Same Time, Same Channel

Dress Rehearsal - 7 miles w/ 2 miles at marathon race pace.

6:17 am, 58° F, 43% humidity, wind 12 S.

This is the only weekday this week that my training plan doesn't specify recovery pace, so I took the opportunity to run a little faster. I was trying to hit 8:00 on the MP miles. I came close, but the effort was more than it should have been, particularly on the 2nd of those two miles, which was mostly uphill. I hope that that pace feels easier on a flat course at sea level on Saturday. The 6th mile fell under my designation of 8:30 for fast miles, but I called it a slow mile anyway because I really did ease up on the pace for that mile, but it was mostly a gradual downhill, so it came out a little faster than the effort would warrant.

I'm wondering about getting on pace for the marathon on Saturday. In my training runs, I always do my first mile or two slowly. And in shorter races, I always run at least 2 miles at a really slow pace before the race starts. But 26 miles is plenty long enough and I don't want to make it 28. I'm wondering if I can manage to go out at a decent enough pace that I don't lose a lot of time on those first couple of miles. Maybe adrenaline will do it and I'll just have to be careful not to go out too fast. Anyone have a suggestion of what pace I should try to hit on the first couple of miles?

AP: 8:39. Splits: 9:24, 8:56, 8:52, 8:03, 8:01, 8:23, 8:52.

Recovery run.

6:23 am, 55° F, 71% humidity, wind 16 S.

I felt pretty good on this run. I just tried to keep it slow and easy.

Before my run this morning I checked the weather here in Denver and in Newport, Oregon. It looks like it's raining in Newport today. I hope it doesn't rain on Saturday.

I'm debating which shoes to wear in the marathon. I've been alternating between my Brooks Green Silence, which are my cool Ronald McDonald racing flats, and the Brooks Adrenaline 10s. I always wear the Adrenalines on longer runs, but I really like the Green Silence. I've just never worn them for more than about half marathon distance. I'd like to wear them in the marathon, but I don't know if I dare.

AP: 10:00. Splits: 10:34, 9:58, 9:46, 9:50, 9:51.

Recovery + Speed - 5 mi w/ 6 x 100 m strides.

5:45 am, 60° F, 43% humidity, wind 9 SSE.

I needed to get an earlier than usual start this morning because I've got a busy day including a full day of work. So I rejoined the sub-6 club for just one day.

I did the strides on the high school track, as is my habit recently. There was a woman jogging on the track. She was going pretty slowly. I did one easy lap before I started the strides and I passed her during that lap and then passed her again during my 5th stride.

I underestimated the distance of the route I decided to take home from the track and so I was still about 1/4 of a mile or so from home when I hit 5 miles. But I'm supposed to be taking it easy, so I stopped and walked the rest of the way home.

I just checked the weather forecast for Newport for Saturday. It's being saying 40% chance of rain all week, and now it says partly cloudy with a 10% chance of rain. That's good news for me. I think Snoqualmie would prefer mostly cloudy, even if it means a higher chance of rain.

AP: 9:55. Splits: 10:36, 10:03, 10:10, 8:53 (the strides were in this mile), 9:56.

I don't think I'm going to make it out for any kind of run today. But I just thought I'd log on and tell you that I made it to Newport. It was a long day of travel. I'm off to meet Snoqualmie in a few minutes!

P.S. The weather is great.

Finished. Hard. Race. Too. Much. Sun. More Later.

OK. I guess it's later and I'll try to write a proper report.

First of all, I met Snoqualmie and her great family last night. We spent some time on the beach and then went to dinner with Snoqualmie Ridge Runner and some other runners from the Snoqualmie running group. It was a lot of fun. I had salmon since I had salmon the night before the Ogden marathon last year, and that worked out pretty well.

One of the really nice things about this Newport marathon is that you don't have to be bussed to the start. In fact, the start was walking distance from both my and Snoqualmie's hotels. So this morning I got up and spent some quality time in the hotel, and then walked to Sno's hotel and met her there. We headed out walking to the start and even did a wee bit of jogging, but then she realized she had forgotten her Garmin and so we jogged a little back and got it. On our second approach to the start, we met up with Snoqualmie Ridge Runner and his friend. We got to the start about 20 minutes before the race started. None of this waiting at the start line for two hours up in the mountains like you do in Utah. It was cool, but actually quite pleasant at that point. I was comfortable enough in a singlet and shorts, which didn't bode well for later on.

