Koala/Luke's Locker 1/2 Marathon Today

I went into this race today with limited expectations. I'm seven weeks into my comeback from an eleven week layoff and am certainly not yet at the fitness level I was at this time last year when I set my 1/2 PR of 1:23:29. I knew that number was out of reach and knew that placing in my age group was out of the question so there wasn't much to run for other than pride and to get a gauge on where I am in my return. Bottom line - I wanted to at least come in under 1:30, and hopefully hold a pace of 6:45 or 6:50. Long story short, I managed both, thanks in large part to an excellent runner named Chris Robbins. Here are my mile splits:

6:27
6:43
6:50
6:51
6:48
6:43
6:46
6:38
6:46
6:31
6:41
6:44
6:42
Final .18 miles = 1:08, 6:18 pace (my Garmin calculated a total distance covered of 13.18)

I give credit to Chris because we buddied up somewhere into mile three and stayed together through eleven miles, when he had a little more in the tank than me and picked it up. Chris is a machine at finding a pace, locking it in and sticking with it - very disciplined. The pace he was on, 6:40-6:45 was about the fastest I could manage but back just off red-line enough that I was able to maintain it mile after mile. Chris is coming back from an injury as well so today is the last time I'll be running alongside him for a while.

I finished with a time of 1:28:17, equating to a pace of 6:45 (6:42 by the Garmin). A little better than I expected and either a flat split or maybe even a negative split. I know that I was 20 seconds faster in the final six miles than I was in the first six.

Next up is probably the 25K, although I haven't registered yet. I wish that race was three weeks away instead of two.

Long-Run Tonight, Most Of It With Steve

Until this morning I had been in Chicago working a trade show since Thursday morning. It was a Fitness Club Industry trade show so the environment definitely had me motivated to train. It was also on the chilly side in Chicago so the two times I was able to get out and run were great. I was staying at a hotel that was only about half a mile from Lakeshore Drive so I was able to get down and run along the edge of Lake Michigan twice, 7 miles each time, plus warmup and cool-down milage. Both sessions were at around 7:10 pace with the final mile of the second session (Friday morning) coming in at 6:30 pace. The temperature was mid-40s for both runs, but windy.

I wasn't able to get a run in yesterday so I was ready for some milage tonight. Steve Schroeder came over and joined me for a conversational 8-minute pace and we got in 11.6 miles before Steve called it a night due to his plantar issues and lingering soreness from a hard run he did Thursday night. I put in one more New Territory loop (3.2 miles) alone, then ran a bit more down to my house and just past to get to 15 miles even. A good long-run, nothing silly pace-wise. Should have plenty left in the tank for a hard-effort on Tuesday and maybe some speedwork on Thursday.

1/2 marathon on Sunday but I won't be anywhere near my time from last year. Six weeks into my comeback and I'm coming along nicely, but still a ways to go.

Progress

On September 27 (the Sunday before last) I took my fitness out for a test drive to see where I was at after having been out 11 weeks but at that point having three weeks of training under my belt. I guess you'd call it a time trial. I did 7.86 miles at an overall pace of 7:24. That was much better than I could have done a week or two earlier, but I hammered it pretty good and 7:24 wasn't very fast. I'll say in hindsight that I might could have gone a tiny bit faster but was really unsure as to how hard I could push it.

So tonight I went out, loaded for bear, ready to tackle the same course and see how much progress I've made. I did 46 miles last week so I'm getting back up there, but this week will be light because my wife was out of town for four days so I had the boys alone and was only able to take them out in the jogging stroller once, for five miles. They're kind of over it. I definitely was well-rested, having run only once since Saturday morning's long-run of 14 miles.

I was a little slow getting started and posted a 7:24 first mile, but things picked up significantly after that. So much so that by the time I was done I had brought the overall pace down to 6:54, a 30 second per mile improvement over what I did just 11 days ago. Still not where I want to be with just a little over two weeks before the half marathon but I didn't figure to have all my fitness back by then. I would like to be able to do a 1:27-1:28 but we'll have to wait to put a pencil to it two weeks from now.

7.55 Miles Tonight

7.55 miles tonight at an aggressive pace, though I forgot to wear the Garmin. What, you didn't know I was recovered and training again? Well, that's my fault for not updating things here. Sorry, just been more focused on real life versus cyber-life. Been back about 3 and 1/2 weeks now, completely injury free. As a matter of fact, I'll hit close to 50 miles this week. I certainly don't have all my fitness back yet. That'll take at least another six weeks, but I'm making progress.