Subby goes on a 250 mile ride and then spends the next couple weeks running fast as hell. More machine than man.

Good luck, Cowboy. ABC's advice looks spot on to me.

I don't know what the hell is going on because I barely ran the last three years. I just started running again in late March after a year off from running outside and on my 15th run I was able to put up my best half-marathon time by a pretty wide margin:



Probably pushing a little hard on these - I think my target heart rate is supposed to be 136 or so based on my age - but I don't feel completely destroyed when I'm done. Who knows?

Anyway - happy to be running a little these days.

Holy crap!

My brother, who also is an avid bike rider, turns out to be a very good runner as well. He has a great cardio-vascular system, and it sure shows up in his running.

1:30 is freaking flying.

That's mindblowingly fast.

I just got done watching my friend who'd been trying for years to BQ, and finally succeeded last Saturday with an exhausting 7:30/mi pace, and now I see a sub 7:00/mi "random" half marathon distance?

Crazy. Crazy.

I bow to you.

I like your 262 Epic suffer score.

My new Garmin watch is also trolling the ^&*% out of me right now. :mad:

At the rate you're going, I don't think your Garmin is too off base. ;)

I assume that the serious cyclists in this thread have seen this before, but it made me chuckle and wonder about the thoughts of Mrs. Subby.

The shame of being married to a MAMIL, a Middle Aged Man In Lycra | Daily Mail Online

43:10. And my fastest average time since 2013. Next goal, do 5K in under 45 minutes. I think I would have come close to that if I had gone a little farther, but my knees were killing me.

Heh. Love that column. She definitely gets pissed when I try to wear cycling clothes anywhere but on the bike.

She also understands I am waaaay happier when I am riding, so it's a pretty easy trade off.

Dude that is awesome. Congrats on hitting 43:10!

Ran my first 5k race today. I was pretty nervous before the race but it went away as soon as I started running.

I finished 4th in my age group (45-49) with an official time of 29:29. Arrrgh, the top three finishers received medals. Strava had me at 28:54, although I forgot for 5 or so minutes to stop the time. ;P

Overall it was a great experience, a lot funner than I expected. I finished as the 37th male and 60th overall of 168 runners. I was really concerned with my ankle last night as it was sore as it's been for weeks. Luckily a night of rest and some aspercreme helped it out a lot.

Congrats on your first 5k! When's the next?

Great job getting the first 5k completed. Bummer on being first to miss on the medal, but if that is a priority there are a number of races where all participants get medals. I know this as those are the only type of medals I've collected.

Once finished 2nd in age group (by one second!), but didn't know it until I had left the race. Shockingly enough, I received nothing in the mail.

Thanks! I had the Joplin Memorial Run targeted as my first run several months ago, it is in honor of the 161 people that lost their lives in the May 22nd, 2011 Joplin tornado. It's the big run for this area, with a marathon, half-marathon, 10k, 5k, Walk of Silence, and kids runs. I'm pretty sure I'm going to run in it but I haven't committed to it yet.

Yeah the medal wasn't a big deal, just woulda been kinda cool to get one in my first race which would have been completely unexpected. I did get a cool shirt though! ;)

Ordered my Garmin 235 today. Hoping that the built-in heart rate monitor shows up pretty well. I'll be happy to retire the existing HRM, which has both irritated my chest over the last couple of months, as well as not working reliably over the past year. And I'm expecting the GPS resolution times to be a ton better. The rest of the new features will likely require me to invest some time digging into them to see how they might help me think a little differently about my running.

Love my 235. I was glad to be rid of the chest strap. However, in the early iterations of the software, the HRM tended to be a hit-or-miss per device. I might have been one of the lucky ones who seemed to have had an accurate monitor. But then again, I never did put the HRM to the tests (HR readings during interval training... which is where the complaints came from).

GPS is damn accurate. Picks up satellites almost instantaneously.

I've just recently started using the workout features on Garmin Connect, and it's great. Just build a workout (set up your warmup, intervals, cooldown, and anything inbetween), sync it to your watch, and go on a run using said workout. It's great. And the workout build feature is pretty robust. And the resulting activity translates great with Strava Premium's workout analysis.

