Saturday, February 23, 2008

Coach Bubba 4M

A couple of things keep me humble about my race today:

First, a 11 year old kid blew me away by two minutes; in a four miler, that's a pace 30 seconds faster. I don't know about you, but 30 seconds per mile is an awful lot. Asking three seconds less per mile out of myself would have been an awful lot.

Second, the field (at least, in my age group) wasn't as strong. Of the five people who had times that would have beaten mine last year, none showed up this year. Of course, other people did, but when I looked at last year's results before the race I thought I had zero chance.

But I was pleased. I got within my goal time range (26-28 min). I pushed myself, though not too hard, and my last mile was my fastest. I only really dropped pace when I hit hills. I started with about fifty to seventy people in front of me and realized in the first minute or so that it was a mistake- I passed a few when I kicked my pace up a bit and passed a bunch more when we first hit the hills.

I kept my form fluid. I didn't let my breathing get too out of rhythm with my foot falls. I tried to keep my focus on the race, and run my own race rather than try to keep up with someone else. And it went well, especially since this was my final blow out week before beginning taper for the Umstead marathon.

My Stats:
Time- 27:20 (7:30 PR!)
Pace- 6:50
Place-
2/21 AG
16/101 Gender
20/267 OA

Friday, February 22, 2008

Raceday strategies #312

Race tomorrow; a 4 miler. I looked up last year's competition and this year's pre-registrations- all the people in my age group who could blow me away don't appear to have signed up before hand.

The first four guys in my AG ran the four miles faster than my VO2max pace. Heck, they were faster than my 800 meter pace. But if they don't show up, and no one faster than me takes their place, I should do well... unless the 34 miles I ran yesterday and today really do me in. :P

Two weeks to Umstead! Monday begins the taper!

Oh, and I saw "Spirit of the Marathon" yesterday- good flick. Lots of fun. Wish I could have gone to see it with close running friends, but at least I got to see it, right?

Friday, February 8, 2008

training and food, food and training...

Four weeks before my marathon. Two weeks to get speedy, two weeks to taper. And I'm pushing myself pretty hard right now... not redlining, but significantly harder than when I was exclusively base training. I may hit 60 miles this week, some of it at LT, some of it moderate, a bit of it easy.

The part where it hurts the worst? Food bill. I'm trying to go for high nutrient (and calorie) high satiety and relatively low cost foods. But last weeks I spent almost 20% of my earnings on food. Some of that was going out, sure. But I spent more on food than on furniture last month, and I bought more furniture in January than I ever have in my life.

*sigh* I guess I need to be a bit more industrious about clipping coupons, or something...

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Whining and complaining without reason...

So, I haven't spent all that much time whining about how much I miss my Michigan friends and family. I think I can sum it up best this way- yesterday Michigan has 12" of snow dumped on it. Today it's 60 degrees in North Carolina. If you offered me a choice between running here (beautiful and perfect) and there (cold, dangerous and miserable) there would win hands down.

Oh, and my family is having a random get together today, too. Life is like that...