The Marathon

It's hard to write post-race and feel that it is completely satisfactory. So many things go into the preparation, strategy, and then all the little things that to you seem worthwhile, but probably mean diddly-squat to anyone else.

It was a great race from many aspects. It was well-organized (for it's size) and also a solid performance for myself.

To get it out of the way, I ran a 3:17:58 chip time (3:19:40 gun time. Gun time is when you cross the finish from when the gun goes off. Chip time is from when you cross the start) (results). This put me 14/100 in my age group. I was 47 overall out of 654 finishers. This was a BIG personal record. My previous (and only other marathon) was last year's Marine Corps Marathon at 3:49:22, making this a 31:24 improvement. Further stats: it is a 7:33.4 min/mile pace; it is also 6:59 min off the 3:10:59 Boston qualifying time, which would require :16 sec/mile faster pace to make.

Was I upset about not getting a Boston qualifier? Definitely not. For Marine Corps, I was somewhat naive coming off my training and had lofty expectations that led to rookie mistakes and a disappointing performance. I went out too fast and ended up burning out around mile 16. This year, I set some more realistic goals and then tried to execute. The beginning of the race was what I call a "restrained" pace where I primarily try to hold back a little to make sure I'm conserving energy. It was about mile 12 that I caught up with the 3:30 (8 min/mile) pace group. Most "negative-split" strategies have you go out slower the first half, so I knew I was pretty much on target. I knew I was picking up speed, but still held back till I had cleared the hillier sections leading into Umstead (~mi 15-16). In the next stage I kinda went somewhere between "letting go" and "running with a purpose." Essentially no longer holding back, but not yet willing to hit the grindstone. Mile 18 - 20 was solid pace building to take me into a "determined" and eventually "hard" finally 10k.

That hard final 10k is hard to describe. If you had asked me last year about, it would've been very daunting. But having come through the 20 mile point essentially unscathed, and I suppose with a little bit more mature outlook, I was both more fresh, and more determined to keep it strong. I almost wish there were more splits provided post-race so I could see how the pace was that last bit. I still don't know if I hit any "wall" but I know I was in that strange place of running on fumes but also mysterious reserves.

Soon I'll do another analysis of my training leading up to the race, this will be important to planning my future races.

Final comments:
-Race volunteers were great, if not sometimes hit-or-miss.
-Great to hear from an unexpected friend coming out by Gorman (thanks Gavin).
-Play it by ear, but if nature calls early in the race: answer. Comfort goes a long -way.
My deer slaying days are not out of sight (sighting along Ebenezer Church).
-As I've said before, and further realized: I am much more a runner than a triathlete. As much as I am ever determined to do an Ironman in 2012, I would give it up in a heartbeat to qualify for Boston.

On the NYC marathon(!!!). When I got home, NBC was re-broadcasting the race coverage:
-Man, I want to run that race.
-Being at a football/basketball/hockey game is exciting. Watching a football/basketball/hockey game is meh. Watching a minute and a half of Olympic swimming is cool, but still meh. But 2 1/2 hours of a marathon is MESMERIZING.
-Great wins by Gebrmariam (men, Kenya, 2:08:~~) and Kiplagat (women, Ethiopia, 2:28:30).
-I really want to run NYC.
-Regrets/better luck to my American male favorite, Dathan Rizenhein (8th, 2:12:33).
-Much praise to my American female favorite, Shalane Flanagan (2nd, 2:28:40, and in her DEBUT MARATHON).
-Man, I REALLY WANT to run this race.
-Also on Flanagan: she is quite fine! (as with 99.99999% of women distance runners)

Final Build up

It's been a little bit longer since my last update. There are always things I do/see that I think "I'd like to comment about that on my blog." But of course I ultimately forget. Hopefully writing will get the brain working and I'll remember things as I go.

Having completed the Nation's Triathlon, I am now building up for the City of Oaks Marathon here in Raleigh. My training schedule hasn't really changed all that much. I am still biking and swimming as before with the reasoning that looking ahead to 2011 when I plan to step up to the half-Ironman, the more base I have the better. I also am finally getting to a point where cycling can be enjoyable versus it being a necessary evil in triathlon.

