It’s Race Weekend – Ragnar Florida Keys

With New Year’s Day falling on a Sunday this year, the local Resolution Run 5K at St. Phillips Methodist Church was moved to 2:00 p.m. so it would not interfere with Sunday services.  The late start time and the need for me to log a long run of 18-20 miles on Sunday conspired to make me unable to participate in this year’s race.

We will be back in 2013 for sure as I hated to miss such a great event and one that sets the tone so well for the coming year of training and racing – but I won’t have long to wait to lace up my shoes and race in the new year.

Next Wednesday I leave for Miami, Florida to race again with my “Where’s the Damn Van?!” teammates in the Ragnar Team Relay Race.  This is the same group of crazies that I raced with last February from Wickenburg, AZ to Tempe as part of a 12-person, 2 Van, 200 mile race.

This year we are entered as an “ultra” team, meaning that there will only be 6 runners on our team, each running 6 legs instead of 3 as we cover the 199 mile course from Miami, FL to the Florida Keys.

The format for the race is the same as one runner puts on the slap band bracelet and heads out onto the course for their leg, while the remaining 5 teammates climb into the van and drive ahead to the next exchange area.

The next runner gets ready and as his/her teammate approaches, the team number is called out by a race volunteer.  The slap band is exchanged and the next runner is off.  After a short cool down, the runner who just completed their leg hops into the team van and the process is repeated all over again.

Over and over and over.

There are a total of 36 legs to the race – all of various distances which allow runners of different endurance levels and different abilities to compete with a team.

In our case, as an ultra-team of six runners, we will run essentially two legs instead of one every time we take to the course.  I will be running out of the number 1 slot, meaning my assigned legs are:

Leg 1:  5.7 Miles, Leg 2:  4.4 Miles = 10.1 Miles Total

Leg 13:  8.8 Miles, Leg 14:  4.7 Miles = 13.5 Miles Total

Leg 25: 3.0 Miles, Leg 26:  9.1 Miles = 12.1 Miles Total

Total Mileage:   35.7 Miles

Based on the predicted pace of my teammates I should be running at 1:00 p.m., 11:30 p.m. on Friday starting my final leg at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.  Our team should complete the 199 mile course in 24-25 hours putting us at the finish line sometime shortly after lunchtime on Saturday.

I heard that down in the keys, every hour is happy hour – I expect our post-race carbohydrate recovery to start shortly after we come through the chute.

This is indeed a race, but it is falling in the middle of Boston Training – something that I for one moment am not losing sight of.

The difference between running relaxed and smooth at 7:30-7:35 min./mile pace and pushing it to 7:00’s is about 15 minutes total in a 25 hour race.  Simply put, it’s not smart for me to go out there and really try to hammer double-digit length runs every 6-7 hours.

I am going to lock in to a comfortable pace and just cruise – using this Ragnar event as an endurance and stamina workout on the way to Boston.  After easy running on Monday and Tuesday – I will be taking off completely from running this week on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday – letting my 35.7 miles in Florida push our weekly mileage to just 54 miles – a 10-12 mile reduction from the previous two weeks of training.

Then it will be back to “normal” – whatever that means nowadays as we prepare for The Texas Half Marathon on January 28^th – our first in a series of three half-marathons, one each month, on the way to Boston.

I am going to let it all hang out on January 28^th, just as I will at the Austin Half Marathon in February and the Shamrock Half in Virginia Beach in March.  Those three races are going to go a long way in predicting our abilities in Boston this April and whether or not we will be setting our sights on a sub 3 hour attempt or just continuing to move the needle closer to that mark and settle in around 3:05-3:06 after our 3:08:09 effort in New York this November.

Big gains at this point are challenging – dropping 7-8 minutes off of a marathon time, which is what I did from Austin to New York was one thing.  Doing it again 6 months later is something else entirely.  That would mean I would have shaved off 15 minutes from my marathon PR in 14 months.

