Category Archives: Half Marathon

Half Training: Week One

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If you follow this blog then you know what I ran each day since it is posted at the bottom of each blog post. But here I want to compare the training plan with what I actually did! I am training for the Earth Day Half-Marathon.

Monday: A 45-minute fartlek run with 1 minute hard and 5 minutes steady, after a warm-up. I warmed up for 10 minutes and then did 4 1 minute surges with 5 minutes steady/recovery running. My total workout was only42 minutes, I didn’t feel like tacking on another 3 minutes by circling the block endlessly! I ran 5.3 miles along the Midtown Greenway.

Tuesday: 6 miles easy with 5 accelerations. I only did 3 miles at the YWCA Indoor Track (6 laps per mile) in 22:44 with my 5 accelerations. I was going to hit the bike for awhile to make up the difference, but none were available. I have been having some leg pains and have been doing lots of walking. I’m adjusting my casual shoes around and hopefully that will help.

Wednesday: 6×800 5 seconds faster than 5K pace. I did this workout at the YWCA Indoor Track again. I warmed up for 10 minutes, stretched and then started the intervals. I completed all 6 and their 4oo meter recoveries for an overall workout mileage of 6.33 miles and total time of 48:34. My 5K Pace is 6:16, so my 800 needed to be around 3:10. (I think my math is a little off, so I’ll adjust next week!) Here are my splits: 2:54, 3:11,3:09,3:12,3:03,3:01. I was happy with the workout, except the track is a little rough on my knees – due to the tight turns.

Thursday:5 easy 4 accelerations. I took a cross-training day today and did 16.5 miles easy on the bike for an hour workout. Everything felt fine until I went and did my 5 accelerations on the indoor track.

Friday: 4 miles easy, 5 accelerations. I took advantage of the heat wave and ran outdoors in 26 degree temps for 4.5 miles in a time of 36:40. I ran along the Midtown Greenway and it felt pretty good. I did 4 accelerations (since I accidentally did 5 Thursday) towards the end of the run.

Saturday: 8 miles – 6 easy 2 at goal pace. The six was pretty easy! I ran out for 4 miles on the Midtown Greenway which took me to the East end of the Greenway and then up one mile alongside the Mississippi River (very pretty). I caught myself looking down at the river and almost falling on ice or snow at the edge of the sidewalk. I turned around at 4 miles and came back. I went through 6 at 47:35 (7:56) a nice easy pace. I hit my watch wanting to be able to see what the splits were for the last 2 – well I don’t know my Garmin well enough yet and hit the start/stop button instead of the lap. I didn’t realize my mistake until I had gone almost a mile. I had looked at the pace function a few times to make sure I was on pace, but didn’t notice that the time wasn’t moving. Luckily, I was doing an out and back so I knew it was an 8 mile course. I knew that the Garmin actually calculates time from when you hit the start button until you reset it. So as soon as I finished I hit stop and reset the stopwatch. When I got home I synched the Garmin for the weeks data I was able to pull over the overall run time which is 1:01:34. Using my excellent math skills I deduced that my 2 mile time was 13:59 (7:00). This was 16 total seconds off my goal pace of 6:52 miles. It was a pretty good run, most of the 4 miles home were into the wind. Hopefully I learned my mistake about the watch buttons!

Sunday: Rest. Yup I did that!!

Total Miles: Ran 27.1 miles Biked 16 miles.

[tags] Half-Marathon, Training, [/tags]

Race Plan for 2008

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Last night I bit the bullet and registered for my first 2008 race. My plan has been to run a spring 1/2 marathon before my fall marathon debut. There was a lot to consider:

  1. Time to rest/recover before starting marathon training
  2. Potential weather
  3. Course – flat vs hilly
  4. Longevity of race – I found an inaugural race, but they make me a little nervous
  5. Proximity to home – I don’t want to spend lots of money and travel around the country for races if I can help it.
  6. Cost – This was $25 which is pretty cheap for a half marathon

So with all of the those factors combined I chose the Earth Day Half Marathon to be held on April 19, 2008 or Earth Day. I’ll begin my 12 week training program on January 27, 2008.  Until then I will be increasing my mileage and doing base-building.



My goals (may be subject to change):1st – Break 1:30

2nd – PR – sub- 1:34

Training Analysis, Part 3

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In this final edition of looking back over my 2007 training, I will look at my training for the Mid-South Half-Marathon. This is part 3. See Part 1 and Part 2.

I was asked to travel to Arkansas to compete by friend Brian Rayl. After a little deliberation I decided to go ahead and make the trip. I made the final decision to compete at the beginning of September, shortly after completing the Bears of Blue River 10K and and subsequently 3 weeks into the new training plan I chose.

