17 mile long slow run

I finally finished a long run and it felt good.  I did exactly as John Bingham once said, “start slow and continue tapering down.”  I finished 17 miles in 3:29:53.  Now, on to watching tonight’s UFC fight.

Progress last week

I finally had a good long run.  I woke up before 5:00 am on Saturday and was on the trail for a 16 mile run before 5:30 am.  I felt strong after the run.  This coming weekend, I will reduce my mileage to 13.1 miles as I use the Chicago Rock ‘n Roll half marathon to supplement my Chicago marathon training.

And I was able to do some speed work too.  Three 10K time trials at 60:59, 60:27, and 59:50.  I plan to do two more 10K time trials before the Chicago half marathon on Sunday.   hope to do both of them in the 59:00 to 60:00 range.

Too much heat and humidity, not enough sleep

Why do I always do this?  I planned to run 16 miles today.  But I abused my body again.

I was up until 12:30 am, watching television.  6 hours later, I woke up.  I was out the door at 7:20 am but it was too darn hot and humid.  I could only go 10 miles in 2 hours.  I probably could have pushed to get 16 miles but I was slowing down significantly and did not want to risk injury /sickness in the heat and humidity.

12 more weeks until the Chicago marathon.  I’ll try for the 16 miler again next weekend.  This time though, I need to follow some basic rules.

1.  Get 8 hours or more of sleep the night before.

2.  Eat a sensible dinner and a sensible breakfast.

3.  Wake up at 5:00 am.  Waking up past 6:30 am when the sun has already been up for 30 minutes, just is too much if I am going to run 16 miles.   By the time I hit the trail, temperatures are already soaring.

13 weeks to go and still out of shape

My goal for the Chicago marathon in 13 weeks is to run it between 4:45 and 5:00.  I did a 13 mile training run last Saturday and it took me over 2.5 hours in the summer heat.  I have 13 weeks to improve on that to reach my goal.

I have an unusual schedule for the Chicago marathon.  Three weeks before the Chicago marathon, I entered the Air Force marathon in Dayton, Ohio.  I will attempt one of my 20 mile long runs during the Air force marathon.  I might drop off after mile 20 and see how I am doing.  I’ve never done this before but I really appreciate the well supported course at Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton.

First DNR

I am registered for the Cleveland Marathon to be half on Sunday, May 16.  I will be a “DNR – did not run” for this one.  I did not get enough training this Spring for a marathon so I will have my first ever DNR.  Next possible marathon date will be in September for the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, Ohio.

Scratch Cleveland Marathon

I made a decision today not to run the Cleveland Marathon, which is in six weeks due to the following reasons.

1.  Got sick twice this year already which has hampered training.  I’m also starting to feel sick again this weekend as I started coughing and seem to be experiencing the first stages of a sore throat.  I need to be careful.

2.  Too busy at work with an expanded role (still the same company)

3.  Winter was terrible with snow almost everyday in Ohio from January to early March set me behind in my training

Next marathon will likely be in September when I run the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, Ohio.  Last year, my first of three marathons was in July at San Francisco.  This year, I still want to run three marathons but it might be crammed into a three month period from September to November.  Hopefully I will be in great shape by then.

With six weeks to go, the longest run I have done is only 13.1 miles and it is just too difficult for me right now to get up to marathon fitness level in that time span.  However, I will run the Cleveland Half Marathon.  My goal for that race is to set a half marathon PR.

Thus, this is the 2010 marathon race schedule as it stands (I’m still finalizing the half marathon schedule):

Marathons – 3

1.  Air Force in Dayton, Ohio (mid September)

2.  Chicago Marathon (early October) – already registered

3.  Marine Corps Marathon (late October) – already registered

I figured that since I did two marathons in two weeks last year, hopefully I can handle 3 marathons in a nine week span in the Fall.

Spring is here! Racing season has started.

Here are my excuses for not posting on my blog and running perhaps only once or twice a week for the past two months.

1. Usual workaholic stuff … internal merger between three divisions in the company, corporate restructuring, my taking over three roles. I used to work a lot before. But now with the new restructuring, I have three times the responsibility. since I assumed my new role three weeks ago, I’ve been working 12-16 hour days. Yesterday was the first time I was able to leave the office at 2:30 pm for a 6 hour work day. The great thing though is my direct reports increased. Therefore, I have enough staff to help me and hopefully provide me with more opportunities to run.

2. I was sick for about two weeks and unable to run.

3. Snowmageddon. Almost every day from late January to early March, there was snow in Ohio. Hard to run.

Thus, last Sunday I ran the New York City half marathon with a total of 1 long training run comprising 12 miles the week before. This was my 3rd NY half marathon and my 25th half marathon over-all. I was pleasantly surprised at the results as I was able to run at a 10:05 per mile pace over the 13.5 mile course (yes, that’s right 13.5 miles and not 13.1 according to my GPS). With the lack of training, I was expecting a 10:20 to 10:30 per mile pace over the hilly Central Park loop and downtown Manhattan course. However, the weather was perfect and this helped me run a faster than expected pace.

I am thrilled that the weather has improved and I look forward to the coming Spring season races. Next up is a mini marathon 15K in Cincinnati, Ohio.

2nd 10K treadmill time trial of the year

The temperature has improved and is now in the low 40s but the days are short and the nights are long.  Off to another Friday night treadmill run at the gym yesterday.  My 1st treadmill 10K time trial a couple of weeks ago was at 58:45.  Last night’s run was a slight improvement by 10 seconds at 58:35.  Goal this year is to get it down to below 54:00.  Still a long way to go.

Interview with Shalane Flanagan After Winning Houston Half Marathon

Shalane Flanagan won the Houston Half Marathon in 1:09:41, which is roughly the same time as Deena Kastor’s win in Phoenix.  Here is an interview with her after her win in her debut half marathon.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7223462

Video of Deena Kastor’s Rock ‘n Roll Arizona Half Marathon Win

On Sunday, January 17, Deena Kastor won the P. F. Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Arizona Half Marathon in a time of 1:09:43.  No woman competitor was even close to her with the 2nd place finisher clocking in at over 1:17.  Here is a video of her race.  It covers most of her miles.  You can see that she is quite an efficient and strong runner when the camera does close-ups of her running style.

http://running.competitor.com/