Monthly Archives: August 2011
A most-ever moment
One of the biggest lessons I learned from last year was to not get too caught up in the “most ever” or “best ever” moments. While they’re great and worth celebrating, it’s very easy to lose focus if I dwell on them too much.
Today is one of those moments to celebrate, but I also need to quickly move on. I’ll talk about it now and drink a Magic Hat or two to celebrate, but tomorrow is September and there are still 45 days until the Baltimore Marathon. FOCUS.
So … what’s the big deal?
Today’s tired feeling 3.3-mile run puts me at 134.5 miles for August. It’s the most miles in a month ever, edging out 133 miles in October 2007. I actually fell about 6 miles shy of my goal, as well as not getting to 40 miles last week, but I knew ahead of time those were big miles for me. The 40 will come soon enough though.
Similar to how I felt a month ago, how I got to that number is what is important.
- 7 runs out of 22 were under a 9-minute pace. That’s not quite as good as July, but this month I had a few more shorter and slower (and very important) recovery runs.
- A solid effort in the Lynchburg Half Marathon.
- Breaking 22 minutes in the Fab 5k.
- I ran a mountain.
Ending a silent streak
It started in April.
I blogged about it only once.
But 143 days later, the “do something” streak is over.
The ending to it was as about as ceremonious as the beginning – it was unintentional and the sun still rose the next day.
In my off days from running I either did core work or push-ups or walked; I also counted a day at the park with my son in the streak, as well as a day at the North Carolina Zoo.
With this being a recovery week in my Baltimore Marathon training, last night my body shut itself down for me. Three hard weeks of running apparently caught up to me. I got a lot of sleep that I seemed to really need.
That’s all I have to say about that …
Nailing the long run
Thanks to Irene for the extremely overcast, humid day today.
Hurricane Irene tried to make my run miserable today, but I was having none of it. I’m far enough inland to not get impacted by heavy rain or wind, but the humidity she’s brought with it and slapped on most of Virginia was brutal this morning.
Sorry, but the weather wasn’t winning today.
Percival's Island bridge from Lynchburg into Amherst County.
I headed to Lynchburg for my 18 miler for a change of scenery — the plan was to run about 6 miles by myself, meet my friend Scott I met via Daily Mile a few months ago for about 7 miles, then finish the run off by myself.
What I didn’t anticipate was how dark it was just before 6 a.m. — I was a bit scared to park where I planned on parking and it was too dark to get on Percival’s Island for about 30 minutes.
So I parked near the downtown market where people were setting up for their busy morning, ran about a mile on the streets then headed down to my planned run along the bike path on the island.
The first 7 miles by myself were weird. I started intentionally slow — a 9:52 first mile — but gradually picked it up. I had that feeling of a good run on my hands. When I met Scott I was already drenched; the humidity was nuts. Where was Irene’s breeze?
Fortunately as Scott and I took off, we caught a few breaks with the wind. Our conversation was good and all over the place, but we had a nice pace throughout. I was not feeling tired at all.
When we separated, I still had about 3 miles to go. With no music like the first third of the run and no one to talk to, it was all about focusing on my breathing, my form and finishing the run strong.
I had no idea what my overall pace was. I knew that I set out with a goal of a 9-minute mile pace today, and in my head the only thing I could figure out was 162 minutes — 2 hours, 42 minutes. (I did the math as 9 times 9, then doubled it.) I looked at my watch with about a mile and a half to go and realized I could probably walk and hit that mark.
Besides a few glances at my watch after the first mile, I had no idea what I was doing. It turns out I was having the fastest long run beyond a half marathon that I’ve ever had and a negative split that I couldn’t even imagine.
My first half splits were: 9:52, 9:18, 9:12, 8:51, 8:51, 9:11, 9:22, 9:08 and 8:14 for a total of 1:21:59.
My second half splits were: 8:12, 8:36, 8:19, 8:27, 8:09, 8:20, 8:26, 8:39, 8:29 for a total of 1:15:37.
Really? A 6-minute difference? An 8:45 pace overall?
It’s such a different way of training for me, but I can’t help but like the feeling of a negative split. While today was a bit flatter than usual, I was intentional about doing something different and doing it faster.
The weather didn’t win and my mind didn’t win. It may have been the best long run I’ve ever had, but my focus is what lies ahead for the next 7 weeks before the Baltimore Marathon. My immediate focus is on a short recovery run tomorrow and a recovery week next week to give myself a break.
And then … my first 20 miler. After today, it’s a run I can’t wait to get to.
Conquering another post-injury fear
You’d be amazed at how often I think about that pain in my left knee from a year ago. Even though I’ve gotten back on track this summer, I still have these thoughts racing through my head of whether I’m doing the right thing or not.
One thing I haven’t done this year is run up a mountain on a trail. In fact, I’ve mainly stayed away from trails due to the imbalances and weird fear of blowing my knee out coming down hill. Including the Trail Nut 10k in June, I think I’ve done less than a half dozen trail runs this year. I say I want to do more, but it just hasn’t happened.
Today, though, that changed. 5 miles up and down Mill Mountain in Roanoke on a trail. It was hot and humid; I felt like a big mess at the end. I got it done though and nothing happened to my knee.
All that’s left now is an 18-miler to assure me of my highest mileage week in 4 years.
Wordless Wednesday: No single digits
Lessons learned; move along now
“Tough.”
“OK.”
“Miserable.”
“Not so bad.”
I’ve had a variety of descriptions of yesterday’s long run of 16.2 miles. In hindsight, nearly 36 hours later, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I at least covered Bedford, Va., fairly well:
And it was hilly as usual:
I got it done with no major side effects today. That’s a good enough victory to move on to another week of running.
I do know that I’m not running a race and running long the next day again, especially in the summer when the weather can vary so much day to day. Perfect for Saturday’s 5k; 91% humidity at the start of Sunday’s run … yeah, not fun.
This week is shaping up to be my third consecutive week of mileage increases before a recovery week next week. At one point I had hoped for my first 40-mile week ever this week, but I’m not focusing on that. I want continued good runs and Hurricane Irene to stay away long enough to avoid torrential rain on my long run. We’ll see how I feel come Sunday on a recovery run what the final mileage will be.
Now that I’ve soaked all this up, it’s time to mark it off and move along …
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