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Yet Another Beer Run

05 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Boulder Half Marathon

Boulder Half Beer GlassI’m gaining quite a collection of Boulder Marathon and Half Marathon beer glasses.  This is my fourth.  Each one is a different color.  Spring 2011 is red, spring 2012 green, and fall 2012 where I ran the marathon is orange.  And then of course the shirt colors match.  Time to start thinking about my race strategy.

I don’t feel the need to run aggressive like I did at Moab 3 weeks ago.  I’m still so happy with that performance, I could jog Sunday at my workout pace – around 8:30 per mile – and feel good about my winter half marathon season.  But then it would be a shame not to match my Austin performance in January and Moab race in March with an equally impressive run.  And that doesn’t mean I need to run quite as fast.  I believe it will be on par if I simply beat my previous times in this event.  And like previous Moabs, I’ve never run the Boulder Half especially fast.

I recall having a satisfying run in 2011 because of the negative split where I ran the second half 5 minutes faster than the first half.  The total time was 1:48 or an 8:19 per mile pace and is faster than my spring 2012 time.  I honestly expect to run under an 8 minute pace this weekend.  And I’ll play it according to how I feel the first mile or two, but I believe I’m in decent enough running shape that I’ve established a range that I can expect regardless of how I feel.  I think that range is 7:30 to 8:00 per mile.  Which is to say I will run a bit faster than my standard workout pace of 8:30.

I could be setting myself up for a disappointment considering I haven’t run all week.  But part of the reason for blogging this expected time ahead of Sunday is to commit myself.  Sure I’ll look foolish if I finish closer to 2 hours but I seriously believe I’ll break 1:45.  Question is, by how much?  Or what really has my interest is the strategy of the course.  The Boulder Half is essentially uphill on the 6.55 miles out and downhill on the return.  I’ve run a negative split on this course before and it’s apparent the elevation gain and drop lends itself to such a strategy.  I can’t commit to this but what I want to do is run the first half faster than the second.  I want to go out hard.  Not sure why since doing so suggests the second half will be work, but this is how I hope to run it.  We’ll see Sunday.  Karen and Ellie are talking about coming out to the Boulder Res to watch.

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I Feel Good

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Boulder Half Marathon

medal picSorry for that last post from Debbie Downer.  Got my run in today and feel tons better.  Karen knew I was having issues and tried to make me feel better by purchasing some microwave slippers to soothe my feet.  I can’t walk in them and they collect all the dog hair from the floor, but they are in my color – blue.  Of course, at the end of the day it’s up to me to make myself feel better.  That typically starts by having a productive day at work.  And on non work days, having an equally productive day either fixing up the house or getting in a massive run.  Or, running a race.

At races, a pretty girl hangs a medal around my neck after I cross the finish line.  There are guy volunteers too but I always steer toward the girl.  Then they take my picture in a winning pose.  That’s all feel good stuff.  Narcissistic for sure, but so what?  I had a facebook status update today that lined up all my friends’ who had profile picture updates.  There were 3 or so with the red equal sign pic to show solidarity for the gay rights issues under review this week by the Supreme Court.  And one from my buddy Merrill who changed his profile to show his new picture with a medal around his neck from having just run a half marathon.

Self centered bastard – that’s exactly how you make yourself feel good.  What did I do to make myself feel better?  I scheduled a massage for after the Boulder Half on April 7th.  A 90 minute session.  I’m looking forward to that now more than the run itself.  In a week and a half, before half this county is even awake I’ll have run 13 miles on the idyllic back roads of Boulder, quaffed two beers, and been rubbed down for 90 minutes.  And that’s after having spent most of next week in Breckenridge skiing.  It’s good to be me.

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Boulder Half 2012

01 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Boulder Half Marathon

It’s been two weeks since I had a drink.  So I woke up this morning and had myself a beer, immediately after having run the 2012 Boulder Half Marathon in 2:03.  Except it wasn’t really 13 miles at a 9:24 pace.  It was 2 x 6.55 mile runs, the first one at about a 9:40 pace and the second half around 9:05 per mile.  I broke this run into two routines, like I did last year.  Part of the reason for doing this is because this course goes out uphill and returns downhill.  I’m just taking what the course gives to me and making a workout from it.  I did repeat last year’s negative split by a similar margin, although I ran quite a bit slower overall today.

