Running Up a Mountain

I'm in Colorado for a holiday vacation with my family and lets just say that the snow conditions are probably the worst that I can ever remember them. Clearly a far cry from the 70+ inches of base that was here last year at the same time. There is likely 4 feet less snow on the mountain and it is painfully apparent. The open groomed runs are getting a little crowded and I have had little interest in going into the trees to figure out what 20 inches of snow looks like...

So instead I have been doing a little mountain running. A couple days ago I ran from the base of the mountain up to the midpoint at the gondola house. I also went on a run to a shorter elevation. Having a little extra time and great warm weather today I decided to venture a little further up the mountain. In total I ran 7.2 miles, the first hour of which was entirely uphill.

Here is a picture of the overall course path that I took.

Here you can see the elevation change overall.

As I was on a mountain I was running in snow. Snow can be great when hard pack and tricky when soft. The soft snow felt as if I was running in sand, except there was no adjacent beach.

I paused to take a picture of the path that I took. You can see at the very top of the picture is the gondola house. That is the first peak on the elevation chart. I was also battling skiers.

The run was great, the constant climb was a great workout, and it was funny to hear all of the comments that people said on my way up the mountain. Some of my favorites were, "It is much easier to go down", "Way to make me feel bad" and "Be honest, how long has this taken you".

The fruit of the run was being able to take the gondola back down to the bottom of the mountain and enjoy a great sunset.

Rock N Roll Half Marathon Race Report

(or getting really really close to a goal….)

This past weekend I flew out to Las Vegas to run in the Rock N Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon. Initially it started out as an excuse to travel to Vegas with several friends and enjoy a weekend away. In the past 2 months my training was really falling into place and I started to think that instead of just coming out here to run and hang out with friends that I was going to really push the envelope and see what sort of time I could throw down on race day.

The race is completely different than every other race that I have ever done. See instead of starting at some ungodly hour of the morning, the race start was at 5:30 pm creating an entirely different approach to eating, sleeping, and overall just getting prepared. The night race also added a new element of excitement which I just couldn’t pass up.

I had thought through every aspect of this race, the weather, the winds, the elevation, nutrition, and thought that I had a good race plan for pacing. I set my Garmin 405 to give me time, distance, and lap pace. I turned off the autolap feature as I figured the buildings, bridges, etc would intermittently interfere with the exact mileage and decided to use the clocks and mile markers instead. I used the vdot calculations which predicted a half marathon pace of 7:30, and then modified a little (SWAG) thinking that those calculated paces were based on shorter 5k, 10k races and not longer distances. Fudged for a goal pace of 7:38 and then +15sec for the first 3 miles and -5 sec for the final 10.1 Additionally, I made a home-made pacing band which gave me the goal paces for each mile as well as the clock time so I could see where I was in the overall timing of the race. The perfect race would have me crossing the line just prior to 1:40. (Note: I didn't notice the typo for mile 9 until I got there, 1:18:56 instead of 1:08:56...)

We were staying around a mile away from the start of the race, left the hotel 2 hours prior to the start, hopped aboard the tram from Excalibur to the Mandalay Bay and then started wandering around looking for the gear check. Luckily there were 40,000 other competitors all trying to do the same thing and we just followed the throngs of people. We wandered through the casino, out the front of the hotel, then around the back, into a parking lot and then finally back into the convention center where the gear check was located. Bag drop off was hastle free and then we found some ground to stretch, relax, and stay warm prior to going back outside. We headed off to the start with around 45 minutes to the start, stopped at the port-o-potties and then fought people, spectators, double wide strollers, other racers all moving in every single direction to get up to the start corrals. We finally met our destination, slid into the rear of the 4^th corral with about 20 minutes to the start and just waited for the gun. All 5 of us were here - Larry, Evan, Michele, and myself....silly me for not taking a picture of any of us or even myself with the strip int he background...I apparently had other things on my mind)

I started the race and the first mile was 7:47 which was timed well and just below my goal of 7:53 for the first 3 miles. I felt good, heart rate was in the low 150’s, legs felt relaxed, and I was honestly pretty excited to hit the time so close to the goal as I had never really tried to pace a race this closely before. Mile 2 was a total of 7:46 and mile 3 was 7:50.

Alright, first 3 miles done, time to drop to about 7:33 as planned for the remainder of the race. Mile 4 was 7:23, mile 5 7:19.

