Sunday, April 29, 2012

Kentucky Derby Festival Event Report

April 28th was the marathon.  In the few days leading up to the event, the weather was on our minds.  It looked like the high temperature would be awesome, but a looming batch of storms had us worried.  We ended up with a starting temperature of about 55 (12C) and one tiny batch of showers that actually felt good.

The pre-event strategy was to hook up with the Asics 4:45 pace team with a fall back position of letting the 5:00 pace team catch up with me if necessary.  The 4:45 team's strategy was to maintain a pace of about 10:30 a mile and walk through the fluid stations to end up with the proper finish time.

The course begins basically flat until you hit Iroquois Park at about mile 11.  One of the highlights, and where the half-marathon splits from the full, is running through the Churchill Downs grounds, the home of the Kentucky Derby.  After CD, you head toward the Park and the first hilly section.  I've run the park before, but this time we did it in the reverse direction, which I found harder.   I normally build walk breaks into my long runs and this was a perfect place to insert a few.  You exit the park about mile 15/16 and the course flattens again.

This is where I had my first issue.  Not sure if it was a pothole or some other road imperfection but I twisted/torqued my left knee and running after about mile 17 was very difficult.  My mile split times steadily increased after this point.  From 11 minutes to 12 minutes to at times, almost 15 minutes in hilly sections.  I passed a medical tent and had them spray my knee with bio-freeze, which helped for a short time but it was especially difficult trying to go pain free down hills.  Regardless of any issues, I knew I was going to finish and I knew I was going to set a PR.

As the 4:45 team left me, I waited for the 5:00 team to catch me. I held them off as long as I could and then stuck with them for about a mile or two.  They then left me and I was on my own again.  The last bit of the course is extremely hilly until you reach a flat finish.  In this area I caught up with my training partner Ken, who was also struggling a bit.  Finally, on the last few hundred meters, we were caught by the 5:15 pace team and finished with them.  I did manage to run the last bit, including the finish chute, which is always exciting.

Total time was 5:19 as the 5:15 pace team crossed the start line a few minutes after me.  My only prior marathon, as part of Ironman, was 6:12 so a significant improvement in my PR.  I am convinced that a stand alone marathon was much harder than Ironman!  Part of it, is that I ran much more yesterday than during Ironman.

Here were my splits on the day, you can see where the course turned hilly and post knee-twist...


1    10:02.6
2    10:42.6
3    10:41.9
4    11:03.4
5    10:20.5
6    10:57.0
7    10:30.8
8    10:31.5
9    11:04.9
10    10:58.1
11    10:12.6
12    11:31.2
13    11:38.2
14    12:10.0
15    12:47.2
16    11:15.6
17    12:12.1
18    13:22.0
19    13:16.2
20    12:36.1
21    11:31.0
22    13:59.6
23    14:47.0
24    14:59.8
25    14:53.4
26    15:21.1

In the end, it was all worth it though....


Now begins the next Ironman training plan.

Stay tuned...

Sunday, April 22, 2012

It's Marathon Week!


After about 18 weeks of running 4 days a week on average, it's time!  Up to this point, this has been my mileage during training.

January:  88
February:  95
March:  137
April (so far):  80

I feel about as ready as I'm going to be.  Not terribly worried about the distance but I want to meet my time goal of sub-5 hours.  That means a sub 11:27 mile pace.  The pace team should be a big help.

The other big concern this week is the weather.  Just like Ironman, the weather forecast has changed about 28 times. I've seen highs in the forecast as high as 85 and as low as 61.  The latest is for a low of 45 and a high of the mid-60s. Not sure we could have ordered much better weather. Even if it means some cheap throwaway gloves or an old sweatshirt at the start, that's ok with me.

I have 3 very short runs scheduled for Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday and maybe a couple easy swims.  The expo and packet pick up is Friday as well as a pasta dinner I might attend. 

I'll be back with a full race report next weekend.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Shelbyville Tri Race Report

Today's tri was the 4th in a winter/spring local series.  I've done the first three and today's was a normal order tri with some sort of odd distances:  400 yard pool swim; 16 mile bike; 5k run.

The organizers have you self-report your expected swim time and then you're lined up within those ranges alphabetically.  However, it appeared that they used much too large of a range.  That is, I had friends around me who reported times 2-3 minutes faster than me but yet I was ahead of them in the lineup.  This caused way too much "washing machine" action: people who were much faster trying to pass in a 25 yard relatively narrow pool lane.  I thought I had a decent swim. 

My times for the 4 versions of the series, all 400 yards.  The first two were swimming last.

Race 1:  9:17.7
Race 2:  9:06.3
Race 3:  8:22.1
Race 4:  8:17.7

I had no idea they were better each time. I'll take that!  My T-1 time was right at three minutes. Bit slow but we had a decent run down to transition due to a late location change. 


The second leg was the sixteen mile bike.  The weather forecast was for warm and windy conditions and the forecasters weren't wrong!  My Garmin displays average pace and for the first half it had steadily risen to about 19.5 mph.  But as we made the right turn to head toward the second half of the loop, the wind just blasted us.  On the way back in, I steadily watched my bike average go down....down...down....  Ended up with a 53:16.1 or an 18.0 mph average.  I was quite pleased, given the conditions.  My only negative was dealing with a new saddle that was pointed down just a couple millimeters but it made it difficult to stay in the aero position as I felt like I was going to slip off the darn thing.


Will have to adjust it a bit but at least it felt comfortable.