Starting from a 3:15:01, that is a tall order, but one that I feel we have a legitimate shot at should the remainder of this training cycle go the way it has been going to this point.  Last Tuesday night’s second run of the day was an 8.3 mile tempo run that I completed at 6:25 pace.

That run came just 11 hours after 7 miles in the morning at 7:11 pace.

We are certainly running strong and fast right now – something that I know I will need to continue to improve on to hold on to that 6:52 pace that we need to break three hours late in the race at Boston.

We were able to do so in New York through mile 20 until the last of the bridges took their toll on us.

Boston sets up very differently with the tough climbing between miles 16 and 21, then it is a downhill 5 miles to the finish on Boyleston Street.  If we make it up and over heartbreak hill on pace with just 5 miles remaining – we have a real shot in Boston.

The next 15 weeks will all be about preparing for those 5 miles.

This week?  It comes as a perfect time as training for a marathon is hard.  It is physically demanding, which everyone knows – but it is also mentally draining.  109 workouts make up my Boston Training plan.  It is tough to “get up” for 109 runs.

This opportunity to run with my good friends Thomas, Sean, Jenny, Ally and Steve in sunny Florida to the Keys and take in some amazing sights (One of my legs will take me across the 7-mile bridge) will be as restorative mentally as it will be physically exhausting.

Running over 35 miles in less than 18 hours is not supposed to be easy – add in the van, little to no sleep, poor nutrition – I’m not sure Twizzler and Gatorade is going to cut it this year – and you have a pretty tough physical test.  But spending time with the team that I haven’t seen in more than 10 months is going to make it all worth it.

Make sure you come back on Monday for a race report – it will certainly be epic.

You can also follow us on Twitter throughout the race at:

@TheDamnVan

@Joe_RunforDom

Below are the various legs that I will be running and the accompanying maps courtesy of the RAGNAR Relay Site.  The start times are estimates based on the pace that my teammates and I will be running.

Leg Number One - Start Time 1:00 p.m. Friday

Leg Number Two – Start Time 1:50 p.m. Friday

Leg Number Thirteen – Start Time 11:30 p.m. Friday

Leg Number Fourteen – Start Time 12:45 a.m. Saturday

Leg Number Twenty-Five – Start Time 7:00 a.m. Saturday

Final Leg – Start Time 7:25 a.m. Saturday

Next year Steve Speirs and I are talking about running this as a two-man team – 100 miles each.

Just kidding Dawn.  Wanted to make sure you were still out there reading and paying attention …

Seriously, it’s three-man team.

Just kidding.

Superman

When I think back to those first few miles I ran back in 2006 it is really hard to believe where it has led. 

I mean, I’ve been there for all of them.  The slow miles, the easy miles, the somewhat fast miles and the hard miles.  I have been healthy for a lot of them.  Injured for some of them, I even had to walk home a few times when my body wasn’t quite ready for me to continue.

There have been thousands of them now; at some point in 2011 I will run number 10,000.  Pretty amazing for a guy who started walking 30 minutes over his lunch hour about 5 years ago.

After all of those miles you would think that there are not too many more lessons to be learned.  That at some point you have seen it all, done it all and run it all.  But that is what is so amazing about this sport. 

I don’t think that I will ever be able to run enough miles to where I’ve run out of lessons.  Just this weekend, in the middle of what to this point has been my best marathon training cycle ever, I learned a new one.

Just because you wear tights, it doesn’t make you Superman.

Sunday morning’s 12-mile long run taught me that one.

Tucked innocently on the training calendar was Sunday’s run.  Just a little 12-miler at the end of a “step-back” week.  A week where my total mileage was reduced from 55 and 53 over the previous two weeks down to 42.8.

The shortest Sunday run in many weeks as I had been running 16 or more every Sunday for close to two months.  Heck, I was 5 miles short of a full Marathon just last Sunday.

Even though I had raced on Saturday morning at the Resolution Run 5K on New Year’s Day, and decided to run another 3 miles home from the race at tempo pace (6:38 min./mile) – I thought I would be able to nail my workout no problem.

Just 12 miles at Marathon Goal Pace – something around 7:08 min./mile.  Piece of cake, right?

