Originally: My take on things we all see, use and do on a regular basis, but rarely care to think about the reasons and purpose behind them. Lately: A place where I log my race day experiences
The LA Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon was on my list of races to run for 2014 (the last time I made such a list) but unfortunately, a sprained fibula caused me to abandon plans half way through and I had to bail on the Long Beach half and the Rock n Roll as well. Well this year, I didn't draft up any crazy plans but was running a little bit here and there for fun and when someone sent me a discount coupon for the RnR-LA a few weeks ago, I said, why not do one for fun without too much training or planning and also because it would seem weird to let a whole year go by without any races (or blog posts on here, as a consequence). As it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome:
Overall Place: 543 out of 7774 Finishers
Age Group Place: 86 out of 573
Chip Time: 01:47:35
Avge Pace: 8:13
This is a little puzzling because my pace on this race was better than flatter courses I've run in past and with a lot more training and discipline leading up to the race day. The only things that were in favor here was the weather (it was cloudy and a perfect 70 degrees) and the fact that the start line was a 10 min drive from my home (so less race day overhear anxiety?). Aside from that, the race route was changed from a flat course to one that had us going up and down the same hill (bunker hill in DTLA) twice, once at mile 7 and once again at mile 11 -- but, that didn't seem to make a difference to me (at least not going into the race) because I did not have any expectations for a finish time (Mentally I was happy to just keep my sub-2hr half marathon streak). I was also nowhere close to the shape I've been in on some past half marathons and yet, I wasn't all dead at the end of the race (as I had expected to be).
So what do I make of this and what do I take away from it?
1. There definitely is such a thing are overtraining and chasing a goal too hard. Almost like the benefit curve tapers off and then start to curve back down, as you start to train too hard or focus on a goal too much.
2. If I can get away with less-than-recommended training for a half marathon, can I do the same for a full marathon? (something that has prevented me from considering running one so far).
3. Should I get back to chasing my goal of a sub-1:40 half marathon? (too bad the long beach half just passed by for this year and REVEL is too close)
Ran my last race of this year today -- and almost did not run it. I had skipped the last two planned races (the Long Beach half and the LA Rock n Roll Half) due to a sprained Fibula and so had been off running for weeks and didn't think I was in shape to finish a half marathon, let alone achieve a PR (which was my original goal for this race). But all the excitement leading up to it made me want to at least show up. And once I showed up and got to the (beautiful) start line and watched the sun rise in the mountains at 3000 feet, I could not, not start, so I did. And even though the foot still hurt while running, I managed to clock in a decent time and not end up hurting myself any more than I was to begin with. I'll take this!
Overall Place: 157 out of ~1500 Finishers on the HM Age Group Place: 21 Chip Time: 01:51:41 Avge Pace: 8:32
The race itself was the best organized race I have ever run! -- I'm not sure if this was because it was an inaugural race or REVEL in general is good but the organization was perfect, down to providing custom postcards with results within minutes of the race ending to providing the best post race food options I have ever seen. Even the medal beats all the other medals I've gotten to date in design. This might just be the race I repeat!
Race #7 of my 2014 list is in the books. Got lucky with the weather on this one. It has been brutally hot in SoCal the last couple weeks, but today was cool in the 60s by the beach and overcast skies. Helped with clocking in some good time on this race.
Overall Place: 3rd out of TBD Finish Time: 47:12
Avge Pace (over 6.1mi): 7:42
Splits: 7:30; 7:42; 7:51; 7:59; 8:04: 7:38
I seem to have done better about being consistently below 8min/mi than I've done on past 10Ks this year but I still have work to do before I can maintain this over 13.1.
Checked off race #6 on my 2014 list today. This was also my second half marathon in 2014. I was quite happy with my progress from the shoreline half marathon, that I ran about a month ago. I managed to shave off about 5 mins overall, which is about 25-30 seconds faster per mile -- but, I'm still a good 3 minutes away from the PR I achieved on the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon about 4 years ago (although, that was a downhill and flat race, so maybe I have already? :)
Overall Place: 47 out of ~200 Finishers on the HM Age Group Place: 19 Chip Time: 01:46:10 Avge Pace: 8:00 I was bracing for a hot race given this was not by the coast (was relatively in-land in Simi Valley) and given it was in a hotter month. Luckily though there was a pretty dense fog as I drive to the start line, which cleared up to cloudy skies at the start of the race and to sun after about 3 miles. So it did get into the 70s later but it was "mentally" a cool race to begin with. What was also great was that the race was mostly run alongside a creek (the "Arroyo" creek I guess!) and there were plenty of trees that provided shade ever now and then. The course was fairly flat but there was the periodic climb up and down as you crossed a road or went under it, every couple miles or so. Overall a very nice course (and a good change of scenery from the beach!).
