2010 Pasadena Half Marathon

More details later but ran this on Sunday with a head cold still nagging me, and managed to do a 1:59:01 (9:05 pace), and placed 640/2978. I set out to try for a 9:00 pace and hit 8:59 min/miles for the first 10k and then faded a teeny bit to the 9:05 average (all the hills are in the 2nd half of the race too, btw.).

I'm not very well trained (20-24 miles a week) so no PRs but was doing it as a training run toward some as-yet-undetermined marathon (Eugene is out due to other constraints).

The 9:05 min/mile pace is intentional: a sub 4 hour marathon takes a 9:09 pace. Someday I'd like to do sub 4. My average HR for this race was 139, which shows me I'm a bit detrained from previous peaks (should be more like 132).

I had a good time in this race. The course is not flat, but the uphill sections (2) are not that steep. (I really hate steep uphills where you run on tip-toe.) The bigger hill is from mile 7.5 to about mil 10 and gains 200', but the good news is that after mile 10 or so it's all downhill to the finish. During the last few miles I made up for the slower hill pace by cranking out some 2:06 quarter miles.

This final pic is the sprint to the finish...I had a lot left at the end since I was taking it relatively "easy".

Update: It's now 4 days later and my cold is almost gone...i.e. didn't get worse after the race. Always hard to know when a minor cold should be ignored or respected.

Runner Details	Race Results
Bib: 3988 Name: Paul Gender: M Age: 54 Hometown: Palo Alto, CA	Overall: 646 out of 2988 Men: 469 out of 1344 M 50-54: 37 out of 109 Age/Grade: 58.25% Place: 471 Finish: 1:59:01 Pace: 9:05 Tag Time: 1:59:01 Gun Time: 2:00:03

A Stake in the Ground..

I've had a pretty spotty running schedule due to a nasty series of colds that have been hammering both Toni and I (and everybody it seems).

Good to give the legs a break though.

Toward that end I've also experimented with several kinds of cross-training at my gym. Michele, my co-worker has been teaching me 'crossfit' training (he's become quite good at it himself), which is sort of a mix of aerobic exercises, some with weights. The squats you do for this are really good for me(I think.) All of the exercises are based on natural moves.

I've also been using the elliptical, stairmaster, bikes, etc. I don't like them as much as running out on the roads, but it does allow you ramp up the heart rate to a very fast pace equivalent without stressing out your muscles/joints/tendons like fast running does.

And, of course the gym is good when it's raining.

But now I'm ready to start mileage base-building..and so there's been some noodling over which races to shoot for. I really want to do a better job peaking for races this year.

Here's a plan:


Feb: Pasadena 1/2 marathon, to be done as a training run, no PR, probably 9:00-ish pace (hilly course).

April: Santa Cruz 1/2 marathon (train for PR, sub 8:30 pace) I love this course. My friend Martha is also signed up.

May: Eugene Marathon! A flat course that's also good for spectators.

I could also do SFM with this schedule since it's not until July 25th, which gives me almost 3 months between marathons...but not really committing to that yet.