Wrong.

29 degrees was the temperature outside at 5:30 a.m.  I slid into my Under Armour Cold Gear tights, put on my running mittens and hat and after a quick stretch on the family room floor it was time to get this party started.

As I made my first strides down the block over mile number one I could tell that I was going to be in for tough time over these next 12 miles.  My quads, calves and even my side abdominals were sore from the race on Saturday.

Only 3.1 miles of racing, nothing like the Decker Half-Marathon a few weeks before or the Run for the Water 10-miler in November, but I was not racing at 5:28 pace at either of those longer events.

Pushing pace below 6:00 min./mile requires a lengthening of your running stride and recruiting of smaller muscle groups that are not normally utilized when you are cruising along at Half-Marathon or Marathon Pace.

I know this of course, but somehow I thought that with all my great training as of late, I would be able to rise above it.  I mean, I was in my tights after all, I’m Superman.

As the miles ticked along I was holding steady over the hill route.  A little ahead of my goal pace of 7:08 for the run, but it was not easy.  Not easy at all.  For a brief moment as I ran miles 5 and 6 I started to feel “pretty good”.

The stiffness from the previous day’s race was just about gone, my stride was feeling smoother and I was starting to get back to normal.  Superman.

But it was short lived as when I went to climb at mile 9 up to the top of the course and over the Dam at Brushy Creek Park yet another byproduct of racing started to rear its head.  Fatigue.

I could feel my leg muscles starting to fight me, what are normally my “cruising miles” 8-12 when I am feeling my best over a long run and especially a marathon were being torturous.  As always, when things start getting a little “dicey” out there I went to the place I know I can always find motivation.

Dom.

I shook out my arms and mumbled to stop feeling sorry for myself.   Pain is temporary, quitting is forever, and I started to drop the hammer over the top of the dam and back to the house.  I ran the last two miles without looking at my watch, determined to run strong and push through the driveway.

1:25:00 on the nose, 7:05 pace.

Splits for the run were:

7:02, 7:13, 7:06, 7:03, 6:53, 6:57, 7:10, 7:08, 7:14, 7:15, 7:05, 6:50.

Taken out of context, just a nice little run, certainly nothing to write home about.  But crossing a workout off of my training schedule on the magic refrigerator never felt so good. 

Maybe there was something going on with those tights.

Monday arrived with 16 miles on the tri-bike trainer in the garage.  My legs still a little weary from the weekend hung tough and the ride on the bike really felt great.  I was already starting to look forward to this week’s workouts.  A record amount of mileage on the schedule and another 21 mile run on Sunday.

But something much more difficult was on the calendar for Monday morning than a little ride on the tri-bike.

Landry’s first day at day-care.

Momma Bear and I hadn’t talked a lot about this first day of school for Landry this weekend as I think both of us were dreading it just a little.

Dawn was able to stay home with Landry for her first three months, and I had spent the last month at home with her every day through the holidays.  Not a lot of Dad’s are so lucky, and Landry and I had a great time getting to know each other better and even learned a few tricks.

Blowing bubbles, rolling on my side.  We took Kayla for walks around the neighborhood and caught up on a lot of Saved by the Bell and Fresh Prince of Bel Air reruns.  But January 3^rd was going to be a tough day, even for Dad.

Dawn and I met at the Day Care Center as I had gone into the office a bit early to get a few things done. 

We introduced Landry to Miss Barbie who will be Landry’s teacher for the next 8 months until she is ready to move up to the next “big-girl class”.  Paperwork was filled out, access codes secured, diapers, wipes, bottles, clothes, blankets all dropped off and it was time to leave.

Mom & Landry at School

Landry was happy as a clam getting her diaper changed as we stopped in to say one last goodbye.

As I put Landry’s car seat into Dawn’s car and kissed Dawn goodbye it was pretty tough on both of us.  Leaving our baby girl for the first time at school.

I definitely wasn’t feeling faster than a speeding bullet or more powerful than a locomotive this morning.

Should have worn those damn tights.