Freethinker ~ Freerunner

General aerobic run of 8 miles w/ 8x100's. 

Recovery - 5.  My left quad is still feeling a liitle weird.  I decided not to run on Wednesday, which would have been my 14 mile MLR so this is going to be a low mileage week.  I only got 41 miles this week. 

LR - 20.  34 degrees.  I feel awesome today.  I ran down to Riverside Drive near the Arkansas river and came back through the roughest hills on the Creek Turnpike trail which included Harvard Hill.  I ran a 7:23 mile which ended at the top of the Harvard hill.  I ran a 7:13 mile on the segment which included the Memorial hill climb near the beginning of that mile split.

My final 5 splits looked like this: 7:13, 6:58, 6:55, 6:58, 6:44. 

Overall I ran this distance 2:29:31 for an AP of 7:28, which made for a PR on the 20 mile distance for me.   

Recovery - 7 w/ 8x100's.  It sprinkled on me for most of this run.  I also found a red blinking light that must have fallen off a bike, which I though was odd because I don't usually see bikes out on rainy mornings.  I passed it on the way out, but when it was still there on the way back home I snagged it up. 

The 100's felt good that I saved for the last mile as usual.  I ran all but one of them in 20 seconds or under. 

MLR - 14.  It was cold, windy, and there was a light drizzle.  My skin on my chest, back and triceps was red when I got home from wind burn.  How is it that the wind can blow hard from all directions even while running beside large highway noise blocking walls and under thick tree canopies?  All in all I felt a little drained of energy this morning.  So this was not one of my best runs, but I completed another 14 miles none the less. 

7:55 AP. 

Recovery 5 w/ 6x100's.  It was cold at 32 degrees this morning.  My left ankle was bothering me after I finished so I iced it for about 30 minutes after breakfast. 

Recovery - 5.  I tried to take it easy today since I'm going to run a tempo tomorrow in liu of the 10K tune up that I never found a race for. 

7:58 AP.  37 degrees.

Pftiz called for a 10K tune up race today, but since I could'nt find one I decided to run a tempo instead. 

1 WU, 5 at tempo, 1 CD. 

7:49, 6:45, 6:24, 6:29, 6:48, 6:50, 8:16. 

I overdressed and bit and did not take any sports drink with me.  I felt like I got a little bit warm and may have performed a little better if I could have hydrated on the run.  I also didn't feel like overdoing it only two weeks out from the marathon.  I'm not really sure how helpfull hard workouts are at this point. 

LR - 17 w/ 5 at marathon pace.  It was 50 degrees and an absolutely beautiful morning.  I can only hope that in two weeks on race morning I get so lucky with the weather.  I might just actually pull off my coveted BQ. 

My AP was 7:27.  I ran the last five at marathon pace:  7:03, 7:00, 7:02, 6:57, 6:55.  The first mile of the final five began with a pretty legitimate hill, which the locals know as the hill at Memorial. 

Recovery - 4.  It was a bone chilling 24 degrees this morning.  I'm officially tapering for the Route 66 Marathon.  I love that this is a Wednesday morning and I only ran 4 miles.  Incredible! 

VO2 Max: 8 w/ 3x1600's.  A very cold 27 feels like 19.  My average pace was 7:31.

I ran 3 to warm up, 3x1600's with 90 seconds of rest, with a littel less than 2 to cool down. 

1600's: 6:33, 6:29, 6:43

Recovery - 5.  Easy run. 8:08 AP.  45 degrees. 

Long run 13 at a 7:44 AP.  It was a little warm this morning at 69 degrees. 

Recovery run of 7 miles.  7:40 AP. 

I decided to sleep in and take advantage of my day off.  Instead of running at 5:30 or 6:00 I slept in and ran at 10:00.  On this taper I'm trying to focus not just on tapering in miles but also in getting a little extra sleep.  I have taken this Saturday off from work so I can get a little extra rest the day before as well.  I plan on not only sleeping in but also on staying off of my feet as much as possible the day before the race.  