I got to the race with time to spare and so was able to place myself right up front at the 8min pace group. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to keep it up all through, but I figured I'd at least be able to for a few miles. I started out by running alongside the 1:44 pacer but at about mile 3 she got confused by the route and turned around (while I continued along the path) and then was heckled by a bunch of folks and turned back on the same path as me. So, I was ahead of her for a couple miles when my shoe lace went undone and she passed me. The same shoe lace came off a second time at mile 8 + I probably rested for 30 seconds twice at aid stations --for a total of about 2-3 minutes lost "resting".
All said and done, I feel pretty happy with the progress and the race. I would recommend this course to anyone looking for a new HM in the area.
Race #5 on the 2014 list, check! -- was dehydrated from beach volleyball (which also gave me a blister in my foot) and then got an awesome 3 hours of sleep on Sat night (before the race) from having too much fun! -- still wasn't the slowest 10K race time of the year:
Overall Place: 4 out of 33 Time: 49:16 Avge Pace: 7:56min/ mi (averaged over 6.2mi) Next official race will be the Arroyo Creek HM on Aug 10th! and will likely be a scorcher. No PR expectations there!
Ran the 4th race on my 2014 list and my first half-marathon distance for the year. The heat definitely got to me on this one (was 67F at 7am and likely in the high 70s/ 80s during the race that started at 8am). Need to focus on training in warmer weather and mixing it in with hills on the next one. Official results here.
Overall Place: 53 out of 356 Finishers Age Group Place: 24 Chip Time: 01:51:51 Avge Pace: 8:30 The race itself was well organized with enough water stations but the course wasn't very creative (they made us loop the start/ finish line twice for the half marathon, so it got a little monotonous). There were also some rolling hills, so wasn't the perfect race for the PR.
Race #3 on the 2014 list ... CHECK!
Ran this (9+mile) distance after a long time today. Came in at #3. Felt kinda out of energy to start with (probably the slight sleep deprivation from the week).
Overall Place: 3 out of 30 Time: 01:16:15 Avge Pace: 8:07min/ mi (averaged over 9.35mi) Splits: 7:38; 8:11; 8:49; 8:17; 8:19; 8:45; 8:32; 8:33; 7:56
Splits were all over the place on this one --- Need to do a couple more 15Ks to (re)learn how to pace myself on these!
Ran the second race on my list. Wasn't planning to race on consecutive weekends but the opportunity came up so I got tempted. It was a long (60mi) drive to Huntington beach, so had to wake up super early -- but made it to the start with time to spare. Was second among the 10K runners up until the 5K turnaround point but the 1st runner was significantly ahead of me and so I didn't pay attention to the where he turned around and ended up overshooting the turnaround by a bit. Lost about 2 mins, running an extra quarter mile but still ended up at 6th place overall.
Overall Place: 6, out of 42 Time: 49:28 Avge Pace: 7:48 min/ mi (averaged over 6.3mi, not 6.1) Splits: 7:29; 7:51; 8:04; 7:50; 7:51; 7:43
Still need to work on being consistently under 8min/ mi on every mile. On to the next one.
Ran my first race of the year as planned in the previous post. This is was also my first time running with A Better World Running. Love the concept of keeping the races low-key and low overhead.
Surprisingly I managed to end up at position #1. Waiting for the official results to be posted to know how many ran the 10K (they usually limit it to 100) but here are the numbers:
Overall Place: 1, out of 23 Time: 48:05 Avge Pace: 7:54 min/ mi Splits: 7:37; 7:59; 7:32; 8:29; 8:08; 7:50
Got to the start line about 5 mins late and so was trying to catch up to "the pack". Once i did, I began to chill out and then towards the end, the very last mile, I started to push hard again. That is clearly reflected in the splits. Got to try to be consistently under 8min, on the next one (hopefully will make it to the start on time!)
I only ran two races last year and even those were pretty unplanned and untrained. I'm hoping to do a better job this year and run a bunch all over the LA area (and many by the beach!). This is a tentative plan for now, if I learn of more interesting races (even outside of the LA area) I'll replace some of these with them -- let's see how far I get with this ...
