Notes
DSM Half at Marathon Effort, 1:10:09 for 9th
5:23, 5:22, 5:22, 5:20, 5:20, 5:16, 5:19, 5:18, 5:19, 5:17, 5:20, 5:16, 5:14
Good shit at DSM half marathon. Going in I was hoping to run faster than I did at City of Lakes, and have it feel like a smooth and controlled marathon effort the whole way. My legs had been feeling good the past couple days and had a successful practice carb-load leading in so was feeling pretty confident. We got lined up at about 7:55 for the scheduled 8am start, but then we didn't end up starting til 8:13. Had to stand around in the cold for an extra 15 minutes so that was kinda annoying
Once the race started though I got out clean and tried to settle into about what I thought was the right effort as we ran through downtown the 1st mile, hit it right where I wanted. Shortly after the mile a couple guys came by me, one of them being Runablazer Caleb Benzing. Rolled with that group of 4 other guys until we got onto Fleur running towards WWP, they were running a little hot for what I wanted so backed off the pace and let them go a bit. Pretty much ended up running off the back of that pack for the next few miles, feeing super chill and just trying to keep the effort level right
Ended up slowly reeling that group back in and was right on the back of them at about 5.5 miles. Once I rolled up on the back it felt like they were slowing, so moved around them to try to maintain my pace. That was the 5:17 sixth mile which was a little hot for what I wanted at that point and it seemed like my pass got the group rolling well again so I slowed a bit and moved to the back again. The pack was starting to clearly struggle though so at about the 7 mile split I moved to the front again and just told the guys in the pack that I'd be locked in right around 5:20 and they should just hop on the train and I'd do the work at the front. Making that move to the front seemed to break the pack apart and for miles 8 and 9 Caleb and 1 other guy were just sitting on me and I was feeling great at that pace
Once we got into Grays Lake Caleb and the other guy passed me, I let them go for about a half mile but once we got to the bridge at Grays Caleb was coming back to me a bit. Ended up catching him just before we left Grays and before we had to do the bs 180 uturn at 10.6 miles. Caleb wanted to break 70 and I was feeling really good still so told him to hop on my ass and I'd try to get him there. That led to lots of looking over my shoulder to check if he was still on me in the last 2.5 miles, but it was fun to help him out. We didn't end up getting the sub 70 but did run my fastest splits in the last 2 miles so we picked it up a bit to try to get there. Felt quite strong throughout and when I went through the finish didn't need to stop or put my hands on my knees or anything like that
Body wise I felt quite good. One thing was my left calf started feeling a little tight between 11 and 12. It wasn't anything that would have affected me today, but could cause problems if I had been running a marathon so will bring that up in my next appointment with Shane
Nutrition I feel like I absolutely knocked it out of the park. Worked with Ellen on a carb load so I could truly make this a marathon dress rehearsal. Took in > 600g of carbs both Friday and yesterday and feel like that really helped me today and will benefit me when it comes time for the marathon carb load. I took the Maurten Bicarb again as well and didn't feel any negative effects once again so I think I will definitely be doing Bicarb for Indy Half and CIM. Since the Maurten Bicarb includes 40g of carbs I didn't do a pre-race gel and I think that is the way to do it. I took a Maurten 160 gel (40g of carbs) at mile 3, a Maurten Caffeine gel at mile 6 (25g carbs and 100mg of caffeine), and a Maurten 100 gel at mile 9 (25g of carbs), for a total of 90g of carbs over the half. Took cups of water at every opportunity I could as well. Taking the gels every 3 miles is definitely a lot, but my stomach handled it great
A great day on all aspects. The effort and pace felt great and I feel really confident in my nutrition plan. Positive momentum!