It's 4 a.m. Mountain Time

It's 4 a.m. MT and I'm finishing up eating a small bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats. I've got a peach / banana smoothy next to me and I'm about to finish my first 16 ounces of water this morning. At 5 a.m. I'll be out the door to run the Colfax half-Marathon.

This is a training run for me two weeks out in front of the Minneapolis Marathon. My plan is to run a slow warm up mile followed by a race pace mile and four minutes of walking. I will run a total of 6 to 8 race pace miles, but each will be followed by a 4 minute (1/4 mile walk). I will probably cross the finish line just under the the two hour mark.

In a way this is an expensive training session, but it will also help keep my training interesting and fun. There is something exciting about lining up to run with 5000 other people and the second half of this run, east of downtown Denver, will be along beautiful tree lined streets.

God willing and the creeks don't rise, I'll be done running by 8 a.m. and on my way to church.

UPDATE

I hada very nice run today and felt good. My workout was pretty close to what I had planned on above. One small difference was that I couldn't run a mile repeat until after the two mile mark because of the heavy congestion of runners.

Here are my lap times:

• 2 mile warm-up at about 8:45

• 2 minute walk

• 7:09 mile and a four minute walk

• 7:00 mile and a four minute walk

• 7:02 mile and a four minute walk

• 7:08 mile and a four minute walk

• 6:57 mile and a three minute walk

• 6:58 mile and a three minute walk

• 7:03 mile and a three minute walk

• 6:58 mile

• finished up the last 1 1/2 miles at about a 7:35 pace

All in all, just what I wanted. Eight, one-mile repeats at race pace. I just could'nt walk anymore for four minutes after the halfway point. My heart rate was good at three minutes so I didn't see a point in a longer cool down interval. My chip time at the end should be about one hour 52 minutes.

This was a well managed race with very adequate water stops and great volunteers. It started at 6:00 a.m., which is unusually early. However, the Rocky Mountain sun can be brutal so that start time makes some sense.

Oh, and I made it to church on time.....after a quick stop at the beer tent!

Comments

[brian]

It's 4 am Central time. I just finished off a can of Diet Mt Dew and I am getting in my truck for a 13.1 mile drive to my favorite turkey hunting locale. Once there I will endure a grueling 1/4 mile walk to the blind position where I will spend the next several hours attempting to sound like a sex starved hen.

UPDATE: Several birds within shotgun range but the weapon of choice this morning was the bow, therefore it's back across the 1/4 mile field and to the truck, no beer tent here.