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September 20 Air Force Marathon Race Report (RR) ... BQ!Quick Summary ... Time: 3:41 and BQ, 7/74 AG, 37/516 Gender, 336/2012 OA Jordan was born in December and in January I signed up for the Air Force marathon as a motivator to get back to my pre-pregnancy speed and weight. My original goal was just to finish and maybe break 4 hours. As the months of training passed my speed came back quicker than I thought or could have even imagined and my predictors starting saying sub 3:20 for a marathon. The week of the marathon I'd been sick with a head/sinus cold and cough and was starting to look at back up options. I went to the expo on Fri and talked with the folks at the pacer teams and was debating whether to go out with the 3:30 or 3:20 pace group. The 3:20 lead (Roger) wasn't there but I did talk with the 3:30 pace lead and talked over my situation with him and he thought that 3:20 would be doable. So I took the 3:20 pace band and thought I'd see what the morning would bring. I was still coughing in the morning (and did for the first 3 miles) but for the most part didn't think it would affect my run too much. I warmed up and did all of the usual pre-race stuff and then went to find the 3:20 pace group. I introduced myself to him and said that I'd be running with him and when I asked him who else was running with him he really didn't know, maybe that should have been my first warning sign. I've never run with a pace group before and won't ever again. I don't need a pacer to keep even pacing, I'm really good at that, what I needed was a pacer to keep me from going out too fast and so that I wouldn't need to concetrate on my watch/splits, I could just focus on running. I'd used a pacer/friend on my 1.5 mi military physical fitness test once and it was great and was the only reason I was using a pacer for this race. So, the times I'm going to list are hindsight from my garmin because I was truly relying on the pacer to go out in even splits which was also new to me. I've always had success with negative splits, not even and not positive splits. Based on what the other pace teams were telling me and what was written on the marathon website I was thinking that Roger would run even splits. Ok, so the ugly ... it won't take someone with much more than novice running experience to see the errors (our target was supposed to be 7:38). Mile 1 7:36 2 7:29 (huge hill) 3 7:01 4 7:20 5 7:21 6 7:24 7 7:27 ..... Roger took us out at 3:13 pace .... not only did he not take it easy the first few miles he didn't even hit our target split one time! I think I started to feel it over the next mile or two and started looking at my pace band and the clock (the race course had a clock at every mile) and saw that we were almost 3 minutes ahead of pace. He took us out at what would normally be close to my half marathon pace! Again, all of this is hindsight as I didn't know what pace we were running just that I thought we might be going a little fast. I made it through the half after letting the pace group go in 1:38:27 (Roger went through it in 1:37:12). Knowing now that we went out way too fast for marathon pace it's a no wonder and makes sense why I felt the wall at 12 miles. I pushed on through mile 13 and then knew that the rest of the race was going to be a death march. The miles went oh so slowly as I ran for 1/2/3/4/5 minutes when I could and walked for 30 sec/1 min and repeated for the rest of the race. I knew the last two miles of the course and knew where the downhill portion was so I ran to the bottom and then walked and then a friend of mine caught up with me. I looked at him and just knew as bad as I was feeling he was feeling worse. Because if I was that far off my goal pace he was that much further because he's a pretty fast runner and was targeting a sub 3:10. We ran/walked the rest of the way as we chatted when we were walking, both in a lot of pain. I had one HUGE bright spot that I could focus on ... Andrew and I arranged to have Jordan waiting for me to take with me through the finish line. I came around the last corner and spotted them right away as Andrew hoisted Jordan in the air and I picked her up and jogged the last 1-2 minutes to the finish line with her in my arms ... kissing her head and thankful it was over and to be holding her, with tears welling up in my eyes. I was soooo proud of myself for not quitting, it would have been warranted and everyone would have understood and I doubt anyone would blame me given the fast start and being sick. But, I really showed myself what I'm made of and that I'm not a quitter ... sizu!! While I didn't make my goal time of 3:20, I'm still extremely proud of my effort given the circumstances. I know ... long report ... a good lesson here is ... pace groups are ok, just be ready, willing and mindful that they are human and only you have your best interest at heart since you know yourself the best. (Oh and Roger finished in 3:21:48, so he ran the second half 7 minutes slower than the first half ... I'm guessing he was hurting too). Here's the pic of Jordan and me finishing the race ...  Thanks for reading Amie August 26 Intramurals begin again ...Intramurals started up again this week. Again the first week was a two mile run to get back into the groove. I had just done the Crim 10 miler on Sat so I wasn't sure what to expect. The runs start at 1130 which in the spring isn't too bad but in the fall ... it's hot. It was 80 deg and the sun was overhead. The race director showed up late to boot which meant even a slightly warmer starting temp.