SM=Santa Monica; HB=Huntington Beach; SV=Simi Valley; V=Ventura; VN=Van Nuys; LB=Long Beach; DTLA=DownTownLA; O-Oxnard Low Key Races (with better world running) BIG RACES Date | Event | Volunteer? | Race? ============================================================ 6/1 Beach Bash — SM Y 6/8 Spring Celeb — SM 10K 6/14 Spring Bliss — HB 10K 6/15 Father’s Day Run — VN Y 6/ 22 Summer Fun — SM 15K 7/13 SHORELINE HALF - V Half Marathon 7/20 Summer Time Run — SM Y 7/27 Summer Dash — SM 10K 8/9 Summer Breeze -- VN Y 8/10 ARROYO CREEK HM - SV Half Marathon 8/16 Summer Break -- SM 10K 8/23 BULL DOG - Malibu Creek 25K (ULTRA) 8/31 Rockin' Summer -- SM Y 8/31 Summer's End -- SM 10K 10/12 LONG BEAH HALF MARATHON Half Marathon (PR Attempt) 10/ 26 ROCK ’N’ ROLL - DTLA Half Marathon 11/8 CATALINA ECO MARATHON (Tentative) Half Marathon 11/15 REVEL CANYON CITY (Tentative) Half Marathon 11/16 MALIBU INTERNATIONAL MARATHON Half Marathon 11/23 A Better World Run — VN Y 12/14 SANTA-TO-THE SEA - O Half Marathon 12/21 Reindeer Run — VN 15K 1/3/15 NEW YEAR’S RACE - DTLA Half Marathon
Decided to run a half marathon after a 3 year hiatus. The last time I did 13.1 was back in July 2010 - the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon. I had originally planned to train really well for the Ventura Half and signed up 2 months in advance so I had enough time to do so. I also picked a fast, flat course with the hopes of earning a new PR (possibly a 01:40 finish). Unfortunately, a ton of traveling and several other things (including slacking) meant I trained very little. The total number of miles I ran in September was 3.2miles and in the whole of August was 42.9miles. The longest training run I did between the day I signed up for the race and the day I ran it was just 8.4 miles. With all that in mind, I had set myself a really low bar as I drove up north on the 101 on Sunday morning. I would be happy to just finish (and hopefully without injuring myself). So, in some sense I really surprised myself with the following finish (limited stats on the website)
Overall Place: 250 out of 1195 Finishers
Age Group Place: 24 Chip Time: 01:51:38
Avge Pace (First Half): 8:37/mi
Avge Pace (Last Half): 8:25/mi
When I started the race, I had the mindset of wanting to "just finish it". As I got to the turnaround point, that changed to one of "being able to keep my sub 2hr half marathon finish streak alive" and finally, as I got to around mile 10, I really started to think I might be able to come in at under 1:50! - And I think that is pretty evident from my average pace splits above.
Overall I was quite happy with the results for what I trained (nearly none). The race itself was absolutely beautiful. It was an inaugural race so there was no darth of excitement, the course was scenic, flat, fast and the weather was great too. Definitely recommend it!
This was my first ever "official" bike race. I mean I have biked 50+ miles several times before but I never actually entered a formal event the way I've done for foot races (10Ks, Half Marathons). And in many ways it wasn't really a race - it had riders of all shapes, sizes, speeds and levels with all sorts of bikes.
I found out about the event while hiking the weekend before from a fellow hiker, during a casual conversation. I didn't think I would actually do it (because, I hadn't taken my bike out for a ride in months!). As the week rolled by I completely forgot about it, until it was Saturday night and I was sitting on my couch and suddenly remembered it! At first I thought it was already over on Saturday - but I looked it up and it was on Sunday (next morning). I wasn't sure if they would just let me show up so I went on Facebook and found them and posted a question there. Sure enough someone responded back in a few minutes and said I could just "show up and do it".
And so, there I was on a Sunday morning -- drove 30 miles with my bike in my car, paid up and registered on the spot -- and was all set to do my first ever bike race and first 50 mile ride in almost 6 months or so.
The ride was pretty flat and took us through some interesting neighborhoods. It started in Griffith park and rode along the LA river through central and then South LA. It was very well organized with more rest stops than I (or most people) needed.
I got to the 25mile turnaround point in under 2 hours and was feeling great. A little rest stop and I was on my way back. I was gliding along the bike path with oncoming bikers to my left and the LA river (whatever little water it had) to my right side with the embankment separating me from it. And I was feeling pretty confident I'd be able to finish it off in a couple hours, even before the clouds gave way to the sun -- and that't when out of nowhere I see this ride come out of nowhere into my bike lane and collide with me head on. And since I was on the side of the path closest to the river, the collision sends me flying off my bike and rolling off the embankment. I collected myself (and my two water bottles) and assessed the situation. A bunch of scrapes and bruises and likely a sore side after a days rest but nothing major. The bike was a mess though. Front wheel was a little bent out of shape and tire and tube were busted. Handle bar twisted too.