I chose the Half-Marathon Training Program for Advanced Competitive Runners from Running Planet. I wanted something different after having used the Cool Running program for several races. This program is different in several ways, it includes a lot more pacework, harder speed sessions, and in general is a tougher program. In short, I liked it! Some of the workouts were a little complex and I had to re-read them to make sure I understood what I was supposed to do. The site said, “this half marathon training program assumes that you are currently at a base of at least a 6 mile long run and at least 15 total miles per week.”

Even with my taper I was at that level so that was a good start! Being three weeks behind I had missed a few speed sessions, but nothing too much. Unfortunately, I was suffering with a little burnout. I had still been racing Thursday nights at Shadyside in addition to another speed session and possibly a weekend race.

The weekend before I decided for sure to do the Arkansas race I did a brick workout with a friend who is training for a half-Ironman distance triathlon next summer. It was a 25 mile bike and 3 mile run brick. (A brick is when you ride your bike and then try and run, it is hard because your legs feel like bricks!) That was a little grueling.

I licked my wounds and got right back into it. Not the best thing to do with burnout, but I managed okay and bounced back fairly well. We traveled several times in September (anniversary) and October (being in Chicago for the inferno of a marathon!) which resulted in missing some runs. It was fun to run on the Prairie Path in Wheaton, IL with a college buddy and his high school cross country team.

I missed several days of training after volunteering at the Chicago Marathon. I wasn’t feeling very well and it was hot. I missed a 16 miler and a couple of speed sessions. I tried to make up for it a little bit and raced the Indianapolis Half Marathon on October 20 which I completed in 1:37:31.

I missed a few more days of training at the end of October because of a trip to Boone, North Carolina for an interview, missing the last few hard workout before the race.

After traveling I raced a pretty good race finishing 1:36:19. I wasn’t completely happy with it and felt like I was in better shape. But after looking back through my training, I see a huge common theme: MISSING WORKOUTS.

How can I expect to perform at my best, breaking PRs, and meeting my goals if I don’t train consistently? I think that is something I struggled with all year and even right now as I take time off to relax and recover. Some of the time I missed workout could be directly tied to lacking motivation. A little ache may not have been anything serious, but a day off was easy to justify!

As I look to next year, I’ll need to be more consistent and stick to the schedules. I’ll plan ahead and make sure training schedules don’t overlap and that I’ll have “down time” between big events.

Graph It

Graph created by Running Ahead, my online running log. If you look closely you’ll notice that the dates from Part 3 and Part 2 overlap. This is because the training program was supposed to start before I raced the 10K.

Yesterday’s Workout

At the gym again… this time I did the bike. I rode for 30 minutes passing 9.53 boring miles staring out the window! I was listening to my trusty mp3 player. Today I rode a strength workout on the bike which included several hills, maintaining my pace throughout. It was a sold workout and my legs hurt a little afterwards! On a more personal note, I really don’t like the seats they have. They use the wide seats which are supposed to be better I guess, but I prefer the seat on my road bike!

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Training Analysis, Part 1

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With only one major race left, I thought I would take a look back at my training over 2007 and provide thoughts, insights, and other information from it for you. I trained for 3 major events this year, the Indy 500 Mini Marathon, Bears of the Blue River 10K, and Midsouth Half Marathon.

First up is the Mini-Marathon. I began 2007 having recovered from injuries sustained throughout the year in 2006. After going to the Runner’s Forum I was fitted with stability shoes (ASICS® Men’s GT 2120), which helped relieve some of the knee pain. Coming back from no running since September 2006 I took it nice and slow getting back into shape. I may have taken it a little too easy but I wanted to be sure my body would last for the whole season!

I spent a lot of time on the Elliptical machine and the bike during January. I modeled it similar to a training program slowly building time and varying the program to include hills, intervals, etc, using an easy hard easy schedule. I introduced running after about 2 weeks of training, starting with only a half mile on the treadmill, then hitting the elliptical again. By the end of February I was finally doing mostly running and hit a 17 mile week of easy running.

I had decided to use a Cool Running Half-Marathon training program. Because my mileage had been so low I opted for the Intermediate program instead of the advanced. It was designed for runners currently running 25-50 mile weeks or a goal time under 1:45. The twelve-week program focuses a lot on getting miles under your belt with one weekly speed session and one long run. The hardest week was a 40 miler in week 9.

Looking back through my schedule, I didn’t follow the training program at all. Since I was still cross-training when the program began, I was behind on my mileage the entire time. My mileage peaked at 35 in week 9, but my workouts didn’t really follow anything in the training program!

My training included a lot of rest time due to various pains and continued caution with my injuries. Only during six of the 12 weeks did I actually run 5 days out of the week. Speedwork was pretty non-existent but did include a couple of fartleks, one true speed session of 2 x 1/4, 2 x 1/2, and 1/8, a couple time running up hills hard at Mounds, and a few “races” at Shadyside. I also ran a DINO 15K race for training/tempo run/race!

