Thursday, November 10, 2011

Soup! Come and get your soup!

Leftover soup rocks. Easy to reheat, easy to eat, and it still tastes as good as day one.

I added some chickpeas to my leftover Butternut Squash Soup for a dash of protein and toasted some Pumpkin Beer Bread on the side.

Soup is served.

Marathon Goal Setting

(aka the part of the post where I start to ramble about races and paces)  

A couple of days ago I wrote a post about my new goal of breaking my current marathon PR. Krissie had left a comment in the post requesting more information about calculating marathon goals for marathon first timers, then quickly followed up with an email on an article she had found on Active.com with the information she needed.

The article ( 11 Major Marathon Mistakes) is a great read if you’re interested. Apparently one major mistake of any many marathoner is setting unrealistic goal times. The article gives a quick formula to help runners determine what they should be realistically be aiming for when training for 26.2:

1. Most marathoners don’t have the right time goal. In August of last year, I was chatting with a very likable fellow who was training for the Chicago Marathon. When I asked about his goal time, he smiled confidently and said, “I’m shooting for seven minutes per mile.” However, further discussion revealed that his current 5-K time was 24:48!

With just six weeks left before Chicago, it was very doubtful that he would be able to run a full marathon at a tempo one minute per mile faster than his best, current 5K!

While this example may seem slightly ridiculous, it’s simply the outer edge of a very common phenomenon. Marathon entrants need to realize that if they train correctly their marathon pace will be about 48 seconds per mile slower than current 5-K capability, 32 seconds slower than 10-K pacing, and 16 seconds more lethargic per mile than half-marathon clocking. These shorter races can all be used to set a proper, realistic marathon goal speed.

I found all the information fascinating and decided to do some calculating of my own (like Krissie had).

Of course, reading this really makes me want to go ‘balls to the wall’ on my next 5k. The last time I took a 5k even remotely seriously was last November when I ran the Saturn 5k in 23:39. That was about a month before I took my year long hiatus from speed training and still 20 seconds slower than my 5k PR that was set in 2009.

BUT, if we were to use that 5k time as my basis for the marathon goal setting formula above then the 23:39 breaks down to a 7:36 min/mi. If we add :48 to 7:36 we get an average goal pace of 8:24min/mi or a ‘realistic’ marathon goal of 3:40:04. Yikes. That’s fast.

This is suppose to spit out what I’m realistically capable of training for, not what I could bust out tomorrow if I wanted to. I would say a 3:40 marathon is definitely a ‘someday goal’ but not today.

The funny part is, when I ran that 5k above I was in the middle of training for Palm Beach and pushed myself hard to achieve a 3:59 marathon. Of course, I was training for a 3:59 marathon at the time and did all my speed training accordingly. I hit my goal because that’s what I was specifically pushing myself for, nothing more and nothing less. hmm….

Does this mean I could have changed my training around to have realistically hit a 3:40? Maybe, but probably not. I think the 5k average is still a little too far fetched.

If we try the 10k model (again, I have zero recent racing times to go off of here) let’s go off of my Bad to the Bone 10k time of 50:58 from last October (not my PR). This was in the same time frame as the 5k above, so it’s a good comparative reference.

The 50:58 10k breaks down to an 8:13 min/mi. Now let’s add :32 to the 8:13 and we end up with an average of 8:45 min/mi for a 3:49:15 ‘realistic marathon.’

Hmm… interesting. Still faster than the time I ended up with, but slower than the 5k prediction.

Let’s try the half marathon. Since I didn’t run a half marathon during the fall 2010 racing season, let’s play with my half marathon time from the year before. That was the Space Coast Half Marathon with a 1:52:51 (one of my new goals is to beat that time. I know I have it in me to do better).

Let’s see, a 1:52:51half marathon breaks down to 8:36 min/mi. Add :16 to that and we end up with 8:52 min/mi or a realistic marathon goal of 3:52:18.

hmmm….. interesting.

Well, now this has me thinking. If the author of the article was concerned about people setting goals that were too fast, then what about the ones with goals that were too slow? What if I have been selling myself short on the goals I’ve set out for myself?

Maybe I am capable of faster. Maybe that 3:55 marathon isn’t such a pipe dream after all. Hell, I can get a 3:50 marathon. Pshh I WILL get a 3:50 marathon. (as soon as I get back in speed shape – who knows how long that will take)

I think this is a lesson we could all learn. Let’s not sell ourselves short and start to aim big come race day. We’re so afraid of not making our goals, that we’re aiming too low. What if we chose to aim high?

Maybe not 7:00 min/miles high, but high for what we can ‘realistically’ achieve. Think about it.

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