Spent the next hour fixing up my bike (thanks to the help of the awesome race crew and couple fellow riders) and then rode back the 20 odd miles back to the start line.
Overall it was an interesting experience but I decided I'm going to stick to foot races going forward or at least if I do enter a bike race, enter one that is specifically a "race" and not a "casual ride".
No regrets though - an interesting experience overall
Ran my first official race after a 3 year hiatus. Decided to test myself with a 10K (http://www.firecracker10k.org/), and it was a good thing because, even though I signed up a month ago, I didn't get time to train at all. The course was a little tough, with a 600 foot climb in the first 2.5 miles. But, luckily the finish was the same as the start, which meant there was a 600 foot drop over the rest of the course. I realized how bad I am with downhill running (some shin issues in the left foot didn't help either). Overall, I wasn't disappointed with the results at all:
Time:50:44 Pace:8:09/mile Division: 10K
Overall Place:216/2353 | 9.2% Age Group Place:33/208 |15.9%
It's been 1.5 years since I wrote my last post, and when I look back, I realize that I never got around to completing that one itself!
But, thinking about that post and my absence from blogging and many of the activities I used to do a few years ago, made me wonder how much things have changed, so, I thought I'd do some analysis.
I decided to start with one of my (or at least what used to be one of my) favorite activities - running.
When I initially started running somewhat seriously, about 4 years ago, it didn't take me long to realize that I needed to set up a baseline, some benchmarks and track progress against them if I was to know whether I was moving in the right direction. I initially did this passively by writing it up on a whiteboard on my fridge, followed by something a little more structured - the text entries on this blog, followed by attempting to map and track my runs using mapmyrun.com, followed by writing my own little app that would allow me to store by runs passively (a simple few ruby on rails pages that took user input and stored them in a mySQL database on my local machine)
And then, one day, I discovered that there are tons of apps out there that do a really good job of helping you track your runs (or bike rides, hikes etc ...) using your smartphone's capabilities. I ended up settling on cardiotrainer to track my apps and have for the most part of about 2 years now, been religiously tracking my runs and bike rides there.
So, this is where I have been tracking my running/ biking performance for a while now. Taking a random snapshots from that, reveals the following:
First link on that page - Run from Thursday (3 days ago): 6.29/ 57:26 = 9:09 pace.
Compare that to: this run on Apr 8th, 2012: 9:45/ 1:23:19 = 8:49 pace (of course this was flat course on the beach sand) this on Feb 19th, 2012: 7.68/ 1:08 = 8:53 pace (lot harder climb than this morning) this on June 9th, 2011: 6.4/56 = 8:47 (same route as today). this on Apr 30th, 2011: 6:31/ 52 = 8:22 (same route as today) this on Mar 6th. 2011: 7.5/ 54 = 7:14 (same route as today, but, a little
longer loop on the way out)
And then, there's my last official half marathon performance (Bryce Canyon on July 17th, 2010): 13.1/ 1:43:18 = 7:53 average pace per mile.
From that data, it is clear to see that I have basically been on a downhill, as far as cardiovascular fitness goes, the last couple years (without going into details, I'm just going to say that life's been "busy"). But apart from that, what's more interesting is that the Mar 6th, 2011 run (7:14 pace average over 7.5mi) is a clear outlier!
I'm beginning to wonder if just tracking my distance, time, pace and type course (elevation) over a period time has given me this much insight, would tracking some more data help even more? Further, could this be applied to other facets of life as well? For instance, if I somehow knew what I had eaten the night before that Mar 6th, 2011 run or how much sleep I had gotten, or what sort of week was it, would that help?
Am I taking this too far? Am i going nuts?! - I sure don't think (and hope) so!
Fortunately, research supports that too. For instance, some searching reveals that there are a whole bunch of people out there thinking about stuff like this. One such group happens to be Quantified Self or QS. I hope to research more into this topic in the coming days!
What do the three items mentioned in the title of this post have in common? Not a lot - in fact, nothing at all, besides the fact that I've used or been involved with all of them this year!
Its the start of a long weekend and I'd normally be on a road trip of sorts by now, except, it's been raining cats and dogs all over California (golden/ sunshine state you say?) this whole week and I have tons of errands piled up from a crazy few months of work and school.
