What's Next?

It is official, I'll be going to Jerusalem to work on an animated feature film for the next two years. So what's the next, and last race that I'll be doing at home for a long time? Maybe the San Diego marathon or a local 5K next weekend, I haven't made up my mind yet.

In any case, I did calibrate my running watch at the track on Saturday and met with some racewalking buddies on Sunday at the Valley Greek Festival. John Magnussen was there and he told me that the results and photos from the Palos Verdes Half-Marathon were up. I found us on page 17 and ordered a couple of shots.

.                                                                     Page 17
.              The 41ST ANNUAL KIWANIS PALOS VERDES
.
.     HALF MARATHON    RESULTS HALF MARATHON    HALF MARATHON
.                  Official results by PRIME TIME
.              SATURDAY, MAY 19, 2007 SAN PEDRO, CA.
PLACE DIV NO.   NAME                AG S DIV   T TOWN         TIME    PACE
===== === ===== =================== == = ===== = ============ ======= =====
. 818  48  1870 Daniel Fort         52 M M5054   West Hollywo 2:30:56 11:32
. 819  49  2227 John Magnussen      54 M M5054   Winnetka     2:31:00 11:32

If I can keep up that pace over a full marathon and with a few less hills, maybe I can do a 5-hour marathon. Seems like a challenge. In any case, if I don't do all my workouts this week I can say that I'm tapering!

Here are some more photos with John.

Way out of Calibration

This morning I did an easy 15 kilometer walk. This sort of makes up for Wednesday when I did such an easy 5k with Rosie that I didn't didn't bother turning on the running computer and yesterday when I skipped the morning workout because I had an early eye doctor appointment.

The stats look great:

Data                  Value   Unit
Duration              1:40:00
Sampling Rate         5       s
Running Index         60

Energy Expenditure    976     kcal
Number of Heart Beats 14512   beats
Recovery              -15     beats
Minimum Heart Rate    95      bpm
Average Heart Rate    145     bpm
Maximum Heart Rate    159     bpm
Standard Deviation    9.1     bpm

Minimum Pace         17:08    min/km
Average Pace          5:52    min/km
Maximum Pace          4:20    min/km
Distance              17.0    km

Minimum Cadence       53      rpm
Average Cadence       73      rpm
Maximum Cadence       86      rpm

But--I walked my usual 15k route and it ended up measuring 17k. It is also averaging in my warm up and cool down but still coming up with a pace of under 6 minutes per kilometer. I wish this is true, but it has got to be way off. Tomorrow I'm going to the Cal Tech track and that will be my chance to calibrate the foot pod.

Oops--left the watch running in my back pack

This one got a good laugh at work:



Somehow I didn't turn off the watch after completing this morning's 10k walk. Of course there was no cadence, stride, heart rate measurements but it did record me driving over the Hollywood hills and into Glendale to work.

It was a good workout, 10 kilometers in 59:18 and kept going faster every kilometer.

Lap      Time         Lap Time     Speed   Avg of Lap    Avg from Start    Dist     Dist from Start
1. A     0:06:50.7    0:06:50.7    5:36    7:29          7:29              0.935    0.935
2. A     0:12:40.2    0:05:49.5    6:40    5:56          6:41              0.997    1.931
3. A     0:18:28.8    0:05:48.6    6:40    5:46          6:22              1.011    2.942
4. A     0:24:40.2    0:06:11.4    6:15    6:18          6:21              1.005    3.948
5. A     0:30:29.8    0:05:49.6    4:50    5:43          6:13              1.019    4.966
6. A     0:36:26.4    0:05:56.6    6:44    5:58          6:10              1.020    5.986
7. A     0:42:20.9    0:05:54.5    4:28    5:58          6:09              1.004    6.990
8. A     0:48:10.4    0:05:49.5    5:33    5:56          6:07              0.997    7.987
9. A     0:53:45.0    0:05:34.6    4:52    5:37          6:04              1.008    8.995
10. A    0:59:18.9    0:05:33.9    5:21    5:24          6:00              1.033    10.028

Easy Five

I just took an easy 5k walk this morning. Average heart rate was 124bpm and the time to complete 5k, including warm up, was 36:06. That's 7:13 min/km or 11:36 min/mile. I also kept it running during cool down and the heart rate recovery seemed pretty good. After the walk I did a full session of strength training and stretching.

However, I can't say I'm trusting the distance readings after the Palos Verde half-marathon. I got a reading of 23.4 km but this was a USATF certified course and the half-marathon distance should be 21.097494 kilometers. That's over a mile off!

Darn, I thought I was really picking up some speed while all the time the Polar RS800sd was miscalibrated. How can this be? A kilometer checked out fine on the Cal Tech track and it was actually measuring the 200 meters on the short side instead of adding distance like on the half-marathon.

Guess the foot pod is nice for cadence and stride length but it isn't accurate for long distances. I'll try to calibrate it when I get back on the track.

Then again they are coming out with a GPS accessory for the RS800. Maybe add another piece of equipment to the tool kit?

Palos Verde Half-Marathon

A group from Southern Cal Walkers and L.A. Roadrunners and L.A. Leggers decided racewalk the Palos Verde half-marathon and it was great fun. I decided not to hang out with the group and socialize so I took off early. By mile 5 John Magnussen caught up with me but he confessed that he ran to catch up. We helped each other and kept trading leads. His goal was 2:35 and I was hoping to do better than 2:30. By the turn around we were at 1:16 so I was close to my pace. The Polar RS800sd seemed to agree with the halfway mark but was off at the finish--probably because of that big downhill where I spent way too much time in the air.

Finishing time? I marked it at 2:31:20 (no chips on this race) but according to John the "official" time was 2:30:51. I'll update this post when the results are posted. However, 13.1 miles or 21.1 kilometers at 2:31 gives me an average pace of 11:31 min/mile or 7:09 min/km, that's almost a 5-hour marathon pace and is still better than the 12 min/mile I was shooting for as my marathon pace a while back. Of course the question is if I can hold that pace for twice as long as today. It was a tough course, just check out this chart.



That hill at mile 2 was too steep to racewalk up or down so we all took "running breaks" to get through it. It was all in fun and there were no judges. We all finished and it was great fun. Afterwards we went to Ports O'Call in San Pedro for a hearty brunch.

What I'll be Doing Tomorrow

May 19, 2007: 41st Annual Palos Verdes Marathon

Start Times:
7:00 am Full Marathon
7:30 am Half Marathon
8:00 am 5K Run and Community Fun Walk.



So tomorrow is the Palos Verde Marathon, 1/2 Marathon and 5K. I'll be doing the 1/2 Marathon with a bunch of local Racewalkers. The course promises to be very scenic.



But with that beauty will be some tough hills:



So I did my speed work, long workouts and hills--tomorrow we'll see how well prepared I am. No guesses on my finishing time because is all depends on the weather, how I'm feeling and just how challenging those hills really are.

Want to Walk with Olympians?