After Nation's I have also begun some mild strength training. My initial plan was to incorporate a daily core (abdominal and lower back) exercise routine. However, with a modest assortment of lifting equipment (some barbell and weights with a bench), I got the impulse to throw in some short lifts. My entire routine only takes about 20-25 minutes, at least 10 of which are the core exercises, and nothing at all heavy. However, I figure something is better than nothing. Also, a nagging knee problem has dissipated tremendously since starting this program so I think there is some therapeutic value.

Two weeks ago I also began my Nursing Assistant class. As with starting back my job at the YMCA, it is a humbling experience to go from working towards a Ph.D. to taking a class you don't even need a high school diploma to take. But the subject matter is interesting and I think I'm realizing and reaffirming how much I prefer jobs that may not pay great, but may be more laborious. The class is very short (only 6 1/2 weeks) but goes three days a week for 8 hours. Once I'm done I hope to be able to work at one of the local hospitals and be in a position to discover a future career goal.

There isn't much more I can think about for this post. I guess a few briefs:

1) If biking while raining, wear protective eyewear NO MATTER WHAT. This morning I made this mistake since it was still dark out and sunglasses would be inappropriate. My eyes have been hurting most of the day and I'm sure there's some [temporary] damage.
2) When starting my weekend long run a deer jumped across the road RIGHT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD. And we don't live out in the boonies, this is a fairly long-established suburban neighborhood.
3) On the previous week's long run I 'got lost;' which is really to say I just didn't go the way I had originally planned. No biggie. However, I did discover the most blatant "themed" street names: the main road was 'Carousel' with side streets of 'Ferris Wheel,' 'Brass Rings,' and 'Candy Apple.'

Twenty miles coming up. Get excited.

Brief peak

This weekend I have to go to Annapolis to drill. If I was still in Baltimore, I would've just woken up at the crack of dawn, pounded out the miles, and made the short drive. However, being back in Raleigh, a morning of departure would already require a 1:00am leaving, meaning a run would be started around 10:00 the night before! Some may say I'm hardcore... but not that much... not YET.

So I put in the 20 miles this morning, and will hopefully get the 8 miles in Sunday in Annapolis. It was overall a fun run. It was only about 2 years ago that I did my first run from my apartment in Raleigh to my parents house in Cary - at the time a brutal 10 miles. And now? You guessed it - now it was a round trip! Mercifully I didn't have to do it out and back, my least favorite type of route. I made my way along Tryon to Avent Ferry Rd, followed Varsity to Western, which as it mutated into Hillsborough and Chatham, took Maynard [with a short extension loop] to Kildaire and back home. Those unfamiliar with the particular roads, I essentially ran the periphery of Crossroads, the southern edge of NC State and southeast circumference of Cary.

I definitely got a confidence boost running along Avent Ferry. This road present some nasty hills (for their length). Maybe because I was at my long run pace, but I felt I took them well in stride and with ease. In the coming weeks I will definitely make my long runs mixtures of the shorter runs I use to do at State.

Saw two girls I used to row with. Shout out to Ida and Kellee!

I'm still frustrated with my hydration belt. Bottles popped out no less than 4 times in the first 2 miles!

Long couple of Days. Ups and Downs

It's been a busy past two weeks since my last update. This past week I had a 15 page (minimum) paper, a homework problem set, and a presentation, all for one class. Then I also had an outline for another paper in a different class, and also had to grade lab reports for the organic chemistry lab I TA. It was a very stressful week. It was only Tuesday, and every time I heard the word nucleic acids or sugar or DNA or anything of the sort, I wanted to throw up and just disappear for a couple of weeks (months (years)).

I am so glad and thankful that I have the ability to exercise. I don't know what I would do without it. It's such a stress reliever by itself, and it's really the only thing that keeps me going. That just makes me think of when people find out how I train and ask "how do you do it." And really I just don't know how I could not.

Last weekend I had a couple of bike-to-run bricks. If I haven't mentioned it before, a brick workout is a combination of two or more of the disciplines (swim, bike, run) into a single workout. They're important preparation for a triathlon, because until you do one (either a triathlon or a brick), you won't be ready for the sensation that is changing from the swim to the bike, or [especially] from the bike to the run. One day was pretty easy; it was the morning I had Coast Guard duty, so the bike leg was particularly short (just 30 min on the trainer) and a 4 mile run. The next afternoon was great, with a decent 35 mile bike, followed by the same 4 mile run. What amazes me is that I seem to be significantly faster coming off the bike than if I started from a dead run. Of course, I'm just waiting to find the threshold where that is no longer true. I don't expect that when I do a half-Ironman, my half marathon off a 56 mile bike will be faster. (Of course, who knows...)

