Race Preparation Progress Report

I'm ending week nine of my training for the 1/2 marathon in September. I had set an ambitious goal of a sub 2 hour 1/2 marathon. It was an ambitious goal because my previous time in the 1/2 was 2 hours and 12 minutes. That was set in 2007 and, even though I had trained hard for that race I had not done any speed work. I felt that if I applied myself to the effort I would have no trouble reaching a two hour goal. This totally discounts, of course, that my plan was to lop off a sizable 12 minute chunk in one fell swoop.

Reality took a giant bite out of my derriere when I realized that gaining 50 pounds was not particularly helpful to the cause so I had to first lose that excess weight. Then, I had to recharge my running program essentially from scratch. My first running efforts were abysmal and I considered giving it up - "I must be too old for this."

As time passed and weight dropped my running times started to come back in line and I have been doing well. However, my long runs have been dismal the last couple of weeks. Twice I was totally wasted in the effort (9 miler and 10 miler). Even though I completed the mileage there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth involved in the effort and my times were not conducive to a solid belief that my 2 hour 1/2 marathon was going to become a reality.

So, I had to go back to the drawing board. After consultation with my personal trainer, I decided that I was eating too much protein to support endurance running and I made an adjustment to eating more complex carbs (added pasta to the diet). My runs this week have been excellent which seems to support that hypothesis.

Had some great times on my 9 x 400 track workout on Tuesday that included 1/4 mile times that added up to sub eight minute miles! (the track workout includes a 1/8 mile walk between each 1/4 mile run). So, today when I headed out to run my 6 mile pace run I was excited for the possibility of setting a PR. Great weather (65 degrees) added to that feeling of optimism.

I run out and back on a rails-to-trails conversion (Grant's Trail in south St. Louis County) that is paved asphalt and carefully marked every 1/2 mile so it's easy to keep track of my pace. It's also very nearly level but the incline is on the way out so the way back is basically a downhill run, however slight. I love this trail because it is 10 miles long so it's absolutely perfect for distance training up to and including a full marathon.

I amazed me (since the hundreds of others on the trail didn't seem too impressed) when I hit the 1 mile marker at 9 minutes flat - a fast time for me and below my desired pace of 9:10. I was encouraged by this and began to push myself to maintain this effort. I tend to use unsuspecting runners as my targets and today proved to be a great day for that with several runners ahead of me who pulled me along - even without their own awareness of their contribution to my effort.

Coming down the final mile, I was using my best visualization skills racing against a clock I could see hanging over the finish line that was calling me home. I was able to maintain a torrid pace over the course of the run with four of the six miles clocking in at under 9 minutes/mile (fastest single mile time this season of 8:24) and set a new PR in the six mile (not quite a 10K) run of 53:31.

I'm stoked!