You set a goal, you follow a plan, you execute. That’s what I do, and it works pretty well. The only hiccup is my ability to set realistic goals. For the Run for the Water I wanted to beat last year’s time of 1:08:06. I wasn’t sure how feasible that would be just 3 weeks post-marathon and only a few days of speed training leading up to the race. So how did everything go on the absolutely perfect 52 degree morning?
Here’s a quick and dirty preview for the Run for the Water 10 Miler this Sunday. It’s the second of five races in the Austin Distance Challenge. Hearken back to my bold statement of trying to win my age group for the ADC. That’s out the window. Since setting that goal, quite a few more people signed up for the ADC, many of whom are WAYYY faster than yours truly. It takes some pressure off, but also a lot of motivation. I had some tough workouts this week, including my company’s 3 miler. <sound the excuse alarm!> With that said, I still have a lofty goal.
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p>Last year I ran the R4tW in a surprisingly quick time of 1:08:06. This year, with the weather looking great, I’m hoping to beat that. We’ll see though, since last go ’round was a few weeks before my target marathon, so I was in prime condition. This year I’m three weeks post-marathon. No matter what happens, this race is for a great
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Ok, here we go. Chicago is behind me, I took an entire week off, and put together a training plan for the remaining Austin Distance
Challenge. From now until mid-February I’ll be focusing on four races with the intentions of pushing the pace and building strength. In order to get there I put together a new training plan. It’s based off of an advanced 10K plan, so there’s plenty of speed and tempo workouts for some early morning punishment. Check out the TRAINING tab to get a look at what I’ll be doing for the next 18 weeks. Wish me luck!
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Tapering. The time in the typical marathon training plan that sucks the most requires a lot of discipline. It’s the 2-3 weeks before race day, when all the strenuous training is behind you, and it’s time to scale things back to give your body the rest it needs. The issue is, leading up to the taper time is some of the most intense and dedicated training. Then, you’re expected to cut back by as much as 60%. Ask any marathon runner out there and s/he’ll tell you about a few irrationalities that take over. Fortunately for me, I don’t have that discipline to taper correctly, so the craziness / irrational feelings haven’t struck me (yet).
As I mentioned in my preview, all within about a five day period I discovered the Run for the Water, registered for the race, and, since then, ran the race. With respect to my training plan for San Antonio, this week I was supposed to run a tune-up race between 8 and 10 kilometers the day before my 16 mile long run. What did I do? A 10 mile (16 km) race the day after my long run. Same difference. So with this change of schedule, how did it all go?
Seemingly out of nowhere I came across the Run for the Water race taking place here in Austin on October 31. The race is put on by the Gazelle Foundation as its largest fundraising event of the year. The purpose of the foundation is to raise money to provide water to the people of Burundi. Gilbert Tuhabonye, a survivor of the on-going Tutsi / Hutu war in Africa and from Burundi himself, is the celebrity face of the Gazelle Foundation as an elite runner racing against world-class competition. All proceeds from the race go to the foundation’s mission to “implement charitable efforts to improve life for people in Burundi and offers assistance to children of our community.”
As for the race itself, it’s a 10 miler starting downtown and navigating through some scenic areas of Austin. There’s a 5k race and 1k kids run that go along with the longer distance. Naturally I registered for the 10 miler, because who am I to pass up a local race, especially when it benefits a great cause like the Gazelle Foundation. I’ll be sure to write up a race report after the race this weekend. So, y’all come back now, y’hear?
