Apparently I’m going to run another marathon. It must be true, since I joined Bay Area Fit’s orange group on Saturday.
I really wanted to join the yellow group, because the coaches are also the triathlon group coaches, and because I have three friends in that group. But their pace is under 10:30 per mile, and I’m just not there right now, not for long runs anyway. So I joined orange, where I should fit in very comfortably on the faster end. Come fall and cooler weather, I hope to make the switch from orange to yellow. We shall see.
Summer heat and humidity has led to some nasty runs of late. I read a lot of blogs detailing bad runs, easily in the top ten worst runs ever, and I had a similar experience on Saturday morning. I met a guy from the tri group at 6:30 for a planned 6-miler at 11:00 pace before the BAF kickoff. While we covered the distance, an 11:00 pace eluded me. Steve was kind enough to slow down for me, even at the end when the walk breaks were plentiful.
The first 3 miles were at about 11:30 pace. The last 3 miles were at 12:00+ pace. UGH. I blame it mostly on dehydration, which I expected since I basically purposefully dehydrated myself on Friday. Rendezvous sims last 8 hours, and there’s really no optimal time to take a break. I drank nothing from the time I got up Friday morning until about 4:00 that afternoon. (I haven’t figured out a solution to this problem yet.) In retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that I had a really horrible run.
I have mixed feelings about doing another marathon. I am ready to do another one, but I am not sure I want to do Houston again. I always told myself that the next one I did would be somewhere else. Somewhere like New York, Chicago, Washington, or Hawaii. But I guess I can do Houston again. At the least, I know that training will be much more pleasant with a group; I trained basically alone when I did my only marathon thus far in 2005, and I suffered a good six months of burnout afterwards. I was so tired of running alone.
The final reason I decided to train was just in case I decide to do an Ironman. There, I said it. I know, I’m crazy. I haven’t decided anything yet, but a bunch of people from the tri group are doing IM Arizona and I’d be lying if I said they didn’t put a seed of a thought into my head.
The one thing I do know is that I train better and more consistently when I am being held accountable to someone or something else. A coach, a group, an event. So here we go…
You will always be welcome in the Yellow group! =)
I agree, training with a group is so much better. There are lively conversations to take your mind off the miles and it holds you accountable. Good luck training for your next marathon. Houston’s not so bad if you haven’t done it in awhile. 🙂
the way to get in your hydration is simple. you get one of those huge mugs that everyone here at my office has..holds like 48 oz and you can get them at any convenience mart. Fill it up and it sits there on your desk.
see?
simple.
🙂
there is no better color than orange!
June, the problem isn’t getting water on console. The problem is that drinking water makes me have to go to the bathroom (obviously). And there aren’t many opportunities to take a bathroom break. And sitting on console having to pee is agonizing.
I definitely wish we would take more ZOEs… that would help a lot! Sorry to hear you had a bad run Saturday morning, it’s definitely a lot harder now that we have hot weather. And one more thing… if the Houston Marathon isn’t quite exciting enough to get you pumped for all the training runs, how about considering the Disney World Marathon? I think it’s only a week later than Houston this year 🙂
Heidi
Actually, Disney and Houston are the same weekend this year. And I think Disney’s already sold out. =P