OBX Pamlico Challenge

The OBX weekend is over, and a good time was had by all.

While I still feel a bit of remorse on not being able to do my first marathon last weekend, it was a very successful weekend of running.  After my fall last month and the resulting hip injury, I was a bit worried on just being able to do a half marathon. A full would not have been possible. While I was able to run again after two weeks off, the longest run prior to the event weekend was an 8 mile run that did have me feeling a good bit of soreness in the hip.

With that in mind, I went out to the races without any set agenda except for finishing and trying to enjoy myself. In fact, just getting to the start with a good frame of mind took some doing.  The last few weeks have been filled with sadness. On the afternoon of Thursday, November 3, Luci passed away.  Luci was the the black lab that had been living with June and I for what was just a few weeks short of 14 years. I'll probably do a full post on just what a great dog she was on another date.  It was difficult to go out to the outer banks.  Luci had made that trip with June and I probably close to a dozen times over the years.  She loved the beach. Here she is with June on the beach near Corolla.  Luci is still a puppy in this shot. I think this might have been from her first trip to the beach, so she would have been around 5 or 6 months old.

And as she looked in her adult years, sitting with me on our back deck.

So, the timing of the trip was not great.  One other bit of bad timing was that June would not be able to make the trip with me.  Of course, she had a great excuse.  She was directing the Tennessee Williams play "The Glass Menagerie" as her first production in her new job as director of the theatre program at GTCC.  Opening night was the day before the race expo.  So, I went to opening night, then drove to the outer banks the next day.  The play was a great success by the way.  If you are in the Greensboro area, there are still three more changes to see the production. There are performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. I highly recommend it.

Friday afternoon, I get to the race expo.  Made the trip with Chris Knodel.  Picked up all our goodies at the expo, then went to the Kill Devil Grill for dinner.  Food was superb.  Lots of carbo loading.

Saturday was the 8K.  Weather was perfect.  In fact, the weather was perfect for running the entire weekend.  Here is Chris with Josh and Michael Holt getting ready to warm up for the race.  All are members of the Brick City Running Tribe.

I decided to just run totally by feel, with no thought for pace.  It turned out to be a good decision, as I turned in my fastest time ever for that distance, 44:20 for the 5 miles.  I also had negative splits for the distance, which I have done in practice, but not before in an actual event.  I think I'm looking closely at my watch in the photo because I don't really believe the time.  Here were my splits.

Mile 1 9:15
Mile 2 9:03
Mile 3 9:02
Mile 4 8:45
Mile 5 8:15

After the race, we all were going to go back to the Kill Devil Grill for more good food, but it was too early for them to be open.  So, off to Sam and Omie's, a long time favorite of mine.  Then after breakfast, had time to do a little sight seeing at Jockeys Ridge and the Wright Brothers Memorial.  Of course, while we were at Jockeys Ridge, we had to do some dune running to prepare for the bridge climb towards the end of the half.

After playing tourist, of course we had to eat again.  Guess where?  Kill Devil Grill again. Great food, could easily have eaten there for every meal.

The next day was the big event. We parked near the start and waited with the crowd for to run to begin.

Now, when I got to the OBX for the weekend, I had no goals other than to finish. But, after the good results in the 8K, I started to think about finishing times for my half.  Back in the spring, my first two HMs came in with times of 2:26 and 2:35.  I wasn't pleased with either of those times.  The first should have been closer to 2:20.  I lost close to 7 minutes by having to make two pit stops, with long lines at both.  The second I wound up running on a pulled hamstring, and was lucky to finish at all.  Back on October 8, I ran a 2:07 at the Cannonball Run, and felt that was close to as good as I could do.  So, now that I was having a good weekend, how fast should I try to go?

I thought there might be a slim chance I could come in under 2 hours. That would probably take a near perfect race, but might be something to shoot for.  It would all depend on how my hip felt as the miles added up.  I talked it over with Chris, and decided to break it down into three sections.  I had just done a 5 mile race slightly under 45 minutes.  So, just go out at that pace.  If I finish the first 5 miles at close to 45, just do it again.  That would put me at 10 miles into the race in only an hour and a half.  I would then be near the bridge, with just 3.1 miles to go.  Even losing some time at the bridge, I would only have to average just under 10 minute miles to the end to hit the 2 hour finish.

Sounded OK, but I really didn't think I would be able to do it.  A possibility, but a long shot.  I was really thinking that I would come in around 2:10 to 2:15, and feel really good about that time.

So, off we went.  We started way towards the back since I had transferred from the full to the half.  I had expected it to be slow at the start from the crowds, but would open up a bit after a couple of miles.  I was also counting on the first few miles to let me know if the hip would be an issue.  If so, I planned on easing back to around a 10 minute mile pace for the entire 13.1 miles, and just enjoying the day.  Surprisingly, the road never really cleared.  Starting that far back with the slower runners, we were bobbing and weaving to pass others pretty constantly, which takes much more energy than just running a straight line.

