San Diego Half Marathon - Plan, Results, Consequences, and Quiet Goal

I signed up for the San Diego Half Marathon at the last minute. Linda and Corey were doing the 5K so I wanted to be supportive, especially of Linda's 60K For Sixty goal for 2016. The picture below is of her three 5k medals. 3 down, 9 to go! And it was her best time on a very much downhill course.

I had a 19 mile run scheduled as part of my training for a marathon (May 1 - which is still definitely a questionable proposition as my plantar f-ing-itis is rearing it's ugly head with all this run training. I'm still up in the air on this marathon plans.)

3rd 5K for Linda's 60K For Sixty

The goals for this run were:

1. Run my 19 miles one way or another.
2. Run the first 8 miles at a moderate, slower-than-marathon zone 2 effort/pace.
3. Run the final 5 miles at goal marathon pace of 8:37/mile.
4. Finish at around 2:00.
5. Come out of this race able to train the next day - if I race it my quads will be painfully sore for 3-4 days. (Half marathons tear me up, as do most events that I actually race.

Goal 1 fell by the wayside when I only got a mile in prior to the start of the race. The atmosphere and excitement got the best of me and dampened my enthusiasm to do extra - I only got 1 mile in before the race. I achieved the 2nd goal, staying in Zone 2 heart rate for 8 miles and even taking a quick bathroom break. It felt very easy. Goal 3 had to be modified because the GPS watch was not showing mile splits. Instead of pace I resorted to monitoring heart rate and staying in Zone 3 in spite of the hilly terrain. Goal 4 was met with a 1:57:10 finishing time.

Goal 5 was only partly achieved. My quads came out of this run in good shape with just minor soreness. My plantar f-ing-itis was quite angry though. I also woke up with a small knot in my back between the ribs. It didn't bother me at all during the run but by the end of the day it was tight enough to keep me from training. With 3 weeks until Ironman California 70.3 Oceanside my priority was to be healthy so I skipped 2 days of training, saw Dr Ott my Chiro, rolled and "ground" the knot, and a good massage.

I haven't given up on my desire to do a marathon on May 1st. Caitlyn is my inspiration. When she finally did her first marathon in January of 2015 AND ran a Boston Qualifying time to boot, I decided to look up what the qualifying time was for my geezerly 60-64 age group. It's a 3:55. With my one and only stand-alone marathon at 4:29 done in 2008, a 35 minute time drop, especially after doing a 1/2 marathon in 1:47, seems possible. Plantar F-ing-itis may be the limiter though. I don't want to sacrifice my Ironman Arizona race (and Mission 16/60 goal) in November where I very likely need to win my age group to qualify for Kona. So, following through with an attempt to qualify for Boston is still to be decided.

GPS file from race. The mile paces, according to this file, line up well with goals 2 and 3, especially when considering the hilly terrain during the final 5 miles.

#getsladed #sdhalf #sladecoaching