15 miler

GO! St. Louis Marathon is in 30 days, so I went out for a 15 miler trying to hold MGP (marathon goal pace.) I'm not really sure what my marathon goal is, I am trying to be conservative. 8:40/mi pace would be around a 3:47 marathon, I would be plenty happy with that. So today's goal was to hold 8:40/mi pace, finishing in 2:10. 5 mile splits below...as you can see I exceeded my goal. I need to get a few more 15-20 milers in and we should be good to go!

I ate a bag of Powerbar Gel Blast - Cola Flavor w. Caffeine during my run...AWESOME!!! I highly recommend these. I am not a huge fan of gels, so these are a good alternative.

Mile 1-5 : 43:39 (8:43/mi)
Mile 5-10: 41:23 (8:16/mi)
Mile 10-15: 42:02 (8:24/mi)
Total: 2:07:05 (8:27/mi)

'08 Recap

2008 by the numbers.

17 total events:
Road races: 11
Triathlons: 5
Trail Races: 1

Training Totals:
Swim: 43.52mi
Bike: 984.3mi
Run: 1,018.85mi

Total miles : 2046.67
Total miles raced: 392.65

I put 10,043 miles on my car in 2008 and I swam, biked and ran a total of 2046 miles, or 20% of what I drove. I'm pretty happy with that.

And just to get an idea, the 1018 miles I ran is the distance from Columbia, MO to Albuquerque, NM.

Muscle Imbalance

I ran this past Saturday for the first time in two weeks, following an injury to my lower back. While trying to re-live the glory days of junior high football, I hyper-extented my back sending me to the turf. It took awhile for me to diagnose my injury - though I had plenty of time - I spent two days in bed, almost immobile from the pain.

I finally realized my injury was from something so simple and all too common - muscle imbalance. We often forget how straightforward and uncomplex our bodies can be. We forget that every muscle has a counterpoint and if you neglect one, you risk the other.

At the end of October I ran my first Ultra, the Spirit of the Osage 50k. To accomplish this I nearly doubled my normal run training and put swimming and cycling on the shelf. This run focus built up my quads and gave me the strength necessary to cover the tough 50k course, but the lack of cycling and swimming left my hamstrings out of balance with the quads. When I tried to push myself in the football game, it all came crashing down.

It has been a good lesson to learn and gave me a chance to actually rest a little this season. Now, we have all seen "that guy" in the gym only working on his pecks, asking others "how much you bench?" He is not treating his body properly and one of these days, it may all come crashing down on him too.

So just remember, DON'T BE "THAT GUY!!!"