The 5 mile mark came up, and I was close to my target.  Only a minute over at 45:55.  Here were my splits.

Mile 1 9:21
Mile 2 9:10
Mile 3 9:12
Mile 4 9:18
Mile 5 8:57

I still didn't really think I would come in under 2 hours, but I did keep the pace up for the next 5 miles.  I hit mile 10 at 1:30:49, so my pace was still only a minute over my target goal.  Here are the splits for miles 6-10.

Mile 6 8:45
Mile 7 8:42
Mile 8 8:58
Mile 9 9:06
Mile 10 9:26

At mile 10, I was starting to slow down.  I'm not sure if it was because the hip was starting to exert itself, or because I went a bit too fast for miles 6 and 7.  Probably a bit of both.  No, actually it was because the bridge was approaching.

Now, the race got real interesting.  The bridge was approaching.  The bridge itself is not that long.  It is steep, but not too long.  What makes it tough is the long almost two mile approach from the turn onto the causeway all the way to the steep section for the boats to pass under.  The entire approach I think is really a false flat.  A very gradual slope. So, you hit the steep section already feeling the grind.

I got to the steep section, and started to feel a good bit of soreness in the hip.  It was decision time.  The smart thing to do would be to keep my turnover rate and shorten my stride.  Keep that going all the way to the top, then lengthen the stride back out and glide down the hill.  If I was lucky, I would only drop a couple of minutes from my pace, and be able to gain it back on the way down and the couple of miles left to the finish.  A finish in under two hours was a real possibility.  Except, the hip was starting to hurt.

So, I decided to race up the bridge.  I thought going up as fast as I could would put less pressure on my hip.  Fewer times to lift those legs, and you do lift from the hips when going up hill.  So boom, off I went. Probably not the best decision, but it felt good on the way up. At least until I crested the top, and the heart rate peaked, and it was time to go into full recovery mode for the next few miles.  It felt like I went up at my fastest pace of the day, and slowed to well over a 12 minute mile pace all the way to the end.  The reality was quite a bit different.  Here is what the splits to the end look like.

Mile 11 9:36
Mile 12 10:08
Mile 13 10:07
To the Finish 9:29

Actually, pretty close to what I though might be a near perfect race, only a few minutes over.  Final time, 2:03:10.  I look a lot better than I felt at the end.  I was tired.

Chris on the other hand, always seems to finish looking refreshed. Here he is just moments after the finish.

Well, give me a few more years, and I'll finish looking that relaxed too.

So, if I hadn't raced the bridge, conserved some energy for the last few miles, could I have finished under 2 hours?  Maybe, but it did feel good to pass all those people on the way up.  And, 2:03 is still my fastest time to date for the half.  Now, its time to start planning the next few races.  There's the Triangle Freeway Trot this weekend, and I plan on doing the Reindeer Run again in December.  After that, more halfs, and finally a full.  I just need to decide on which ones to do.

Till then, see you on the road.

OBX Update, good news, bad news

Actually, it is probably good news, bad news, good news.

First, the good news.

As part of my training for the OBX marathon, I had planned to run a half marathon around 6 to 7 weeks prior.  My time in the half would be used to figure out what pace to run for the full.  The Cannonball Half in Greensboro NC was the closest race around that time, so I planned on running that.  It turned out to be a really great day to run, cool enough for a long sleeve shirt, but not cold enough for a jacket.  My target goal was to come in faster than my two previous HMs,which were 2:31 and 2:26.  I though I would probably come in around 2:15 to 2:20, which would give me a target goal of around 4:45 to 4:55 for the full.

The race went really well.  I had company on the run.  Chris Knodel showed up and paced me for the run.  His wife Kristine was also there for support, providing a magnificent cowbell ring for us on the home stretch.  Final time came in at 2:07, very near the best I thought I could do.  Finished with a bit left over and the feeling that a 4:30 full would be possible.

Now for the bad news.

Monday after the race I went on my normal lunch run.  Felt real good, legs not a bit tired.  Didn't pay good enough attention to where my feet were landing, hit a broken patch of sidewalk, and down I went.  Hard.  Directly on my hip.  Could not finish the run, would up walking back.  By the time I got home, I was limping, and had an 8 inch by 4 inch bruise.

Decided to take a week off from running.  At the end of week one, stairs were still a problem, so I went to two weeks off.  At that point, I contacted the OBX marathon people, and officially changed my registration from the full marathon, to the half.  I was even considering cancelling entirely.

But, I do get to end with some good news.

My friend Chris talked me into running the first annual Day of the Dead 5K Saturday.

He said it would be a good test to see how the hip was progressing, and he was correct.  The first mile felt odd.  I bobbed back and forth like a cartoon drunken sailor.  The second mile, things started to loosen up. By the end of the run, everything felt normal.  I can still feel some soreness in my hip, but it now feels like soreness that can be worked out, not soreness and pain that says sit back down.

So, OBX is still on.  Just instead of doing my first full marathon, I will do another half. That's OK, I am looking  forward to bettering my time from the Flying Pirate Half out on the banks last April.

