Spinx Half Hype

Not as big of a hype as the CM half, since this is more of a progress check race.

I might've done too much training in the week before the race... not quite a proper taper. However, I still intend to race hard. I have a shot at an age group award, I think. It's hard to tell how I'm doing. I'm probably fitter than I was for the CM half, but I'm sort of training through this race.

REASONS TO BE FASTER:
- Fitter
- Fewer people to weave around... although not too much of an issue at the CM.
- No wear and tear from travel and expo
- Smarter about racing?
- Lighter shoes

REASONS TO BE SLOWER:
- Training through
- Hillier
- Fewer aid stations

SAME:
- Good temps

Ah... I should do alright, then? Maybe my goal will be a 7:50 pace... for 13.1? Sounds crazy fast. With the hills like they are, I'll need to anticipate when I'll naturally be faster and slower, so that I can stay on track. Must go for negative splits, especially with the big hills in the later half.

HILLAGE:
0-2 flat
2-4 fast
4-5 flat
5-6 fast
6-8 flat
8-10 sloooow
10-11 flat
11-12 slow
12-13 flat

AID:
3
5
6.6
8.3
10.5
... although it says that I should only see 4 stations, so maybe one of these isn't real.

Goal pace: 7:50... means time 1:42:37. They go by gun time, so that needs to include getting over the line. Boooooooooooo. For award purposes.

3:20 and 3:30 pace groups (1:40 and 1:45) are available, although they're focused on the full. I wonder if they plan to hit the half at an even split. I could potentilly start with the 3:30 and kick away at the end with a 1:00/mi pace increase for 2-3 miles. Dunno how trustworthy the pacers are. Should be okay. Dunno.

Oh man.

8:40 start... 10:30 finish. Could be a little warmer then. Man, that's late.

With only 4 Gatorade ops, I may bring some fuel. Gels are the easiest to down. Any fuel requires water b/c otherwise, it's sickly sweet. Maybe the 5 or 6.6, whichever one is first/real.

Clothing: Kinvaras... yes. Then, Oxysox. 5-pocket shorts and Pton bra... same as the CM half. Shades. No visor for wind resistance purposes... ah... maybe the shorter-billed, light ViziPro one. Since I'll be in the sun. Okay, we'll say yes visor for now.

That day, right now, temps are 41-67. Boo the late start. I like cold. Maybe if I'm expending lots of energy, I'll need the sun to warm me just as it gets warmer. Maybe it'll work out for the best.

Ooh, excited now. Having talked through all of this, I feel ready. Now to just take cae of myself (I should be sleeping). I'll foam roll myself now... maybe ice... maybe a bit more massaging of the TAs. Yeah. Psyched.

Oct 25

FIT:
Considered doing 5 / Strength / 3 / rest / rest / race. Doing 5 on top of 7.7 / 7 / 4 intervals would've been nuts, so I changed it up to bike instead. Legs were feeling a bit heavy today with very minor kinks anyway. Progression bike to keep fitness up and work stuff out. Pushed hard. Couldn't help it. Probably okay. B / Strength / 4 / rest / rest / race is the plan now.

Oct 24

FIT:
Rest day (or potentially recovery bike day) turned emergency run to de-stress turned intervals. Nice. My legs seem to be in that dreamy able-to-take-consecutive-days-of-decent-running mode. The last time I specifically remember this happening was in Pton in August, where I forced my legs into going consecutive days so that I could take advantage of the precious time I got to spend w/ LD there. It was hard, but my legs took it and grew stronger because of it. Same thing now, with 7.7, followed by 7.0+, and now 4.0 intervals.

Had a short but convicting/humbling conversation with a really good friend. Somehow, got into a self-pitying mode afterwards turned angry at myself and my life. I sound really roller-coastery, don't I? Kinda felt Hulk-angry, so I needed to blow off steam. No basketball court to shoot freethrows like I did once back in boarding school, no big open courtyard to throw a frisbee like I did in college, but there was the treadmill, and my legs were feeling surprisingly fresh, after being a little sore (rare) earlier today.

I was feeling great, so it turned into intervals. 1.5 warmup at a little less than 7.5mph, then 3x[1/2mi @ 9mph, 1/4mi @ 7.5mph], 0.25 cooldown. 4.0 in 30:02, 7:30 pace. Not bad, considering I wasn't going all out. Excited. Should be tapering for the half in one week, but 1) neeed the previous runs to keep things going for marathon training, 2) needed this one to get out emotions. I'll have to think through my training schedule for this week, in light of a commitment on Tuesday night. Maybe bike tomrrow, strength Tuesday, 6 Wed? 3 Thur? Maybe too much.

