I am one with the levee and the levee with me

Double Bridge Run 15k

Previous WeekRecent EntriesHomeJoin Fast Running Blog Community!PredictorHealthy RecipesTyler's RacesFind BlogsMileage BoardTop Ten Excuses for Missing a RunTop Ten Training MistakesDiscussion ForumRace Reports Send A Private MessageMonth ViewYear View
Graph View
Next Week
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024
15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

North Salt Lake,UT,

Member Since:

Dec 12, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Olympic Trials Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

1500m - 3:59.9h (2014)

5000m - 14:53.45 (Portland Track Festival 2014)

8k XC - 25:09 (Sundodger 2011)

10k XC - 31:31 (WWU Invite 2011)

HM - 1:10:19 (Houston 2018)

Marathon - 2:28:39 (Houston 2019)

Long-Term Running Goals:

Olympic Trials Qualifier

Personal:

Married, working, training. While my wife has nixed all future attempts to grow glorious mustaches, she has been supportive of my crazy running dreams. Life is good.

Favorite Blogs:

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 1.00 Month: 1.00 Year: 1.00
Mizuno Ekiden Lifetime Miles: 274.65
Flyknit Streaks Lifetime Miles: 419.25
Flyknit VFs Lifetime Miles: 80.50
Ride 14 Lifetime Miles: 652.85
Ride 15 Lifetime Miles: 275.80
Ride 15 X2 Lifetime Miles: 21.50
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
69.800.009.323.1182.23
Triumph 3 Miles: 24.00Launch 3 (Red) Miles: 31.00Streak 6 Miles: 23.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.000.000.000.004.00

AM - 4 recovery miles, 7:53 pace. Legs are a little sore. I did some squats with Rylie on my back, and as embarrassing as it is to admit, that did my legs in. I need to lift more.

Triumph 3 Miles: 4.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

12 on the levee including 6 x strides. Hammies are a little sore from the Rylie squats, and the quads are a little sore from the other work last week. Otherwise this felt pretty good. 7:11 avg. The monotony of the levee got to me before I headed out. Every time that happens I remind myself of my goals and how satisfying it will be to reach them. Some mornings that's what I need to get out the door.

Launch 3 (Red) Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

12 easy. The wind was blowing pretty good, so I moved the workout to tomorrow. 7:20 avg.

Triumph 3 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.003.1114.11

AM - Medium 5k workout today. I registered for a 15k in Pensacola this weekend, so I kept this to just 5k of total volume. I rolled out of bed at 4:10 AM and was out the door just after 4:30. I'm finding that the faster the workout, the harder it is to do this early in the morning. All through my warmup I was grumbling about having to do this on the levee instead of a track. But so it is. Maybe I can work a way to get to City Park early. There is a track less than 2 miles from my house, but it's buried in a drug lord neighborhood. I'd rather suffer on the levee than venture in there in the dark. 

Officially 45°F according to wunderground.com, but there was frost on the grass and it felt closer to freezing to me. Or maybe I've just gone soft. Not a breath of wind, which made me feel validated in waiting a day.

I only have a couple of dedicated 5k workouts on my schedule before the marathon. I'm clearly underdeveloped in this area, and this workout was uncomfortable right from the start. I did my 3 miles of warmup, a few drills and strides, and then got into it. 5 x 1k w/ 3:00 rests. Targeting 3:02-3:03. 

3:02

3:03

3:03

3:05

3:08

Pretty close to target. #5 was due to lost focus rather than fatigue, and I could tell by feel before the watch beeped that I went too easy. Not a big deal. I figure on the track in better flats or spikes these run 3 seconds faster, so overall not a bad workout.

Also as I was finishing up the workout I looked up and had a great view of the eclipse in progress. I must've missed the headlines for it, because it caught me by surprise. Pretty cool.

PM - 4 easy miles w/ Rylie -- ~7:30 avg.

