Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Event: ROC - Durand Eastman Park
 

Durand Eastman orienteering course, set (sadistically) by feet. Mango 1 plus Mango 2. Distance logged is what the Forerunner said I actually covered; official "orienteering" distance is 7.7 km.

Lots and lots of climb; up and down every ridge there was, multiple times, it seemed. Good use of a relatively small area to give a very substantial physical challenge.

My time breakdown was 62:18 on Mango 1 (4.7 km), averaging 15:01/mile (of the distance covered), and then 36:39 on Mango 2 (3.0 km), averaging 16:35/mile (definitely running out of gas).

No major orienteering mistakes, although a few bobbles:

Mango 1: #1 (lost maybe 30 seconds going to the wrong re-entrant initially; not a big mistake but kind of aggravating and totally unnecessary); #8 (didn't know where I was along the road and went up the wrong spur; maybe lost a minute); #9 (went right to the correct corner of the building but I was on the wrong side of the uncrossable fence!; lost around 1.5 minutes); #12 (started looking too far N, then went too far S, before finally spotting it; lost around a minute).

Mango 2: #3 (thought it was going to be on top of the spur, should have read the clue sheet to see it was the re-entrant; lost only 20 seconds or so).

More lost time, though, was just trying to catch my breath going up the many very steep climbs.

Mango 1&2 - Splits

Mid-morning run on the canal path, with the dogs. From Perinton Park, west to around Bushnell's Basin, and back. Very nice day, low to mid 60's, sunny, little wind. Dogs thought it was much too hot, but Homer got to swim in the canal three different times, so that helped him stay cool. Felt good, seem to be pretty much recovered from marathon.

Morning run, on the Hojack Trail with the dogs. Felt very good, considering it's 4 days after the marathon. Averaged 8:30/mile from Klem to Lake (which is somewhat downhill, maybe 70 foot overall drop), then 7:56/mile from Lake to Klem (which obviously is somewhat uphill). 52 degrees, sunny, slight wind. Very nice morning.

Very very easy run (with a lot of walking) at Ellison Wetlands. Can hardly even call this a workout, just another step in recovery from marathon.

Easy, flat run, recovering from marathon. Felt surprisingly good, for around 48 hours after the finish of the race. Ran with the dogs, on the Hojack trail, from Klem Rd, towards Lake Rd but didn't get that far, turned around at the 1.5 mile point.

Walk with the dogs, on flat terrain, to work on recovering from marathon. Actually felt quite good today; I suppose that's because my race went so badly yesterday so I didn't stress my muscles as much as if it had gone better. I had a blister on the ball of my right foot that was bothering me the last 4 miles or so of the marathon, and was quite tender to walk on after the race yesterday. Today, it is still visible, but hardly tender at all. It was only slightly noticeable on the walk today.

Went from our house, out to Maple, to Finn Park, did the loop around the field, stopping at the stream for the dogs to get some water (on a very warm day), then returned via the Rt 104 bike path to Bay Rd, to Woodland, and home.

More analysis of Buffalo marathon (which went very poorly) and Rochester marathon (which went well):

Average pace, start to mile 17:
Rochester: 9:08/mile
Buffalo: 8:57/mile

Average pace, mile 17 to end:
Rochester: 8:32/mile
Buffalo: 10:06/mile

Final time:
Rochester: 3:53
Buffalo: 4:06

So on the surface, it looks like I did the first 17 miles at a pace that was 11 seconds per mile faster in the Buffalo race, but then paid for it big time from that point on. I'm not convinced that the problem was simply a matter of being 11 seconds per mile too fast (although I'm also not ruling it out).

I can definitely say, though, that it's far more satisfying to go a little slower in the beginning and speed up towards the end, than to go too fast at the beginning and be dying at the end!

Buffalo Marathon. A personal worst, by quite a bit!! Very definitely hit the wall ... not sure why. May have gone out a little too fast but really not excessively fast, based on my time in last September's Rochester Marathon (where I averaged 8:55/mile for the race).

My average pace from the start to mile 17 was 8:57/mile. My average pace from mile 17 to the end of the race was 10:06/mile. My slowest mile (mile 22) was 11:04 (most of the miles from 17 on included some significant walking stretches.) Classic case of hitting the wall.

Definitely my slowest and least pleasant marathon ever. The frustrating thing is that I really don't know the cause. The weather was quite nice -- ranged from around 50 at the start to 60 at the finish. I thought I had trained pretty well, tapered OK, and eaten sensible foods in the days before, and the morning of, the race. Guess it's just one of those things ... some days, it's not your day.

I placed 351st out of 710 finishers overall; 16th out of 37 in my age group; 263rd out of 480 males.

Saw Walt and Patty as we were walking to the start (actually jogging slowly, we were running late due to long lines at the bathrooms ...), and saw Walt again around the 12 mile mark, heard him give some encouragement to me.

On a positive note, Anne did real well. Her time in the Rochester Marathon was 4:49:28; in the Buffalo Marathon, she ran around 4:29:36, nearly 20 minutes (about 45 seconds per mile!) faster!