Thursday, July 10, 2008

Chicks Dig the Long Run

A quick perusal of my always exciting running log tells me that I haven’t run double digit miles in over two months. That’s appalling, especially when you take into consideration that I have the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon approaching quickly. I’m feeling the need to get longer, which is actually very easy according to the forty e-mails a week that I find in my spam folder. Anyway, I’ll be putting in some long runs over the next few weekends and hoping that the last minute cramming technique will serve me as well in my running as it did in my skooling. Hoo boy, I’m screwed!

I may even throw in some double digit runs in the middle of the week which is unheard of for me. I was giving serious thought to putting in a 10 miler this morning but I forgot was too lazy to get up early enough to squeeze it in before work and the forecast calls for temperatures in the low 100s today. My run tonight will depend greatly on the temperature when I get home from work, but I’m hoping to gut out an 8 miler at the very least.

My fear is that I have been too focused on getting faster and have forgotten that I need to maintain a healthy long run. By way of example, my last run was only 4 miles but it did include some 4 x 800s. Hey, everyone else is doing them, I thought I should too.

Interval 1: 3:39 (7:18 pace)
Interval 2: 3:46 (7:32 pace)
Interval 3: 3:41 (7:22 pace)
Interval 4: 3:45 (7:30 pace)

At this rate I will have no problem maintaining my goal pace for my upcoming half marathon... right up until I hit 7 miles, at which point I expect the lungnuts will come loose and the wheels will fall off the wagon. The only saving grace here is that the second half of this course is downhill (as is the first half) which means that I might just be able to tumble all the way to the finish. Let’s call that Plan B. Plan A will be for me to get in some more double digit runs over the next 3 weeks so as to stave off the biggest fade since Kid ‘N Play took the mic.

17 comments:

  1. I'm impressed. You've outdone me yet again (SOB). I thought I waited until the last minute to train. This should be good!

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  2. What is this "long run" you speak of? Is this something I should consider for my marathon?

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  3. did you really mean to write "lungnuts?" If not, nice Freudian slip. If so, touche on the word smithing.

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  4. Perhaps you confused "half" marathon with only having to give a "half" ass effort. No. This will require a full ass effort. Get crackin' on some 10 milers.

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  5. Kristina that was intentional, but my sister (de facto editor) asked the same question so I suspect that it's not landing with the same panache that I had hoped.

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  6. Half-assed cramming always works for me for half marathons. Go get 'em Tiger.

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  7. Ah, a fellow member of the procrastinator's club. No worries, you will pull it out. Er...I mean off. Something like that.

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  8. Downhill half? No worries. Like you said you can just roll down the hill if you get tired. Kid N Play?Wow talk about flashback

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  9. You're making my quads hurt thinking about it... 13.1 downhill!?!? woot!

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  10. Duuuudddeeee Kid N Play. Dang!! Why am I surprised you know who they are?!?

    Crack that whip!

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  11. Scrap the intervals.

    Get the miles up and hit a tempo run, improve your lactate threshold. I don't think you do a lot of 5ks, thus most of your racing is not at VO2 max, which is what intervals are designed to improve.

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  12. Both halves are downhill? Explain, please.

    That sounds like my kind of race.

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  13. Hey - gutting out 8 miles in low 100's? Unless you've suddenly moved to Arizona and the humidity is 0.1%, I've got three words for you.

    ARE YOU CRAZY?

    Or maybe you are not a dawn runner like me. I'm actually dreading running in the full sunshine for my upcoming half. I'm gonna have to force myself to run later than 6 am at some point, aren't I? Thank goodness my half starts at 7:00 am. PHEW!!!

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  14. Half-ass job?! Sounds like a great way to train for a half marathon! :)

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  15. Honestly???? And I hope you don't mind me say this....but....I think you overanalyze these things a bit.
    Just go run. You'll be fine. When I ran my half PR, I hadn't run anything over 9 miles (if it was even that far). You'll be fine. Just chillax.

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  16. An all downhill course? I think I know what race I'm running in Idaho.

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