Ow!
Woke up this morning to thunderstorms and 25+ mph gusts. Not really what you want to have for a race day morning. Fortunately it mostly cleared up by the time the race started.
The race was the Gasparilla 1/2 marathon in Tampa. I decided to escape the frigid tundra of the midwest and hop down to Florida for the weekend. The weather ( apart from this morning ) has been great. 70's and sunny. It's definitely going to suck going home tomorrow. I'll find a way to survive though.
Back to the race. I've been doing solid zone1 & 2 base training all winter long. This race kinda kicks off my speed work phase. The instructions from the coach were go out fast, and hold it. So that's pretty much what I did. Based on how training is going, I thought I had a shot at a 1:45 time. That's approx 8:00 per mile average pace.
We started in a gusty mist of a morning in the pre-dawn darkness. I had my sunglasses but ended up not using them the whole race due to them fogging up and there being a complete lack of sun. I'm sure if I'd left them behind, I would have wanted them.
The course wound through Tampa and surrounding neighborhoods. I kept my pace at just under 8:00 per mile through the first half of the race. I was feeling good at that point, so decided to push onward. Dropped in a couple 7:40'ish miles between 6 and 10. Then we turned to head back towards the finish and it started raining again. Not just mist, but full on rain. And wind. Shoes were pretty well soaked at this point, but not much you can do about it except keep plugging away.
Those last 3 miles were rough, due to the conditions, and also the fact that I had been holding my heartrate at my lactate threshold for the last 10 miles. I ended up crossing the finish line at 1:45:19 by my stopwatch. I count that as having my goal. My average HR was at LT. No wonder my legs hurt a little bit. Good to know that I can push it, and I didn't blow up.
Afterwards, there was much brunching of food with Karl and some other crazy triathlete friends, then it was back to the race to cheer in the marathon finishers.
A great weekend, and a great race. Now it's back to the cold, but only for a day, as I'm leaving again Tuesday for a 2 day trip for work. Then it's off to Colorado on Thursday for the last ski weekend ( for me ) of the winter. Phew, really earning those miles this week. Now, I just need to come up with a suitable way to cash them in.
The race was the Gasparilla 1/2 marathon in Tampa. I decided to escape the frigid tundra of the midwest and hop down to Florida for the weekend. The weather ( apart from this morning ) has been great. 70's and sunny. It's definitely going to suck going home tomorrow. I'll find a way to survive though.
Back to the race. I've been doing solid zone1 & 2 base training all winter long. This race kinda kicks off my speed work phase. The instructions from the coach were go out fast, and hold it. So that's pretty much what I did. Based on how training is going, I thought I had a shot at a 1:45 time. That's approx 8:00 per mile average pace.
We started in a gusty mist of a morning in the pre-dawn darkness. I had my sunglasses but ended up not using them the whole race due to them fogging up and there being a complete lack of sun. I'm sure if I'd left them behind, I would have wanted them.
The course wound through Tampa and surrounding neighborhoods. I kept my pace at just under 8:00 per mile through the first half of the race. I was feeling good at that point, so decided to push onward. Dropped in a couple 7:40'ish miles between 6 and 10. Then we turned to head back towards the finish and it started raining again. Not just mist, but full on rain. And wind. Shoes were pretty well soaked at this point, but not much you can do about it except keep plugging away.
Those last 3 miles were rough, due to the conditions, and also the fact that I had been holding my heartrate at my lactate threshold for the last 10 miles. I ended up crossing the finish line at 1:45:19 by my stopwatch. I count that as having my goal. My average HR was at LT. No wonder my legs hurt a little bit. Good to know that I can push it, and I didn't blow up.
Afterwards, there was much brunching of food with Karl and some other crazy triathlete friends, then it was back to the race to cheer in the marathon finishers.
A great weekend, and a great race. Now it's back to the cold, but only for a day, as I'm leaving again Tuesday for a 2 day trip for work. Then it's off to Colorado on Thursday for the last ski weekend ( for me ) of the winter. Phew, really earning those miles this week. Now, I just need to come up with a suitable way to cash them in.
posted by Chris Parker at
6:22 PM
1 Comments:
Good job on reaching your goal!
As for the miles bit, Krisanne always told me that the milk run for miles is to hit Singapore. It was only $1200 for my ticket, but it's gonna net me 16000 miles when the round trip is done. Cha-ching. Much better than making Premier on the number of flights rather than miles.
By
Sanford Owings, at 7:23 PM
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