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Salt Lake Half Marathon & Relay - RunHalf Marathon


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Salt Lake City, Utah
United States
Sports-Am
60F / 16C
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 00m 6s
Overall Rank = 189/313
Age Group = 35
Age Group Rank = 13/15
Pre-race routine:

Standard protein shake.
Event warmup:

Stretching. 10' warm-up with some pick-ups to break a sweat. Shot of honey and an electrolyte tab with a cup of water.
Run
  • 2h 00m 6s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 10s  min/mile
Comments:

Tried to follow Coach Mikes pacing advice:

"5 miles at Zone 1/2 - meaning let your HR climb into Z2 on the hills, but save it for later mostly. Don't kill it until you are REALLY warmed up. Let the others go and burn themselves out."

"Then 5 miles at Z2/3 - start to work here - if it's downhill, you will NOT see the HR climb in relation to your perceived effort SO, think about your effort, not HR here - push yourself as you would if you were running a Z3 effort - then..."

"The last 5K you can let it rip! Push as hard as you can here, Z4 into Z5 and see what happens - you should be able to pass many people who took it out too fast - make sure you hydrate as best you can at the aid stations and save something for the last 5k."

It was tough keeping the HR in z2 on the climb as EVERYONE seemed to pass me. Had to walk a lot to keep the HR down. And even so was at the bottom of z3 by the top. But I felt good stamina wise and was more than ready to get my legs moving, though they felt surprisingly fatigued.

Took the HR slowly up on the downhill. Stamina felt great, and I was passing a lot of peeps (unfortunately not many in my AG). However, my legs were really taking a pounding . . . still I just kept it on cruise control since I felt good otherwise and took the HR up about a beat per mile.

By the time I hit the last 5k and took it to LT -- my legs were toast. I had plenty of juice but legs were absolutely wasted. Had to stop and walk quite a bit and by the last mile wondered if I could even jog it in. I did and managed a good clip the last 400 yds. (coming a few seconds over two hours).

As far as the HR went the pacing felt good it was the muscle fatigue that got me.

(lap data: missing the ~first two miles):

Mile Avg Pace Avg HR

3- 10:23 158 (bottom of zone 3)
4- 11:42 159 (top of climb) legs surprisingly tired
5- 8:22 162
6- 7:53 163
7- 8:02 163
8- 8:05 164
9- 8:28 166 (zone 4)course starts to flatten out
10- 8:44 165 legs really feeling hammered here
11- 7:55 173 (LT)
12- 9:20 165 legs are toast; have to walk/jog
13- 9:40 162 lot of walking; not sure I can run it in; but finish last ~400 yds with a sprint of sorts


What would you do differently?:

Run my 15 miler to Lil Cottonwood Canyon (somewhat similar climb and descent, though not as steep) last Saturday as planned instead of Monday four days before the race. I didn't get any base benefit for this race and I don't think my legs had a chance to fully recover from this weeks runs -- especially by adding the extended stride workout on Wed. I had no clue how sore I would be from the strides on the dirt track after not doing them for so many months.

Get more sleep.

Probably not wear the long-sleeve dry-fit. It did keep me warm early but later in the race I noticed my arms holding a lot of heat.
Post race
Warm down:

Water. Bagel. Banana. Light stretching. Forgot to jog a cool down to move some of the lactate out.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Muscle fatigue. Lack of recovery from the weeks earlier workouts. Lack of sleep all week. But mainly muscle fatigue because of poor workout planning leading up to the race. Which is ironic considering all the work I put into making my long runs on hills for the last month.

The good news is I feel I would have easily beaten this time by 6-10 minutes had my legs been there.

Some more positives: 1) pacing felt good -- can't know for sure though with my legs as they were 2) stride turnover was consistently at 90 rpm both on the uphill and down (without the mp3 player). Tunes would have been nice and I debated whether to listen or not, but it was good practice not having it before the Ogden tri in two weeks.

Event comments:

Beautiful course. Stunning views to the top of Little Mt. as the sun came up. Short steep climb followed by a pounding downhill. Will be a good warm-up for the Ogden Valley Tri in two weeks.


Profile Album


Last updated: 2006-08-31 12:00 AM
Running
02:00:06 | 13.1 miles | 09m 10s  min/mile
Age Group: 13/15
Overall: 189/313
Performance: Below average
Course: 1,000' foot steep climb over 4 miles to the top of Little Mountain and then a 1,700' drop down Emigration Canyon and Sunnyside Ave. to a rolling 1 1/2 mile finish.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3

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2006-09-04 12:50 AM

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Extreme Veteran
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Subject: Salt Lake Half Marathon & Relay


2006-09-04 11:23 AM
in reply to: #530140

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Expert
1157
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Tremonton, Utah
Subject: RE: Salt Lake Half Marathon & Relay

Great job on the PR!  That's awesome -- You shouldn't be disappointed with that race at all.  And talking about fast.  Had I run this race at my PR pace, you'd have still beat me by 12 seconds!  So who's the nemisis now???

Seriously - great job, excellent insights on your performance.  Will take that advice to heart.  I can see the benefits.

GREAT JOB!

 

2006-09-04 10:39 PM
in reply to: #530140

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Expert
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Austin, TX
Subject: RE: Salt Lake Half Marathon & Relay

Nice foot pic!  Those are battle wounds. 

Don't let this race get you down.  The first 1/2 marathon should be about finishing and figuring out strategy for the next one.  While there are a few who succeed in their first, more often than not, people learn to respect the distance and the course.

How much downhill training did you do in advance?  One thing about running downhill is that it pounds the crud out of your quads, because you have to tense them more than normal each time your feet strike.  If you don't train this a LOT, you will feel very fatigued by the end of the race.  But you won't have this problem at all at Ogden in a couple of weeks.  And your bike conditioning should get you through that quite well, too.

 

2006-09-05 7:24 AM
in reply to: #530632

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Extreme Veteran
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5002525
Subject: RE: Salt Lake Half Marathon & Relay

Thanks guys. Most of my long runs were on hills so I was ready for that and the distance was no big deal. I'd done a slow 15 miler (longest to-date) only a few days before with a similar climb and descent as the race and felt great. But that long run combined with a hard stride workout a couple of days before race just didn't give my legs enough time to recover.

Good learning experience.



Edited by yojimbo 2006-09-05 7:34 AM
2006-09-05 3:31 PM
in reply to: #530140

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Draper, Utah
Subject: RE: Salt Lake Half Marathon & Relay

Way to put a half-mary under your belt!  And way to PR! It's quite an experience.  You did great for a first...

...And it looks like you felt it in the feet... Ouch!  Nice picture!  I've been lucky enough to avoid all but the smallest of blisters, even when I ran the marathon.  That had to make for a pretty uncomfortable run!  I had a similar experience on the Provo River Half this year with the leg fatigue, although it sounds like you were better prepared than I was- I had only run a couple of 10 milers. It was sooo hard to keep running in my last two miles. You'd put in the distance, so you're prob. right about insufficient recovery time.  Its easy to do.  Way to survive it without music too... I used my mp3 player to get through Provo... and I can attest that it's definitely tougher without it!  Silent runs are definitely good tri-run training!

I suspect you'll be able to take what you learned from this race and apply it in your next race to smash your time!  It should make Ogden seem like a breeze too! 

Keep up the good work Jim... You're progressing well!  Your disciplined training regimen is paying off!

 

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