There's also an alert feature that I use as well. Run/walk alert (like a simpler version of a workout). An alert when to eat/fuel or drink. Alerts when your pace is above or below certain levels, even when your HR exceeds or falls outside of certain levels.

For a while I did have bluetooth connectivity issues, but somehow I got it to stay connected to my phone.

Overall, it's a great watch.

Yeah, sorry about that. This winter was pretty rough on me. Work was brutal and I was working 80-90 hours with a crazy project. Between being so busy that getting in runs was difficult and stress eating, it was not my best few months.

Most of my runs that synced was just autosynced from my watch when I finished, I wasnt really looking too much at them.

Trying to get myself back together, going to run another marathon this fall, and work has gotten a bit better after April 1st passed, but now dealing with possible layoffs and such (including my boss and his boss), so still dealing with a bunch of stress.

I'm back to running 30+ miles a week, but just don't feel it right now, all of my gains from last year are gone and I'm just not in a great place right now.

Hang in there Alan, you'll find the benefits of cumulative training soon enough. Promise.

I am happy just knowing you are back out there. Keep plugging away, my man!

Hang in there, Alan. Sorry you've hit a rough patch.

Note to self. Turn off GPS when not using actively.

From my post on Facebook.

I think that's the right choice.

I ran my 2nd 5k this morning in the Joplin Memorial Marathon, finishing in 26:33, nearly three minutes faster than my race 2 weeks ago. I think they said there was 1167 participants in the 5k, I finished 164th overall and 7th in my age group. Including the full and half marathon there was around 3200 runners.

I'm pretty happy with my effort, according to strava I set 6 prs despite having poison ivy all over my face, eyes, arms, hands and legs. Couldn't sleep worth a damn last night either.

I might start looking at some 10k runs now, there are some local night runs that look pretty cool.

Oh and the badass award goes to the soldier running a half in full gear.

Wow, that is terrific improvement over 2 weeks! Very cool to see that, as well as taking the plunge on the 10k.

I ran my second marathon yesterday in Copenhagen.
Stayed on pace for my four hour goal for the first 23K. Then I like many others had underestimated the heat (+25 C with clear blue sky) and didn’t get enough to drink. Started to cramp up in both legs.

I gave up, pulled off my start number and started to walk back.
Then changed my mind and put my start number back on and started running again.

The last 15 K was a mix of walking and slow running to keep the cramps under control.
In the end close to 10% of the 9400 starters didn’t finish so I am just happy for making it all the 42K.
Now I know what it feels like to “hit the wall”

Congrats!

Wow way to tough it out. Leg cramps are THE. WORST.

Way to overcome adversity!

I picture this as the dramatic turning point in the movie. {music swells}

... Before running straight through the finish line, to the girl who had just turned to walk away, and after a short uncertain pause they fall into each others arms. Roll credits!

Slight change of tack, just signed up for my first organised ride/run, an 85 mile Sportive in just over 6 weeks. Longest ride this year? 35 miles! In Ireland for a week next week, so will have to try and get some longer rides in in June!

:lol: Nobody would sit thru a slow five hour movie like that.

This is the 3rd year in a row I have completed a local ride called Kill Bill. This year was a little different as I attempted on a single speed bike. It was hard, but I finished without crashing! Anyway - on to the next stupid thing...

That's totally a Subby thing to do. Nice job!

Happy 3-year runniversary to me! Also, I just grabbed my first FOFC Strava challenge "championship." Thanks for starting this thread, Subby. You're pure awesomeness.

Dude that is so great. We need to make better use of these challenges bc I can't have you beating me like this. :)

Well, you did have like a thousand miles of cycling that I didn't have in May, so you can let me have my little "wins" now and then. :D

I think I'm gonna do the Hartford marathon this year. This looks like a good program for someone who's not quite a novice, but a first-time marathoner?

Hal Higdon Training Programs

I think the Higdon programs are great. I ran my first three or four marathons off of his programs.

Higdon would be the program I would use if I was disciplined enough to follow a training program.