Then something really interesting happened for which I still don’t have a good explanation. While running mile 6 I was getting my average lap pace to tell me that I was running 7:34 which would have been perfect for the pacing that I was expecting. When I hit the lap button at mile 6 the lap time read out at 7:57. Crap. Where did I lose those 20 seconds? Looking back at the course this section only had a couple of turns that I tried to take as close to a straight line through as I could. I had banked a couple extra seconds in the first couple miles but losing 20 was going to hurt. Oddly enough, I felt like I was funning the same pace. Well I couldn’t go backwards, only forwards.

Mile 7 was 7:25, then I was pretty evenly paced for 8, 9, and 10 at 7:39, 37, and 38. At this point in my pre-race planning I had expected the wind to shift and at this point be blowing at my back, instead I think there was a persistent wind at my face and the subtle uphill combo was starting to wear on me. I knew I was really close to my target time but risking loosing more time so mile 11 I pushed a little more hit 7:29 and was happy. Mile 12 the same thing happened during mile 6 – my lap pace was reading out 7:38 and then at the end of mile 12 it read out as 7:50… Mentally that was tough, but I was still going to push as hard as I could.

Well only so much more I could do, I reached and pushed my silly little legs as hard as I could. Avg pace for mile 13 was 7:24, 13.1 was 7:05. I didn’t know how close I could get to 1:40 but I figured I would push as hard as I could.

I hit the finish line for an official time of 1:40:05. Average overall pace 7:35 for 13.22 per GPS and watch time of 1:40:10. with an avg HR of 160 (max 170 at finish line) and avg cadence of 88.

There are many things about this time that for me are just fantastic. First – this time is a 4:29 PR over my best half marathon time nearly 6 months ago. To essentially drop 20 seconds per mile is fantastic. Second – this race is the first race that I truly set out to pace and finish with a specific time goal in mind. The goal was to break 1:40. Honestly, finishing within 5 seconds of this goal is very exciting. The 1:40 was a pipe dream, and educated pipe dream, but a pipe dream nonetheless. Third – not only did I pace the race according to plan, but I ran a near even race without blowing up or falling apart at the end. Fourth – I had just a little energy in the tank for the final push, but not much. I hit the finish line and I was done. As you can see from the spike in HR at the very end I was redlining the engine and I was hurting. Fifth – despite my focus on my pacing, I was able to look up every now and then and enjoy the awesome chance to run on the Las Vegas strip at night with all of the lights glowing and people on the sidelines. What an awesome experience.

Here is a summary of the overall pacing, my HR and the elevation.

And here are the times:

So as I sit on the plane today heading back home I am quite happy with my race yesterday. The execution worked out almost exactly according to plan and while I didn’t break that magical 1:40 barrier I did have a race completely destroyed a previous PR. I am also thrilled that I met my pacing goals very close to the plan.

I am also thrilled at my overall finish, I’ll take a top 3% overall and top 7% any day of the week.

Then of course the post race festivities were great as well, nothing quite like post race hydration with an open container of beer walking down the Vegas strip on the way to the hotel for a nice warm shower!

One of the things that I enjoy about writing about my races is that it provides me an opportunity to think through what I could do better for the next time. Honestly, there isn’t much, I mean I kept everything together for a while and feel as if I executed the plan well for the duration of the race. I might have been too reliant on the pacing for the miles and I think that I what came to bite me in the end. There were two miles where the pacing said that I was going 20 seconds per mile faster than the time ended up actually being. If either one of those two miles had been matched for pace and actual time my pacing would have really been perfect.

This race also puts the longer distances into a different perspective. I don’t think there would have been any way for me to hold the 7:30 as my recent run tests might have suggested. I’m going to keep training at my current predicted threshold pace to get faster in the meantime as I find that I can hold that speed for the short distances and maybe in time it will translate to the long distances. 9 months to figure out how to incorporate all of this into the Ironman racing strategy.

Today my legs are still screaming and I can only imagine will be tight as well tomorrow. Time to get back into the training and take this great race and continue to build off of it. Next up is a relaxing ride to loosen up my legs and then hopefully back to the regularly scheduled work-outs.

Thanks for reading!

A couple thoughts on the race:

-For a full recap of the good, bad, ugly, and downright shocking go to the rock n roll facebook page here…..

https://www.facebook.com/RnRLasVegas?ref=ts

-Night time running is a different beast, but fun nonetheless

-40,000 people is a lot of people which requires well thought out and organized logistics. I heard a rumor that they might be considering increasing to 60k next year which in my opinion is just way too many people. If this course were to accommodate that many people they need to do a much better job of people movement before and after the race and corral assignments.

-For the life of me I just cannot understand why people would want to start at the front of a race if they are going to walk. It is hazardous to both them as well as everyone behind.

-Running the Las Vegas strip at night is an experience that everyone should consider, but maybe not the best race to shoot for a PR given the number of people and the impact that night running can have.