Since this race doesn't use chip timing, I started up fairly near the front, probably about 4-5 rows back with the runners that we had dinner with last night, except for Snoqualmie, who started farther back. I didn't hit the start button on my watch right when the gun went off, but just a couple of seconds later, just before I went under the start banner, so my official time, when it's posted, will probably be just a couple of seconds longer than the time I got from my Garmin. My average pace is also slightly slower than what the Garmin says, because the Garmin measured a tenth of a mile long. I didn't start nearly as fast as the people around me. All kinds of people blew past me at the start, but I didn't want to start this thing as if it were a 5K.

The first 3 or so miles are a little loop in the town. This part was somewhat hilly. They weren't really big hills, but neither was it flat. Then the course goes down to the pay and goes on the road along the bay until a little past mile 15, and then turns around and goes back and ends about a mile or so away from the start. This part was mostly flat, except for a relatively steep up hill at mile 4 and then a gradual downhill for a couple of miles, which later is a gradual up hill for miles 25 and 26, and then a nice downhill for 0.2 to the finish.

There was not a cloud in the sky, but it was fairly shady for about the first half of the race, and then it was sunny and then entirely too warm for some of us who are not used to running in the heat at this point in the year.

I felt pretty good until about mile 16 and from that point on I really wanted to stop. I ran with a couple of guys for probably about miles 6-8. They were doing what was an easy pace to them because one of them is doing a 100 miler next Saturday, or something like that. I kept a pretty good pace while I was with them, but then I failed to keep up. Maybe those miles were a little too fast.

Later on, I ran for a little while with a woman from British Columbia who was originally for New Zealand. She was shooting for 3:40. It was a little strange because her Garmin was set to kilometers, with auto lap on, and so it kept beeping at different times. Her boyfriend or husband was riding a bike along side her supplying her with water and gel and the like. After a while, I failed to keep up with her, but then at about 24 miles, I saw her on the side of the road trying to get up. Her boyfriend/husband was with her, so I didn't stop to help.

I drank more at the aid stations than I usually do, I guess because I was feeling rather warm. But the result was that I took a somewhat longish, probably 2 minute, port-a-potty stop in mile 20.

I really struggled the last 8 or 9 miles and I just tried to run from one aid station to the next and I walked through the aid stations at that point, which I hadn't done earlier in the race. The last two full miles were particularly tough, with the gradual uphill. I wish I could have gone faster, but I was just trying to hang on and keep running. Mercifully, the last 0.2 is downhill and so I was able to pick up the pace and finish fairly strong. But I must have looked bad right after I finished because a couple of race people grabbed a hold of me and then Snoqualmie Ridge Runner, who had finished 12 minutes ahead of me, and seemed to be in really good shape already, escorted me to a chair in the shade and brought me food and water. My calves felt tight, but didn't cramp up like they did at Ogden last year. I stayed in the finish/line recovery area until Snoqualmie finished.

After we had both showered, my husband, my daughter, and I went to lunch with  Snoqualmie's family and then visited a lighthouse, where Sno and I both climbed (and descended!) a whole bunch of stairs. Aren't you impressed. Then we went back to Sno's hotel and our two daughters played together for a while in the pool.

So here are things I liked about this race:

• It was nice to walk to the start and get there so close to the start of the race rather than having to wait around forever for the race to start.
• It was nice and shady for the first part of the race.
• And the best thing of all - it was great to meet Snoqualmie and her family and Snoqualmie Ridge Runner and his friends!

Here's what I didn't like about this race:

• It got hot and sunny.
• I didn't run quite as fast as I had hoped to.

Regarding the second item there, I had stated publicly that I wanted to run 3:30, but I really didn't believe that I would. Maybe I could have if I had believed it more and wanted it more, but maybe not. However, I did think that I had a legitimate shot at getting under 3:40, and I did manage that. But I did get a BQ and a PR. So I'm happy, but not ecstatic about my time.