So for now, I am looking at which marathon to run for my first.  Maybe the Tobacco Road Marathon.  I ran the half this year, maybe that will be my first full.

Till then, see you on the road.

Update from September

September was another good month for running, and one with a number of firsts. First month that reached a total of 150 miles, first 18 mile run, and first run of at least 5 miles that averaged just under a 9 minute mile pace.  Things are still looking good and on track for the OBX marathon next month.

Of course, there were changes to my training schedule.  Instead of increasing my planned long runs every other week, I went to an increase every three weeks.  I offset that with progressive tempo runs of between 12 and 14 miles on the between weekends.   Those have turned out to be every bit as tiring as the longer runs.

This coming weekend I am planning to run a half marathon in Greensboro.  How that goes will determine what pace I decide to use for the full marathon.  I should be able to finish the half somewhere between 2 hours 10 and 2 hours 20.  If I have a really great race, I may be able to come in close to an even 2 hours, but that time is a real long shot.  I am looking forward to the race and seeing how it comes out.

Till then, see you on the road.

Update from August, countdown to OBX continues

August was a productive month for running.  I was able to continue training without pain, and keep on schedule.  Things are looking good for the OBX marathon this November.

In raw numbers, I was able to get out for 22 runs and a total of 138 miles.  Most importantly, I was able to get in long runs of 12, 14, and 16 miles.  Not very fast long runs, the 16 mile run took 3 hours, but the time on my feet will be important for getting through the 26.2 come November.  The goal of crossing the finish line feeling good is starting to look closer to reality.

I have been running some with Chris Knodle, owner of Irish Goat Multisport.  Having him along to keep a watch on my form has been very helpful.  It has also been good to bounce scheduling ideas off him, as I finalize my last couple of months of training.

I have been thinking of looking at my long runs more as time targets instead of mile targets.  Of course, if I hit my target pace, the time target and my originally planned mile targets will be about the same.  Here is how my long runs are shaping up going into the home stretch.

My original schedule for miles has me running 18 this weekend, followed by a cutback weekend.  Then 20, cutback, 22, cutback, 24, and then tapper until the race.  If I think in terms of time, the 18, 20, 22, and 24 go to 3:20, 3:40, 4:00, then 4:30.  That's close to an increase of 10% in time every other weekend.  So, this weekend I plan on going out for a 3:20 run, and will just see how far that takes me at a comfortable pace.

I have planned on doing a half marathon for one of my cutback weeks about 5 weeks prior to the marathon.  That should give me my target pace to use for OBX.

Till then, see you on the road.

Update from July

August is here already.  I'm now down to 3 months and counting until the OBX marathon.

I still feel as if I am a little behind in my training, but the past month was a good step in getting back on track.  After 3 months of struggling with first a hamstring issue, then a recurring calf issue, my monthly mileage is back where it was all last fall and winter. I still feel some occasional tightness, but I am running pain free at the moment.

For the month, the raw figures were as follows.  There were 20 runs last month, for a total of 98 miles. I even got in a couple of longer runs, specifically 2 8's, a 10 and a 12.  My original marathon plan had me doing 12's and 14's last month, so I am behind, but not too much. What I am mainly missing is the base build.  Instead of 3 to 4 months of steady runs totaling around 90+ miles per month, I have 3 months of averaging 45 miles, then jumping to 98.  I have to think that the 6 months prior to my 3 low mileage months (where I did average 90 each month) still have some residual effect and I won't pay the price for such a quick ramp up last month.  Time will tell.

I am still working out my full schedule for the next three months, but my current thoughts are to have a progression going up to a 24 mile run three weeks before the event.  If all goes well, August will see me progressing up to a 16 mile long run and somewhere around 110 miles in total.

See you on the road.

Update from June

Well, June is over, and all in all, it was an interesting month as far as training went.

The month started off with a calf annoyance. Actually, a bit more than just an annoyance, as it had me not running for a week and having a couple of sessions of deep tissue massage.  I think I am now back on track.  After starting  the month with some time off,  I was able to get in a couple of good weeks that have progressed back to running 4 days a week.  I also got in some vacation time, with a few short hikes and some river rafting. Most importantly, I was able to run on consecutive days with no pain, and a couple of runs went for 4 or 5 miles with no pain.

So, I am now ready to start a 20 week progression to the OBX marathon. The full plan is still under development.  I plan on meeting with a trainer for additional input and will restart my long runs on Saturdays in a few days.  If all goes well, I will be out for either a 6 or 8 mile run this Saturday.  Things at the moment are looking better that they were a few weeks ago, and I feel more confident that I will not only get to the start at the OBX, but be able to cross the finish line feeling good.

See you on the road.

Training plans, continued

So, I had planned to take two weeks off from running, then start up my marathon training again with a 21 week schedule.  Things changed.  My two weeks off were actually just 3 days off.

