This past week I opted to try something a little different with my running routine. I knew I wanted to try running the Lake Country half marathon on the weekend and didn’t want to go into it wiped out, but I also didn’t want to take a full taper week. I opted for easy runs to keep the miles up and then a series of strides thrown in at the end of each run for a little speed work. Monday was 5 miles, Tuesday 5 miles, Wednesday 5 miles, Thursday 6.5 miles and Friday off. When I run at work the fire hydrants are about 100 yards apart. The last .7 miles I would run fast (5k pace or faster) to the next hydrant, then jog to the next, then fast, etc… until back at the office. When I ran from home I would use telephone poles in the same way.
For the race Saturday I really didn’t have a good feel for how I would do. Coming back from injury I had not been able to push myself with either speed or distance yet. I didn’t sign up until Friday night as I was watching the weather closely. I would not have signed up if it was going to be really hot. That was not going to be the case, but the forecast did call for strong winds as the day went along. At 7am though it was nice with just a little wind and temps in the upper 40’s. I set a goal for myself of trying to hit about 7:20 pace at the beginning and see how that went. The race went along well. The splits off my Garmin, with the auto lap feature set were 7:15, 7:19, 7:07, 7:17, 7:22, 7:20, 7:44, 7:08, 7:40, 7:32, 7:31, 7:34, 7:38, and .51 (6:31). There weren’t a lot of hills, but they were found on mile 7 and mile 13 accounting for some of the slower pace. The wind directly in my face the last mile didn’t help much either. I think mile 8 was short and 9 long which happens sometimes so they would average out. Final time was 1:37:18. I was 85th overall and 4th in my age group. The previous two years I was 1st in my age group for this race and only a little over a minute slower. Funny thing is this same time last year would have still been good enough for 1st, so it really all depends who shows up. In hind sight I should have set a faster goal. I had lot’s left at the end and I felt real good immediately after and the next day. That’s usually proof I could have pushed harder. Any way I came out of it well and with a little confidence for the upcoming marathon.
Some good things about this race for me are: that it’s close to home, the timing is right for fitting into the schedule for an early Oct marathon, registration can be last minute, packet and chip pick up are easy, nice technical t-shirt, lots of good food and drink afterward (no beer though), plenty of water stops and even a gel stop, well marked course, nice bunch of volunteers that seem to make the whole event run smoothly.
Some not so good things, it is rather expensive for a half marathon at $50. Get there early or you will be stressed finding a place to park. The course sucked this year. It’s advertised as music along the course…water…woods…scenery. Granted construction caused this to happen, but it was pretty boring in the current configuration. It was mainly just through different subdivisions with lots of corners to take. Previous years it circled the lake with lake views probably ¾ of the way at least. The only music I saw/heard was a single woman playing guitar near the beginning and a chair with a boom box going somewhere in the middle.
Here is a link to some pictures from the professional photographer. They are pretty bad so I don’t think I will buy any.
To finish the week I ran a recovery 6.5 miles on Sunday giving me 41.1 for the week. I finished August with 123. On Labor Day I ran another 6.5 slower miles. My weekly average is still over 45 and my monthly average is right at 196 despite the recent down time.
So through Labor Day Monday:
WTD 6.5
MTD 37.6
YTD 1607
ODO 26,773
Hunting:
I’ve gotten out to practice shooting with my bow a few times, but still haven’t been as consistent doing it as I should be. I have been good with the grouping of shots so I’m not real worried about it, but the more you can get out to make the shot feel automatic the better. I finished trimming the shooting lanes around my back yard stands this past week. Things are ready for the opener if I choose to go out 9/18. I have had deer in the back almost every day this past week. I’ve seen a few of them, but also know some are coming in at night to eat apples and pears that fall from the trees, and some of the corn standing in the back. I also notice that one or two have a preference for spaghetti squash and have demolished a couple of them.
Just about a year ago I posted that I had seen some salamander lizards while cleaning the pool skimmers. That same thing happened again this past week. Two days in a row I pulled out yellow spotted ones. One of them was as big a salamander as I have ever seen. All the vine crops are starting to shut down now. This is a little early, but there are lots of squash, watermelon, and pumpkins out there so I’m not worried about getting enough. In some ways it will make the harvest easier as I won’t have to leave them there and risk having to scramble when the forecast calls for a hard frost or freeze. The watermelons have been fantastic this year. I’m so glad I learned how to tell when they are ripe. We went to parties on Saturday and Sunday where a dish to pass was in order. The melons went over well both times.
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