IMM Training & Hendricks Half Report

This past weekend we dipped under 50 days to go. I am starting to hit that point in trying where general fatigue and hunger rule the day…every day. My sleeping, heart rate and mood all are good so just keep on grinding. It can be very easy to slip into a cycle of over-reaching/training but at this point I feel pretty good. Marathon training is a grind.

Sept 8 – 14

83.2 miles

8 runs

1 race

Monday – 10 miles. Around 8:30 pace. Just shaking out the system for the 10 mile tempo work during my Sunday long run.

Tuesday – General aerobic session for 8 miles. 7:30 pace. 6 x 100m strides at the end. Ran downtown for a change up.

Wednesday – Oh the medium long run….I said on Strava 15 miles is still 15 miles. It still is. It’s a long time to run in the morning but gotta put the work in. It was technically 15.1 cause that matters. 7:30 pace. Stomach issues of late. Not cool.

Thursday – 2 runs. Both recovery from the medium long run. The first one was at Eagle Creek during my lunch. Just messed around on the trail and roads for 6.6 miles. 9:30 pace. Second run was after work for 4 miles. 8:47 pace. Felt better than at lunch. 10.5 miles for the day.

Friday – This was supposed to be a workout (12 miles with 7 miles @ HMP or threshold, LT whatever you want to call it) but since I was going to run the Hendricks County Half the following day I flipped the days. 8.5 miles easy and relaxed. 7:35 pace.

Saturday – I’ll let Lindsey break down her race with Marshall and the stroller 22 weeks pregnant. I’ll just say she’s way tougher then me to get through the day with him. Conditions weren’t exactly 2 year old friendly. Cold, real windy, and about 48 degrees. We drove out to Danville early Saturday for the race. I had enough time to get in about 1.4 mile warm up with some strides. Legs felt terrible. I wasn’t concerned though. I wanted to run well for the workout but the current goal is not a half marathon…it is the coming marathon so this race was a fitness test. No taper. Run it hard and see how things go. I was going to be happy with something in the 1:20 range.

Looking at the results from prior years depending on who showed up I had a chance to win. Granted it is a small race and I’m no speedster… a win is still a win. Getting to the start line I saw three other guys that looked to be running hard.  I was glad I had some friends as it is much easier to race with some people to push with instead of being all alone. Gun went off and one dude went up the road. Well…looks like no win for  me. He won in 1:13 or so. That left two other guys to run with. The second place guy settled in front of me and I had him in view the entire time so that was good. The race route was on farm roads that rolled way more then I had anticipated- about 500 feet of total change, and the wind really whipped most of the race. It made for good hard running. I paced with one other guy for about the first 8 miles. He should surge every time I went past him on a hill…ok play on playa’. I never understand  that. I eventually passed on for good at mile 8.5 and was alone to chase the 2nd place guy back to town. I never made much progress on him but had him in view to keep pushing.

I was able to grab 3rd place overall in a time of 1:18:07. Normally, I would be super pumped about this since it would be a PR by about 25 seconds and granted I am very happy with the workout and fitness test for Monumental…. but the course was short. Blows. No big deal really but slightly annoying as it cancels out any recording of this as official. It’s funny if you look at the official results you can very plainly see the paces listed tie back to 13 miles and not 13.1. Again no big deal for me as the half is not a goal right now but  I do feel bad for people that had this a big goal or were looking to break a certain time. Maybe they didn’t notice the course being short 🙂

Here are my splits:

Mile 1- 5:57

Mile 2- 5:54

Mile 3- 5:58

Mile 4- 6:02

Mile 5- 5:57

Mile 6- 5:58

Mile 7- 6:01

Mile 8– 5:53

Mile 9- 6:08

Mile 10- 6:20

Mile 11– 6:21

Mile 12– 5:53

Mile 13- 5:53

Miles 9-11 were into a pretty stiff headwind and slightly uphill. It was a tough section across corn fields. Avg pace 6:01 for the race. Since it seems I can’t help myself and maybe I care more then I am typing so I calculated that the full 13.1 time would be 1:18:43. I finished the day out with a cool down back to Lindsey and Marshall and ran it back in with them. Overall, very happy with the workout/race. 21 miles total for the day.

Sunday – 10.1 miles. Recovery. 8:17 pace.

Another solid week in the books. Happy with how things are coming along. Looking ahead, I’ve got a couple more weeks of solid training and then it is time to taper.

7 weeks to go- who’s ready from Indy Monumental?