I really did plan on a full two weeks of rest.  I started the rest break by having my first deep tissue/trigger point massage.  In going over my legs, my massage therapist found lots of spots in both hamstrings and calfs that needed attention.  It was painful at times, but it was also good to find out that there were no major issues such as tears, etc.  In discussing how best to proceed, we both agreed that I would probably need to play it by ear, but that two weeks off may be a bit much.  So, I planned to take only one week off.

The plan was to run again on Monday.  There is a run club at the Tir Na Nog Irish Pub that I had thought of attending for some time.  So I planned to do the 3 mile run Monday evening, then follow that up with another massage.  It seemed a good plan in getting a baseline on how much recovery I might actually need, and how slow my restart might need to go.

I didn't make it to Monday without running.  I felt really good by Friday, so I did a series of 3 minute run, 2 minute walk intervals.  Not too many, about 2.5 miles worth.  I had some tightness, but not as much as before.  When Monday came, I met some friends at the Nog Run Club earlier than the scheduled run.  We ran a slow 3 miles (actually 2.8) finishing about the time the actual run was to start.  Then, we ran the loop again.  There was some tightness that came and went, but nothing major.  After the run, I went straight to my massage appointment.

My therapist, Rachel Wilde, thought that the legs were a bit better than before.  Still some spots to concentrate on, but better.  I went home, applied ice, and waited to see how I recovered.  The next day, I had a lot of soreness.  I was a bit worried, but the soreness was almost all gone by Wednesday.  Wednesday I did another series of 3 minute run, 2 minute walk intervals.  No issues on the run, except I did have to really focus on form.

Saturday, I felt good, so I did a 3 mile run.  For that run I went back to half mile intervals, with 60 second walk breaks.  I could still feel tightness come and go during the run, but no actual pain.    So, maybe I am back on track, just a bit behind where I wanted to be.

This week I plan on doing a repeat of Saturday's run on Monday and Wednesday, then I have an 5K event scheduled to run on Saturday.  After that, I will start my 20 week build up for the marathon.

See you on the road.

Week 3 training result

Week three is over, and it was not all it should have been.

The targets for the week were 3 lunch time runs of 3 mile each, with the option of going for a bit more depending on how I felt. Then on the weekend a longer run of 6 miles.  Pretty much the same as the week before.  The real goal was just to keep the running easy, and give the calf more time to continue getting better.

The first lunch run felt pretty good, almost completely normal.  I did have to work a bit to keep my form clean, but overall, a good run.  Run 2 also started out good.  I went out a bit faster than I should have, but everything felt good and smooth.  I wound up finishing the 3 miles at a pace of 10:09.  The last mile I did feel a bit more tightness in my calf than the day before, but overall, everything seemed good.  Run three however, was all over the place.  It started with some tightness, then evened out and felt OK.  Then at the start of mile 3, the calf got very tight.  I stopped the run after 2.5 miles.

Saturday's long run was supposed to be 6 miles.  I knew at the start I wouldn't get that far, but planned on at least a long walk with some running mixed in.  Didn't feel any pain at the start, I just couldn't get into a good pace and I kept bouncing in my stride.  Just could not keep it smooth. Calf tightness again popped up and seemed to move around from spot to spot, so I planned on calling a halt to the run after 2 miles and walking some more to get in the time on my feet.

When I stopped, I did a couple of minutes of calf and hamstring stretches, and when I finished stretching, it felt good enough to run another mile.  At the end of mile 3, I stretched again, and went for one more mile.  I did restrain myself at that point, and called it a day after 4 miles.

Week 4 started today with a planned 3 mile run.  I still had a bit of stiffness in my calf, so I decided to try alternating half mile splits with stretching, somewhat similar to how Saturday's run went.  That went OK and seemed to be working as a plan, but after a mile and a half, I decided to just walk for the rest of my lunch hour. My thoughts now are that at my age, perhaps I should err on the side of caution.  I think I probably could continue to train through the tightness, but it may be better to take some time off now, instead of perhaps needing to have some down time closer to the marathon date in November.

So, I am going to take a bit of a gamble, and take two weeks off from running.  The first week I will just walk, stretch, and use the stick for self massage.  Then in week two, I will start cycling again so that I don't loose to much aerobic capacity.  That will still give me 21 weeks to progress to running 26.2 miles.  Should be enough time, just not as much leeway as I had previously for things to go awry.

See you on the road.

Week 2 training result

Week two is done, and I met all my scheduled runs.  It wasn't all pretty, but there were no major problems.

The week was to include three lunch time runs of around 3 miles each, then a long run on the weekend of 6 miles. It still feels a bit odd to think of a 6 mile run as being my long run, but that is the progression I have planned.  Keep it slow and gradual, so calf and hamstring issues don't come back.

My lunch runs were 3, 3, and 3.5 miles.  I kept them all around a 10:30 pace.  Run 1 almost felt normal, but run 2 had some problems.  I tripped over a root and came up with a slight ankle strain, which went away quickly, but caused my calf to tighten up again. Of course, it was the same leg as the calf issue.  I was able to continue, and finish without any major pain, and even increase slightly to 3.5 miles for run 3.

