Wednesday, November 02, 2005
10 Miles enroute to 13.2 Miles
After talking to Chris earlier this week he wanted to have everybody's comments on the 10 mile race. So here I go...
After running the 8k and 10k races, I was hoping I could do the 10 miler somewhere between 1:30 to 1:40 hrs, with the goal being as close to 1:30 as possible. Since I set up my Garmin to auto-lap every mile and my customized screen is set to BPM, Lap Pace, and Lap Distance, I was not keeping track of my overall time. It was a very exciting thing to approach the finish line and see the clock below 1:30 and being able to cross the line just under the 1:30 mark.
I had never run this distance before, and I think it was a good thing to run it for the first time in a race environment. The most I had ran in training was 8 miles (twice before) and by the end I was really bored. It also helped that the course was downhill.
One thing I have learned since I started training is that the first two miles are the most difficult because your body just doesn't want to run. After your heartrate gets up to a good target zone (160-170 for me) then it becomes really easy to run. The reason I bring this up, is that on this race the first mile was easier because I was concentrating on trying to pass a bunch of people in front of me and trying to get to my pace, but my body reluctance to run caught up with me between the first and second mile until my heartrate reach my target zone. Anyways, my lesson learned is for the next race to try to move up a little bit on the starting line to begin running with people close to or faster than my pace.
As for how I felt during the race, I have to say that I felt great during the first 6 miles. Between 6th and 7th I began feeling tired, and lucky enough this is when I got stopped at the intersection of Broadway and Euclid so that 30 second break was appreciated. After that I got stopped again at the 8.5 mile mark (right before crossing under I-10), and that also helped. On Chris' posting, he mentioned the gel intake. I took some at the 5 mile mark and took some more at the 7 mile mark. This time I tried a trick that the guy from Fleet Feet gave me, which is to premix it with water. This worked great because I bought a small bottle to carry the gel on my fuel belt, so I was able to premix it at home. This took away the disgusting sensation of the gel. This is one thing I will continue to do on future runs.
Switching gears a little bit, I am feeling tempted to attempt the half-marathon this weekend in Vail. I know it sounds kind of crazy, and I know it is a month ahead of schedule, but here is my rationale. According to the training guide we are following, the week before the half-marathon we are suppose to do a 10-mile run; well guys, we just did our 10-mile run. I know this half-marathon is going to be neither easy nor fast since the first 6.1 miles are slightly uphill, but I am feeling good. What is your opinion? should I try it or am I really thinking way too much of my abilities?
Anyways, this is another very long post... but I didn't want to finish it without saying CONGRATULATIONS to all the GANG for finishing the race last weekend. To be honest I thought we were all crazy when that night at 58Degrees we decided to do this, but I am certainly glad we did because I never thought I would enjoy running so much.
After running the 8k and 10k races, I was hoping I could do the 10 miler somewhere between 1:30 to 1:40 hrs, with the goal being as close to 1:30 as possible. Since I set up my Garmin to auto-lap every mile and my customized screen is set to BPM, Lap Pace, and Lap Distance, I was not keeping track of my overall time. It was a very exciting thing to approach the finish line and see the clock below 1:30 and being able to cross the line just under the 1:30 mark.
I had never run this distance before, and I think it was a good thing to run it for the first time in a race environment. The most I had ran in training was 8 miles (twice before) and by the end I was really bored. It also helped that the course was downhill.
One thing I have learned since I started training is that the first two miles are the most difficult because your body just doesn't want to run. After your heartrate gets up to a good target zone (160-170 for me) then it becomes really easy to run. The reason I bring this up, is that on this race the first mile was easier because I was concentrating on trying to pass a bunch of people in front of me and trying to get to my pace, but my body reluctance to run caught up with me between the first and second mile until my heartrate reach my target zone. Anyways, my lesson learned is for the next race to try to move up a little bit on the starting line to begin running with people close to or faster than my pace.
