Week in Review & 1 Mile Race Report

Marathon training has literally started with a bang!  I participated in the KC Corporate Challenge Mile Track Meet last night.  Not necessarily the most conventional day 1 of an 18 week plan, but these Corporate Challenge company coordinators can be rather pushy convincing when it comes to participating in events.  Continuing the theme of unorthodoxed training, my last three runs have been at races -- Amy Thompson 8K, Hospital Hill Half Marathon, and now Corporate Challenge Mile Track Meet.... all within 8 days.  Last week I was also fighting off a bug so I tried get plenty of rest before Hospital Hill and missed my AM workouts.  I did get a Swim/bike in last Tuesday evening at Shawnee Mission Park with Mark.  That puts me almost two weeks without the pre-dawn sweatfest.  That will be changing real soon.

Swim: 1000 Meters
Bike: 13.21 Miles
Run: 18.51 Miles
Total: 31.94 Miles / 3:28

Corporate Challenge Mile Track Meet
While running a hard mile three days after running Hospital Hill probably was not the smartest, I'm glad I did it.  Not from the corporate civic duty but from a checkpoint of my fitness.  I really have never ran a timed, single mile before.  I really didn't know what to expect.  If you have a time goal over the course of a half marathon, you can generally correct a missed split.  That's not easily the case in a mile.  Plus you are running near maximum effort the whole time, that's great if you know what that is.  So I targeted some splits to put me in close to 6:00 minute pace.  Something like 1:33, 1:31, 1:29, balls:out.

While I did wear my Garmin, I'm not trusting the split data on there because it clicked off the mile about 9 - 10 meters before the end. I did try to calculate the splits as I ran by but, let's be honest, I don't remember much of the mile at all.  It's a blur.  I remember the sound of the start gun firing and then focusing on the track so as to not fall on my face.  I do remember my first couple splits were pretty close to planned but even being off by just a few seconds adds up.  What I do remember is I started to pick-up the pace with 300 meters to go and then faster at 200 meters to go... and then with 100 meters to go I had lost all control of my legs.  They were doing things I never thought possible as I redlined at 4:15 pace (considering my previous comment about trusting the Garmin data).  I would love to see a video of my finish because I bet my legs looked like the Roadrunner.  They felt like they were moving in circles and billowing clouds of dust.  I started picking people off and then I caught two guys that I apparently provided a bit of motivation and they kept with me stride by stride and finished a step in front of me.  I patted their backs, congratulated them, and then went on the hunt for my breath.  It had been replaced by the taste of blood in my throat.

Official time: 6:10.930

I spent the rest of the evening coughing at cheering on my coworkers until about 9:15pm.  Kristen was running the mile for the company and she beat her expected time! 

I have one more Corporate Challenge event left, the Triathlon.  I don't think I'll do as well as I did last year since I'm not spending much time on my bike/swim disciplines this year.  In fact, this may be my only triathlon for 2012 simply because I am not willing to devout the time to swim/bike as I would like in order to compete.  I do plan to continue the Shawnee Mission Park Swim/Bike sessions each week for cross training.  I'm planning to spend both weekend days on running so little time for cycling.