A little crazy

Tomorrow morning, I'm heading to Chicago to run my second 50K of the year. I haven't trained as much for this one as I did in the spring, but I still hope for a decent time. I plan to keep the engine fueled with plenty of gel and Accelerade to promote a speedy recovery.

You may be wondering -- why run this when you've got a marathon about two weeks later? Well, you may recall that I ran my best marathon EVER three weeks after the spring 50K. So, consider tomorrow's race a very long warm-up for San Antonio. :)

Six thousand

About nine months after breaking the 5,000 barrier, I hit six thousand miles on my lifetime odometer on Saturday. That's a lot of running.

A squishy trip to work

I've been ramping up the mileage just a little bit over the past week. The highlight would have to be Wednesday morning, when I braved the rain and a bike trail riddled with puddles at 6:15 a.m. and completed a run to work. I managed the 8.5-mile trip in less than 90 minutes, and I was cleaned up and at my desk before 8. Soft ground reduces the impact on your joints, but it also requires more effort to maintain the same pace. So, I went a bit more slowly than usual (often above 10:00/mile), but I made it just fine.

Perhaps, at some point in the future, I'll attempt to run both to and from work on the same day. If I can do that without any problems, then it's time to think about a run-to-work WEEK. That would be 85 miles in 5 days. Hmmmm.....

Kenosha Marathon?!?!?!

If I could buy stock in running, I would do it in a heartbeat. I'm always looking for fun places to run my next marathon. But why go somewhere when the marathon comes to you instead? This article in Chicago Athlete Magazine caught me by surprise. It sounds like some folks across the border saw an already-crowded Wisconsin marathon scene and declared, "Me too!"

The race's official web site isn't up yet -- I'll probably have more to say when that happens.

Rock N' Roll San Jose

I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but I managed a new personal best for the half marathon in San Jose on Sunday.

The weather was just a tiny bit cool at the start -- almost perfect. I felt great for the first few miles, and I was able to keep the 1:45 pace team in sight. I lost track of them when I took a break to get some Cytomax (the sports drink of choice at this race), but I was optimistic that I might see them again.

I started to feel a bit tired at mile 6, but I still had plenty of energy. I began eating a pack of orange sport beans, finishing them just before the mile 7 water stop. My splits remained below 8:30, but I was slowing down a bit. I wasn't sure I could get back to the 1:45 pace group, but I hoped for 1:48 or better.

At mile 10, I took advantage of the PowerGel stop, enjoying the "plain"-flavored variety and washing it down with two cups of water. In retrospect, I should have drank even more here. Things were heating up, and I could tell that my stomach was tightening.

The last three miles were barely below 9:00 a mile, and I was in danger of not breaking 1:50. I removed my heart rate monitor in case it was causing me to cramp up more than necessary. I used most of my remaining energy to keep moving forward down the final stretch, and I finished with a time of 1:49:54. Don't worry, Mom, I didn't fall over at the finish line or anything. :)

I guess this is a decent time, considering that I haven't been training as much lately, and it was pretty warm by the time I finished. However, in Tybee Island in Feburary, I ran the second half of a marathon in 1:51:13 (after a 1:57:52 first half). So, when I pick up my training again, watch out, 1:45!

Mile splits:
8:02, 7:53, 8:02, 8:05, 8:14,
8:19, 8:12, 8:28, 8:40, 8:36,
8:44, 8:59, 8:43, 0:57