T-2 was 1:08.5 and headed out to the rapidly warming run.  Comparing the three tris with the 5k run, I have:

Race 2:  28:09.8
Race 3:  29:40.5
Race 4:  29:05.1

Race 2 was a bit faster as it was run first so no fatigue. 

Grand total for today was: 1:34:48.3.  Pleased with the results, especially given the conditions. 

The next event is the KDF marathon on the 28th.  Stay tuned!



Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Taper Madness!

I'm now fully into the time all endurance competitors (I'll not call myself an athlete) dread: the taper.  During this time, every twinge is a pulled muscle, every niggle is a catastrophic injury, and so on.  During my Ironman taper, I was basically a jerk but now knowing what I'm in for, will hopefully make it easier to handle.

I did my longest non-Ironman run last Thursday, a 20 miler with my training partners.  Felt great, had a good handle on nutrition and hydration but did find myself with a hot spot on my right foot that after 20 miles turned into a nice blister.  It's since popped but I'm not sure how it's going to do with only 2.5 weeks until the KDF Marathon.  I've been advised to slather the area with Body Glide, use Anbesol on the affected area in order to mask any pain to survive the 26.2 miles, put duct tape over the area, etc.  I'm hoping that some shorter taper runs will build a decent callous so it won't be an issue.

Leading up to the big day, I have a 12 miler and an 8 miler as my long runs along with some shorter 3-4-5 mile runs during the mid-week training sessions.  After some good results at both the Rodes City 10K and the Papa John's 10 Miler, I've decided to hook up with the Asics 4:45 pace team.  They essentially run a steady pace and if you stay with them, you'll finish the marathon in 4 hours and 45 minutes. I also like the fact that the 4:15 and slower pacers usually walk through aid stations, which is a strategy I normally employ anyway.  My initial goal was 5 hours so hanging around with that pace team should help me reach my goal and there is a 5 hour pace team coming behind me if I end up slower than expected.

Finally, on Sunday, I'm doing the last of the Shelbyville Winter/Spring Tri Series events.  This one is a 400 yard pool swim, 16 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run.  I tried some new swim drills this week that really seemed to help so hopefully it pays off on Sunday with a good result.  I'll post an event recap on Sunday/Monday.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Yeah, I'm a Slacker on My Updates

So I know I've been slacking on my updates.  However, I find it boring to post a weekly batch of training talk.  Seems like I end up saying the same general things over and over.  But since I last updated, I've been in several events and had some other news so here goes....

The first event since my last update was a trail half-marathon.  I did exactly ONE trail run before this but that hasn't stopped me before.  That seems to be my M.O.:  sign up for something and then go for it, figuring out the how as I go.  I was in the midst of full marathon training so it wasn't as if I was too far out of shape.  However, I completely underestimated the mental strength required to fight the elements, the weather, etc. Oh, did I mention it was at night so the course was also dark?  I sure do get myself into some crazy situations, eh?

Several of my local tri club members went up to this event and as we drove north from Louisville toward Indianapolis, we noticed several flooded farm fields from the recent rain and it wasn't getting any better as we got closer to the park.  So we all figured we were in for a mud-fest.  The course didn't disappoint.  The temps were in the low 30s (about 0 C) with windchills several degrees below that.  It was an unfamiliar park/course to most of us so that forced us to be both worried about the mud and ice and also not knowing where the obstacles, tree limbs and such, were.  The course was 2 loops, 13.1 miles/21 km.  I started off with my pal Kevin, but after a couple miles, he badly twisted his ankle and I had to move on without him.  Toward the end of the loop, we reached the "mud mile." It was literally almost a mile of straight mud.  At first, I tried to tip-toe through the mud and that worked for about 1/8th of a mile so I gave up and took my medicine.

As I started the second loop, with it being evening and windy, the course started to ice up in places.  I think I hit the deck about 3-4 times total.   The best fall was essentially giving a forearm smash to a nice big tree root.  Apparently, I took more damage than I dished out on that one as I ended up with a decent scrape/bruise.  I walked a fair amount and even the "running" part was slow as the unfamiliar course/icy-muddy conditions really took it out of me.  I finished it in 3:06.  For reference, my only other full marathon, in great conditions took me 6:12 so this was extremely slow.  However, I did finish and got this reward:

It was made from a tree in the event's park.  One of my favorite medals.

In February, begins the local winter tri series.  The first was a reverse super-sprint tri:  3k run/6 mile bike/400 yard swim.  It was a very cold day so we all bundled up and headed out.  Not my best day and I stopped on the bike for a minute to possibly assist a flat victim and ended up with a 51:13. 

The second tri was the same format but a bit longer:  5k run/12 mile bike/400 yard swim.  Also cold, but except for a dropped chain due to pilot error (ME), this one was better:  1:23:11. 

Finally, the 3rd in the series was the same length as #2, but in normal tri order:  swim/bike/run.  This one had most of us in short sleeves on the bike so the conditions were much nicer.  Ended up with a 1:18:15, shaving nearly 5 minutes off my #2 time.

The last 2 events I've done since the last update were part of the local triple crown of running.  I did the last 2 events and added distance in order to meet my KDF Marathon training goals.  Both ended up being PRs.  My 10K time was 58:16--my first ever sub 1 hour 10K and the 10 miler 1:38:37.  That shaved more than 11 minutes off last year's time. 

On Thursday, I have my big long KDF training run: 20 miles and the marathon itself on April 28th.  I also have the last of the tri series races in mid-April, to complete the series.

I'll be back with more updates soon!