The weekend run was done on streets instead of the Tobacco Trail, as I had driven to Knoxville to visit my parents over the weekend.  The calf tightness came and went throughout the run there, but there was no actual pain.

Since the week went much as before, I still plan on continuing to train through this calf issue.  In addition to concentrating on form and keeping my pace a bit slower that I had been running, I have started self massaging my calf and quads with a massage stick.  So far, it does seem to help.

Next weeks plan is actually the same as last week.  Three lunch runs, then a 6 mile run on the weekend.

See you on the road.

Week 1 training result

Week 1 of my marathon countdown has finished. This was one that I approached with a bit of trepidation, as I wasn't sure that my hamstring and calf issues were behind me.

The week scheduled was a light one.  Three lunch runs of around 3 miles each, and restarting my long run progressions on the weekend with a 5 mile run.

Coming off an injury, I decided to start slow.  In fact, I went all the way back to how I started training for my first 10K in 20 years last fall.  I pulled out the podrunner podcasts again, and used them to make sure that I did not go out too fast.  Monday and Wednesday I used the week 1 podcast.  Five minute warm up walk, followed by 5 intervals of 4 minute runs and 2 minute walks, followed by a 3 minute cool down.  These went well, so I went to the week 2 mix on Friday.  Five minute warm up walk, followed by 6 intervals of 4 minute runs and 90 second walks, followed by a three minute cool down.  Finished the three lunch runs with some soreness and tightness, but no pain.

That left the weekend 5 mile run.  It was a bit of an internal debate if I was ready for 5 miles, but I decided that I should start it, and at least walk for 5 miles if necessary, just to get the time in on my feet.  I went to the Tobacco Trail for my run, thinking the softer surface would be good for my first longer run in a while.  I set my watch for half mile splits, and decided to do a full two minute walk after each split.  The first split was rocky, I could not get into a good rhythm.  Felt like I was bouncing all over the trail.  Eventually I did settle down, and was able to finish.  Total time was 55 minutes.  Almost the same as my first 8K time last fall after I went through the 10 week podrunner program.

So, all in all, it went well.  Now, a few hours later, I do have a bit of tightness still in my calf, but I can walk without any pain or limp, so perhaps I am on the right track.

Next week, I plan on doing my lunch runs pretty much the same, followed by a 6 mile run on the weekend if all goes well.  I may get back on the bike for some cross training, but that is something I will plan day to day, depending on how I feel.

Anyone thinking of starting a running program, and looking for a good set of interval based training sessions that start you slowly, and gradually bring you up, I highly recommend the podrunner interval podcast programs.  They are free, and can be downloaded at http://www.djsteveboy.com/mixes.html.

See you on the road.

Training plans, setbacks, and reboots

Come this weekend, it will be 25 weeks until my first marathon attempt.  That may seem like a lot of time.  After all, I just finished two half marathons recently, and have done a lot of training this year, but I feel like I am already behind.

In coming up with a training plan, I had originally plotted out a 30 week schedule.  Which I should have started a few weeks ago.  However, the hamstring pull just prior to my last half changed that.  After the half, I took a full week off, then started running again very gradually.  Unfortunately, I didn't start back gradually enough.  I am now working through a calf strain.  So, instead of now being on week 4 of plan A, I am getting ready to start plan B.

My basic plan is an amalgam of the Galloway and the Hal Higdon plans, similar to how I ramped up my mileage for my half marathons.  As in the Galloway method, I plan on using run/walk intervals. Hopefully, as my calf strengthens, my intervals will go back to taking a 60 second walk break every 1 or 2 miles.  My long runs will be on the weekend, with shorter runs during lunch time.  The lunch runs will be either 3 or 4 times per week, with some occasional speed work as I build up to that.  I will also do some cross training on my bike on the off days from running.

The real question for me was how to plan the long run progression.  Galloway has long runs over a 26 week period going up to either 26 or 28 miles, peaking three weeks prior to the marathon.  Higdon has a 20 week ramp up that only goes to 20 miles, but you do more than one 20 mile run.  Both plans have cut back weeks once you get up to close to the 20 mile point.

So, do I train up to a 20 mile peak, or work up to a full 26 mile training run? All the reading and research I did made it clear that you can do a full marathon without running that distance prior to the race.  But, I think I have spent far too long in my past life as a working musician for that to be my first option.  Most of my life has been spent in a practice room putting in far more hours per day in practice than are actually used in concert.  There is the idea that you always practice to go beyond what you will actually need in performance.  You try to leave yourself room for a little bit extra, and not show up with just what you need to get by with.  It makes me a bit nervous to think of training up to a certain point, knowing that you will need to go further when the time comes to perform.

So, my plan B includes training up to a full 26 mile practice run.  The progression should go as follows for my long weekend runs.

