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Since I felt so bad during my 50 minute, easy paced run yesterday, it was great to have an awesome track workout tonight with the JSRC. After a 2-mile warmup and 6 x 100m stride outs we did…
- 4 x 200m fresh (100) [400]
- 800m good (400)
- 4 x 200m / infield recovery / timed intervals – 66 seconds (400)^
- 800m Straights and Curves (300)
- 800m good (cooldown)
^For these we run 200m on the track, then recovery across the midfield point of the infield. Each interval (run + recovery) is supposed to be executed in a set amount of time between 65 and 90 seconds. For me tonight the time was 66 seconds for all 4 repeats. This was 40 seconds for the 200m with 26 second recovery across the grass. All intervals are done continuous.
I ran the warmup and all the intervals tonight with Nathan McCall who has been running with our group since last fall. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Nathan, and it was fun to run with him tonight. We took turns leading interval laps and were able to maintain fairly consistent splits throughout. Even with a pretty hard effort, I felt really good all the way to the end, which was a big confidence boost after the crummy day yesterday.
With a 1-mile cool down, my total mileage for the night was just over 7.5-miles. Tomorrow’s schedule calls for 50 minutes at an easy pace followed by 12 to 14-miles easy on Saturday.
Beast Mode…ON!
P.S. After tonight’s workout I retired another pair of Saucony Kinvara 2s just as they reached 400 total miles. I know lots of runners have problems with durability on the Kinvara and Kinvara 2, but this has definitely not been the case with me. These shoes have taken me through 2 marathons and 2 half marathons along with a lot of training miles on the road. Probably could get a few more miles out of them had I not worn holes in the top of the toe-box just over my big toes. Still have one pair of Kinvara and one pair of Kinvara 2s in my current rotation along with one more pair of Kinvara 2s still in the box. Also can’t wait to try the new Kinvara 3. Find Your Strong!
Updated Race Results and Personal Records (PR)
Updated through the One America 500 Festival Mini Marathon on May 5, 2012
Recap of the 37th annual One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in Indianapolis, IN
One America 500 Festival Mini Marathon
May 5, 2012
www.500festival.com/marathon/
My Run: Overall, the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon (“the Mini”) in Indianapolis was my 12th half marathon. This was the fourth year in a row that I have run the Mini, which is the largest half marathon and fifth largest road race in the U.S. with 35,000 runners. The Mini is part of the month-long 500 Festival that leads up to the Indianapolis 500.
Well….today’s planned 18-holes at Hampton Cove in Huntsville was again a washout. So our 3-day, 72-hole golf trip turned into a 3-day, 46-hole golf trip. However, we still had a good time and I was able able to get in my scheduled 50-minute easy run earlier than expected this afternoon once I got home.
I decided to run in my Saucony Hattoris because I had not used them since last Wednesday. Overall I would say this was the worst I’ve felt on a run in a while, though it was kind of up and down throughout.
The first 10 minutes I felt tired, my legs were stiff, and my pace hovered around 9:30. I’m guessing this had something to do with playing 36-holes of golf yesterday followed by a 60 minute run. I briefly thought about just turning around and running home, but decided to give it a few more minutes to see if things improved. Well, they did improve dramatically for the next 20 minutes, and my pace dropped into the 8:20s. Then…BAM…I started feeling tired again and for the next 20 minutes my pace slowed back toward 9:00. Finally, I felt pretty good during the last 10 minutes and my pace dropped back down toward 8:30.
Looking back a few hours later I know that I was already tired when I started the run. Also, when I think back through my day, the only fluid I had consumed prior to the run was caffeinated coffee and iced tea. Not exactly good hydration for an afternoon run with full sun and temps in the mid 70s.
Whatever the case, the run is in the books and tomorrow will be another day.
Beast Mode…ON!
