That’s right, I’m back on the Robie Creek Half Marathon training wagon again.  And like last year, I have a half-baked training plan that basically has me adding 10 minutes each week to my long distance run.  For instance, yesterday I ran for 1:50, the week before 1:40, the week before that 1:30.

This year, I am going to break up that plan with a decent distance run in the hills.  Next week, I’ll plan on a hour plus long run in the Boise foothills.

The only wildcard in the whole operation is that my left knee hurts after these long runs.  Might be old (older) age kicking in or a old ski accident aggravating me.  Who knows.

I can tell that I haven’t gotten serious about losing weight yet this year.  My extra curricular eating activities have not been curbed.  When I say extra curricular, I mean the eating I do in between meals.  A little snack here and there - while my weight hasn’t really gone up, it certainly isn’t going down.  Time to start facing my demons and go on a cold turkey run - no in between meal snacks.

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I just finished a hour long run that included some intervals.  Went down to the Boise high school track and did a couple 1600 meter intervals and one 400 meter interval.

1600m 8:17 = 2:07, 2:08, 2:04, 1:58

1600m 7:00 = 1:45, 1:46, 1:45, 1:44

400m 1:33

In case you are wondering why the first interval was so much slower than the second interval (or why the second was faster than the first) - its hot out.  My energy level is low and slow.  You would think that with the weather as hot as it is (91F as of 3:05PM) it wouldn’t take much to warm up.  Don’t let the words “warm up” throw you for a loop.  Even though I was sweating like a horror in church, my body wasn’t ready for a significant running effort.  The only warm up I did was jog down to the track, ~10 minutes, jog a mile on the track, ~ 10 minutes, then the first interval.

I jogged a lap after the first interval, then stretched and, probably more importantly, I told myself that I was going to run the next 1600 meter interval in 7 minutes or less.  And I did.

How’s that for tricking myself into doing something?  I simply told myself that I was going to run the next mile (lose 23 pounds) in seven minutes (in 13 months).  Hmm, I guess I hold the keys to my own destiny, go figure.

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The Fastest Mile

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I finished the race almost 13 minutes faster than I did last year. Other than the time improvement, the race went the same as last year. I felt smooth and relatively comfortable with the first few miles of the race, I didn’t feel like I was going very fast. My time for the first 3 and first 6 miles was faster than I thought it would be. And, like last year, I bonked after the ten mile mark. Actually, it started around the 8 mile mark - I felt a muscle spasm in my arm, made a point of trying to relax once that happened.

Once I hit the steep pitch less than a mile from summit, I had to walk a little bit - my calves were screaming. And then it hit me again just past the 10 mile mark, had to walk since I could feel my calves seizing up. That is a horrible feeling when you feel like your legs are going to buckle. I had to make an effort to land and “roll” to stretch out my calves with each stride. When I was running across the washboards in the road, I mistakenly landed on the backside of a washboard and didn’t get a chance to roll my stride. Oh boy, that hurt.

Final time was 1:51:24, here’s a breakdown of my split times along with a comparison of the training run to the summit (8.5 miles) that I did about a 6 weeks ago.

Race Training
3 miles 23:10
cattle guard 42:06 44:30 (2:24)
7 miles 1:00:28
summit 1:17:05 1:18:36 (1:29)
9 miles 1:22:00
10 miles 1:28:56
11 miles 1:36:28
12 miles 1:44:30
13.1 miles 1:51:24

I ran the last three miles in 6:56 (10th mile), 7:32, 8:02, and 6:16. There is no way I ran the last mile in 6:16. I did some walking twice after mile marker 10, I guarantee that I wasn’t feeling energetic after the 12th mile to put in a 6:16 mile - if anything I was running at a 8:16 pace or slower. Last year I noticed the same thing, the last mile seemed short. Overall, I am pleased with my results.

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And I am running in it. The weather should be good. A couple of days ago we had snow in the mountains, right now it looks like that snow has melted. I suspect there will still be patches of snow in the shady backside of the hill.

This year I am planning on doing a few things different during the race. First, I don’t think I am going to use any of the energy gels like I did last year - taste like garbage, yuk. Even with water, those don’t go down well. Too sweet when you are exercising. Instead, I plan on slicing an orange up into very thin slices and bringing about 10 slices in a baggie. I’ll pull one out and suck on the orange for a quick burst of energy. Last year I completely bonked somewhere past the 10 mile mark, I had to walk for awhile and recall cursing when I couldn’t even hold on to a piece of orange that was handed to me. The young woman who handed it to me was very apologetic - it was not her fault at all … a belated apology if you are out there and reading this.

The other thing I am going to do is take it easier on the beginning of the backside of the race. After cresting the peak last year, I just let it rip, I was flying downhill. I think the pounding and large range of motion zapped my energy and left me weak. I’ll make an effort to go easy on the downhill and see if I can increase my pace once the course starts to level off about a mile from the summit (still 3+ miles from the finish line though).

I’m targeting under 1:50:00 for a finish and will be pleased if I hit this target. Will need to be at the summit around 1:19:00 or better to get that time. Last year I made it to the summit in 1:26:+ and finished 2:04:+ My fitness in terms of how much weight I am carrying around is much better this year. The last four weeks I have only run 3 times a week on average, this will be the wild card. While I feel well rested, the lack of training for the past month might catch up with me.

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Sit Ups Again

Thought is would be worthwhile to mention that I did my weekly long run for Robie Creek half marathon training.  As usual, I followed the Boise River along the greenbelt.  I am tapering off on the distance now.  Last week was a 2:30 run while yesterday’s was a shorter 1:45 run.

What else is different is that at the half way point, I then turned up the speed for the next 3 miles, clocking in at 7:36, 7:24, and 6:58 for those three miles.  Yes, I was tired after this run, but not nearly as much as the previous long distance runs that I have done on prior weeks.  My training efforts have been limited to three runs a week for the last three weeks; one week day run and then two runs on the weekend.  We are in the middle of painting the inside of our home with the intention of putting it on the market for sale soon.

Also should mention that the latest thirty day challenge is going to be a tough one - 50 push ups per day.  April 1st’s push ups weren’t too bad.  I did five sets of ten push ups.  This morning I could only do five sets of 4 push ups, my muscles are sore today.  I’m going to have to put in the remaining push ups later tonight.

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