Holy epic run batman!

joehempel

Well today was a win.

I have my Half-Marathon on November 11 and wanted to get one more long run in before I taper next week. I planned 12 miles, but ended up doing 11...I was about crying by the last mile....the last hill took it out of me.

Anyway, the first 5.8 miles featured a downhill at the beginning for about a mile, and then 4.8 of an uphill run.
Then it was pretty much all downhill from there

All except for the lake and the rolling up hill stuff. I ran a bit harder than I probably should have for this long run, but I didn't feel like I was killing myself uphill, and then I wasn't feeling it until about mile 9 on the way back. But going up that last hill heading into the home stretch, killed me. I decided that I was going to stop at 11, and just do a recovery walk. My final time was 1:40:41, that put me at 9:09 per mile. I can't tell you how happy I am with that. My goal is to run the half marathon in under 9:30 per mile. It's now become apparent to me that I need to shoot for under 2 hours, which I didn't think was going to be possible until next year. The Half-Marathon Course is pretty much flat, with a couple hills....and if I can maintain for 5.8 miles 9:14 and under running hills, I think I have a chance to drop it a few seconds per mile and finish strong. As they say....pics or GTFO, so here's the link to my garmin report, and the image with the elevation change zoomed in.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239207177




sorry the image is so small....here is a direct link:
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn58/jhempel24/garmin.jpg

arc918

Great job!

Your key to breaking two hours is going to be staying disciplined at the start. Don't get swept up in all the excitement. You need to go out and run at your pace (no faster than 9:00) and "make an investment in your future" as it were.

No going out at 8:30 for the first 10K to "put some time in the bank," as it is the wrong approach. At mile 10 you can pick up the pace if you are feeling great. If not, you should be in a good position to stay right on pace and click off those last few miles.

joehempel

Im going to try my hardest to do just that!! The garmin has been an invaluable tool!

arc918

Im going to try my hardest to do just that!! The garmin has been an invaluable tool!

If the race has pace groups, they can be helpful too. Just be prepared to let them go on ahead if you find they are running too fast.

With the Garmin, I find lap pace (w/ one mile autolap) to be much more useful than "current pace."

joehempel

Im going to try my hardest to do just that!! The garmin has been an invaluable tool!

If the race has pace groups, they can be helpful too. Just be prepared to let them go on ahead if you find they are running too fast.

With the Garmin, I find lap pace (w/ one mile autolap) to be much more useful than "current pace."

Thats what I use

bonjour24

great run, joe. lining yourself up to run a fab half!

joehempel

I'm hoping!! I'm *crossing fingers* injury free, and feel damn good!

LeelaLosing

you're gonna do great, you're ready physically and mentally. if you stick to your pace, you will probably be able to kill it the last two miles....with the race adrenalin on your side :-)

GreatSetOfBrains

Well done

marikevr

Great job!

Your key to breaking two hours is going to be staying disciplined at the start. Don't get swept up in all the excitement. You need to go out and run at your pace (no faster than 9:00) and "make an investment in your future" as it were.

No going out at 8:30 for the first 10K to "put some time in the bank," as it is the wrong approach. At mile 10 you can pick up the pace if you are feeling great. If not, you should be in a good position to stay right on pace and click off those last few miles.

Totally agree with this!

And the little b**** in me finds nothing more satisfying than passing the runners in the second half that started out too fast. :bigsmile:
Good luck and enjoy, let us know how it went.

joehempel

I ran a 10k last month and within the first 1/2 mile this woman was breathing so hard I almost pulled up next to her to ask if she was okay. She went out soooo fast, and ended up coming in dead last.

I'm hoping I don't fall victim to going out too fast in this race.