I warmed up aggressively before the start again like I did at the 10 mile race which seemed to work. I started off and just found a groove that I thought I could maintain in the heat. I was a little worried when I passed a really good runner that has always run faster than me. I figured the groove felt good so I would just go with it. I ended up with a 12:44 (6:26 pace, the course was actually 1.98 mi)!! I thought 14 something would be ok given the recent race and the heat but that I'd prefer 13 something. Then I found the groove, didn't look at the garmin just ran and was happy to see 12 something.
Back in March I ran 14 something in much better wx so I'm really happy with this run. I even felt like I could have pushed more but there really wasn't an incentive to do so when balanced with the risk of injury/over doing it. I did the race recently and I have a 22 mi run or so coming up on Sat so I figured the steady effort was good enough. The split paces were 6:24 and 6:28, the second mile shows the loss of a couple of seconds due to the 180 deg turn around (it was an out and back course).
I actually placed 11th OA out of 81 runners which is my best placing since doing the intramurals and was the 1st female OA by almost two minutes I think.
Well ... an easy run tomorrow and then a long run on Saturday and then it's taper time!! May 23 Just amazed/surprised ...Running journal entry ...
I ran another 5k this morning, the wx was warm but not as hot as the Panerathon 5k back at the end of April. I ran 14 miles last Sun and ran a 10k course with a five minute hill on Tuesday at a comfortably hard pace. I didn't worry about nutrition or hydration coming into today so the background is just that I went out and ran it without too many expectations. I went out at 7:05 pace for the first mile and then slowed down at several points during the race which was over a hilly course. The last part of the race was at a 7:05 pace again so I know I had more in me. My overall pace ended up being 7:13, for a 22:24 overall time, yeah!! I ended up placing 1st/14 age group, 3rd/99 overall women, 17th/192 overall. It's nice to be back regularly in the top 10%. The part that I'm amazed about is that in 7 weeks time I've cut almost 2 minutes off of my 5k time. I've been doing the Tues intramural runs but not racing them per se but running comfortably hard. So really I haven't done much in the way of true speed work. I've been focusing on my stamina and endurance. I've done some hill work and some long runs with mile repeats at 5K+45 sec pace. I'm still running 4 times per week. I haven't done XT for the last 2-3 weeks though due to an ab strain that I'm letting heal. I should be back to XT in another week. As long as I run next week's scheduled runs I'll be over 100 total miles for the month! That's a first in a while, keeping in mind that I used to run closer to 200 miles per month just 2 1/2 years ago. Apr 4th 24:14 (7:49) Apr 25th 23:38 (7:36) May 23rd 22:24 (7:13) Jul 4th ?? (?:??) What's interesting too is that I pushed harder on the 4th than I did today. The other thing to note is to trust the training, it seems to be working!! March 17 St Patrick's Day 5K<<<<Running post, skip to next post to see more of Grant
 >>>>>>>It's been a while since I've posted about running, I'm still running but have been keeping it in my log in excel. I usually write-up a post-race post so that I can learn from past experiences and of course, continue to be "runningsmarter."
The base has 5k races periodically and today's race was in honor of St. Patrick's day. I didn't do too much of anything special before the run except do a short 1/2 mi warmup and a few stretches. My goal was to run a comfortably hard pace and try to keep it steady throughout. I lined up about a third of the way back from the front so that I could keep an eye on the other ladies running and possibly pass them as time went on. The gun went off and I quickly noticed after the first hundred yards and things settled down that there were four ladies in front of me. After about a half mile and a steady pace, I moved passed two of the ladies. After about another third of a mile I passed another lady. At this point, there was one lady left about 10-15 yards ahead of me. I figured I would just try to keep the distance from growing between us and at the half way point she was only about 5 yards ahead. After about another 1/2 mile I caught up with her and passed her and then ran the last mile in the lead (for the women) and through the finish line and finished in 21:30! I came in first and met my goal of keeping the pace steady and comfortably hard. I wasn't ready to go all out just yet. Before Grant arrived, I was able to just break the 20 min barrier, so I am very happy with the progress on getting back there.
