PR! (and training)

Pre-race silliness by a few of our run club members:

I got a PR in the race yesterday! Not just a post-surgery PR, but a lifetime PR. I beat last year's time by four minutes, and my best time ever (in 2002) by one minute, 50 seconds. The time: a stunning 40:06! Four on the Fourth is a four mile race. It starts with a short, flat section then drops down a long hill, then out and back on flat, and back up the hill to finish. All my hill work has paid off - that hill didn't hurt at all. Melissa and I ran together, taking the walk breaks as usual. Eric and a friend ran down the hill to run us in to the finish. Melissa actually pulled away on the hill - she had warned me that she was planning to - and finished in under 40. When I was coming in, I could see the clock - it said 39:5x - the last digit was blocked. I ran a little harder, hoping I could break 40, when I saw it roll over. It doesn't really matter though - I went in hoping for under 45. The race was followed up by wandering through the street fair, a potluck at one of our runner's, then walking back into town for the short and funny parade. A very good day.

A little disheveled, a little sweaty, post race shot:

Last week I managed 35.7 miles of running and nine miles of hiking. I'm pretty happy with the way things are going, but I will admit I haven't been following any specific training plan. Instead, I started out just wanting to do two-a-days to get ready for the relays. Then, I decided to do the half, so I kept going on the two-a-days and started bumping up the mileage. Not too bad, no unexpected aches and pains, still running well. On the way down the mountain Sunday, discussing mileage with the three experienced ultra-guys in the car, it was suggested that I might possibly have built up a little quickly, and I'd better be careful or I'd be injured. It was agreed that if I held at the 10 mile run distance between now and the half, I'd be good. Sounded good to me at the time, but today I took a look at the calendar. Hmmmm. Two weeks to relay, six weeks to half, 12 weeks to full. I'm at 10 miles. That doesn't seem like it's going to work. So tonight, Coach Eric and I are going to sit down and look at a couple of training plans. Our goal is to move my mileage up at a comfortable pace, yet still prepare me adequately for the marathon.

The two hikes I've done recently have meant a lot of climbing and time on my feet, leading me to believe I'm ready for the distance and climb of the half (I'm still not sure about elevation and heat, but I can't do anything about those). I feel fully prepared for both the relay and the half, so I need to shift focus to the marathon. Yes, this is the marathon that I'm not actually making a decision on till after the half, but that's a little too late to get started. Why not change marathons? The Seattle Marathon is about seven weeks after Portland - that'd be plenty of time. One, I've heard Seattle is harder and that Portland is very nice for first time marathoners. Second, so many people from the Y Run Club are going to Portland, I want to go too. That's right - peer pressure - though it's being applied by me, not by them.

Now, the other thing I've been thinking about is future running. I'm pretty sure that Portland will be my one and only marathon. I expect a 5.5 hour to 6 hour marathon. I expect up to four hour training runs. I think this is going to be one of those times where the word "balance" gets bandied about. I will do this work once, but I'm not sure I want to continue to devote that kind of time to running. However, I do want to maintain a higher base mileage and at least a 10 mile long run base. I want to be able to sign up for half marathons on the spur of the moment. If Eric is doing a marathon, I want the half option rather than just the 5 mile option. That's my current set of plans, but you know, I reserve the right to change them at will!

So far this week:
Tuesday: 4 miles; 40:06 (Yay!)
Wednesday: 8 miles; 1:41:40 (Hill run + 2 miles, I know it was slower than last week, Rob wasn't there to push, plus one of my buddies needed a pit stop)