So if you're curious about how hot it was, I'll tell the truth. It was about 49 degrees at the start and about 60 degrees by midway through the race. Maybe 60 degrees isn't very hot to some of you, but the sun was bearing down and it felt very warm. It was about 80% humidity, and there was a slight (maybe 5 mph) wind of the bay, which seemed like a headwind both directions, but was probably more of a cross wind.

Here are my stats, based on the Garmin measurement of 26.3:

AP: 8:26 (official AP is more like 8:29). Splits: 8:42, 8:13, 8:12, 8:07, 8:11, 7:52, 7:55, 7:48, 8:07, 8:07, 8:09, 8:07, 8:14, 8:23, 8:25, 8:27, 8:19, 8:46, 8:30, 10:41 (this was the port-o-potty stop), 8:41, 8:37, 8:47, 8:38, 8:56, 8:50, 0.30 @ 7:37.

So that was definitely not a negative split. Using my arbitrary designation of anything under 8:30 being classified as fast, I had 16 fast miles, and then the last 0.2 (or 0.3) fast. The other 10 miles were slow. But they were hard.

Here are the official placement results:

Overall place (men and women): 133 out of 676
Gender place (all women): 26 out of 355
Division place (women 40-44): 6 out of 52

I got home yesterday afternoon to a bunch of boys who seemed to think that I should make dinner for them. I managed to do that, but not much else. I was tired.

When I woke up this morning I was a little disoriented and had to stop and think where I was, what day it was, and what I have to do today.

I slept in until just before 7:00 this morning and then got up and walked a little over 2 miles. It was quite warm out - 60° and 94% humidity. I don't know how people walk marathons. It just takes so long to get anywhere walking.

I was still fairly sore yesterday and I'm still feeling it today, though not as bad. It's strange to me that my quads are so sore. I don't remember my quads feeling like this after Ogden last year. I thought it was downhill running that trashed your quads, and Ogden had WAY more downhill that Newport. Maybe it was "sprinting" the last bit downhill at Newport that did it.

I'll probably walk again tomorrow and then maybe try a little running on Wednesday or Thursday.

Another 2+ mile walk this morning. I felt fine until the last quarter of a mile or so and then my hamstrings felt a little tight. I'll see tomorrow whether I feel good enough for a recovery run or whether I need to walk another time. It was 55 degrees, 93 % humidity, and overcast. It did not feel as hot as yesterday morning. But it was warm enough over night that my oldest son slept in the basement because it's cooler down there.

I saw an envelope in the gutter this morning. It was getting wet. I picked it up and it was an unopened Discover card statement. The address on it was the house that I was in front of, so I took it up and put it by the front door. It was too early in the morning to knock on the door.

Real life is stressing me out.

Recovery run.

6:30 am, 57° F, 87% humidity, wind 3 WNW.

I felt sluggish at the start of this run, but that is neither surprising nor unusual. And I got feeling better as the run went on. I didn't really have any pain or soreness.

There were a lot of runners out this morning. I guess people prefer the warm weather over the cold. That's strange.

Regarding a big factor in yesterday's stress, the crisis was averted.

AP: 10:02. Splits: 10:34, 9:53, 9:39.

Easy run.

7:39 am, 66° F, 69% humidity, wind 2 NNW, sunny. It felt hot and muggy to me.

I slept in until 7:00 this morning, and then I was ready to go out and run by 7:15, but by that time other family members were awake and I got sucked into doing things for them and so I had to postpone my run.

I ran the same route I ran yesterday (nearly), but in reverse. I was going to run 3 miles, but I was still a little ways from home when I hit 3 miles, so I decided to continue running until I got to my house, but when I was almost to my house I noticed that I was about 15-20 seconds short of 30 minutes, so I decided to keep running until I hit 30 minutes, which took me about 3 house-lengths beyond my house. I decided to be comfortable with a total distance that involves a decimal point.

One of the things I had to do before my run this morning was drive my oldest son to work. When I went out to get in the car, I found a garter snake in the garage. I had my son remove it to somewhere in the yard.

