Capital City River Run Half Marathon 2009

Capital City River Run
2009-09-27
Lansing, Michigan
United States
Impression 5 Science Center
60F / 16C
Overcast

Running
01:37:00 | 13.1 miles | 07m 24s min/mile

Entirely Z4/5. 59 min in Z4 and 49 min in Z5! Craziness! I guess I was running hard. Slowest complete mile was 7:47. Fastest complete mile was 6:59. Fastest single pace was sub 6.

Pre-race routine:

Not as much running as I should have been doing. I did a couple distance runs recently and some tempo runs.

Event warmup:

Basic stretching as I was 'running' behind after coming off of a 24 hour shift. I felt pretty good and was ready to race, but didn't feel like this was going to be a PR.

Comments:

I went out a bit too fast, as I always do. Found myself feeling great and running past the pacers (I started right behind the 8min pacer knowing I would pass him, but wanted to use him as motivation so that I would never be passed by him). Little did I know that I would quickly catch up to and pass the 7:30 pacer. I figured I would get passed by him and his group before too long.

HOWEVER, I was feeling great. My tempo runs have been pushing the 7:15 pace but only for 20 minutes and then I'd be whipped.... but after my last few distance runs I thought that pace was out of my range. Low and behold I looked down at my FR305 and saw a sub-6 pace. I completely knew that was out of my jurisdiction. So I *slowed* to a 7:15 and tried to stay there, but I was a horse chomping at the bit - so I cruised on the flats and downhills.

At mile 5 or 6 I expected to start feeling sore and tired and to slow, but I took a GU Roctane and took some water. By mile 8 I figured I'd be pushing the 8:30 pace but Not Today! I felt a slight rush, not the euphoric feeling, but probably the Gu taking affect.

Anytime I looked down and saw my pace fall below a 7:30 I picked it up. I did slow a few times to the 7:45 pace, but never to an 8. I passed the 9 mile mark and took a GU Chocolate. I didn't think that I *needed* it, but assumed that I would feel it like the last Gu. I grabbed a water at the next aid station and only sipped a bit.

At the 11 mile mark I had settled into a 7:30 pace but knew how close I was to my goal. I picked back up into a 7:15 pace and pushed faster on the last few straight-aways. The finish was up a slight hill but I didn't slow.

I saw the finish, my wife, daughters and family were there. I grabbed a high five from my wife and finished strong as they called my name and bib #. I was done.

I looked at my Garmin, 1h 37m. Earlier my goal was to be as close to 1h30m as possible. My last HM was 1h44m. Early August I started to focus on my speed and distance work for this race. But after 2 months of training runs I decided that an 1h40m time would be a more realistic goal. This past 2 weeks have been rough and I thought that there was no way I could break my last HM.

Today was a good day! My slowest complete mile was a 7:47 pace.


What would I do differently?:

You take what life deals. Sick children drain you, and over the last couple of weeks I haven't put in the work that I should have. But family first and training got put on hold.

I'm very happy with my results, but if I would have started training a month earlier and been able to stick to a plan, then maybe I could have been even more close to an 1h30m finish. But again, I'm pretty stoked with what I got after these past 2 weeks.

Warm down:

Easy walk and stretching. Food.

Event comments:

Great course with plenty of Volunteers to help out. Aid stations about every 1.5 miles. Good venue. Michigan Ave had unfinished construction so there was a brief bit through that mess.

Lansing Legislator 2009 Race Report

Here is my race report for the Lansing Legislator this past weekend. I had a great time, took 3rd in my AG and was 19th OA out of almost 200 people.

Right click and view image in order to read it.


I ran 18 miles over 2 separate runs this morning; 12 miles easy and 6 miles in interval style.

The Start of May

May has started off strong! I built well last month with some good totals and that puts me ahead early for the season. I have 4 races on tap for this month. My first race was an impromptu 5k run simply to see if I could break the 20 minute mark. While I gave it my all, I fell short by 56 seconds... I'm perfectly OK with this for now, but I had to give it an honest attempt. I finished 58th overall out of 677.

My next races are back to back. I'm competing in two of the four Starkermann Series races in Gaylord, Michigan. My first event will be Saturday night with a 40k Time Trial (bike race). This will push me as I've been riding at that distance for regular training rides. I will then awake early to race in another duathlon. While I do not plan to medal in this race, I do hope to do better than my last du as the distances are the same. (Maybe here I will break the 20 minute 5k)

And my final race for this month is the Hawk Island Triathlon. This was my first triathlon last year. This is a sprint distance race, so the swim is 400 yards, bike ~12 miles, and run 3.1 miles. I'm certain that I'll break my time from last year, but can I break an hour?

From there, the rest of the season is up for whatever comes along. I am considering a few other races that I pooled together early this year. I will also consider a 3 race series that takes place at the Island Lake Rec Area. These would all be sprint distance races, just slightly longer than the Hawk Island Tri; Swims of a half mile, 12.4 mile bike and 3.1 mile runs. And then lastly, I need to decide about an Olympic distance race in August and consider a Half Ironman in November... Hmm. What do you think?

March 2009!

March of 2009 has been a great month for me in the training department. I got my new Cervelo P2 - A carbon triathlon bike. With all of the excitement surrounding my new bike and a biking challenge through the BeginnerTriathlete.com website, I logged more than 279 miles in the month of March.

My total biking mileage for 2009 so far is 451.57 Miles. This is great because that means that I have already surpassed my total mileage for ALL of 2008. Craziness!!