I arrived at the Boulder Res around 7am.  I parked and began to walk around.  I wore fleece sweat pants and a wind jacket, but might have been fine without them.  It was warm.  I walked around the setup in circles until the race started.  I used the facilities a couple of times and returned my warmup gear to the car before the start, fairly certain that shorts and a tech t-shirt would be fine for today.  It was.

One thing unique to this race is how runners just mill around like fitness Zombies until the last minute before the race gun fires.  And this is fully orchestrated by the race director from his mic.  There is no sense of where to stand with the line of runners until he gives the go ahead to line up.  In 60 seconds, everyone does.  It’s like everyone around here is an old pro at this stuff.  The only reason I notice this is because I’m looking for a pace sign to stand next to – as an aid not to start off too quickly.  There are none.  I decide to take my chances by simply standing where I’m at.  I’d start in the very back, but I don’t know where that is in this shapeless queue.

I didn’t wear my Garmin thinking I wouldn’t need it.  I’m going out slow and hoping to run back fast.  I know what slow and fast feel like.  Having run this last year, I also know the results will include splits for the two halves of the run.  That’s all I’m interested in knowing.  To reiterate what I said up top, it appears I ran my game plan, but I don’t know that I did entirely.  I almost wish I did wear my garmin to prove this but I am certain I started out way too fast.  I was tired the first half.  I did recover and settle into a nice pace by the turn around point, but I felt heavy until the course turned downhill.   Last year I ran fairly hard the entire run back, except for a cool down the last half mile.  This year I only ran hard on the noticeably steeper downhills.  Then I would slow back down again.  Sort of an organic fartlek set by the natural course terrain rather than timed rest intervals.  Even though this is perhaps my slowest overall half marathon time in recent memory, I’m happy with the workout.

I should add the heat played a factor today.  I drank at all the aid stations except for the final.  I don’t usually drink at more than two of them for a half marathon.  I made a good call on wearing the single short sleeved t-shirt.  The breeze felt cool at times, but of course that was welcome relief.

The story on the picture above is this.  First, I don’t have any race photos yet.  That might take a few days.  The other thing is I discovered this drink today after the run.  Vuka setup shop next to the compost and I grabbed one of their aluminum bottles from a barrel they stocked with ice water.  I used it for a few minutes like an ice pack, cooling down my head and neck.  I loved this thing before I ever drank it.  I don’t know what good stuff it’s made from, you can read up on them if you click on the link.  But it’s a tasty beverage.  I only took a few sips of the complimentary beer because I liked this more.  I grabbed a stack of Vuka coupons before leaving.  Actually only four, it felt like more at the time but they are a bit thick.  I’ll leave them on my porch for anyone who stops by and wants to try it out with a $1 discount.

I didn’t hang around very long for the post-run festivities because I didn’t know anyone and it was hot.  I tossed my beer after a few sips and headed home slurping my Vuka.  I’m not overly concerned that I ran slower than my typical pace because I treated this like a workout.  I was happy to see my weight afterwards was 184.  I haven’t seen that number on a scale since 2010.  I’ll take that as my win today.

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Boulder Half Prep

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Boulder Half Marathon, CPTR, LoBo Trail

I ran into Keith on the LoBo Trail this afternoon.  We finished up the second half of my run together.  I took advantage of the opportunity to try shaming him into running the Boulder Half on Sunday.  We’ll see if he shows up at the Boulder Res on race day.  This is another pic of me running the Moab Half two weeks ago, apparently later in the run as the crowd is a bit thinner.

I’ve been putting in some decent distance since Moab.  Now that it’s daylight savings time I’ve begun to run after work and that gives me more time for longer runs.  And I hammered out 23 miles over the weekend.  I’m not considering resting my legs for the Boulder Half.  Like last year, I’ll treat it more like a workout.  If things go the way I want, I’ll start off slow the first half – which is uphill, then run faster the second half back downhill.  In a sense, it’s really only a 6.5 mile run.

Of course, the entire run could turn into a giant 13 mile slog but I’m hoping for a fun downhill 6.5 miles after an easy 6.5 mile warmup.  The whole thing is a warmup really to prep for my next big event – the 25 mile Collegiate Peaks Trail Run on April 28th.  That’s the big enchilada I need to get in shape for.  That’s almost like a marathon.  Seriously, despite being a mile short, it stands to be much tougher.  And longer time-wise.  Trail runs at altitude usually are.