It occurred to me, during a conversation today, that it's been a while since I wrote anything here. I thought I'd work on a set of New Year resolutions like I did a couple years ago , but unfortunately, I haven't figured them out yet! So, I figure I'll get back to blogging, by blogging about a few of the things that have caused me to not blog as much - how's that for ironic?!
I'll start by writing about Bouldering in this post and try and address the other two in subsequent posts -
I've known about rock climbing as a sport for a few years now - but, my reaction to it was always "why would anyone in the right mind want to climb a wall?". I finally tried it about a year ago and as it turns out, it is actually a LOT of fun!
There are a bunch of types or forms of rock climbing out there - there's Traditional (or "trad") climbing, Sport Climbing, Top Roping and Ice Climbing. But the way I see it, there's Bouldering and then there's all the other climbing! :-)
So what makes Bouldering so special (to me)?
For starters, it is more minimalistic than the other forms of climbing. In theory, you need no gear except your own limbs. More realistically, you'll need some decent climbing shoes, some chalk and a crash pad to arrest your fall, and that's it (no major ropes, carabiners, harness or pulleys that other forms of climbing demand).
Next, it's a lot more intense and athletic (in my opinion, at least) - if you don't believe me, walk into any climbing gym and compare the fitness level of the boulderers vs the "others"! What makes bouldering so intense is the simple fact that you are "own your own", so to speak. What I mean by that is, unlike other forms of climbing, where you have the liberty of stopping or taking rest at any point, bouldering does not give you the liberty of "letting go", midway.
Third, bouldering is all about problem solving. Yes, that's right - I said "problem solving". There are routes or problems that must be solved and what's interesting is that there are many ways to solve a given problem - some do it a lot more efficiently and gracefully than others. To me personally, bouldering is very contrasting to long distance running (one of my other passions). While long distance running allows you to "zone out" and reflect on various things (issues at work, life whatever), to be successful at bouldering, you must completely focus on the problem at hand (leave out any other problems in your life)!
Finally, while most people tend to associate bouldering (and rock climbing, in general) with raw strength, the truth is that, the sport is just as much about skill, technique, presence of mind and being able to plan moves in advance (a little bit like chess)!
So, that's my 2c on bouldering - I figured I'll spare you of the usual description of rock climbing and bouldering, since there are tons of websites and books on the subject, and instead give you my perspective on it! - hopefully, this has motivated you to "hit the wall" sometime!
oh, and here's what I got for coming in at #4 in the UCSD Boulderdash earlier this year! :) -
Ran the BCHM -2010 two weekends ago. This was my first experience running a half marathon outside of San Diego and I absolutely loved it. The results are in, and I'm happy to say I achieved the half marathon PR goal (sub 1:45 finish) I set for myself, along with my other new year's resolutions for the year:
Overall:
152 out of 1141 Finishers
Men:
107 out of 419 finishers
Age Group:
16 out of 87
Finish:
1:43:18 Pace: 7:53/mi
Chip Time:
1:43:18
Gun Time:
1:43:26
I thought my training for the race was pretty decent. I varied my training a little this time - instead of doing really short runs (3-5mi) twice a week and fairly long (8-12mi) runs every weekend, I did 6.6mi (10K) runs, 3 times a week and hardly any weekend long runs (most of the weekends got spent hiking, biking, camping, climbing, road tripping etc, as you can see on my outdoors blog ). The one thing I did do though, was run the same 10K (6.6mi) loop over and over again and try my best to beat my time every time - which meant, running each one like a race!
Now, for the screwing up part: I decided to go play 2 hours of ultimate Frisbee, followed by an hr of soccer (which, I hadn't played in over 10 years) the very last weekend before the race. I was amazed by how different short fast sprinting is from steady long distance running. My Achilles heels were sore following that and I also ended up with a nice blister under my right foot. To top it off, I didn't get much chance to rest my legs before the race, because, we decided to do a bunch of hikes in Zion NP, on the way to Bryce Canyon.
As a result, I practically limped to the start line, with feet feeling like crap, at 5am on the race day (after hiking 11 miles the day before and getting an awesome 4 hrs of shut eye time). I would have probably bailed on the race, if they hadn't told me, there were medals for all finishers ;-). I stretched for a good 45 minutes before the race, but was nowhere close to being in my regular running shape. I finally told myself - since I had come this far, I might as well start it -and so I did. My legs (just the ankles and bottom of my feet, everything else was perfect) hurt with every step, right from the start! I decided I was going to run a couple miles and then pull to the side. I get up to the 1 mile mark and realize I ran it in 7:56, so I change my mind and decide I'll somehow try to keep it up until the 1/2 pt (~6.6miles). After I get to that, I decide, I'll try to make it to the 8.5 mile mark, at which point I would pass the motel we were staying at (and a couple friends cheering me on), so I could bail and go crash on the soft bed. When I get to the motel, I realize I just clocked my fastest 8.5miler (1:04), so there was no way I was going to let my PR goal slip away now. I eventually hobbled into the finish line and could barely stand or walk - but, it was all worth it - not just because I achieved my goal, but, also because, I passed one of the greatest mental challenges I've faced to date!
