Space Coast Marathon

final results - 3:10 - 33rd OA, 2nd AG

glancing at these results it is nothing to be ashamed of and I should be relatively happy with it. After all it is my second fastest marathon and it does qualify me for Boston again.

However - I am very disappointed in the way I finished. Up until mile 21 I ran the perfect race - I was slowly getting faster the whole way and was well on my way to a 2:50 marathon.

at mile 3.1 my ave pace was 6:38 per mile, at 6.2 it was 6:34, at 13.1 it was 6:26 and at mile 20 and 21 it was 6:28 (I was in 6th place at the time) - then something happened. My legs stopped working and the pain was awful.

I limped, jogged, shuffled, and walked the last 5.2 miles in 55 minutes to finish in 3:10. I almost quit a few times but I still had to find a way to get to the finish line so I decided to make the best of it and shuffle along until I finished.

I stopped to use the bathroom, I stopped to stretch, and I stopped to get stretched out by a PT along the way - nothing seemed to be able to get my butt moving faster than a shuffle. Unfortunately once you start to change your running form and favor one side versus the other you start to hurt in other places too.

As I review the race and think about my performance I am happy I could run the splits I did and very happy miles 11-20 were faster than 1-10 (that was the plan)- just disappointed that the last 5.2 went so poorly.

I have traced the problem to my back/hip/glute and hopefully through some therapy, stretching, foam rolling and massage I can get it worked out. I need to plan my next try at the elusive 2:50 mark - maybe Tampa or Miami. Let's see how the recovery goes and when I can start to run again.

I want to thank Dave from St Augustine for being my running partner for 21 miles, thank the PT for having his table along the course and trying to help, and thank Troy for riding with Dave and I on the back side when it was really boring.

Next marathon will be better as will the Keys 100 in May!

5 days and counting

we are 5 days away from the Space Coast Marathon and I feel decent going into this race. I wish I had some free time this week to get a couple more runs done or some time to relax, but life is getting in the way of that. I will just have to rely on my training and get my butt moving come race race.

I am hoping for a decent showing on Sunday. The marathon is not very big and does not draw a huge crowd of real fast people. Since it is the Sunday after Thanksgiving I am going to have to watch my food and beer intake over the holiday in order the stay in some what decent shape for the race.

I would like to run a new PR - I would like to run under 2:58:30 - anything other than that will be a bonus. Maybe a top 10 overall finish and a top age group award. We will see.

Keep your fingers crossed

Taper Time

well, we're are less than two weeks away from the Space Coast Marathon and it is taper time. Between Sunday and Monday I put in 32 miles (16 each day) - Sunday was an easy cruise at 8:00 minute pace and Monday was a little quicker - 7:20 for the first part and 6:20 for the last few miles.

I will put in one more speed workout on Weds and the remainder of the time will all be easy miles just to stay lose until the race. Other than that I will stretch, use the foam roller, and get a massage or two.

Hopefully the 6 weeks I was able to train for the race will be enough to get me to the start line ready to roll though a rather quick marathon - we will see.

Track workout

Last night was my last track workout before Space Coast Marathon - I set out to do 10 x 800 in 2:50 with 2:50 off. This would give me a good gage of where my speed was and how fast I might be able to run a marathon.

My pacing was a little off at first - my first 800 was 2:38 - then I settled in and ran 11 x 800 with my fastest (besides the 1st one) was 2;45 and slowest was 2;47 - I felt good and pacing was pretty darn consistent.

I am not sure i can run a 2:47 marathon because I do not have the miles in my legs that I would need for that but I might be able to run a 2:55 or so.

After 4 weeks of training I feel pretty good - I will do a long run Sunday and another on Monday and then start my taper for the race - I do not have to taper too much because I have not run a lot.

We will see how it goes in 2.5 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed

Space Coast Marathon

I found out about 3 weeks ago that I was promised to go to Boston this year if one of our clients qualified - well, he qualified and now I need to qualify to uphold the promise that was made without my knowledge :-)

I have been training for 3 weeks now - my long runs are up to 15 miles and my weekly mileage is up to 45 miles a week.

My plan is quite simple - long run will top out about 16-17 miles and weekly miles will top out about 60 for one week only and will average about 45.

I did a speed workout yesterday and was able to knock out 7 x 800 @ 2:45 so I have a little speed left in me.

When I get to the race I will decide if I am going to try and run a 3:20 (my qualifying time) or if I am going to go for placement in the race which will need about a 2:55 - we will see how I feel.

I had to cancel 2 races leading up to the marathon because of having to qualify - I was going to run a 30k trail race on the 22nd, a 10 mile on the 26th and then the marathon on the 29th in order to get ready for the 100 miler - when I found out I had to run fast I cancelled the other 2 races to focus on the marathon.

Hopefully the plan works.

Health First tri

well, the triathlon came and went and I moved on to training for the Space Coast Marathon.

here is an overview of the race

swim - 32nd out of the water - I am not the fastest swimmer but I swam well and felt good getting out of the water.

bike - averaged about 21.5 mph for the 27.5 mile bike - I passed a lot of people on the course. The winds were very mild compared to other years so it set up for a pretty decent ride. 16th overall after the bike

run - 39.47 10k - one of faster 10k finishes in a tri. I had the 3rd fastest run of the day and ended up climbing to 6th overall.

I was able to win my age group and improved on my times from the other years I have done this race. I could not have been happier with the results considering my training was average at best.

I raced without a watch or speedometer on my bike - I did the whole race by feel and went as hard as I thought I could go and still run well. The plan worked pretty darn well.

nest up - Boston qualifying at Space Coast then on to training for the 100 miler

can it be...6 days in a row? with a little help

I have successfully put in 6 straight days of workouts - not many of the days have been easy to get motivated and get moving but I am getting through it. I actually did something the other day that I NEVER have done before - I took my iPod with me for my bike ride. it actually provided that little extra push to help me with the ride - a semi tough 45 miler with two 5 mile hilly time trails mixed in.

After my open water swim yesterday I took the iPod back out on the run with me - I cruised through 45 minutes at an estimated 7:40 pace. Felt pretty easy!

The weather also helped some this week - yesterday was pretty cool in the morning and on the run it was rather nice - not too hot at all.

I just got done a 75 minute trainer session with two 10 minute Olympic efforts mixed in. Still have 2 gym sessions, 2 run sessions, and a bike session left this week. Tomorrow will be a tough day because it is an early day at work but we will get through it.

At the end of the week (me, my iPod and the nice weather) will have gotten through 4 runs, 3 bikes, 2 swims and 2 gym sessions - not a bad week and it is helping a decent base for some of the upcoming plans!

Hope every one's training is going well.