Today was to be the marathon dress rehearsal, which is a 7 mile run with 2 miles at marathon pace.  Yesterday I bought some new shoes.  The Mizuno Wave Elixir was replaced by the Sayonara.  I tried it on yesterday and compared it to the Brooks Ravenna.  I have loved wearing my Elixirs this cycle,  and since the new Sayonara felt so good I bought it.  This morning at about the 2.5 mile mark I felt pain in the back of my right heel.  It only got worse as I kept running, so I turned around and walked about half a mile and then jogged the rest of the way home.  I know they say you shouldn't have to 'break in' a new running shoe, but I think that is all I can attribute this too.  I'm going to try this workout again tomorrow in the Elixirs, and if I feel good I will run the marathon in them.  They are up to about 410 miles so I bought the new shoes with the intent of running the marathon in them, but my feet may not be ready for that yet as I found out this morning. 

If I feel the same thing tomorrow I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but there is no point in worrying about that today. 

Dress Rehearsal Second Attempt.  This time it went much better.  I just needed to break in my new shoes.  I wore the old shoes today and my heel felt fine.  I ran 6 miles with 2 at marathon pace.  I'm ready.  Now if we can just get this approching winter snow storm to back off. 

My final run before the marathon.  I ran 3.21 miles with 2 100's.  The temp was 34 with 10 mph north winds which felt pretty awful.  I'm not sure I'm going to be too happy about those same winds tomorrow morning with temps at 26 degrees.  I think I've figured out how to dress.  I will wear compression tights under my shorts with a compression turtle neck up top.  I will of course wear gloves, a hat, and my ear warmers as well.  I think with that setup I will be just a little cold starting out, but I should warm up nicely after 6 or 7 miles.  That's my assumption.  I will also pack a throw away sweat shirt for the starting line. 

Route 66 Results Summary: I came in 34th overall and 9th in my division with a time of 3:09:41, which was a PR by 2 minutes and 53 seconds. I averaged 7:10 for the race.  I felt pretty strong up until mile 22, but then I felt my pace slipping away and was not able to control it any longer.

Splits: 6:55, 6:58, 6:51, 6:51, 7:01, 6:46, 6:53, 7:01, 7:00, 7:07, 6:50, 7:08, 7:00, 6:51, 6:56, 6:56, 7:09, 7:02, 7:09, 6:55, 7:01, 7:23, 7:27, 7:26, 8:10, 8:36, 4:17 (.50 miles).

I ate Ramen stir fry the night before to load up on carbs.  I ate meals that included pasta and potatos for the previous two weeks on a daily basis.  I went to bed the night before feeling overly full from dinner.  I woke up feeling really good. 

Leading up to race time it was about 24 degrees with an 8-9 mph N.N.E. wind.  I wore my throw away sweat shirt and brought my throw away sports bottle which contained gatorade that I sipped on for about an hour leading up to race time.  

I met up with Shane about 30 minutes before the start of the race and we hung out with some of his friends for about 15 minutes before walking to the corral.  I had a brief moment of panic when my watch was refusing to link up with the satellites.  I only had about 4 minutes until start time when I realized it was not already linked.  I ended up restarting it and getting it to link just about 20 seconds before the start. 

Miles 1 - 5 (6:55, 6:58, 6:51, 6:51, 7:01) I ran the first four with Shane.  My plan was to go out in 7:00 flats.  I held pretty close to the plan here as I would throughout the race until mile 22.  These first 5 were through down town, the Utica Square area, Cascia Hall with the always pumped up atsmosphere of the drum line, and the nearby beautiful homes of the surrounding residential area.  Shane's plan was to go out in 7:00 flats for the first four miles and then gradually start to speed up.  He left me at the four mile mark.  I thought disaster was about to strike as I felt that strange pain in the back and bottom part of my right heel that I felt on my dress rehearsal run in my new shoes last Wednesday.  The pain came on all of the sudden as it had on Wedensday, so I tried to focus on less heel stricking and more of a mid-foot strike.  It felt tolerable and controlled so I tried to tell my mind to just let the pain numb away and I focused on the race.  Then an amazing thing happened.  I'm pretty sure that by the end of the fifth mile the pain was completely gone.  

