toe in mud when I finished. When else does a grown man get to cover himself in mud and run around a forest in broad daylight? For me, this is my only chance at it.

Surprisingly, I recovered pretty quickly from the race. I was able to do 7 slow miles on Sunday to finish out the week and while my quads and hamstrings were sore, it wasn't the deep soreness that you usually feel after a marathon. I was fairly confident that if I took it easy the next few days, things would be back to normal by Tuesday or Wednesday. Monday was another slow 7 miler followed by a Cubs game in the afternoon. Miracles of miracles, they actually routed the Cardinals in the game and retook first place in the weak central division. Unfortunately, that first place standing didn't last very long, but I digress.

Yesterday I was thinking I was going to do 17 miles, but I woke up in the morning still feeling a little sore and very tired, so I decided to postpone the 17 one more day. Since this will be one of the last 17 milers I do before the marathon, I really wanted to nail it, so I wanted to make sure I didn't have any excuses if I struggled on it. So instead I did a 9 miler in the morning at a comfortable 6:38 pace and another 7 miles in the afternoon.

That left me with the 17 miler this morning. I woke up this morning to unseasonably cool weather. I think it was in the 40's when I started running and probably warmed up to the mid 50's by the time I was done. This weather is crazy. Last week I was complaining about how humid it was, and now I'm running in long sleeves and gloves OK, maybe the long-sleeves was a bit of overkill, but hey, I was cold when I headed out the door. I was feeling pretty good for the first half of the run, and was somewhat surprised to see the overall pace at 6:43. To be honest I thought it would be faster than that. However, I comforted myself with the fact that I was feeling very comfortable and the second half of the run is done almost entirely on the lakefront path where it's easier to run fast than it is on the city streets.

Once I hit that lakefront path, I seemed to hit a second gear. The last half of the run had mile splits as follows: 6:04, 6:08, 6:03, 5:58, 5:57, 6:02, 5:58, 5:58. Surprisingly, I was feeling pretty comfortable the entire time too, although I really do think that 5:53's may be a bit ambitious for marathon pace. To be honest, I would be thrilled with anything under 6. To say that I ran a marathon at a sub 6 pace would be pretty awesome, and something that I never thought I'd be able to achieve as recently as 2 years ago. Oh man. Am I starting with the contingency goals already? I usually am able to hold off on that stuff until at least the taper.

Last week by the numbers:

Mon: Off
Tues: 7 Miles (failed tempo run)
WedAM: 8 Miles
WedPM: 7 Miles
ThursAM: 9 Miles w 4 @ 5:53
ThursPM: 7 Miles
Fri: 13 miles @ 6:48 pace
Sat: Dances With Dirt Race, 18 Miles total
Sun: 7 Miles

Total: 76 Miles in 8 runs

Refreshing

Now that I know Mike is watching my post titles, I figured I'd better make this one a positive one. No actually, this was one of the easier runs I've had in a while. It was 13 miles starting out slow and gradually increasing the pace. I had to meet one of my relay teammates to drop off some registration paperwork for the big race tomorrow, and he came with me for the first 3+ miles of the run.

It was nice to have some company for the run and the first few miles flew by around a 7:30 pace. Once he turned around to head back home, I was by myself and while I didn't feel like I was picking up the pace, the pace slowly headed down towards 7 min mile and when I finished the 13, it had come all the way down to 6:48. I finished feeling as fresh as I have all week. It was exactly what I needed today.

Tomorrow is Dances With Dirt, which is sort of a Woodstock for runners. There are 300+ 5 member teams and the running is just insane. Hills, Water, and Mud is pretty par for the course, no matter which legs you run. Now if I could just stay on the course this year instead of running 10 miles off of it, I will be just fine.

What Happened?

I'll admit, I'm a bit torn about what I should do next. This week has been a struggle right from the start. On Monday, despite having the day off from work for Labor Day, was just a complete waste of a day as far as running was concerned. My wife was gone for most of the day at an art fair, and mercifully, I got to stay home with the kids. As the day wore on, a general weariness just continued to overtake my body and by the time my wife got home, I was in no mood for a run or much of anything, so I took the day off.

On Tuesday, I tried to do my regular 11 mile run with 8 miles at marathon pace, but quit after a mile and half at pace. I was having a real hard time keeping my breathing under control and was working entirely too hard to maintain even a 6 min pace. Yesterday I started to feel a little better, but decided not to push it and did two easy runs of 8 and 7 miles. Finally today, I did a 9 mile run in the morning with 4 miles at marathon pace of 5:53. It felt OK, but again, not as easy as it should have. The afternoon run of 7 miles was about as good as I've felt in some time.