Needless to say my race wasn’t spectacular! I ran a 1:41:53 half marathon time which was only 3 minutes off last year’s Mini time and 7 minutes off my 2005 half marathon PR. My splits were:

7:56 7:17 7:26 7:19 7:28 7:38 7:45 7:44 7:47 7:49 8:01 8:19 8:40 0:39 1:41:53

I went into the race with no expectations so was fairly pleased and appreciated having David Dehart to run with for pretty much most of the race.

Looking back, training more consistently would have helped a lot, but I do think I was able to compete longer for 2007 because I was cautious getting back into it and made sure my body was healed and didn’t push through the pain. I am content with the first part of my training and I think it laid a good foundation for later on this year!

Here is a graph from my training log at Running Ahead.

The four stars in a row are from the ARRC Shadyside pre-season races. This graph doesn’t include the elliptical or bike.

Yesterday’s Run

It was back in the mid-40’s for this easy 3 mile run at Mounds State Park. The trail was very wet with some puddles, but nothing major on the perimeter loop. I forgot my watch at home so I’m not sure of my time, but I took it nice and easy. I haven’t seen any deer for awhile, but I did see some of Anderson’s Finest as the APD SWAT Team was enjoying a run through the park!

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Race Review: Midsouth (Half) Marathon

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I’m not quite ready to tackle the challenge of a full marathon, but I traveled with 4 other Anderson Runners to the 9th annual Midsouth Championship Marathon in Wynne, Arkansas this past weekend.

After awaking in Anderson to a frozen tundra, we drove 8 1/2 hours and over 500 miles to arrive in Wynne with a population of 8,000 in rural Arkansas. Checking in to the only national chain hotel in town, Days Inn, we were greeted by lots of pictures created by local elementary school kids. Some were very funny with pictures of pigs or race car drivers, and others quite appropriate with Welcome Runners!! on them. The overriding theme for both the weekend and the event was low-key. Wynne definitely makes low-key a good thing and did not really leave out anything important.

Packet pickup was quite simple (although not simple to find!) and felt just like a local 5K race. Our biggest complaint from Friday was that we had to pickup our timing chips on Saturday morning before the race. We waited around and enjoyed a homemade feast of a buffet prepared by Wynne’s progressive women (everything was at the Women’s Progressive Club!) It was neat because many of the locals were dressed up (the meal was a fundraiser for the Cross County Historical Society), while most of the runners were in various running outfits. I will say that many people there were breaking t-shirt etiquette rules (see previous post).

After getting our fill of pasta at the Italian feast, we decided to drive the course. This was my idea because the event website said it was “mix of flat and rolling terrain” with the only major incline at mile 1. I wanted to check out the incline and we drove the whole 26 mile out and back course. (more later) This is a very different feeling and I doubt my cohorts will drive a marathon course again! It was nice to check out the porta-potty and mile marking situation though. I created a map so you can see the 1/2 Marathon.

Let me quickly introduce my traveling companions:

Wray Jean Cornwell is a registered member of the 50 States club and has completed 14 marathons now toward this juncture.

Sherry Robertson completed her 2 marathon this weekend and showed that racing a Boston Qualifier for her first was not a fluke.

Ann Morris has completed 5 marathons including a Boston Qualifying time earlier this year.

Brian Rayl has now completed 5 marathons in 5 states.

Me (Nick Cross) has completed 6 half marathons in now 3 states (this was my first major travel to a race).

RACE DAY!

Pulling back the blinds we saw a light frost on the cars at 6am (CDT) and begrudgingly made our way to get a quick breakfast (and watch the start of the Olympic Trials!) before heading to the starting line. We unfortunately walked all around the high school before finding the place to pickup our chips. After final preparations at the car we headed to the start. There was no Gear Check-in. Despite the 40 degree temps I was wearing my vintage Taylor Jersey, with ARRC gloves.

Before the start we were talking about how it felt more like a training run than a race. Even though the race was chip-timed there was no mat at the starting line, so everyone’s time was with the gun. Wanting to go out easy we were several lines back from the start and it took about six seconds to cross the starting line (I started my watch when I crossed the line).

Within the first couple of yards, someone’s chip fell off his shoe and he was trying to go back and pick it up. I don’t remember his number, but his bright shirt and he still did pretty well overall. As we headed out of town we made a couple of turns before settling on to US 64B and heading up the steepest incline of the race with mile 1 being at what appeared to be the crest of the hill at 350 feet. I felt great, but may have taken it out a little too easy and crossed the first mile at 8:05. I was being careful and was slowly passing people the whole mile, and didn’t want to waste it all on the first hill!

Mile 2 still had some uphill in it, but was mostly downhill and I came through in 7:16, still slowly passing people. Due to the small size of the event, there were large gaps between packs already at this point. I was still being cautious and holding back a little.

