dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran to school this morning.  On the way I ran 2 x 1 mile in 5:09 and 4:56 with about 11:00 recovery running between repeats.  The first repeat was using mile markers that are painted on the street.  This mile has a solid net uphill (almost zero downhill), and there was a mild headwind.  The second mile was along the same stretch where I ran a 4:36 mile a few weeks ago.  The headwind was stronger during this mile, but it is almost completely flat.  I also had to deal with a UPS truck pulling right in front of me, costing me a few seconds as I had to run around it.  I don't know how much time the uphill/wind/detour cost me on the repeats, but the HR was similar on the second repeat to what I was getting when I ran the 4:36 mile a while back, while the effort felt slightly easier.  I would guess that eliminating the wind/detour on the second repeat would get me somewhere in the 4:40-4:45 range.  On the first repeat I am less sure, but as HR was lower I imagine that minus the wind/uphill I would have been in the 4:50-5:00 range.  Who knows.  Total time for the run was 1:00:46 for 8.6 miles.

PM: I ran home with a total time of 1:01:43.  I ran 1 mile hard about halfway through the run in 5:08.  I felt very smooth and comfortable during this mile (4:56 mile from this morning backwards) and there was no wind, so nothing extra to slow me down.

I ran to school this morning in 1:06:02.  I kept the pace pretty easy, and my average HR was only 129.

PM: I ran home from school, and Kimia picked me up just over a mile from the house so that we could take the kids out.  I ended up running a total of 7.5 miles in 57:14.

I ran to school this morning.  I kept the pace easy, but it was faster than I normally run on the way to school.  Total time of 1:00:50 for 8.6 miles.

PM: I am starting to taper down a little more with the marathon coming up next Saturday, so instead of running home Kimia came and picked me up from school.  I did my second run on the track at UNLV and I ran 4 x 400m with 400m recovery between each repeat.  The goal was to remind myself what it feels like to run fast without killing myself, with an aim to hit 65-66s for the 400's.  I did a 2 mile warm-up and then ran a couple strides which added an extra 200m.  I then started the 400's.  Splits plus recovery were: 1:06, 1:59, 1:04, 1:51, 1:06, 1:55, 1:05, 1:55.  My total time for 2 miles was 12:01.  There was another guy at the track running 1600m repeats while I was running my 400's.  After I finished I asked if he wanted me to pace him through the repeat he was running (he was just finishing the first lap).  We ended up running the last 1200 in 3:58.  Running just under 5:20 pace felt so easy.  It kind of shocked me how easy it felt.  I know that it should feel easy because it is my marathon goal pace, but I did not expect it to feel that easy.  After finishing I ran just a little extra to get a total distance of 5.5 miles, plus that extra 200m I ran early on.

I ran 10 miles easy this morning.  Total time of 1:15:48 for 10 miles, with an average HR of 129.  It was windy (and uphill) on the way out, and I had a tail wind on the way back, so my time returning to the house was much faster than the first half of the run (39:13, 36:35).

I only ran 12 miles today as I am now fully into my taper for the marathon next Saturday.  I ran a 3200 time trial as part of my workout.  It was somewhat windy (not terrible, but windy enough to cost me a fair amount of time), so I was not entirely sure what to shoot for time wise.  I decided to just run hard and hope for the best.  Splits were: 1:10, 1:12, 1:11, 1:10, 1:12, 1:14, 1:14, 1:11.  Total time was 9:34.  I felt strong through 5 laps, but struggled some during laps 6 and 7.  I was a little peeved because I felt like I gave up mentally.  If there was someone with me, even if I was leading I think that I could have maintained 1:11's.  I also know that I had more left in the tank on the last lap.  Overall, despite my annoyance with myself, I was very pleased with how things went as I equaled my weak 3000m pr from 2003 splitting 3000m in 8:58.  If this would have been a race I think that I would have finished in the high 9:20's, as I would have been more motivated, and the wind had to have been worth something in the vicinity of 10 seconds.

I did a short easy run this evening.  I ran a few strides during the run to get my legs moving.  Total time of 47:20 for 6 miles.

I ran to school this morning.  The run was good, and I finished 8.6 miles in 1:06:23.  Near the beginning of the run I decided to catch up to a guy on a bike as he rode up the hill on Warm Springs Rd.  My HR got a little higher, but for the most part it got no higher than 160 bpm, so I will not count it as fast mileage.  When we got to a light a little bit later the biker commented that I was making him look bad.

I ran my last speed work before the marathon on Saturday.  Total of six miles, with an 800 in 2:20, followed by a 400 recovery and an 800 in 2:40.  I didn't want to do anything too hard, but I wanted to get a little more practice relaxing at marathon pace.  The 2:20 on the first 800 was mainly just to get me tired enough to make the next 800 feel more like the pace will during the marathon.

I ran 6 miles this morning in 46:38.  A little while later I ran an extra three quarters of a mile at school, with a quarter mile of it barefoot on the treadmill.

I ran 2 miles easy this morning.  I ran a couple strides at the end of the run.

Long story short, I ran the slowest marathon I have ever run despite being in the best shape I have ever been in.  I am not sure exactly why it happened, but I need to see a doctor to find out what is wrong.

