3.30.09

So I didn't quite get my goal of top 10, but 1st place in my age group isn't anything to slouch about! What a race. It was definitely hard and without a doubt a tough day, but the training paid off. Maybe it's a little too early to start assessing things, but now that I have some data to work with I don't think it's a problem.

Split times from milliseconds - I like this site, but very hard to interpret data. The Knoxville Track Club has a much cleaner streamlined way of showing the race data (but no splits).

checkpoints
1- 41:07.966
2- +45:00.002
3- +47:55.058
4- +45.24.004

06.2M - 41:07.966
13.1M - 1:26:07.968
20.0M - 2:14:03.026
26.2M - 2:59:27.3

average pace @
10k | half | 20Miles | 26.2
6:37 | 6:34 | 6:42 | 6:50.671

So firstly we can see that at 10k I was well within my goal pace which if I were to hold, would put me at a 2:54 finish time or so. So that was good pacing for the first few miles, especially with all the halfers running much faster. Even with big old Noelton hill, I gained time through the half, 3 seconds a mile (about 40 seconds). That was the flattest part of the course, so I'm sure it helped a little with the pacing, but I was still very much on track for 2:55 or so. I felt really good at this point, and it leads me to believe that a 1:23-1:24? wouldn't have been out of the question had I chosen to just do the half. Compared to last year I still gained 4 and a half minutes of time (even with pacing for a marathon) so that is a pretty good gauge of improvement. Mcmillan calculates the effort as equivalent to an 18:24 5k, 38:13 10k, and 1:25 half, but considering I ran 18:35 back in November and the fact that I usually beat Mcmillan at it's own game, 1:24 would definitely be possible.

At 20 miles I had slowed another 8 seconds a mile and lost about 2 minutes overall time from original pace. By the end of the race I lost another 8 seconds a mile, so I was really slowing down hard there. That was the part of the course with the roughest wind so that compounded matters. Also my legs really started feeling the burn even before 20, so slowing down was imminent. Judging from how sore they are today, I regret not doing like a million more hills over that last few months to prepare. From here on there was really nothing left to do. Factoring in all the issues I think it was a great time. I'm kind of glad I didn't hit a better time goal actually because that leaves a lot of room for improvement next time, lol.

As for training I did have about two weeks off with the tibia and that didn't help my fitness a bit, I was running 5:22 mile repeats, and after back down to 5:34 range. Also I was supposed to be -Building- on the speedwork, but mostly I ended up just maintaining. I did the best with what I had though. I have some really good ideas for training the next two months, and really want to get into some races rather quickly. There is a one mile race at the end of April, and I'm pretty much set on running that thing no matter what. I've really been wanting to break 5 minutes, and that is the perfect opportunity to do it officially. So I can't wait to get back into training. I recover pretty well, so hopefully I can get in some quality workouts over the next few weeks. I really want to work on speed the rest of this year. I've been so worried about mileage that I think I sacrificed a lot of coordination/speed drills which gave me great endurance, but not a lot of turnover.

There is also the issue of pacing itself. The Nike+ system is great, but unfortunately is off by a fraction for me - if you notice yesterday's total mileage of 28.12 (93% accurate) then you know that it's not as accurate as a gps. It is a footpod, so it's never going to be as accurate as gps, but it wasn't nearly as far off as I had believed. Just two miles, that's less than a mile for every 13 which ain't really that bad. I knew it was off as I said, and is the reason I run for time, and not for miles. As much as I'd like to have a garmin, it's really not in my budget right now, and as long as the nike system is working 30$/year is just fine by me. In fact I recently had a sensor battery die, but since April never uses hers I had an extra one so no problem at all. I got almost 3,000 miles out of the last one, so that ain't bad either. But pacing is still an issue. I never really know how fast I'm going so it does become somewhat of a guessing game. So if I want accurate pacing I have two choices between visiting the track, or hoping I get a garmin as a birthday gift or something.

So things are looking good, one mile race April 24th, and then the 10k Expo at the end of May. Not sure beyond that point. I almost did the Rutledge Marathon last year, and unless some other race looks really good, I might plan on running that - it's in October I believe and this will the be the second year of the race. Goals at this point are less about time and more about training. Speed drills, striders, and once a week speed workouts with a long run every other weekend are the basic plan. Mostly I just want to build from this marathon, it is by no means an ending point, but a springboard into further training. Actually I just looked at the calendar, and Carl from Oak Ridge has a June Madness series that looks interesting, with another 1 mile race June 6th, woot. I'll definitely try that mile race, and hopefully can get some more info about the series once I get a chance to check out the Roadkill Club's site.

Okay that's about it for today, wow I didn't think there would be that much to talk about, but I guess I was wrong. Hasta mañana.