2012 Running Goals (NOT resolutions)

Perhaps it's just semantics, but setting a "goal" is more meaningful to me than making a "resolution". Everyone (or nearly everyone) makes "resolutions" this time each year and I'd be willing to bet most fall by the wayside after February or March if they even last that long. Making "resolutions" is simply paying lip service to doing things that we know we should be doing; they're a way to make us feel like we're doing something positive or proactive until life comes along and makes us forget how we wanted to stop smoking, eat better, travel more, or [insert typical, unfulfilled resolution here]. They're bullshit (more or less).

Goals imply (to me, anyway) that there is some accompanying plan to actually achieve them. So I'm setting goals for 2012:

1. Get my weight under 180 and keep it there. I'm not overweight by any means (any more) but I'm carrying a little extra that's completely due to some recent over indulgence in candy and cookies. I will attain this goal by replacing my candy snacks at work with healthy alternatives (like rice cakes).
2. Qualify for the Boston marathon. I'm on track for that now, I just need to continue to be consistent with my training.
3. Drop my 5k time closer to 19:00. That's a little aggressive but I believe that on the way to accomplishing goal #2 I will make the progress necessary to hit this one.
4. Maintain my NYC qualifying time in the half-marathon. This will be the most difficult since NY has raised the standard but I qualified this year so I don't have that far to go to maintain.

That's it. The goals I set are attainable with a solid work effort but won't require super human commitment,i.e. I can still have a life outside of running.

Savannah Half Recap

The weekend started Friday morning as Cora and I kissed the kids and departed from my parent's house. A little over 3 hours later we arrived in Savannah and headed to the convention center and a parking nightmare. My only complaint about the entire weekend is packet pick-up.  The parking attendants didn't appear to be doing much in the way of coordinating traffic and it took about 15 minutes of circling before we found a spot.

Once we got into the convention center the process of actually picking up our bibs and bags was quite simple and efficient... until they forced us to route through the expo center to get out. The layout was too tight for the number of people and there was no clean way to get through the throngs of people browsing the over-priced gear (I can get better prices from my local running stores). Give us an option to exit without being subjected to the marketing BS and the experience is a pleasant one.

When we finally extricated ourselves from the maze of consumerism the trip to the house was a short one. The location was perfect, blocks from the start and finish, and we spent the rest of Friday strolling around Savannah.

Saturday morning was chilly and I got to the starting area early (as usual). I was in coral 1 behind the elites and was at the front. About 10 minutes or so before the start they moved everyone up and I found myself 2 rows back from the very front. I looked around and there were runners as far as I could see. Cool!

The start was a little odd, the gun was too silent and there was no real count down, but being up front made that a non-issue. From the beginning I could tell I was surrounded by sub 3:00 marathoners and I saw a few people from Charlotte (I don't know them, but I recognized the faces from other races). I stayed within site of them for the first mile or two and then let some space open up between myself and them. I was shooting for a 1:30 because I wanted to qualify for NYC but wasn't sure I'd hit it after my last marathon. I'd be close, but it was up in the air.

Around mile 3 or 4 I hooked up with 2 guys who were running the full and shooting for around 3:00 and I stayed with them, trading the lead, until the half split off around mile 11. One of the guys was wearing a Snickers Team Marathon jersey and that gave me a sense of comfort because I have a friend who runs for them and I LOVE their bars. My pace dropped a little when we split but I still felt really strong. I hadn't been paying much attention to splits or time but I felt like I was close to 1:30.

When I made the turn towards the finish I could see 1:29:19 on the clock and knew I had to kick hard. Somehow I dug out some sub-six speed for a bit and managed to cross the line in 1:29:54!!! A PR by nearly 5 minutes, 9th in my age group, and a NYC qualifier! Way more than I had thought I'd do!

Hats off to my coach, Mark Hadley, for the program he has put me on. I've put forth the same effort I did in 2010 but with dramatically different results!

When I got home and finally uploaded my data I had another shocker. I ran the most consistent splits I think I've ever done for that distance. Here they are:

mi Pace (min/mi)
1 6:47
2 6:50
3 6:43
4 6:48
5 6:48
6      6:45
7 6:52
8 6:51
9 6:47
10 6:53
11 7:03
12 6:55
13 7:04
14 6:49

R2B Marathon

I ran the Ridge to Bridge marathon yesterday in 3:23.40 and missed qualifying for Boston by 8:40. Am I disappointed? Honestly? A little. I have worked hard over the past several months with this race in mind and my coach put together a great program for me. I REALLY wanted to BQ yesterday. That being said, I'm more excited by my results than anything. Extremely excited. I finished 11th in my age group, 53rd overall, and yesterday's time was a PR.

Almost one year ago I ran my first marathon (Baltimore) in 3:55:02. I improved on my marathon time by 31:36 IN JUST ONE YEAR!!! F#%* YEAH!!  Thank you, coach!

The R2B course is beautiful. The mountains of NC in the fall are gorgeous and R2B hits them at just the right time. Temps at the start were around 32 and as we descended the mountain they warmed to the mid 50's. Perfect weather.

The course starts out fairly normal for the first 6 miles; beautiful, rolling hills on mostly asphalt and some gravel. Then the downhill starts and for the next 8 miles it's fast. At one point I couldn't stop if I'd wanted to. For roughly the first 16 miles Gordon Bynum and I ran together, shared some laughs, and had a great time of it. At the aid station around mile 16 I stopped for a GU and kept moving (he ended up BQing).