Long story not so short.  I got up in the morning, ate a small breakfast and hopped on the bus to the start line at 5:30am.  I chatted with people in the high school gymnasium for a while, and went out to warm up at about 6:40.  Warmed up with Michael Wardian for about a mile and a half.  I noticed that my HR was abnormally high (average HR of 146 during the warm-up).  I thought that it must be wrong, but when I checked manually I found out that it wasn't.  I hoped that the issue would resolve itself within the first couple miles of the marathon.

The race started and despite running at an effort that should have given me a HR of about 170, my HR was at 180.  In retrospect I also think that my HR was maxed out at 180, despite the fact that normally my HR max is 186-188.  I still held out hope that my HR would go down to normal levels, but it never did.  I hit 2 miles in 10:35, and from a muscular effort things felt very easy, but with the high HR I decided to slow down some to see if the HR would get under control.  A 5:25 mile led to a HR of 177-178, followed by miles of 5:37 and 5:34 with a HR around 175.

Miles 6-8 had some uphill in them, and I was able to get my HR down into the low 170's (although there were still some spikes up into the 180 range on occasion).  Mile splits were 5:50, 5:53, 5:49.  Miles 9 and 10 flattened out (net downhill) and I had splits of 5:38 and 5:42.  The HR monitor stopped working correctly around this point of the race (I was taking HR manually to verify that it was/wasn't working).  In general up to this point my HR was about 10 bpm higher than the effort indicated.  From here on out I began to have problems keeping my HR at normal levels consistently, as it would sometimes stay in the 170's (I should be able to run an entire marathon with the HR between 170-173), but at other times it would drop and I would have trouble even holding a HR over 160.

Throughout the rest of the race I would just check my HR manually on occasion to see where it was at as the HR monitor was not picking up the HR properly.  In general it was reading higher than what I was measuring manually (high 180's), but on occasion it was reading low (120's-130's).  Mile 11 was a 5:56, followed by a 5:54 and a 5:54 to hit 13 miles in 1:13:47.  HR was more normal in these miles, as it was around 160 when I tested it during mile 11.  Mile 14 was a 6:16, followed by a 6:10, a 6:04, and a 6:19 (1:38:36 for 17 miles).  My HR jumped back up again in these miles into the 170's.  From a muscular standpoint I never really felt like I was working hard, yet I still was never able to really push myself.  At times it really felt like I was just running a long moderately paced tempo run, yet when another runner flew by me during mile 16 there was nothing I could do to respond (he was running at about 5:30 pace when he passed me and finished in 2:30).

I stopped watching my splits very closely after this point until I hit mile 23, so I either didn't even see them, or I don't remember them because it was unimportant to me.  From mile 17-23 I was dodging a lot of the half marathon runners on a bike path as they started the half marathon late (originally I thought that they would be mostly off of the bike path by the time I got there).  The hills through here were also bigger than I had anticipated.  I made it to the 23 mile marker at 2:18:01 (6:34 average pace from 17-23) and proceeded to head up the giant hill that marks the beginning of the end about a minute later.  I ran mile 24 in 7:28 (Wardian ran this mile in 6:30 and finished in 2:22:37, and he didn't blow up) followed by a 2 mile downhill to the finish.  I ended up with a time of 2:40:22, which is officially my slowest marathon ever.  During the last couple miles I took my HR a couple times, and it was in the low 160's while I was running about 6:50 pace downhill.  My HR is normally about 20 bpm slower at those speeds.

So, overall this race was a major bummer.  My goal in coming here was to shoot for an OTQ time, and it feels like my attempt to do so ended before it even started.  I don't know what was wrong, but whatever it was it can't be good.  I plan on getting my heart checked out soon, and I want to get some blood work done as well.  I hope that whatever is wrong can get fixed easily, and if it can't, hopefully I can at least find out what is wrong so that I don't drop dead at 30 from heart failure.  More than anything I don't think I am so upset about my performance as I am mad at my stupid heart for not cooperating with me.  I am also peeved that I do not know what is wrong.  If I knew what was wrong I would do something to fix it and I would move forward.  My ignorance annoys me.

I didn't run much this week as I wanted to be careful just in case something is wrong with my heart.  I had two resting EKG's done during the week, and both came back normal (not surprising).  I am getting blood work done at the beginning of next week to see if there is something wrong there.  I ended up running about a mile a day during the week just to get my legs moving a bit.

I ran about a mile today just running too and from my car to wherever I was going.  I will start normal running again tomorrow.

I ran to school this morning in 1:05:58.  My resting HR was 38 bpm this morning right after I woke up, but while running 7:40-7:50 pace my HR was in the 140-150 range when it should have been around 130.  So, whatever is wrong it does not seem to be affecting my resting HR, but it really messes with my HR during exercise even when the effort is easy.  I got some blood work done today as well, and I should find out soon if there is something wrong that pops up on those tests.

I ran to school this morning with a total time of 1:02:45 for 8.6 miles.  My HR was still higher than it should have been, but it was not as high as yesterday when pace is taken into consideration.  Average HR of 142, which is about 5-7 bpm higher than it should have been.  Hopefully I can find out soon what my problem is.

I have been sick for the last few days, and I ended up not running.  I still am sick, but I had to get to school this morning, and running was the only way that was going to work.  On the positive side, Kimia was able to drop me off part way there so I only had to run about 7 miles.  The problem was that with the recent HR issues I have been having, plus being sick, by HR was through the roof.  My average HR was close to 170 for the run, despite averaging about 6:40 pace for 7 miles.