Overall, I thought the race was very well organized, the scenery was beautiful, there were way more water stops (~10) than we needed (with both water and Gatorade at each) and the T-shirt is the best race shirt I've gotten to date (and all that for a $35 registration). Definitely recommend running it!
So, I finally decided to start doing some planned training for the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon in June, this year. I haven't signed up for the race yet, but, I figure I'll try to push the miles and see where I am in a month or so and then decide, accordingly. I haven't figured out my complete training plan either, but, I know it is going to be a lot of running, so I figure why not start tracking so I can keep it real.
I have been keeping a log of my runs in a simple text file on my phone (yeah, talk about low-tech!) for the last couple months, as I trained for and ran the San Dieguito Half Marathon. I'm going to add them here, so that I can get a total count for the year too, in the process :)
2009 Dec Runs: Sat (12/5) 7.0mi MM Lake T (12/7) 4.0mi Telesis Ct Th (12/9) 5.6mi Sorrento/ Lusk ~45min T (12/22) 5.5mi Lopez Cyn 55min Th (12/24) 5.7mi UTC 52min Su (12/27) 7.0mi Rose Cyn ~60min T (12/29) 5.0mi UTC ~48min --------------------------------------- Total: 40mi Total for 2009: ~550miles Will I top that in 2010? Let's see... :)
2010:
Sat (1/8) UCSD 6.6mi T (1/11) UCSD 5.5mi Th (1/13) trail 4.7mi 46min Sat (1/16) UTC 10.0mi Sat (1/23) UTC 10.5mi Thu (1/28) UCSD 6.0mi Sat (1/30) UTC 12.6mi W (2/4) Lopez Cyn 5.0mi Sat (2/6) UTC 6.6mi Th (2/11) UTC 6.0mi Sun (2/14) San Dieguito Half 15.0mi Sat (2/20) TP-Del Mar + Hill 8.0mi Th (2/25) UTC 6.0mi 48min Sat (2/27) TP-Del Mar 7.1mi 58min T (3/16) UCSD 6.6mi Sat (3/20) UCSD +Rose Cyn 8.6mi 74min T (3/23) Lopez Cyn 4.6mi Th (3/25) UCSD + LJColony 9.6mi 78min ------------------------------------------- Total So far: 140miles
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- T (3/30): UCSD + LJ Colony 9.6mi 78min Sun (4/4): Miramar lake 5+5+3=13mi in 1:45 + 2min breaks between loops (my own little MIRAMAR LAKE HALF MARATHON, if you will ;-) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tue (4/6) 6.6mi UCSD loop
*****Found out that the SD RnR 2010 is already Full (first time in the 12 year history of the event) and decided to slack off for a few weeks :)******
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tue (4/20) Gilman 6.6mi Thu (4/22) UCSD 6.0mi --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **** Bought new Asics Piranha's (trainers/ racing flats), from now on "P" indicates runs with these so, I know if they're doing any good or not! *****
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fri (4/28) Gilman 6.6mi (P) 55min Sat (4/29) Rose Cyn 5mi (P) 43min Sun (4/30) 50mi Bike Ride from UTC to Carlsbad and Back!! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tue (5/4) Gilman 6.6mi 57min Thu (5/6)Gilman 6.6mi 58min --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mon (5/10) Gilman 6.6mi 56min Wed (5/12) Rose Cyn 6.0mi (P) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sat (5/22) UTC<->TP 10.2miler --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mon (5/24) Gilman 6.6mi 54min
Just ran the San Dieguito Half Marathon this morning. It was a very interesting experience (both the race and the day overall), and I hope to capture the details here, so I can look back at them later (something I put off doing right after AFC half, and never got back to it and now I've forgotten all the details... so, no slacking this time). But, first off, here's my performance:
Finish Time: 1:49:29
Avge. Pace: 8:18
Other Info : N/A
(NOTE: race did not feature, timing chips :(.. so, above time is, as recorder on my wrist watch's lap timer)
Although, I didn't meet the goal I had set for myself after I finished the AFC Half last year -- which was a "sub 1:45" finish, on the next half -- nonetheless, I am pretty happy overall, for two reasons:
