Mile 1 - 11:11It felt nice and easy--we'll see how easy the last mile of the marathon feels.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Last Mile
This morning I did my last training mile before the L.A. Marathon on Sunday. I tried to walk it at my goal pace of 11:27 but ended up just a bit faster:
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Marathon Madness
Only a few more days until the marathon and madness is everywhere. Well, there's always madness in Los Angeles but this is a different kind of madness. A co-worker who is running this, his first marathon, is getting the jitters. Another co-worker can't see the point in abusing yourself for 26.2 miles. Vendors are sending all sorts of offers for photos, videos, maps and the marathon sponsors are emailing lots of information about where and when to show up, where to park, what train to ride, where to pick up bibs, chips and of course offers to sell "official" marathon hats, tops, warm ups and so on.
Here are the official L.A. Marathon Race Instructions
Wet Walk
This morning I woke up to the sound of pouring rain. I started thinking, what if it rains on the day of the marathon? It has not rained once during my scheduled walks so maybe today would be a good test--walking in the rain. However, by the time I got out, the rain stopped and the clouds were breaking up.
OK, so I didn't get to practice in the rain, but it was very wet and slippery on the sidewalk especially by the car wash where the soap and grease oozed over the concrete. I was glad it was a very easy day.
I was taking it very easy, partly because I didn't want to slip and fall. Once I got on the home stretch I walked down the middle of the road and it was much better footing on the asphalt so I picked up the pace on the last quarter mile or so.
This is the last 3-mile workout before the marathon. Just a short one mile on Thursday and some accelerations on Saturday as part of the carbo loading ritual.
OK, so I didn't get to practice in the rain, but it was very wet and slippery on the sidewalk especially by the car wash where the soap and grease oozed over the concrete. I was glad it was a very easy day.
Mile 1 - 12:07
Mile 2 - 12:10
Mile 3 - 11:49
Average Pace - 12:02
Total Workout - 36:06
I was taking it very easy, partly because I didn't want to slip and fall. Once I got on the home stretch I walked down the middle of the road and it was much better footing on the asphalt so I picked up the pace on the last quarter mile or so.
This is the last 3-mile workout before the marathon. Just a short one mile on Thursday and some accelerations on Saturday as part of the carbo loading ritual.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Slow it Down
I did the Saturday workout with the Southern Cal Walkers. Many of them were going to do a race on Sunday so it was a very easy drill. After the usual warm up we did build ups--one lap slow with arms down, the next a slow racewalk, then with good form and finally an easy lap. I took the opportunity to see if I could find my 11:27 min/mi marathon pace. I was able to do two sets before the workout was over.
All that speed work I was doing the past couple of weeks distorted my perspective of how fast I was going. It did feel good taking a slow lap and finding out that it wasn't really that slow. The first attempt I was faster than the fastest walkers in last year's L.A. Marathon--funny, when I started racewalking it seemed impossible for me to ever reach that speed. On my second try I really tried to slow it down but was still about 20 seconds per mile faster than my target pace.
1st attempt - 2:38 = 10:32 min/mile
2nd attempt - 2:47 = 11:08 min/mile
All that speed work I was doing the past couple of weeks distorted my perspective of how fast I was going. It did feel good taking a slow lap and finding out that it wasn't really that slow. The first attempt I was faster than the fastest walkers in last year's L.A. Marathon--funny, when I started racewalking it seemed impossible for me to ever reach that speed. On my second try I really tried to slow it down but was still about 20 seconds per mile faster than my target pace.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
If You Can Do This, You Should Be Able To Do That
So now that I got through most of my little goals, will I be able to get through my big goal of walking the L.A. Marathon at a 12 minutes per mile pace? I went to the NARF age grading calculator and did some number crunching.
The calculator gives this a 66.32% age graded score. Someone that puts out this effort at their prime, age 20-29, should be able to walk it in 8:27. Running the mile calculates to 6:31 at my age (52) and 5:39 at prime age. Another interesting result is that if I trained properly for the marathon distance I should be able to walk it in 4:55:49 or run it in 3:34:06 at my age and at prime I'd be able to do a 4:30:59 walk or 3:10:44 run.
That's only one distance and it would be foolish to take just this one example to come up with a projected finishing time for the marathon, especially since the difference between one mile and a marathon is 26.2 times--but let's continue the foolishness a little further.
Some of my other personal records are:
These distances aren't in the NARF calculator so the best thing to do would be to convert to minutes per kilometer and calculate the nearest metric distance.
These are by no means impressive times, but a year ago I was a couch potato and six months ago I was an injured runner. As a neophyte racewalker I feel that I have accomplished something and set attainable goals. Here's is how the NARF calculator is predicting my age graded performance and marathon time for each of the distances that I recorded PR's:
* On the official race results for the 10 mile walk my age graded percentage was listed as 58.56% which calculates out to a 5:35:01 marathon.
The oldest time is the 10 mile race I did a month ago while the newest is the one mile from this morning so it does appear that I'm getting faster. However, the greater the difference between the distances being compared the more prone to error all this number crunching is going to be. So how about the best long training walk?
The closest distance would be:
But that was a training walk done at slower than race pace. How much slower? The target for the group was somewhere between 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes per mile slower. If that holds true it would put my marathon time between 5:06:32 and 5:19:38.
Sticking with the original goal of 12 minutes per mile would result in a 5:14:24 finish.
So what's the point of all this? Just a bit of a reality check to see if I'd be crazy to attempt to walk the marathon under five hours. What the heck--might as well go for it.
Marathon goal - 5:00:00 - 11:27 minutes per mile.
That's a 65.40% age graded effort. Tough but attainable. We'll see in a little over a week.
