The brighter news for the day is that Chuck and Lauren each competed in races today!  I heard from Lauren already that she ran the Tinkerbell Half Marathon in 1:41.  She posted her shiny new tinkerbell bling on facebook.

Chuck ran the ING Miami Marathon this morning. I have not yet been able to find results online….. so we will have to wait and see how he did!

The High Desert Runners had a big group of runners head down to Bakersfield this morning for their annual Half Marathon. Justin Pantananan drove Jose Estrada and myself. Sarah Bird went down with Adam and Jen Oblinger. Christian Powers, Eddie Spiers (going to Boston) and David Weary were there (Dave was wondering where Clay was.) I also noticed Carmen Albanes and Caleb Schroeder (not an HDR member?)

Justin had said that he was going to go down with us but that he was not going to race it. On the way down he was debating about going ahead and running it as his workout for the day. He said he was scheduled for alternating 5 minute miles with 6 minute miles for 9 miles. So he figured that he would go ahead and do that for 9 miles and then run on in.  David, at the start line said that he and Clay had planned to run 8 minute miles.  My plan was to run the first half at marathon goal pace and then see what I could do for the second half.

I set my Garmin virtual training partner for a 1:40 half marathon and off we went. Right away I noticed that my Garmin was not set correctly. Instead of telling me how far ahead of the virtual guy I was, it was saying the total distance I had run. Jose, David and I settled into a very comfortable pace and the first mile went by in 7:20. As we ran I asked David what his PR was and he said 1:39 something. Knowing what kind of shape he is in, I told him that he could easily go get a new one. After a couple of miles he slowly pulled ahead of Jose and I. Sometime around mile 4 I looked at my Garmin and it wasn’t there! Jose and I had bumped elbows a few times and at one point it must have come off the band. Wow, my only hope was that whoever behind me spotted it would turn it in. The miles continued to click by under 7:30 for the most part.

Around mile 5 Jose began to drop back a bit – either that or I decided to surge a little faster….

Around mile 6 I saw Justin, the leader of the race. A little while later Christian Powers went by. I did not count the other runners, but the first female I saw was Sarah Bird. Eddie Spears was right behind her. The next female was Jen! David had a big lead on me at the turn around. Caleb Shroeder was just a minute or two ahead.

On the way back my pace remained fairly consistent. I began to feel really tired with 3 or 4 to go, but I hung in there. The runners were spaced out, but little by little I was still catching people. No one I knew, though was ever within sight. The last two I was barely able to hold onto marathon pace. Here are my splits:

As it turned out – Justin did win the race, and he insisted that he just did his planned workout. Of course his time was 1:12:55 – a 5:34 average pace. So either he kept alternating those miles the whole way, or his final four were done at around a 5:30 pace. Wow!   Christian came in 2nd – in 1:17:22. Eddie finished in 1:29:28 – 15th overall, but 5th in his division.  A young lady caught both Jen and Sarah but they came in 2nd and 3rd place overall and 1st and 2nd in their age division. Sarah’s time was 1:31:44. Jen’s was 1:32:42. David finished in 1:34:37  setting a huge new PR!!! He also snagged a 2nd place age division award. I am sure, btw that Jen’s time was a PR as well. Caleb was the next AV runner in 1:35:58. I was happy to be done in 1:37:45.  I was 7th in my age division – 37th overall. Today – the 45-49 group was one tough division.  If I were 37 days older, I would have placed 3rd behind David in the 50-54 age group. Jose, hung in there quite well after dropping behind me finishing in 1:43:27 (probably his PR.) Adam was the next one in with a time of 1:48:27. I am not sure if  I have met Carol Disparte, but I know her from facebook. I missed meeting her at the race, but I see that she won her age division in 1:49:21. Another HDR runner, Carman Albanes won her division. Her time was in the 1:57:40.

This post would not be complete without mentioning the two HDR runners who ran in the 5K!  Michael and Sarah Mayes ran, but I did not get to talk with them afterwards. They would have had to wait around an hour or longer for me…. Michael placed 9th overall and 4th in his age group. His time was 16:35 ??  The results say that the time was based on a 2.59 actual distance. Then it says oops. I wonder what happened?  Still, Michael’s pace was 6:24!! Sarah also placed 4th in her division with a pace of 8:06.

Well, that is enough for now….. but check back later. I will updated this with pictures when David sends me the ones his wife took.

Oh,  some kind runner person did turn in my Garmin to lost and found!!!! Yeah!!