Miles 6 - 10 (6:46, 6:53, 7:01, 7:00, 7:07)  These were mostly flat or down hill.  This section began in a mostly flat residential area, followed by the flat Brook Side area, followed by about three miles on the nice and mostly flat Riverside Drive.  I pulled out my mile splits sheet for the first and only time at the 7 mile marker to see how I was doing on time.  My sheet was in a small clear zip lock bag tucked into my racing belt with a packet of GU.  I was about 1:30 or so ahead of time at this point.  I put the zip lock bag back into an empty slot on my racing belt where I thought it would be safe.  When I looked back down about 1 mile later it was gone.  This was a last minute plan that failed.  Next time I will wrap in in tape and put it around my wrist. 

Miles 11 - 15 (6:50, 7:08, 7:00, 6:51, 6:56) This segment contained the first of a series of nasty hills.  The first 1.5 miles was an easy finish of the long flat River Side Drive area followed by a hard hill that lasted about half a mile which took us back up into the down town area.  I was very pleased that they no longer had us running over one of the short but very hard hills that is a bridge going over a rail road track in the down town area.  This segment finished by running out of down town and back onto Peoria for a full mile of up hill fun.  I ran this one in 6:56 and felt very accomplished, because I was thinking back to last year on this same part of the course where I did not fair as well.  I think the wind was maybe a little worse last year.  

Miles 16 - 20 (6:56, 7:09, 7:02, 7:09, 6:55)   Mile 16 took us back to the Utica Square area, home to the infamous Hicks Brunson Eyewear, and back past Cascia Hall, and then into the hilly residential fun that started to suck the life out of me and set the tone for the roughest parts to come.  Mile 17 was a hard hill.  Mile 18 was less hard, but all up hill none the less.  Mile 19 had me especially concerened when I was studying the course a couple of weeks ago.  I knew that right in the middle there was a massive dip on 21st street that goes under Highway 51.  Mile 19 as a whole was a little like running through a valley starting at one side and running down through the trough and then finishing uphill at the top of the next peak.  Mile 20 was an easy down hill residential street that took us into the University of Tulsa campus.  

Miles 21 - 26.2 (7:01, 7:23, 7:27, 7:26, 8:10, 8:36, 4:17 (.50 miles))  This segment begins with about 1.5 miles through the beaufitful University of Tulsa campus.  I managed a 7:01 starting out here, but I could definitely feel the my tanks running low on energy and I was wondering how I was going to sustain my pace for another 5 miles.  Here we exit the campus on Delaware, head down to Cherry Street, and eventually end up back on Peoria.  This area was packed with rolling hills.  On the other side of each hill was a nice down hill that gradually lowered the total elevation, but the hills that kept coming were relentless.  From here we took Peoria, which was a nice long down hill, and then back into down town via 6th street.  It was mile 24 in which I experienced something a little strange.  I was running under highway 75 about half way through my 25th mile.  The sounds of the traffic on the highway were reverberating loudly underneath the bridge.  I had felt like maybe I had something left to pickup my pace just before this.  When I got under the bridge my vision started flashing like a strobe light and I started feeling a little light headed.  I slowed down just a bit and gradually things began to feel normal again.  From here I finished the race and I finished strong, but I really wasn't able to approach marathon pace again until that last few hundred feet of the race.  

Finish Line:  After I crossed the finish line I hobbled through the tent and grabbed some warm spaghetti and gatorade.  Alisha met me after I came out and I hobbled to grab a beer and then immediately to the gear check tent so I could change into warm clothes.  I started to get really cold at this point and was very happy I had someone to help me change.  If I had been by myself I probably just would have grabbed my checked bag and hobbled to my car which was about 10 blocks away to warm up.  I may have even walked to the med tint because I felt like I was shutting down.  It was not until we got to her car that I started to warm up and only feel the usual post marathon effects.  

In conclusion: I ran a pretty aggressive race for the first half and was right where I needed to be to finish in 3:05.  First half: 1:31:48. Second half: 1:37:53.  The hills on the back half and the freezing cold temps were just a bit more than my body was ready for.  That said, I'm really happy and proud of this PR producing performance.               

Today was the Brunson Annual Thanksgiving Day Run.  This was the second year Alisha, Ty, Neo, and I have run on Thanksgiving, although last year Ty was in the jogging stroller.  As such we were able to go 2 miles last year, whereas this year we only ran one mile since Ty actually ran with us.  

My legs are still feeling pretty sore.  Specifilly my right calf feels tight even while sitting still.  I felt my left quad a little while running.  I will probably wait until Sunday to run again if I run again in the next few days.