Sunday, September 23, 2007

week of 17 Sep

Mo -4.68
1.5 nbhrd laps. wp7-3?

Tu - 13.35
Ran to work the long way. wp7-1?

We - 11.7
This was tough. Flew to the west coast this morning and ran at 3:30 in the afternoon, but the temp was great. Winds were 20 mph, gusting to 30 though. Did 52:44 warmup. Uncertain of the distance, but for the part was on a marked trail, I was hitting the half mile markers right at 9:10 pace. I figure the first 10 minutes were maybe 10 min/mi. Best geuss is 5.5 miles for that warmup. Then did 6x880 on the track (someone said it was a quarter mile track) shooting for 3:20 per half mile. Did quarter mile rests (2:13 to 2:21). I faded in the intervals: 3:20, 3:19, 3:22, 3:23, 3:23, 3:23. Pretty bummed, especially since Yasso says I should be able to do 3:15 to run a 3:15. Of course, I flew cross country and there were sustained 20mph winds down the straightaway. Jogged ~2 miles for cooldown. 5.5 + 4800m + 2000m + 2 = 11.7. wp7-2

Th - Rest
Should have run in the morning when I had a chance.

Fr - 11.25
8.3 lake a loop, plus 0.02, plus 2.93 nbhrd loop. First run with my shiny new forerunner 305. Distances were spot on with what I've been using. Traveled back from the west coast today and ran at night, which I never do. Averaged 159 bpm for the last 1.1 miles. wp7-2

Sa - 8.3
VERY HUMID. Dew point of 70. I debated doing 1) 40 min easy, 2) lake A loop easy, or 3) lake A loop w/ tempo. I unwisely chose 3. Did first 10 minutes at tempo bagged the second 10 minutes about a minute in. Walk, jogged home. Felt fried. #1 would have been the right choice. wp7-2

Su - 13.56?
I planned to do 20, but after 3 laps felt like crap and wanted to quit, so I did. Nice day. Low humidity and no real weather excuses. The half marathon last sunday, travel, and a string of pretty hard runs left me out of gas I guess. Qualifying is looking very unlikely. gps said 4.52 per lap. A friend biked this and got 4.57 and folklore is it was wheeled as 4.60. I've always used 4.6 before. I can believe the GPS is off because there are some windy parts that I'm sure it cuts through. Close enough though. wp7-3

week
63 miles, 9h42m
wp7-1: 384 + 13 = 397
wp7-2: 357 + 31 = 388
wp7-3: 261 + 19 = 280

Sunday, September 16, 2007

parks half marathon


I went in thinking I had a shot at 7 min/mi pace. It's a bit of a stretch since my 10-mile PR from the spring is 6:59 per mile and this is a harder course, but I'm counting on improving if I'm going to run 3:15 at MCM and qualify. A 1:10:49 10-miler projects to 7:05 per mile half according to McMillan.

I started out the race with the 7:00-7:15 pacer to make sure I didn't go out too fast. We hit the first mark at 7:13 and I thought it felt slow. I wanted to take advantage of the downhill (he was running even splits off his garmin), so I left him and ran 6:46 on the next downhill mile. Mile 3 was 7:03 -- good -- and then miles 4 and 5 were 7:15 and 7:09 -- not so good. Then I hit a groove: 7:00, 7:00, 6:59, 6:59, 6:53, and 7:03. I was at 1:10:25 at mile 10 (25 secs behind 7mm pace), thinking maybe by some miracle I could speed up and recover the time. Then the steep hill just before 11 broke me and I started to fade (the rest of the course being uphill didn't help). 10-12 was 14:48 or 7:24 per mile (missed mile 11). Last 1.1 was 8:14 (7:24 pace). Well the end of the story is the 7:00-7:15 pacer passed me in the last quarter mile. Ugh.

Heart rates/splits were 174 (7:13 -- HRM was way off for the first mile), 173 (6:46), 7:03 (178), 7:15 (177), 7:09 (178), 7:00 (178), 7:00 (179), 6:59 (179), 6:53 (180), 7:02 (180), 14:48 (7:24, 180), 8:14 (7:25, 180). Somehow the software calls the average 180? I think the HRM's trouble in the first mile screwed up the averaging. My math from the splits says ~178. I averaged 180 and 182 in my previous halfs. I averaged 180 at the 10-miler in the spring though.

It's looking pretty grim for 3:15. 1:33:27 is slower than a 1:09:49 10 miler. Am I really in worse shape? Well, it was a harder course and I didn't push myself quite as hard, but I expected to be farther along. McMillan puts me at 3:17 based on the half, but other calculators still say 3:14-3:15. It looks like there's a good chance I'll finish just out of the money. I'm thinking of going back to what I was doing in the spring -- intervals on Tues and tempo on Thursday -- instead of what I'm doing now -- more mileage but only doing intervals or tempo once a week. With 6 weeks left though, maybe I should just dance with the one (Pfitz 70mpw) that brung me though.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

week of 10 Sep

Mo - Rest

Tu - 8.7

HRM reading looked solid, so I guess I just ran that badly over the weekend. It ran out of memory in the near the end of the warmup though and I had to delete 9/8 (43:28/152) and restart. Ugly humid. At 6am, 73.2 degrees with a dew point of 72.5 (98% humidity). I went to the elem school 0.1-mile track and did a lap. (2.93 + 1.8 + 0.1 = 4.83). Then I did 3 laps for each interval with 1.5 laps jog in between. I couldn't read my watch for the first 2 until I hit the lap button. (5 * 0.3 + 4 *0.15 = 2.1) I was aiming for 2 minutes (6:40 pace). They went: 2:04 (173), 2:02 (178), 1:58 (182), 2:01 (181), and 2:00 (184). The number in parentheses is the bpm at the lap mark. Overall they were pretty easy, but I think they should have been. Did the half nbrhd lap to cool down (1.75). Total 4.83 + 2.1 + 1.75 = 8.68. Unbelievably humid. Temp 73.2. Dew pt 72.5.
wp7-2