I bought myself a nice big ice cream and the two dads sitting outside commented on how “I” could eat such a thing. They said it was okay because I had already burned it off.  I used to think like this myself. For years, I used my running as my excuse to eat anything and everything I wanted. This is why, the first time I ran the Surf City Marathon, I qualified for the Clydesdale division (195 pounds and over.) Now, I allow myself the occasional indulgence but I am watching those calories like a hawk. That ice cream actually came in at MORE calories than I burned running. The positive was that it had plenty of carbs and protein for a good recovery!  It also helped that I managed the rest of my day to ensure that my net calorie intake was under 1700.  So even with the ice cream, my weight this morning was lower than it has been in a couple of months – 172.4.

Today, I debated what to do. I am running the Bakersfield Half Marathon on Saturday, but it is not a goal race. I want to do well, but I do not think I am in half marathon PR shape. So, I was debating on how much to taper. Should I continue with a somewhat normal week or back off today. I chose to go somewhat normal. So, I got up and ran to school this morning and ran back home afterward. I kept the pace easy – just under 9 minute miles.

The lead group – Justin Pantananan, Neil, Christian and Justin Koo always tend to keep jogging between the workouts. Everyone tends to walk back to the start line and stand around. Today, I split the difference. I ran my first two minute interval completing just over 500 meters. Then I jogged the long way around to the start line just barely making it there on time for interval number two. Interval two felt significantly harder but I still came in right at 500. For this one I jog/walked the short way. I kept this pattern up for all 10 intervals – long recovery, short recovery… I also focused on keeping those real quick strides like last week…

There were 23 runners in attendence – maybe more – I am not certain that everyone actually signed in….
Click here for the roster..

but, as I said on facebook the other day – runs on the aqueduct are only boring when you run them alone. So, after yesterdays gale forced run cancellation I needed to get in a long run this morning.

At 5:45 I got started on the aqueduct at Ave S, alone. It was dark and a bit eerie, but I have done this a few times now and am getting used to it. I carried a little (but quite bright) flashlight but I left it off most of the time as I was totally able to see. There was considerable wind coming from the southwest, so there were two stretches in the first mile that were particularly tough. Once I got around “crazy corner” it was better. It was also pretty bad approaching the final corner out at 2 1/4 miles. Still I noticed splits just under 9 minute pace going into the wind. 8:58 – 8:53 The turn around mile was 8:42 and coming back 8:12 and 8:30. At the end of the first loop I was joined by Eric. We headed out into the now tougher wind.  Eric and I went 1 1/2 miles and turned back in order to meet the 7:00 am crowd.

Chuck, Lauren and Lance Close were there to head out into the wind again. Lauren and Eric started out quickly and I was staying with them. I tried to hold back a bit for Chuck and Lance but Lauren kept pulling away. Fighting crazy corner I let up not wanting to waste too much energy and Lauren got 25 meters ahead. Eric quickly caught her. I heard her yell come on Dale. So I surged. Actually I surged a number of times till I caught them. This mile had a split of 7:56. The next, trying to hang with them through the headwind and the turnaround was 8:28. The next 2 with a tail wind were 8:30 and 8:14.

At the starting post, we waited a bit. Eric and Lauren decided that they were only going out for 2 more miles. So I let them go and waited a couple of minutes for Chuck and Lance. Eric finished his day with 10. Lauren had 7. On the final back and forth, Lance also turned around after 1 for 7 miles total. Chuck and I did the whole thing.

So, I finished my longest long run since the OC marathon last May. 18 miles in 2:34:01. I averaged 8:33.

Next week, Chuck is off to Miami for yet another marathon. Lauren is doing the Tinkerbell Half Marathon at Disneyland. I am registered for the Bakersfield Half marathon. I am not sure who all is going with me…..

I don’t think I am back to Half Marathon PR shape yet (1:31:38). I am planning on doing the first half at marathon goal pace and then see what happens. If I am able to speed up a bit, I will be under 1:40. If not, I won’t.

Today I did the commuter training thing again. I got up early and ran a 5.4 mile route to school.

Looking at the forecast for the weekend there is a chance of rain and there is a high probability of high winds!  I have slogged through some long runs in the wind before, but it is really difficult to shoot for something specific, like a marathon pace run under those conditions. So, I decided to go for my marathon pace run on the way home. The difficult thing about running marathon pace home is that the course is to hilly. Also, I sometimes struggle with dehydration and or energy issues late in the afternoon.

Side note here:  For those following the blog awhile you know a few years ago I counted calories and dropped from the 190s to the 170s which is one major factor in kick starting my string of success. Since that time I have been yo-yoing from low 160s to high 170s. In November I hit a nice low, but then took two months off. The second month I could not even do strength training or core work. Admittedly, I think I took out some of my frustration at Cold Stone…. Anyway, when I resumed running I was 179.  Ouch. So now, I am hitting the training hard and trying to get back to the 160s or lower. This is always a challenge. You have to walk a fine line cutting back calories while giving yourself the energy you need to have successful workouts.