AP: 9:33. Splits: 10:04, 9:30, 9:12, 0.14 @ 8:45.

Easy run.

6:47 am, 59° F, 71% humidity, winds calm, mostly cloudy.

Just an average run. I felt a little sluggish at the first, but then got going better. That's the normal pattern.

AP: 9:30. Splits: 10:26, 9:34, 9:11, 8:48.

General aerobic run.

8:58 am, 50° F, 68% humidity, winds calm, overcast with light rain the last 12 minutes.

There was no point in getting up early to beat the heat and the sun today since there is no heat or sun today, so I slept in. I decided to go run the Highline Canal Train even though I was doing short mileage because I wanted to see how full the canal was. It's usually completely dry, but sometimes there's a little water in it. It was full but not in danger of overflowing today. The trail was damp and a little muddy in spots, but not bad.

This was the weather we expected to get in Newport last Saturday. I wonder how that race would have been different if we had had the weather that I had today.

I was going to run 6 miles but then I decided to run for an hour instead, so I ran for 30 minutes and then turned around. I ran the second half faster, so I had to go beyond where I started to get the full 60 minutes. I ran at what I would consider to be a moderate effort, but did push it a little more the last mile or so.

In thinking about my training for the Newport marathon, I'm thinking that I did a lot of miles, but I did a lot of them very slowly, and to some extent that training plan taught me how to run slowly. I've decided that for the next while I'm going to try to run most of my runs a little faster - not hard but just not so slow and easy. I still do some hard workouts and some slow recovery runs on occasion, but I want to bring down my overall average pace a bit. I also tried to start out a little faster today than I normally do.

AP: 8:43. Splits: 9:26, 9:04, 8:47, 8:35, 8:37, 8:24, 0.89 @ 8:01.

Easy run.

6:53 am, 45° F, 96% humidity, wind 8 SSE.

If I put my Canyonlands Half Marathon time from last March in the McMillan calculator (I use this instead of my recent marathon because the 1/2 time gives me slightly faster paces), it gives me an easy run range of 8:49 to 9:19. That's what I was shooting for this morning. I feel like with all the recovery runs in that last training plan, particularly in the final weeks, I flirted too much with 10:00 pace and I need to get out of that habit and get comfortable running easy a little faster.

I managed to barely eek into the target range on my overall pace by virtue of my first mile being too slow, but I ran the rest of the miles just a little bit too fast. Oops. In any case, the run didn't feel as easy as 10:00 pace, but it wasn't too hard. I made sure that I stayed in a 3:2 breathing pattern (in for 3 steps, out for 2) so that I didn't expend too much effort. And I felt good when I finished, like I could have kept going.

AP: 8:50. Splits: 9:23, 8:47, 8:44, 8:35, 8:45, 0.09 @ 8:41.

In other news, we spent Saturday evening at the urgent care getting this done to my third son:

He was at a friend's birthday party and the friends little brother jumped down the stairs and then told Sam to try it. So Sam did it and bashed his head against the ceiling. Afterwards, the other boy said that he forgot to tell Sam to duck.

The gash was about an inch and a half long, as you can see, and about 1/4 inch deep. After the doctor cleaned it up and showed me before he stapled it, I think I was looking at Sam's skull. He was a big hit at church yesterday. The other kids starting calling him Staples.

Easy run.

6:39 am, 53° F, 50% humidity, wind 14 SSE.

I ran the same route as yesterday and tried to run it a little slower but still in the 8:49 to 9:19 range. Once again I was slower than that on the first mile, but all the other full miles were in that range except for the 4th. I really tried to slow down on the fourth, but a good junk of it was slightly downhill with the wind behind me.

I'm still working on a reverse taper and just running a few more miles this week than last week. My plan is to do 5 miles each week day and then 8 or 10 on Saturday. But I'm thinking about maybe doing 6 tomorrow.

AP: 9:02. Splits: 9:28, 9:02, 8:58, 8:46, 8:59, 0.10 @ 8:41.

Easy run.

6:35 am, 62° F, 56% humidity, winds 13 S, sunny.