Oh, I ran sox-less, once again... 3rd day in a row. Maybe that's why I was sore. In any case, I used the Kinvaras today - maybe that's why I wanted to do intervals so bad. Felt good. Maybe I'll use it for the half. If it works there, why not the full? We'll see. 4.0 working fine in them... I could see 13.1 being a fair extension. Doubling that, though... anything could happen. We'll start with the half, if everything still looks okay then.

Oct 23

FIT:
Would've been a race report, except the race was more of a fun-walk. It was my company's 2nd annual 3k run/walk, which was really just a walking get-together. Since everyone was walking, it would've been awkward to be the only one to run, and they weren't timing anything, and I'm not sure they really measured the distance, so I just hung out at the very back. I saw one guy take off, so after maybe 30s of taking in the scenery, I chased. I caught up, and he started walking. It was awkward, b/c I had just chased to give him company. He seemed reasonably fit, but he'd run-walk at intervals. I didn't want to make him feel bad, so I just went off course and watched the HS's county XC meet for a little while before heading back on course and just leisurly jogging it in. Well, it was fun to see what it was like, and watching the kids runs is always fun. Since there were only 4 kids, there were many leftover plastic medals, so the adults got them too. Including my warmup, the intervalish "run", and jogging back to my car, maybe I covered 2 miles. I don't think it was really even a 3K. I was originally going to log it, but really... most of it was at warmup/cooldown pace with a bit of sprinting. Maybe I won't log it. It did make me tired, though. Or maybe it was just the 3-4 hrs of sleep I got.

I've been being very tired in the morning and day, napping once I got home, and then staying up until 1ish at night, then the cycle would repeat. Dead tired days. Hard to get out of the cycle. Maybe that's why ppl recommend just having a 30min nap. To me, that doesn't seem enough, but maybe it at least keeps you on schedule.

I was happy to be able to bank the planned 7 miles today, after the nap and dinner. 7.0 in 58:21, 8:20 ave. About marathon pace. Haha, I call my friend MP, but if you search for MP, you'd also get my references to Marathon Pace, so I've tried not to use MP, but I may do it anyways.

Umm... so no real issues. Lifting my knees more helped w/ knee issues that would otherwise start to come. Takes energy, though. Wore n3's w/ Spenco. Feels much less cushioned w/ Spenco vs. SofSol. Prob somewhat lighter, though. I was originally going to go in the Paramount, but I pronate too much in them, so I'll probably just keep that in the car as the emergency shoes for rando workout opportunities. I may put the Spenco insoles in those, since I seem to prefer Sofsol, although I don't like the Stability insoles much either, and those are the ones that are in there right now. Either way, I suppose.

Splits> 8:35, 8:33, 8:33, (26:34), 8:30, 8:22, 8:09, (52:21), 7:36. First half at about 7mph, then sped it up b/c felt better that way, and sped up even more at the end to get it over with.

Oct 22

FIT:
Treadmill base run, 1 degree as usual. Broke in my new blue 1224's for the first time - great shoe. My fav for training. Better than the Gel Evolution 3's. Back into training after laying off for a couple of days to let the left achilles recover. Had some kinks... right TA stiff and bangy, right knee maybe... don't remember much now. Okay, though. Took it easy b/c I need to get in some big mileage this weekend to make up for the time off.

Splits> 8:33, 8:33, 8:35, (26:33 5k), 8:32, 8:34, 8:33, (53:06 10k), 8:16, 5:10 for 0.7. Mostly 7mph but sped it up at the end b/c it was easy. Slow run overall, but just an easy mileage builder. Marathon pace, too. Quickie "race" tomorrow, company 3k.

Oct 19

FIT:
Yesterday, 1 hr on the bike, covered 15.1 miles. Used it to work out tight hammies. Due to wacky alignment of the bike (and maybe me), top left ankle got crammed a bit. Right hammie got a little cramped. Eh... not a chronic issue, so not too concerned.

Today, the Kinvaras came. Tried it in 3.1 in 24:46, 7:59 ave. After mile 1, took small steps, making a different kind of workout. Had to do it b/c my left calf and achilles have been tight. Got a little better yesterday, but aggravated somewhat again today. Maybe should give it a rest, but optimistically hoping it can somehow get worked out on its own. Hmm... can feel a knot. Been icing, but probably need to ice more.

