Cool Runnings!

London's Run

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Location:

Mesa,AZ,

Member Since:

Mar 20, 2006

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

Mile: 4:37 (HS)
2 Mile: 10:11 (HS)
10K: 35:52 (HS)
5K - 18:15 (ARR Summer Race Series #1 - 2008)
1/2 Marathon: 1:32:00 (St. George 2008 enroute)
Marathon: 3:10:56 (St. George 2008)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Get down to 155 lbs
Run sub 18:00 5K
Run sub 1:30 1/2 marathon
Run sub 3:00 marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

~~qualify for Boston Marathon~~
run Boston Marathon
run sub-2:50 marathon
run sub-1:20 1/2 marathon
run sub-17:00 5K
beat my high school 10K time of 35:52

Personal:

I was married in 1997 to my beautiful wife Lybi (confessions of a piano teacher on the blog), and we have 3 wonderful boys who are just as active as I was when I was little (he he). I grew up in southeastern Michigan, and my family became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was 6. I attended BYU, and served a mission in Berlin, Germany. After graduating from BYU with a degree in Health and Human Performance (pre-physical therapy), I promptly changed careers and started working with computers (although no programming for me). We have moved across the country several times, and currently live in Mesa, AZ. I work in computer security for a major nationwide homebuilder.

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00
Saucony Grid C2 Flash Lifetime Miles:						148.66

Sat, Feb 02, 2008

Race: London's Run (13.11 Miles) 01:33:15, Place overall: 14, Place in age division: 2

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Trainer 1 Miles	Trainer 2 Miles	Racer Miles	Total Distance
1.00	0.00	13.31	0.00	14.31	0.00	0.00	14.31

London's Run - 1/2 marathon. 14th place overall, 2nd place in my age division. Was doing very well until mile 11, then I DIED! Went from 7th place to 14th place. More to follow later.

Time for more details. Warmed up about a mile or so, not sure about the distance. Temperature was a balmy 40 degrees at the start - actually felt very good. Splits are below, along with explanations:

Mile 1 - 6:30
Went out a little too fast, but felt good.
Mile 2 - 6:42
This was just about perfect for the time, but the surface was absolutely deplorable. Big huge tire tracks and ruts everywhere. One of the other runners said his friend stepped in a hole and had to be carried back to the start. I got lucky, but felt my ankles turn a couple of times.
Mile 3 - 6:43
Right on time, felt good. Was running into a slight headwind this mile.
Mile 4 - 6:42
Felt easier than the previous mile. I was holding steady in 7th place at this point. Dirt road for the first portion, then onto the only section that was paved road. When we turned onto the paved road, we turned back into a slight headwind again.
Mile 5 - 6:40
Turned around on the road, the wind was behind us, this was the second fastest mile after the first mile. Moved into 6th place for a short time, then had another person pass me to put me back into 7th.
Mile 6 - 6:49
Another large portion of this mile was into the wind. Nothing special about this mile.
Mile 7 - 6:48
Nothing special about this mile.
Mile 8 - 6:47
You can see that my miles have been slowing down a bit, although not too much.
Mile 9 - 6:54
Slowing down a bit more
Mile 10 - 7:00
Slowing down more again. Feeling tired in my legs.
Mile 11 - 7:20
Feeling more tired. This is the last mile that was relatively normal.
Mile 12 - 8:25
Fell apart on this mile. I actually stopped to walk for a bit at the water station until I was done drinking. Then I started back up again. Legs were very tired, feet were hurting, lungs were burning.
Mile 13 - 7:34
I honestly don't know how I managed to pull out a 7:34 mile on this mile. I was really suffering here.
Last 0.31 miles - 2:14
My Garmin measured the course about .20 long. I was pretty good about hitting tangents well. In any case, I was absolutely spent when I finished, although Lybi said I didn't look as bad here as I did when finishing SGM. I suppose that's a good thing.

Total time was 1:33:15. Didn't meet any of my goals, but still felt good about this run. I also felt like I did very well for the first 10 or so mile, and can now work on my endurance to improve the last 3 miles. I have high hopes for Striders in April, and think I will definitely be able to improve on my time.