This puppy will begin at 8000 feet and rise to 9200 feet after 10 miles.  Then it drops back down to 8400 feet only to rise yet again to 9400 feet at 18 miles.  By contrast, Moab only changed 100 feet in elevation – several times – but hardly the same as this.  The Collegiate Peaks are awesome.  I hiked this area for the first time last summer as part of the Colorado Trail.  These trails will be different, east of Buena Vista, but I’m excited to get back out there.  I’ll be blogging more on this over the next month as I train for my first big run of the year.

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Timing

09 Saturday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

≈ 2 Comments

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Boulder Half Marathon, Caolan MacMahon, Lil L

Timing’s everything. Checkout these two pics of my run in the Boulder Half Marathon. You might have to click on them to see this, but both feet are off the ground in each shot. It’s the same spot, the one with gloves is 2 miles out and the one without gloves is with 2 miles left. So same lucky cameraman I assume. The first pic has me stunned as I am running uphill, and considering I’m running so slow the odds of that photographer catching two shots of me airborne are unreal. The dude has some incredible timing.

See the chic a step behind me at the finish in the 3rd pic? I put on a small surge at the end. I looked up her results from her bib number 1655. Her name is Caolan MacMahon. Turns out she is in the same age division as me – for women of course – but the really amazing thing is she ran only 3 seconds slower than me. I finished 241st overall, Caolan finished 242nd. Sort of rare to finish so close to someone who ran essentially the same pace, considering you both could have started anywhere apart from one another in the pack. We must have started standing fairly close to one another. I spent a full minute in a port-a-potty at mile 4, and ran the second half of the race 4 minutes faster than the first; she ran the second half 1.5 minutes faster than her first half. We even registered at nearly the same time as our bib numbers are only 4 digits off. Weird timing.

I ran my first track workout of the season today. Technically, my first track workout in about 25 years. I ran 6 quarters, which is to say I ran 6 loops around the track at 75% full speed and maintained a controlled rest interval in between. I used a 1 loop jog as my rest interval, and recorded the pace of that along with the quarters themselves.

1 mile warm up

Q1: 1:43 rest 2:15

Q2 1:59 rest 2:20

Q3 1:43 rest 2:29

Q4 1:44 rest 2:26

Q5 1:42 rest 2:26

Q6 1:40 rest 1 mile cool down

Maybe I’ll post another blog on some of the granular details of those splits after I’ve analyzed them. Just getting them published for now before I reset the stopwatch app on my iPhone. Or better yet, to any coaches reading this, feel free to comment. I don’t normally time myself. I don’t wear a watch, not even in road race events. I used to have such a good feel for my pace that I didn’t need to. I’ve lost that inner timer though and I’m using timing now as a tool to relearn my experience. After a quick look at the splits, I find the timing interesting for several reasons. My splits are oddly even for both the quarters and the rest intervals. That’s not surprising on the rest, I’m jogging around the track at a standard pace. It is surprising that my quarters are so even considering I’ve forgotten how to run interval workouts. Then, notice that the 2nd quarter is the most off from the others. If I recall, this is not unusual even for experienced runners. It must be a norm. Although I think more in-shape athletes tend to run the second quarter as their fastest rather than their slowest. That’s because the first quarter serves as a warm-up of sorts. And then they, as you, settle into a pattern. Synchronous timing.

Timing is everywhere. It’s timing when they tell you your baby will be on the waiting list to receive a new heart for 4 to 6 months – and that’s how long it takes for another one year old baby boy to make his little heart available to Lil L. It’s timing when Susan comes home a day early from the week of work in Austin for a date night – courtesy the grandparents – and that puts her in bed with her husband when they receive the call at 2am letting them know the heart is being flown to Hobby International. It’s timing when Lil L’s sad heart varies wildly in rhythm, and his new heart – after it’s been disconnected from the machines and is organically part of the living Lil L – beats solid, steady and even. God’s timing.

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2011 Roadmap

28 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

≈ 9 Comments

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2011, Boulder Half Marathon, Moab

Got the race results from the Boulder Half and I ran about as I thought.  I ran my second 6.55 miles 5 minutes faster than my first 6.55 miles.  I felt like I was racing again on the return.  Overall, my time was about a minute slower than the week before in Moab, or 5 seconds per mile slower.  If I consider the minute I took to relieve myself at the 4 mile port-a-potty, the two runs were equal; which is pretty amazing considering the 1000 feet difference in altitude and general variance in elevation.  The pic here is at the finish of the Moab run.

