I've been running and racing now for five years and generally run 4 or 5 half marathons a year. I have a healthy respect for the distance yet I somehow seem to take the half for granted. I just show up and run.
In the past this strategy has more or less worked for me but the trek from Coney Island to Prospect Park Saturday exposed the flaws of this haphazard training "schedule."
I should also note that I was laid up with flu earlier in the week (missing key workouts) and then overcompensated with a long, hard tempo run on Thursday night. An additional factor is the loss of specificity due to triathlon training. With the addition of swimming and biking to my regiment I am working out more often but am actually running less mileage.
Despite this, my poor performance in Brooklyn is most attributable to a lack of running long. Simply put, I was not physically prepared and I knew it very early in the race. This caused my mental toughness to breakdown and I honestly wanted to drop out at mile five.
The only thing that kept me going was my looming triathlon. Knowing the physical and mental demands of the tri will be tremendous I kept putting one foot in front of the other and tried to hold onto my diminishing pace and eroding willpower...
Amazing how an attempt to PR and break 1:30:00 can turn into a struggle just to cover the distance.
Here are my splits:
- Mile 1 - 6:42
- Mile 2 - 6:42
- Mile 3 - 7:01
- Mile 4 - 6:50
- Mile 5 - 7:03
- Mile 6 - 7:18
- Mile 7 - 7:22
- Mile 8 - 7:25
- Mile 9 - 7:29
- Mile 10 - 8:09
- Mile 11 - 8:13
- Mile 12 - 8:34
- Mile 13 - 8:28
- Mile .1 - 0:52
"Proper prior planning prevents poor performance."
-Dad
10 comments:
That's some mental toughness from mile 5 to 13!
pulling through a race when you are not "in it" is the hardest thing. hope you treated yourself afterwards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone goes through these races but being able to get through it is what will make you stronger. Hope you were able to rest and relax today!
sorry josh...
but one poor race performance probably teaches you more about yourself and your training that 10 flukey good ones.
cliche, but true.
it's a good mental workout for the tri. glad you stuck with it and finished.
hey bro -dont be too hard on yourself. You had a flu before, hence you wont be 100% right? 6/30/07 is the race that you are going to kick major ass!
I feel the same about halfs. I don't know when I decided it was a distance not to be feared but I always have to remind myself it is going to be harder than I hope it will :)
Way to hang tough out there.
Josh, was your dad a boy scout or a military man? My dad also says "Proper, prior planning prevents..."! In fact it's one of the things he'd say to me the day after an all nighter when I was in school... to my utter annoyance.
Good Job Josh when U weren't at ur best...
also love ur blog adv comment below too-- LOL ur hits will get U $5 by 2009--funny.
it's brooklyn!! blame the course. i did the last 2 years :-)
oh believe me, I know all too well what its like to go for a PR in a half and have it not be my day...i'll repeat what others have said, its 13.1 miles in the bank, keep your eye on the prize and your "A" race :)
(but IMHO, that was still a very good time! i really think that course is tougher than others make it out to be.)
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