A story of going from being a non-runner to planning for a marathon in three years...

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Meh Monday

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Usually when I'm out for a run I try to think about what the theme of my run is or what I'm going to right about when I blog it. I prefer to make my entries something other than just a list of stats but some days it's more difficult than others.

Monday's run was like that. It was just blah. I did 4 miles. I tried to keep them easy. I felt slow. I thought about when, if ever, I was going to get to a point where my easy pace was closer to 9 minutes per mile than 10 minutes per mile.

I thought about mixing up my route a little bit (you know, to avoid stalkers) but wasn't in the mood to try something new.

I tried to figure out what my goal pace was going to be for my race on Thursday evening. Did I even want a goal pace? It's a distance I've never raced before (3.5 miles) so it's guaranteed to be a personal record for that race distance. And, yes, there is a difference between a record for a race distance and a record for a regular run distance. Trust me.

I thought about what I was going to do for hill training. Apparently running hills is crucial to doing well in the Napa-to-Sonoma half marathon. And, if you've been reading this blog for a while, you've seen the elevation charts for my runs. I'm not entirely sure it could be much flatter. I even asked the owner of the local running shop if he had any suggestions and he pretty much laughed at me. Great.

So, if anyone has any hints on how to train for a hilly race when you don't have any hills, I'm all ears! Or eyes, as the case may be.

Until then, here's the part where most people stop reading. The stats!

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Activity
Route:--Elev. Avg:628 ft
Location:Forest Park, ILElev. Gain:+0 ft
Date:05/18/09Up/Downhill: [+85/-85]
Time:06:33 PMDifficulty:2.0 / 5.0
 
Weather:Mostly Cloudy
 64 F temp; 26% humidity
 64 F heat index; winds S 12 G 24
Performance

Distance: 4.00 miles
Time:0:39:21
Speed:6.1 mph
Pace:9' 50 /mi
Calories:448
Map
 
Elevation (ft)
 
Pace (min/mile)
 
Splits
MilePace (min/mile)Speed (mph)Elevation
Gain
actual+/- avgactual+/- avg
19' 28-0' 226.3+0.2+3 ft
210' 06+0' 165.9-0.2+10 ft
39' 38-0' 126.2+0.1-7 ft
49' 49-0' 016.1+0.0-7 ft
end10' 00+0' 106.0-0.10 ft
Versus average of 9' 50 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, *my* goal is to have 10:00 be my easy pace! I don't feel like I'm there yet. :P

I don't know what to do about the hills, either. Are there any boat docks anywhere? You can run up and down those?

I wish I could run this week. But honestly, I *still* felt my shin just walking around this morning and I am TERRIFIED it won't be fixed for my "easy run to test it out" on Friday. =/

Anonymous said...

My thought, although it might only work late at night, or early in the morning, would be to use a several story parking garage?

I don't know if you have any near by, but that is what popped into my head.

You just don't want to do it when there is a ton of traffic for obvious reasons.

Patrick

Anonymous said...

Oooh, a parking garage is a good idea!

kilax said...

I always have fun looking at the stats ;)

All I can think of for hills is the stupido treadmill. Boo.

Anonymous said...

For hills, either stick to the dread mill with varied elevations or find some overpasses. : ) When I moved back here, I went from the lovely rolling hills of TN to the flatness of TX. My one respite was an overpass by our apartment.

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