Night Sleep Time: 7.00	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 7.00	Weight: 0.00

Comments

From josse on Sat, Feb 02, 2008 at 18:38:25

That's allways the spot where I use to die in half. Now I am more bull headed so I still die but I usually don't slow as much as I use to. Still a PR right?

From James W on Sat, Feb 02, 2008 at 18:56:32

Yes, still a PR, so that is good. I really think that, come Striders, I will definitely be able to break 1:30.

From Ruthie on Sat, Feb 02, 2008 at 19:01:51

Great time in your half, especially with some rough spots that you pulled through really well! Keep it up!

From Tom on Sat, Feb 02, 2008 at 20:28:20

James I thing you've got to be happy with a PR even if it wasn't a perfect race. You've come a long way. I think if you can find a way to get your weekly mileage up for an extended period of time it will make it easier to hold the pace the last few miles even though they still hurt a bit. I think sub-1:30 at Striders will be a piece of cake for you.

From Lybi on Sat, Feb 02, 2008 at 21:13:11

Great job Hon! You did a great job of burning up the course those first 10 miles. I think those last couple miles might reflect the rough night of sleep last night in addition to needing to get used to higher mileage. At any rate, I think this race shows your high potential.

From Brent on Sat, Feb 02, 2008 at 21:48:58

James, a PR is a PR, 100 commando points. Way to get back on mile 13 and tough it out. Theory, winter runs are hard training runs, even if they are races, great time for early in the year.

Congrads, Stay Cool, B of BS Rools out

From Clay on Sat, Feb 02, 2008 at 23:43:10

Great job James. Nice PR, and I agree with Tom you are on your way to some great things this year, just stay consistent and persistent and you will get there...

From Ian on Sun, Feb 03, 2008 at 06:34:25

Congratulations on your PR James. Your running is consistent enough and you include plenty of speedwork. The one thing that helped me go under 1:30 was one run over the 1/2M distance per week, usually 25-30k. All your runs the last 3 months have been under the race distance. I feel that if you could make one run longer per week you'll crack 1:30 no problems.

From James W on Sun, Feb 03, 2008 at 15:34:11

Thanks everyone for the comments. Ian, you are right, I do need to increase the length of my long runs. Tom, I do plan on getting my mileage up a bit higher. I am going to try to maintain right around 50 miles/week for a few months, and then start increasing to 60. That will be my goal for this year.

From jtshad on Mon, Feb 04, 2008 at 10:00:44

Great job and congratulations on the PR. More longer runs and some speedwork will get you in great condition come this spring. Keep up the awesomw work!

From Sasha Pachev on Wed, Feb 06, 2008 at 18:49:07

PR is always good. Especially on a course that could very well have been long. Was it a certified course? I hope to find it it was not, and that your GPS was right.

What is not good is the slowdown and the feeling of fatigue at the end. Possible causes - we are probably looking at the 1-2-3 punch effect. Sickness in early January. Lack of sleep. Fatigue from the home improvement work on top of the regular fatigue from your job. Less than ideal diet.

My advice would be to improve the health factors before increasing the mileage. Sleep needs to go up. Diet needs to be clean enough that you can run comfortably at 7:45 pace within 1 hour after every meal. In other words, be prepared. I noticed a pattern of delaying the Saturday run until the evening, and then not having a good experience it due to the multitude of activities during the day. Try to get it done earlier even if it means getting up at 5:00 AM, and then sneak in a nap, or at the very worst just go to bed earlier that night to make up for the lost sleep. Speaking of which, they say that every hour of sleep before midnight is more productive than every hour afterwards. I do not understand why, but based on a personal experience, and D&C 88:121 "retire to thy bed early that ye may not be weary, arise early that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated", I believe this very much.

And seek some inspiration on how you can simplify your life. I found two quotes from recent General Conference addresses very helpful. Sister Beck: "Mothers who know do less." I think it very well applies to fathers as well. Elder Ballard: "To innovate does not necessarily mean to expand; very often it means to simplify."

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