1. This is my best time of the 4 half marathons I've run to date (PR yay!!)
2. I have reason to believe that the above numbers don't necessarily reflect my true performance on today's race, due to some major mistakes I made (keep reading to see if you agree!) (.. and let me know through comments ;-)
OK, so here are the details. Starting off from the night before... I got myself a nice meal and stayed up a little after that, to set up my iPod Playlist and figure out my mile splits. I finally crashed on the bed around 11:45 pm, shortly realizing I forgot to set my morning alarm, I quickly "resurfaced" and set my alarm clock in the dark for 6am (race start was 8am) and went back to sleep, reassured I was all set (or so I thought!). Felt like I barely closed my eyes and the alarm went off, showing 6am. I opened my eyes, peered out of the window right above my bed and noticed it was unusually dark for 6am... so, instead of getting straight to "businesss", I decided to check the main clock in the living room and sure enough, it was an awesome 3:55am!! (a quick mental recap made me realize, that I had advanced the actual time on my clock by a couple hours, while trying to set the alarm in he dark... dang!)... retreat back into the sack, reset the clock and shut eyes again... before I know it, the damn thing is going off again (and this time the correct 6am!).. I shut the alarm and decide to rest a little before waking up... and without realizing slip into a nap... and finally come to senses at 6:24am... from then on it's a race against time... I change... make a quick cup of tetley masala tea and head out, banana in one hand, red bull in another... get in the car, start moving, and the "reserve" light comes on (dang!)... quick pull into the gas station and it's 6:55am, when I actually start heading towards the race venue. I figured I was still in decent shape (but, no!)
Driving up the I-5 N, I notice a stream of red lights from Villa De La Valle (the exit 4.5mi before the exit, I was supposed to take!), on up... I keep telling myself, it's not what I think it is, but, deep down I know, I'm screwed. I sip on my red bull and hope that the endless line of cars in front of and behind me are all hopeful of actually making the race. I spend a good 40mins, going bumper to bumper at 5miles an hr (one of the rare moments where I feel like kicking myself for buying a sports coupe with a "manual" transmission :P)... finally make the exit and, guess what, now there's another line of cars (the champions that exited from the I-5 S) merging into our already endless line... awesome, just what we need. One signal down, I realize, staying in the car and trying to drive closer to the start isn't going to help... I decide to take the first right an park in the strip mall. I jump out of the car, ditch the jacket, the phone and the wallet and start running to the start line. Now, per the race brochure, I remember reading that the entrance, to San Dieguito County park (the start of the race) was the first 3-way stop after turning right from the exit. What it didn't say, is that, that 3-way stop, is a mile from exit and uphill!)... so, I quickly realize, I'm running a race, just to get to the start of my race. I finally come up to the San Dieguito county park entrance and guess what, there's no start line in sight... I see people walking down a trail. I assume that's the way... and soon enough, I'm going downhill for about a mile and half on a dirt trail (still unsure whether I'm actually heading to the start, or some place else, or I'm already running the half!). My watch at this time was a little past 8am, so, I knew I was late... I just didn't know how late. I finally see the yellow "start" banner and hear the guy say "folks starting now are 5 minutes and 20 seconds behind the official start"... aah, perfect!
So, I quickly make a decision to ditch the usual "stretching" ritual runners go through before any long run (oh, blasphemy!!)... just hit the lap timer on my trusted Timex (7 years old and going strong) and hope for the best. Now, a little comforted by the fact that I was finally in the race... I tried to block out the negative feelings of all the energy I wasted sprinting a quick 5K before my race and the fact that I was potentially going to run ~16miles without proper stretching. I come up to the 1st mile marker, check my stop watch, look at my mile split sheet (I staple it to my bib number, upside down, so I can read it at every mile) and am happy to see that I am on track. Alright, things are looking good, time to pull out the iPod headphones and get that custom playlist I set up the night before, going. Some cool new beats (like this one , I discovered a couple days ago) and I'm "cruising" along. The one thing that was bothersome was, that because I started at almost the end of the pack, I was faced with several "walls" of runners, running at a pace 2-3minutes, slower than mine. Which meant, I was constantly breaking, turning, running off trail... just to keep my overall pace in check. It almost felt like I passed half of all the runners on the race today!