I recommend following whatever plan FrogMan followed. The man crushed it last weekend and I read somewhere that it was a warm weekend up there.

Frogman is a great runner. That's for sure.

When he say 5 m run, that means run faster than goal marathon pace, correct?

So, I finally got some resolution on why my knee has been giving me so much trouble since my procedure back in December. I've been trying to get back on my bike, but my knee has been very uncooperative. I went back to the orthopedic doc, and he took a look. As part of the procedure in December, he moved my kneecap to get it to line up properly. I guess it had always been a bit off-kilter, but I never really noticed. Turns out that my kneecap was trying to get back into its old position, and was stuck halfway between the old and new spot. Luckily the fix didn't require any surgery, just a, well how should I put it, forceful manipulation of the knee cap back into the 'new' spot. I'll have to wear a sleeve brace on my knee for a while to help hold it in the new orientation and get it to stay there, and he said to try again on the bike. So later today I'll see how it works. I signed up a while back for a bike ride in Italy, TX which happens next weekend. It might be pushing it a bit to make that one, but hopefully I can do one of the shorter distances at least.

I believe it is the opposite, run slower than projected pace. In the link you posted earlier, he mentions that speed work isn't part of that program.

5m "run" means relatively easy pace (slower than goal race pace)
5m "pace" means goal race pace.

dola

And the Sunday Long Run is at a comfortable pace. According to the link, 30-90 seconds per mile slower than your goal marathon pace.

hey guys, thanks on the kind words. :) race went REALLY well. or at least in line with what my training was suggesting, but I was about to pull the plug on the eve of the race it was so humid and hot. Was simply thinking about running it easy and saying f*ck it... At 6 am on Sunday it was humid but cloudy and I decided to start with the pace I had trained for and hold it for a while but be very careful of signals my body might send me, given what has already happened in the past. Felt some of those odd signs around miles 15 and decided to slow down just a bit to keep my HR under control and really felt the heat only for the last couple miles. Official time: 3:22:40, good enough for a theoretical Boston standard. Had to run 3:25 but when I say theoretical, it's before their cutoff which was at 2 min 28 seconds last year. Meaning only runner who had run 2 min 28 seconds better than their qualifying time were allowed to run Boston. Wait and see for now, but I'm quite zen with it. If it happens, it happens, if not, we'll keep on running. Got another marathon planned for September, Montreal, part of the Rock N Roll series and this year they are giving a jacket to all finishers in addition to the medal and shirt :)


I have been using Higdon's plan since I started trianing for official races. I like that they are simple, yet can be challenging. The back to back semi-long & long run on Saturday and Sunday toward the end of the cycle are very useful but you gotta be careful not to overdo it as these come at the end of big weeks. "5m run" for him is just that, a pretty easy run, at your easy pace. For me that's around 8:00/mile or so, maybe even a bit slower, while my marathon pace was at about 7:26/mile... Most running is done at a pretty easy pace and it suits me just fine... Consistency is the key. Don't skip workouts and if you miss one, try not to overdo it on the next one...

FM

just kinda proud ;)

FM

to go back on Higdon, I train on an intermediate II plan that I modified to add the speedwork from his advanced plan. Love it, simple, I run five times a week, Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursdat, then Saturday/Sunday with two days off. I have place my speedwork day on Tuesday and it alternates on a three week cycle between hills, 800m intervals and progression run (negative splits).

Currently on a three week relaxed break, running four times a week but plan to start a new training cycle in a couple weeks for my September marathon...

FM

So it appears that Strava has dropped support for the RFLKT remote display. I've used this combo since I started riding again a couple of years ago. I didn't have my phone last night, as I used that as more of a series of quick rides to adjust my shoes/saddle/etc. But I tried to use it tonight, and no go. A quick search of The Googles shows that indeed they did drop support for the RFLKT and several other displays with the last update that was released at the beginning of the week.

It isn't too big a deal since you can also upload from the Wahoo app to Strava. But I wonder if that functionality is the next to get whacked.

Not much to add other than I absolutely love my Garmin Edge 1000. Highly recommend it.

