Red Mosquito

13.1 for the woodlands half marathon yesterday. What a great experience.

Woke up around 4 to meet up with my brother in law and ride the hour north to start line. Had a breakfast of peanut butter and bagel + banana and blared Earthling on the way up. Opted for my Saucony Kinvara 12s over my Altra Riveras at the last minute. Firmer shoe to give me a little bit more speed if I needed it.

Got to the race by 6am. Starting gun at 6:55

Starting line nerves kicked in as the corral lined up for the next 45 minutes, then we were off.

Those first two miles were faster than I had planned. 8:38-8:45. Easy to get caught up in the crowd. I stayed back from my BiL pretty early lest I burn out. Everything smoothed out by mile 3, and by mile 5 I caught back up with him through mile 7. Saw family at about the halfway point. My 6 year old niece had a simple, but amazing sign: "go run, uncle reid."

Mile 9 was a SLOG. This run/walk racer kept catching up to me then staying back. Over and over. Made me feel like there was a glitch in the Matrix. The route itself was pretty boring. Just three long straight, flat segments. Great crowds the whole way though.

Mile 12-13 is where it got interesting. Once I crossed a lake, I knew we were getting close to the end and close to turns and buildings. I had enough to sprint through the finish, in front of a concert pavilion where I've seen PJ play in '00 and '03, so that was a cool full circle moment.

Got my goal of sub 2. 1:56:53. Sharing that with my family at the end was indescribable.

Thanks for all the support in this thread. I will definitely be racing again. This was fun as hell.

Spoiler: show

(Kinvaras ended up being great, except for the toebox. May lose a toenail in the next few days. I forgot to clip them...)

Congrats Reid!

Sounds like you had a great experience. Good work on the pace/time.

You're a rockstar.

Because of the weather this week and my work schedule I decided to get my long run out of the way today. Even though I ran 5.5 yesterday. It was 60 degrees this morning! I had to run.

I ran 8.35 miles @ a 9:04 pace. Felt great. Now the rest of the week I can focus on cross training and speed work.

epilogue wrote:Congrats Reid!

Sounds like you had a great experience. Good work on the pace/time.

You're a rockstar.

Thanks Joe. You're always a good motivator on here. Good luck on your Brooklyn half. I look forward to the race report!

epilogue wrote:Because of the weather this week and my work schedule I decided to get my long run out of the way today. Even though I ran 5.5 yesterday. It was 60 degrees this morning! I had to run.

I ran 8.35 miles @ a 9:04 pace. Felt great. Now the rest of the week I can focus on cross training and speed work.

I imagine that you, working in the theater industry, keep somewhat similar uneven work hours as me and my career in the bar industry. Adapting a schedule from week to week can be tough, but man that long run is so important. Pretty impressive pace, especially after a 5+ mile effort so close behind.

Great job, Reid

Thanks len. Your 10k race is coming up soon, yeah?

washing machine wrote:Thanks len. Your 10k race is coming up soon, yeah?

5k is at the end of April. I’m taking this week off.

Is the weather up and down there? It was trending hot and humid all last week, throwing a curve ball into my training thru cold temps, and now that the race weekend is over it's dropping again. WTF

washing machine wrote:Is the weather up and down there? It was trending hot and humid all last week, throwing a curve ball into my training thru cold temps, and now that the race weekend is over it's dropping again. WTF

Yeah…The swings are so annoying. It felt incredible most of last week, but raining a lot today and tomorrow and the temperatures will start lowering a bit, but a big drop this weekend. I was going to do 4 miles yesterday but slept instead. I’d been wanting to take a week off anyway so might as well now.

Have any other races on the agenda soon?

lennytheweedwhacker wrote:Have any other races on the agenda soon?

This one looks fun. It's not until late September so I'd have plenty of time this spring and summer to run for the hell of it before the next training block, which I like.
https://www.planoballoonfest.org/p/about/runs




Also I'm 90% sure I want to do a full marathon in early 2023. If so, it's currently between these two.

https://cowtownmarathon.org/the-cowtown ... the-races/

https://www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com/

Leaning towards the first one. If I end up doing that one, it would be a late February marathon, so I could use the half version of the Houston marathon in mid-January as training.

You’re a true baller.

Just trying to live my life with the volume full, ya know?

washing machine wrote:Just trying to live my life with the volume full, ya know?

Take a f*cking nap

Barkley Marathon started this morning. John Kelly and Courtney Dewaulter among the field. Will anyone finish?

What an insane race. Some good docs on YouTube about it out there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDZdsqbcGTU

Alright, so my already wonky schedule this week keeps getting more and more complicated. So I ran today AND I lifted. This was not at all my plan. It was raining so I did 4.35 on the treadmill. It was meant to be a bit of a recovery run so I kept the pace low. Ended up with around a 9:35 pace.

Then I jumped over to the weights and did 40 minutes. 20 of cardio/circuit work with free weights. 20 of strength training with heavier weight than I've done in more than a year.

I feel pretty good, all things considered.

Tomorrow I'll get outside for an early morning run. I'm thinking a 6er. But we'll see how the legs feel. I'll be fine with a little less mileage if need be.

I think I'll do some heart rate training for a while. Went for four miles today with the goal of keeping it around 155 bpm and found that I could easily keep going, so I got an extra mile in as my schedule allowed. No regard for pace. Just steady effort the whole way thru.

6.35 today on very tired legs and sore body overall. I'm really looking forward to two days off.

I'm at 19 for the week, which is exactly where I want to be heading into my final run on Sunday.

Next week is going to be a major cut back/recovery week.

Killing it. I think on my peak week I only did 23 miles. Run strong & run free, Joe.

washing machine wrote:Killing it. I think on my peak week I only did 23 miles. Run strong & run free, Joe.

Of course MS's bib # is 1.