Mile Walk - 9:45
The calculator gives this a 66.32% age graded score. Someone that puts out this effort at their prime, age 20-29, should be able to walk it in 8:27. Running the mile calculates to 6:31 at my age (52) and 5:39 at prime age. Another interesting result is that if I trained properly for the marathon distance I should be able to walk it in 4:55:49 or run it in 3:34:06 at my age and at prime I'd be able to do a 4:30:59 walk or 3:10:44 run.
That's only one distance and it would be foolish to take just this one example to come up with a projected finishing time for the marathon, especially since the difference between one mile and a marathon is 26.2 times--but let's continue the foolishness a little further.
Some of my other personal records are:
3 Mile Walk - 32:28 - 10:49 min/mi
6 Mile Walk - 1:06:07 - 11:01 min/mi
10 Mile Walk - 1:54:35 - 11:27 min/mi
These distances aren't in the NARF calculator so the best thing to do would be to convert to minutes per kilometer and calculate the nearest metric distance.
3 Mile Walk - 6:43 min/km = 5,000 Meters at 33:36
6 Mile Walk - 6:50 min/km = 10,000 Meters at 1:08:27
10 Mile Walk - 7:06 min/km = 15,000 Meters at 1:46:43
These are by no means impressive times, but a year ago I was a couch potato and six months ago I was an injured runner. As a neophyte racewalker I feel that I have accomplished something and set attainable goals. Here's is how the NARF calculator is predicting my age graded performance and marathon time for each of the distances that I recorded PR's:
1 Mile Walk - 66.32% - 4:55:49 marathon
5,000 Meters Walk - 62.05% - 5:16:11 marathon
10,000 Meters Walk - 62.62% - 5:13:18 marathon
15,000 Meters Walk - 61.22% - 5:20:29 marathon *
* On the official race results for the 10 mile walk my age graded percentage was listed as 58.56% which calculates out to a 5:35:01 marathon.
The oldest time is the 10 mile race I did a month ago while the newest is the one mile from this morning so it does appear that I'm getting faster. However, the greater the difference between the distances being compared the more prone to error all this number crunching is going to be. So how about the best long training walk?
20.5 Miles - 4:20:34 - 12:42 min/mi - 7:53 min/km
The closest distance would be:
30,000 Meters Walk - 3:56:44 - 57.39% = 5:41:51 marathon
But that was a training walk done at slower than race pace. How much slower? The target for the group was somewhere between 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes per mile slower. If that holds true it would put my marathon time between 5:06:32 and 5:19:38.
Sticking with the original goal of 12 minutes per mile would result in a 5:14:24 finish.
So what's the point of all this? Just a bit of a reality check to see if I'd be crazy to attempt to walk the marathon under five hours. What the heck--might as well go for it.
Marathon goal - 5:00:00 - 11:27 minutes per mile.
That's a 65.40% age graded effort. Tough but attainable. We'll see in a little over a week.
9:45 Mile
I made another attempt at a 10 minute mile this morning. Instead of going out fast, which I should know by now not to do, I did a couple of warm up miles first. Here's how it went:
I really had to hold back on the warm up miles and my legs were feeling heavy--I guess that I've gotten used to the faster pace I've been doing for these past few workouts. About halfway through the last mile I checked my heart rate, 178 bpm, and I was feeling like I wouldn't be able to make it to the end of the mile but my time was good so I kept pushing myself and was surprised that I did it well under 10 minutes.
Only one more goal, and that will be attempted March 4th.
Mile 1 - 12:28
Mile 2 - 12:30
Mile 3 - 9:45
Average Pace - 11:34 minutes per mile
Total Workout - 34:44
I really had to hold back on the warm up miles and my legs were feeling heavy--I guess that I've gotten used to the faster pace I've been doing for these past few workouts. About halfway through the last mile I checked my heart rate, 178 bpm, and I was feeling like I wouldn't be able to make it to the end of the mile but my time was good so I kept pushing myself and was surprised that I did it well under 10 minutes.
Only one more goal, and that will be attempted March 4th.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Is That All There Is?
I went from 6 to 3 miles for the morning workout starting today. It sure makes for a short session--even with a full stretching routine after the walk.
I started out too fast but I was hoping to break the 10 minute mile barrier. It made the other two miles that much harder, especially the second mile when I had to slow down or I wouldn't be able to finish the third mile. I ended up far short of the 10:49 min/mi pace I did for the first three miles from last week's six mile workout.
One thing I was thinking about was how long it has been since I experienced any sort of serious pain. The knees are feeling great, but I do have a bit of a pain in the butt. A few days ago I started feeling like someone kicked me in the right gluteus. Nothing serious, but I do feel it if I bend down or stand on my right leg with a bent knee. I've been sitting on my heat/massage pad before going to sleep. Anyway, it isn't anything that is holding me back and I don't feel like I need anything for the pain. In fact once I get warmed up it doesn't bother me at all. Still, I'd like to shake it off before the marathon.
Mile 1 - 10:34
Mile 2 - 11:20
Mile 3 - 11:13
Average Pace - 11:03 minutes per mile
Total Workout - 33:09
I started out too fast but I was hoping to break the 10 minute mile barrier. It made the other two miles that much harder, especially the second mile when I had to slow down or I wouldn't be able to finish the third mile. I ended up far short of the 10:49 min/mi pace I did for the first three miles from last week's six mile workout.
One thing I was thinking about was how long it has been since I experienced any sort of serious pain. The knees are feeling great, but I do have a bit of a pain in the butt. A few days ago I started feeling like someone kicked me in the right gluteus. Nothing serious, but I do feel it if I bend down or stand on my right leg with a bent knee. I've been sitting on my heat/massage pad before going to sleep. Anyway, it isn't anything that is holding me back and I don't feel like I need anything for the pain. In fact once I get warmed up it doesn't bother me at all. Still, I'd like to shake it off before the marathon.
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