I signed up for this virtual race thing called the Amerithon (www.amerithon.com). It starts July 4th and as a virtual event, I will be syncing my Garmin activities (walk/run and even bike, yeah I'll have to make an effort) in order to travel from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Washington Monument in Washington DC. It's 3521 miles or 134 marathon. :o

There's no time limit but I hope to get it done by the December 31st, 2017, so in about 18 months.

You can follow this link to sign up if you want and I will get a 5$ credit on my registration.
http://www.signmeup.com/site/online-...34?q12=BS2JCH7

It's also possible to do it as a team of up to 8 persons, where each does his/her own thing, but each person has to sign up individualy. As you will travel, you will be given links to 36 milestones videos to watch. For me, as a non american, this should be pretty cool to watch from the outside. :)

I went for the full package at $75, with a wall map, stickers, the big medal (6 parts that weighs a pound from what they say!) and a tee shirt, but registration starts at $25 and there's some sort of free upgrade if you preregister now (before July 4th). Of course, the free upgrade on the big package is free shipping... in the US, doh! I don't mind, I thought the whole idea behind the challenge was cool and I'm looking forward to watch my wirtual self move from the start to the end of that journey over the next 18 months :)

FM

With my knee seeming to be ok after the kneecap realignment, I headed up this past weekend to ride in the Tour d'Italia in Italy, TX with my Dad. He was excited to ride his new bike he picked up last week, a recumbent trike. We planned to ride either the 30 mile or 40 mile route, depending on how we felt at the turnoff where the routes split.

It was humid and around 80 degrees at 8am when the ride started. I was a bit ahead of my Dad, but I could still see him when I glanced back. About 6 miles in is the first turn, so I waited for my Dad to catch up. I was starting to get a bit worried when there was no sign of him after 10 minutes. Turned out he was riding with some other folks also riding recumbent trikes, and one of them had a flat about a 1/4 mile back from the turn. He stayed with them to help out.

Around the 8 mile mark, he started to have some pains in his hips from the different riding style of a recumbent. I stayed with him, but it got bad enough that he had to drop out at the 10 mile mark. I soldiered on to the first rest stop another couple of miles up the road. At this point, the temp had risen, and so had the humidity. The heat index was near 100 degrees. I felt really bad for about 10 minutes after the first rest stop. But that passed and I was doing better.

When I got to the split, I decided to take the 30 mile route. My knees were feeling fine, but it was getting really, really hot. I cooled down at the 2nd rest stop, and got ready for the final 10 mile ride into town. I think I made the right choice to take the 30 mile route. I was passing people that were riding the 40 miles, and they were looking like death warmed over. By the end of the ride, it was 90 degrees with 60% humidity, and the heat index was 106. My time was slower than I liked, but that was mainly due to the slower first 10 miles.

There was a bit of swelling in my most recently repaired knee after the ride, and it was still there the next morning, but no pain. So I've signed up for a couple of more rides, one at the beginning of August, and the ride out at Fort Davis again the middle of September.

That's great news on the knee. Saturday was just brutal North of Dallas with the humidity. I'm sure it was worse further South.

Speaking of which... my son talked me into entering a half marathon challenge with him. It is three half marathons, one each month of the summer. I have no problems running the distance a couple times a week with better conditions but at this point I'm going to be lucky to finish.

After looking at things closer, I realized that Hal thought I should do the Novice II rather than Intermediate I. He doesn't recommend that for first time marathoners. So far, Novice II is going well.

Today I finished my first 5K (just running, not an official race). According to Strava, I did 44:19. Also had my personal record for 2 miles, and second fastest mile I've ever done.

It's slowly getting better. Next goal, 5K in under 40 minutes.

Great job, Umbrella! Keep up the good work!

My knees did really well last week on our trip to Big Bend National Park. It was on a trip out there a couple of years ago that my left knee finally gave out. We did quite a few day hikes in some rugged terrain, and they didn't give me any issues. I tried to use Strava to track them, but it was acting strange when there was no cell signal, and it didn't seem to always like the external GPS I was using with my phone. It only tracked 30 minutes and two miles on one hike, when we were hiking for several hours and at least 5 miles.

