Adarq.org

- run 1:11:51, 12.96 km
with a buddy, so "conversational pace" verified by conversation.

ETA: buddy was encouraging me to be ambitious in marathon time target. coros says i'm in 3:07 shape, VDOT says my "equivalent" marathon time is 3:03, i've been thinking <3:05 would be a good reach goal. he was trying to talk me into at least giving myself a chance at sub-3, based on how i felt during the half. that seems nuts, but if race day conditions are good (40s max and no wind) maybe i should be shooting for 3:03. HMMMMM. we'll see, i'll keep adjusting in my head up until the day before the race. so much will depend on conditions i think.

- run 57:51, 10.48 km
cool again, so nice.

just finished reading sirpoc's book. enjoyed, to the point where i think i'll switch to NSM after the marathon. if all goes well with the baby this summer then i'll sign up for another marathon in the fall and use his marathon build.

- run 52:18, 10.00 km w/ 5 x 20s strides
suddenly hot, 82/28 degrees. HR way up, but also just ran this a little too fast. gonna be warm again tomorrow morning for my penultimate Big Workout, but at least not quite this warm. same deal next weekend, as well. almost close enough to race day to start obsessively checking the forecast for toledo, ohio.

oh i know, it seems nutty to me as well, and i'm not actually gonna start doing HIIT. actually, in his defense, when i talked to davis, the two strength things he recommended were heavy hamstring work (RDLs or similar) and heavy calf raises. but sledgehammer slams and the like are just so fun.

- run 58:33, 10.45 km
legs a bit flat, average HR quite low (118) for what was not an unusually slow run (5:36 average).

i rediscovered/remembered ross enamait the other day. saw an article by john davis about strength training for running and that basically recommends circuit training, and it brought rossboxing right to mind. his blog is still up, so i was looking through the archives. got me itching to find a truck tire and buy a sledgehammer, lol.

- half marathon race in 1:28:38 (official), 1:28:10 (watch)
PR'd by over two minutes and followed my pacing plan faithfully: conservative for the first 6 km (4:16 average), middle 10 km right around target pace (4:12 average, against a target of 4:14), then over the final 5 km i literally ran sub-20. felt incredible. caught and passed about a dozen people in the final two miles.

RPE 9.5, i crossed the line feeling almost like i was going to throw up but in retrospect i know i could have started cutting pace down earlier and probably run 1:27:xx at least on the watch. the effort didn't start feeling hard until around two miles to go, when i dropped down to sub-4:00 pace and then sub-3:40 for the final kick.

feeling very good. training: it works!

ETA: fueling was also on point. i forgot to bring coffee with me but i bought a caffeinated gu gel at the little mini-expo they had set up and took it a half hour before the start, along with a fig bar. SiS beta 40g gels at 5k, 10k, and 15k, and water only from the four aid stations. helped that it was cold, just above freezing at the start and probably low-40s/6-7 degrees at the end. so not much sweat.

had fun at the scrabble tournament yesterday, as well. went 4-4, with four close wins, one close loss, and three ass-whippings, so despite going .500 my cumulative spread was a hilarious -649. i really do like playing scrabble, i should play more and study at least a little. i am, as they say, a good living room player, but it'd be fun to level up at least a bit.