City of Lakes 25K - 2008

Well, weather was about perfect. It was a tiny bit cooler than I might have asked for, but it’s better than the heat that could’ve been. Not sure on early temp, but low 50s I’d guess, no wind, some clouds. I wore shorts and a long sleeved tech shirt, I should’ve worn a short sleeved and gone with my tube sock sleeves, but either way I was OK. My plan was to start the first 2 miles at around 8:30 and then bump up to MP of 8:00 miles through mile 10 or so, and then see what I had left for the last 5.5. As you can see, that plan kind of went by the wayside…

Mile 1 – 8:16
Mile 2 – 7:57
Mile 3 – 7:50
Mile 4 – 8:06
Mile 5 – 7:55
Mile 6 – 7:50
Mile 7 – 7:45
Mile 8 – 7:21
Mile 9 – 7:50
Mile 10 – 7:25
Mile 11 – 7:42
Mile 12 – 7:41
Mile 13 – 7:31
Mile 14 – 7:30
Mile 15 – 7:23
Mile .73 – 5:06

Garmin Time for 15.72 – 2:01:16 ~ Unofficial Clock Time – 2:01:41
Garmin ½ Marathon – 1:43:26 ~ ½ Marathon Clock – 1:43:53

This race is not chip timed so that accounts for the difference in my Garmin time vs. the clock time. I was about 30 seconds or so off the clock, took that time to get to the start line from where I started. And then of course, I didn’t get the full tangents of the course so ran a bit further than the 25K. Average pace for the almost 16 miles that I ran (and I did a 1 mile warm up) was 7:43. Average pace I need for my time goal for the marathon is 8 minute miles…marathon is now officially 4 weeks out. (And the picture is of the beer stein that you get for finishing, much better than a cotton t-shirt!! If only they provided beer to put in it!!) Oh, and I put my 1/2 marathon pace breaks in there simply because I was feeling really good then, and even on the clock time, I was ahead of my current 1/2 PR.

I needed this race. It felt really good. I had to rein myself in a bit, I hope and pray I feel that same way on marathon day. I definitely picked up sooner than I planned, and while toward the end I was feeling a bit tired, you wouldn’t know it by the paces I was putting up. Oh, and I more than made up for the way I ran it last year...I definitely was in better shape, and I didn't get dehydrated, and die at the end.

Oh, and those 2 fast miles from the intervals, I did mapmyrun on them, and they were about a tenth of a mile off, so more in the 6:30 and 7:00 miles that I figured…I know there is no way I’d feel that good after paces those fast!! This week is my last really full, hard week. My last 20 miler is on Saturday. I have a group run speed day on Tuesday, and then will do more intervals on Thursday. Another speed day or two next week, and the taper begins.

Training Week 1 of 5 for 25K

First training week went OK. Granted I was already in the middle of the week before I put the plan together, but I did finish it as I laid it out, well, almost. My plan called for 6 mile tempo run on Friday (4 miles at tempo pace of 8:30), unfortunately the heat was up around 93 and the dew point was around 70 and it was just too warm to do it. Not to mention I don’t think I ate well enough for the run either. I was feeling weak, like I needed fuel, but, at the same time, I was feeling nauseated and I think if I had had anything more to eat I would’ve thrown up on the run (it was definitely heat related). I got home and took a cold shower and had a nap. It was just a bit too brutal. Later I went with friends out for drinks and was up too late (already having decided to move my long run to Sunday) as I found out a band was playing near home so we went there and watched that till bar close, then I crashed out and didn’t even hear the nasty storm that came through. I was up on Saturday morning doing some cleaning and chatting with a friend before going out for some food and to run some errands. I was pretty lazy most of the day but managed a 6 mile easy run around home and then just stayed in watching movies before getting to bed around midnight. Sunday I got up and took off for a 15 miler and not wanting to delay more than I already had, I skipped breakfast which was probably not a good idea. I made it through the run but only managed a 9:46 pace, and considering I had done 17 last long run at a 9:10 pace, I definitely needed something more. I managed 35 miles for the week though, and some stretching, working the yoga in this week hopefully.