What did end up bothering my knees was when we went swimming at Balmorhea State Park, which has a nearly two acre spring fed pool. I did a few jumps off of the 10 foot diving board, and my knees balked at the feet-first impact.

Now back to my cycling routine. I have a ride at the end of July, then the big ride out in Fort Davis again in September.

I know there are a fair few decent runners here - I'm having real problems balancing my running with my love of playing soccer.

I've done a few (3?) half marathons and one marathon in the last year and was up to what I'd consider a decent pace for shorter races (5k's circa 8 min miles and 10k's sub 10) but have dropped off (now down by a minute or so a mile on my pace last year) largely because this year my soccer seasons haven't had a break because I've been organizing pick up games between seasons ...

This is great as I love soccer, but I'm finding I'm picking up minor knocks and strains a lot - I run 3-4 times a week (currently just 2-3 miles a throw most times with the occassional 5-6 miler thrown in) and play soccer twice a week for between 1-2 hours, any ideas as to how to encourage my body to accept this abuse more easily or should I just accept that the two aren't overly compatible ...

Tried running again yesterday after 3 months off due to a sore right knee. Took it easy, basically starting couch to 5k over even though I've otherwise remained active since the last run. My knee felt fine while I was running, actually the other one started hurting. About 7 or 8 hours later however, the knee pain came back. Its on the left side of my right knee. Was hoping it would at least be somewhat back to normal, but it looks like even 3 months later its still not.

Its confusing to me, because it doesn't hurt when doing high impact cardio. I did Insanity and am in the middle of p90x3, and my knee feels perfectly fine with all the jumping, squatting and stretching.

Just to be clear, you're talking about your inner knee, right? If it was the outer knee it sounds almost exactly like IT Band syndrome.

Running form... Are you landing on your heel? The impact on your heel is driven right up your leg and onto your knee.

Versus Insanity and P90X, when running or jumping in place, you're likely landing on your forefoot, or the balls of your feet, which cushion the impact.

Week 4 of C25K is so freaking hard. That is all.

EX2 Hemlock Trail Half Marathon

Ran my first race in 5 years and finished 1st in my age group and 3rd overall! Hands down the hardest run I have ever done with about 10 climbs of 75 to 150 feet with 10-13% grades. Humid as hell too - at race time (8am) it was 75 degrees and 100% humidity. My pace was more than two minutes slower than my road pace for the same distance, which shows what a shitshow this course was (in a good way!) I decided to run two days before the race, ordered trail shoes that came the day before the race, and didn't eat anything the morning of the race. Multiple bad decisions but it all worked out.

This is fantastic stuff, Subby.

Nice, Subby!

I'm heading back out to Ft. Davis, TX this weekend to once again attempt the Fort Davis Cyclefest.

Fort Davis Cyclefest Loop in Fort Davis, TX, United States | MapMyRide

I had to retire last year at the second rest stop, and found out when I got back home I had to have surgery on my other knee. Now both knees have been under the knife, and have responded pretty well. I'm still not able to ride anywhere near the speeds I used to ride, and I'm ok with the fact I probably never will hit those speeds again. I've checked my ego at the door, and picked up a triple chainring for the front to help with the climbs. My knees are doing a lot better on them, but I still can't get out of the saddle and crank. I just have to stay seated and spin for the climbs.

Only troubling thing about the ride this weekend is that the forecast is heavy thunderstorms the whole time. High altitude and electricity from the sky are a bad combo.

Someone once told me, "If it was easy, every one would do it" (Subby, I think it was you, actually). Stay strong and keep at it!

dola,

Speaking of Subby, congrats!

Woohoo FOFC STRAVA GROUP DOMINATION!

I was going to start running again, but I'm doing Insanity Max 30 between now and our 10th wedding anniversary trip in November. After the first day of that, I realized adding running would be death. Doing some mild dumbbell lifting in the morning and Insanity at night.