As for how I felt during the race, I have to say that I felt great during the first 6 miles. Between 6th and 7th I began feeling tired, and lucky enough this is when I got stopped at the intersection of Broadway and Euclid so that 30 second break was appreciated. After that I got stopped again at the 8.5 mile mark (right before crossing under I-10), and that also helped. On Chris' posting, he mentioned the gel intake. I took some at the 5 mile mark and took some more at the 7 mile mark. This time I tried a trick that the guy from Fleet Feet gave me, which is to premix it with water. This worked great because I bought a small bottle to carry the gel on my fuel belt, so I was able to premix it at home. This took away the disgusting sensation of the gel. This is one thing I will continue to do on future runs.
Switching gears a little bit, I am feeling tempted to attempt the half-marathon this weekend in Vail. I know it sounds kind of crazy, and I know it is a month ahead of schedule, but here is my rationale. According to the training guide we are following, the week before the half-marathon we are suppose to do a 10-mile run; well guys, we just did our 10-mile run. I know this half-marathon is going to be neither easy nor fast since the first 6.1 miles are slightly uphill, but I am feeling good. What is your opinion? should I try it or am I really thinking way too much of my abilities?
Anyways, this is another very long post... but I didn't want to finish it without saying CONGRATULATIONS to all the GANG for finishing the race last weekend. To be honest I thought we were all crazy when that night at 58Degrees we decided to do this, but I am certainly glad we did because I never thought I would enjoy running so much.
Monday, October 31, 2005
10 Miler Pics
Sunday, October 30, 2005
10 Miles Down
It looks like everyone made it which is awesome. I didn't get to stay and see everyone come across and have not checked in with anyone yet. I hope everyone feels better than I do today.
Here is my Garmin data (link). I felt great for the first 5.5 and started to notice my heartrate climbing around that point. The next 2.5 I tried to slow up a bit so as not to burn out completely and the last 2 were very, very tough. Admittedly, my training has been a little lax the last few weeks and 5 is the most I have gone in a long time.
I drank a total of about 1/4 bottle of gatorade and 1 large glass of water the morning of the race from the time I got up to the time we started. I had to stop and use the port-a-potty by the Krispy Kreme about 4.5 miles in. I only took water at the first station and skipped the other 3 though I can't recall why. I felt fine as far as hydration during the race but have some symptoms that day and the next that point to being a bit dehydrated. I think I might have been coming down with something the day before the race so that could explain it also.
I took the Carboom gel stuff at 4.5 which I think helped and also the one at like 9.3 which I don't think did much and seemed awfully late in the course to be passing it out. I would have killed for some around 7.5 or 8. Next race I will definitely carry some.
I didn't have any real pain or discomfort during but my knee started to hurt like a bastard as soon as I stopped. When describing the pain to my physician/father that afternoon he merely shrugged and noted that I am "kinda bowlegged".
Mentally, I am convinced that listening to the audiobook really passes the time and keeps me from being too much in my head. My gnat-like attention span doesn't allow for such a prolonged period of a single activity. I listened to 2 hours of the super lame ninja book (that's right I am 31 years old and reading a book about ninjas) in a section in which not much ninja actually happens. Despite that, I can not image running without an audiobook.
You can search the following link for our times etc. (Julio Martinez de Andino, Chris Baker, Dan Sivilli, Kerrie Sivilli, Alienda Lopez) note that its not my mistake on A-lo's name.
13 miles is only 35 days away.
Here is my Garmin data (link). I felt great for the first 5.5 and started to notice my heartrate climbing around that point. The next 2.5 I tried to slow up a bit so as not to burn out completely and the last 2 were very, very tough. Admittedly, my training has been a little lax the last few weeks and 5 is the most I have gone in a long time.
I drank a total of about 1/4 bottle of gatorade and 1 large glass of water the morning of the race from the time I got up to the time we started. I had to stop and use the port-a-potty by the Krispy Kreme about 4.5 miles in. I only took water at the first station and skipped the other 3 though I can't recall why. I felt fine as far as hydration during the race but have some symptoms that day and the next that point to being a bit dehydrated. I think I might have been coming down with something the day before the race so that could explain it also.
