December 7th, 2008
Sending super speedy lovin’ vibes today to Jim, Jackie, Barb, Joe, Ilona and Ron. Between CIM, Tucson and Ron’s charity 40miler to honor his cousin, I want you folks to know I’m super proud of all of you. Jim, you better be remembering every little thing because I’m going to want full details. I know I’ll get everybody else’s dirt on the forums.
As for me, I just completed a super windy 6, which brings me to 50 miles for the week. It’s a good level for me, so here’s hoping 2009 lets it continue, uninterrupted.
Guess it’s time to do something productive because neither Tucson or CIM have tracking. How’s a girl supposed to concentrate with all this marathon madness going on? The injustice of it all.
I’ll leave you with my latest fave running song, Sex Is On Fire by Kings of Leon.
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Hi Flo, weary Jim reporting in.
No official time yet, but my watch says 3:26:50, so a BQ for me, yay! More later!
wow! I hope to get 50 miles for the month!
Congratulations on the BQ Jim! I agree with Flo, would love to hear the details!
OMG JIM, you DID IT!!! You beat your super goal, even! Wow. Fantastic race, I cannot wait to hear all about it. Can you even believe how far you’ve come in such a short time? Simply fabulous.
Add to this Barb and Jackie also brought home BQs (and Ilona was ooooh so close…maybe 10 seconds off), it was a great day for a marathon today.
So, you’d like details, eh? Be careful what you wish for!
All the times given are from my watch. Official results are not up yet. I did not wear the Garmin, feeling that I needed to focus on the actual running part..
Here’s how it went.
It was chilly at the start, we could see our breath, and so, like many people, I kept my sweats on till the last possible minute. So after the mad scramble to turn in my bag, I tried to get into position near the 3:30 pace group without much success, the runners were too tightly packed. There are no waves at CIM, just a wide start line. Off go the wheelchairs, then everyone else 30 seconds later and that’s it.
After maneuvering through the 3:40 and 3:35 groups I sped up and eventually caught the 3:30 group at mile 3, having averaged 7:54 pace so far with a downhill assist. Careful Jim, don’t forget this is a marathon!
So then we jogged along in low rolling hills: 8:02, 7:57, 7:58, 7:58, 8:04… and I started to think this 3:30 thing might be do-able.
Then I just fell into a groove that was slightly faster than the pace group, and gradually moved ahead of them: 7:52, 7:51, 8:01…. I hit the half at 1:44:17, which is only two minutes slower than my half PR of a few weeks ago. “Maybe I’m crazy, but this feels OK…. Wonder if I can negative split?”
Having thrown down that gauntlet, I moved it up a notch: 7:59, 7:52, 7:55, 7:46… At the 18-mile marker, a woman eased past me, and I joined her for a series of fast miles: 7:50, 7:48, 7:48, 7:42, 7:38. I was staring at my watch at that last one, thinking “Wow, getting near tempo pace , how is this possible? If I’m gonna crash, I’m running out of distance to do it in.”
She eventually gapped me at mile 23, but I continued at the new pace: 7:41, 7:36, 7:38, and yes, it was starting to hurt a bit. I think I lost my idiot grin at this point. Some of the time, anyway.
Mile 26 was a bit slower, 7:54, but I was having to weave though other runners somewhat. There was just enough in the tank for a little sprint at the finish (4 more places), which left me with that 5K want-to-puke feeling. Then I looked at my watch again and shuffled away happy. The second half took 1:42:33, for a full time of 3:26:50, The idiot grin is back!
Congratulations on the BQ Jim!!
Ooh, thanks for posting the song, I love that one!
I have that song on my mp3 player also in my running mix!
Wow, Jim is da man!
Jim, that is crazy wild! Running near tempo pace in a marathon? Sounds like you’re abilities are better than you realize. You are going to have some insanely fast races in your future. So spill the improvement dirt, was it Daniels plan that got you so much faster or have you been doing your own thing within Daniels framework?
It seems you had the makings of great speed in you even for your first marathon since, if I remember correctly, you were holding back a bit in that one. But do give us some tasty tidbits that we can dream of applying to ourselves. And what’s the next goal? 3:10? Seriously boyee, you’re going to be posting more and more crazy times at this rate. Not bad for an old guy.
Proud of you, Jim.
Mir and Stacy, cool on the mutual song-love!
Congrats Jim! I am so happy for you!
