AM: Phil's Tavern Quarter Marathon - 12 miles total w/ 6.5 in 39:05 or just under 6:00 pace
The race was $15, they had cash, pies to age group winners, and breakfast so I signed up back in April. We got a decent break in the weather after the crazy storms on Thursday that I got caught in. A tick under 70 degrees to start with lowish dew point.
Warmed up 3.2 w/ a half mile steady. Changed into my flats and did some strides. Felt flat but my strides felt okay. We started 10 minutes late but it was announced and I was okay with that. They had drones to take video, which was so freaky because they were hovering at head level and looking at us.
Goal was to run just under 6:00 pace for a few miles, then start ripping off goal pace splits for Beach to Beacon (5:40-5:45) but I never really got there. Sections of the race were on very soft woodchips and very windy trail, some sections of wet grass, but mostly roads. I kind of enjoyed the cross country sections even though they slowed me down a good deal. Not really to much to report for the race.
I passed a few people and couldn't quite gut it out to pass the two guys ahead of me. I think I counted about 7-8 seconds on them at one point. I felt pretty stale the whole race and it was mentally tough. My breathing was pretty good, but legs just didn't want to turn over. I think part of my problem is I rarely run before 10:30 and this race was at 7:30, meaning I had to get up at 5:45, which never happens. Might need to think about some early runs for a number of reasons.
The mile markers seemed to be missing in at least one place, another time my watch split early, so I resplit about 9 seconds later to make sure it was on. However, below are the "smoothed" Strava splits (basically even if you don't split your watch Strava takes splits for you).
5:48, 6:21 (windy, wood chip trail), 6:00, 5:49, 5:57, 6:09 (hill, then grass and some soft, but dry mud for a good bit of this), 5:44 (for last half mile or so)
I split at 10k to get that running time, and ran the last .35 at 5:15 pace, which had a slight downhill at the end. 37:15 for 10k.
Not a great race but not terrible. I'm not going to dwell on it. I don't have too much LT stuff and nothing of any duration, which will probably bite me in three weeks but I also have a 5 mile race I will use as a final workout. Just going to keep rolling and beating my head against the wall and see if I can turn myself into a decent runner.
My former training partner ran a 5k PR today in 15:55 and he has gone sub-16 in a 4-miler. He runs a third of my mileage (or less) and he has been running about the same amout of time. I'm doing something wrong.
Run this afternoon with Megan. Hopefull she takes it easy on me. 10 minute guy might be in 1st place for the PM run.
PM: Forbidden Drive w/ Megan - 5 miles. HR 116?
My blood sugar dropped pretty seriously around mile 2 and I was very light headed and dizzy. Snapped out of it. Not sure if my monitor is working correctly. One mile I was running 100 BPM but it also corresponded almost exactly to when I was trying to keep from falling over. I enjoyed the run other than bonking at 10+ minute pace. HR got to 89-90 at one point.
| 