Streak 6 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

12 leisurely miles. 7:29 average. My right hip is giving me some grief after some of my runs. I've been having lower abdomen/hip pain for the last 4 years -- it finally dawned on me that I might have a sports hernia or something along those lines. At the moment I figure as long as it doesn't cause me problems while training I might as well finish out the training cycle and then reassess.

Launch 3 (Red) Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.000.000.000.008.00

8 easy on the levee. Windy morning. Legs feel good despite the bump in miles, which is good since I'm racing tomorrow. Run today started at 7:40 and worked down to 7:03 for a 7:19 average.

Triumph 3 Miles: 8.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Add Comment
Race: Double Bridge Run 15k (9.321 Miles) 00:50:24, Place overall: 5
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.800.009.320.0020.12

This landed on my race calendar after I messed up registration for a 15k in Nashville in a couple weeks. That would have lined up a little better with my training schedule, but Pensacola is half the distance from home, and this a pretty competitive race. Plus, the Florida beaches are always beautiful, even in February.

With it being last minute, I couldn't find an Airbnb I liked, so we decided to try a hotel with both kiddos in the same room with us. Sounded like disaster. And at first it looked that way with Eli screaming unconsolably every time we tried to lay him down to sleep. Finally he knocked out, and the next thing I knew it was 4:15 and my alarm was waking me up. What a relief.

This is a point-to-point course, and the weather forecast kept showing unfavorable winds for race morning. And that was about right. It was 40F or so with 10-15 mph winds that weren't directly head on, but angling into your face. I hopped on a shuttle that got me to the start line at 6am, so I had plenty of time to putter around and warm up.

At the start a couple guys shot to the front, and a chase pack formed of 4 guys. The chase pack started a lot more aggressively than I wanted. I showed a 74 first quarter by my watch. I sort of hung off the back of them, but decided I had to commit to a fast pace, or else I'd be battling the wind by myself all the way. 5:07 first mile.

2nd mile turned directly into the wind and had a long gradual uphill. I had tucked directly behind 2 guys, and they slowed here. It was needed, and I felt myself recovering from the too-quick pace. 5:18 for #2.

Mile 3 started the same before turning onto the first bridge, and the wind was now blowing cross-ways with a strong "in your face" component. My wind blocks became less useful, and they also picked up the pace to around 5:10. I hung on, but that's too fast for me at this point in those conditions. I was just hoping one of them would drop before I did. 5:13 for #3.

The bridge crosses Pensacola Bay and is 3 miles long with an overpass about midway through. I continued to hang on but could feel the cracks forming. When I caught myself drifting back I threw in a few mini-surges to maintain contact. Eventually a gap formed and I knew that was it. I kept them in contact for a bit, but the end of mile 4 goes up the overpass, and once we hit the hill I was done. I've got to find more hills to run in New Orleans. 5:15 at mile 4.

I watched them pull away and glanced back to see where our 4th pack member had run off to. He was a long ways back. I tried to keep the pace up so that I could strike if one of the other 2 dropped off, but they stayed together all the way to the finish. Without position or a fast time to chase, I had a hard time keeping up race effort. I slipped to 5:31 for mile 5, then 6-8 in 5:32 (10k in ~32:30), 5:34, and 5:35. I picked it up on mile 9 a little for 5:25 and then cruised into the finish on the beach to grab the last money spot. The race timers had me at 49:12, which is a joke, so I'm going with my watch time. Tyler McCandless won in 44:52, although it looks like all the times are messed up, so I'm guessing he was a minute back from that.

I would like to have placed higher, but 3rd and 4th place were just in better shape than me. They ended up ~90 seconds up. Afterwards, I ran back to the hotel and finished up 20 miles on the treadmill. 

Launch 3 (Red) Miles: 7.00Streak 6 Miles: 13.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
69.800.009.323.1182.23
Triumph 3 Miles: 24.00Launch 3 (Red) Miles: 31.00Streak 6 Miles: 23.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Debt Reduction Calculator
Featured Announcements
Lone Faithfuls
(need a comment):
Recent Comments: