Pre-half-marathon

This is the week leading up to doing the Kaiser SF half marathon.

(Monday, 26 January)
Rolled through upper A with the gals, kinda pushing the pace a little but everyone kept up which was great. I think I understand Matt a little better these days - it IS satisfying to be chatting and running and hear the person behind you breathing way harder than you are. But satisfying in a way that makes me feel like a bit of a jerk. Good run.

(Tuesday, 27 January)
800s. I didn't want to go too hard since Sunday is all about feeling a pace so I decided to just try and hit a pace consistently without too much rest. Gustavo suggested rolling about 3.30s so that's what I did. I did 5 800s at 3.28-3.30 with a 400 in between at about 9 minute jog pace (no stopping). After the 5th one I did one more easy 400 then a 6th hard 800 in 2.57 (92/85) that felt easy and good to run fast. It was a good workout for my brain, but I'm not sure if it did anything for the bod, but whatever.

(Wednesday, 28 January)
Great run with Susan. Ran from work, around SPQ and down SM around Lacy and up Virginia and to drop Susan off at Corner Bakery. Feeling really good today, and I was surprised at how far we actually ended up running. Cool!

(Thursday, 29 January)
Easy small change run followed by lifting (soooo good) at the gym afterwards and then beers. The run was heading down to Lacy and doing a single mile on the 800 loop, which turned out to not be a very good idea, because I ran it too fast. I was trying to just hit the race pace for Sunday to say hello to it, but I ended up running 6.49, which was not what I wanted to do. Bleh. At least it wasn't off in the other direction. Nice to hang with the gals though.

(Friday, 30 January)
Ran really easy around Piedmont to get my legs moving. It was pretty chill, although my hamstrings are kinda feeling it right now - probably from lifting yesterday. I hope I'm not sore tomorrow. I was going to take a day off, but now I'm thinking I might jog easy tomorrow again to take care of any of that stiffness. On the down side, I stuffed myself with cheese and cake.

(Saturday, 31 January)
Took the day off por to rock out with the fam. Ate some delish spicy food from the Pakistani restaurant.

(Sunday, 1 February)
Kaiser Half. I went in with a plan, executed the plan (with the assistance of my pops), and then systematically nailed it. Splits:

1 7.25
2 7.16
3 7.29 (slightly uphill when going to the south of the panhandle and up back into the park)
4 7.14 (around the De Young and then starting the downhill past the start line)
5 7.09
6 7.04 (these miles downhill to the Great Highway section)
7 7.17
8 7.25 (first mile on the flat section, at a gu at the end of this)
9 7.25
10 7.30 (I was fighting a side cramp for a couple of miles, and I really had to deal with it here. I thought this mile was going to be like 8.30 or so until I looked down at my watch, cool!)
11 7.20 (got a little tired here, but beer handoff helped!)
12 7.25
13.1 8.07 (uphill for the last 800m or so, this is 7.20 pace)
---------total: 1:36:11

So, those are the numbers. I was quite proud that even with the multi-mile struggle with the side cramp, I didn't wuss out or panic. I eventually licked it around the turnaround on the highway - about mile 10.5 I think. I did 2 minutes on 1 off (roughly) going down the last 5 miles or so whenever I got bored, and that really seemed helpful.

More importantly, this was a victory for logistics. I ended up getting through the porta-potties right before the race, got my gu at the right time, got my sweats taken by my personal concierge (Dad) and had people cheering for me {Dad, Tony, Crosby's mom}. All the little things came together, so all I had to do was think about the race. The plan from Susan and Ian really came together. Here were my goals:

- get a good spot (this took a couple of minutes, yikes! I always have bad positioning on the line!) - go out on pace (7.20-7.30)
- hold pace for the first 3.5 miles, to lock in the feeling of that effort.
- accelerate on the downhill section (mile 4-7) to maintain the same effort level as pace
- the mental race begins on the (boring, flat) out and back. Use 2 on 1 off to keep myself focused and check pace at the traffic lights (spaced every 400m). Don't fall apart.
- go all out at the end to use up the last of my reserves and finish spent.

I think I did a pretty good job with all of these. I feel like this race was easy because of the net downhill, but the time is probably close to what I could run on a legit course. The run definitely exemplified a lot of how I've been feeling differently this year as opposed to at Caltech. I felt focused, confident, in control, and calm. I never got panicky or nervous. I just went out like an ice machine and took care of business. I also felt like I was thinking more clearly about what I needed to do. All this made me want to do some more racing at some point, I wonder if it would translate into shorter races also.