Rock N Roll Dallas 1/2 Marathon

I wasn't planning on running this race, but thanks to Al Gore and the internet, I was able to get in at the last minute.

With a perfectly fantastic starting temperature of 50F and cloudy race day morning, there was no heat or sun to deal with. And leading up to the race, I haven't really done any tempo runs or pace training, just working on maintaining my heart rate at 150 beats per minute. Being that this was a race, I jumped up a zone and tried to stick at 165 the whole time.

It was pretty packed in each corral and took a little while for the crowd to spread out. The long uphill soon thinned the running masses and I found a nice groove. I don't know why exactly, but things just seemed to click for me. No pain, no random sweat drop stinging my eye, no blisters. Things just...worked.

I forgot my timing chip, so checked my watch at the end. 1hr 45 mins! It's a new PR for me at this distance and is just another reminder that if you have a training plan and stick to it, things generally work out how they're supposed to.

Splits: 8:41, 8:00, 8:05, 7:59, 8:09, 7:59, 8:11, 8:00, 7:36, 7:37, 7:50, 7:45, 7:43, 6:47. The course was a gradual uphill and then downhill. Easy to see where the downhill starts.

Bricks and Books...

Happy Presidents Day!

I enjoyed my day off doing a little work from home in the morning and followed it up with a great brick workout. If you check out the details of my workouts on Daily Mile, you'll see I'm trying something a little different for a while...going slow. Well, I already go slow so maybe just slower. I've been reading a lot about Low Heart Rate training and am waiting for a book from Amazon to arrive in my mailbox.


From what I've heard, The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing is to physical fitness as Think and Grow Rich is to entrepreneurs. It creates a foundation and basically explains in no uncertain terms what you need to do to accomplish your goals. It makes it seem simple. The hard part, as anyone knows who's ever tried to do anything, is that you've actually got to start and, more importantly, be determined to stick it out through the tough times.


The author, Philip Maffetone, doesn't make grandiose claims to help you create a beach body or give you a secret to run a 5 minute mile. Instead his methods to make you go faster are to actually go slower. The goal for each training session, whether it's running, biking, swimming, pogo sticking, or skipping to your lou, is to keep your heart rate as close to a certain number without going over. Welcome to The Price is Right...For Faster Run Times.


Take 180 and subtract your age. This is your new favorite number. The idea is that your body will become more efficient at this "low" heart rate and over the next couple months of training you'll actually see improvements and run faster while maintaining this rate. You become aerobically fit.


My first experience at maintaining this heart rate (on the run today) dropped my pace from my usual 8:45 pace to a molasses-like 12:30 pace. I honestly felt like I could walk faster. In preparation for Ironman 70.3 Austin in October, I expect to see my pace at 149 beats per minute drop from 12:30 to around the 7:00 minute mark. Maybe I'm just being optimistic. After all, the book is still on its way to my mailbox.

It Takes Two To Tradition

"If you do something once, it's a happening. It takes two to tradition." -- Me

Last year for my 30th birthday I thought it'd be a good idea to commemorate a milestone birthday with a milestone event: run 30 miles. Yeah...seriously. I wasn't going for time. I just wanted to finish, and I did -- barely -- in 6 hours and 30 minutes. Wanting to create a lasting tradition where every year I'll run my age in miles*, this year I set out to do 31. The * being that I want to run each year's distance faster than the overall time from the previous year.

Compared to last year's 10 day training program (4 mile run 10 days out, 18 mile run 4 days out), this year I took 3 solid weeks to train. It's still waaaaaay less preparation than I should do, and could easily lead to injury, but at least it was better than last year.

End result: 5 hours, 20 minutes.

To say I was ecstatic afterwards was an understatement. I mean, really...who drops 70 minutes? Me, that's who! There were definitely times during the run that I wanted to quit or told myself I wouldn't do this next year. I didn't and I will.

If you feel like running 31 miles and haven't properly trained:

• Plan your route. The southern side of White Rock Lake is the only part of the lake with noticeable hills. I cut them out. Instead of running 3+ 9.3 mile loops including the hills, I decided I'd do 5 mile "out and backs" 3 times on the flat part of the lake. This was by far the most important decision I made regarding my run.
• Start slow. I went out way too fast last year and had to walk the last 4 miles. I wasn't going to let that happen again. I kept my heart rate around 150 for the first 10 miles, 160 for the second 10, and 165 for the last 11. Never walked.
• Hydrate effectively. Nuun hydration tabs are awesome. They're little dissolving tabs that you put in your water bottle and are full of electrolytes. I used to get calf cramps every time I ran over 15 miles, but since I started using these last year in various runs and bike rides, I haven't cramped once. I drank 3 20oz bottles of Nuun/water on my run and another 12oz of water every 2 hours after until I went to bed.
• Make sure you can see. If you start a run at 4:26am, odds are the Sun won't be up for a couple hours. Take a headlamp. It's better than a flashlight because it keeps your hands free. I thought to take my headlamp that morning, and it was definitely the right thing to do.
• Check the weather the day before. I wasn't sure if I was going to run in the morning or the afternoon, but when I realized it was going to be 15 degrees warmer at 2pm than 6am, it was an easy decision to run in the morning. I also knew I wasn't going to need my jacket.
• Entertain yourself. You'll be running a while. My iPod playlist was great. The first hour was the All Day album by Girl Talk, a DJ who does amazing mashups of top 40 hip hop and 80's tracks. The artist posted the album online for free download. Get it here.