So it's been a bit since I've update. Most of my training has been for the Twin Cities Marathon. Work and vacations have taken up the rest of it. Along with the big Ironman Wisconsin weekend, I've had a breakthrough in my running. Simply put, too much information can be a hindrance.
My Garmin Forerunner can tell me everything I need to know while I'm running. Really, really cool. As a dork, I tend to obsess over the information while I'm running. But, that was distracting and my running suffered. So on Friday's 10-mile tempo run, I stopped looking at my watch, save for the mile splits. I had such a successful run then, I decided to see what I could do on this week's 15-mile long run. (Which I had to delay until this morning b/c of the IM WI festivities.) And wouldn't you know, I was able to average 10 seconds/mile better than I was schedule to. In fact, I broke my PR for a half-marathon distance (13.1 mi). Take a look at the table below to see the results.
| Time | Distance | Split time |
|---|
| 0:07:53 | 1.00 | 7:53 |
| 0:15:48 | 2.00 | 7:54 |
| 0:23:42 | 3.00 | 7:54 |
| 0:31:41 | 4.00 | 7:58 |
| 0:39:48 | 5.00 | 8:07 |
| 0:47:40 | 6.00 | 7:52 |
| 0:55:36 | 7.00 | 7:55 |
| 1:03:39 | 8.00 | 8:02 |
| 1:11:35 | 9.00 | 7:56 |
| 1:19:39 | 10.00 | 8:03 |
| 1:27:49 | 11.00 | 8:10 |
| 1:35:55 | 12.00 | 8:05 |
| 1:43:55 | 13.00 | 7:59 |
| 1:52:00 | 14.00 | 8:05 |
| 2:00:17 | 15.02 | 8:16 |
Just one more 20 miler this weekend, then it's taper time! Now I need to start to figure out just how to pace myself through the full 26.2 miles.
To top it all off, it was really something to watch the City wake up around me. Starting at 5 AM in pitch black with very few others being active, I finished after dawn at 7 AM. Just something cool to witness.