I will say I destroyed my calves the other night and haven't done anything other than pushups, crunches and pullups for 2 nights. I don't know if it was poor squat form or too much jumping with Insanity. Its miserable standing up, both calves ache when moving my feet while sitting, and I look like I just finished some weird fetish when walking. Slightly better today, but not great. My wife did some PT stuff to them last night, crazy painful. I literally bit a hole in the duvet cover when I clenched my teeth it hurt so much.

Mo Farah training schedule

around 130 miles per week.

Finished the ride a little bit ago. Made it 55 of the scheduled 75. My uncle picked me up after the third big climb, and my knees said 'no mas'. Got a 20 mile sag, and he dropped me off at the last rest top to ride in the last 12 miles.

Lynn Kristianson Inspirational Super 600K

This is an endurance cycling "permanent" - an unscheduled ride that you can do any time after registering with the route owner/administrator. It's different from a regular 600k because it has more than 30,000 feet of climbing. Your completion of the route is verified using receipts and photos from control points along the way (pre-determined convenience stores, waysides, etc.). You must also do it within a specified time limit. This particular route had to be completed in 50 hours.

I started with 6 others at 4am Saturday morning. I was first to finish (although it isn't a race) at 8pm on Sunday night. I was able to sleep for a luxurious 4 hours from 1:30am to 5:30am on Sunday morning. One participant ended up in the hospital with rhabdomyolysis. Another one dropped out. A 3rd is unaccounted for and we aren't sure if he finished within the time frame. Three others finished within the time frame (including me).

This is officially the hardest thing I have ever done.

Jeebus

Holy cow.

Some things in this thread inspire me.

Some things make me think WTF.

That ride is in the latter category :D

Dola - Kudos though to Subby: it is an amazing/bewildering effort.

And Kudos to Frogman for his brilliant marathon run

Here's one in a couple of weeks for ya, Subby!

http://www.hillcountryrandonneurs.org/1000k.htm

I've been off for the last week so I log back into Strava, see Subby's crazy ride, and literally laugh out loud. Then I see FM's incredible race and Kodos' PR during a training run. Well done guys! It was a good weekend for the FOFC Strava group.

I have been training at a gym, so you guys haven't seen me on Strava much lately, but I will be running the Long Beach Marathon on October 9.

Also, for those of you who aren't already following me on FB/IG, I am attempting to reach the minimum physical fitness standards for the Navy SEALs (what you need to hit to qualify for BUDS).

I am 43, BTW, so, no, I won't actually be applying for BUDS lol.

Amazing stories here of late. Keep it up, guys. Subby, that's nuts. I might have to try it someday.

I've heard good things about that one! Needs more climbing. ;)

Hey guys. I have a racing etiquette question. I'm running the Hartford Marathon on October 8th, and my brother is training for a different marathon later in the month. He offered to join me around mile 6 of the marathon to keep me company/get in a training run. His plan is to duck out before the end so as not to do anything that would detract from people who have paid to do the race. I'm honestly not sure if that would be considered an acceptable thing for him to do (run along with me for 20ish miles, even though he's not in the race). What do you guys think?

I think it depends on the race. People go ape shit (and rightfully so) for races that are really hard to get into when bandits run. For this one it is probably not a huge deal and it is a great idea and gesture by him to bow out before the finish.

I think it's fine as long as he only drinks water and brings his own nutrition. I did it a long time ago to keep my FIL company during the MCM here in DC.

Thanks for your opinions. I was a little iffy on it, but he's doing the things that were mentioned, so sounds like it's all good.

Subby is a freak of nature. That is all.

Yep, pretty sure that time is in line with Boston qualifying, assuming I'm in the right ballpark in Subby's age.

On the other end of the spectrum, I got a DNF result in my latest HM race. I couldn't maintain RunDisney's strict pace requirement, and I got picked up by the sweeper vans at mile 7.

No worries though. As humiliating this experience may seem, It's not going to discourage me from running. Nor from signing up for more races.

I had been sidelined all summer long with bum knees, so my training was non-existent. But I had since recovered and recently slowly started hitting the pavement... Just not early enough for this weekend's race.