I took the Carboom gel stuff at 4.5 which I think helped and also the one at like 9.3 which I don't think did much and seemed awfully late in the course to be passing it out. I would have killed for some around 7.5 or 8. Next race I will definitely carry some.
I didn't have any real pain or discomfort during but my knee started to hurt like a bastard as soon as I stopped. When describing the pain to my physician/father that afternoon he merely shrugged and noted that I am "kinda bowlegged".
Mentally, I am convinced that listening to the audiobook really passes the time and keeps me from being too much in my head. My gnat-like attention span doesn't allow for such a prolonged period of a single activity. I listened to 2 hours of the super lame ninja book (that's right I am 31 years old and reading a book about ninjas) in a section in which not much ninja actually happens. Despite that, I can not image running without an audiobook.
You can search the following link for our times etc. (Julio Martinez de Andino, Chris Baker, Dan Sivilli, Kerrie Sivilli, Alienda Lopez) note that its not my mistake on A-lo's name.
13 miles is only 35 days away.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Registration and Head Count
I am now officially signed up for both the 10 miler and 1/2 marathon. I used the Active.com thing but didn't sign up for the AZ roadrunners deal. I don't need the shirt and don't do enough organized events to make it pay.
I know we lost G$ and I think Allen, who else is still in?
I know we lost G$ and I think Allen, who else is still in?
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Status
Since I haven't seen any recent postings, I was wondering how the rest of the "Tucson 1/2 Marathon Gang" is doing on their training???
Just to give an update of where I am at, today I broke the 8 mile mark for the first time. It was also the first time I tried the so-called energy gels. I ran the 8 miles in 1h25m; that included 4 walking sections of about .1 miles each. Am I way behind everybody else in their mileage or am I right on track?
Back to the energy gels, since it was the first time I tried one I want to give my opinion on them and gather some comments from people who have tried them. The one I tried was the Car-boom gel. This is the one included in the goodie bag for the 8K race. People had already warned me to have plenty of water available, so I did make sure I had plenty left. I took the gel right after the 4 miles turn around point this morning. The first sensation was pretty bad. The consistency of the gel is off something not meant to be ingested, plus the sugar rush in the mouth was not pleasant either. As for results of taking it, I didn't feel any big rush of energy or anything like that. What I can say though is that I felt the same way after finishing the 8 miles this morning as I did when I fisnihed the 10k (6.2 miles) last week during the Old Tucson Studio race. So from that, I guess it did work because I felt the same after 8 miles as I did after 6.2 miles without it. The only discomfort I had was not stomach cramping (which I heard is common), but I did feel some movement either in my stomach and in my intestines that I typically don't have while running. It didn't prevent me from keeping my pace or anythign else like that.
Back to training mileage, how is everybody doing based on the training schedule? Ihave been running less than 10 miles a week because of lack of time, but at least last week I did make 16 miles, and 8 from today should allow me to reach more than 16 during the week (btw, my week starts on Sundays, not Mondays like the training).
Wow, this is my first post ever to a blog... and definitely way too long. I will make sure to keep it shorter next time.
-Julio
Just to give an update of where I am at, today I broke the 8 mile mark for the first time. It was also the first time I tried the so-called energy gels. I ran the 8 miles in 1h25m; that included 4 walking sections of about .1 miles each. Am I way behind everybody else in their mileage or am I right on track?
