Last Quality Day Before the Monster Dash

So yesterday was the last day of hard training before the half-marathon on Saturday, and boy was it a good day.  I set out planning to do a 10 minute warmup, 3 miles at around 8:05 pace, and a 10 minute cooldown.  Instead, I did the first in 8:56, then I managed 8:00 for the next 3 miles, and finished it up with the last mile in 8:28.  I could've probably done the last mile faster, but I allowed myself to slow down after I had finished that 3rd 8:00 mile.  That totaled 5 miles in 41:30, which would give me an 8k time of 41:19.  I did over 44 minutes in the spring, and I think I could've done it slightly faster this time had I raced from the start (maybe by 30 seconds or so).

An average pace of 8:17 is getting into respectable territory.  Not great, but something I can not be ashamed of.  You heard it here first: I'm going to do the CrazyLegs again next year, and I'm going to get a time of under 40 minutes.

I am officially setting my goal for Saturday's race at 1:55.  It's a bit of a stretch I think, but it's worth a shot.

Long Run at Ideal Race Pace

Yesterday, I set out to do 8-10 miles at my ideal race pace, and ended up at 8.33 miles (details).  I did it at an average pace of 8:46 per mile, which would put me at a solid 1:55 half-marathon.  If I could do that, I would be ecstatic.  I couldn't have done it yesterday, I know that much.  I was pretty pooped at the end of it.  But again, I hadn't been preparing and eating healthy in the days before, so I think under race conditions it might be doable.  Only one more quality training day left (Tuesday) before the race; the rest will just be easy 30-50 minute runs at around 9:30 pace to recuperate.

Half-marathon Distance Run

Well, it had been about a month since I had run more than 10 miles, so I decided I had better do a long run to make sure I didn't lose any endurance.  It was actually quite a bit more difficult than my last run of this distance, which was 2 months ago.  Back then I did 13.1 in 2:03:25, and this time I hit 13.1 at 2:03:10, so it was slightly faster, but I think the effort required was much higher this time.  I'm hoping this doesn't mean I won't be able to achieve my goal at the Monster Dash in 2.5 weeks.  Here is the GPS data.

One thing that was nice is getting to test an outfit to see if it would be good to wear during the race.  Now I know what I will wear if it's around the same temperature (40 degrees).  Afterwards, that interior calf muscle injury that hadn't shown up for a long time made itself known.  I hope it doesn't hamper my training too much for the next couple weeks; I'd hate to lose any gains I've achieved in the last weeks before the race.

Half-marathon Race Pace Run

I think part of the reason I've been slacking off a little bit is that my training was too structured for too long.  I'll get back to it eventually, but sometimes you need to just be free to do what you want.  Today, I decided to go a bit farther than normal to make up for lack of running yesterday.  I also decided I wanted to do it at speeds that are close to my goal time for the half-marathon.  I ended up doing 7.3 miles in 1:05:10 for an average pace of 8:55 (details), which I'm pretty happy with.  I think I could've gone farther while maintaining that pace, but I didn't bring any hydration or gels, and I was pretty dehydrated by that point.

As I'm typing this, it's crazy for me to compare my current ability to the running I could do even 6 months ago.  The Crazylegs 8k (4.99 miles) was about 5.5 months ago and I barely broke a 9:00 pace for that.  If I were to run 7+ miles back then, I would have been lucky to break a 10:00 average pace.  Now, I still had some gas left in the tank and was able to achieve under a 9:00 pace.

My wife and I just signed up for a membership at Fitness 19, so there will be no excuses about it being too cold to run or anything this winter.  I also have set forth a minimum distance of 5 miles outside per week over the winter.  I had some setbacks in transitioning from treadmill to pavement last spring, and I want to try to avoid that next year.

All in all, I think the lull is over.  With the half-marathon coming up, I think I'm in a good place as far as motivation goes.  Hopefully I won't have a lull after the race, but I think I'll have to plan another race (perhaps the Polar Dash and some others) to make sure I keep training.

Time to get back on track.

Well, it's been a couple weeks since I last checked in, but I've only been running sporadically.  It got pretty busy with the wedding, but now the time for slacking is over.  Carena and I stayed at a hotel downtown for the weekend, which was quite fun.  It was rainy on Saturday, and we didn't want to have to deal with the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, so we used their treadmills inside their workout room.  It was a bit rough, because I last ran on the morning of the wedding.  6 days off may not sound like much, but it's easy for your legs and your mind to get complacent in that amount of time.  I had run outside Friday, and to kick-start the habit by getting some faster paced running in right off the bat.  Both times, I ran the first mile in 9:05, ran the second and third at 8:06, and ran the last somewhere between 8:45 and 10:00.  On Sunday, it ended up being 4.01 miles in 35 minutes for an average pace of 8:44.

The half marathon is at the end of this month, so I have to make sure I stick to the schedule from here on out.  I want to put in a strong showing, and I think 2 hours is definitely achievable.  I'm starting to think I might actually be able to produce something in the 1:55-1:58 range, which would be outstanding.  If I break 1:55, I think my goal for a half sometime in April or May of next year would be 1:50, which is starting to get to a respectable time.  If I'm able to break 1:45 sometime in the next year and a half, I will be ecstatic.  That seems like the point at which I would feel like I'm an amateur runner and not just a recreational runner.  But looking near term, if I can break 1:58, that'll be plenty for me.