Tuesday, March 31, 2009

First run since Eastern States

Today was the first attempt at a run since the Eastern States 20 miler. I was a bit hesitant at going out today since I only had one day of rest. Legs were tired but no pain. I had no definite plans on mileage when I head out - just get out and loosen up the legs.

Total Mileage: 6 miles
Total Time: 56:25
Average Pace: 9:24

Splits
9:40
9:32
9:43
9:12
8:58
9:16

Monday, March 30, 2009

Eastern States 20 Miler - Race Report

The Eastern States 20 miler sounded like a good idea when I registered. But between dealing with my cat dying, a cold from hell and a nasty weather day – I quickly had second thoughts.

Justin came by my house at 6am to pick me up for the ride up to Maine. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast – egg, bacon and cheese on a bagel. When we arrived at the casino (where the parking was) – it was raining pretty good and it was cold. New Hampshire cold is a special bone chilling cold. We hopped on the school bus for the ride to Traip Academy to get race number and shirt and wait for the start. We had quite a bit of time before the race.

The weather never seemed to want to behave – cold, windy and rainy - great day for a 20 mile long run. After a good stretch – we headed outside to get acclimated and to get ourselves to the start. The start reminded me of The Blessing – a bunch of people hanging out at an intersection – and then people just started to run.

Justin and I kept a good pace in the beginning – 8:48 first mile. We knew it was too fast – but figured we can adjust. We passed from Maine into Portsmouth, NH and I felt pretty good. At mile 7 we took a planned walk break for about a minute or so – gave us time to eat a granola bar and have some Gatorade. We kept the 8:50ish to 9:10 pace for the first half. Around mile 10 (or so) – Justin pulled ahead of me (or I fell back – or both). This is when things started to fall apart for me. Thinking back on it – I really don’t remember much except – I was cold and wet and pretty miserable. I took another walk break at mile 14.

Just before the 16th mile marker I felt the urge to vomit – twice. I was able to hold the urge back. At that point I decided at the next water station to give in and get medical help. However, as I got to the water station – there weren’t too many people there – and I couldn’t see anyone that looked medical in any way. I walked the water station –drank my water – and started to jog. I figured I couldn’t walk to the finish line from there as I would just be out in the cold for too long and that jogging would at least keep me relatively warm.

I jog/walked for about a half mile – and then someone (Max) passed me and said some encouraging words. So I decided to catch up with him and try to finish with him. We jogged/ran together for most of the last 3+ miles. I felt he was helping me along – but he said I was helping him along. It was good to have him there to talk to and distract me from the pain, cold, and wet. We ran by the parking lot where we had parked – part of me was hoping to see Justin standing there as I contemplated just calling it there. But I really didn’t want a DNF. Once we crossed over the last bridge – I just couldn’t bare to run anymore – things went gray for a second – so a bit after mile 19 I started to walk. My knees were in so much pain at this point – running wasn’t an option, jogging didn’t help, walking didn’t help. The long, cold, wet walk seemed to take forever – and I was passed by around 40 or so people.

I saw the finish line and was able to pick up a light jog. Justin was standing on the corner (with a blanket some nice lady gave him to keep him warm). As I finished – he handed the blanket to me. Twenty miles done – sort of.

I felt horrible – violently shivering, muscles going crazy. Even with the blanket on – and back on a warm bus – I just couldn’t stop shivering/shaking. After I put on some dry clothes – and sitting in the warm car for about 20-30 minutes I finally stopped shaking. We stopped to get food at 99 – after that I started to feel relatively human again – but in the need of NyQuil for my cold.

All in all – a pretty miserable experience. Stage 1 hypothermia is no fun. I felt very discouraged for the rest of Sunday. Today – I’m feeling better and am looking forward to getting back at it on Tuesday.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Eastern States 20 Miler - Race Results

Place: 503/573
Total Time: 3:24:03
Pace: 10:12
Place in Group: 146
Group: 01-39
Place by sex: 301
Bib #421

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Tempo Tuesday

Tempo day -

Total Mileage - 5.7 miles
Total Time - 51:24
Average Pace - 9:01

1.85 mile warmup 17:45 (9:35 pace)
1st mile tempo 8:24
2nd mile tempo 8:34
3rd mile tempo 8:11
.85 mile cooldown 8:27 (9:56 pace)

Monday, March 23, 2009

Monday lunch run

To make up for not going out yesterday I decided to go for an easy run today during lunch. Donna and I hit the bike path. We did the first 3 or so miles together - she needed to catch her breath and told me to go ahead for the 4th mile.

Total Distance - 4 miles
Total Time: 38:51.16
Average Pace: 9:42

Splits
Mile 1 - 10:08
Mile 2 - 10:02
Mile 3 - 10:02
Mile 4 - 8:38

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Long run Saturday on the East Side/Downtown

Today Drew and I went out for a long run. We started out on Thayer St at Meeting St. Went up Thayer/Hope/East to Modern Diner, then turned around and headed back down then down Blackstone Blvd. When we got to the end of the path - we headed back up Blackstone to the point and then back down Hope St. We turned on Lloyd and at this point (mile 9) I still felt pretty good. Took Lloyd to Wayland to Pitman to Gano. We headed up Wickenden to South Main st. Then we cut over to Water St to Memorial Blvd, then up in front of the Mall and the State house. We worked our way back to Main St - then up our oh so favorite College St - love that hill. The hill was tough (as usual) but right after we both felt good and were able to push another mile to the end.