This week was suppose to be a recover week, and I did so to my mild extent, which given my school workload, it matched up nicely. I took the week off from lifting, which gave me time to do my grading. And Wednesday, due to a CBI speaker forum, I passed on attending the weekly TnT ride. This afternoon, I also decided not to brick after my bike ride. It was windy and chilly which made the ride kinda tough and miserable. This route was only the second time I've done this longer course, so I opted out of the run.

Yesterday was a very fun day. A couple of us (TnT people) went down to Salisbury, MD, a town (city?) on the Eastern Shore (you take the Bay Bridge to the big peninsula) to volunteer for a local 5k race. The TnT group out of that area has been putting on this and other fundraiser for a couple of years now to raise funds for TnT events (like Columbia, but also some of the 100 mi bike rides). By volunteering, they are able to throw some of their net our way.

It was a long day; we had to leave at 5:15am to make the two-ish hour drive. I think we wanted to get there early enough to volunteer just for registration, but we got looped into to helping through out the event, but it only kept us until about 10:30. What I really enjoyed was being able to meet all the triathletes. Baltimore is not the most [tri]athletic area; I really only started meeting triathletes through TnT. At this race though, I got to network with some interesting people. They were also amazingly nice. For helping out at the starting line, a race director hooked us up with some free lock-laces (shoelaces you don't need to tie/untie, making transitions quicker). It turned out another guy is the race director of the open water swim I'm doing in two weeks. I talked to him about inexpensive places nearby to spend the night before the race. We had moved on in the conversation, but not even 10 minutes later, he offered to put me up for that night (other common TnT acquaintances were also going to be there). Really; nice people. Another fellow volunteer took some pictures. I'll see about getting them up here or on Facebook.

We got back late enough that I decided to pass on trying to get to the lab. All I needed to do was some reading, and I would've only ended up being there for 2 or 3 hours. Instead I finally got my oil changed and made a trip to Charm City Run another local running store. I'm still up in air about if I should invest my "loyalty" in one specific store: Falls Road Running Store, or Charm City Run? And if I do, which one?

By the way, I think I will end up doing the City of Oaks Marathon. No matter how I played with the numbers, CoOaks will be cheaper, and I'll have the advantage of knowing the course location, which I learning can make a huge difference.

Right now doing laundry and relaxing until swim. I need a new swimsuit soon.

After this week, I was dying for the chance to visit Raleigh. I still don't know if/when I'll be able to do that next.

Please be thinking of my aunt Becky. Last week, her husband, my uncle, passed away. A lot of my family is with her now, so I'm sure she's in good company.

Group Run, Gorgeous Weather

A little later than usual for my updates. I had a midterm in my Chemistry & Biology Interface course yesterday, so I tried to hammer down and focus on that. The exam went pretty well. It was bried and to the point. Though that alone doesn't make it a good thing, I prefer that to lengthy, drawn-out examinations.

Saturday, part of my run I met with a small group near Druid Hill Park. The owner of Falls Road Running Store has been publicizing a group run on Saturdays, and in my miniscule efforts to commune with fellow runners, decided to meet up. Much MUCH slower than my typical pace (eventually I HAD to breakaway for the final miles), but the conversation before and after was fun and exactly what I was looking for.

I am trying out some various strategies for improving my training. I come across two problems: 1) I am training for an Olympic distance Triathlon and possibly a half-marathon but I want to maintain a higher running mileage, and 2) just in general, I want to increase my cycling base and incorporate some triathlon-type/-specific weekend endurance workouts.

At the moment I am maintaing about a 30-35 mile week. I guess you could say I'm content with this mileage, but being me, I wouldn't mind increasing. I don't plan on running another marathon until the fall, but a bigger base can't hurt right? But with these shorter races now, is it really logical to put in 13, 15, 15+ mile long runs? I've decided it isn't. What I did (/am doing) was to essentially keep my long runs constant (at about 13 miles), and instead increase the distance of the Friday run. My goal is to hopefully be able to increase the power of those longer runs and letting the previous day fatigue partially carry over for some mental preparation for late-race fatigue.

