The injury-like thing did turn out to be a two-day wonder, which is of course how they are supposed to be. We are advised to fix injuries before they incapacitate us. This advice supposes that we can discern between a harmless twinge and something that’s about to get worse. Perhaps experience helps, or we get lucky. My Achilles tendon, or it’s surrounding structures, was swollen for a day, a little uncomfortable for a second day, then back in service. The week ended with a the longest run of this cycle, whose 24 miles doubled the Alameda beachfront before going twice around Bay Farm Island and home again. Wile beginning the first of these laps I spotted a pair of runners a long way ahead of me and wondered if I would catch them. My long run pace of 8:30-8:50 is still faster than the majority of runners I meet. As it happened, this pair were at my pace, but they got a lot closer after refilling their water bottles at a restroom. A man and woman. I ran along about 100 yards back, until they commenced a second 6-mile lap of the island. I’d now been following this pair for 6 miles, and their pace was metronomic. Marathoners? A surge brought me level, and into conversation with Gareth and Christine. I gathered that they weren’t a couple, just running buddies, out on a 22 miler. Gareth runs marathons and ultras, and is training for CIM, so we had a nice chat about that. Christine’s story was much simpler “I only ever ran one marathon, this one” She pointed at her hat, which had a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. “I was scared of the distance, and paced it quite conservatively, not looking at my watch at all, I later discovered that I was second in my age group”. She looked about my age. They were quite impressive. No doubt I will see them again.
So that little jog used up 3 1/2 hours, longer than I expect to be running in Sacramento. The average pace was 8:38, which was within a second of the my pace in my first marathon, 16 months ago. how times change.
On the subject of CIM, I’m in planning mode for that. My pace will likely be a little faster than the 7:30 min/mile I’ve been training for. The course is at least 5 seconds faster than flat, plus I’ve been feeling quite strong lately. so 7:20 might be possible. I’m interested in planning for a deliberate negative split instead of just letting it happen. Starting out at 7:30 or a little slower, and speeding up by degrees. More about that later.
…and Giddy Up
Published November 12, 2009 planning , Solo runs , training 6 CommentsTags: Injury recovery, Long runs, marathon training, meeting runners
Running Slightly Late 
Woohoo, go 7:20!! I’m sure you can do it, your fitness plus the fast course, you’re going to be flying! Love that your easy training pace for a 24 miler was your old marathon pace, that’s utterly cool.
Flo – come to think of it, you’re in a similar sitch with paces. Most of your training miles are probably way faster than your original marathon pace. See what training does for you?
Yeah, but only because my marathon pace got a little, um, slowed during the race. š No arguing that putting in the work sure reaps the rewards. Not many things in life that are so cut and dried and non-subjective that way. I really like that.
Holy smoke Jim, 7:20!! And that’s not even the secret goal pace, right? Just when you had the math down for the 7:30 splits too. Are you and Francisco similarly paced these days? I’ve lost track. Almost wish I was going to be at the finish line again for CIM just to see you guys working so hard.
Loraine – The secret goal pace is so secret that I don’t know what it is, and probably won’t until about mile 10! š
And I was also thinking that the negative split strategy seems a good fit for you … they don’t call you the energizer bunny for nothin’. Just curious, is that something you’ve played out in training runs?