July (2016) Running Challenge

Alex did well on his 5k. It was a hilly course. His OT was 31:18. Stellar! He's impressed with himself. He walked a bit. Loved the challenge of the hills. And believes he could do a 25 min 5k no problem, less hilly of course. Even mentioned signing up for another ASAP.

Here he is pre-race with nerves of steel with that "Please Mother" look. Oh, that's DH creepin' in the back.



I got a pic of him mid race, his form looks good. I am not quick enough to get to the finish line. I'm hoping there will be race photos.

Thanks everyone for your encouragement! I think I have a runner!

Okay really late starting but a crazy weekend
c25k week 7 day 2 done-very slowly, but done
Can I just say I'm in awe of everyone's training and achievements. Fair play to all!!

Four miles on the 4th of July! That's my longest distance so far.

Running around the neighborhood, seemed like everyone was out having a barbecue. So many good smells. The Prairie Path was remarkably uncrowded for a holiday, and with such nice weather... didn't even hit 80 degrees today. It was a really good day for a run.

Also, congrats to everyone who raced this weekend!

@respectthekitty I have a guy near me that bbq's on every special occasion, I always tell him I'm coming back for dinner
@stoshew71 great pictures
@MNlittleFinn Fantastic race - congrats!
@9voice9 super race!!! 60K runners way too many for me LOL
@whatmerunning sounds like the weather matched the race. Glad you were feeling good enough for the 5K though
@greenolivetree when Skip would get real mucusey (is that a word) with asthma we would bowl water in a pot on the stove and then put her over to to breathe with a towel over her head, it would break it up.

Went hiking today with Skip. So an active rest day. It was a few miles of trail in a Canyon but we did so quite a bit of up and down climbing on things. She swam in a waterfall...no thanks in 50F water. Great day,

6/1- Rest
6/2- Rest
6/3- Rest
6/4- 13.1

Total: 13.1/70

Red White and BOOM Race Recap.

I ran the Red White and Boom! half marathon today. Temps were in the mid to upper 60s with high humidity and full sun for most of the race.

I lined myself up right near the 2:20:00 pacer and waited for the race to start. about 5 minutes before start, I ate the HoneyStinger energy gel I had with me.

At the gun (airhorn actually) I headed off at what felt like a good pace.

Miles 1 and 2 relatively flat 23 and 10 foot elevation gains in 10:08, and 10:06 good start to the race

Mile 3: 20 foot elevation gain in 10:01 still feeling pretty darn good

Miles 4-5 Here's where I hit the big hill for the run, Mile 4 was basically a downhill then the beginning of the big hill. Mile 5 peaked the hioll and started gradual down. Ran them in 9:54 and 9:53 respectively.

Miles 6 and 7. Both very gradual downhills that I ran in 9:37 and 9:44 respectively, not quite feeling fresh, but feeling decent for being over half way through. split at the half was 1:05:23

Miles 8 and 9: More mostly flat. I ate my Gu gel somewhere around the 7.5 mile mark. This turned out to be a mistake, I'll go over that later. Ran miles 8 and 9 in 9:56 and 9:48 respectively, now I was very surprised at how I was doing.

Miles 10 and 11: Starting to feel it now, Mile 10 was 10:15 and Mile 11 was 10:32. It was in mile 11 that I really started to notice that I was having a hard time getting my HR down by slowing down, like I normally can. I took my first walking break here.

Miles 12 and 13: I was really dragging at this point, My legs felt fine, but I could not get my HR down, and it was too high for too long, so there were frequent walking breaks. Mile 12 was 12:20 and Mile 13 was 11:23. The last 0.1 mile was done in a somewhat respectable 10:24, but I was totaly dead.

Total chip time: 2:15:26. This was not a BAD run, however, I am somewhat disappointed with my performance. The first 9 miles were great, and even mile 10 was fine. The fade at the end was a real confidence sucker. That said, I do think I could repeat my performence from the first half of the race, and extend it the whole race next tine, for a couple reasons:

1, I had forgotten my BP meds....I know, real dick move, so I wasn't in the best spot to begin with, despite having run without them before.

2. I took too much caffeine for the above condition. The 32mg of caffeine in the HoneyStinger, plus another 20mg at 7 miles, after 3 days of zero caffeine just boosted my HR too much, instead of the good boost I normally get. Nest time I won't go without caffeine in the days before, and will just do my old standby of very creamed up coffee before the run, and MAYBE a gel during it.