Back to the run report. After school I did not run with my kids. Instead, I waited till after practice for my “run home.” I headed to the Hillview parking lot and looked for a parent I could hitch a ride from. I saw the Fredericksons and they were happy to give me a ride – a ride up to the aqueduct and 60th West. From there I ran home.

I started with a half mile warm up and then I hit Marathon Pace:

As you see I was able to exceed marathon pace for the 7 mile run. Of course, the course was a net downhill so I should have been able to exceed marathon pace. Still, it felt pretty good. I think I may have been able to go under 7 for mile 7, but I was getting home sooner than planned and I was looping in and out of some of the streets at the bottom of the hill I live on. I finished the course with too many curves.

After school I did an easy 3.3 (to compliment last nights 6.7) with the kids. We also did a set of abkillers. My core strength showed improvement in that I was able to do 20 pushups during the 40 second pushup part of the routine. I did 15 straight, then held the position for a 5s break or so, and then did 5 more before time was up. I have neglected making the kids do this lately, but with track season on the horizon I will have to make sure these exercises are moved to the front burner of our workout routines.

I followed up the easy run with a ride home, of course.

I was curious to see how the bike ride fared on the Training Stress Score scale. Serious riders get power meters to measure their work output while riding, but I am more of a cross trainer, commuter, calorie burner type of bike rider. Training peaks, will calculate the TSS of any workout when a heart rate monitor is worn, so I wore the heart rate monitor today. It gave the bike rides scores of 18 and 17. For a comparison, the 3.3 mile run garnered a score of 34 – almost as much as both bike rides combined. The last workout with Clay, btw earned me a 37.

I am happy, though that I finally have a grasp of how cross training work affects you overall fitness score for use in another sport. There are some running experts out there proposing that the ideal training regimen includes only 3 runs each week. Each of these runs are very focused and are hard efforts. Instead of running easy on the other days they propose alternatives – cross training.

One last comment on this training stress score thing…. how am I going to calculate a score for a pool run workout? I don’t think my Garmin 305 is waterproof.

The workout (and the alternate title for today’s post) was 2′s ad nauseam. We did 10 reps of 2 minutes each with 2 minute recoveries. My goal was to run a simple 500 meters each rep. That is what I did – 500 meters each rep. Well after 4 reps they started getting a bit longer. Than I had my epiphany after about number 8. I told Jen that chasing her and Sarah was teaching me something. Jen says what is that? I said that they were teaching me to run like a girl. She said “hey” I said, I meant it in a good way. I explained that I the two of them had very quick turnover.

On number 10 I got off the line quickly, and jumped into a that extra quick turnover. Jen and I were side by side for the first lap in 1:27. Then I kicked and pulled ahead. The problem was I was expecting to be done at 500ish meters.  At 500  I felt done, but the timer was not signaling the finish. Jen surged past me as we continued down the backstretch. I finished about 540 meters.

The crowd for the evening was once again a nice crowd- 19 people: Clay, Neil, Ben, Justin Koo, Miguel, Kegan, Joseph, Sarah, Jen, Luke, Sid, Dave, Jesse, Bev, Deborah, Annie, Alan, Leo and Me.

Chuck and Dave met me and we headed out into the wind. After the turn around at 3 miles I started my attempt at marathon pace miles. The wind during this stretch was sort of off to the side so it was not helping. My first half was 3:58 and the next was 3:54 for a 7:52 mile. I was not hurting or anything. I just did not feel like the marathon pace miles were in the tank. So, I backed off. Dave had surged ahead of Chuck and he caught me and we finished the 5 together. We waited a bit and headed back out with Chuck. I decided to hang with Chuck and catch up with him. Dave ran ahead.

I finished 10 in 90 minutes. Dave headed out for more – 13, I believe and Chuck headed out for 15.

Looking at my Training Stress Score chart after importing my run I see the acute training stress if climbing very steeply. I figured in my current semi recovered condition it is better to be safe than sorry.

Oh, 2 more excuses:
1) Clay had me to some hard work on the ski erg machine Friday:  1000 meters in 4:16 and later 500 meters in 1:54.8.
2) I have lost 3 pounds this week – I have been watching the calorie intake very carefully. If I am doing Boston, I want to do it at under 165 pounds.

My average pace was just under 8:30, which is just right for me. It was a little slow for Karl and Joel.  I have noticed one peculiar thing: When I do these morning runs, I tend to go through a rough patch about 2 to 3 miles into the run. Looking at the data does not show me slowing, but I did experience my typical semi light headed feeling for a bit after we had picked up Joel and were still headed west. Whatever it is, it goes away as I continue. My pace continued consistent and steady all the way to the finish.