I'm not where I was when I first started to get more serious about running and I'm not yet back to my faster self just before Grant. I'm somewhere in between and very happy about it! I definitely feel stronger now than I have for the last few months so I am looking forward to making even greater strides over the coming months.
I'm not going to go back to the marathon distance just yet since before Grant I was running close to a 3:08 time and I won't be back there for a little while longer. So in the mean time, I'm going to continue to work on my base and speed (not at the same time though!) and set some interim goals along the way. August 12 First phase done ...Well this blog was originally for me to use as a journal for my running. If you're visiting to read about Grant, you can click on the upper corner and get just pages on Grant. At the six week point after Grant arrived I got the ok to run again from the doc and so I started running 3 miles (oooh was it hard the first run back). I gradually built things up to running 5 and 6 miles. After stressing out about the end of last quarter classes, breastfeeding, traveling, running and not getting enough calcium (my diagnosis) I eventually got a mild case of shin splints. I realized that I was quickly reaching my max performance wise because I needed work on my core strength and I still needed to lose a few pounds from the pregnancy before I could truly start training hard again to include true speed work. I found this program called P90X, it's a 90 day core workout program using resistance bands, plyometrics, yoga, kenpo, and stretching. There are weekly plans with 3 weeks hard and 1 week recovery. I just finished the first 3 weeks and can already tell my core strength has improved. What's cool too is that you perform a series of exercises before you start the program and then again at the end of the 90 days. I can already tell that I can beat my pre-program numbers. It's tough not running but like the weblog says, I know I'm doing the "smarter" thing for the long run. May 01 Running in the heat ...Ran 5 mi on Sun, temp was 82 degrees and sunny! It was a pretty good run considering the wx conditions. I can definitely feel some progress compared to my first run after Grant's arrival. I have to remember to take it slow which I've been doing so far. I want to go right back to where I left off but I'm not ready for that yet. In time. Patience my young Jedi you must have ... April 24 First 5k in a while ... "fun run" ...On Sat I ran in my first 5k in a loooong time. I'm still building my base and am only running easy short runs at this point.
I thought it would be fun to run with a group and run a little harder than easy, I ended up running at ~ 8:00 min pace (~24:50 time) and am proud of myself for not pushing to hard. It was hard not to run hard like I normally would for a 5k but all in due time. I actually managed to get 3rd place in my age group and won a medal and a $10 gift certificate to Dick's sports.
Today I ran a 4 miler with walk breaks at the 1.25 and 2.5 mi points. I also incorporated 6x15 step strides. I was previously taking walk breaks after each mile so this is the next step in extending my running endurance. I'll probably stay here for a couple weeks (2) and then increase it to 1.5 miles, we'll see. Since I am still losing a little weight (another 8-9 lbs), I figure it is nicer on my musculo-skeletal system if I ease back into the impact of running the longer distances (40-50 mi per week). I've done some of the runs continuously but I have to remind myself that it's better to come back slowly than to try to do too much too fast. April 01 Runs are getting stronger ...I can still remember how hard that first run was and am very glad that each subsequent run has gotten a little easier. Todays run was even better, 4 mi, 8:30 avg. Now that I think about it, that's even better than some of my runs when I was at Edwards (whenever I wasn't running regularly). I think I'll stick to running 3 times a week for this first month back at it, and continue including pilates on alternate days along with some calisthenics (sp).
Some lessons learned for next time: When I stop running late in the pregnancy, I'll need to continue working with weights for the legs, especially the inner thigh and hamstrings. I'll also work upper body, nothing too strenuous, just heavy enough for toning. For the most part though, I'm happy with my level of fitness during my pregnancy and afterwards. I am happy with myself for not pushing too hard too soon and being patient and trusting that I'll get back to where I was before the pregnancy. March 11 Taking it easyI'm proud of myself for taking it easy after Grant arrived. I know in good time I'll be back to running my old paces and even faster but I need to work back to where I was before.
