Nice Saturday run at Afton

I ran at Afton this morning with an acquaintance from my health club and a friend of his. We ran the loop which is the Afton 25K trail race. I highly recommend running in Afton a few times before running the July 25K or 50K... unless you like surprises (Hills). I trained out there a few times last year as well as running the 25K race so I knew what I was in for.

We ran fairly hard, for me, and about the 9.7 mile point I had to drop back and run easier. I took the last 5.8 miles really easy and probably finished 20 minutes after the others.

It was nice to be out in nature today. I didn't see any deer but heard turkeys and possibly pheasants, and saw numerous beautiful flowers.

I also practiced a different nutrition plan using Hammer Nutrition's Sustained Energy (SE) product. Three hours before our run was to start, I had 3 scoops of SE in 12 oz water. Then I drank about 30 oz water over the next three hours. During the run, I carried 2 - 10.5 oz water bottles on a belt and a 22 oz hand-held bottle. I used 2 scoops of SE in the 22 oz, and one scoop each in the small bottles. I drank the mixture at an even rate over the run but did have a few drinks of water at our water stops. At least today, I had NO intestinal problems and I felt like my energy level was even the entire run apart from the fact I was running with two guys that have a faster natural pace than mine. I'll be trying the SE again on Friday's 20+ mile long run.

--Mark

My Fargo marathon finish

I think I looked OK at the finish. Too bad it took me way more than an hour to recover enough to run like that. :-)

--Mark

Recovering nicely

I took Sunday off, walked yesterday and today. My hamstrings still hurt, but only a little. Sure, I ran hard in the marathon for about 2 1/2 hours, but as soon as some cramping hit me, I went into 'save my body' mode. For the last 6+ miles of the race, I walked until I wanted to jog and then jogged until I felt I needed to walk. I didn't push my legs hard during that final 10K. I'll run 6 miles easy with my running partners on Friday. We'll ease back into training as our bodies allow.

Next for me is the Afton 50K. I'll be training with the Hammer Nutrition products for Afton as they have Heed on the course. Last year at Afton was the first time I had ever heard of Heed. I didn't dare touch it then but I will this year.

edit: During the Fargo marathon I got huge blood blisters on both of my toes that are next to my big toes. The toenail was very loose on one. I wonder how long that will take to fall off? (answer: 4 days) That will be (was) a first for me.

--Mark

Fargo Marathon 2008

It was yesterday! Done. Finished.

There are two words that come to mind: Pride and Disappointment.

My goal was 3:27:00. I ran with my training partners Jim, Kim, and Karl up until near mile 19. My intestines started acting up and shortly after, my legs were cramping. Not bad cramps, but enough to slow me down to a walk. Come to think of it, I guess that makes them bad. :-)

The people along the course were great. I got extra water from tables that were set up along the way and I got some yummy orange slices when I needed them the most.

I had a really good time running the race and being with my friends before and after. Even my family came with me to this race. A first. They loved it too.

I put some notes in the table below and it's clear to me I became dehydrated fairly early in the race. I had trained all winter in St. Paul, MN and the only thing to worry about then is staying warm enough. Fargo was a little to warm for me. The race starting temp was around 53 degrees but with the sun shining brightly I was sweating buckets just a few miles into the race. The temps must have been in the upper 60's by the time I finished.

My anaerobic threshold (AT) is in the area of 167 or 168 beats per min. I hit that average during mile 11 and then ran above it for almost 9 miles or 70 minutes. So maybe my AT is more than 168. In any case, I was heading for trouble. I noted some areas in red in the table below where my pace was wrong or HR was too high before my crash.

Kim and Karl drank water and Powerade and came the closest of my training group to hitting our time goal. I'll be working on hydration planning this summer.

This race has been a great learning experience and I wouldn't trade my last 6 months of training with my friends for anything.

--Mark

Mile by Mile details...

Mile	Plan	Pace	Ave HR	Observations
1	8:13	8:15	141	Great 1st mile pace
2	8:13	8:10	148	Accidentally shut off my HRM after mile 2. UGH!
3	8:08	7:32	-
4	8:03	7:45	155	Turned on HRM at start of mile 4.
5	7:54	7:49	156
6	7:49	7:55	160
7	7:44	7:43	161
8	7:44	7:52	164
9	7:39	7:34	164
10	7:39	7:47	166	Anaerobic threshold is 167/168. About to enter the danger zone.
11	7:39	7:42	168
12	7:39	7:49	169
13	7:39	7:47	171
14	7:44	7:45	172
15	7:44	7:56	172
16	7:44	8:02	173
17	7:44	8:08	173
18	7:44	8:24	173	Ran a great race to plan through mile 18. Average pace of 7:53 vs goal pace of 7:54.
19	7:44	11:30	172	Needed an emergency bathroom stop just before mile 19. Thank goodness for the porta-potties. Jim offered to wait - I told him to go. That was the last I would see of my three running partners. I wasted 3 minutes so all my cushion time was now gone. I had to run 8:00's from here on out to qualify for Boston.
20	7:44	14:10	156	My quads started to cramp and then my calves. Knew that a BQ was out of the question. I walked the bridge from MN to ND. Ugh.
21	7:49	16:14	135	Dehydration had started early in the race although I didn't realize it until much later. It was about mile 15 or 16 that I notice my HR was too high.
22	8:08	15:36	129	All these miles (20-25+) were walk/jog. I saw walked by two women walking the half marathon. They were chatting on a cell phone for a few minutes. I almost asked them to borrow it so I could call my wife and tell her I was going to be late.
23	8:08	13:27	136	I was being passed by pace group after pace group.
24	8:08	15:10	132
25	8:22	12:30	135	I was beginning to recover some here
26.2	8:27	10:04	154	Of this 1.2 miles, I ran the last mile. I finished! 4:12:40.

Anxious for the Fargo Marathon

The training is done.
The tapering is almost done.
I'm not hurt and feel strong.
I can't control the weather.
Now I wait for the start 8am Saturday.

I'm planning for a 3:27 finish.
A 3:24 is not out of the question nor is a 3:45.
--Mark

post-race edit: 4:12:40 wasn't out of the question either. HA HA

TC-1 mile

I liked running this last year and liked it this year too. I had decided not to race it so I had a goal to finish at 7:00. I ran a 6:56 so I met my goal. That's about it. I ran a 5:49 last year and hope to race it next year and I'll shoot for sub 5:40. I think I'll run it as a team race in 2009.

I liked watching each of the age groups run. There are some fast older folks around. Man can they move. It was exciting to watch the elites run. The winner ran a 4:09. Awesome!

--Mark

15 days to Fargo

Running a 20.7 mile long run one day and a 10K race the next can wear a guy out. Glad that's over. Whew.

Now I'm moving into a taper. I feel strong again now that's been almost a week after my 10K. Today we ran 6.2 nice and easy. Here is my plan for the next week, based on Higdon's Advanced II training:

Sat - 4 miles at marathon pace
Sun - 4 easy miles
Mon - 4 miles, mostly at tempo
Tue - 4 miles
Wed - 4 miles at marathon pace
Thu - I'm doing Yoga plus the Twin Cities 1-mile race
Fri - 4 miles
Sat - 8 miles - I'm glad it's not 4 miles! This week was looking like a broken record! :-)

I'm going to have to run each of these 4-mile days on a different route to make it interesting.
--Mark