All in all, a decent first HM, I learned some lessons, and found out that, even with the need to walk some at the end, I can run pretty close to a 2:15:00 HM. Now to recover the rest of this week, and get started Next Tuesday training for my September HM.

7/1: Rest/moving day
7/2: 8 miles
7/3: 3 miles
7/4: 5.8 miles

Great turn-out for the holiday version of my Monday coffee run! The meeting time was bumped back an hour to 7 am instead of 6 am, which meant I got to sleep in a bit, and I woke up feeling far more human than I have in the last few days. As of now, I can breathe totally through my nose and have only had to blow my nose once an hour instead of every 2-3 minutes. Hooray! I have tomorrow off as well, so I am going to do a longer run to boost my miles for the week since I will be running a 5 mile race Saturday and will thus have lower weekend mileage.

Happy 4th everyone!



Upcoming Races:
7/9: Belmar 5 miler (Belmar, NJ)
9/11: Lehigh Valley Via Marathon (Allentown, PA)
11/20: Philadelphia Marathon (Philly, PA)

Great job @MNLittleFinn and great recap. I'm curious about whether you stayed with the pacer at all.
Sounds like it went really well for a first HM and maybe if you play around with the fueling (and take your meds!) you'll do even better next time.

I did 2.44 miles running today at an easy pace. I made the mistake of checking out a part of the trail I don't usually go on and it was a big never-ending hill. I stopped and walked to get up to a plateau (nice view!) and then reversed out of there. So it ended up being a little more of a cardio event than planned.

July miles so far:




Tomorrow is half marathon training group workout - some kind of interval training on the calendar.

Peachtree Road Race - Official time 1:10:46 (top 37th percentile overall, top 46th percentile M50-54).

• I heard a lot of veterans say this was the hottest, most humid it's ever been for the race. I do believe that training in middle Georgia's heat/humidity probably helped at least a little - I maintained my usual 11ish min/mile pace.
• I believe there were more people in Wave J than are in most of the entire races I've done previously! This is the first race I've run with wave starts - but I don't know that it makes any real difference once you actually hit the start line.
• Mile 1 (8:10 AM): I tried to start at a moderate pace, even with weaving and waving and such. There's a little bit of uphill, but it's mostly downhill thru mile 3. 9:44 for the first mile is a LOT faster than I need to be doing, but it's typical race pace for my excitement.
• Mile 2-3 (8:19 AM, 8:30 AM): Strava shows this as grade-adjusted to 10:53, and it felt pretty good. It didn't really feel that hot or anything - but I was drinking at least a cup at every water location. There were also several sprays set up along the entire way. I actually had to stop to pee, because in addition to the usual coffee, I'd hydrated with some Diet Mountain Dew, which tends to rev up that part of the system. Fortunately, it wasn't a bush run - they had portas along the way too.
• Mile 4 (8:52 AM): Cardiac Hill. After dropping 172 feet, we go up 135 feet in 0.6 miles. I started keeping an eye on my heart rate, and doing a LOT of walking. Wasn't feeling bad, but getting tired.
• Mile 5 (9:04 AM): Even slower, but not as much because of the terrain - just tired. Too, I was starting to try to keep an eye out for SWMBO - but we hadn't set a definitive "You be here, and we can see each other" place. Something to keep in mind for next time. Still watching the heart rate - walking when it's getting into zone 3 for too long, or too high.
• Mile 6 (9:17 AM): Had several moments of "Damn it - I'm NOT going to walk this much of this race!" So there are some bursts thru here. Also - this is when you make the turn (literally) for home. We've been heading south on Peachtree Street this whole time, but at 5.6 miles you turn left onto 10th Street to the finish line.
• Finishing (9:20 AM): Man, this is a lot of people to corral thru! I was determined to RUN the finish line, and did.

It was a good experience. There was obviously some nervous energy, and a couple of mistakes were made. I'm not displeased with the result. According to Strava, my 10K best is 1:05:55, and this was over 4 minutes slower. But that course was a LOT more downhill and less steep uphill, so it's not really that comparable.

Yes, I'll probably run it again. I'm not "addicted now" as one of the veterans I talked with suggested: it's a hell of a lot of people - there's an energy with that, but it's not better than other races, just different. I'm also not in love with the "travel to a race with an overnight" thing - it feels like more hassle than bonus.