In week 4 post-pregnancy (PP), I took Grant out for a walk in his stroller for 1.5 miles (~30 min). I also did some gentle stretching.
In week 5 I took Grant out twice in the baby bjorn and once in the stroller, walking the same 1.5 mile loop around the neighborhood. Today during the walk with the stroller I also incorporated some easy calisthenics and stretching.
I'm looking forward to incorporating some pilates along with walking next week (week 6 PP) and will probably venture out for my first run in week 7 PP.
I'm hoping to contain my enthusiasm as I get back to running and not run any speed works out during this first quarter back at school which is 10 weeks long. Some pickups and fartleks will be ok, but no true speed workouts. I really just want to work on getting back in shape and work on my base. After this quarter, it should be perfect timing to start my 12 week training program for the Air Force Half Marathon. I'm looking forward to having Grant close to the finish line and picking him up to cross the actual finish line. It's pretty neat since I ran it last year with him ... he was easier to carry since he was a lot lighter and inside of me at the time :P Belated RR ... Air Force Half Marathon 2006Excerpted from my report on coolrunning ...
It's been crazy moving back from Germany and finding a house and starting school again. Somehow I have managed to hit PR running months for Jun, Jul and Aug leading up to the Air Force Half Marathon.
Back in May I was hoping to come in the top 3 overall for the women since in recent years the winning time was around 1:27 and I was hoping if my training went well I had a good shot at running that time. The day was a great day for running, the Air Force Marathon / Half Marathon is held in Dayton Ohio on an Air Force Base called Wright-Patterson. The HM course has a steady climb in the beginning and towards the end and gently rolling in between. I decided to start off slow and try to keep it relaxed so I started with the 2 Hr pace team for the first 2 -3 miles. The pace seemed a little uncomfortable so I decided to just run at my normal training run pace (~8:10-15). I said good-bye to a friend that I was running with and moved ahead. Around the half way point I ran into another friend and we ran together for a mile or two together. He was funny because he kept asking me questions to keep me talking and then chuckled because he said he was trying to get me tired out The next three miles I slowly picked it up but always maintained a comfortable pace. In the last 2-3 miles I ran into a guy from the Tennessee Guard and we chatted for the rest of the way. We picked it up a little more in the last mile. I crossed the finish line in 1:42:26 (7:49) with the following stats: So you might have noticed that I didn't make my 1:27 goal from back in May ... well .... as it turned out, the day after I did my first speed work session in prepping for this race I found out DH and I were expecting our first DS or DD!!!!!!! So, my training went from true training to just jogging. And my new goal for the HM was to just enjoy the experience and hopefully run under 2 hours at an easy pace. I was really shocked at my new PR!!! That is ... a PR running for 2!! And ... we found out recently that we are having a DS I'm still thinking of you all!! Please understand if I'm not on the board too frequently. Things will be crazy for a while. Who knew going back to school would be so time consuming. July 06 June ... a PR mileage monthI've been slacking on the updates...avg'ing about 1 a month.
Two months in a row ... i ran everyone run that i had scheduled!! Wow!! In June i even added a couple of miles and in the end I ran a PR # of miles (180) which was a PR by 15 miles. So far July is going really well too but July is only 6 days old so far.
Ran 8 mi today and ran it as a fartlek run in the middle. Ran around wesslingersee, 6x2 min faster with 2 min in between 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, ... because of a hill there was a 4 min break between 2&3 and 4&5 ... but there was a hill so it wasn't too much of a break. Overall probably ~8:05 (or slightly faster).
The majority of my runs lately have been without a garmin/mp3 player/watch. I'm sticking to routes that I know the distance and Ive really been trying to run by feel and keep it easy when it's an easy day and run by effort on faster sessions. I did run on the seefeld track on mon to get an idea of how my pace was and for a 8 mi general run the pace was 8:12.
I'm sticking with alternating 40 and 45 mile weeks. It seems to be working but we'll see. My last 2 half marathon training periods I averaged 37 and 36 miles per week over the 12 weeks so I'm hoping to increase that by 5 or 6 miles per week this time. June 08 General RunsBeen feeling really good lately. I ran 7 miles on Tues and today (thur) one second per mile apart. Same effort but on Tue I did 5x50 step strides! Interesting what the same effort will produce on different days.
