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Today was the first time back on the road since the Valley of the Sun Half Marathon. I ran casually, left the watch at home, and just enjoyed my 6.1 mile loop.
Nice and easy.
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Today was the Valley of the Sun Half Marathon in north Mesa. This course has a lot of downhill, and it was F-A-S-T. This means another medal for the collection
The timing of today’s run was worrisome- after 143 days of no rain, yesterday was greeted by a major mother of a storm that yielded all day/all night rain in the desert, and likely 18-20 inches of snow in the high country.
I thought I heard rain through the night, but when I awoke at 3:30 AM (that is no typo), the sky looked clear, stars and the moon were out. Yes, it was an early start- the race organizers suggest getting out there between 4:30 and 5:00 AM. I was there enough time to park not too far down the road and get a seat on a warm school bus. We were driven 6 miles or so to the starting point near Usery Mountain Park. It was pretty damn cold, and there was not much to do except shiver and listen to some annoying local DJ. Oh, I did 3 rounds of turns at the port-o-potty (Too Much Information).
It was cool to meet up with Team Diabetes veterans Jose, Scott, and Rob, who ran in the PF Changs run in January. Just about race start time (6:15 AM) the sun was just lightening up the sky in the east. And it felt good to get out and move.
Like I said, the first 2-3 miles were downhill, and I was going faster than I thought I’d ever gone, like in the 9+ minute per mile range where my previous runs were in the 11 minte/mile range. There was a climb around miles 4-5 through a residential area, but another drop into the 10k time (I think I was under an hour at that point). The views of snow on the McDowell Mountains was inspiring. It was good and flat our Power Road, and then a huge downhill to the Salt River. Then a sharp climb around mile 11, and relativc small ups and downs to the finish line.
From my watch my splits were:
I owe that last bit to Jose and Scott who came up and said, “Let’s cross the line together” (thanks for th elift, I was fading).
The 2:10 finish is a guess, still waiting on the official results. I forgot to stop the watch right at the crossing, so it is anywhere from 2:10:00 to 2:11:32.
But who cares about numbers? It was a great run.
Update:
The results are in… my official time was 2:11:16… I must have been a bit behind on starting my time, but I am not going to quibble seconds over a 12 minute improvement over my best time. Here are the results:
The 5k split of 28:41 (9:14 pace) shows how fast the first 3 miles were. The 10k split was a har (8 one hundreths over an hour, wow I thought I snagged a sub 60 minute time, but the chip does not lie– 1:00:08 or 9;41 pace, still much faster than any 10k distance before.
My final pace of 10:01 is right where I hoped to be. The pace definitely lagged the seond half, and with some more longer distance runs and/r some better pace training, I could have done better. Next goal might be getting close to 2:00:00.
Today’s run was a carbon copy of yesterday, almost to the second. What else can I write about it? Just a jaunt around a lake, some stretches in the middle.
The crazy thing is weather. Or lack thereof. Phoenix is now 140+ days deep into a drought (no rain since mid October)… and it is forecasted to end the dry stream on Sunday! Go figure.
It’s the last week of training, supposedly easy shorter runs. Well this morning was short, but did not start out so easy… felt rather lethargic. I also took the coaches advice of stopping mid way foir some stretches, and then got absorbed in some thoughts of things pending at work, and the run was over before I knew it.
It’s another lovely weekend in Strawberry Arizona. We got here late Friday night. The first day at higher altitude is tough to run, so instead, my wife and I did an intense bushwhackiung packpack up the slopes of the edge of the Mogollon Rim. It was maybe only 1.5 miles each way, but was vertical fighting through thick stands of Manzanita brush.
On Sunday, I put on the running shoes, andf headed out one more time Fossil Creek Road, a route where now I know every crack, pebble, and tree. The pace was average going out, but felt good, and I stuck to my goal of going far enough to climb the steep hill past the end of the pavement, and turn around at the Tonto National Forest Boundary sign, I got a good burst of energy at miles4-6, and was prety pleased at the end… except for the notion that on one week, I will not only have to almost twice the distance, but at a better clip.
Sigh. I sort of like running.
A bit of late night sessions trying to get extra work done have left me tired this morning. I was still determined to run my 6.3 mile route, but just at an easy pace. It was clear in the morning, warm (t-shirt only), and I loaded up an hour long speech on my iPod to listen to.
It was a feeling good run, clearing the head of all the junk that accumulates there, and about the slowest I have run this same route. But I stuck to it, so that must count for something.
Mixing up the routines between the 6 milers that have become my “routine” runs. Especialliy since I needed to get to work earlier, I ran a shorter 2 mile loop around Chaparral lake and our neighboorhood, aiming for a bit of “fartlek” training… this is where you mix up the intensity with a mnute or so of fast pace running alternated wiht slower restful paces.
Last fall, we did much mroe of this wiht our Team D Wednesday night track runs, but in the last 2 months, I’ve not done much of the running at different paces. I am pretty muchy excepting the next 1/2 Marathon may just be “run just to finish and not get obsessed over the time” runs.
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