Tag Archives: Mile

TC 10 or 26.2

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A few weeks ago I ran the TC 1 Mile race in Minneapolis which is hosted by the Twin Cities Marathon as part of their annual series of events.  Part of the deal is that every 1 mile runner is put into a drawing for a guaranteed TC 10 mile entry.

You see the 10 mile race takes place on the same morning of the marathon, but has a lottery entry system which caps at around 6,000 entrants.  To encourage runners to compete in  the 1 mile and the 10 mile they offer 1,000 guaranteed entries to the 10 mile race drawn at random from the 1 mile finishers.  This year only about 2,300 runners finished the 1 mile race which means almost 50% of the field received entry into the 10 mile.  Including me.

This was the e-mail I received on May 12:

Congratulations on being one of the 1,000 randomly drawn finishers to receive a guaranteed entry to the Medtronic TC 10 Mile! We’d like to offer a special ‘thank you’ for joining us on a beautiful May 7th evening for a great downtown race, and hope the excitement of two national championship races and a sub-four minute mile is still high.

Sadly, all TC Marathon, Inc entries are non-transferable, including this guarenteed entry.  Don’t worry, even with this entry you still get to pay the full $60 plus processing fees to race.

Even with this “great prize” I decided to get an e-mail that said this:

Congratulations! You are officially registered for the 28th annual Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon on October 4, 2009.

So I have officially registered for the 2009 Twin Cities Marathon, which is currently just over 75% full (pdf).

[tags] Twin Cities, Marathon, Twin Cities Marathon, 1 Mile, 10 Mile [/tags]

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Marathon Charts

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1896 Olympic marathon

Image via Wikipedia

Are you tired of hearing about the marathon yet? Well after Twin Cities I am pretty much pain free by now!!! YAY!! Thanks for all the congratulations, comments, and insights about my race.  They are appreciated.  Below are a few charts I’ve pulled out from SportTracks.  They give a nice visual reference for the 26.2 mile journey called a marathon.  In case you missed the more detailed race reviews, look back at Grading the Race Plan and Race Review.

You can get a better glimpse of the images by clicking on them.

First up is the pace chart, you can clearly see the 4 walk breaks and I would say some early inaccuracies (pace dips at beginning).  There is no way I ever ran at 4 minute pace, even for a split second!

This next chart shows my pace per mile. For some reason SportTracks really thinks I ran a 6:40 mile, but I showed you yesterday that it was more like 7:27. I should also note that the miles it shows at the bottom (1.08, 2.11, etc) that is based on the splits I took after passing each mile marker.

This is the first time I’ve ever viewed this chart before.  It shows the pace per mile in comparison to the overall average pace.  My average pace was 7:51.

In the past the elevation chart has tended to be the most inaccurate part of the Garmin data.  You can look at the marathon’s official elevation chart here (PDF)

Is this too much data? I’m really intrigued by the discrepancies within the data.  I’ve never noticed it before. What do you think?

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[tags] Twin Cities, Marathon, Twin Cities Marathon, Garmin, GPS[/tags]

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Marathon Training: Week 9

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This has been a pretty weird/rough week.  I think there are 3.5 reason why this might be the case.

0.5 –  Camping and being gone all weekend didn’t setup the week very well.
1 – Staying up an extra hour pretty much every night this week working on my list of tasks, including wading through 435 pictures from the camping adventure.
2 – Not recovering from running in 91 degrees on Tuesday.
3 – Changing the schedule around to coordinate with the race on Sunday and wanting to perform well!

Monday: 4 easy miles. 4 miles on the downtown loop from home. I did it in 31:55 in the 69 and humid weather.  This is a fairly easy loop with a lot of stop and go, due to traffic. I was a little stiff and sore from the activities from the weekend.  I think specifically walking down the river on the rocks caused a variety of stabilizing muscles to be sore!  I finished with a total of 73 push ups in Week 4 of the Hundred push-up challenge.

Tuesday: 9 miles with hills. This was a scorcher of a run at the Hyland Hills with the Marathon Class. It was 91 degrees with a slight breeze.  It actually wasn’t too bad when we were in the shaded areas, but much of Hyland is prairie so there was plenty of sun! I had spent the last several hours walking around the Minnesota Zoo with some of the kids I work with – so I was a little tired! I tried to stay hydrated before the run and felt really good until we decided to run up the ski-lift hill. According to Garmin this is over 100ft elevation gain in about a quarter mile for about a 25% grade = brutal on the quads! I made it to the top without stopping and then barely hung on for the next 2 miles. it was overall a rolling trail with pretty much a hill of some degree in each mile.  We ran about 9.5 miles in 1:15:51 so not too bad. Afterwards we all went to Majors for a Dinner Fun Night which was a good time to meet others from the class not in my training group.  I had a burger and fries, while Mark across from me ate a Colossal Burger all 2lbs of it!

Wednesday: Four easy miles. I think it was expected to wake up a little tired from yesterday’s run, but I definintely had no motivation and a somewhat early meeting made me opt out of the morning run. I really did plan on running in the evening, but it never happened.  I did bike for 6.5 miles – that counts for something right?

Thursday: Rest Day! Well since I took yesterday off from running I decided I didn’t really deserve a rest day. So I went for an easy run along the Powderhorn loop.  I still felt pretty tired and wiped out so the 3.26 miles in 27:21. It was 71 and pretty humid.  I did manage to bang out a total of 76 push-ups for Week 4 Day 2 of the hundred push-up challenge.

Friday: 9 miles at marathon pace. No excuses for not running again. I woke up lacking motivation and pretty tired still.  I biked 10 miles including 5 after the Twin game on a beautiful evening out.  It would have been a good time for a night run!

Saturday:18 miles. Wanting to race well on Sunday I decided to skip the long run today.  I think it will be ok! I might need to look at the schedule closer and not miss many more long runs though.  I would have preferred to take a day off before the race, but having already taken 2 off this week I thought I couldn’t afford it.  So I went out for an easy 3 miles on the Little Earth Loop.  It was 62 which was great but the humidty did catch-up by the end.  I ran it in 24:12.  I didn’t think I’d be able to finish Week 4 Day 3 of the push-ups but I did manage to struggle through 85 total push-ups!

Sunday: Cross-Training. 10K race – 2 laps around Lake Calhoun on a decent day for racing. It was in the lower 70’s with about that much humidity.  It tried to rain a few times but never quite did and the clouds broke right about starting time.  I finished in 41:59.  My 5K splits were pretty much even 20:55 and 20:58.  Check back later for all the fun details!

Weekly Mileage:

Running – 26 miles

Biking – 37 miles

Hal’s Running Tips: Stretching is important for marathoners, who risk losing flexibility because of their high-mileage training. Include some stretching in your daily running routine. The best time to stretch is not before you run. Pre-workout muscles may be tight; the risk of injury is increased. Instead, stretch during–or after–your run, when muscles are warmest. If you own a hot tub, do some stretching while you’re soaking.

Week 9

[tags] Marathon Training, Hal Higdon, Running [/tags]

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