HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Just want to say to everyone, that I hope you have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! That's all! ;-)

Just a quick note!   Here is the map of my next race in Auburn, Alabama... My home town!!

New beginnings and the past

The end of the year is for reflecting and then planning. Planning for what will be goals and aspirations of the fresh new year, or in some cases.. the rest of your life.  I'm not usually one to create resolutions.. in fact, like Jimmy Buffett sang in a recent song.. "I'm gonna made a resolution, that I'll never make another one".  Resolutions are so short lived and soon forgotten. In fact, just go to the gym the first couple of week in January... you can hardly get a workout done for waiting in line at the weight stations. But just a few weeks later (or a few days) those same lines are no longer there. Where did they go? Back to their old ways....  Well.. enough about all that.. Let's talk about running stuff!

I am in week six of my Hal Higdon Advanced Half Marathon plan... with seven weeks left till race day. I've not used this training plan before, but I have heard some positive comments about it. His plan has emphasis on run times (duration) and not distances. And it includes 3 "recovery" runs during the week to both recover and prepare for the speed workouts during the rest of the week.

Yesterday I recorded and posted my first running podcast > http://earlymorningcruzin.podbean.com/  It's a first run at it.. and I will hopefully get better!

I do have goals for both my blog and podcast.. and that is to DO IT!! so there... I said it..

Another Day another Race

This weekend I ended up running a local 8K road race. I had not planned to run but I kind of wanted to get a check on where I was in my preparation for the Vulcan 10 in two weeks. I won't go into every detail of the race but as it turns out I ran a pretty good avg pace for the 5 miles. Miles splits were

6:41; 7:02; 7:02; 6:38; 6:57

So.. started out good.. mile two had a hill and as most will do in a 5 miles race I held back a little in mile three.. Mile 4 had a slight down grade.. not enough to seem like you were going down hill but enough to help your pace. I don't know what happened in the last mile.. I don't feel that I slowed up any.. all I can think was that there were two long straight sections that lead to the finish and both were going into a headwind that was pretty steady.

I think my over all effort for the race was 90 - 95 percent. I never really "hurt" or felt that I just couldn't reach down for more and for whatever reason I just kept it on cruise to the finish. In fact, I turned around right after the finish and ran a cool down of a little over 2 miles.

Great Event!

I have to say the inaugural running of the Montgomery Half Marathon must be considered a GREAT success. I was totally surprised at the number of runners that accepted the challenge of the 13.1 mile course. And I thought that the longest race in this River Regions area that could be a success, was 10K. I was proved VERY wrong.. and I'm glad to say I was wrong!

I was glad that Scott Strand of Birmingham was the winner. Scott is a truely blessed runner that did a great job of picking out his parents! He is a humble and soft spoken man, but put a pair of racing shoes on him and he's like a crazy wind. His race time of 1:10 is great, and oh by the way...did I mention that he is 41 years old.. that makes him a member of the "Masters" class! Yep.. he is good.

As for my race, I am fairly satisfied with the time I ran. The race gave me an idea of the training areas that I need to emphasis during my winter training for the half marathons I have scheduled in January and February 2010. Longer training runs of 14 - 15 miles are in order and I also need to put regular one mile interval training days into my schedule. This will go far to help with a couple of things that happened during the race. My legs really gave out at mile 10 and it wasn't the hill that did it. I could feel tightness in my thighs about three mile into the race and by the time I got to the end they were totally spent and there wasn't anything left for the last two miles (Longer runs and speed work will help with both of these).

It was great to be in downtown Montgomery before the race and seeing all the fellow runners warming up chatting it up with other runners. taking about training.. how they are going to do in the race (or how bad). :-)

The splits above show that I started out and went through the the first eight miles at a pretty good and somewhat even pace.. but then I started to suffer a little after that..I ended the slide with an 8:24 - 12th mile.. I was hurting pretty bad. But thankfully I got to thinking about the last mile and knew that I would be given the gift of a 1/2 mile of downhill running and then I would see the finish line. That was enough to get me through to the finish.  I got passed by several people during the last 1.5 miles and each person that passed me increased my temper. There is NO way these people train harder than me.. or put in more miles that me.. They WILL NOT pass me again in the next race!! OK.. I'm back now.. just had to blow off a little steam.  You see, my running thrives off of my "failures".. and I work off of that burning competitiveness to make myself better... Like the Mercedes race... I stood at the starting line of this race with the thought in my head, " I can't wait for next year.. I am going to do so much better?" 

Body, Don't fail me now!!

Ok.. who else does that happen to? You do all the right training and keep your diet in check for months.. then the week before the race you start to feel drained and you start to think that you catching a cold..

Well this is where I am today.. Yesterday I started to feel like my throat was swollen.. then that went away and now I just feel worn out.. I took a day off from work to rest and will get a good nights sleep tonight.. and maybe tomorrow will be better..

The night before the race is turning out to be less than perfect for a race on Saturday. My daughter plays in the High School band and as parents of a band member we have volunteered to work one of the many concession stands. I will try to leave at halftime and get a headstart on a good nights sleep..

This brings up a good hint.... The most important rest night is the night before the eve of your race. Just in case you are like me and are often restless the night before a race you don't go into the race day with two nights of less than your required rest.

I am sure that this is a very temp problem I am having..and will be race ready on Saturday morning.

Well... It's almost here....

One more week till the Inaugural Montgomery Half Marathon. Hope everyone's training has been as they needed and that there will be some PR's set this coming weekend.

I ran 8 miles this AM as my last long run. I will taper most of this week. My legs are feeling petty heavy and I just feel that they need some rest more than they need miles at this point.

Good news is the whether is taking a break from the high temps and humidity starting on Monday!!! And even better yet it looks as though race day will follow a night with a low of  around 64* and the high expected of 79. Just as a reference it was already 79 at 10:00 this morning... and around 85% humidity.

No further words of wisdom..

The number of entrants has increased.. Looks like around 450 runners at this point.. No doubt there will be some late entrants and we will breach 500 total! That would really be a good sign for the organizers and Hyundai for the continuation of what could be a very popular Race of the South.

I'll keep saying it.. this is a GREAT course. I think will impress most who run it and I can't wait to hear some of the post race comments!  Yeah.. it starts with a rather long hill and the hills at the end can certainly test you.. but what is between makes up for it... The reward will be in the calm serenity and pleasant streets of Montgomery's campus and residential areas as the course welcomes everyone who accepts the challenge of 13.1 miles.