Thursday, January 12, 2012

Goals for Charleston

Saturday Kelley and I will both be running the Charleston Marathon in Charleston SC.  It will be my fourth marathon, and her second.  We are setting some goals to reach out for.

Kelley's first marathon was Myrtle Beach in 2009, she ran a 5:56 that included time stopped chatting and hanging out with her family on the course.  This time she's going to line up with the 5 hour pace group, but I feel confident she'll finish before then.  My prediction is a 1 hour PR for Kelley.

My first marathon (if you haven't been reading since 2009) was the Hatfield/McCoy where I finished in 5:07 and ended up in the emergency room in middle of nowhere West Virginia with extreme dehydration and heat exhaustion.  That was fun.  Then in 2010 I smashed the 5 hour barrier with a 4:31 in the Tobacco Road marathon, which I loved and will be returning to this year.  That was a March 2010 full, and I didn't run another full until November 2011 in Ironman Florida.  During that 20 month span between marathons, I lost a bunch of weight and got fast.  So I actually set my marathon PR during the Ironman while trying to hold back and run as slow as possible to avoid hitting the wall.  PR 4:25 set a few months ago.

Marathon Death March at mile 25 of Hatfield/McCoy

At the finish line of Tobacco Road marthon in 2010


Goal #1:  PR
Sounds simple enough.  Surely if I take a smaller warm up than that 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride I can pull a 4:24 or faster.

This also includes my normal every-time goal of Finish, Don't Die.  This is the first race in our attempt to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs, where you only have to finish (preferably alive) to qualify.

Goal #2: Sub-4
Right now The Snail is sitting on a 3:59:56 PR from his marathon in Savannah the same day I ran IMFL.  We have mutual targets of beating the other one by 5 seconds.  So if I can go 3:59:51 or faster it's a win.  Granted he's all into trail ultras this year, which is cool, but I still want to pwn him at this distance.  by 5 seconds.

I'm-Not-Really-Overtrained Goal: 3:30
All of my run training before and after Ironman has been focused on 8 minute miles or faster.  Finishing the marathon in 3:30 is exactly an 8:00 per mile pace. If I start out too fast, I'll bonk out at the end.  I've finished plenty of 20 mile runs in 2:40 and I think I can hold the same pace for another 10k, but you never really know until you get there. 

They have a 3:30 pace group listed out.  I'm going to line up in that group at the start and try not to get ahead or behind.  I will have the garmin on, and will note my important mile splits.  The plan is to take GU's every 4 miles, advil and Endurolytes as needed.  They have aide stations every 2 miles until mile 21, and every mile after that.  4 miles at an 8 m/m pace should mean that I'm gelling every 32 minutes with one other water stop in between.  This should keep me with enough electrolytes to be good for the duration, as long as I can also get enough water. 

Part of me still has the haunting suspicion that I didn't take enough time to recover from the Ironman.  I've been fighting some of the signs of overtraining, like insomnia and fatigue.  The speed and comfort isn't always there when I expect it to be, like it was before Ironman.  One of my old coaches even warned me on facebook that I might be overtrained.  So I'm just going to pay attention to the 8 m/m pace.  If it's not there, I could bring some serious wrongs by pushing it too hard that could screw up the whole year.  That's not the goal.  So officially I'm going for a sub-3:30, but I will not feel guilty about slowing it down if I think it's going to wreck my season.  There are still two more marathons in the next two months to finish.

It's supposed to be sunny with a high of 53 on Saturday in Charleston, so it should be great conditions for a marathon.  The course is very flat, incredibly scenic, and goes through lots of downtown and historical Charleston without leaving the mainland.  We're staying with my brother Michael for the weekend, and our friends Joe and Gina are also coming down.  Gina's running, they've never been to Charleston before so they are in for a treat.  Lots of fun with friends and family is the name of the game.

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On another fun note, the Bone Island triathlon exists now.  Full and Half Iron races, and it's the second full Iron triathlon put on by Setup Events director Jeremy Davis.  He's also the race director for the PPD Beach 2 Battleship that I wanted to run as my next full iron race.  Bone Island is Jan 12, 2013 (one year from today), it's the first year for the race, and it's in Key West Florida.  Registration is already open, and it's only $400 right now.  Racing ironman on Jan 12 means the last weekend of the build phase is going to be Christmas weekend, then it makes for a tough time to go out binge drinking on New Year's.  But then, starting a new year with a fast ironman also has some appeal.  I've never been to Miami, but always heard great things about it and I have some friends down there that I haven't seen in a long time.  Setup doesn't produce a bad race.  This has some appeal.  But it still requires five levels of approval signatures and a mental acceptance.

17 comments:

B. Kramer said...

Sounds like an awesome race locale. I'd love to get down to Charleston again. Good luck with the 3:30, but I secretly hope my PR will still beat yours. Go kill it. Cheers!

Wes said...

oh yea... go beat Teh Snail by 5 seconds, and if I were you, I'd dig him a little and beat him by a couple of minutes or more ;-)

it's all about pace said...

I think 3:30 is within your grasp.

good luck

Katie said...

unless your leg falls off and you die, I feel like the first two are probably in the bag. and TONS of luck on 3:30, you can do it!

Karen said...

I have a feeling you have a shiny new PR coming your way this weekend :) Have a great race!

Al's CL Reviews said...

You can do it. No problem!

Theresa @ActiveEggplant said...

Hope you both have a great race & come away with a smile on your face! Sounds like you're going to have some great running weather which should help get you closer to your 3:30 goal!

Sophie @ threetimesf said...

Sounds like you have it all worked out! :) Have a great race (both of you!) I can't wait to read all about your success!

Amy said...

I am super excited for your race! I am living vicariously through you at this point. :) You are going to kick your IM marathon PR's ass! WOO!

Jess said...

Good luck to you both this weekend. I think you are set to seriously smash your PR and I can't wait to hear how it goes!

joyRuN said...

Good luck to you & Kelley! Sounds like a beautiful venue with some good weather on tap, so ENJOY.

McCrae said...

Wow! Best of luck in Charleston! I love your multi-tier goal setting... and it's especially neat how much progress you've made since your first marathon. I'm not really sure what kind of time I should be shooting for when I run my first marathon in March. This calculator thing http://www.runworks.com/calculator.html says that, given my most recent 1/2M time, I should be looking at a 4:04 marathon. Just seems crazy to me!!

Anyway, I'm excited for you :D

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

Good luck! That picture of you from your first marathon compared to now is pretty crazy - how much lighter are you now v. then?

Best of luck to both you & Kelley! I hope race day goes well for both of you.

And yah, an 8 m/m pace sounds so unattainable for me! I have been doing my speedwork at that pace and it feels really tough for me to maintain that pace for 400m! Can't imagine doing it for 26.2 miles!! Go you!

Badgergirl said...

Good luck to both of you this weekend! I have a feeling you'll both be coming home with shiny new PRs!

Lily on the Road said...

Nothing better than a smack down between you and The Snail!

Good Luck to you, Kelley and of course..The Snail!

raulgonemobile said...

Charleston's a fun town. Good luck on the goals, and wow, they're awesome times to strive for. Rock it out, man.

Unknown said...

Eeeek - how'd it go??? I'm going to facebook stalk you to see if you posted results!!! :)