Keeping on…

On my next-to-last run prior to the time off I referenced a couple of blog posts ago, I did a test on part of my marathon course for this coming fall. Because I was dealing with a couple of sore spots in my legs, I did ten miles instead of the planned fourteen to sixteen.

I kept a 7:15/mile pace for the ten and while that’s well short of carrying that pace for 26.2, it doesn’t seem like an unreasonable time goal at this point. Less ideally, while I knew that the first six miles would be mostly uphill, I hadn’t fully realized how much that can sap you on the opening stretch. I found a different starting point that is traffic-free and will likely use it. However, there are a couple of drawbacks. The main one is it means not using my driveway as the starting line. Also, it would mean that the course has a net elevation loss of 400 feet. This isn’t a bad thing in terms of speed, but I had hoped to start and end at the same elevation. The Boston Marathon has a net loss of 320 feet so a plan B is to match that. While Boston is not world-record eligible partly due to that drop, it is one of the six world majors so equaling that drop seems reasonable.

In the meantime, formal training starts in several more weeks so for now, I’ll keep a solid mileage base while throwing in some longer runs. I’ve not fully decided on a training plan but I’m keeping in mind that I’m forty-two with nearly twenty-eight years of running on my legs. I’ll want to find that right balance of doing appropriate mileage for the distance, not beating my legs into smithereens, and trusting that having running experience can help you grind through some things.

On a random note, when I went out running today, something felt off. It took me a little while to figure it out, and after about a quarter mile, it hit me: humidity. My formative running years were in the thick humidity of Virginia and though this was nowhere close to that, it was still an unwelcome guest. Running at elevation is tough because of the lack of oxygen but humidity can also be a tough opponent. In theory the humidity shouldn’t seem too bad given my background but it’s not pleasant. I’m not a scientist and thus have no idea whether the extra humidity injects more oxygen into the air, but from my non-scientist perception, when the air is wetter in Colorado, it feels like I’m fighting both it and altitude.