The main reason I wanted to do my 6 mile loop today instead of the 5 mile loop that I've done the last couple of days is that the 6 mile loop has some good hills in the first half. I wanted to see if I could maintain my slightly faster easy pace (8:49 to 9:19 pace) on those hills without working too hard. Also, for the first time this week, I managed to get my first mile in the range, just barely.

I saw Ali out running on University when I was in my 4th mile.

It was quite warm this morning. I had sweat dripping into my eyes towards the end. The sweat band in my hat wasn't doing a good enough job. I tried to wipe my face with my sleeve. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to carry a little cloth with me when I run to wipe my face with.

AP: 8:54. Splits: 9:16, 8:45, 8:57, 8:51, 8:56, 8:47, 0.74 @ 8:48.

Easy run.

7:00 am, 68° F, 21% humidity, wind 5 S, sunny.

I've really got to figure out a way to get to bed earlier and get up earlier over the summer even though the rest of the family is on a late schedule. Also, I haven't been carrying water with me because my runs have not been more than an hour long lately. But I'm going to have to start wearing the dreaded fuel belt when my miles start getting a little higher next week. I was dripping with sweat when I got home this morning even though I did not run terrifically far or fast.

AP: 8:58. Splits: 9:24, 8:51, 8:53, 8:52, 8:52, 0.10 @ 8:33.

GA run.

9:20 am, 65-73° F, 60% humidity, winds calm, some sun, some shade.

I didn't run yesterday. I didn't want to. I preferred to sit around and read a book. I wasn't all that anxious to run today either, so I slept late, then read just a little bit and then hauled my sorry butt to the Highline Canal trail.

My first plan was to do 10 miles, but as I approached the turn around, I decided I would turn around when my watch said 5 miles, when I hit the 5 mile marker if it was there (it was - some are missing), or when my watch said 45 minutes, whichever came last. I turned around when my watch said 45 minutes. So then I decided just to make the run 90 minutes long rather than 10 miles. I was faster on the 2nd half, as usual, so I ended up running a ways past the place where I had started.

There were a lot of bicyclists on the trail today. And they weren't the serious bicyclists with their fancy biking clothes. They were just ordinary people in shorts and t-shirts and the like, including some families with kids. It was really a lot more bicyclists than usual, but it didn't seem to be any kind of organized thing. Maybe that's just what happens around that time in the morning on a warm Saturday in the summer.

I tried to keep it a relatively easy effort, but it was probably a moderate effort toward the end. I never pushed really hard. I didn't look at my watch much either. I mostly went by feel.

AP: 8:43. Splits: 9:15, 8:52, 8:52, 8:35, 8:42, 8:45, 8:42, 8:34, 8:30, 0.33 @ 8:12.

Easy run, sort of.

4:00 pm, 89° F, 14% humidity, wind 8 W.

I got up at 4 am this morning to get Thing 3 off to scout camp. I got home at about 4:45 and considered going out for a run, but went back to bed instead and didn't get up until about 7:30. At that point, it was too late to go for a run before work. So my penance is I had to run in the heat of the day. I thought about running during my daughter's softball practice from 6 to 7, but I worried what would happen if I didn't make it back in time. I also thought about waiting until this evening so that it would be a little cooler, but thunderstorms are forecast this evening, and I have other stuff I need to do tonight. So maybe now I've learned my lesson and I'll be able to get myself up early in the morning to avoid hot afternoon running.

AP: 9:10. Splits: 9:38, 9:16, 9:17, 8:57, 9:04, 9:02, 0.55 @ 8:47.

GA run,.

6:58 am, 60-68° F, 34% humidity, wind 10 SSE, sunny,

Whenever my husband and I are apart and I have a night alone, I think that I'll go to bed early, but then I never do because I've got all this quiet time to myself and so I do other stuff I want to do, like watch tv or read. That's what happened last night. I started reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. It's a very strange book. I'm going to share with you the second paragraph in the book because it is tangentially related to running and is kind of strange.