I finally reached the point where you enter the "turn around loop" and noticed the first group of runners, returning. I took a quick peek at my watch and realized that a mojority of the first wave, was about 7-8 minutes in front of me at the half way point (which made me feel good, because, it meant, if I had started on time, I could easily be among the top 100 on this race!). I finally reach the turn around point (around 7.5miles) make my first water stop for the day, empty the single powerbar gel, I had carried, stretch a little, untie and tie my laces and continue on. Soon enough, I am at mile 8 and a quick check of my mile split sheet revealed,I was trailing my target by about 2mins (which meant, I was potentially looking at a 1:47 finish, as opposed to my planned 1:45). I kept at it, going up and down the rolling hills (the course is constant rolling hills, with only about 2 miles of flat running, on the whole course.. but, thankfully the gradient isn't too bad). Thanks to a couple of hills between mile 8 and 12, by mile 12, that gap had widened to about 5 minutes (oooh... veering dangerously close to 1:50 territory :( ). I realized at this point, that I had to finish the rest of the race in 8minutes, if I wanted to avoid ending into the 1:50s. Just as that thought goes through my head, I see the final hill of the race.. phew.. but, I kept telling myself that it was downhill after that all the way to the finish and finally crossed the finsh line with the "official time clock" showing 1:54: something)... I looked at my stop watch and it was 1:49:something.. which seemed to agree with the 5:20, delay at the start of the race.
It was a pleasant surprise to see two of my running buddies (Bharath and Chaitanya) drive up to meet me at the end of the race and made all the tiredness disappear as I met them and told them about all the excitement earlier in the day. It also made me realize how much difference it makes to see a familiar face at the end of a long race. So much that, I hereby make a resolution to try to attend any race that even one of my friends runs (no matter how long or short) as long as it is within commuting distance and I have the time to do so.
Overall a very unique experience!
Time to take that rare mid day nap now :)
Now, as for my AFC half performance. Well, pretty abysmal, as I expected (see previous post):
Overall:
2031 out of 7021 Finishers
Men:
1400 (almost double that of LJHM) out of 3257 finishers
M 25-29:
224 out of560
Finish:
1:58:00 Pace: 9:01
Tag Time:
1:58:00
Gun Time:
1:58:40
Before I go about describing the events that led to the above disaster, add "staying up all night on the night before the race" to the list of wrong-doings I had mentioned in my last blog post :)
Overall, I am not too disappointed, though. Over the last 4 months I
went from, feeling confident about a sub 1:45 finish on this race (this
confidence was right after LJHM) to all the way down to not being able
to run all of it :). I don't really regret all the wrong-doings either,
because I've learnt from a few of them... and the others? well.. they
were to much fun, to not do :)
I'm too groggy to type out the
full race report right now... so, it'll have to wait till I "robot walk"
myself to a shower and some food ;-)
am PS: Just realized that all my bib numbers have the numbers 3 and 4 in them.... will have to make some sense of that, as well.
The AFC half is this Sunday and it's been a while since I updated anything here. Browsing over past posts almost makes me feel like the training I was doing for the first two halfs this year, was something out of a different life (and although, it didn't seem too disciplined or rigorous at the time, it sure as hell does seem so, now, considering my AFC training!):)
Well, this ones going to be nothing short of interesting. I've done everything wrong this time...
1. Ignored a tender tendon right before the La Jolla Half (Heck, I thought I had hit my foot on a lab bench) and ran the half like I couldn't care less (well, at least I didn't do too bad!). 2. Took a long break and went on vacation, right after the La Jolla Half, with no running and lot of junk food binging. 3. Returned and attempted long runs without a slow build up (worsening an already sore tendon) 4. Had to stay off running to avoid limping while not running... until I figured that changing my running style helped "disguise" the tendon issue... yeap... this lead to experiments with forefoot striking. 5. Experimented with forefoot striking with a bad tendon, except the experiments were anything but that (they were more like through and through 10 milers, while what I was supposed to do was intermittent forefoot runs within the main long run :) 6. Overcompensated for the Tendon and agitated the IT Band in the process (yeah, that arch enemy of mine made a comeback after 2 years). 7. (And, final nail in the coffin) - Went camping the very last weekend before the half (instead of running and checking out the course) and did one 7mi hike on Sat and a 10+ mi (3)peak bagging hike on Sunday... and got rewarded with a nice blister on the right leg (hey, I had to balance out the ITB and Tendon issues on the left leg, right?:P)
So, here we go... there's no way I'm bailing out of the AFC (There's that Triple Crown Resolution I made earlier this year, remember?)... so, yeah... this one's going to be a veeeery interesting race and a test of mental strength just as much as of physical (or maybe more?)
am PS: Wish I had a half marathon version of the T-shirt that reads "Why couldn't Pheidippides have died at mile 20" :)