We - 13.35
58 degrees!!!!!! Turns out it was still 97% humidty, but 58 degrees! I had to take advantage of this, so I planned to do something like the Pfitz medium long run I was supposed to do. It was dark and I was running with a headlamp, so keeping my pace up early on the trail was tough. I also stopped my watch at the traffic lights, which I don't normally do. Splits were
  • 21:05/~130 (HRM messed up early)/9:22 per mile, 2.25
  • 30:53/145/9:13 (trail, mostly with headlamp), 3.35
  • 21:12/148/8:35, 2.47
  • 23:20/153/8:01, 2.91 (rolling, net dowhill)
  • 3:31/152/:35, 0.41 (half up a steep hill)
  • 16:25/159/8:20, 1.97 (down and up huge hill)
These distance only add up to 13.36 and I always though this was 13.8? Uh oh. If 13.36, the overall pace is 8:42. If 13.8, it's 8:26. Crap. I've been double counting the 0.45 on my "13.8" mile runs to work. Ugh. It should have been 10.45 - .45 + 3.35 = 13.35.
wp7-3

Th - 5.86 am; 4.11 pm
AM - Did two laps in the neighborhood. 9:02 min/mi @141 (HRM read way high first 5 minutes). PM - slogged around in the afternoon heat. wp7-2?

Fr - 4.68
I feel pretty beat up (but not injured) after the last three days. Only doing 5 today and tomorrow before the half marathon. wp7-2?

Sa - 4.68
1.5 nbhrd loops. Felt slow for the HR. HRM was off again for first 8-10 minutes. Last half loop was 16:02/139 compared to yesterday 16:10/136. wp7-3

Su - 1 mile w/up, half marathon 1:33:27
separate post for the race. wp7-3

wp7-3
week
55.5 miles, 8h1m
shoes
wp 7-1: 384
wp 7-2: 333 + 24 = 357
wp 7-3: 229 + 32 = 261

Friday, September 07, 2007

week of 3 Sep

Mo - Rest

Tu - 13.35
Schedule for 15. I just ran the long way to work. Held a pretty strong pace the whole way. Stopped my watch at most of the lights so I could figure out my pace. Squeaked in under 2 hours (1:59:48). 8:58 pace. 147 bpm average. With the weather improving, I'm able to get in more strong runs. Hopefully it will be in time to get ready for the marathon.
wp7-3

We - recovery 5.86 am, recovery 4.11 pm
Two nbrhd loops in the morning. One and the short half loop in the afternoon.
wp7-3

Th - recovery 6.0
Did an out and back to the lake, because I'm sick of the nbhrd loop. Ran to the lake (including >2 minutes at the light), ran about 7 minutes clockwise, then doubled back home. It's two and a quarter to the lake, so I'm calling this 6 miles.
wp7-2

Fr - 10.45 w/ 2x16 minute tempo
The schedule called for the infamous 12 w/7 @tempo. No way was I doing that. I had in my mind that I'd do at most 40 minutes at tempo. I couldn't do it all at once because of traffic lights, etc. I did a straight in run to work (10.45) in 1:29:32 (8:34 pace), stopping my watch if the lights were too long (which I normally don't do). The first tempo portion was 15:56/168 in 2.21 (7:13) pace. I felt like I couldn't get my heart rate up to where it should be. During the second one I felt like did a little better. I didn't really feel I picked it up until the second half though. I was surprised to see 8:05 at a familiar point during the interval, because I remembered that it meant I was on about 7:00 pace (7:03 actually). Overall the second interval was 16:49/176 for 2.39 miles (6:59 pace). It was probably a little better as I kept having to run around cars at the intersection. It happened at least 3 times (all in the second half). Temperature was pretty constant. 69 degrees, 65 dew point (88% humidity). At times it felt like I had a good "swing" going where my arms were smoothly in rhythm with me legs. They probably swung farther in front of me than usual though and I assume that means I was heel striking more? I'm not sure. I think smooth is a good thing though and I'll try to get in that mode again. Perhaps I can increase my cadence and avoid the heel striking.
wp7-3

Sa - 4.68
The HRM reading were way off at the beginning and even after I broke a sweat they seemed wrong. About 5 bpm too high and went way up on small hits (hit 160 jogging). I thought my battery might be going. 43:28/152. wp7-1.

Su - 20.3
Holy cow that was ugly. My heart rate was high, but I ignored it because I thought the HRM was running out of batteries. Now I'm pretty sure it was me. Still at 4 laps (18.4 miles) I was a little ahead of my pace last weak, but it was way harder (and my heart rate was much higher). I stopped at the bathroom though to wash up. (I had a spectacular fall on lap 4 and scraped my knee and hands a little.) After that I didn't have any will except to very slowly trot the last two miles. Overall average was 158 bpm or something crazy.What doesn't kill us makes us stronger? It was about the same temp as last week, but much, much more humid.
wp7-3.

week
65 miles, 9h46m
shoes
wp 7-1: 379 + 5 = 384
wp 7-2: 327 + 6 = 333
wp7-3: 185+ 54 = 229