During this part I chatted with an ultra runner who had completed 4 100 milers and was commenting on the shortness of the full marathon! He also said this was the flattest marathon in the state. I came through the 3rd mile at 7:01 and felt very comfortable while running the slight downhill which continued to mile 5.

I came through the 4 mile mark at 7:06. Each mile was well marked with an aid-station just before or after and a porta-potty. This first stretch of the course wasn’t too bad, but it was quite clear that the course was not closed. There was plenty of signage about runners on the road but it still created some headaches having cars on the course, especially for aid station volunteers. Wray Jean said that some cars went flying by her. This fact was made worse when we popped out onto US 64 which is the main highway into and out of town. We were forced to run on the shoulder while semi’s and other cars went flying by. The shoulder was also a little slanted and I heard later that they might DQ people who ran outside of the cone’s lining the shoulder.

Right before the 5th mile we crossed over the highway. I will say this was done safely with 3 or 4 police cars and officers making sure we crossed. This was a major aid-station and they were passing out Gu, bananas, cookies, and pretzels. The 5th mile mark was in the middle of the aid station and if a volunteer hadn’t said, “you’re looking good at mile 5” I might have forgot to hit my watch so my 7:17 is a few seconds off.

This next stretch of the race was more rolling hills and was a state highway. The leaders came back by me and were about a mile ahead at this point. I came through mile 6 at 7:00 (which is a little off because of almost missing mile 5). My overall elapsed time at mile 6 was 43:47 and at the turn around point (actually about 6.4) they said I was at 47:10 which was close to PR pace and well off my goal pace. Coming into the turn around I was with the guy whose chip fell off and made sure he was running the full so I would not trip him or cut him off! He said, “I might wish later you had tripped me!”

I came through 7 at 7:05. The course was still not closed and since we were now running on both sides of the road, cars became a bigger problem. As the road flattened back out I saw a guy in a red shirt and made it my goal to catch him, which I slowly did! Mile 8 was back on US 64 and I ran a 7:03. This part was tricky because there were still marathoners coming out on the narrow shoulder while we were coming back. Most were quite gracious and gave plenty of room for me to go by as we exchanged encouragement.

I was slowly gaining on my mark, but all the long slow downhills, were now long slow uphills and they slowly grinded on my legs. I came through both 9 and 10 at 7:22. The course was still well supported with water and Gatorade. The aid stations each had a theme for a later contest. I didn’t really remember that many of the themes but heard some where pretty good. The only one I remember was a group doing duck calls, decked out in camo near a country club!

Red shirt guy picked off another runner who I slowly passed. We exchanged encouragement as I passed him on my quest for red shirt guy. I was finally getting within reach and threw in a quick surge to pull beside him somewhere before 11. I stayed with him awhile and came through 11 at 7:36. We were now going back up the steep hills and he pulled back away from me, and I let him go. I came through mile 12 at 7:38 and could feel the burn and hurt in my legs more than anywhere else.

Even on the downhill into mile 13 I only ran a 7:32. As we got back into town I passed the first female who was really struggling. I took a second and told her that we were almost finished and that she could make it. Rounding the next to last turn one of the USMC high school students tried to encourage me with something about beer, and rounding the final corner another one started running with me, trying to help me finish. I was struggling and that annoyed me more than helped, but I didn’t say anything.

I heard the announcer say something about 1:35 before we entered the track for the last 150 meters and that was when I first knew I missed my PR. The last time I looked at my overall time it was still doable. but those last uphill miles really dragged on me. I finished the last .1 in :49 for an overall time of 1:36:19, my second fastest time.

I walked around for a little bit and tried to find the advertised food, but was told it wouldn’t be ready for over an hour, so I decided to just go back to the hotel and shower. Afterwards I decided to go back to the corner of US 64 and US 64B (the easiest spectating point) which was between mile 21 and 22. I just missed the first overall male come through. But I had a nice chat with a few spectating wives and was able to cheer everyone on for awhile. Besides the aid stations there were no spectators on most of the course. After my last Indiana friend came through I quickly rushed back to the finish area.

While walking to the track I heard Sherry’s name and went running to see the finish. She won the female marathon in a 10 minute PR time of 3:28:17 and was 23rd overall. From there everyone began coming through with Brian at 3:46:00 for 46th overall, Ann at 4:03:23 for 64th overall and Wray Jean at 5:07:55 for 128th overall.

We stayed for the awards and after some confusion (the computer forgot to fix the times for the 10-20 who took the hour early start), collected our hardware.

Sherry won overall. I won my age group. Ann got 2nd Masters. Wray Jean got 5th age group (all age groups went 5 deep).

154 finished the full marathon and 191 the half.

This was a tough course, at least tougher than we’d anticipated. But we had a great time and arrived safely back in town around 12:30 Saturday night! (Most of us were out Sunday helping at Run the Mounds!)

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