"What about little microphones? What if everyone swallowed them, and they played the sounds of our hearts through little speakers, which could be in the pouches of our overalls? When you skateboarded down the street at night you could hear everyone's heartbeat, and they could hear yours, sort of like sonar. One weird thing is, I wonder if everyone's hearts would start to beat at the same time, like how women who live together have their menstrual periods at the same time, which I know about, but don't really want to know about. That would be so weird, except that the place in the hospital where babies are born would sound like a crystal chandelier in a houseboat, because the babies wouldn't have had time to match up their heartbeats yet. And at the finish line at the end of the New York City Marathon it would sound like war."

In any case, today's run was quite warm. I carried the dreaded fuel belt and a handkerchief to wipe the sweat out of my eyes. The handkerchief isn't very absorbent. I need a thin washcloth or something.

AP: 9:09. Splits: 9:42, 9;13, 9:21, 9:05, 9:22, 9:01, 8:53, 9:05, 9:02, 8:48. I felt like I kept pretty much the same level of effort throughout except the last mile, which I pushed just a little bit. The variations in pace are due to uphills and downhills.

Easy run.

5:56 am, 55° F, 64% humidity, wind 4 S.

I actually managed to get out the door before 6 am (just barely) for the first time in nearly a month. It's cooler today than yesterday and with the earlier start, I actually had pleasant weather for running this morning.

While I was running, I realized that I'm double-booked tonight. I'm going to see if I can talk my oldest son into helping me out.

AP: 9:04. Splits: 9:37, 9:00, 9:11, 9:01, 9:00, 8:46, 0.63 @ 8:41.

GA run.

7:49 am, 66-72° F, 42% humidity, wind 14 SSW.

I was up late working last night, so I figured it was fair to sleep in a bit and then run and be late to work. But of course the down side of that is heat. Oh well. Maybe some day I'll get acclimated to the heat.

I ran the hilly County Line Road route.

AP: 8:55. Splits: 9:20, 8:45, 8:45, 9:03, 9:17, 8:36, 9:01, 8:34, 0.42 @ 8:41.

I sweated a lot, but the wind blew it off me. But I got really drippy as soon as I stepped inside my house.

Somewhere between an easy run and a recovery run.

6:30 am, 69° F, 28% humidity, wind 15 SSE.

I felt kind of sluggish today so I took it easy, but apparently not quite easy enough to call it a recovery run. It was an unremarkable run.

AP: 9:26. Splits: 10:02, 9:21, 9:27, 9:18, 9:19, 9:15, 0.36 @ 9:19

Since I don't have much to say about my run, instead I will entertain you with a picture of my youngest son from a couple of weeks ago, and then a picture of the same son from yesterday at Scout camp.

GA run + 10 x 10 sec. hill sprints.

6:55 am, 60-65° F, 50% humidity, wind 8 SSE, sunny.

I didn't run last Saturday because it was my daughter's birthday and I thought I should be home in the morning and give her a birthday breakfast instead of being out running all morning like I usually am. It's not looking good for me to run this coming Saturday either, because she is getting baptized that morning. Also, we'll have a bunch of family here visiting for the occasion.

I also haven't checked blogs all weekend. I apologize. I'll try to check everyone's blogs today, but I've got a busy day at work.

In any case, I failed to get up sufficiently early once again today. I went out for the run anyway.

My recent training plan didn't include any hill sprints and I think I would have been better off doing them, so I decided to get back into them. I was a little sluggish on them today. I did them at the end of my run and walked home when I was finished.

My biggest problem this morning was thigh chafing. I've got to get some compression shorts, or something, I guess.

AP: 9:12. Splits: 9:24, 9:02, 9:03, 8:57, 9:09, 8:44, 8:52, 0.94 @ 8:56. The rest of the distance was the hill sprints. I'm not going to report the pace on the hill sprints.

Medium-long run.

5:55 am, 62-67° F, 55% humidity, wind 5 S, not a cloud in the sky.

Hilly route to Lucent and back. I think I might have done something to my left quad. Or maybe it's the hip.

AP: 9:08. Splits: 9:52, 9:12, 9:08, 9:13, 9:11, 9:14, 9:02, 9:01, 8:48, 8:45, 8:59, 9:16.