Whoa there

I decided to set up my watch for my new pace zones; this was supposed to keep me at 10:30 minute miles.  As you can see, it failed.  My mistake came when I set the lower alarm to 10:00 instead of 10:10, which would be the same 40 second window that I've been training with.

So, after I finished the run, I set the 'too fast' alarm to 10:10 for Monday.  Wouldn't want to be gasping for breath on my first training run of the new series...

Happy Anniversary

22 years ago, I was somehow able to convince a beautiful young woman to marry me, and then, in spite of my bumbling and failures, she decided to stick with me.  I truthfully say that other than Jesus Christ, my wife Brandy is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Ok, enough with the mushy stuff...It's good that I'm averaging 10:30 minute miles as that will be my slowest pace for the next 5 weeks.  It's the new 11:27 easy pace...

No Schedule...for this week...

I wasn't trying to make all my miles the same time; I was just running.  I think I'll do 5 on Friday and maybe something on Saturday.  Still not sure how much on Saturday if any...

Next week, I get back into training with runs of 7 miles on Mon and Wed, speedwork quarters on Tue and half's on Thu, and long run of 10 on Sat - roughly 36 miles.  I ran this same schedule after my race in Nov to prep for my Santa Hustle race in Dec; I shaved ~16 minutes off my half marathon between those races, so I know it works.  I don't think I'll get another 16 minute improvement, but I do think I'll have a good shot at a PR.

Race Report: Sam Costa Half Marathon

You know when I post the day of the race that I think I did pretty good, and you are correct in your assumption!  I am very happy with this race especially considering the rotten training that I had the past couple of weeks.

The day was cool (32 degrees at race start, 40 at the end) and cloudy.  I did something new this race; I wore the race tech shirt for the race.  I had on a long sleeve underarmour type shirt, so throwing the short sleeve tech shirt on didn't risk any chaffing or irritation due to being new.

My plan, which I carried out nearly perfect, was to set my pace alarms to keep me at my long run pace of 10:17.  I knew that I could complete the race at that pace and would have been somewhat happy with the result.  The change in pace at mile 7 was also part of the plan - "Make the 'too fast' pace alarm scream until the end."

That pace alarm was set to 9:57, and I was mostly successful in keeping it in constant alarm. You can see that each of my miles after the mid point of the race were under 10 min/mile.

Here are some interesting stats from the race: (you can look these up HERE. Bib #399)

7 mile split:  1:11:46
Pace at 7 miles: 10:16
Rank at 7 miles: 447

10 mile split:  1:41:15
Pace at 10 miles: 10:08
Rank at 10 miles:  441

Last 3.1 miles: 0:30:37
Pace for last 3.1 miles: 9:53
Rank for last 3.1 miles: 372 (meaning 372nd fastest last 3.1 miles)

Last 1.1 miles: 0:10:37
Pace for last 1.1 miles: 9:39
Rank for last 1.1 miles: 358

Net time: 2:11:52
Pace: 10:04

Place
Overall: 423/522
Males: 271/311
M45-49: 30/34

Takeaways:  I beat 99 people, 4 of which were in my age group, 40 of which were guys.  This was a very competitive race as it was an Indy Runners' race, so there weren't many, if any, walkers in the half.  The midpoint time for my age group was around 1:45:00; that's pretty darn fast.

So, I'm very pleased with this race and am more motivated to get out there and train hard for the next 5 weeks for the 500 Festival Mini.

PS. Because I know my father-in-law will want to know: M65-69 winner's time was 1:33:21; 2nd place was 1:39:49.

Training All Done

It hasn't been very good training for a half marathon, and I'm thinking that I'll run the first half of the race this Saturday around this pace.  Let's all recite Rusty's three rules for running races:

1. Don't walk.
2. Don't stop.
3. Don't die.

As long as I follow the rules, I'll be ok.

Back in Indiana

I didn't even look at the schedule when I purposed to run 5.  As you can see, I only ran 4; I thought it was 5 miles to Debaun's Automotive Service where the Murano was getting an oil change.  Turns out I was wrong.  I think I added some mileage in the subdivision when I've run this route before.

It wasn't as enjoyable running the 40 degree weather...just sayin'...

Beware the ides...of March

I have no [ewe] on my keyboard on the laptop, so I'll be s[ewe]bbing [ewe] for it.  Last r[ewe]n in Florida for a while; time to get back to Indiana...sigh.

Eight

So, I'm down in Inverness, FL and set out on a run around 8 am with a goal of 8 miles.  I ate a little before eight to fuel my run.  The temp was around 48 degrees, so the first mile was a little cool.  But my long sleeve shirt was plenty to keep me warm until I got into the run.

It has been pretty nice to run in this Florida weather; I'm ready for spring in Indy now!

This is More Like It

What 'It' is, I don't know, but if I did know, this would be more like 'It'.  Say more than a purple elephant in a lime green tutu would be like it.  Anyways, I ran this with my father-in-law for the first/last mile, and his friend Stephen joined us for the middle 5 miles. 

If you couldn't tell from yesterday's post, we're down in Inverness, FL visiting my father-in-law and his wife.  When I say we, I mean Brandy, Trace, Brandy's grandfather (my father-in-law's dad), and me.

I'm supposed to do easy running from now until the 23rd; this didn't quite qualify for easy, but it was close, I reckon.  I'll take tomorrow off and then try to get out for 7 or 8 easy miles on Thursday, meaning between 10:07 and 11:47 minute pace.

Forgive Me Father-In-Law

It has been 9 days since my last run.  I could list the excuses, some of which are valid, but I'm sure you are not really interested.  Finally today, I was able to get this three miler in after we got back from spending the day over in Ormand Beach/St. Augustine area.  I ran around my father-in-law's little island - back and forth and back and forth.  It was dusk when I started and dark when I finished, but at least I got off my dead butt and did something. 

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get out for five and get this training back into something of a shape.  I'm definitely trying to salvage whatever I can for my race on the 23rd, but I'm not hopeful that it will go very well.  This training cycle has had too many gaps, too much bitten off, and too much slacking as of late. 

10 Long

29 degrees.

Slight wind.

Flurries.

Cloudy.

Wore my tights as I just didn't feel like being cold.