My total running mileage for 2009 so far is 136.19 Miles. This puts me right on the baseline goal for the year. I wanted to have an average of 41 miles per month by the end of 2009.

My swimming total so far is 7700 yards. This is by no means great, hardly even good. However this is almost half of the total distance that I got in 2008. So while I still need more time in the pool, I feel more comfortable.

This year I have already competed in 2 races. The first was an indoor triathlon at a local YMCA. I took first place in my age group. For me personally, the higher achievment in this was that I swam for 20 minutes straight. I had not done that before. In this race I ended up with 975 yds. This gives me hope for the upcoming race season.

I also competed in a 28k Time Trial at Fisk Knob (near Grand Rapids). I placed 61 of 120 Overall. So right in the middle of the pack. That's not bad for my first ever TT. The weather was 38 degrees F and per Weather.com it felt like 27. We had snow flurries mixed with some light misty rain. It was rather miserable weather, but I raced well. I hit my fastest speed on my new bike at 39.6 mph per the Garmin Forrunner 305 gps. The hills were hard, but I feel confident that I will improve my overall biking ability this year.

Upcoming races that I am already registered for:

4/05 Martian Half Mary
4/26 Steelcase Duathlon
5/16 Starker-Mann 40k TT
5/17 Starker-Mann Duathlon
5/31 Hawk Island Triathlon

That completes the first half of the race season for me. I hope to race 1 to 2 races per month. We'll see how these first few races go and then I'll complete my schedule for the rest of this year.

I'm excited about some new opportunities. This year has great potential!

Thank you all for your encouragement and support! I look forward to racing this year. Give me a call and let's ride sometime.

January 09

January has flown by super fast! I was able to meet my personal goal of 41 miles for the month in running. I actually hit just over 51 miles.

I still need to get in the pool and stretch more. I feel comfortable with my lifting, but ideally I would be spending a bit more time in this area. I recently did a P90X routine, I loved it. I'm not sure that I have the time to dedicate to the actual program, but I will do a P90X session here and there. I did complete over 180 push ups and 47 pull ups during the 50 minute workout. I was pretty sore for a day or two. I started doing some Spinrvals dvd's while biking on the rollers. Those workouts kick butt. Google it.

February is here now and I have put some time in for training (mind you we are only 3 days into the month). I'm confident that I'll get my 41 miles running in for the month. Next month I will start up some outdoor biking too, that will help my mileage increase.

All in all, training has started out strong for me. This year will bring good things!

Base Building

I should be maintaining my base for fitness right now, but with new toys and the excitement of things to come this year, I feel like I'm actually base building.

Today I did my first interval cycling session on my rollers with the Forerunner 305. I haven't actually 'seen' my cycling layed out like this before. I find this encouraging because it will give me motivation to become a better cyclist and at the same time help me build that endurance that I need on the bike.

Here's what you see:
2' WU
6x30" @ 100+ (45" Rest)
5x1' @ RPE 6 / 70+ (1' Rest)
2' Easy
5' CD

Met My Run Goal Early!

Today I met my annual goal for running distance. I planned to run 366 miles this year. That way I could say that I ran an average of 1 mile per day. Today is number 340 of the 366 days in this year and today I ran past the 366 mile mark. In fact, today I hit mile #369. I ran yesterday and after I gathered all of my data from the Forerunner 305 I found myself to be 0.05 miles short of my goal. I thought about running to the end of the block and back, but that isn't really a training session. So I figured I run again today. And if irony isn't funny, I am now less than a quarter mile away from 370 miles.

Today I underestimated the level of cold associated with 22 degree temperatures. I also somehow forgot that the trail section I run wouldn't be plowed from the snow. This slowed me down just a bit. So my times for the run today are little slow. But that should make me faster in the long run when there isn't the extra 'terrain'

Info about the Forerunner 305: This is possibly the best training tool ever (besides the BeginnerTriathlete.com website, of course). I started to use SportTracks, a free program, to gather the data from the FR305. It automatically overlays my run info onto a satellite image or street map or whatever I select. Tracks my time in each heart rate zone, which translates to telling me that I'm not as tired as my legs may feel. There's so much information that it's actually a bit overwhelming.

It's good to think that I've reached a goal that I trained for over this whole last year. I've spent a lot of time 'working out.' I look forward to continued base building over the next several months. I am very excited to think about this coming race season with anticipation of racing a few races as compared to simply running a race for completion. I hope to make significant improvements this coming year and race in longer distance triathlons. I hope to post my 2009 race goals soon.

Thank you again to everyone who has been supporting me over this last year!

On another note: Michael Phelps was interviewed on 60 minutes recently. At the end of the interview Anderson Cooper saught to challenge Phelps:

Last Month

Today starts the last month of 2008. I was greeted with snow yesterday and today I must shovel the driveway. I can't say that I've missed the cold weather or the snow.

I bought a Garmin Forerunner 305. I have yet to play with it. I may just wear it while I shovel snow... to track my heart rate and calories burned. Strictly for training, of course.

This month will be an easy month with no challenges from the BeginnerTriathlete website. I hope to take the month slow. I plan to run in maintenance mode, bike easy on the trainer and restart my swimming. Today was supposed to be Day 1 for swimming, but after a long night on shift and a late run (car vs house) I decided to pass on it.

Today also marks my own personal countdown to the big 30th birthday on the 20th of this month. It's a crazy number to think about. Well, off to the driveway.