Sunday, February 11, 2007

San Dieguito Half Marathon RR/Weekly Recap (Recover 2.5.2007 - 2.11.2007)

Damn my legs are sore. The first race of 2007 in the books and it went pretty well.

I am going recap my training for last week and then get to the race report. I have some photos too, so this will be a long one.

Last week was a recovery week and after putting a 2 big, solid weeks it was needed. Here's the stats:

Total Training Time: 11:29

Swim: 11,600 yards (2 Masters, 1 work pool)

Bike: 70 miles (2 rides)

Run: 27.1 miles (3 runs including half marathon)

Strength: 1 Session (upperbody)

Core: 2 sessions

I felt really good all week and was really looking forward to the weekend and the half marathon. I am feeling really good in the pool and will be upping the volume over the next couple of weeks. I was supposed to get in an open water swim yesterday after the race but it rained all morning which elevates the bacteria level in the water and I am not trying to get sick. I was thinking about just getting in a couple thousand yards in the pool and also doing a lower body strength session but I was pretty shelled from the race and bagged those ideas.

Saturday I put in 3 hours on the bike and rode up to Lake Wholford. This was the first time I have ridden out there and it was a really good ride. I did quite a bit of climbing, which was probably not the best thing the day before a hilly half marathon, but I had fun. Below are some pictures from the ride.


almost at the top.


fun descent.


the way up and down.


Soaking in the 58 degree pool in my complex. I do this after all my big weekend workouts. Torture.


while in the pool: protein shake and magazine to take my mind off of how cold it is.


39th San Dieguito Half Marathon:

This was my first race of the Season and first repeat race I have ever done. Last year I ran it in 1:21:47. I had been feeling strong leading up the race so the plan was just to go for it.

For the past month I have been having Sushi on saturday nights during my big weeks of training and have always felt great the next day. So I did the same thing this Saturday night. 1 Spicy Tuna Avoacado roll and 4 chicken & rice potstickers. After that I just relaxed and got to bed around 1030pm.

I got up at 530am for the 8am and downed two cups of coffee and this (samething I have been eating before all my long sunday runs):


toasted Mini cinnamon raison bagel with 1 tbsp of Power Butter, honey, and covered with a little bit of Bear Naked Peak Protein Granola. So Good.

I got to the race, found parking, and picked up my number. It was drizzling but it was in the 50's. I warmed up for about 20 minutes with some easy running and some accelerations to race pace. After my warm-up I threw back a couple of Motivators and a couple swigs of Esspresso hammer gel. I found a group of guys at the start line that I have raced against in XC races and decided to try and stay with them. At 8am we toed the line and it go time.

We went out and were immediately in a pack of about 8-10 guys with a couple of guys leading us out. Nobody really pushed it at all. I think we came through the first mile in about 5:30. The pace was really conservative for the first 4 miles and I was running with the lead pack of now about 8 guys. I felt really comfortable. Between miles 4 and 6 the pack started to separate. 3 guys started to pull away and I was in the second pack of 3 guys. We hit mile 6 at about 34 minutes and one guy started to pull away and I kind of let him, but not too far. By mile 8 I was in 5th all alone with the lead pack (1st-3rd) about 45seconds ahead, 4th 10 seconds ahead, and 6th 20 seconds behind me. I went through the 10 mile mark at 58 minutes and the hills were starting to take their toll. At this point I surged and around mile 11 I caught the 4th place guy and we ran together for a mile and then he pulled away from me and I could catch him on the last up hill mile. I was spent. I crossed the line at 1:15:48, 5th overall, 6 minutes faster than last year.

I am very happy with the race. This is a hard course and we went out very conservatively. I am pretty sure with a faster start and a flat course I could get down to about 1:12-1:14 for 13.1 miles. I did not take in anything during the race. No water, no calories. I don't know if this was the right approach or not, but I haven't been taking any calories in on my long runs up to 2 hours. I felt pretty good but maybe a gel with some caffeine would have given me a late boost. I need to experiment more.

Now let's just see how fast I can go after swimming 1.2 miles and riding 56.


heading into the finish. spent.





































5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome recovery week followed by a sweet race performance...very nice!

Drew Holmes said...

nice, race report with pics and everything...nice pace as well. you are so fast.

Habeela said...

As usual, amazing results! Way to start off the season!

Cliff said...

Jameson,

U gonna rock this season.

TRI Vortex said...

Great recovery swims. Those pictures are awsome. That climb look like hell. But that's coming from a newbie. I haven't done any serious road time. None actually since my first TRI last Oct. Just in the gym on those LifeCycles. I know that I need to get on the road and those pix really inspire me to do just that.