For my second problem, I just need to start increasing my cycling base, while also focusing my workouts for triathlons. This weekend, I went on my longest [solo] ride (at least in a while/on purpose. Once last summer I went out for a ride that ended up going much longer than I wanted), but that was only at about 41 miles. While that may be ok for these Olympic Tri's, I can't help but think about next year when I want to start tackling half-Ironmans (which have a 56 mi bike leg). Along with this, there is a common concern among triathetes about weekend runs/rides: which one to do first? If you ride Sat., you are compromising the quality of a Sun. run. However, run Sat. and ride Sun. doesn't really develop and tris-specific bike-to-run type fitness.

The answer I came across was fairly simple: just alternate weeks. Now, that's a little easier said than done; often travel plans make biking difficult to get in. But in general, I think the strategy will work.

Of course my next strategy even counters that: With the Columbia Tri around the corner, it's going to be time to start increasing the brick workouts. Bricks are essential two- (or three-)-in-one workouts where after completing one discipline, you transition into another. I kind of do that Tuesdays when I go for a run and then hop in the pool. However, that isn't actual triathlon progression. So I think next weekend I'll switch my weekend foci towards bike-to-run bricks. Not sure how it will play out, but in reference to the above long run/bike issue above, my plan is to trade-off between a short, hard bike followed by a longer run, with a long-steady bike followed by a short quality run.

Some other thoughts:

My Sunday ride was gorgeous. The weather is getting so perfect. But with the highs in the 80s, I worried we went from the chilly 40s and 50s (perfect for running, but cold for cycling), and skipped the wonderful 70s to go straight for the steamy 80s. Best part of the ride was about 2 miles from home, when a SUV past by with two brown spaniel-like dogs, tongues out, peaking out the windows.

Spring is here and the flowers are blooming. It truly is great, and I'm not particular affected by pollen, so that doesn't bother me. However this morning I ran under a flowering tree, and after brushing a limb, almost swallowed/choked on a petal (not choked, but a forced hacking to keep from swallowing).

I'm indecisive about what fall marathon to compete in. For a while I had become set on the City of Oaks Marathon (Nov. 7) in Raleigh. It's fairly inexpensive, closer than my alternative, and lodging would be cheaper (unless mom and dad charge me rent?!). I would also have more time to transition from the Nations Tri (Sept 12, 8 weeks apart). However, I did have an eye on the Niagra Falls International Marathon (Oct. 24). It is a little bit more expensive, farther away, would have to get a hotel, and closer to Nations (6 weeks). But... well... it would be at Niagra Falls!

What do you think?

First Blog

This is my first attempt at a serious blog. I am going to try to provide updates on my life and training as I prepare for various events. My upcoming event, and main motivator for setting up this blog is the Columbia Triathlon, here in Maryland. I joined the charity group Team in Training for this event, mainly because I wanted to include some type of purpose to my racing. Team in Training uses events like these (triathlons, marathons, century bike rides, etc.) as the platform to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society while providing structure training for aspiring athletes.

Those who are know me best, know that I am not new to training/athletics. I rowed for three years for the NC State Rowing Club, three of the best years of my life. I have to credit it for fostering my desire to get fit and healthy. During my time at State and since, my race resume includes a half marathon in November '08, a metric century ride July '09, the Triangle [sprint] Triathlon July '08 and '09, the Marine Corps Marathon October '09, and three completions of the Krispy Kreme Challenge ('06, '07, '09). I've only complete two triathlons, but since graduating from NC State in the spring of 2009, my weekly workouts consistently incorporate swimming, biking, and running. My "plan" is to complete and Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) in the year 2012. To this end, I have complete one year of sprint triathlons. This year will consist of Olympic Triathlons (Columbia, and I have registered for the Nations Triathlon in Washington, D.C. in September). Next year, I plan to advance to the half-Ironman, and the following year complete the Ironman.

Of course, I don't expect those to be my sole races. To complement/supplement those goals, I plan to continue to compete in marathons (and halfs), cycling events, and open water swims. I still haven't found a half marathon that fits my schedule, but I have found a three miles swim in April, and I am looking ahead to the City of Oaks Marathon in my hometown of Raleigh, NC.

I will aspire to update this blog weekly, if not more frequently. Hopefully it will encourage readers to support me in my Team in Training endevour (notice I can't spell). I HAVE UNTIL MARCH 19TH TO RAISE $675! And then I have until a week before the Columbia Triathlon (May 17th) to raise $2700. Please consider supporting me, and good luck in all your own challenges.