This was my third time running the Baystate Half. I originally signed up for the full, but due to the training and recovery deficit it would put me in at the start of the EN outseason (which begins on Nov 1, and is where the real speed gains are built), it was highly recommended that I scrap the full and go with the much better option of the half. Fortunately the folks at the event were able to switch me with no issues.
This is also right around the one year mark where I've adopted a more focused approach to training. Somewhere around September 2011, I made the switch from purely a volume based regime to one that included some speed workouts, which goes against so much of the conventional wisdom that is out there on the internet. Basically, once I had built up the durability to run a full marathon, running miles at a slow and easy pace just to log miles went pretty much by the wayside. Not surprisingly, it's also been the past year where I've made significant gains, setting a massive PR in just about every race I've run. At some point, that gravy train will come to a stop, but in the meantime, I seem to have moved from the middle of the pack much more towards the pointy end of my age group. But training philosophy is a discussion for another post.
Leading up to this event, I wasn't sure what to expect. My PR in a half was set in February 2012 at the Half of the Hamptons, where I ran a 1:35 flat, an average of around 7:12 min/mile. However, not long after that event, I rolled my ankle at the dog park. That made me end up losing a couple weeks of running time, and then in my excitement of finally being able to run again once it healed, I did 9 miles one day followed by 16-17 miles a couple days later (as it turned out, before I was fully healed/recovered) which sprained my peroneus longus or peroneus brevis tendon right near the fifth metatarsal on my right foot. I ended up losing another several weeks of running on account of that injury as well - anything I did was minimal, perhaps 10 miles/week on average. Fortunately it decided to magically heal itself one night, so Lake Placid turned out fine, but I was worried there for a while. All I could do during those injury times was hit the bike trainer. So thats what I did - a lot.
Once IMLP was finished, I started the EN Get Faster plan, which was an 8 week long plan comprised of mostly threshold workouts for the run and the bike. Most of the workouts were around an hour long, aside from weekend runs that were often ~90 minutes, and weekend bike rides ~150 minutes. That took place from August to the end of September. Following that, EN season guidance is for October to be a preseason month, where workouts are reduced and the goal is simply to maintain fitness (as opposed to build it) to help dissipate some of the chronic fatigue leading up to the OS in November. Having a half marathon was not in the plan, so I ended up taking extra days of rest to help offset those times when I'd do a run workout at a more intense level than prescribed. I also prioritized the run workouts a bit more than the bike - I anticipate the winter being fairly bike heavy due to weather, so I knew I'd have plenty of time coming up on the bike trainer.
All of that is to say that run volume had been lacking. So really, the only window I had into my potential performance was that at the end of the Get Faster plan, my threshold workouts were significantly easier, with less recovery required afterwards. But those workouts worked up to 4 x 1 mile at threshold (which was dialed in as 7:05 - 7:20 min/miles), and were not 13.1 miles in succession. I wasn't sure what to think - 8 months earlier I had done a half marathon at that pace range, yet in that 8 months I had done very few miles faster than that, and any speedwork I had done was at that same pace. It occurred to me that perhaps I had lost some of that top end fitness as a result of a completely different type of event, such as the Ironman.
In the end, there was nothing to be done about it, and it wasn't a big deal anyway. I figured I'd probably get close to 1:35, with an outside shot at breaking 1:30 if I got real lucky. Pre-race prep was basically a few days off - I meant to get a 5 miler in at long-run pace on Friday, but my schedule didn't allow it. Saturday morning I did my typical routine for the day before a race, which is to warm up, run at an all out effort for 3 minutes, and spend the next 24 hours consuming large amounts of carbs. Typically those carbs were often sports drink or juice or some other relatively high glycemix index source. After having gone through this routine a few times, I had started to notice the trend of frequent bathroom trips - and thinking ahead to IMLP next year, I wanted to get a start on figuring out how to minimize those bio-breaks if I was going to go from 2 bottles of sports drink/hr to 3 bottles/hr during that event. Different topic for a different day but the point is that I had a purpose and reason for wanting to avoid bio breaks, aside from minimizing the hassle. So, instead, I ate carb-heavy foods that were slower absorbing (than a mixture of simple sugars designed and mixed with a molality to obtain maximum absorption speed) - oatmeal, whole grain pasta, baked potato, etc. The other benefit I was hoping for was that I wouldn't be wired come time to go to sleep.