Total Distance: 14.25 miles
Total Time: 2:16:00
Average Pace: 9:32

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Cold, windy, rainy, haily track day

Today was track day again. Plan was to do 5 800 intervals with a 400 recovery in between. The weather didnt really want to behave today - rain, cold winds, hail at one point...it basically felt like it was late October. I did push through and get my 5 reps in (and kudos for Justin for pushing on like a "Warrior" to do a 6th).

1 mile warmup - 9:30

800/400
1st - 3:45/2:35
2nd - 3:38/2:43
3rd - 3:39/2:39
4th - 3:43/2:48
5th - 3:36/2:50

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Curtis Corner Run

Today - Drew, Anthony, Justin and I hit the bike path for our mid week run. The first half I felt like garbage and had some lower leg pains (probably from my too fast tempo). At the midpoint we stopped and stretched out a bit. That seemed to help as the 2nd half was a much nicer run.

Total Mileage: 8.2 miles
Total Time: 1:12:46
Average Pace: 8:53

Splits
9:07
8:52
9:30
9:31 (1.1 miles - 8:39 per)
9:04 (1.1 miles - 8:14 per)
8:58
8:48
8:53

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Tempo Tuesday!

I had to go out for a pre-work run as I had meetings during lunch time. Solo tempo runs are one my worst things as I am terrible at setting a pace.

Warmup .7 miles 6:25 (9:10 pace)
Tempo 3.4 miles: 7:24 (first half at 7:05 - second half at 7:44)
Cool Down .7 miles 6:43 (9:35 pace)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Long run sunday - 15 miles

Today Drew and I did our long run starting at Brown. We headed over to Pawtucket and back. We ended with a lovely run up College St.

Total Distance: 15 miles
Total Time: 2:25:00
Average Pace: 9:40

Thursday, March 12, 2009

800s at URI

800s day at URI - Goal was to do 800s at 3:45 and then a 400 recovery jog.

1 mile warmup@9:37

800@3:35 400@2:57
800@3:42 400@3:00
800@3:38 400@2:57
800@3:47 400@3:17

Not too bad considering first track work since the fall.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Rainy eight mile day

Total Distance: 8.1 miles
Total Time: 1:11:56
Average Pace: 8:52

Splits:
1 - 9.19
2 - 8.39
3 - 9.05
4 - 9:18 (1.05 mile - 8:51 pace)
5 - 8:57 (1.05 mile - 8:31 pace)
6 - 8:56
7 - 8:48
8 - 8:51

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Tempo/Pick Up day

Anthony, Drew and I went out for a tempo run today. The goal was to do four miles at 8 minute miles. This was my first attempt at a tempo run in a long time. We did 1.6 mile warmup (so we wouldnt have to cross Ministerial Rd during the tempo part). We did 2 miles at tempo. Then just under mile cool down. Then we did two miles of pick us (1:00 pickup/2:00 recovery) - we adjusted for the roads - so we ended up doing 5 pickups. We cooled down for a bit - then sprinted from 1st gate to middle gate in front of the office.

Warm up Distance: 1.6 miles
Warm up Time: 15.55
Warm up Pace: 9:56

Tempo Distance: 2 miles
Tempo Time: 15:12
Tempo Pace: 7:36

Cool down distance: .9 miles
Cool down time: 8:40
Cool down pace: 9:37

Pick Up Distance: 2 miles (5 - 1 minute pickups with 2 minute recovery - one recovery was longer)

Total Time: 1:04:59
Total Distance: 7.2 miles
Total Average: 9:01
Last .11 mile (gate to gate) was 35 seconds - 5:18 pace!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Long run Sunday!

After two days of rest I attempted my first long run since last weeks terrible/horrible long run attempt. Today's weather was awesome - in the 60s. Justin, Drew, Anthony and I met on campus. We went up Angell St towards downtown, and down the hill, left on Main and then over to India Pt Park. We then headed north on Gano to Pittman, up Butler then over Angell St and headed over the Henderson Bridge. We then worked our way over to the Bristol Bike path and ran a few miles on that. We turned around and took pretty much the same path back. I took a bit of a different route back. I did run up College St which was very difficult - fun but difficult.

Total Distance: 14.25 miles
Total Time: 2:13:09
Total Pace: 9:20

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Hill repeat day!!

Today was hill repeat day - and I actually was looking forward to it. Shawn, Drew, Anthony, Justin and I headed out to run repeats on the 100 Acres Hill. Repeat distance was .13 miles.

Warm up 1.77 miles - 17:00 - 9:36 pace
1st repeat- 1:00 up/1:53 down (7:41 pace up)
2nd repeat- :59/2:15 (7:33 pace up)
3rd repeat- :59/1:55 (7:33 pace up)
4th repeat- 1:00/2:00 (7:41 pace up)
5th repeat- :59/1:52 (7:33 pace up)
Cool down 1.77 miles - 16:27 - 9:17 pace

Hopefully the snow will melt away and we can hit the track next week. Also want to give a "shout out" (as the kids call it) to Donna who joined us today.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

7 miler

Today Drew, Justin, Anthony, Shawn and I went for a midweek pace run. Three and half out, three and half back - on our new rte 2 route.

Total Distance - 7 miles
Total Time - 1:03:55
Total Average - 9:07

Pace out - 9:42
Pace back - 8:32

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Back at it (yet again)

After a crappy attempt at a long run where I only made it a mile (maybe) - and after feeling very discouraged and broken - I was back at it today. Slushy, snowy run with Anthony and Justin.

Total Distance: 4.76 miles
Total Time: 43:00
Total Average: 9:02

(9:14 out/8:48 back)

Might head to Rhode Runner Sports on Main St to look into a different pair of shoes this weekend.

February Monthly Miles - 129.62 miles