I also ran 8 mi yesterday at the same or slightly greater effort in Garmisch and avg'd 7:56 (1:03:29). Again it's interesting about the pacing. The runs on Tue/Thur were on the same out and back course that has a few hills. The course on Wed was mostly flat which made for a 12-13 sec per mile difference.
Will continue with base building. I'm actually where I want to be and will just maintain this volume until AF HM trng begins on 26 Jun. May 31 First Tempo run in a whileSince starting running again after the Boston break, things have been going more or less smoothly so far (knock on wood). I actually managed to run every single run on my schedule!!! Don't know when I've ever done that! I ran 140.23 miles for the month of May which was mostly base building miles but I also managed some strides, a fartlek, and a tempo run.
I ran my first tempo run in a while today. 7 mi, 54:00 total and ran 3/2.5/1.5 warmup/tempo/cooldown at the following paces 8:09/7:02/8:02. I ran by feel and what I thought a tempo run should be run but figured ~7:00 was the target. I ran comfortably and didn't want to push too hard since this was the first speed-like type of workout this training period. I also started at a little less distance so that I could ease into it. I still have 3 1/2 weeks of base building before the training phase starts for the AF HM.
Interesting looking over my past two HM training periods. I also started out with the first tempo run @ 2.5 mi and the time progression was as follows: 7:24, 7:13, 7:02. I didn't try to do it, but it ended up that my improvement from the 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd training periods was exactly the same. I improved each time by 11 seconds. Just thought it was interesting especially since I ran by feel and actually thought I could run faster but didn't so as to not over do it at the beginning. Also interesting is that at the end of the trng period, my pace for the HM was 13 to 14 seconds faster than my initial tempo run pace. We'll see, I'm not going to focus on a specific time goal just yet as that was what got me into trouble in the past. BUT, I am on track with the McMillan pace for a tempo run based on my last HM (assumed pace). May 02 I'm baaack :)Well, I did it!!! Probably not so hard for some but really hard for others. I made it 2 WEEKS without running! I promised myself and my knees that I would not run for 2 weeks after Boston to let everything heal from the Boston race and the injuries prior to it.
I did manage to get some cross-training with a couple of bike rides, walking, and pilates.
Today I ran 5 miles in 41:47 and my warm-up mile was around 8:25 (yeah) though it felt like a 9:00 pace. Ran around Wesslingersee ~8:25 avg first half and ~8:15 avg second half. No pick-ups, will wait until next week.
Now it's on to training for the Air Force Half Marathon on 16 Sep! Let the training begin! April 21 Boston Marathon and Boomer Sightings ...Posted on Coolrunning/Boomer Forum
Boston, Boston, Boston, what can I say other than … been there, run that  … at least that's what my t-shirt says.
It was fantastic meeting all of the boomers!! Definitely a highlight of the whole experience. Up until Jan (so fr May 05 to Jan 06) I hadn't planned on running Boston. I was happy to have qualified but figured I'd run it eventually. Then there was so much talk on coolrunning and the thought of running Boston because I could was getting to me. DH and I talked about it and figured if there were cheap flights to Boston then we would go, well, we found cheap tickets and were able to stay with family and friends so we decided to go! I decided to treat it as a fun run and as a "scouting" run for when I would come back and try to run it fast some day. My main goal race remained a half marathon in Lisbon Portugal 3 weeks prior to Boston. Training for the HM went really well, unfortunately though, I took a wipe-out in Lisbon at around the 5k mark and didn't get to finish and in so doing banged up both knees pretty good. Because of this, I didn't get to do much running in the three weeks b/t Lisbon and Boston and tried to walk the line between getting some running in but not over doing it with the bum knees. The day came (Sat) to leave for the states and when we went to check in, DH had left his passport at home! A little drama for a little while but the folks at British Airways were great and long story short, he made the flight (thanks to BA and our friends who brought the passport to the airport). Sun Morning, I traveled to Marj & Henrun's soiree, soooo awesome! Thank you so much for putting that together, it was great putting some faces to the boomer forum names. As I traveled on the train to the soiree, seated across from me was someone that looked like a runner and I wanted to ask him if he was a coolrunner but didn't (I made this mistake later too) and when it came time to get off the train, this guy gets off the train at the same stop so I figure the odds are good that he is a coolrunner and ask him and sure enough it was Divechief! We start heading in the direction of the soiree and who comes up from behind? DaveinAA and family! You can just tell that both Divechief and DaveinAA are both fast! We arrived together at the soiree and I got to meet Aamos, rtravers (and son), webfoot, wa5yom (Tim), Thunderbolt, rasmussen (mike), hermosaboy (and others that I'm forgetting) and of course the gracious Marj and Henrun! How cool is that?!! I do have