I am a ...SSPRMOE!

These are my feet after Saturday's 18-miler in the RAIN. I know it's a bad picture, but I want to point out that I am not tan.

I am MUDDY.
And COLD.

And HAPPY...

I expected rain on Saturday, and weighed the pro's and con's of getting out there first thing vs. waiting till there was a break in the weather. The need for more sleep and the fact that I needed to take Leopold to get his pinewood derby car cut out was the decider- I waited. (Some nice parent was willing to bring in his band saw and help the kids cut the shapes of their cars out on a Saturday morning. So nice. But really, would yould you expect any less from Scouts?).

So, of course, there's no rain until riiiight before 3:00, as I'm getting ready to run. Great. So I drive to Carrier Park since I have a 15 mile out-and-back route that's fairly flat, leaving me with just 3 miles to run once I get back to the Park. As I park, it starts pouring. Oh, well. I was slightly cheered by remembering a couple of breakthrough runs last training cycle in downpours like this. Perhaps today will be a good day...

As I started out, I noticed I felt very strong and ready to run. Things like that get my attention. A couple of miles in, I realized I was going to change my Progression run to a Steady State Run to take advanage of how I was feeling. Normally, I don't make changes like that. But occasionally, there are moments where you just know that changing something is the right thing to do. This was one of them.

For the first 15 miles I averaged 9:31 pace:

9:36
9:39
9:27
9:31
9:31
9:39
9:00
8:38
9:18
9:28
9:32
9:34
9:34
9:33
9:35

When I got back to Carrier Park ...

I was tired. *
My thumb was bleeding. **
My legs were done.

And I think, "Perfect time to test Marathon Pace".***

9:03
9:07
9:09

Now. I. Am. Done.

I am a Steady State Progression Running Master of Efficiency (SSPRMOE***)

* Duh!
** My nails turn in to rice paper after 2 hrs. in the rain. Something as simple as tying a shoelace is enough to tear them down to the quick.
*** Thank you everyone for your posts when I was contemplating the downward adjustment of my marathon pace. I do believe the sub-4 dream is still alive.

My "Be Here Now" Moment

Yesterday I was using my Half Marathon race time to predict what marathon pace I should be able to sustain in my race next month. It's a little tricky, because it was a hilly race, but still there's a pace range it predicts and that range is not that wide. When I plug my HM time in to McMillan's running calculator, it predicts a 4:05 marathon. (9:23 pace).

Initially, I felt disappointment about probably not being able to break the 4 hour mark this time. Sub-4 is a substantial goal and I want it bad. I mean, never say never, but I'm not going to start out the race at a sub-4 hour pace. That in itself was enough to make me feel the disappointment.


Then, I went for my run. The workout called for 3 x 2 miles at MP with a 10% slower half-mile recovery in between. I had been doing this workout at 9:00 - 9:10 pace, so I adjusted it down to 9:15 - 9:25 pace. It seemed slow/easy, but this work out is not supposed to be a killer. By rep number 3, I was really thinking 9:18 seems right for me for MP. I need to set aside my expectations and work within the range I'm currently at, not the one I want to be at. Get to know 9:18. Up close and personal.

After that run, I went back to the McMillan calculator and saw that 9:18 pace predicts a 4:03:30 marathon, and a 1:55:28 Half Marathon. I believe I would have run 1:55 or faster if Saturday's race was on a flat course. (By the way, next month's marathon is a flat course).

I feel I've started my last 2 marathons with a "wishful thinking" pace plan instead of a feeling of actually knowing what I'm capable of, then working within that pace range to get the best race out of myself. Not surprisingly, the results have been 2 races where I've run out of fuel with 6-8 miles of race left.

I'd really like to duplicate the good race experience I had in the Half next month. I ran within my abilities, but not holding back. I stayed in the moment and as a result, I was "in the race" the whole time. I'm going to make that my "real" A goal for next month.

"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop."-The King of Hearts