Thursday, January 25, 2007

DRAGGING

About this time of year, winter starts to drag, base-training starts to drag, work starts to drag (wait, that’s year-round)...anyway, you get the picture. That’s one of the reasons I always look forward to the Winter Carnival Half Marathon. It’s a week earlier than normal this year, but it’ll still provide a nice benchmark as to the level of my current fitness. As you can tell from past results, I can almost pencil in a 1:24 and change.

2/4/06 1:24:45
2/5/05 1:24:27
1/31/04 41:40 – shortened due to weather
2/1/03 1:27:59 – different (tougher) course due to construction
2/2/02 1:24:55
2/5/00 1:32:03

However, in reality I’m not so sure what I can run. Training has been going rather well, with 7 of the last 10 weeks being between 76 and 90 miles. However, last year at this time, I was busy stringing together 95 and 97 mile weeks.

Comparing last December/January and this December/January, one thing jumps out at me; I’ve done a ton more tempo runs this time around – everything from 3 miles at 6:20 pace to 8 miles at 7:10 pace. For that reason, I won’t be surprised if I run a minute (or two?) faster. As with any race, a lot depends on the weather – especially since we’re talking about 13.1 miles in January in Minnesota.

In any case, this race should give me some feedback as to whether I need more mileage or if “low” miles with tempos is working.

Quote of the day;

“My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble.” – Bill Rodgers

6 comments:

E-Speed said...

what was your weekly mileage like in 05 before the race?

Chad said...

Very similar to this year, 70-80 mpw but without the tempos. It looks like I was doing a lot of strides though.

Chad said...

If it matters at all, in 2005 it was 50 degrees, last year it was 10 degrees. This year will probably be 10-20.

Anonymous said...

2005 was (don't recall the wind, so guessing not too strong) nearly perfect conditions for racing. It's still a good memory.

Anonymous said...

Hey chad. Good to see you/read you. I b one of the KBD Alumni you raced with in EC. I've been hiding out on the slopes most of the past winter putting some serious time Nordic skiing, gettin' ready for the Birkie in a few weeks. Hopefully after that, I'll 'run' into you at one of the spring races.
Hope everything went well at the half marathon the other day.
CUBye

Chad said...

anon,

I hope the skiing is going well, especially given our lack of snowfall this year. Good luck.