to say that I was VERY disappointed with the expo. I arrived Sun afternoon and the only size shirts that they had were L and XL and the sizes ran big as it was, being only 5 foot tall, it's not likely I'll ever wear the shirt, it looked big even for DH who's 6 foot. Then the bags they were giving us to use for pre-race that would be stored on the buses at the start were out, so I got a smaller bag that ended up ripping. The adidas booth was out of posters, fortunately I was able to get one albeit a mangled one. And all of the adidas clothes in small and medium were gone!! On race day in the morning, I get to the train station and find out that runners don't have a free ride as is stated in the booklet! Good thing one of the tips I read about was to bring some $$. At this point, I'm really questioning where did my $109 go???? Good thing I got to see the boomers in the morning, otherwise it would have been a depressing day! On the way to the race while waiting for the train, another female runner asks me "are you ready" and I replied, "ready or not, race day is here!" and we ended up hanging out for the rest of the time until it was time to go in separate corrals. At 11am, I went over to meet up with the other boomers for a photo, it was just as Ribs explained it, I got to meet up with Tim (wa5yom) and Ribs, the Pro, Skip and Father-Rib's-Friend, grace (&grace's friend), and Robin As for the race itself, I'd agree w/Ribs and say that my experience was exactly the same in that I got to enjoy Boston without the pressure of going for a PR. And, I too felt the lack of "get up and go" after having an extended taper due to an injury. My plan and goal was to finish! Given the recent wipeout and the fact that I trained for a half marathon and not a marathon, and the fact that I didn't do hill work, I was hoping this wasn't too lofty of a goal. If I was able to run comfortably through the half then I figured I could maybe add on the goal of finishing in under 4 hours. I ran the first 5 or 6 miles easy averaging ~8:25 with 30 second walk-breaks every 2 miles. I was really expecting a steeper downhill but was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't bad at all and my knee was fine. I felt pretty good at this point and decided to pick it up slightly and averaged about 8:06 over the next 10k and keeping the 30 sec walk breaks after every 2 miles. What I figured would happen eventually happened a little earlier than I'd hoped, around mile 9-10 my right knee started to bother me as it had done on my training runs since Lisbon, at the next walk break (after the 12m mark) I stopped for my walk and put on some bio-freeze. I figured I would run through the next two mile segment to the 14m mark and then start with walk breaks after each mile. I did this through the hills and took some extra walk breaks as well. Again I was pleasantly surprised that the Newton Hills were built up much more in my mind than in reality and even heart break hill wasn't too bad. Another pleasant surprise was that I never hit "the wall." At this point I realize that even if I walked the rest of the way, I'm going to finish under six hours and get that finishers medal! I started to tear up. I think I appreciated it a little more after having a DNF so recent and not getting one. It was also at this point that I figured I could really start enjoying the race and actually decided to slow it down! Not becaue I had to, but because I wanted to savor the moment. I kept running but I decided not to push the knee too much and figured the slower I went the easier I was being on the knee. I would run for 2 minutes and walk for 30 seconds, sometimes running for 4 minutes and walking for 45 seconds. I know my running segments were about the same as before because I was still averaging ~9:30 even with walking for 1:45-2:15 per mile. The last mile came toooooo quickly (I know this is usually NEVER the case) and I took a couple of extra walk breaks to take in the crowds and the moment and to treasure it. I eventually crossed the finish in 3:51 and tears in my eyes thinking of the whole experience of running the race and also qualifying for it. I might race it again in about 5 years but we'll see. So ends the journey of my first Boston. At the finish line, I ran into Tim (wa5yom) and he looked great, we talked briefly and he said he had an amazing time and even picked it up over the last 5 miles after heartbreak hill. I ask how he did and he said 3:51 and I commented that was exactly what I ran! This isn't the only coincidence, I ran into him at Marj and Henrun's, for the photo op in the athlete's village, and again on my way back from the expo when he was on his way to the pasta dinner! With so many people, so funny that we run into each other 4 times and run the same time in Boston!! For those that run Boston in the future, the course wasn't too bad. In fact, I would suggest running Big Sur first and then Boston … you'll think hill, this isn't a hill, you should run Hurricane Point, now THAT'S a hill! And finally, I want to congratulate all of the other coolrunners and boomers and Divechief for bringing the good weather! Amie April 07 Lessons Learned from Lisbon Training- The mpw count but more importantly, it's what you do with those miles. This HM trng period was 1 mi less per week (36 vs 37) than the Dresden trng but I was definitely ready to run a faster HM. The speed sessions and the easy runs were all at a faster pace.