Well, Daniels played a big part, and I followed him pretty closely. He knows a lot more about this stuff than I do. But then there was the hat.
A mesh baseball-style running hat, I wore it because I forgot to put it in my sweats bag. Early in the race, I realized that the hat was fast. I had to keep my chin up to see ahead, which affected my whole posture. I normally have to keep reminding myself not to bend and droop. Yesterday, not so much.
Yay, results are posted – 3:26:49 chip, 3:27:45 gun, 1:45:14 half (gun). I didn’t dream it.
Future wise, I dunno. I find it hard to imagine going faster than that, but I’ve been wrong before
Thanks for the Kings of Leon song suggestion. I’m always on the lookout for new running music. Recently I downloaded two live versions of Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” and The Black Keys, “Your Touch”.
Lol Jim, Magic Hat…that’s one of Nick’s favorite beers. Very cool how a small prop like that could change your whole running style for a full marathon! And how funny are you? “hard to imagine going faster than that” Ahem…how long have you been running? This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hi Bruce K
Woohoo, ran my first sub 2 for a half this weekend in Memphis, St. Judes! Official time was 1:59:15. Damn good thing I didn’t need to take a piss, or I wouldn’t have made it. Almost always need to stop at least once. Previously, ran a 2:01, 2:04 and last one was a 2:10. But……had to walk a minute every mile (Dr.’s orders) while nursing my terrible hamstring injury.
Now, what to do next. The week after a race is always like being in la-la land.
Flo, what type of plan do you follow for maintenance? Definitely want to keep my mileage up, so I can be race ready in a few short months if need be.
Congratulations Heidi! That’s wonderful news – you’re in a new realm now, woman, out of the 2:00′s, that’s huge!
Yes, definitely keep those miles up during maintenance. I’ve only had one true maintenance season so far (last winter) and I learned what doesn’t work for me, which is running everything comfortably. I should have done something faster at least every 10 days. This winter I’ll try to do one fast workout plus a stride session every week. OTOH, some people use the time to build up base, so that’s another option. But do something fastish every so often, is my main (albeit limited) advice.
Oh, one more thing, I wasn’t comfortable with racing a lot last year but this year I’m doing a winter race series, so that’s another way to get some fast running in. Plus, it’s more race experience which is always helpful.
Wow Heidi, A PR while nursing an injury. Well done!
It interesting that your doctor had you take walk breaks a la Galloway. You must have gone pretty fast in between the breaks.
I agree with Flo on doing at least one speed session a week. If tempo running is too risky with an injury, then strides seem to work quite well.
Oh wait, I just realized the walk breaks were a feature of the previous 2:10 half. D’oh!
By the way, thank you to everyone for your warm positive vibes.
How exactly do you incorporate your strides? At the end of an easy workout? How long/far do you cover for a stride ? Sorry to be such an obsessive/ compulsive freak , but I’ve never ran strides and not just sure when to incorporate them and how to run them! Can you say B-L-O-N-D-E!!!
Heidi, not blonde at all, everyone always wonders what the hell are strides.
Here’s an explanation from an earlier post. You generally do ‘em at the end of an easy run.
I vary that a bit. I do them during the second half of a run, with enough time between to fully recover. And I keep them short. 100 yards or less of acceleration, then coast back down to easy pace. I think Flo’s are a bit longer.
Nah, we do it the same…100 yards with full recoveries. I’ve only gone longer on occasion – Pfitz had 200s in his 5K plan for race week, so I stole it for my last 5K.
Here, courtesy of Runner’s World, an article on strides, which describes something close to my loosey-goosey version.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-263–12544-0,00.html
YMMV, but I find that things are getting noticeably smoother by the time I’m on the fourth one.
Actually, they have other uses. I ran one during yesterday’s race. In the first mile, I got boxed in by the 3:40 pace group, so after dropping back slightly, I moved to the dirt shoulder and ran a stride. I knew that it would have no significant effect on my endurance. Come to think of it, it might have helped prepare my legs for the later speedup.
I also like to run a couple while warming up for a shorter race. Can you tell that I like strides?
Shit, you guys are on it today! Thanks so much for the info. I will probably start incorporating them into next weeks training. Strides it will be!
Jim, I LOVE them before races, they’ve become necessary for my warmups, especially for 5Ks where you go from 0-60 in no time flat. Very cool how you incorporated it into your marathon!
Heidi, the cool thing about them is they’re fun! Report back on how they go next week.
gotcha.