On to the race - I lined up around the 7 min/mile marker in the starting corral and waited, remembering only about 10 seconds before the gun went off that I had my Garmin on indoor mode, so the GPS tracking was turned off! I scrambled through the menu system to turn it on, barely doing so before it was go time.
It took a couple minutes for the Garmin to find itself, so I had no idea of my pace other than via RPE and in relation to people around me (which is always a bad idea), but I figured I was in the 7:10-7:20 range. By the time my Garmin figured itself out, I saw I was going around 6:40-6:50 min/mile. Definitely a bit faster than intended, and considering how I felt after the 5k VDOT test a few weeks prior (where I averaged 6:45's), I had serious doubts about its sustainability. But I felt good enough to continue, and so I did - because I live on the edge like that. I was going to be putting a lot of trust in my fuel belt loaded with gatorade, being one of the few folks that actually had a fuel belt, nevermind 48 oz of sports drink contained within. Most people were going to be living off course - certainly possible, but not something I like to do unless the aid stations of frequent and at regular intervals. That trust in the fuel belt was going to start with trying to maintain an unsustainable pace.
The Baystate Half is a fairly flat course - there are a couple minor hills, but they are gentle and not long lasting. For the most part, I allowed myself to slow up a bit on those uphills, because I was already pushing the edge trying to keep a HR between 165-170 - I didn't have any real reserve to crush it up the hills. So the uphills certainly slowed me down a bit, but I often made up decent time on the down hills, and was operating pretty steady state during the flats.
Around the half way point, a timing clock was shown, and a quick self-assessment told me that the 1:35 was pretty much in the bag - at that point I could slow to marathon pace (~7:40) and hit that. A finish of 1:30 was certainly possible, but I'd have to maintain my current pace, which I felt like I might just be able to do. I felt like I had to decide then and there whether I would shoot for it or not, as there was little/no wiggle room - I'd have to push it pretty much the entire second half, maintaining my pace even though my legs would start to tighten up, and I was dealing with a minor stitch in my right side. I decided to go for it - but first I would have to deal with the stitch, so I backed off ever so slightly. Fortunately, terrain favored me, as I was able to back off on a slight downhill, and by the time I reached ~7 miles, the stitch was working its way out. Also helpful was doing a quick body positioning scan and identifying that my form was suffering slightly - I was pulling myself along rather than being positioned appropriately to push my torso forward. This sort of thing is something I've been practicing during my runs - the ability to do a quick self-scan and determine where my form is breaking down when I fatigue.
During the last 3-4 miles, I got passed by a handful of people during the uphills. I figured either these people were just stronger than I, or they'd be burning themselves out and I'd catch them. Most ended up being stronger than I, but a couple did end up coming back to me. As long as I wasn't slowing down noticibly, I had to be ok with being passed - and from what I was seeing, I was maintaining a ~6:45 min/mile pace, so I was at least steady. As I approached the end - the last 1.2 miles, the last mile, last half mile, etc - I was paying attention to my watch and knew I'd end up real close to 1:30, but it was going to be close. Certainly, a difference of 10 seconds between my watch and the official clock could be the determining factor. That alone kept me pushing, with the last mile being consistently in the 170-175 range for a HR. Not something I want to sustain for long, but I was decently comfortable with those numbers for relatively short duration (ie, a mile or less).
As I came around the final turn and saw the finish line, I saw 1:29 and change - it wasn't far away, and I knew I'd break 1:30, for a 5+ minute PR!
In the end, my stat line showed I was 6/87 in my age group, 60th overall (out of 1322), with a net time of 1:29:24. Full results here.
Garmin results.
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