5, 6, 6, 8, 10, 5, 6, 8, 12, 5, 14, 5, 17, 5, 6, 20, 5, 6, 23, 6, 7, 26, 7, 6, 6, Race

Its not a straight progression, as I had to plan for vacation weeks, a short race or two, and the possibility of BikeMS, but all the weeks work out on my calendar.  Now, I just have to stay healthy and injury free for the next 25 weeks.

Or, if needed, I do have a plan C.

See you on the road.

Update from April

Not much to say with this update from last month.

The main event last month was completing my second half marathon.  As a result, with lots of tapering for that event due to a sore hamstring, and a full week off after the event, the months totals were far less than in previous months.

Here are the totals.

9 Runs for a total of 41 miles in a little over 7 hours.
5 Bike rides for a total of 79 miles in a little over 5 hours.

I am close to finishing my training schedule in preparation of my first marathon in November.  Now that I can ride after work, I have cut back a bit on my lunch runs.  Once I get used to a schedule of both ridding and running, I plan on resuming my long runs on the weekend.  Hopefully, I will resume long runs by the end of the month, in plenty of time to ramp up from 6 miles, to over 20 miles prior to the OBX marathon.

See you on the road.

Flying Pirate Half Marathon

My second half is now in the books, and it was a tough one.

My target goal was to finish around 2:15, and I thought that getting in at the 2 hour mark would be possible.  I had started doing a little bit of speed work, and had my first set of miles under the 9 minute mark. I was consistently hitting well under 10 when I focused on that.  My legs felt good through all of this, no aches or pains.  Then, last week, during my taper, it all went to hell.  The taper week plan was for just 2 runs, and to focus on pace, staying close to a 10 minute mile.  I was going to do 5 miles at this pace on Tuesday, then 4 miles on Thursday.  Tuesday went very well, then on Thursday, around mile 1.5, I started to feel stiffness in my left hamstring.  Then at 2 miles, it turned into an ache.  I cut off the run shortly after that.

My first thought was that I might have to cancel, but since the event was walker friendly, I decided to go ahead and make an attempt.  I got a compression wrap for my thigh, and used that all day Friday, iced the sore spot both Thursday and Friday evening, then wrapped again for the drive to the Outer Banks on Saturday.  By Saturday evening, it was feeling almost normal.

My target goal being scuttled, I settled on trying for a 3 hour finish if I was able to do a run/walk combination, and if not that, just walking the whole way.  I set my Garmin for quarter mile laps, and started with the decision to slow run each quarter mile followed by a 60 second walk.  That went well for the first three miles. Shortly after that, I started to feel a bit of tenderness.  I then went to walking backwards for most of my 60 second walks.  That seemed to ease out the tenderness.  Then around mile 7, I felt some pain.  Looking at my Garmin, I found I had sped up to a bit under a 10 minute mile pace, so I slowed way down and increased my walking to 2 minutes each quarter mile.  After a few rotations of this, things settled down, and I was able to finish feeling remarkably well for how I felt on Thursday.  I was very surprised to see my final time of 2:31.  Much better than I thought I would finish under the circumstances.

All in all, a good day.  Not what I set out to do, but still a good day.  I plan on taking a couple of weeks off from running to make sure everything heals fully, then I will start slowly to build up to a full marathon this November.

See you on the road.

Update from March

March is now finished, and it is time to look over my numbers and see how the month went.

I was able to get in 17 runs for a total of 89 miles and got out once on my bike for an hour and a leisurely 14 miles. Running did include attending two events, an 8K and my first half marathon.  In looking back over my last three months, I have been averaging close to 90 miles per month. Going back to October, which was my first month that I concentrated on running 4 times a week as my target goal, I see the following stats for each month.

Month	Miles	Average Pace
October	76.2	12:07
November	100.1	11:35
December	61.3	10:47
January	89.7	10:37
February	97.2	10:26
March	89.0	10:18

I'm real pleased with the gradual improvement in my average pace, that should make a real difference as I start working up to doing a full marathon.  If I can bring it down a bit more, I may be able to look at targeting a time of around 4:30.  I had originally thought I would target a five hour marathon, but if my pace keeps dropping, maybe I can do better than that.

Next week I will do my second half marathon.  Then a couple of easier weeks.  I will probably start putting in some bike time then for cross training.  After that, it will be time to get serious about setting up a training schedule.  Starting the first week of May there will be 28 weeks until the OBX marathon.  Should be enough time.

See you on the road.

Tobacco Road Half Marathon

This one is in the books, my first half marathon.

Overall, it went well, but it could have been a bit better.  My target goal was to finish between 2:20 and 2:30.  I really felt that 2:20 would be right where I would finish, but my timing chip finish time was 2:26:07, a bit slower that I had hoped for.  Also, I now have some soreness in my knees for the first time.  Hopefully, that will go away in a few days, since I am scheduled for another half marathon in three weeks.

In retrospect, there is a lot to take away from yesterday.   So, what did I learn?

