FIRST Run of 2011

The first long run of this 18-week half-marathon training program loomed like a boulder in my path.  It's not the distance - I have run ten 20 milers a year for 5 years while training for marathons.  But in order to hit a 90 minute half-marathon, you are supposed to run Half-marathon pace plus 20 seconds -  a 7:11 pace for 8 miles.   Maybe that will come, but with first week of the program falling between Christmas and New Years, my diet, alcohol intake and sleep schedule have not been optimal.  Laura and I did not go our for New Years, but we were out a  party on Thursday night, and I woke up at 4:30 am on Friday.  We spent the day watching Laura's niece in a high school diving meet held at Purdue University. In order to get to the start of the meet by 9 am (eastern time), we had to leave at 6 am.  At least our niece made it exciting by coming back from a 20 point deficit to take first place by 10 points in her last 2 dives.  But the diet that day of donuts, pizza and Mexican food was not good pre-run fuel.

I let myself sleep in on New Years Day.  It was clear I was going to be running on my own.  The temperature was just below freezing, the streets were dry, but there was a 20+ mph wind.   The 8 mile route by my house is nice and convenient, but it has a few hills.  My other option was to drive to the straight, flat, Old Plank Trail  and run 4 miles west into the wind, and turn  around and run back.  I stuck to the home route.

I did not have delusions of hitting that 7:11 pace, but I had to turn in a faster pace than I usually do on long runs.  I set my Garmin pace alert for a 7:30 pace.  Since I was running by myself, I decided to try the Garmin "Virtual Partner".  It takes your goal pace for a given distance, and  shows 2 figures on your watch - one represents you, and the other your "partner".  It shows the partner either ahead or behind of you, and the difference.  Usuially when I do a long run, I just start my watch as soon as I start.  But I figured if I had to run at this pace,  I wanted to hit that pace from the get-go, so I took a warmup lap around my block, then I started my watch.

My route meanders southwest, and then turns in a general northeast direction.  My face was pretty cold at the start, mainly from the wind.  My first 2 miles were in a 7:20-7:30 range, but the third mile was a climb up a hill into the wind, so it slowed to about 7:40.  This is where my "partner" started to get ahead of me.  It showed the distance as 100, 200, 400 feet, which did not seem insurmountabe, and I gave myself milestones to try to catch up to, or visualized my running buddies or catching up to people in a race. 

I passed the halfway 4 mile mark, and I had a little bit of a downhill, and the wind at my back, so I took advantage of it.  I was coming up to a long gradual uphill, and I was 38 feet ahead  of my partner.  I decided if I I could not let him get ahead of me by the end top of the hill, then the rest of the run, I could keep his pace.  I put my gloves in my pocket, and opened my jacket a little, because the wind would  not be a factor.  As I came to the 5 mile mark at the top of the hill, I was still 28 feet ahead,  Now I knew I could hold the pace for the rest of the run, with hardly any hills, and the wind at my back. Plus, that 5th mile was actually under 7:20, so I was keeping a faster pace.  Same thing for the 6th mile.  I was back near my house, running a big sweeping loop east.  I looked at my watch, and the distance was 0.11.  That had to be wrong, I was still keeping that 7-minute-ish pace,- then the mileage counter kicked in and showed my 7th mile at 6:57.  I looked at the "partner" display - I was still ahead - now I realized that where I had been 300-400 feet, I had increased the gap, and now it was showing my lead in miles.  So I had 1 mile to go, and I was 0.12 miles ahead.  Like my friend Dale likes to say, I could "smell the hay in the barn", so I stepeed it up more.  The final turn before the finish would take me west straight into the wind for a quarter mile.  I was not looking forward to it.  I tried to build my lead, 0.14 - 0.16.  That might be dried up with that wind.  I was running down the street on the next block from my house, but it felt like I was miles away.  The wind made this part of my run feel like I was swimming in an endless pool, just using all my strenth not to have the current push me back.  The wind was chilling my hands, but there was no way I was slowing to put them back on.  I could see my house, but since my route was about 7.85 miles, I knew I had to go paast it to the corner to get 8 miles. I had left a full 1-quart  water bottle on the back of my son's truck on the street.  The wind had blown it off.  I keep charging past it, and lookd at my watch - my lead was still 0.15 miles. The watch beeped when I got to the corner, and wi was ready to turn around and cooldown with teh wind at my back.  I looked at my watch and it said "Success" Average Pace: 7:22.
That was success, running by myself, with a strong wind on a hilly course, I ran my fastest 10-K, and ran another (almost) 2 fast miles after that.  A pretty good start to the New Year.