San Francisco Half

A couple of months ago, I ran my first Boston qualifier. I had expected to be thrilled after that run, instead I felt disgusted. I had tried to run a little faster than goal pace and was so drained towards the end that I had to drag myself  over the finish line. This time around, I sprinted the last quarter mile at ~6 minutes/mile pace and felt invincible!

Race Plan
The plan was to apply the lessons from the last run. I committed to not run faster than the goal pace, which was 7:15 minutes/mile or 95 minutes total. Here is the elevation adjusted pace that I programmed on my watch:

Each segment of the race went per plan:

Turns out, 1:34 was good enough for me to be #10 in my age/gender category and in top 100 overall:

After completing the first half, I paced two of my dear friends for another 13 miles, one of whom was in last 13 miles of his 52.4 miler and the second was in last 13 of his 26.2 miler - this was by far the best part of my day!

Training for and running my first BQ

The Training

After I ran Chicago Marathon last year at 3:20, I knew it was time to train for BQ. The official cut off for my age and gender is 3:15, though I would need to be at 3:13 to be actually invited to run (demand and supply at its best).

I opted to train for 3:10 and registered for Mountains2Beach marathon - which claims to be a downhill lightening fast course and is geared to produce a outsized number of BQs. The pace groups of 3:03, 3:13, 3:23 are clearly designed to help people achieve BQs.

I continued with Hanson's Marathon method and chose to train using the advanced track for the first time. The weekly mileage in this track climbs to 40+ miles in week 2 and stays high throughout - it is 50+ miles for ~14 out of 18 weeks and peaks at ~65 miles weekly. 

My training goals were simple:
- stay consistent (6x weekly)
- get the miles per the plan
- correct pace for every run (tracks: 6:39/ strength run: 7:05 / tempo: 7:15 / long run : 7: 54 / easy : 8:13 / very easy : 8:50)
- correct intensity. I use Garmin metrics to estimate intensity levels. Even though these are post facto metrics, they are a good indicator of whether the intensity is correct. Here is what I target

 Like prior training periods, this one was disciplined as well.

Though I sometimes missed 6x weekly
due to international and coast to coast travel, I always managed 12 sessions over 14 day period. The actual mileage was exactly per Hanson's. The actual pace for most runs was usually 5-10 seconds/mile faster than the desired pace.  The intensity metrics were always green. Going into the race day, I was predicting a race time of 3:05-3:07.

The Race Day Plan

Instead of constant pace, I planned for elevation adjusted pace (esp. since I don't do too well on hills). Here is what the pace looked like for 3:10 finish:

 

Here's the splits that I planned.  My plan was to not hang with any pace group - my perception was that pace groups run at a near constant pace irrespective of elevation.

The pace zones are such that I would still hit BQ even if I stayed on slower end of the band in each split. The plan was to stay in the middle of the band and not let my watch remind me via irritating beeps. Middle of band would get me  to a 3:05-3:07.

The Course and the race

Once the race started, I found myself running with the wolfpack, the 3:03 pace group. Clearly, the

anticipation and the adrenaline had gotten to me and I was about to ignore the race plan and run like a rookie. The first several miles were very enjoyable. The banter was friendly, the temperature cool, the tree cover significant and the downhill gentle (except for one significant uphill stretch). The pace stayed consistent, even for the uphill.

At around mile 10, the tree cover disappeared, the sun became more intense and very high humidity started to become noticeable. The gentle downhill continued and the pace, below 7 minutes/mile still felt easy.

By mile 15, the banter had disappeared and the number of runners in the pace group had decreased. The pace felt sustainable but not easy.

At mile 21, I decided it was my turn to separate from the pace group. I planned to slow down by 20 seconds/mile. Except that I was deflated and slowed down a lot more that what I planned. It was evident that the last few miles would be a drag, and they were. Very anticlimactic and very unlike the run in Chicago last year!

Lessons learnt. Stick to the tempo pace - even a 15 second/mile faster than tempo pace can be unsustainable.  Respect the distance. Expect the race day to be different than a typical training day.

      

Ok, I am done beating myself up. The overall result wasn't too shabby - 3:09 is a pretty cool PR.

Looking forward to 12/14/2015 when I begin training for Boston. Meanwhile, no more marathons this year. Am planning to hang out with Team Asha AM runners on week days and occasionally show up over weekends. Also plan to restart swim lessons, maybe try crossfit again, maybe train for a half marathon (1:25 would be cool), or take up biking - oh wait, I don't have a bike - maybe a good road bike would be an excellent father's day gift :)