After 36-holes of golf followed by dinner, we did not get back to our hotel last night until 8:30pm. This pushed the start of my run to almost 9:00pm. My schedule called for 60 to 70 minutes at easy pace and I was determined to find some places to run around our hotel that did not include strip mall parking lots. I ended up finding a pretty good stretch of road along with running around the main drive of a very large business. Since I was already tired from golf the first 30 minutes was a very chill 8:40ish pace, and I felt pretty good once I got warmed up. Unfortunately after the first 30 minutes it started storming and I was forced to head indoors for the hotel dreadmill. While this was not pleasant I did feel really good for the remainder of the run and slowly increased my pace from 8:30 to 7:30. Overall I ran for just over 61 minutes for a total of 7.3 miles. We are now on the road headed north to Hampton Cove in Huntsville for one final 18 on our golf trip before heading home. Beast Mode…ON!
This morning my dad and I, along with our friends Mike and Ricky, headed south to Alabama for a 3-day golf trip on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. After getting rained out in Muscle Shoals after 10 holes we headed further south to Birmingham for the night.
Since I couldn’t get my run in this morning I had to get it in after dinner. There are not a lot of options around our hotel so I spent most of the run in the parking lots of various strip malls in the area. While this was not ideal it was much better than resorting to the hotel dreadmill.
This was my first run since the 500 Festival Mini Marathon on Saturday, and my schedule called for 50 minutes at easy pace. It was still pretty warm and humid at the start and I felt fairly sluggish for the first 30 minutes of the run. My average pace for those miles was around 8:30. For the last 20 minutes I started feeling much better and my pace picked up significantly including a final mile of 7:18. My overall average was 8:16 per mile.
Glad to have this run in the books and pleased with how good I felt during the last 20 minutes. Tomorrow we are supposed to play 36-holes at Oxmoor Valley, and my running schedule calls for 70 minutes at easy pace. Should be interesting.
Beast Mode…ON!
I was finally able to look up my official stats from the 500 Festival Mini Marathon this morning in Indianapolis.
My time was 1:31:28 which was 418th overall out 31,129 finishers (top 1.3%). As I said earlier my goal had been to break 1:28, but that was before the forecast of higher than normal heat and humidity. The humidity ended up being 95% at the start and 81% at the finish, and was a huge factor in the race. Considering these conditions I’m ecstatic with my time and especially with getting the special “500 Club” medal for the first time.
In addition to this it was a fun trip with my wife Olivia and good friend Paxton. I love running road trips!
Well, tonight I went a little bit off the reservation. After starting to feel better on Tuesday, John had advised me to do all easy runs for the remainder of the week leading up to the 500 Festival Mini Marathon on Saturday. Tonight was supposed to be 4 to 6 miles easy and 4 x 100m stride outs. However I had planned on asking John at track tonight if I could get in 2 to 3 miles at goal race pace with an easy warmup and cool down. When I arrived at Vanderbilt I learned that John would not be there so I just made the executive decision to proceed with my alternate plan.
I have not done a race pace run since last Tuesday morning and have run a lot of easy miles since then. I know it would have been better to do any race pace work earlier in the week, but I really wanted to feel that faster pace again before Saturday. So, I ended up doing a 1.3-mile warmup followed by 3 continuous miles on the track at goal race pace and then a 1-mile cool down.
The 3-miles at race pace were at a 6:41 average and felt good and fairly relaxed. I mentioned yesterday that I could tell my energy level was down after being sick, but the run did not feel like that tonight. However after downloading my Garmin, my heart rate was a bit higher than I was expecting and even higher that what it reached during my 4-mile race pace run last Tuesday. I think a lot of this has to do with the warmer temperatures and humidity, though the conditions are probably going to be even worse on Saturday for the race. I’m thinking that I may start off with a pace around 6:50 on Saturday and then just take it by feel from there based on the conditions.
Beast Mode…ON!
It looks like it is definitely going to be a HOT one for the 500 Festival Mini Marathon in Indianapolis on Saturday with Olivia and my friend Paxton. The forecast just is not relenting. I’m trying to figure out how much I need to adjust my goal to accomodate these conditions. With good weather I was hoping to break 1:28, now I have no idea what to expect.