This marathon class is going to be challenging but a lot of fun. Yesterday's quality workout was a 2-mile time trial to guage your current fitness level. I ran the first mile in 7:30 and finished in 15:19. My goal was to run it in 15 minutes, so I feel pretty good about it. Not sure where I got 15 minutes from, actually, but glad I'm about where I think I am, speed wise. Also, we can take our current 2-mile time and feed it into a running calculator to get a calculated marathon time and pace, which is pretty cool. My goal in my head has been to finish the marathon at a 10min/mile pace, but based on the calculator, I think that's too slow. I should be pushing for something closer to a 9 minute mile pace (given that my speed will improve by February). Very cool!
On another note, I've just signed up for the Austin Distance Challenge and am excited about the first race, the IBM Uptown Classic in two weeks. Last year's classic was the first 10K I ever ran on my journey out of couch potato land. I went back and looked up the results for last year's race and compared them to my projected time (based on the mcmillan calculator) for this year's race. Pretty dramatic difference a year makes...
Date Overall Time Mile Pace
10/2/2005 1:13:36 11:51
10/1/2006 51:43 8:18
Additionally, I was wiped out after last year's run, needing several weeks to recover. This year, I expect to take only a couple days off from my training, maybe starting back up on Tuesday or Wednesday. Well, we'll see about this last part.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Marathon Season is here
I started my new marathon class. The first run was last Saturday and it was super crowded on the trail. Everyone and their dog just started training for something. Anyway, the group I am running with in the class is called the Brew Runners, how cool is that? Karen, my coach sent us all some questions to answer about our running history. Thought I would post the answers...
1. How many marathons have you run? - The Austin Marathon will be my first
2. What is your PR (for marathon if you have run one before) and when did you run that - See above
3. What is your goal for this marathon- eg… time, % improvement, BQ, achievement, feeling …? - I guess I "should" just be trying to finish. However, I'd really like to get it done at a 10 minute mile pace
4. Why are you training for this marathon? (What is your commitment to..) - I feel driven to run the Austin Marathon and other marathons after that. Some day, I'd like to run ultras. Not sure why. Maybe because I'm turning 30 this coming January and I'm tired of being out of shape. Plus, running is cheaper than therapy!
5. Are you planning on doing all of the Distance challenge races? - Yes
6. When you get tired, frustrated or bummed out- is there anything that you do that helps you get out of the rut? - Long runs with the MP3 player on loud. A Grande Vanilla Latte and Cranberry Orange Scone work pretty well in some cases, too.
7. Do you have any current or past injuries that you are concerned with? - Not that I'm concerned with. When I first got back into running (August 05), I tried to do too much too fast and my knees weren't ready. In fact, I had to stop for a little while and start back more slowly. But, I've been running without the knee braces for the past 6 months or so and feeling pretty good. I've been doing the foot drills, core workouts, stretching, getting sleep, etc and it seems to make a difference.
8. Do you belong to a gym or have acess to alternative workout equipment? - I'm a member of the YMCA (try to do one spin class a week) and I have a stability ball at home for core workouts.
9. What do you do for a living, and do you travel for work? - I'm a software person. No travel.
10. What life issues do you think are going to cause you the most time conflict with training? - the biggest issue is that I have 3 kids under 6 and a wife that works full time too. My schedule is pretty tight. Thankfully, we've worked out our schedules to the degree that I'll be able to make all the workouts.
After my first aborted attempt to start running again, I started back slower and ran the last year's Turkey Trot and several more races before doing the Austin Half Marathon this February. My running buddy at the time was also a large person. I started up a running blog called irunwiththebigdogs.com which I still maintain. My buddy kinda dropped out while I signed up for the Summer Long Run course, which I really enjoyed, and which helped me feel better while running longer than I thought I would be at this point.
1. How many marathons have you run? - The Austin Marathon will be my first
2. What is your PR (for marathon if you have run one before) and when did you run that - See above
3. What is your goal for this marathon- eg… time, % improvement, BQ, achievement, feeling …? - I guess I "should" just be trying to finish. However, I'd really like to get it done at a 10 minute mile pace
4. Why are you training for this marathon? (What is your commitment to..) - I feel driven to run the Austin Marathon and other marathons after that. Some day, I'd like to run ultras. Not sure why. Maybe because I'm turning 30 this coming January and I'm tired of being out of shape. Plus, running is cheaper than therapy!
5. Are you planning on doing all of the Distance challenge races? - Yes
6. When you get tired, frustrated or bummed out- is there anything that you do that helps you get out of the rut? - Long runs with the MP3 player on loud. A Grande Vanilla Latte and Cranberry Orange Scone work pretty well in some cases, too.
7. Do you have any current or past injuries that you are concerned with? - Not that I'm concerned with. When I first got back into running (August 05), I tried to do too much too fast and my knees weren't ready. In fact, I had to stop for a little while and start back more slowly. But, I've been running without the knee braces for the past 6 months or so and feeling pretty good. I've been doing the foot drills, core workouts, stretching, getting sleep, etc and it seems to make a difference.
8. Do you belong to a gym or have acess to alternative workout equipment? - I'm a member of the YMCA (try to do one spin class a week) and I have a stability ball at home for core workouts.
9. What do you do for a living, and do you travel for work? - I'm a software person. No travel.
10. What life issues do you think are going to cause you the most time conflict with training? - the biggest issue is that I have 3 kids under 6 and a wife that works full time too. My schedule is pretty tight. Thankfully, we've worked out our schedules to the degree that I'll be able to make all the workouts.
After my first aborted attempt to start running again, I started back slower and ran the last year's Turkey Trot and several more races before doing the Austin Half Marathon this February. My running buddy at the time was also a large person. I started up a running blog called irunwiththebigdogs.com which I still maintain. My buddy kinda dropped out while I signed up for the Summer Long Run course, which I really enjoyed, and which helped me feel better while running longer than I thought I would be at this point.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