At this point, I'm not sure what the problem is. I had a good week of training last week, so I'm not sure where this inability to run at a sub 6 pace really came from. I'm hoping it just has to do with the heat that has been back this week. To top things off, I have a 5 man relay race that I'm running on Saturday that usually leaves me pretty wiped out for a few days afterwards. With only 4 weeks until the marathon, I really can't afford to have 2 off weeks in a row, so I'm hoping that this general fatigue will pass as quickly as it arrived. At this point, I don't think I'm going to back off the miles too much. Hopefully, this week of shorter runs will allow me to bounce back quickly. However, if things continue like they have for the past few days, I may have no choice but to back off even more.

And A Child Shall Lead You...

I must admit, on Friday morning I was really feeling the hard effort from Thursday morning. The legs were sore, particularly in the quad area. I took the morning run pretty slow clocking the 9 miles at a 6:55 pace. The afternoon run of 7 miles was somewhat rushed and while I didn't have a watch on to time it, it felt quicker than the morning run. We got out of work at 2PM in preparation for the Labor Day weekend, which turned out to be a good thing, since by the time I got home I was absolutely wiped out. I'm not sure why fatigue decided to overtake me today, but it did. I spent the rest of the day trying to be productive, but in reality I spent the better part of the afternoon curled up on the couch.

Saturday morning I was supposed to meet my friend Dave out at the lake front for 20 miles with 15 of them at his planned race pace of 6:07. Unfortunately, I found out early Saturday morning that he was coming down with the flu so the tandem run was canceled. I found this out at about 6:15AM and the smart thing to do would have been to head out right then to knock out the 20 miler, but I'm not a smart man. Instead, I headed right back upstairs to try and catch a few more minutes of sleep until Ryan woke up. Once the kids were up, I went with Chloe to her first soccer practice (she was by the far the most talented 4 year old on the field - and yes I'm VERY biased) and finally got back home with Ryan around 11AM. Kelly was going to be gone with the other two kids for at least another hour, so I decided I would head out for at least the first couple of miles with Ryan in the jogging stroller and then drop him off at the house when I knew Kelly would be home.

So I did my normal 7 mile loop, but then when I was just completing the loop, I looked in the stroller and Ryan was sleeping. OK, I'll do another loop. So I did. The another. And another. Next thing I knew, I was coming up on 13 miles and Ryan was dozing in and out, but enjoying himself the whole time. At that point, I decided to just finish the thing out and did one more loop which brought me back to my house at 18 miles. I'll admit, I was wiped out. I've never gone more than 10 miles with the jogging stroller, and it was definitely working the quads more a regular long run would. Plus, since I was planning on being back at the house after the initial 7 miles, I didn't have any water with me so I was a pretty dehydrated.

I did a quick drop of the babe and finished up with a quick 2 miles to bring the total for the day to 20 miles. I averaged a 7:02 pace for the exercise, but it was a well-earned 7:02. Most of the run was done on single track trail and manuevering that jogging stroller was not easy for a lot of it. In looking at my splits when I finished up, the more technical trail parts were done in the mid 7's while the straight miles were done closer to the mid 6's. While I probably would have been better served to do the planned 20 miles with 15 at 6:07 pace, I'm not unhappy with how things turned out. If nothing else, I think I got a little stronger with this run.

When I headed out on Sunday for a planned 10 miler, I noticed right from the beginning that the legs just weren't there. I quickly realized that I did absolutely nothing to restore the undoubtedly depleted glycogen stores after yesterday's long run. I had a salad and a hamburger for dinner, and very little on Sunday morning prior to the run. I made the decision to cut the run short at 7 miles and did wind up averaging 6:38. All in all, it was a pretty good week:

Monday: 11 Miles with 8 @ 5:53 pace
Tues: 15 Miles @ 6:39 pace
WedAM: 9 Miles 7:09 Pace
WedPM: 7 Miles
ThursAM: 9 Miles w 5 X 1mile (5:18, 5:15, 5:17, 5:17, 5:18)
ThursPM: 7 Miles
FriAM: 9 Miles @ 6:55 Pace
FriPM: 7 Miles
Sat: 20 Miles @ 7:03 Pace (18 with Jogging Stroller in tow)
Sun: 7 Miles @ 6:38 Pace
Total: 101 Miles in 10 runs