Rubber Side Down

BSIM 06 - what a thrill !

It was the best preparation I ever had for any marathon. We followed Patrick schedule, and were not shy to run in cold, rain, mud and even snow. We had lots of hill work. Only hill work, to be accurate. That includes two 5-6 miles weekday runs at Rancho and long runs on hills - several PG&E-s (9m/1:40h), Black Mountains (17m/3:40h), and a couple LGHS to QuickSilver (22m/5h). I had one run in La Jolla, to the beach, all the boardwalk down to the marine, and back, San Diego (17m/3h). I take Patrick's comment that if we would have put in some track work it could have improved our pace.

5:00 AM - we are at the start line, after an hour drive from Monterey. It's dark and cold. Runners are gathering around in the parking lot. There is free coffee, bananas and vaseline - pick your favorite. I searched for Dayle, Patrick, and others - you must set up a meeting point if you want to find anyone in the dark.

Right after crossing the start line I found Carol. She has a similar time goal - under 4 hours. We ran together for a few miles before she pushed me not to wait - "go, I don't want to slow you down". "Well," I said, "see you again at mile 20 when you will pass me".

One thing for sure -I enjoyed every uphill along BSM ! After climbing some 3000 feet mountains in training runs, the BSM hills feel small and easy. The first 10 miles were easy hills, at a pretty steady pace of 8:25-8:30 per mile. Hurricane Point was where the training started to pay off. The first mile was 10:06 minutes, the second 9:06 (it feels less steep than the first mile). I went down from there at about 8 minute pace. Last year, running this part in the relay, my miles were 9:00 and 8:00 uphill and a sub-7 downhill :-). The second half it was rolling hills all the way. My pace slowed down a bit and ranged between 9-10:00 minutes per mile.

The view was spectacular. Well, the first half was foggy, and hurricane point was in the clouds. But the second half was clear and sunny and most beautiful. And the drums, the piano, the bands, the strawberries, the food, the soup, and even free beer at the finish, everything was perfect.

Carol passed me at mile 24. She was going FAST. Very fast. "Hey, Arnon, come on with us". I thought it was Thorsten pacing Carol. He later declined, so I still do not know who was he. But it was fast. I could only keep up with them for half a mile when the gap between us started to widen. I was still going much faster than before. I ran the last couple of miles at 8:35 pace - very unusual. I had to call up a few runners "on your left" ... It felt like some of them were walking backwards. That's a thrill. My finish time was 3:54 - great !! Carol finished more than a minute earlier ! Wow ! What a finish. Way to go, Carol !!! I owe you 3 minutes of my marathon time !!

I took with me a Power belt with two bottles of gatorade, some 6 Gu-s, and the Endurolights Patrick gave me a few days ago. I took one Gu every 40 minutes or so, and one e-cap after every hour. I had water/sport drink at almost every aid station. At mile 22 I felt like my calf is going to cramp and immediately took two e-caps. It helped a lot - within 10 minutes the signs were gone and never came back.

My new Garmin Forerunner 305 was not as great. I only had it for three days before the run, and was not used to use it. I accidentally stopped it at mile 1, instead of pressing the Lap button, and restarted around mile 2. Later it lost signal at least three times (why ?). The accumulated elevation is not very accurate. It shows 3400 feet up, 3600 down, but I believe that it should total about 2500 feet up, 2700 down. Overall the GPS was not accurate enough to provide me instantaneous feedback of my pace - duh, I do it better with a regular watch and time splits. I still need to explore how to use this techi gadget to effectively help my running.

posted by Arnon @ 8:51 AM 0 comments

 

posted by Patrick el Coyote @ 12:00 PM 0 comments

BSIM 06 - Coyote view

I like Dayle's post style, so I'm copying her.

Weather=comfortable. 50 degrees at the start, overcast but warm enough with a sweatshirt and fleece blanket for my legs. Warm enough to ditch both and stand for 25 minutes on Hwy1 waiting for the gun. Sun came out at mile 13, just as I crossed Bixby bridge, so that was just about perfect.
Gear=perfect. Standard nike running clothes and my asics road shoes with orthoctics, no rash, no blisters, no complaints.
Food+liquids=good. I didn't carry any water with me, and that was a tough decision because I've carried something both other marathons. I had one Builder Bar in my pocket and I drank water at every stop and gatorade at most, that's every 2.5 miles for about the first 1/3-half and every 1.5 for the rest. I felt pretty well hydrated at the end. Gels at 2 locations, I pocketed one at the first hand out and didn't use it until the end. I think I could have taken one or two more in the last 1-1/2 hours to improve energy levels, even though I didn't feel like I needed a gel.
Mood=good. I was more nervous about this one than the last one I think, but by the 2nd hour felt like I was in a pretty good groove.
Sleep=good. I function terribly on not enough sleep, and getting up at 2am was the plan, so I made sure I hit the bed by 6pm.

So I feel like the whole conservative approach worked for me this time, as long as I discount ever breaking 4 hours. The 3-day hill training cycle and creative long runs developed by ID and Arnon put down a sufficient base. I was injury free for the whole period including the marathon, so obviously my body had enough time to recover at this level. In addition, my race was very conservative, just trying to maintain 10's the whole way, including walk breaks and drinking. From this perspective, the race was much more like our training runs, where distance is the only factor, not time. By keeping my early pace under control, and not over-exerting on the hills, I had the stores to keep going at the end. Walking every now and then to eat some Builder bar was a good thing too. I think those moments of rest all along the way are key to keeping the muscles from building up too much fatigue, and consequently they are much fresher at the end.
I do think that more track training would have made me feel that little bit more confident, but it could have also induced an injury, we'll see since I'm going to add them back in this summer. Also, I have to note that the gel thing really works for me if I have gotten to the last 1/4 of the race in good shape. I noticed it in the Sac marathon and in BSIM. Always run in races with plentiful, evenly spaced water stations, its the difference between a fun marathon and a grueling last 6 miles.

posted by Patrick el Coyote @ 5:16 PM 0 comments

Big Sur Marathon

Weather=perfect. Overcast and warm at the start. Sunny but not too hot at the finish.
Shoes+clothes=perfect. For some reason, Ascics work for marathons.
Food+liquids supply=overstocked, so heavy. 1 liter of pedialyte was overkill; I had more than 1/2 of it at the end.
Mood=good. The relay runners who bounded past me with their "I just started" leaps made me smile. Oh, to be them, or at least to feel as bouncy as they looked...
Sleep coefficient=good enough. Better than other times (Sacramento, San Diego,...)

So why was I sooooooo slow? (4:46).
Explanations:
overtraining - I was tired on those last long runs,
incorrect training - we did drop track in favor of hills,
vegetarianism - this one would get my chiropractor's vote, but Scott Jurek wins ultras on potatoes and beans!
old age - not yet, pleeez,
motherhood - another "catch-all" I don't want to accept,
forgot to eat the e-caps - maybe, but there was the Pedialyte,
lack of a personal trainer - hmmm.

posted by Iron Dayle @ 3:15 PM 0 comments