First, while my training schedule seemed to be right on pace for what I wanted to accomplish, I need to be a bit more diligent in my last minute prep work.  I was good about getting my race gear laid out and packed for the morning, but not good enough.  I got the correct amount of clothing for the weather. Shorts and long sleeve shirt.  I also packed a bag with a jacket and pants in case that was needed for the wait between when the shuttle bus dropped me off at the race venue and the start.  In getting out of my car at the off site parking lot, it seemed warm enough to not need my extra clothing.  Probably a mistake.  It turned out that I was correct in not needing the extra clothing for before the race, but it would have come in very handy for after the race.  I also forgot to put a bit of cash in my race vest when I left my car, so I was not able to take advantage of some of the vendor sales after the race.

The biggest last minute mistake I made was to drink more than one cup of coffee when I got up.  I am not a morning person, and getting up at 4:15 in order to get to the event on time is as big a challenge for me as the weeks of training.  When I got up yesterday, I really felt that I needed a second cup of coffee.

My usual long run routine has been to wake up, walk the dog, drink one cup of coffee, eat a couple of waffles, then drive to the Tobacco Trail parking lot. Visit the bathroom there if needed and start my run.  The longest of these runs lately has taken 2:30 for 14 miles.  I would finish the run, then take a cool down walk, do some easy stretching, and drive home for a shower.

Race day worked a bit differently.  As I said, I had a second cup of coffee.  No problem I thought, there would be plenty of time for a rest room break in the hour between getting off the shuttle bus and the start of the race.  Which there was.  However, the race was delayed for about 20 minutes.  Not too long, but longer than I was mentally prepared for, and standing in the start area without space to really keep warm and limber was to have some affect later on, as did the second cup of coffee.  Here is what it looked like while waiting for the start.

I knew there would be porta-potties along the race, so I wasn't too worried about needing to go. I did assume there would be more than one or two.  Wrong assumption, which led to a stop of what seemed like 10 minutes around mile 5.  Looking at my garmin data later, it really wasn't that long, but it sure seemed like it at the time.  The final garmin data showed a total time of 2:26:12 (very close to the official chip time) and a moving time of 2:19:21.  So, my bathroom break only cost me around seven minutes. Without this break I would have hit my target goal.

Here I am, back on the trail after my short break, coming up on mile marker 6.  Very pretty trail to run on.

Except for the long wait at the start and the unplanned break, I felt good for the entire run.  No aches, pains, etc.  It was very enjoyable and a lot of fun to go through the finish line and pick up my medal.

After the finish, I walked around a bit, tried to keep moving for a good cool down period, but did not remember to do any stretching.  Another mistake. I started to feel a bit cool, so I headed back to the waiting area for the shuttle back to the off site parking lot.  The wait for the shuttle turned out to last 1:45, thats one hour, 45 minutes.  I really could have used my extra clothing. There were shuttles coming every few minutes, there were just that many people in line.  I really started to stiffen up during the wait.  By the time I got home, I had some soreness in my knees.  Here is the line in front of me waiting on the shuttles.

So, a bit of a mixed day.  Very happy to have finished my first half, but I hope to do a bit better in the next one.

The next one is to be the Flying Pirate half out at the Outer Banks on April 10.  Until then, I plan on not running for a few days, then a few short slow runs to finish out the week.  Then if the legs feel OK, do a normal week of maintenance runs followed by a short taper week.

After that, it will be time to start planning my training for a full marathon.

Till then, see you on the road.

Update from February

Time for my monthly update.

February went as quickly as January did, and the totals were close to the same.  Again, I did not get out on my bike at all.  I went on 15 runs during the month. That's one fewer than January, but my total miles were a little more, mostly because my long runs were gradually increasing.  There were 97 miles total running for the month.

Training for my first half marathon is going well.  I am still doing three lunch time runs of either 4 or 5 miles, and one long run on the weekend.  The long runs this month were 12, 10, 14, and 14.  Only three weeks now until my first half marathon, so I plan on tapering my runs until then with no more long runs on the weekend, except for the actual events.

My running event schedule for the next few weeks hopefully will include the following.

St. Patrick's Day Run Green 8K, March 5
Tobacco Road Half Marathon, March 20
Flying Pirate Half Marathon, April 10

See you on the road.

Update from January

Well, January went by quickly.  It was a good month for running, I kept to my schedule of training for my upcoming half marathon.

My training schedule has been to get out for 3 lunch runs each week.  These runs are either 4 mile runs, where I concentrate on speed (very little speed in my case, trying to keep near a 10 minute mile pace), or a more leisurely run for a full hour.  Then on Saturday I do a long run, which I will be increasing by one mile each week until I get to 14 miles.  That should be about 3 weeks prior to my half marathon. At that point I start cutting back on each long run a bit until the race.  I am up to 10 miles now on my long run, this coming weekend I will go for 11.

Totals last month were 16 runs for 89.7 miles, no time on the bike.  I found one more online site to track my training logs on, and it looks pretty good.  I really like the way I can add widgets to the welcome page, which you can see here.

See you on the road.