Splits> 8:02, 8:02, 7:55, 0:46.

Shoes... super light, as if I'm not wearing shoes. Toebox is too big. Different feel. Clunkier than I would've thought for minimal shoes. Light though. We'll see. Didn't put arches in, so that I know what the raw shoe is like. Most ppl who reviewed it online have average arches. We'll see how my low ones do.

Oct 17

FIT:
Awww, I was hoping I just did 16, but it was reall just 15.1. Oh well, I'll take it. Thankful it went okay.

I had toyed with the idea of doing maybe 12 on the treadmill yesterday evening, but I figured that it may be smarter idea to give my post-race legs 24 hours of rest first. No need to rush. The week still had 1 day left to get in the LR. Then, I toyed w/ the idea of running at 7am, to have temps in the 40s, rather than in the 70s, like it would be the rest of the day after church. Well, I'd have to run the first 30 min in the dark, and if I wanted to make Sunday school, with a shower, I'd have to leave at 8:30 at the very latest, and that still would've only been a 1:30 run at best. Not safe to run in the dark, because of footing, not because of people.

So I thought about doing the treadmill, to have full shade and comparable 70s temps, but the treadmill is definitely not the same. First, it pulls you a bit, so you're not so much the one pulling during the initial phase of footstrike . Second, you have to adjust the speed by hand, whereas with running, you can naturally slow down or speed up depending on how your body is feeling. Third, with varied surfaces, your foot hits at different angles and works your stabilizers. That definitely takes more work, but it can help to be able to give certain nagging spots a rest by adjusting form. Not as much room to do that on the treadmill, which is always flat. You strike more or less the same way each time, so whatever form you're using, good or bad, you'll be doing it over and over again. So no treadmill.

It wasn't quite as terribly hot as I'd imagined, so to the run it was! Ate an apple and cheese in the car, clippped on my new Shuffle, visor, shades, pak w/ energy bar (didn't use b/c ended up getting queasy) and jelly bellies (finished the rest of the pack... 8 beans maybe), oxysox, and 1224's w/ stab. I've ordered replacement 1224's, since the current ones are approaching 300 miles, so I can go ahead and finish them off. Good shoes. They've served me well in long runs.

Umm... stopped to drink at the water fountain every 3 miles. Listened to podcasts a/b a guy running his final Boston as a way to go down fighting as arthritis or something sets in in his knee. It was shady maybe 60% of the time, which was good. The 40% was uncomfortable, but you just do it. No real issues. Hamstrings were better this morning, though still fairly sore. The run worked out most of the soreness though. Quads started getting a bit tired maybe 70% of the way in, but never lost too much strength. Stomach got queasy maybe 80% in. Right butt had a slight twinge of pulled-ness, but went away. Right knee got a wee bit grindy maybe 65% in, on the outside, but I did the old swing hips trick, and it seemed to help. It was mentally tough with 3 miles left, but I just told myself to think of it as a 3mile cooldown, where I could take it easy without feeling the need to finish strong, and that loosened up my stride and kept things fairly comfortable. It was tough, though.

Finished and just laid on the parking lot ground for a while. When I first got there, many people in matching t-shirts were parking - saw from the shirts that it was a Walk for the Homeless. Some were trickling back as I finished and collapsed. Many good Samaritans came by and asked if I was okay, needed water, needed them to call someone, etc. Later noticed many Presbyterian sickers on the cars in the lot. Good Samaritans.

I refueled w/ mixed greens and a bagel. Now, eating an orange an icing. I think I wanna try and bike tomorrow to get bloodflow to speed up recovery. Hope I recover okay. A year and a half ago, when I first got in to more serious running, each 16.6 miler got easier and easier, so hopefully, that's the case here. Oh man. I can't believe the 15 was that hard.

Splits> 15:20 p, 7:34 c, 7:36 p, 7:32 long b, 6:12 short p, 7:37 c, 7:36 p, 7:32 long b, 6:27 short p (ooh, slowed down), 7:45 c, 7:39 b (got some speed back), 7:37 long b, 6:16 short p, 7:46 c (slow again), 7:34 p, 7:53 long b (slooow), 10:03 car.

15.1 in 2:16:17, 9:02 ave. Used to beable to run 16.6 in less time than that... in ideal temps, though.