All that nice, fun downhill sets you up. Once I hit mile 19 my quads were fried. The second half of the course is beautiful, gentle terrain with a few hills and flat sections that did an admirable job of finishing off my legs.

My goal had been to run the first 6 at race pace, 6-14 a bit faster than race pace, 14-21 at pace again, and then empty the tank on the last 5.2. I was spot on until mile 19, when I knew my legs were done. My pace slipped and I actually walked for about 1/8 of a mile during mile 25 but I recovered and ran the last mile at a pretty good pace.

I don't think I would change anything about my race plan or my running plan. What I WILL do is add in some strength exercises for my legs and try to get some more hills in over the next year. I think my quads simply weren't strong enough to handle the downhill. My lungs were fine, heart rate was great, absolutely no aches or pains. Just the quads.

I'm actually not even that sore today; I'd call it "mild".

Here are the splits (roughly, the Garmin was off by about .2 miles for the last 9 miles):

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	3:23:39.3	26.03	7:49.4
1	7:31.8	1.00	7:31.8
2	7:25.4	1.00	7:25.4
3	7:13.1	1.00	7:13.1
4	7:21.4	1.00	7:21.4
5	7:27.1	1.00	7:27.1
6	7:40.7	1.00	7:40.7
7	6:53.8	1.00	6:53.8
8	6:56.5	1.00	6:56.5
9	7:00.3	1.00	7:00.3
10	7:25.5	1.00	7:25.5
11	6:59.7	1.00	6:59.7
12	7:08.1	1.00	7:08.1
13	7:33.1	1.00	7:33.1
14	7:02.9	1.00	7:02.9
15	7:43.7	1.00	7:43.7
16	7:34.1	1.00	7:34.1
17	7:40.3	1.00	7:40.3
18	7:48.4	1.00	7:48.4
19	8:28.3	1.00	8:28.3
20	8:25.2	1.00	8:25.2
21	8:28.3	1.00	8:28.3
22	8:40.6	1.00	8:40.6
23	9:07.5	1.00	9:07.5
24	9:09.6	1.00	9:09.6
25	10:03.4	1.00	10:03.4
26	8:35.7	1.00	8:35.7
27	:13.7	0.03	7:15.7

Salem Lake 30K Recap

I went up to Winston Salem this past Saturday with a group of friends and ran in the Salem Lake 30K. It ended up being a little longer than 30K due to some flooding, but given the course that's not a complaint. This place was a blast to run and I'll definitely be back next year!

The weather at the start was wet. The area had been blanketed with showers overnight and there was a fine mist in the morning that helped keep the humidity bearable. It actually felt pretty good. Everyone sort of milled around before the start and then a guy on a ladder with a megaphone instructed us to gather at the trail head for the start. "Ready, set go" and we were off.

I hung behind Butch Holt for a bit and then picked up the pace. My target for the race was somewhere between 7:00 & 7:20 but I was pretty sure the weather had made that a little out of reach. About 4 miles in the course began to get muddy and I was glad to be ahead of the main pack. Running that section consisted of primarily hopping from root to root and trying not to fall. I hit the half way point at 50:15 and was pretty happy with my time/effort.

About half way into the second lap Gordon Bynum caught up to me and we ran together and had a great conversation until the course turned us around at about 13.5 miles. The trail was a soupy mess at that point until about mile 15. Gordon slowly pulled away (he's fast!) as I faded a bit after the turn around. I had been watching my Garmin the entire time and it told me I was averaging about 7:45. Disappointing!

When I hit the finish line I was surprised to see my time at 2:21 - my Garmin had my average pace closer to 8:00 and I knew a 2:21 was around 7:30. When I caught my breath I saw that the Garmin had my distance at 18 miles even and I realized it had been off the entire time making my splits essentially useless.

The mapped distance with the reroute was 18.85 which I ran in 2:21:30 with an average pace of 7:31! I'm especially happy with this because it's right around where I need to be to get my BQ! I'm crossing my fingers for Oct 22!

The ride there and back was a blast; Josh, Rob, Nicole, and Phyllis made the trip fun! I'm lucky to have such a good group of friends to run with!

Another Fast(er) 20!

I met up with the Sunday Long Run crew this past Sunday for another 20 and, as usual, had a blast. Rodolfo met me at 6:00 am to put in the early 6.5 before the main group got there. We started out a bit aggressively (probably my fault) but ended strong at somewhere around an 8:18 - not bad - and it proved to be a pace I think Rodolfo kept for the remainder of his 20. Nice!

I hooked up with Dave at the start of the main group's run and hung with him until he decided to drop the hammer somewhere around mile 10 (my 16) I think. I tried to keep him in sight for as long as possible but that didn't prove to be too long. The boy is FAST!

At mile 18 I turned and made the painful climb up to 51 and then headed down to Rae Rd..  I made a right onto Rae and enjoyed the respite provided by the downhill section, it was enough to get my pace back under 8 for the mile.

I ended the run in 2:41:12 (8:04 pace), nearly 3 minutes faster than my prior (last week's) PR for 20! I'm really happy with where my training is right now!

Here are the splits:

mi	Pace (min/mi)	Elevation (ft)
1	8:21	42
2	8:44	54
3	8:31	-4
4	8:09	-18
5	8:04	-15
6	7:46	-54
7	8:04	-10
8	7:43	-9
9	7:32	-3
10	7:50	0
11	8:09	-1
12	8:05	4
13	8:18	-1
14	7:57	-16
15	7:59	12
16	7:59	5
17	7:45	-11
18	8:06	29
19	8:21	70
20	7:49	-76