- To be continued ... need to think a little more ... also wanted to get the DNF post off the top spot, time to move on to Boston and recovery from it in 10 days! March 29 My first DNF ...From Coolrunning Boomer Forum ...
Long and boring but since this was a goal race after 5 months of training, I figured I would sum it up and put it behind me (closure I guess).
Leading up to this race, training went really well, better than I could have expected. There were some missed runs here and there to let the body heal for various minor things but for the most part, I was extremely pleased in the progress I was making. The two weeks before the race, I even lost 1-2 pounds without trying (a first).
Going into the race on Sunday I had tapered the last week and felt really really strong. I had a timing plan for the race that I felt was realistic and doable (avg 6:59/7:00). If I was having a good day, maybe I could even push a little harder towards the last 5k and avg a little faster than GRP.
The day started off really well and it looked like one of those races that was going to be almost perfect, a slightly warm day (comparatively) but with the wind it was comfortable. I made the mistake (again, argh) of getting there late (absolutely no excuse) and tried to weave my way forward but there were just too many people. So the race started and I eventually was able to get some on-pace running in here and there between the 3-4 km mark but then got trapped again. As I tried to go around some runners I had to run off the road and in the concrete gutter next to the road. Unfortunately there was a hole between the road and the gutter and I misjudged where my foot landed and then the next thing I saw was the Lisbon asphalt/concrete up close and personal with my body and head. I started to pick myself up and assess the damage but when I sat up I could see/feel blood dripping down. Up until seeing the blood I thought I might be able to continue but with the blood it was obvious that I was done for the day. My first DNF.
Two racers stopped to help me and one of them was with the race organization and he coordinated getting an ambulance. As I was waiting, I made sure to get their race numbers so that I could thank them later.
I arrived at one of the Lisbon Hospitals and they took x-rays of my head/hips/wrist/knee and a catscan of my head and everything came back normal. I was seen by a neurosurgeon as well and he said everything was good, he didn't think I had a concussion. So, eight hours later I got to walk out of the hospital with a couple of bandages and 3 stitches over my right eye and a DNF.
I am disappointed but I'm not broken, neither in body nor spirit. There are other races and more training and this was just one day, one event. This was just one goal in what is really a goal that will take a couple of years (breaking 3 hrs in the marathon). I feel bad that my husband feels worse than I do. He knew this was a goal race and he saw me put in all the training I did over the winter and he feels bad that this happened. I tried to explain to him that yes this sucks but I am still a faster runner than when I started, this race doesn't take that away. And I still had to go through the training to get to the next level. Just like I have another level of training to get through to get to the next one.
Even though I didn't finish the race, I do have lessons learned both good and bad that I'll take away from this event/training period.
So, again, I'm disappointed but not broken.
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What would you do next???
I'm contemplating where to next. Originally I had planned some rest / easy running this week except for a long run on Sunday and then a two week taper before Boston. And then I was going to cross-training and only easy run after that for a few weeks before base building again. Now I'm wondering what I should do.
Some options:
- Easy run on Friday (after getting the stitches out on Thur), long run on Sun, two week taper
- Same as above except run a 10k the Sun before Boston - Easy run on Fri, HM (maybe 90% effort instead of 100%) on Sun, two week taper - Same as above except 10k the Sun before Boston - All easy running until Boston (not liking this one but it's better than not running) - Other options/opinions?? I feel fine and my musculoskeletal system feels fine. I have a bruise on my right knee but it's only slightly sensitive to the touch, there's absolutely no problems with putting any weight on it. Except for looking in a mirror, I really don't feel any ill-effects of the fall. But of course I'll approach what ever I decide with caution and back-off immediately if it feels like something just isn't right.