A Lo Hawk – coach that he is – left me a comment suggesting I add some speed work, even track workouts – to my schedule.  That is in fact my goal.  Gaining speed shouldn’t be so important to me, certainly not as much as improving my health.  I’ll even say that enjoying myself with a healthy outdoor hobby is near the top of my objectives.  But running faster is one of my goals.  I’d say it’s less of my competitive nature than the fact that I simply like running fast.  There’s a feeling almost animal in nature about letting your body go.  I like it.

Now that muscle tone has fully returned to my legs, I can tell that it’s my belly holding me back from running faster.  I should probably refer to the term – core.  I need to strengthen my core.  But such a convex core as mine is more aptly described by the term belly.  I’ll call it my core after it’s trimmed up a tad more.

This is not to say I wouldn’t benefit from track workouts.  While my belly is certainly an issue to be dealt with, my legs and cardiovascular system need to relearn how to run fast.  And this means interval workouts.  So my 2011 roadmap will include hitting the Niwot H.S. track this spring.  My racing objective is to run a 7 minute pace in this year’s Bolder Boulder.  That’s the only race I’m interested in running fast, so I’ll probably stop the track workouts by June.  For the summer, I want to run some half marathon trail runs.  Those won’t require speed as much as stamina and hill training.  So after I’ve improved upon my speed, I intend to increase my mountain trail running.  If the year of training goes well enough, I’ll run another marathon or two by year end.

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Running Alone

22 Tuesday Mar 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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backroads, Boulder Half Marathon, Moab

The best thing about the half in Moab wasn’t the spectacular scenery, it was spending the weekend with friends.  What are the odds I could have so many friends fit enough to enjoy such a demanding sport with me?  If this weren’t Boulder County, I’d say pretty low.  In this pic is Eve, Suzy, Coach Jabe, Katherine, Keith and me.

But I’ll be running by myself this weekend in the Boulder Half Marathon.  Sort of hard to get excited about that.  I am thinking about it as simply a workout, and that’s fine; but man – what a difference!

I checked out the course online today at the Boulder Res.  I’ve run those backroads before.  Good God, I must be spoiled but talk about boring.  In fact it’s double boring because it’s an out-an-back route.  6.5 miles north on gravel roads, turn around, and return back to the Res on the exact same 6.5 miles.  Now that I think about it, the Garden of the Gods 10 Miler was that way too.  But that was different.  It included a half mile loop at the turn-around, and the hills were so intense that they seemed new the second time.

So what will it be like running alone this weekend?  Not much different really.  I wouldn’t even be thinking about it if last weekend weren’t such an extroversion.  Before Moab, I ran the Austin and Denver Marathons completely by myself.  So this isn’t exactly unusual for me.  But then I ran the IPR with my buddy A Low Hawk before that.  Running with friends turns a workout into an event.

Can’t do an event every weekend though.  I think running an organized run as my workout is smart.  I typically run by myself and I suspect running with the crowd will push me to run a little harder.  Not as hard as Moab where I was under some pressure to beat Keith.  Poor Keith started out too fast, sort of like me in Austin, and hit a bit of a wall at 11 miles – when the course flipped its slope to an incline.  I plan to run as slow as I would in a workout.  I’ll certainly start out nice and slow, although I expect the event factor to keep my pace strong.  I ran an 8:12 pace in Moab.  I predict an 8:30 pace this Sunday.  Forecasting is hard though because the elevation is dramatically different from Moab.  Boulder rises 300 feet the first half, and then gives back that altitude on the return.  Just another reason to start out slow and hope I loosen up.  That’s the game plan.

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Pre-Race Delirium

14 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Boulder Half Marathon, East Boulder Trail, shot glass collection

I’m out of control.  With another 5 days before I run the Moab Half Marathon, I just registered for the Boulder Half Marathon for the following weekend.  Why not?  Spring training is in full swing.  I’d probably do my 12 mile run on East Boulder Trail anyway; might as well get a finisher’s medal for my efforts.  Plus I hear they hand out finisher’s shot glasses.  That will be a nice compliment to my 100 plus shot glass collection.

And here’s the kicker.  When I’m standing in the Moab starting corral with my friends, and Keith asks me what pace I plan to run, I’ll respond, “Around eight and a half minutes Keith.  I don’t want to push too hard cuz this is just a warm-up for next week’s Boulder Half.”  What an ass!

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