I was curious to see how my marathon training (at least the
early weeks of it) would translate, when it came to a short and speedy
race. This is a race that I’ve only
gotten to do once before, due to travel conflicts, I suppose. It goes around the test track for BMWs, which
is pretty cool. The first time I did the
race, I had a sub-par performance time-wise, but I did snag 9th
place. It was during my first year
running post-college, so I was still pre-marathon then, and getting 9th
was special.
THE 2-WEEK
TRAINING LEAD-UP
Saturday,
September 5
My parents were visiting for the long weekend, but they
weren’t arriving til Saturday morning, which gave me a chance to squeeze in my
long run before they arrived. It would
be my first legitimate long run of this marathon training cycle, since I had
run/walked/geocached my first two (9 miler in NYC and 12 miler in DC) during
trips where I had wanted to kill 2 birds with one stone. 14.1 in 2:06:15, 8:56 ave, at the Swamp
Rabbit Trail spongy section. It was
cloudy, and temps were pretty decent.
Was able to do it without water or food (and with the cold). Had a spinach and apple smoothie before the
run. I signed up for my first virtual
race, as part of the facebook group “Hogwarts Running Club”, which was hosting
its 2nd annual Platform 9 ¾ K run.
I considered doing a fast-finish run, with the last 6 miles counting as
my race, but I didn’t have enough in me left to do a race effort at the end, so
I’ll do that virtual race another time.
The trail had tons of runners on it – the most I remember seeing at
once. Could’ve potentially done another
lap, by my parents had arrived, so I headed out to meet them after 14.1.
Monday – Labor Day – Hiked Big Creek Trail in Tennessee. I found a geocaching trackable in Milwaukee
that wanted to go to places without cell phone reception, and this hike fit the
bill. I was proud of my mom, who
completed the 10-mi hike. It’s a nice
hike, with a wide and straightforward trail that just follows the river the
whole way, out-and-back. During a rest
stop, we were taking pictures, and my dad slipped both legs into the creek by
accident, which was pretty funny. Probably
not too comfortable to hike 6 miles with wet sneakers and jeans, though.
Tuesday, September
9:
Treadmill intervals, at 1 degree of incline. 5.0 in 36:07, 7:13 ave. This was after pulling myself out from a
nap. My legs were surprisingly ready and
fast from the start. 1 mi warmup in 8:03,
4x[9mph for 0.75 mi (5:01), 7.5mph for 0.25 (1:59)], 7.5mph for 0.25. 4 reps either ties or exceeds the most reps
I’ve done at 9mph for 0.75mi.
Surprised! Felt easy, given the
pace. I wonder if it’s because I was
rested from the long weekend, mentally and physically.
Wednesday, September
10:
55 min strength session.
My legs weren’t runnable Friday night, but I was looking
forward to getting to run the next morning, and I was excited about being able
to do a Spartan race again about a month from now. It’s funny… on Friday evenings before long
runs, I’m typically so excited about getting to do my long run the next morning
that I stay up late because it feels like it will come sooner. By the morning, after I do fall asleep,
though, it is more of a chore to get myself out the door.
Saturday,
September 12:
Second legitimate long run.
16.0 in 2:22:33, 8:54 ave, at the spongy trail. Had eaten a full breakfast 2 hrs prior (then
had gone back to sleep), because I had been hungry. Did the run without water and food during it,
although there were times where I craved a hearty almond butter sandwich,
oddly. I also craved lemony water with
salt. My arms felt a bit catabolized in
the last couple of miles. I was
scheduled to do an easy 6 miler this day, but I decided to bring forward the 16
miler to this week, and to do the 6 next week, because next week, it would be
hard to fit in a long run, schedule-wise.
It was doable, too, since I had only had 1 1true long run, so I wasn’t
beat up.
Sunday – did 6 hrs of geocaching, to finish up the Hub City
Geotrail, put on by the City of Spartanburg.
It’s a challenge where you need to find 20/25 special caches placed
around the city, and if you do, you earn a special Spartanburg geocoin. I had done about half of it during my
previous trip. My laptop hard drive
died, though, and I lost all of the codes that I had recorded to prove that I
had found those caches, so I ended up re-visiting them all, during this second
trip.
Monday, September
14:
I was scheduled to do that 2 mile race on Friday, so I knew
I had to fit in runs early in the week, to do a taper later in the week. I also wanted to get in miles before my next
trip made training difficult to fit in.
6.0 in 49:47, 8:18 ave, 2 degrees of incline = 7:40 effort. I watched the American Ninja Warrior 3-hr
final while doing this, and it was such good motivation. I pushed the pace pretty hard.
Tuesday, September
15:
I would’ve normally done 4, to keep it easy for the upcoming
race, but I ended up doing 6, to fit in miles.
I decided that the race would be one where I’m somewhat “training
through” (aka, not pulling back on training in order to be more rested for the
race, even though it may harm my race performance). BMW wasn’t my A-race, but the marathon was. I had tried to nap after dinner, because I was
tired, but I was also wired, so I couldn’t fall asleep. That made getting out the the gym a bit
easier. Work’s been intense this
week. I had great motivation again
during today’s run – NBC Sports was showing Spartan Race episodes! They’ve started televising the race, and it
was fun to watch. 6.0 in 49:57, 8:20
ave, 2 degrees of incline = 8:00 effort.
THE RACE:
Warm evening! My legs
were feeling heavy that day. Sometimes,
my body surprises me, though, and I’ve had some great races on days where my
legs felt heavy. I remembered this race
feeling very crowded, the last time I did it.
It wasn’t too bad this time, though.
I did start like in the second row.
The first 0.5 mi is a straight stretch, with a downhill that we come
back up before mile 0.75. Then,
winding. I ran extra distance by having
to take the outer side of the turns, to get around people, but it was necessary. I hit mile 1 in 6:21. Just before the race, while waiting in the
car for the start, I had used the McMillan Race Predictor to see what a 6:00
mile would equate to… 6:22, so that was spot-on. I have run a 5:48 before, in more recent
years, but I had done 6:00 consistently during college, so I figured that was a
good typical day. I kept it up and
logged the second mile in 6:26… maybe a bit of fade, maybe the curves, but it
was awesome to be so close to my goal time.
The fastest male finished sub-10.
I surprisingly got 2nd.
Oh, after the race, they had German beer – awesome. It was refreshing and awesome. I got a Spaten Optimator. Thank you, BMW!
2.0 in 12:47.
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