Thanks for reading if you got this far ... hopefully the next RR will actually involve a finish line.
Amie March 14 First double ever!I'm really happy with my training since pulling back on the mileage just slightly. I feel refreshed for each run. This past weekend was supposed to be 12 and 7 miles but since we were up late on Fri, I figured I'd do 7 and 12. The 7 went fine but then we were out late again Sat night (Greg V. and Kara are visiting) and when I woke up on Sun my feet were swollen. Felt really strange, so I pretty much veg'd for the day and tried to elevate them and hoped they would be ok on Mon.
Yesterday (Mon), I decided to run in the morning and then if I felt up to it I would run again in the afternoon. Yesterday was supposed to be a rest day but since I rested on Sun I figured it was better to run and so I ran 7 miles in the morning (~8:25 pace). I wanted to be rested for my speed day on Wed so I decided trying to make up for the missed 12 milers wasn't a good idea but maybe I could come up with a compromise and figured if I was up for it in the afternoon that I would run another 5 miles. Both runs went really well (2nd run 5.08 miles in 41:51, 8:14 pace, unintentionally it became a mini progression run) and I'm glad I decided to do the double! What was really interesting too was that my last half mile of the 2nd run was around 7:06 pace and my goal HM pace is only 7 seconds faster. I felt very comfortable with that pace. Yeah!
I'm going to rest again today for tomorrow's speed session. This is supposed to be a semi cut-back week (~80% of normal mileage) but I think it'll be ok since next week is ~30% + the HM. As usual, time will tell. March 08 Getting down to the wireTwo and a half weeks to go!! The end is always happy and sad, I've come to enjoy the process of training as well as the fulfillment and determination of racing, and so when the end comes it's the end of that particular process and also the final race/goal. There will be other races and other goals in the future but it's still a little sad as things wind down.
Today was probably the last hard speed session, 8 mi total w/ 7 x 800m repeats @ 6:02/3 pace mostly and 3-3:30 recoveries @ 9:38 pace. Specifically, ~1.4 mi warmup, then repeats in 3:05/3/1/1/1/1/2:59 and then ~ 1 mi cooldown after the recovery period. This was the same work as 4 weeks ago with a little less recovery (~30-45 seconds less) time. It was interesting because I wasn't sure if I should have stopped after the 6th one, as I was running the recovery time (~3:30) I said what the heck and cranked it up similar to the last time 4 weeks ago and finished strong and realized I could have done even one more. So, I was really happy that I decided to run one more rep. (I usually try to end my workouts knowing that I could have done just one more rep or just slightly faster in an attempt to keep myself from getting injured.)
The workout felt good. Next week is mile repeats (x4), I'll probably shoot for 6:25/20/15/10 but we'll see. I'm really glad that I pulled back a little (per the previous post) as I am feeling strong both at the beginning and end of my runs so far and throughout the rest of the day. March 06 Long term mileage planI've decided to take my mileage increases more slowly. I think constantly trying to push the limit is eventually going to end up with me over the limit and getting an injury. The problem with pushing harder and harder is that you don't know when it's too much until it's too late.
So, I've decided (and also read some advice) to increase my yearly mileage by only 10 miles each year.
2004 (started running regularly in Nov but did run sporadicly throughout the year).
2005 30-40 miles (ran mostly low 30 for the first half of the year, and upper 30 to lower 40 the 2nd half)
2006 40-50 miles (started the year at 50 in base and dropped to ~45 during HM trng, will keep it b/t the lines)
2007 50-60 miles
2008 60-70 miles
2009 70-80 miles
2010 80-90 miles and so doing, also enter the masters level of compeitition in the middle of the yr!
I really think I can put some quality work into those miles. I think this will also allow me to live. When I'm pushing and pushing, I feel like I can't do too much additional work (stresses) or else I'll get injured which has limited my hiking, skiing, snowboarding etc. I think with not pushing to the max, I can still get in quality training, be fresh for the next workout, and take vacations and walk all day without worry that I'm overdoing it and won't be able to get in that next run. |
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