View Workout (Dave Carter)

Return to Log

amateur hour (make that 3 hours)

May 20, 2012 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: race start 65, race finish 80

Comments:
ran the first 5 miles in 28:00 (5:36s), second 5 miles in 30:00 (6:00s) for a 10mile split of 58:00 (5:48s). clicked off the 11-14 in around 6:15s, then the wheels came off. first half in 1:17:00, second half in 2:00:00. I basically ran a quick but not all out first half, then hung out in the sun for 2 hours as I made steady but sloooow progress to the finish. briefly debated cutting my losses and just running the half-marathon route for a 13.1 PR, but decided against it; a half-marathon PR would is not an excuse to not deal with the consequences of not finishing a marathon because of stupid running at the beginning.

Embarrassing, not my time finishing time exactly but my rookie first 10 miles. oh well, you live you learn. the first half of a marathon has to feel effortless, and while I was just cruising along the first 10 miles, on a 1 to 5 scale it felt like a 3 instead of a 1 or 2. Also, running in the heat sucks. If going for a fast time, I'm definitely gonna hold out until a week out from races to register, even if it costs a good deal more, just so a weather forecast is available. Call me a baby, whatever. It's unnatural to run 26.2 miles in 70+ degree heat.

I won't be running a marathon again this year, moving back to shorter races with a peak race at a turkey trot. taking 2 weeks off starting yesterday will put that at a 24 week season which is perfect. Also, I really want to like the Cleveland Marathon and "The Cleveland Experience" because it's my hometown and everything, but I probably won't be running the Cleveland Marathon again. sub-par fan support after 13.1 miles, sub-par course after the half mark with the only bright side being MLK and less than 2 miles along the lake. Why don't they just send us back downtown on the lake all the way?

Anyways, thanks to everyone who came out, congrats to Link on finishing and Robert on showing his usual cool-head in tough conditions. In hindsight, I should have just hung out with Robert. But nope, I officially am not a Boston qualifier. I didn't plan on running Boston, but it's just humorous that I didn't make that qualifying mark.

An important thing I learned from this past season of training and something I will include in probably all my training in the future is working up to a 10 mile steady state. I was clicking off 10 mile runs in under 60 minutes these past few months, and I felt like an aerobic monster compared to during undergrad. Also, running track workouts with Lewandowski's group came with a surprising ease because I was just in overall great fitness (though not necessarily marathon fitness) despite not running fast workouts all the often.

training going forward:
Get to higher mileage and sustain it. There are really no excuses for not getting a good amount of doubles per week and a bare minimum of 70 miles per week. Once a base is established:
Quality Day #1) build up the long-run to 2 hours around 17-18 miles, as opposed to 2.5 hours that was my long run training goal for marathoning. Also, a 2 hour long run is probably necessary only every other week, with the off weeks being 1.5 hours, which give the opportunity to run faster in workouts that week.
Quality Day #2) One of three workouts; either tempo, or steady-state, or cutdown. So maybe like a 60 minute steady state the first week, a 30-40 minute tempo or tempo intervals the second week, and a treadmill tempo cutdown the third week.
Quality Day #3) Hills in the beginning of the next 24 week training cycle, shifting to track workouts as autumn arrives.
Also, I want to race a lot more starting in about 8-10 weeks from today, or 6-8 weeks after I start running again. I won't be in good fitness until autumn, but that doesn't mean I don't want to enter races during the summer.

sub-15 5k (road) before the year is up...