I'm sorry you had a rough race, Mitch.
milktruck, go get that double!
Good luck to all!
Damaris
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Great first half MT, hoping today's was good as well.
Run, Walk, Crawl, just Finish.
HF # 1189
Don't know what to say Mitch. Maybe a good race next week would help you forget this one?
an amazing likeness
1:44:01 for the second, so with the 1:42:28 for the first -- that's 3:26:29 for the pair. Whew...my legs are pooped, especially the calfs.
Today's course was (as known) a hill monster...just constant hiils. That was offset by spectacular weather...bright sun, temps in the high 40s (F), and winds that were strong, but never a real problem as most of the course is tree-lined. Aimed to start easy to get my legs into it, then run steady splits right between 7:55 and 8:05/mi.
I knew that an average pace of 8:10 would get to my 3:30 goal (for both), and I was pretty worried about the work of the early hills getting me into a fade that would I wouldn't be able to recover. I focused on keeping it my stride easy, and made sure to give up effort on the steepest climbs. I was really relieved to get through the first 5mi segment under 8:00/mi avg:
7:57 > 7:48 > 7:47 > 8:00 > 7:51
Actually felt a bit less fatigued in the second 5mi segment -- this section has some pretty steep up/downs and on the downs I tried to make sure to keep stride short and foot plant right under hip to not shock load shins and quads. Had a bit of a mental drop heading to 8mi, but just put my head down, looked at my feet and ran without thinking to get through it. There's a long steady climb to 10mi, dialed back to just get to 10mi and re-group:
7:56 > 7:54 > 8:02 > 7:55 > 8:02
Now...last 5K...just bring it home with steady splits and all is good. Getting pretty fatigued in the feet and hip flexors, so focused on keeping stride short and right under me. At 12, a woman went by running strong and I tried to hook on and stay with her, but couldn't do it...I settled into a energy-saving mode to make it to the finish:
7:44 > 7:55 > 7:55 for the last 3mi.
Over the years, I've done a few back-to-back weekends, but back-to-back race days was totally new to me. It was hard on day 1 to keep not use normal half marathon race strategy and run with the goal of setting up day 2. Day 2 was missing the pre-race enjoyment of the energy of the crowd as I just couldn't shake feeling tired and sore. In the end I feel pretty pleased with myself...being able to pull this off this makes all those cold, dark winter nights keeping my base miles up seem like they were worth it.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
1:44:01 for the second, so with the 1:42:28 for the first -- that's 3:26:29 for the pair. Whew...my legs are pooped, especially the calfs. Today's course was (as known) a hill monster...just constant hiils. That was offset by spectacular weather...bright sun, temps in the high 40s (F), and winds that were strong, but never a real problem as most of the course is tree-lined. Aimed to start easy to get my legs into it, then run steady splits right between 7:55 and 8:05/mi. I knew that an average pace of 8:10 would get to my 3:30 goal (for both), and I was pretty worried about the work of the early hills getting me into a fade that would I wouldn't be able to recover. I focused on keeping it my stride easy, and made sure to give up effort on the steepest climbs. I was really relieved to get through the first 5mi segment under 8:00/mi avg: 7:57 > 7:48 > 7:47 > 8:00 > 7:51 Actually felt a bit less fatigued in the second 5mi segment -- this section has some pretty steep up/downs and on the downs I tried to make sure to keep stride short and foot plant right under hip to not shock load shins and quads. Had a bit of a mental drop heading to 8mi, but just put my head down, looked at my feet and ran without thinking to get through it. There's a long steady climb to 10mi, dialed back to just get to 10mi and re-group: 7:56 > 7:54 > 8:02 > 7:55 > 8:02 Now...last 5K...just bring it home with steady splits and all is good. Getting pretty fatigued in the feet and hip flexors, so focused on keeping stride short and right under me. At 12, a woman went by running strong and I tried to hook on and stay with her, but couldn't do it...I settled into a energy-saving mode to make it to the finish: 7:44 > 7:55 > 7:55 for the last 3mi. Over the years, I've done a few back-to-back weekends, but back-to-back race days was totally new to me. It was hard on day 1 to keep not use normal half marathon race strategy and run with the goal of setting up day 2. Day 2 was missing the pre-race enjoyment of the energy of the crowd as I just couldn't shake feeling tired and sore. In the end I feel pretty pleased with myself...being able to pull this off this makes all those cold, dark winter nights keeping my base miles up seem like they were worth it.
Congrats on 2 great performances!
That's great MT!
But with the 2nd day's pre race enjoyment/excitement not there (or less present), and the fact that you felt like you had to hold back a bit in day one, do you feel like it's a must-do-again, or more like a done-it-but-never-again?
Yay, milktruck! I'm glad it went well for you. Not too much mud out there after all?
I wonder if the rolling hills and turns might have helped a bit in the sense that they gave you something else to focus on other than how tired you already were from the day before?
Also, I'm interested in hearing your answer to Cyberic's questions too!
...do you feel like it's a must-do-again, or more like a done-it-but-never-again?
Without there being a theme -- like Redleaf's New Years double ( 31 Dec / 1 Jan) -- I'd definitely put it in the "running stunt" category. I'm glad I did it; it was a new challenge and an interesting test of my running fitness. Not in any rush to try it again, however.
As I said to someone...each race actually was 'sacrificed' for the other: day 1 was a missed opportunity to run hard on a flat course with good weather for trying to lay down a fast time, and day 2 was energy management to get to the end under a time goal determined by day 1.
It was a neat challenge, I'm glad I went for it and got it done. Thanks to everyone for being so interested and supportive!
Awesome job, MT!
Awesome job MT on finishing out your weekend so well.
Mitch sorry the wheels came off the wagon on the race, time to recover and get em next time.
Ron's PRs 5K 24:14 (12/07/2013); Half Marathon 1:53:33 (5/26/2013)
Great job MT on both races.