Back to the energy gels, since it was the first time I tried one I want to give my opinion on them and gather some comments from people who have tried them. The one I tried was the Car-boom gel. This is the one included in the goodie bag for the 8K race. People had already warned me to have plenty of water available, so I did make sure I had plenty left. I took the gel right after the 4 miles turn around point this morning. The first sensation was pretty bad. The consistency of the gel is off something not meant to be ingested, plus the sugar rush in the mouth was not pleasant either. As for results of taking it, I didn't feel any big rush of energy or anything like that. What I can say though is that I felt the same way after finishing the 8 miles this morning as I did when I fisnihed the 10k (6.2 miles) last week during the Old Tucson Studio race. So from that, I guess it did work because I felt the same after 8 miles as I did after 6.2 miles without it. The only discomfort I had was not stomach cramping (which I heard is common), but I did feel some movement either in my stomach and in my intestines that I typically don't have while running. It didn't prevent me from keeping my pace or anythign else like that.
Back to training mileage, how is everybody doing based on the training schedule? Ihave been running less than 10 miles a week because of lack of time, but at least last week I did make 16 miles, and 8 from today should allow me to reach more than 16 during the week (btw, my week starts on Sundays, not Mondays like the training).
Wow, this is my first post ever to a blog... and definitely way too long. I will make sure to keep it shorter next time.
-Julio
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Jim Click Run-Roll 8K Run
Commentary later for now just links:
Results - search for Julio M, Chris Baker, Dan Sivilli, Kerrie Sivilli, Aliena Lopez
Aliena - 910
Julio - 923
Chris - 761
Kerrie - 1379
Dan - 1380
Random pic I liked. This girl carried an expensive looking purse the whole way.
Results - search for Julio M, Chris Baker, Dan Sivilli, Kerrie Sivilli, Aliena Lopez
Aliena - 910
Julio - 923
Chris - 761
Kerrie - 1379
Dan - 1380
Random pic I liked. This girl carried an expensive looking purse the whole way.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Training Plans
It looks like the 'team' is Allen, Julio, Chris, Dan and Kerri (apologies for the spelling, too many ways to spell that and I am sure I got it wrong). Our JV team is Aliena and Gerhard who are going to be training too but will probably be doing slightly less distance. Good luck to all.
Obviously I was kidding earlier about competition but from past experience I would strongly recommend setting a personal goal for the race. If you are new to running you probably want to wait until we get a bit deeper in before you can make a guess at what you are capable of. Everyone has different motivation but I have always found that having something tangible both motivates me and helps gauge progress.
I think everyone now has access to make posts so feel free to use the site to keep notes on your progress, share ideas, ask questions etc.
I am going to be following Hal's (see link on the left) plan for the most part and gonna shoot to complete 85% of the weekday runs (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and 100% of the Sunday runs (though I might move it occasionally to Saturday due to vacations/drunken excess etc.). I doubt I will be doing much on the Saturdays unless I can find a place to swim.
The wrinkle I will add is that Thursday will be the 'tempo run' day. Meaning 20% warm up and 20% cool down (HR < 150) and the rest building steadily up to a HR = 180 about 2/3 of the way. For a 4m day this would be .8m warm up, steadily build to HR = 180 by about the 2.4 mark, cruising back down to the 3.2m mark and the last .8m to cool down.
Interested to see what others are doing.
Obviously I was kidding earlier about competition but from past experience I would strongly recommend setting a personal goal for the race. If you are new to running you probably want to wait until we get a bit deeper in before you can make a guess at what you are capable of. Everyone has different motivation but I have always found that having something tangible both motivates me and helps gauge progress.
I think everyone now has access to make posts so feel free to use the site to keep notes on your progress, share ideas, ask questions etc.
I am going to be following Hal's (see link on the left) plan for the most part and gonna shoot to complete 85% of the weekday runs (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and 100% of the Sunday runs (though I might move it occasionally to Saturday due to vacations/drunken excess etc.). I doubt I will be doing much on the Saturdays unless I can find a place to swim.
The wrinkle I will add is that Thursday will be the 'tempo run' day. Meaning 20% warm up and 20% cool down (HR < 150) and the rest building steadily up to a HR = 180 about 2/3 of the way. For a 4m day this would be .8m warm up, steadily build to HR = 180 by about the 2.4 mark, cruising back down to the 3.2m mark and the last .8m to cool down.
Interested to see what others are doing.