Setting goals for the new year

Its hard to believe that the new year is already well underway.  That makes it time to start looking ahead to what goals I want to have.

Last year was pretty simple, just a couple of goals related to my cycling.  Increase my yearly miles to 2,500 and increase my long rides for the year to include at least one full century ride.  One goal made, one not.  Now however, I am running a lot more, so I have to start balancing the hours that takes with the hours cycling takes.  That makes my goals a bit different this year.

In looking ahead, I am thinking of targeting specific events instead of overall miles this year.  I also plan on getting out to either run or bike 4 times per week.  That's it.

For my running, the big event is to run a marathon towards the end of the year.  The one I have in mind is the Outer Banks Marathon in November.  That should be enough time to build up my base miles in order to finish that distance.  As part of the buildup for that, I am looking at doing some half marathons.  The first on my list is the Tobacco Road half marathon.  That comes early in the year, March 20, which should be doable.  Those are the two main events for the year.  I will probably do a few more 10K races, as well as another half marathon sometime between March and November, but which of these to do is very much up in the air at this point in time.

For my cycling, I would like to do the Bike MS in New Bern again.  I have done that the past two years and greatly enjoyed it.  However, with that just a month or so prior to the Outer Banks Marathon, I am a bit unsure about the timing.  The decision on this will probably come sometime mid summer.  There are several events I have done in the last few years that I plan on repeating.  All of them were fundraisers for good organizations which I feel deserve support, and they put on good events that I enjoy.  Here's the short list.

Ride for Their Lives fundraiser for Carolina Animal Rescue and Adoption.
Cup and Cone Ride MS fundraiser put on by MS events.
Raven Rock Ramble fundraiser for the UNC Kidney Center.
Ride for the Land fundraiser put on by the Triangle Land Conservancy.
Tammy Lynn Center fundraising ride.

I have been enjoying tracking all of my fitness activities with my Garmin Forerunner 310XT.  If you want a chance to win one, there is a giveaway going on at the DC Rainmaker blog.  You can see how to enter here.  Lots of good reviews on sports gadgets there.

One thing I am looking at for the new year is how best to look over all of the data I have collected over the past few years from the different devices I have used.  All the data from the last two years is stored on my laptop in Garmin Training Center and on the web at Garmin Connect.  Prior to that, I used a mix of Polar heart monitors.  My Polar 625X stored its info on my laptop with the Polar Training software.  Prior to that, my Polar F11 stored its data on the Polar Personal Training web site.  I also have some training data on the Nike+ web site from when I was running with the Nike+ foot pod connected to an iPod.  I have started to look at ways to export all of the above into one place.

I started out with Sport Tracks software, which let me pull in all the data from the Garmin site, as well as all the data from my Polar software on my laptop.  That was a good start, but I couldn't get in all the other data.  I also did not like how the data was presented, and I missed being able to access the data from the web.  So, I started looking at different web based training sites.

I used the Garmin Connect site as a reference point since I like the look of their training calendar and its ease of use.  The only drawback for it is that I only have data from when I started using Garmin as my cycling computer.

After some searching, I found the site Buckeye Outdoors.  The site is free to use, and allowed me to bring in my Garmin files, my Nike+ data, and all the Polar data that was on my laptop.  I was not able to transfer the data from the Polar Personal Training web site.  You can see how my data looks in calendar form on the Buckeye Outdoors site here.  Not the best looking calendar, but it does allow for me to easily pull into my blog stuff such as the workout totals and my races side bars.

After a bit more searching I found the site Runningfreeonline.  Also a free training site.  I was successful in bringing in all of my data into this site.  Here is what their calendar view looks like.  Again, not a great looking site, but one that has a lot of extra stuff, such as race prediction calculators, and lots of different ways to view data.  As an example, here is a pie chart of last years hours and miles broken down by activity type.  Pretty cool!  I'm still playing around with the different options for storing my workout data, but it is nice to finally have it all in one place.  Both sites also allow me to set up training schedules, which will be very useful as I keep ramping up my distances in my running.

Now, I have to start thinking about the best training schedule for running 26.2 miles.

See you on the road.

2010 Year End Update

2010 is finished and its time to look over last years statistics and goals.

While I didn't meet all of my goals, it turned out to be a good year.  The overall goals were to cycle for 2,500 miles and ride in my first century.  I did accomplish my first century ride, but fell short of the 2,500 miles goal. However, I feel that was offset by getting a bit more serious about my running.

Here is how 2010 and 2009 compared.

Cycling
	Rides	Total Distance	Max Distance
2010	83	1925	100
2009	70	1641	87
Running
	Runs
2010	86	370	8
2009	45	175	5.3

For 2011, I am thinking of focusing mainly on my running.  I would like to do a marathon towards the end of the year.  I am not sure how that will impact my cycling.  Some of the training plans I am looking over call for a couple of days of cross training per week, so my cycling will now be my cross training instead of my main focus, which means my cycling mileage will be less for the next year.

See you on the road.