Sunday I vegged a bit at home most of the afternoon and then ended up going grocery shopping and managed to buy mostly good for me things…I tried to stay away from the middle “bad for you” aisles of processed foods. It’s unreal how expensive it is trying to eat healthy though. For one it’s hard to find bread. Wheat breads can be very dry, and I’m not a big fan of that, I like it a little more moist, but I want it healthy, and lower calories if possible (all bread seems standard at 100 calories or more a slice). However, you find lower calories and it has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it, and/or it’s low in fiber or has enriched and not whole wheat flour. Why is it everything has HFCS’ in them? I mean seriously, we know, or it’s coming out more and more that it might be a huge contributor to ADD, yet EVERY food seems to have it in. What is wrong with real sugar? Gatorade/Powerade…a runner’s friend…second ingredient is HFCS…it just sucks. I would love to get away from processed foods, I’m making an attempt at it, and trying to reduce HFCS (problem is I have a HUGE sweet tooth) but it’s so hard, not to mention it’s so expensive. It’s no wonder Americans get fatter and fatter…the cheapest way to eat is crap. I did make one new find I’m excited about though. They have a cheese that has the “good bacteria” for digestion on the market, in strips and in cubes, so I bought some to try it…if I notice a difference I’m going to decide it’s worth having once a day…until I can maybe convince myself to eat yogurt…I’m just not a fan of the texture of it…

Anyway, tonight, hopefully getting a shorter run in, but if not, that’s OK…L is back and we are going to get together. Last night he was getting into town late, I had suggested if he wanted he could come by, but it was even later than he had hoped and it just didn’t work logistically. I was a bit disappointed when I woke up and realized he wasn’t going to stop by. This weekend in Chicago should be fun though. I’m now taking off early on Friday and probably taking the full day off on Monday, but we’ll see what happens.

A New Plan – Including a Race!

OK, today I need to get focused back on my training, my workouts and my diet. I have been floundering on the workouts and I think part of it is the lack of training plan and/or race to run so I’ve decided on a race. OK, I’m not “officially” registered for it yet, but I’m 99% sure I’m going to register for it in the next few days and will run the City of Lakes 25K this year. It is near home, it’s a nice, fairly easy course, 2 hills and you run the course 2 times so technically 4 up hills, but you also get decent down hills on both of them. I’ve actually run ¼ of the course in a race already, the 5K I did on St. Patrick’s Day was on Lake Harriet, half of the course. The course is 2 laps around Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun, finishing at the Lake Harriet Bandshell. This course is part of the original City of Lakes Marathon, which was replaced with the Twin Cities Marathon (City of Lakes was just around the lakes and is the course that Dean Karnazes used for his 50/50/50 last fall). They wanted to keep a remnant of that race so created this 25K to be run at a time of year people are gearing up and could use it as part of a training run for fall marathons. Another plus to this race, instead of the typical cotton T-shirt, racers receive a 14 oz beer stein. I like the thought of that, too bad the race is on a Sunday as I probably won’t want to fill it all that much after the race, unlike how I would’ve if it was on a Sunday.

I actually put together a training schedule for the race already as well. With the help of the Smart Coach at Runner’s World and a little adjustment to create a bit more mileage and a few longer runs, and an adjustment on times that were provided to me, I think the schedule looks good and doable. The race is 4 weeks from this coming Sunday, but considering, other than last week, my running has been there, at least mileagewise, I should be fine. Other than the week of vacation I had in April (11 miles) and last weeks pure laziness (6 miles), my lowest week this year was 28 miles and my highest week was 50 miles (back in May) averaging 37 miles a week for this year. It’s been 2 ½ weeks since I’ve run a “long run” but that was a 17 miler and it was at a decent pace.

Now, beyond the running and getting that back on course, I need to get my eating back on track. I’ve been so bad on that lately too and I hate that. I’ve gained about 4.5 pounds when I was within 4 pounds of my goal weight, so now I’m 8.5 pounds above what I’d most like to be at and I’ve been just horrible when it comes to eating. So it’s time to make some dietary changes, getting back to what I was doing, less snacking, eating better, eating less…baby steps on that, a new change each week is probably how I’m going to have to do it. There is just too much junk going into my body and I know that has to partly be causing the problems in lack of energy that I sometimes encounter on my running…time to get back to http://www.fitday.com/ and start keeping track of everything I eat and slowly cut back on the calories and pay more attention to what I’m eating.

Finally, I need more cross-training. I’m doing zero on the strength training and zero on “real” yoga (I do some yoga moves to stretch after a run, but that’s very little), so here goes, goals for next week:

August 13 – August 19, Monday – Sunday

1. Food – keep an accurate accounting of all eating for at least 6 days of the week on http://www.fitday.com/
2. Exercise – Besides the running schedule, back to yoga, at least one session of Rodney Yee’s Strength session

Doesn’t seem like much, but baby steps to get back on track…