DLF > DNF > DNS

You did it man, that's all that matters. The more your do it, the faster you get. You lapped everyone on the couch. :)

What Subby said.

Richmond Marathon

I don't want to bore everyone with my marathon this past weekend but hey that's why we created this thread!

I think I signed up to run back in April with the full intention of training for 18 weeks using Higdon's Intermediate II or Advanced I program. My goal was to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Thanks to being Old As Fuck™ (45), I only needed a 3:25. Possibly doable!

That said, I also decided not to tell many people because I have a solid history of signing up for races and not training enough or at all. True to form, in the 18 weeks leading up to the marathon, I ran 34 times for a total of 219 miles. I only had four runs over 10 miles, with the longest run being 14 miles. Anyway, you get the idea. I didn't train enough. Yes, I had a lot of cycling in there, so that definitely helped my cardiovascular system. Anyway, I was too lazy to defer to next year so my plan was to maybe have a medical emergency on the course so that I could at least get my money's worth out of the registration fee. I was also going to drink a lot of beer at the Expo (latter mission accomplished).

Without going all travelogue, Richmond is a great, up-and-coming city with lots of shit white people like. Microbreweries, gastropubs, independent coffee shops, bike lanes, etc.. It also has shit no one likes, including hipsters, but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.

Anyway, Fall almost anywhere on the east coast is going to beautiful and Richmond was no exception. The leaves were a million colors. While the temp was in the upper 30s at the 7:45am gun, it wasn't soul-suckingly cold. In fact, the wind cooperated and I was comfortable in running shorts, a light long sleeve base layer, and gloves. I also had a t-shirt sleeve on my head as an improvisational throwaway skullcap, but it did such a good job keeping my ears warm and the sweat out of my eyes, I never took it off. In other words, I looked like a fucking doofus. I also wore some hand me down Nikes from my father in law - a few years old with a thousand miles or more on them. Basically part tribute to my FIL and an ineffectual "FU" to the running shoe industry. Or something.

My goal was to run a 7:30 pace, but I went out fast and latched on to a group which was probably looking to run a three hour marathon. Our splits over the first 10 miles had us at around 6:50/mile. It was weird, but I felt good so I revised my plan to something way more irresponsible: hold on as long as possible and then finish on fumes and tears.

This plan worked great until mile 19 when the wheels came off. Or the legs. Yes, there was a voice in my head that actually thought I had an outside shot of averaging 6:55 miles for an entire marathon. I did not. Cardio was fine and my heart rate actually went down for the last 7 miles, but my legs and anything attached (feet, back, kankles) just weren't having it. I walked through some water stops and stretched a little and otherwise cursed myself whenever I thought for even a second about stopping. My average pace started creeping up 6:55, 6:58, 7:01, 7:06. Once I got to 7:11 with two miles to go, I knew that I was going to have to dig deep. I literally closed my eyes during a few stretches while I was trying to visualize finishing. The people along the route were predictably great, and one spot was handing out beers. I had a beer, of course, because my personal discipline is for shit. I also spilled half of it on myself, a smell which reminded me that I had been at much, much lower points than this. So it actually helped!

Fortunately the finish was straight down hill, so any illusion I had of my quads ever working again was mercifully ended. I did manage to scuttle across the finish in a just a shade over 3:10, which is NOT good enough to qualify for Boston if you are 35-39 (you have to be under!) Again though, I am ancient, so it was good enough for me to be a fair bit ahead of the 3:25 mark I needed. I finished 13th (out of 249) in my age group (45-49) and 175th overall out of 4,056.

Anyway, that's it. I really can't walk that well, but I'll heal up. I was so under trained it was ridiculous. But I qualified for Boston 2018 and I am definitely doing it. I am also going to run Richmond again because, well...I'm an idiot. Don't be like me.

It's truly amazing the way you do things like this (undertrain for a marathon) and they work out so well anyhow! A tribute to your overall physical fitness from the cycling. You are awesome, man. Awe inspiring.

amazing.

i just can't get over how amazing this is. it's so amazing it deserves a double post.

That's awesome. Way to go, Subby!

Puts more pressure on me to qualify so I can run with you.